36 On the Saline Nature [Jan. 



to every labourer whom he employed in excess to his own family, he 

 paid hire at the rate of an anna a day. 



He sells the salt unrefined, at the cheap rate of one rupee per maund 

 of forty seers, but this afterwards sells in the towns or cities whither 

 it is conveyed, at a rate triple or quadruple (as I understand) its first 

 price; it however previously undergoes a process of refinement. Half 

 a seer of salt per diem is prepared from each of the mounds in which 

 only one ghara is fixed, so that to enable a family of three persons each, 

 to get their anna a day at the above rate of one rupee per maund, they 

 must keep up fifteen sand mounds, with a ndnd in each. 



I do not know what is the proportion of salt found in the superficial 

 hard crust of the dry earth at Cawnpoor*, where I have seen people 

 scraping the ground for it, to the depth of half an inch, or more; it would 

 be worth while to ascertain, but I should think the proportion of salt 

 there exceeded that found in the bed of the Jumna, although it is pro- 

 bably not so good. 



As the ndnd was only filled once a day with the sand, and as half a 

 seer, equal to one lb., of salt was extracted from it during that period, the 

 proportion of the latter to the former will be easily found ; for, 



The ghara contained (by calculation). 0.8836 decimal parts of a cubic 

 foot of sand,- considering the space that was filled with it to be a he- 

 misphere, and the specific gravity of sand being 1520, the weight of that 

 quantity will be eighty-four lbs. nearly ; therefore the proportional 

 weight of salt extracted from thus much sand, will be one lb. of salt to 

 eighty-three lbs. of sand, nearly. The native's account agrees extraordi- 

 narily well with this calculation, for he said that half a seer of salt was 

 extracted from a maund weight, or eighty lbs. of sand, as before noticed; 

 thereby differing only three lbs. from this statement: his assertion 

 therefore is to be relied upon as nearly correct. 



VI. — On the Saline Nature of the Soil of Ghazipoor, and Manufacture of 

 Common Salt, as practised by the Natives of the Villages of Tuttulapoor 

 Ratouly, Sahory, Chilar,and Becompoor. By Mr. J. Stephenson, Supt. 

 H. C. Saltpetre Factories in Behar. 



The surrounding soil in the vicinity of the above villages in the dis- 

 trict of Ghazipoor contains a large proportion of various kinds of saline 

 matter, such as muriate, sulphate, and carbonate of soda, together with 

 nitrate of potass (saltpetre) and nitrate of lime. 



Near the village of Ratouly, about four coss N. W. of the station, an 

 opulent native is making a large new tank. Here the excavation al- 

 ready made afforded me a section of six feet deep. The first four feet 

 * See Journal vol. i. page 503. 



