Bamboo Tubes, Ropes And Buffaloes Are Here Dispensed With, And
Small Wooden Tubs, With Bamboos Fixed To Their Sides As Handles For
Raising, Are Considered Sufficient.
At one of the wells a staging was
erected half way down, and from it the tubs of brine were passed up to the
workmen above.
Passing from the wells to the evaporating sheds, we found a
series of mud furnaces with round holes at the top, into which cone shaped
pans, manufactured from iron obtained in the neighbourhood, and varying in
height from one to two and a half feet, were loosely fitted. When a pan
has been sufficiently heated, a ladleful of the brine is poured into it,
and, bubbling up to the surface, it sinks, leaving a saline deposit on the
inside of the pan. This process is repeated until a layer, some four
inches thick, and corresponding to the shape of the pan, is formed, when
the salt is removed as a hollow cone ready for market. Care must be taken
to keep the bottom of the pan moist; otherwise, the salt cone would crack,
and be rendered unfit for the rough carriage which it experiences on the
backs of pack animals. A soft coal, which is found just under the surface
of the yellow-soiled hills seven miles to the west of Pai-yen-ching, is
the fuel used in the furnaces. The total daily output of salt at these
wells does not exceed two tons a day, and the cost at the wells, including
the Government tax, amounts to about three half-pence a pound.
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