Dobsoon-noor, or the Salt Lake, is celebrated over all the west of Mongolia. It furnishes salt, not only to the neighbouring Tartars, but to several provinces of the Chinese empire. The Dobsoon-noor is less a lake than a vast reservoir of mineral salt mixed with nitrous efflorescence. The latter is of a faint white, and friable between the fingers ; it is easily distinguishable from the salt, which is of a greyish tint, and with a shining and crystalline fracture. The lake is nearly 10 miles in circumference, and here and there are yourtes inhabited by the Mongols, who are occu pied with the salt trade ; they have also Chinese partners, for Chinese take part in every kind of trade or industry. The manipulation to which the salt is subjected requires little labour or science. , It consists of nothing more than picking ,up the pieces, laying them in heaps, and covering them with potter's clay, and the salt sufficiently purifies itself.
Lake Fife, an artificial lake formed by throwing a dam across the Mutha river, 10 miles from Poona.
Mareotis Lake, to the westward and southward of Alexandria, in N.E. Africa, is about 150 miles in circumference. According to Strabo, in n.c. 223, when Alexandria was founded, it was a lake filled by several canals from the Nile, and kept full for the purposes of navigation. In the time of Pliny it was a marsh; but at the close of the 18th century it was dry land with 300 villages, and was said to have been the most fertile portion of the Delta. From the necessities of war, the barrier was then cut through, and the sea admitted, since which time it has formed a lagoon, diluted by the Nile at the periods of flood.
fflunchur Lake, in Sind, extends from the foot of the hills in the north, and is lost on the low lands to the eastward. When swollen by the inundation of the Indus, it is an enormous expanse of water, about 20 miles long and 10 miles broad, and covering an area probably of about 180 square miles. It has been described by Orlebar, Postans, and Knight.
Pulicat Lake is a marine lagoon, skirting the Bay of Bengal, north of Madras, in the Nellore collectorate.
Kunkeraoli Lake, also called the Rajsamund, is a great national work, 25 miles north of Udaipur, the capital of Mewar, and is situated on the declivity of the plain about 2 miles from the base of the Aravalli. A small perennial stream, called* Gumti or serpentine,' flowing from these moun tains, was arrested in its course, and confined by an immense embankment, made to form the lake called after himself, Rajsamund, or royal sea.' The bund or dam forms an irregular segment of a circle, embracing an extent of nearly 3 miles, and encircling the waters on every side except the space between the north-west and north-east points. This barrier, which confines a sheet of
water of great depth, about 12 miles in circum ference, is entirely of white marble, with a flight of steps of the same material throughout this extent, from the summit to the water's edge ; the whole buttressed by an enormous rampart of earth, which, had the projector lived, would have been planted with trees to form a promenade. On the south side are the town and fortress built by the rana, and bearing his name, Rajnuggur ; and upon the embankment stands the temple of Kunkeraoli, the shrine of one of the seven forms (sariip) of Krishna. The whole is ornamented with sculpture of tolerable execution for the age, and a genealogical sketch of the founder's family is inscribed in conspicuous characters. £1,150,000 sterling, contributed by the rana, his chiefs and opulent subjects, was expended on this work, of which the material was from the adjacent quarries. But, magnificent, costly, and useful as it is, it derives its chief beauty from the benevolent motive to which it owes its birth,—to alleviate the miseries of a starving population, and make their employment conducive to national benefit during one of those awful visitations of providence. Kirit Sagar and Madan Sagar are ancient artificial lakes, near the town of Mahoba.
Sanzbhar Salt Lake, in lat. 26° 53' N., and long. 73° 57' E., is 20 miles long and 14- broad.
Taroba, a lake of the Central Provinces, 14 miles E. of Segaon.
Colair Lake is a marine lagoon in the Northern Circars of Madras Presidency.
Lake Debur is in Udaipur.
Lonar Lake, about 2 miles in circumference, is a body of water low down in the crater of an extinct volcano. It is among the Shiel Hills in the Dekhan, in lat. 20° N., and long. 76° 30' E. It yields carbonate and muriate of soda.
Oodi-Sagur Lake. The Bairis river issues from the Oodi-Sagur lake of Rajputana, and passes within a mile of Chitore. Here are two grand reservoirs within 6 miles of each other, viz. the Peshola, or internal lake, having an elevation of 80 feet above the external one ; and the Oodi Sagur, whose outlet forms the Bairis. The Peshola may be called the parent of the other, although it is partly fed by the minor lake at the villa of Suhailea-ki-bari. Both are from 12 to 14 miles in circumference, in some places 35 feet dgep, and, being fed by the perennial streams from the Aravalli, they contain a constant supply of water. From the external lake to Chitore, the fall is so slight that few locks would be required ; and the soil being a yielding one throughout, the expense of the undertaking would be moderate.