432 
SALT. 
curing salt for their own consumption or for sale. 
It is situated on a plain of considerable elevation 
above the level of the sea. The greatest part of the 
bottom of the lake was covered with one continued 
body of salt like a sheet of ice, the crystals of 
which were so united that it formed a solid mass 
as hard as rock. The margin, or shore of the ba- 
son, w^as like the sandy beach of the sea-coast, with 
sand-stone and quartz pebbles thinly scattered over 
it, some red, some purple, and others gray. Be- 
yond the narrow belt of sand round the margin, 
the sheet of salt commenced with a thin porous 
crust, increasing in thickness and solidity as it ad- 
vanced towards the middle of the lake. The salt 
that is taken out for use is generally broken up 
with pick-axes, where it is about four or five inches 
thick, which is at no great distance from the mar- 
gin of the lake. The thickness in the middle is 
not known, a quantity of water generally remain- 
ing in that part. The dry south-easterly winds of 
summer agitating the water of the lake, produce on 
the margin a fine light powdery salt, like flakes of 
snow. This is equally beautiful as the refined salt 
of England, and is much sought after by the women, 
who always commission their husbands to bring 
Home a quantity of snowy salt for the table. 
lt We happened to visit the lake at a very unfa- 
vourable season, when it was full of water. About 
the middle it was three feet deep, but sufficiently 
clear to perceive several veins of a dark ferruginous 
colour intersecting in various directions the sheet of 
