Flat plains of a sandy nature form the
margins of the lakes. The little town of Hambantotte, with a
good harbor for small craft, is about twenty miles distant, to
which there is a good cart road.
The water of these lakes is a perfect brine. In the dry season
the evaporation, of course, increases the strength until the
water can no longer retain the amount of salt in solution it
therefore precipitates and crystalizes at the bottom in various
degrees of thickness, according to the strength of the brine.
Thus, as the water recedes from the banks by evaporation and the
lake decreases in size, it leaves a beach, not of shingles, but
of pure salt in crystallized cubes, to the depth of several
inches, and sometimes to half a foot or more. The bottom of the
lake is equally coated with this thick deposit.
These lakes are protected by watchers, who live upon the margin
throughout the year. Were it not for this precaution, immense
quantities of salt would be stolen. In the month of August the
weather is generally most favorable for the collection, at which
time the assistant agent for the district usually gives a few
days' superintendence.
The salt upon the shore being first collected, the natives wade
into the lake and gather the deposit from the bottom, which they
bring to the shore in baskets; it is then made up into vast
piles, which are subsequently thatched over with cajans (the
plaited leaf of the cocoanut). In this state it remains until an
opportunity offers for carting it to the government salt stores.
This must strike the reader as being a rude method of collecting
what Nature so liberally produces. The waste is necessarily
enormous, as the natives cannot gather the salt at a greater
depth than three feet; hence the greater proportion of the annual
produce of the lake remains ungathered. The supply at present
afforded might be trebled with very little trouble or expense.
If a stick is inserted in the mud, so that one end stands above
water, the salt crystallizes upon it in a large lump of several
pounds' weight. This is of a better quality than that which is
gathered from the bottom, being free from sand or other
impurities. Innumerable samples of this may be seen upon the
stakes which the natives have stuck in the bottom to mark the
line of their day's work. These, not being removed, amass a
collection of salt as described.
Were the government anxious to increase the produce of these
natural reservoirs, nothing could be more simple than to plant
the whole lake with rows of stakes. The wood is on the spot, and
the rate of labor sixpence a day per man; thus it might be
accomplished for a comparatively small amount.
