100 CEYLON BRANCH— EOYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY 



The method of obtaining salt of course varies with the form 

 wider which it appears, with the climate of the country in 

 which it is found, and with other circumstances unnecessary 

 to detail. 



From those great beds of rock salt which are found in Ga- 

 Mela and other parts of Europe, it is at various points pro- 

 cured by simple quarrying; vast subterranean chambers, halls 

 smd galleries being cut out of the beautiful sparry mass. In 

 other places it is got from saline spring waters, which either 

 apperr at the surface, are raised by cumbersome machinery, ot 

 jet tbrcugh the pipes of deep artesian wells. The water so pro- 

 cured is exposed for a time to the sun; by a simple process 

 purified from the gypsum &c. which it contains, and ultimately 

 boiled down in large pans. Under other circumstances it is 

 extracted by simple solution from earth containing it, and crys- 

 tallised as before. 



Again, in those northern parts of great continents where ex- 

 cessive cole! and excttshe f eat succeed etch ether perpetually, 

 these opposite states of temperature are used for the same pur- 

 pose, namely, t! i t of concentrating any of the weak natural 

 solutions obtained ty the above means, which are then boiled 

 down. 



Lastly, we have tl at process where all, or nearly all, is left 

 to nature, and where a solution of common salt is evaporated 

 by simple exposure to the sun's rays. This method alone has 

 as yet been practised in Ceylon on a large scale and apparently 

 to some extent from time immemorial. (During the sovereignty 

 of the Dutch, the manufacture was left in the hands of the 

 natives, who were however bound to give a certain small por- 

 tion of the produce to the various officials under the name of 

 (a 1 L.C- ®s> & iLj i-< L.] or table salt, the price at that time varied from 

 three to four-eighths of a penny per bushel.) 



The position chosen for a group of salt pans is the muddy 

 margin of some large bay or creek having free communication 



