That is the way in which deposits of salt are being now produced on the
world's surface, in preparation for that man of the future who, as we
learn from a duly constituted authority, is to be hairless, toothless,
web-footed, and far too respectable ever to be funny. Man of the present
derives his existing salt-supply chiefly from beds of rock-salt
similarly laid down against his expected appearance some hundred
thousand aeons or so ago. (An aeon is a very convenient geological unit
indeed to reckon by; as nobody has any idea how long it is, they can't
carp at you for a matter of an aeon or two one way or the other.)
Rock-salt is found in most parts of the world, in beds of very various
ages. The great Salt Range of the Punjaub is probably the earliest in
date of all salt deposits; it was laid down at the bottom of some very
ancient Asiatic Mediterranean, whose last shrunken remnant covered the
upper basin of the Indus and its tributaries during the Silurian age.
Europe had then hardly begun to be; and England was probably still
covered from end to end by the primaeval ocean. From this very primitive
salt deposit the greater part of India and Central Asia is still
supplied; and the Indian Government makes a pretty penny out of the dues
in the shape of the justly detested salt-tax--a tax especially odious
because it wrings the fraction of a farthing even from those unhappy
agricultural labourers who have never tasted ghee with their rice.
Pages:
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340