78 TRAVELS IN 
sheet of salt. These were in all probability springs whose 
action had impeded crystallization, and brought up a quan- 
tity of ochraceous matter. I caused a hole four feet in depth 
to be dug in the sand close to the edge of the water. 
The two first feet were through sand like that of the sea- 
shore, in which were mingled small shining crystals of salt. 
The third foot v/as considerably harder and more compact, 
and came up in flakes that required some degree of force to 
break, and the last foot was so solid that the spade would 
scarcely pierce it ; and one-fifth part of the mass at least was 
pure salt in crystals. The water now gushed in perfect]}"" 
clear and as salt as brine. 
Another object of natural history was discovered about 
five miles north-west from the salt pan. This was on the 
side of a small hill down which ran a streamlet of chalybeate 
water from a spring situated about midway of the ascent. 
Immediately below the spring the stream ran through a 
chasm of five or six feet deep, in the midst of a mound of 
black boggy earth which seemed to have been vomited 
out of the spring. The mound was completely destitute 
of any kind of vegetation, and so light and tumefied that 
it would scarcely support the weight of a man. The water 
was clear, but the bottom of the channel Avas covered with a 
deep orange-colored sediment of a gelatinous consistence, 
void of smell or taste. In every part of the bog was oozing 
out a substance, in some places yellow, and in others green, 
which was austere to the taste like that of alum. When 
exposed to the flame of a candle it swelled out into a large 
hollow blister, of which the external part had become a red 
