AFRICA; 317 
quantity of nitrous and faline particles, with 
which the atmofphere is loaded ; and as the 
fouth-eaft wind blows at that period violently, 
and agitates the water in the bafins, it preci- 
pitates them and depofits them there. This 
Kolben is a very great man in Europe. 
I can fcarcely forbear laughing, when I fee 
an author ferioufly advance fuch explanations; 
yet this man employs feveral paragraphs on 
his. He even treats with a fort of contempt 
the opinion of thofe who conceive the falt- 
nefs to arife from fprings of falt-water, either 
rifing in their bafin, or flowing into it from 
without. 
" Were it fo," adds our natural philofopher, 
" the quantity of fait formed by thefe peren- 
" nial fprings would not vary as it does. Be- 
" fides, the water would be for ever and at 
" all feafons brackifli : whereas it is uniformly 
" frefh and good, till the commencement of 
fummer ; fo that the cattle in the neigh- 
" bourhood drink no other till that period, 
" and even fome time after. In fine, if thefe 
" brine-fprings exifted, unqueftionably the 
planters would have difcovered at leaft fome 
one 
