SALT. 
433 
salt. These were in all probability springs whose 
action bad impeded crystallization, and brought up 
a quantity of ochraceous matter. I caused a hole 
four feet in depth to be dug in the sand close to the 
edge of the water. The two first feet were through 
sand like that of the sea-shore, in which were 
mingled small shining crystals of salt. The third 
foot was considerably harder and more compact, 
and came up in flakes that required some degree of 
force to break ; and the last foot was so solid that 
the spade would scarcely pierce it ; and one-fifth 
part of the mass at least was pure salt in crystals. 
The water now gushed in perfectly clear, and as salt 
as brine.” 
Between this spot and the sea, a distance of six 
miles, Mr. Barrow observed “ three other salt-lakes : 
none of these it seems deposit a body of salt ex- 
cept in very dry summers, when the greatest part 
of the water is evaporated. The name of Red Salt- 
pan is given to one of them, on account of the salt 
produced in it being always tinged of a red colour.” 
Shaw mentions some salt-lakes near Algiers, which 
dry in the summer, and leave great masses of this 
substance at the bottom. In the government of 
Astracan, from the Caspian sea to the environs of 
Orenburg, salt- lakes are very common. During 
the summer, when the heat has evaporated a suf- 
ficient quantity of water from these lakes, the salt 
appears in a crystallized state upon their surface 
and on their borders. The salt thus formed is often 
of a deep red colour, and emits a remarkable smell 
2 F 
VOL. in. 
