47 2 
of Laba, the capital of Thibet, there is a vale about eight miles 
broad. In a part of this vale there are two villages or caftles, 
the one named Scierugh , and the other Kang/e , the inhabitants 
of which are wholly employed in digging the borax, which 
they fell into Thibet and Nepal, they having no other means 
of fubfiftence, the foil being fo barren as to produce nothing 
but a few rubles. Near the two above-mentioned cables there 
is a pool of a moderate frze, and fome fmaller ones, where the 
ground is hollow, in which the rain-water collects. In thefe 
pools, after the water has been fome time detained in them, 
the borax is formed naturally : the men, wading into the water, 
feel a kind of a pavement under their feet, which is a fure 
indication that borax is there formed, and there they accord- 
ingly dig it. 
Where there is little water, the layer of borax is thin ; and 
where it is deep, it is thicker, and over the latter there is 
always an inch or two of foft mud, which is probably a depo- 
iit of the water, after it has been agitated by rain or wind. 
Thus is the borax produced merely by nature, without either 
boiling or dibillation. The water in which it is formed is fo 
bad, that the drinking a fmall quantity of it will occafion a 
levelling of the abdomen, and in a fhort time death itfelf. 
The earth that yields the borax is of a whitifh colour; and in 
the fame valley,, about four miles from the pools, there are 
mines of fait, which is there dug in great abundance for the 
ufe of all the inhabitants of thefe mountains who live at a 
dibance from the fea. The natives, who have no other fub- 
fiflence on account of the fterility of the foil, pay nothing for 
digging borax; but brangers miub pay a certain retribution, 
and ufually agree at fo much a workman. This is paid to a 
Lama, named Pema Tupkan , who owns the pits in Marme. 
Ten 
