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disputed, and I incline to the native belief, " that the salt lies within the soil, and is taken into solution by the water, which deposits the same amount upon the dry surface when exhausted by evaporation. " In support of this opinion, I adduce a proof in the fact of the small freshwater stream which flows from the higher ground through the arches of the aqueduct, depositing salt as its surface contracts during the dry season. A strong efflorescence of true chloride of sodium is left upon the sides of its bed and upon the bottom ias the water becomes exhausted ; this must be the salt which the fresh water has robbed from the soil of the valley through which it flows. In many portions fof Cyprus I have observed, a few days after a heavy shower, a considerable amount of salt upon the surface. I know many instances of fresh-water lakes being divided from the sea by only a few yards of sandy beach, and I do not accept as fact that salt water percolates through the sand and forms the salt of Larnaca lake. The salt lakes of Ceylon, in the south district of Hambantotte, are immensely productive, and they have no communication with the sea, but are in a similar position to those of Cyprus at Larnaca and Limasol—near the sea, but depending for their water-supply upon natural springs and rain. There can be no doubt that the springs are salt, and the rain-water dissolves the salt that is naturally contained within the soil. M. Gaudry observed a portion of the plain near Trichomo covered with an efflorescence of soda, which by analysis yielded about two-thirds of sulphate of soda, with a large proportion of sulphate of magnesia and other salts. Many wells in Cyprus are salt, or brackish. The lowest ground of

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