Were it not for this precaution, immense
quantities of salt would be stolen. In the month of August the
weather is generally most favorable for the collection, at which
time the assistant agent for the district usually gives a few
days' superintendence.
The salt upon the shore being first collected, the natives wade
into the lake and gather the deposit from the bottom, which they
bring to the shore in baskets; it is then made up into vast
piles, which are subsequently thatched over with cajans (the
plaited leaf of the cocoanut). In this state it remains until an
opportunity offers for carting it to the government salt stores.
This must strike the reader as being a rude method of collecting
what Nature so liberally produces. The waste is necessarily
enormous, as the natives cannot gather the salt at a greater
depth than three feet; hence the greater proportion of the annual
produce of the lake remains ungathered. The supply at present
afforded might be trebled with very little trouble or expense.
If a stick is inserted in the mud, so that one end stands above
water, the salt crystallizes upon it in a large lump of several
pounds' weight. This is of a better quality than that which is
gathered from the bottom, being free from sand or other
impurities.
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