298 -Mr. Blane’s Account of 
Jumlate, diftant from Betowle about thirty days journey north. 
Jumlate is the larged: of the kingdoms in that part of the 
Tibbet mountains, and is confidered as holding a fuperiority 
over all the reft. 
i 
The place where the borax is produced is defcribed to be in a 
frnall valley, furrounded with fnowy mountains, in which is a 
lake, about fix miles in circumference, the water of which is 
confiantly hot, fo much fo that the hand cannot be held in it for 
any time. The ground round the banks of the lake is per- 
fectly barren, not producing even a blade of grafs ; and the earth 
is full of a faline matter in fuch plenty that, after falls of rain or 
fnow, it concretes in white flakes upon the furface, like the natron 
in Hindoftan. Upon the banks of this lake, in the winter fea- 
fon, when the falls of fnow begin, the earth is formed into 
frnall refervoirs, by railing it into banks about fix inches high ; 
when thefe are filled with fnow, the hot water from the lake 
is thrown upon it, which, together with the water from the 
melted fnow, remains in the refervoir, to be partly ablorbed 
by the earth, and partly evaporated by the fun ; after which, 
there remains at the bottom a cake, of fometimes half an inch 
thick, of crude borax, which is taken up and referved for ufe. 
It can only be made in the winter feafon, becaufe the falls of 
fnow are indifpenfably requifite, and alfo becaufe the faline 
appearances upon the earth are flrongeft at that feafon. When 
once it has been made upon any fpot, in the manner above de- 
fcribed, it cannot be made again upon the fame place, till the 
fnow (hall have fallen upon it and diflolved three or four 
times ; after which the faline efflorefcence re-appears, and it is 
again fit for the operation. 
The borax, in the flate above defcribed, is tranfported from 
hill to hill upon goats, and pafles through many different hands 
before 
