302 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 187 



place from considerable distances, to hunt during the winter and to make salt. 

 Before the French sold them kettles they made earthen pots for this operation 

 on the spot. When they have enough of a load, they return into their own 

 country loaded with salt and dry meats. (L»e Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 1, 

 pp. 307-308.) 



This is a rather crude description of the salt country round Cata- 

 houla Lake. It is not the lake or communicating streams that sup- 

 ply the salt, but licks near by. Farther toward the northwest are 

 the salt regions about Goldonna and Lake Bistineau, which may be 

 identified with considerable probability with the salt provinces 

 through which Moscoso led his Spaniards in a vain attempt to reach 

 Mexico after De Soto's death. 



From the remains of large earthen pots found around the salt de- 

 posits on Avery's Island when they were first exploited, it is known 

 that these were utilized in prehistoric times, but there are no historic 

 notices of such usage. 



The Spaniards also found "an abundance of very good salt" at 

 Cofitachequi on the Savannah River, which we may surmise to have 

 come from the sea (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 99) for we are told, at a 

 slightly later date, that the Indians near the headwaters of the 

 Santee were in the habit of descending to the coast to obtain salt 

 in trade. This may have been the source of the salt which Lederer 

 observed among the Sara Indians, who are indeed mentioned in con- 

 nection with the Santee trade. He says : 



I did likewise, to my no small admiration, find hard cakes of white salt 

 amongst them : but whether they were made of sea-water, or taken out of salt- 

 pits, I know not ; but am apt to believe the latter, because the sea is so remote 

 from them. (Lawson, 1860, p. 158.) 



We, too, are left in some doubt, knowing on the one hand the trade 

 with the coast just mentioned and aware on the other of the extent to 

 which the salt licks of Kentucky were exploited. Spanish chroniclers 

 tell of four or five springs near the Chisca country from which salt 

 was extracted (Serrano y Sanz, 1913, p. 151). This would be 

 somewhere in southeastern Tennessee, and in that State a salt lick 

 or well is reported from Roane County on the border of Anderson, a 

 salt spring on Flynn's Creek, in Jackson County, and salt licks near 

 Memphis and Paris. One of our earliest references to the salt regions 

 of Kentucky is by Batts and Fallam in 1671, who were informed by 

 a Mohetan (Moneton) Indian that the next town beyond theirs, which 

 was somewhere in West Virginia, "lived upon a level plain, from 

 whence came abundance of salt" (Alvord, 1912, p. 193). These were 

 perhaps the Shawnee, who are supposed to have made use of the salt 

 in this section. 



