228 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. LIX. 
ter, consisting as it did of nothing but the soil of the 
valley itself, from which the saline particles had been 
extracted. The salt is here prepared in the follow- 
ing manner. The earth is taken from the bottom 
of the vale, and put into large funnels made of straw 
and reeds, when water is poured upon the earth, 
and strained through the funnels, after which it is 
caught in vessels placed underneath, and then boiled, 
and the sediment formed into the shape of a small 
loaf. 
That it is the earth which contains the saline par- 
ticles, and not the rank grass which grows here, I 
am quite sure, although in other places there is no 
doubt that salt is extracted from the grass growing 
in such localities : but this can only be done by 
burning, the salt being extracted from the ashes ; and 
no such process is pursued here. The salt is of a 
greyish-yellow colour, and quite fit for cooking pur- 
poses ; it is of a much better quality than the bitter 
salt of Bilma, although, no doubt, far inferior to the 
beautiful crystal salt of Taodenni, of which I here 
saw the first specimen with some Songhay pilgrims, 
who had left Hombori four months previously on 
their way to Mekka. However, such a mode of pro- 
ceeding is only practicable in the dry, or towards 
the beginning of the rainy season ; for at the end of 
the latter the valley is quite full of water, which 
then is fresh, and is said to contain plenty of fish, 
the saltish properties of the soil being too scanty 
and inconsiderable to impregnate so large body of 
