124 
TRAVELS IN 
their hufbands to bring home a quantity of fnowy fait for 
the table. 
In endeavouring to account for the great accumulation of 
pure chryftallized fait at the bottom of this lake, I fliould have 
conceived the following explanation fufficiently fatisfa£tory, 
had not fome local circumftances feemed to militate ftrongly 
againft it. The water of the fea on the coaft of Africa contains 
a very high proportion of fait. During the ftrong fouth-eafl 
winds of fummer, the fpray of the fea is carried to a very confi- 
derable extent into the country in the fhape of a thick mift. 
The powerful and combined effecfls of the dry wind and the 
fun carry on a rapid evaporation of the aqueous part of the 
mift, and of courfe a difengagement of the faline particles : 
thefe, in their fall, are received on the ground or on the foliage 
of the fhrubbery. When the rains commence they are again 
taken up in folution and carried into the fait pan, towards 
which the country on every fide inclines. The quantity of fait 
thus feparated from the fea, and borne upon the land, is much 
more confiderable than at firft thought it might feem to be. At 
the diftance of feveral miles from the fea-coaft, the air, in walk- 
ing againft the wind, is perceptibly faline to the lips. It leaves 
a damp feel upon the clothes, and gives to them alfo a faline 
tafte. The oftrich feather I wore in my hat always hung in 
feparate threads when near the fea-coaft in a fouth-eaft wind, 
and recovered itfelf immediately when the wind ftiifted. In 
fhort, the air becomes fo much obfcured with the faline par- 
ticles that objeds can only be diftinguifhed through it at very 
fhort diftances. Thefe winds prevailing for feven or eight 
months 
