Chap. 39 ] THE VARIOUS KINDS OF SALT. 
501 
of Scythia, the other on that of Ariana, hoth of which throw 
Tip vast quantities of salt.^^ So, too, at Citium, in Cyprus ; and, 
in the vicinity of Memphis, they extract salt from the lake 
and dry it in the sun. The surface-waters of some rivers, also, 
condense in the form of salt, the rest of the stream, flowing 
beneath, as though under a crust of ice ; such as the running 
waters near the Caspian Gates^^ for instance, which are known 
as the '^Eivers of Salt/' The same is the case, too, in the vici- 
nity of the Mardi and of the people of Armenia. In Eactriana, 
also, the rivers Ochus^^ and Oxus carry down from the moun- 
tains on their banks, fragments of salt. There are also in 
Africa some lakes, the waters of which are turbid, that are 
productive of salt. Some hot springs, too, produce salt — those 
at Pagasas for example. Such, then, are the various kinds of 
salt produced spontaneously by water. 
There are certain mountains, also, formed of native salt ; that 
of Oromenus, in India, for example, where it is cut out like 
blocks from a quarry, and is continually reproduced, bringing 
in a larger revenue to the sovereigns of those countries than 
that arising from their gold and pearls. In some instances 
it is dug out of the earth, being formed there, evidently, by 
the condensation of the moisture, as in Cappadocia for example, 
where it is cut in sheets, like those of mirror-stone.^^ The 
blocks of it are very heavy, the name commonly given to them 
being " mica.''^^ At Gerrhse,^^ a city of Arabia, the ramparts 
and houses are constructed of blocks of salt, which are sol- 
dered together by being moistened with water. King Ptole- 
mseus discovered salt also in the vicinity of Pelusium, when 
he encamped there ; a circumstance which induced other per- 
sons to seek and discover it in the scorched tracts that lie 
between Egypt and Arabia, beneath the sand. In the same 
of Badakandir in the Khanat of Bokhara ; and the other the lake that lies 
between Ankhio and Akeha, in the west of the territory of Balkh, and near 
the Usbek Tartars, " Sale exsestuant." 
^2 In consequence of the intense heat. 
33 All these regions, Ajasson remarks, are covered with salt. An im- 
mense desert of salt extends to the north-east of Irak-Adjemi, and to the 
north of Kerman, between Tabaristan, western Khoracan, and Hhohistan. 
9^ Identified by Ajasson with the Herat and the Djihoun. He thinks 
that it is of some of the small afEuents of this last that Pliny speaks. 
" Lapis specularis." 
96 u crumb " properly, in the Latin language. 
97 See B. Yi. c, 32. 
