Vol. 56.] SALT-LAKE OP LAKNACA. 751 



was made, it was found that around the borehole a pool of 

 distinctly salt water had formed, indicating without doubt that 

 the perforation of the stratum superincumbent upon the layer of 

 watery matter had operated much in the same manner as an 

 artesian-well boring, and that relief having been furnished to the 

 subterranean salt-water, it had risen to the surface through the 

 borehole, welling up sufficiently to form a pool. 



(7) Origin of the Salt. 



Eegarding the origin of the salt, it may be as well here to 

 consider the opinions expressed by Dr. Unger and Prof. Gaudry. 

 Dr. Unger expresses himself much as follows x : — 



' Every one who makes a personal inspection of the salt-lake will come to 

 the conclusion that the salt is not formed by the leaching-out of salt from 

 the saliferous soil by the rain-water which streams over it ; npr by subsequent 

 evaporation. If such were the case the quantity of salt would annually 

 diminish, and the supply become eventually exhausted, but there is an equal 

 production and a constant supply of salt under similar and equal conditions : 

 therefore the salt must be, as in other countries, the product of sea-water. 

 The basin lies below the sea, so necessarily, by the porous nature of the soil 

 that intervenes between the lake and the sea, sea-water percolates through to 

 the lake, bringing the surface of the latter to the same hydrostatic level. In 

 the winter-time, when evaporation is less and there is even some influx of fresh 

 water, the level of the salt-lake must become higher than that of the sea, and 

 therefore it can be explained how it was considered necessary to conduct surplus 

 water from the lake by means of channels to the sea. In summer-time the 

 inflow of sea-water cannot compensate for the greater evaporation then pro- 

 ceeding ; and later, by a diminution in the supply of sea-water, a total desicca- 

 tion of the contents of the lake must take place. . . If the bottom of the lake 

 were even in only a few places formed of a more porous material, the evapora- 

 tion which we know takes place could not be thought of.' 



Prof. Gaudry, on his part, offers the following solution 2 : — 



' My opinion of the way in which the salt-lakes of Cyprus are fed is this. 

 In winter, while the southerly and south-westerly winds blow strongly, the sea 

 rises on the shore a little above its natural level, No doubt the waters then 

 penetrate the barely consolidated Quaternary sands which border the Medi- 

 terranean ; lakes are thus formed in the low-lying areas near the shore. Many 

 Cypriotes believe that the salt-lakes are fed by the rain-water coming down 

 from the mountains ; they base this opinion on the observation that the more 

 rainy is the winter the more considerable is the production of salt. It may be 

 answered to this that the rocks around the salt-lake of Cyprus over which the 

 rain-water flows are white marl, calcareous sands, aphanites, and ophitones, and 

 that these rocks do not supply chloride of sodium in any appreciable quantity. 

 No doubt it is a mistake to suppose that the production of salt is greater in 

 rainy than in dry seasons. In the years when it rains most the surface of the 

 lakes becomes larger ; so when the heat comes the deposit of salt covers a 

 larger area. A greater quantity is collected without the entire mass being more 

 considerable.' 



Dr. Unger's explanation appears to be nearer the correct solution ; 

 but Prof. Gaudry's is also of interest, and the theory which he 

 propounds of the sea-water banking up slightly during the winter 



1 ' Die Insel Cypern ' Vienna, 1865, pp. 9-10. 



2 Mem. Soc. Geol. France, ser. 2, vol. vii (1862) p. 273. 



