On Mud Volcanoes and Salt Lakes in the Crimea. 415 



It is impossible to examine this table without being struck 

 by the enormous load of common salt, chloride of magnesium, 

 and sulphate of magnesia contained in the lake waters. So 

 great is this quantity, that for many years past it has been 

 found advantageous to dam back the waters of this lake, and 

 evaporate them during summer. Good common salt and 

 abundance of Epsom salts are thus obtained; but the latter is 

 not in sufficient demand to be of any value, and it is left in 

 white snow-like heaps on the shore. It is thought that the 

 annual supply of common salt is diminishing. 



But although the water is remarkable enough, the mud at 

 the bottom of the lake is still more sing-ular. The composition 

 of this mud taken in its ordinary state at the upper end of 

 the lake, or that farthest from the Sea of Azof (with which, 

 however, there is no communication whatever) is given in the 

 table. The depth of the mud (always of the same nature) is 

 greater than has been found possible to measure by any means 

 attainable on the spot. It is certainly more than forty feet. 

 The following is the composition of the insoluble part : — 



Insoluble part of the Tchokralc black Mud. 



Sand 35-061 



Carbonate of lime 31*090 



Sulphur* 9*116 



Clay ...: 19*630 



Oxide of iron 9*003 



Sulphate of iron 3*050 



Organic matter 1*050 



100*000 



The mud of this lake has very remarkable curative powers, 

 and is said to perform cures almost miraculous in cases of 

 scorbutic sores and chronic rheumatism. It is of the most 

 inky blackness, and has a strong smell of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. The method of bathing in it is so curious as to be 

 worth mentioning here. The patient is stripped, and lies down 

 on his back in a kind of coarsely-made box, or coffin, partly 

 buried in and quite filled with the mud. The mud is in a pasty 

 state, so that the body hardly sinks in it more than into a feather- 

 bed. When the bather has laid down in this way, an attendant 

 heaps more mud, so as to cover completely every part but the 



* The exact meaning of this I am unable to give. As I was informed it in- 

 cluded various sulphurous substances, but chiefly sulphur. My informant, how- 

 ever, an intelligent Bussian gentleman, was no chemist, and not familiar with 

 either Russian or French technical terms. 



