PART 3 .] 
Haeket: Sail in Rajpntana. 
197 
to be apparently in accord wtb the rise and fall of the tide; but I have received 
no farther information on this point- -A.s bearing^ on this an important fact was 
bron^^ht to my notice by His Grace the Duke of Buckingham in connection with 
the tidal observations made at iladras by Colonel Baird, which shows that there 
is veiy free percohition of fresh water into the sea on the coast there. It appears 
that a well or cylinder was sunk in the vicinity of the harbour works for a tidal 
gauge, and it was found that the water in this well became fresh in a very short 
space of time. This indicates a head and large supply of water which should 
be struck by borings of no great depth. It may be that a stratum of this kind 
has been tapped by aU the wells, except that of the Ville Xoire and in the 
neighbourhood of Pondicherry, the few tubes put down having offered a freer 
exit than that existing, not only on the sea face, but also in the beds of the rivers 
near the coast. 
This observation at iladras implies that the flow of water shows itself at a 
very shallow depth, but the free pereolation must be deeper than this under the 
Madras plain, for it is well known that at the ordinaiy depth to which open wells 
are made here,_ there is not free communication of their waters. For instance, in 
many compounds, wells have been dug at various spots, only some of which con¬ 
tain fresh water’s. A. case in point is that of iMr. Franck’s compound on the 
Mount Road, an area of about 3 or 4 acres in which, as far as I remember, 5 wells 
were dug, most of which gave brackish water, so here in this small space and at 
a very shallow depth, are seams of permeable sti-ata which can hardly be in 
free communication with each other. 
Salt is Rajputas.^, hy C. A. Hacket, Geological Survey of hu.lia. 
The soil of Rajpntana, over wide areas, is impregnated with salt. This is 
more particularly the case on the western side of the Arvali range of hills, 
where large quantities of salt are manufactured from the efflore.scence deve¬ 
loped on the surface, and the water in the majority of the weUs is too brackish 
to drink, and in some places the only drinking water obtainable is from small 
tanks in which the rain water is collected. 
The country on the eastern side of the range, north of Aj mere, is also fre¬ 
quently saliferous, but with the exception of a few place.s, like Sambhar and 
Bhartpur, not nearly to so great an extent as on the western .side. South of 
A j mere, on the eastern side of the range, salt is not met with in any quantity. 
So many descriptions of the sources and process of manufacture of the salt 
of Rajpntana have been published, of which the most complete are those in the 
Gazetteer of Rajpntana and the Reports on the Administration of the Inland 
Customs Department, that it is unnecessary for me to enter into these particulars. 
The object of this paper is to give a brief description of the rocks in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the.se salt sources -svith reference to the possible origin of the salt. 
