On the Manufacture of Salt in India. 25\ 



become dry again, the earth and salt are scraped together 

 and placed in heaps. The salt and earth from the heaps 

 are then put into a filter constructed of straw, and washed 

 with sea-water, the brine from the filter passes into a hole 

 dug for the purpose, and plastered with clay. From this the 

 liquor is boiled in small earthen vessels placed like a honey- 

 comb, one vessel being attached to the other. This method 

 is followed in Bdhdrbung salt works. In other salt works, 

 called Tuffaul, the boilers are flat, and placed in rows. The 

 only difference in the two forms of boiling is, that in the 

 former dry wood is burnt to keep up fires only during the 

 day, and in the other, large logs of green wood are burnt 

 night and day, so that the one makes more salt; but the 

 quality of the salt in both cases is supposed to be the same. 

 After the salt is all formed in the pots, it is taken out and 

 with the liquid that remains, is placed in baskets for the 

 purpose of draining. 



An improved method of preparing sea-salt in India has 

 lately been introduced, and a Company formed to carry it 

 on. After the first difficulties inseparable from a new 

 undertaking have been overcome, much good is likely to 

 result from the manner in which European capital and skill 

 will thus be brought to bear upon an important branch of 

 manufacture, on the success of which, other branches of 

 productive economy, intimately connected with the prosperity 

 of the country, greatly depend. 



In the Sunderbuns, where the manufacture of salt is 

 carried on, the lands are so low, that pits could not be con- 

 veniently employed, at least without expensive works to guard 

 against inundation. The native method, although perhaps 

 somewhat tedious and expensive, is very simple, and by 

 taking advantage of its variations, as well as of its differ- 

 ent stages, important varieties of salt might be produced, 

 which would answer for purposes for which the common salt 

 is unfit. It would be very desirable, for instance, to mark 



