(Richthofen In Verhandlungen, Etc., U.S. P. 36.) On
The Continued Existence Of The Use Of Salt Currency In Regions Of The Same
Frontier, I Have Been Favoured With The Following Note By M. Francis
Garnier, The Distinguished Leader Of The Expedition Of The Great Kamboja
River In Its Latter Part:
"Salt currency has a very wide diffusion from
Muang Yong [in the Burman-Shan country, about lat.
21 deg. 43'] to Sheu-pin
[in Yun-nan, about lat. 23 deg. 43']. In the Shan markets, especially
within the limits named, all purchases are made with salt. At Sse-mao and
Pou-erl [Esmok and Puer of some of our maps], silver, weighed and cut
in small pieces, is in our day tending to drive out the custom, but in
former days it must have been universal in the tract of which I am
speaking. The salt itself, prime necessity as it is, has there to be
extracted by condensation from saline springs of great depth, a very
difficult affair. The operation consumes enormous quantities of fuel, and
to this is partly due the denudation of the country". Marco's somewhat
rude description of the process, 'Il prennent la sel e la font cuire, et
puis la gitent en forme,' points to the manufacture spoken of in this
note. The cut which we give from M. Garnier's work illustrates the process,
but the cakes are vastly greater than Marco's. Instead of a half pound they
weigh a preul, i.e. 133-1/3 lbs. In Sze-ch'wan the brine wells are bored
to a depth of 700 to 1000 feet, and the brine is drawn up in bamboo tubes
by a gin. In Yun-nan the wells are much less deep, and a succession of hand
pumps is used to raise the brine.
[Illustration: Salt pans in Yun-nan (From Garnier.)
"Il prennent la sel e la font cuire, et puis la gitent en forme."]
[Mr. Hosie has a chapter (Three Years in W. China, VII.) to which he
has given the title of Through Caindu to Carajan, regarding salt he
writes (p. 121). "The brine wells from which the salt is derived be at Pai
yen ching, 14 miles to the south west of the city [of Yen yuan] ... [they]
are only two in number, and comparatively shallow, being only 50 feet in
depth. 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.
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