74 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XV. 



impregnation, was well mixed with an equal quantity of wood ash. Ci 

 The mixture was thrown on a filter formed of matting and washed 

 with cold water. The washings of the earth were collected in an 

 earthen vessel, and evaporated at a boiling temperature till con- 

 centrated to that degree that a drop let fall on a leaf became a soft 

 solid. The concentrated solution was set aside, and when it had 

 crystallized the whole was put on a filter of mat. The mother-lye 

 that passed through, still rich in saltpetre, was added to a fresh weak 

 solution, to be evaporated again ; and the crystals after having been 

 examined and freed from any other crystals of a different form were 

 either immediately dried ; or, if not sufficiently pure, re-dissolved and 

 crystallized afresh. The operations just described were generally 

 carried on at the nitre caves. In the Province of Seven Korales, 

 besides extracting the salt at the caves, the workmen brought a 

 quantity of the earth to their houses, where, keeping it under a shed 

 protected from the wind and rain, without any addition excepting a 

 little wood-ash, they obtained from it, every third year, a fresh quantity 

 of salt. After twenty -one years, or seven repetitions of the opera- 

 tion, the earth was considered unfit for further use, and was thrown 

 away.f 



Davy says that since the British occupation the manu- 

 facture was stopped, and thereafter, on account of political 

 motives, prohibited. 



Salt ( chloride of sodium ) is procured in large quantities 

 in the Puttalam District by solar evaporation, and, indeed, 

 forms the chief source of its revenue. The greater portion 

 of it is obtained by means of artificial pans, and the 

 manufacture is carried on exclusively in Puttalam proper, 

 Nachchikali, and Karativu. It is spontaneously formed near 

 Kalpitiya during the dry season, at Chilaw, and generally 

 along the sea coast. Salt used to be manufactured — 



in the vicinity of the Mundle lake, viz., Odepankarre, Pulichakolem , 

 and Keriankally ; the attempt to prepare it near Chilaw has always 

 failed. * * The quantity produced is about 50,000 bushels. 



* Such a quantity must appear very large ; but I do not believe it is 

 more than is required to decompose the whole of the nitrate of lime that 

 accompanies the saltpetre. The proportion of alkali in the ash of large 

 trees in Ceylon, which are usually burnt for the purpose in question, is 

 very small : in one specimen that I examined I found only three and a 

 half per cent, of carbonate of potash ; carbonate of lime was the principal 

 ingredient. 



t Davy's " Ceylon." pp. 265-267. 



