slate — clay — steatite — salt-licks. 9 i 



Salt-licks. 

 So-called salt-licks are frequent along* the outcrop of the Damuda 

 rocks. They occur chiefly where there are seams of coal interstratified 

 with sandstone, &c, and are resorted to by the wild animals of the jungle 

 for the sake of the saline matter which effloresces to a slight extent on 

 the surface of the beds. The ground is trodden down into a black mud by 

 the feet of deer, rhinoceros, and elephants, the last of which dig out the 

 coal with their tusks to a depth of several feet. The efflorescence is not 

 of common salt, but of sulphate of soda which is probably formed by the 

 oxidation of a trace of pyrites in the coal, and the reaction of the resulting 

 sulphate of iron on soda washed out of the felspar which sometimes forms 

 an ingredient of the sandstones. 



( 91 ) 



