SALT. 175 



importance as it is not situated on or near any main trade route. 

 It lies in a plain some 12 miles long and 3 miles broad, traversed 

 by the river of the same name. It was formerly the capital of 

 a Shan State named Mong Wa and the population is still largely 

 Shan as it is a malarious neighbourhood inimical to the Chinese. 

 The principal product of the region is salt. 



The geology of this field is much the same as that of the others ; 



rocks of the Red Beds series build up the 



Route and geology of y { th surrounding country and stretch 



the journey , ° J 



for at least 30 miles to the north-west and 

 south-west of Wei-yuan Ting. Hsiang-yen-ching, the first stage, 

 is 10 miles south-south-west of the city. The road traverses the 

 level plain of the river for most of the way, then arises gently at 

 its end and drops steeply into Hsiang-yen-ching, — elevation 3,500 

 feet. The only rock exposures seen were in the last mile and 

 consisted of pinkish sandstones striking a few degrees west of 

 north. In the stream-bed just beyond the river fine-grained, 

 soft reddish sandstones with false bedding and well-marked 

 jointing strike north and south. The rolled boulders and pebbles 

 in the stream-bed give a very good indication of the various kinds 

 of local rocks of the series. I found very fine-grained, dark red- 

 sandstones, light red, soft sandstones, hard reddish-black sand- 

 stones with small inclusions of dark red clay, hard red marls, 

 light red and yellow sandstones with gritty bands, rounded pieces 

 of dull quartz and clouded yellowish felspar about the size of 

 peas. 



The village has two productive salt mines and two underground 



wells of the usual type with brine-raising 

 chin- 1 at Hyiang " yc ' u " bamboo pumps. Another well was in the 



process of being sunk and had reached a 

 depth of 60 feet, The wells are all in the village. The mine 

 lies in a narrow valley to the north-east about f mile away. 

 Its shaft is well timbered and slopes steeply from the surface. 

 I wished to go underground but was told that the workings were 

 very distant, low and tortuous, so I did not press the matter in 

 face of this obvious opposition. The mine is said to be 30 years 

 old. A large shed is erected over the mouth of the shaft for 

 the storage of the excavated rock-salt. This was seen to be of 

 a clean crystalline nature occurring abundantly in a red marl. 

 In the shed there is an overseer's office where the output is checked 



