'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎15] (242/258)

APPENDIX e.
15
day 3 altkoiigb upon this point again we are uncertain, ns the bottle was found
stranded, and may have lain some time on the beach without being observed
5. The Friend of India mentions a bottle log which had been picked up on the
Tavoy Coast, on the /th August in 1855,inLat. 9° N., Long. 98° 5' E—it had been
thrown overboard from the P. and 0. Co.'s steamer Singapore, by Cap ain Baker
in his royage from Bombay to China, in Lat. 5= 59'N„ Long. 89° 16/E fon the 13th
of A piil. It had thus travelled 3.1, that is 190 miles N , and 8 50 that is 530
“r n T i rn° bablya dl , stance of about 650 “iles in kll. This was a CC om
phshed in 116 days, or at the rate of five and a half miles a day.
6 . We have been favored by the Colonial Secretary, Ceylon, with copy of a
bottle log thrown overboard from the Steamer Erin, on her way from Bomba?
to Aden, on the 4th of May 1855, in Latitude 16° 44 ' N„ LongitudI65° 03' E it
was picked up at sea at noon on the 20th of August, ten mifes west of Colombo
Light-house, consequently 6.53 N. and 79.44 E., it had thus travelled about a
thousand miles nearly S. W. in the course of one hundred and eight days, or at
the rate of about ten miles a day. s ^
doLet on^h^rolS P f ic p ke f d , u P T on t h e22ndof May, two miles east of the village of
Sootree on the Coast of Cutch, Latitude 23° 30' N., Longitude 60° E.—“ Thrown
o^AS^No^h 1 ! te r a n m T 7 ' riSate Semiramis i Ma 7 Hth, 1855, in Latitude
j r ^ 0 ltb ’•C 0 I ?p tu< ^ e 65° 50'East. ’ It had consequently travelled in eleven
days about two miles south, and two hundred east, indicating a current of nearly
tbp Ar bV e % a a fh 13 110 brst log we have received from any part of
the Arab an Sea, the four or five that carried us round from Ceylon to the far
southern latitudes indicated currents of from two and a half to three and a half
miles a day. In thick heavy weather, when there is nothing but dead reckoning
to resort to, an mdnft of the fearful amount of twenty miles a-day might get a
coasting vessel ashore on Cutch or Kattiwar when she had no idea of danger
bvp A ri IBlT r\ SALT L f K f.^ AjPooTA ^A.—The lake is some 20 miles longby five miles
wprp d iVn A ff 0 ?n rt 0 f i tlS . t - he u e P thgreat ~ indeed ’ as the natives informed me,
were it not for he mud at its bottom, it might be considered every where forda
ble. I was told that three streams are its principal feeders. It has no outlet for
the escape of overplus water—all is carried off by evaporation. At the time I
paid my visit the lake was nearly full, it being soon after the monsoon. The
water was not then very salt. As the salt with which it is impregnated is sup
posed to be drawn from some immensely large naturaj deposit below its waters,
the impregnation is gradual, so that perhaps the powers of solution are not ex
hausted before the month of March. Then a powerful sun, a high temperature,
and steady strong breezes cause rapid evaporation. The extent of surface covered
by water quickly decreases, and the water itself assumes a reddish or purple hue
in fact it becomes brine—or as the natives term it u pukkaos’’ or ripens. As
must be_ evident the process of desiccation causes the deposit of salt. The red
colour is due to the presence of the animalcule of the valvax race On tha
mud an incrustation some three inches thick is formed. This is then collected at
dinerent fixed places of deposit above high water mark on the shores of theLake,
or Samund as it is locally called The heaps are coniform, and not protected by
any roofing. On making an observation to the persons in charge that rain must
iBGit the Stilt without some such protection^ they informed me no such injury was
caused, because the surface being softened by the action of the first fall of rain, it
afterwards formed a hard crust fully equal to its future perfect protection. This
crust I observed was a good inch thick, and was very hard indeed. It reminded
me of the appearance and substance which snow assumes that while rapidlythaw-
ing is suddenly congealed by a hard frost. These deposits of salt supply the
consumption of the country around, besides sending large quantities into the
provinces of Hindostan. While I was there not only were numerous camels being
loaded, but also innumerable Brinjaree bullocks, most of the latter from Bhurtpore,
and I think Agra—the camels generally coming from Jeypoor, I am not aware