The appearance of the country was remarkable, from being covered by a thick crust of common salt, and of a stratified saliferous alluvium, which seems to have been deposited as the land slowly rose above the level of the sea.

The salt is white, very hard, and compact: it occurs in water-worn nodules projecting from the agglutinated sand, and is associated with much gypsum.

The appearance of this superficial mass very closely resembled that of a country after snow, before the last dirty patches are thawed.

The existence of this crust of a soluble substance over the whole face of the country shows how extraordinarily dry the climate must have been for a long period.
At night I slept at the house of the owner of one of the saltpetre mines.

The country is here as unproductive as near the coast; but water, having rather a bitter and brackish taste, can be procured by digging wells.