126 TRAVELS IN 
was well known to the ancients. In the metaphorical manner 
of the eaftern nations in treating things as well as ideas, it was 
ufually ordained, after the deftrudtion of a city, to " throw fait 
" upon it that nothing afterwards might grow there." '^he 
fhrubbery, however, upon the banks of this fait lake was beau- 
tifully luxuriant to the very water's edge. 
A caufe, then, lefs remote remains to be adopted. • Either 
ialt-water fprings muft exift towards the center of the lake, or 
the water that refts in it muft come in contact with a ftratum of 
fal gem or rock fait. This in fadl feems to be the only fatif- 
fadtory way of accounting for the faltnefs of the fea ; and if 
the fubterranean ftrata of this fubftance be among the number 
of thofe that are moft commonly met with in the bowels of the 
earth, as has been fuppofed, the effeds that exift may eafily be 
conceived to arife from it. The fait of Poland alone would be 
more than fufficient to falify the Northern Atlantic. 
We happened to vifit the lake at a very unfavorable feafon, 
when it was full of water. About the middle it was three feet 
deep, but fufficiently clear to perceive feveral veins of a dark 
ferruginous color interfeding in various diredions the fheet of 
fait. Thefe were in all probability fprings whofe adion had 
impeded chryftallization, and brought up a quantity of ochra- 
ceous matter. I caufed a hole four feet in depth to be dug in 
the fand clofe to the edge of the water. The two firft feet were 
through fand like that of the fea-fhore, in which were mingled 
fmall fhining chryftals of fait. The third foot was confiderably 
harder and more compad, and came up in flakes that required 
fome 
