Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 81 (Color Image)

0081	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

TO MOUNT OMEI 51

A cable, made partly of steel and bamboo rope

or of bamboo rope, has a bamboo tube, about

130 feet long, attached to the end. The cable is

uncoiled and wound up, either by machinery, as

in the bigger mines, or by relays of buffaloes, as

in the smaller mines. When the bamboo tube

reaches the bottom the pressure opens a valve

and fills the tube with brine and water and closes

the valve when the tube is full. It takes two or

three minutes to lower the tube by machinery

and three or four minutes to pull it up again.

When up, a man pulls it across over a bucket,

presses on the valve with a hook, and releases

the salt water which pours out into a big bucket.

From this it runs along bamboo tubing to the

boiling office, which may be 4 or 5 miles away.

In the office the salt is boiled in salt - pans

either by coal (which is quicker) or by gas found

on the spot (which is cheaper). The salt comes

out yellow, but it is then washed with water

containing some chemicals and it comes out a

beautiful white. If it is to be used in the crystal

state it is then packed in bags of about 350 lb.

and sent off by barge. If it is required in cakes

it has to be boiled several times, and is mixed

with ashes to give it a darker colour.

Kungching, a few miles farther on, is another

important centre for salt.

On July 4 at San-ch'ing-chen two English lady

missionaries bound for Mount Omei lunched at

Pereira's inn—the first time in all his travels that

he had ever met a strange party in an inn.

Two days later he reached Omei-hsien on the

foot-hills of Mount Omei, which was hidden in

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