390 ^^^ Philippine Journal of Science 1915 



success or failure of the process will depend on whether or not 

 there is economical application and thorough utilization. The 

 salt obtained in this way is very inferior, as no method is adopted 

 to separate the salt from the mother liquor or other impurities, 

 either organic or inorganic. In this crude way about 12 kilo- 

 grams per day per kettle are manufactured. By the old solar 

 method the average daily production per laborer varies from 

 14 to 85 kilograms of salt, depending on the locality and the 

 refinement of the process, while the average production for the 

 new process is about 200 kilograms of salt per laborer per day. 



At Mayinit the salt water is hot, contains 0.3 per cent by 

 weight of salt, and flows from the spring in several shallow 

 streams. Salt houses are built over carefully leveled plots of 

 clayey soil, upon which water from the stream is led. There 

 are more than 100 such houses, usually about 4 meters wide 

 and from 4 to 8 meters long, with grass-covered roofs extending 

 to the earth. The ground space of the salt house is paved with 

 stones from 10 to 15 centimeters in diameter. The hot water 

 is allowed to spread out and pass among the bases of these 

 stones; thence it is carried up on the stones by capillarity and 

 evaporates fairly rapidly from the exposed hot surfaces, leav- 

 ing a thin crust of salt. 



About once each month the salt is gathered by washing the 

 encrustation from the stones into a large wooden trough, called 

 a ko-long-ko. Each stone is thoroughly washed and then re- 

 placed in the pavement. The saturated brine is preserved until 

 sufficient is gathered for evaporation, when it is boiled as above 

 described. The product is pressed into cakes and placed upon 

 bits of broken earthenware and is baked either in the fire or in 

 the sun. The dried salt contains only about 87 per cent sodium 

 chloride.^* 



The flow of the springs at Tukukan and at Ahin is probably 

 about 500 liters per hour each and contains 0.6 and 1.2 per 

 cent of salt, respectively. The Tukukan spring is rather inac- 

 cessible, but that at Ahin is on the bank of the river down which 

 is floated the necessary wood for the furnaces, from the pine 

 forests above. The Ahin spring comes from a crevice in the 

 solid rock and could probably be developed. 



In July, 1910, there were a dozen kettles in operation, which 

 consumed the entire output of the spring at Bungubungna. 



At Salinas the sight of the two springs is wonderful aside from 

 the salt-making operations. The brine comes from the springs 



" Jenks, A. E., Pub. P. I. Eth. Sur. (1905), 1, 145-7. 



