1 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORIHERN INDIA
2 REVIEWBYSECTIONS. Of October 1897, 897 pans had been constructed and filled
3 SAMBHAR.
4 with brine at the Sambhar end of the Lake. Vegctable
5 matter then began to form, and all these works had to be
6 abandoned. The beds of the pans became covered with a
7 glutinous vegetable matter of a dark yellow colour, the con-
8 centration of the brine was impeded by the same matter in
9 suspension in if, and when salt finally formed it was deposit-
10 ed in minute crystals upon a layer of vegetable matter from
11 which it could not be separated. Pan manufacture in the
12 Sambhar section was a complete failure, not a maun¢ of salt
13 having been obtained from 897 pans which had been filled
14 with brine. At Gudha also, manufacture west of the railway
15 embankment completely failed for the same reason as at
16 Sambhar, and 325 pans, which had been constructed along that
17 section of the Lake shore, had to be abandored. East of the
18 railway, the small quantity of 24,647 maunds of salt was
19 obtained from 149 pans, which were worked until the smalt
20 supply of brine available was exhausted. The brine at the
21 Nawa end of the Lake was not so thick with vegetable matter
22 ag at Sambhar and Gudha, and the Lake edge pans there
23 worked with better results. The supply of Lake brine was
24 small, but it was supplemented by percolation brine from
25 shallow wells and brine channels in the Lake shore, and in this
26 manner manufacture was carried on until maunds 1,59,362
27 had been produced and stored. Percolation brine is never
28 utilized when good Lake brine is available, as the salt obtained
29 from it is of poor quality, but the past was an exceptional
30 year and inferior produce had to be collected. The salt is,
31 however, all saleable, and there will be no difficulty in dispos-
32 ing of it.
33 Lake salt.—Maunds 47,494 were obtained during the year
34 under report, compared with maunds 438,156 during 1896-97,
35 nearly 64 lakhs of maunds in 1895-96, and more than 64
36 lakhs during 1894-95. The small quantities of this descrip-
37 tion of salt produced in the past two years show elearly the
38 difficulties which we have had to eontend with in connection
39 with manufacture during those periods, owing to deficiencies
40 in the monsoon rainfall. Every effort was made during the
41 past year to produce as much of this description of salt as
42 possible. Enclosures were made in the Lake bed, and as much
43 brine as possible was collected jn these, and under ordinary
44 circumstances a fair outturn of salt would have been obtained.
45 Results, however, were very disappointing, as not only was
46 the brine inferior and impure with vegetation, but in dis-
47 appearing it left only a thin film of salt on the surface of the
48 Lake bed. No Lake salt was produced at Sambhar and Nawa.
49 At the latter place the supply of brine was insufficient for
50 this description of manufacture. In the Sambhar section a
51 large enclosure was made in the bed of the Lake at Japog,
52 and this was filled witha depth of brine which would have
53 yielded a fairly large quantity of salt under ordinary circum-
54 stances. But all the brine in this disappeared, leaving so
55 little salt on the surface of the Lake bed that it could not
56 be extracted ; in fact it was so inferior that it was not such as
57 we could accept. The same thing occurred in the Gudha
58 section west of the railway embankment. Enclosures made in
59 the Lake bed there were filled with brine, but this disap-
60 peared, leaving salt in only thin flakes behind. My impression
61 is that in these cases, owing to the lowering of the spring
62 level consequent on the failure of the monsoon during two
63 successive years, most of the brine sank into the mud of the
64 Lake bed, carrying with itthe greater part of the saline
65 ( 34 )