The people who engage in the soliaga—thus the crude borax ia termed in the plain dialect, and tehalleh by the Thibetans—trade are chiefly liandwaris and liharnpos, a class of wandering traders of Lahaul, Thibet, and Spiti. In the summer, they resort to the Pugha and similar districts, and there load their sheep and goats with the mineral, returning in the autumn, before the passes are closed, to the lower hills, where they remsin during the winter, pasturing their flocks, refining the solioga, and bartering it for goods which they carry back in the following summer. All traders have a right collect borax on payment of a fee of 1 rupee (norninally 2s.) in coin or goods for every three bags of about 25 to 30 lb. The total production of this district has been placed roughly at 20,000 kucha maunds of 32 lb. each, or say nearly 30 tons annually. In 1850, the price paid for ths sohaga in barter was only 1 rupee for a pucka maund (80 lb.), or about 56s. per ton ; but two years later, under the stimulus of export, it reached about 62s. 3d. per ton. These are the prices in /oco. The difficulty, danger, and cost of transport raise the latter figure to 24/. 18s. per ton of sohaga at Kulu, and to 42/. per ton of eleaned borax at Kudli, Sisova, or Teki, in the lower hills.
The purification of the erude sohaga from this district is carried on ehiefly in the neighbourhood of Sabatha, Bhaji, &e., in the lower hills, where wood, and winter grazing for the carriers' flocks, is procurable. The native processes of purification will be described further on.
Passing eastwards from the Pligha district, the next important sOuree of borax is the lakes of RudeIch, where a superior quality, locally termed chd tsalg (water borax), is found. The interval between this point and the large lake of Tengri-Nur is not much known. The Pangong lake is reported saline ; near Lmnadodmo, are several small saline lakes, and in the vieinity ars het springs possessing medicinal properties ; the Pursng Chas, lake is saline, and great quantities of borax, locally termed bui, are found lying, all around it, in beds varying from 2 to 10 feet in thick ness, and of light, loose consistency ; at Hissik Chaka, is a small saline lake ; and, at Tong Cho Chain, a much larger one. It is impossible to say whether any borax will be found in those lakes which are simply recorded as saline. The chain of saline lakes is terminated on the east by the Tengri-Nur, lying to the north of Lhasa (nearly 100 miles), and at an elevation of over 15,000 ft. The lake is of very considerable size, and is encompassed on all sides by roeky hills. "Very few streams flow into the lake, whose waters are principally supplied by springs, and are subjeet to very little rise or fall. There is no outlet. The crude borax, or tshoochal, as it is called by the Thibetans (teliya in the plains), is deposited in the bed of the lake, never in dry ground nor in high situations, nor universally distributed over the lake bed even, but only on the borders of the lake and in the shallowest depths: The bed of the lake is said to deepen gradually towards the centre, where great quantities of common salt are found, the depths being as completely monopolized by that substance as the shallows are by the borax. This latter is dug up in large crystalline masses, which are afterwards broken for convenience in transport. Here, as elsewhere, the supply seems inexhaustible, inasmuch as the holes from which the mineral is extracted soon become refilled. The lake is frozen as early as Oetober, and remains so for a great portion of the
year, during which, operations are suspended. Borax is also found by the lake Bul Cho, a little to the north of the Tcngri-Nur. It measures about 6 miles by 5 miles, and has no outlet ; geyeirs or spouting hotsprings are found in the neighbourhood. The same saline deserts are found in Tartary, on the territory of the Mongols of Tsaidam. Holes 2 or 3 ft. deep are dug in the arid, sterile soil, wherein the tineal collects and is periodically gathered. Southwards again from Lhasa, is another lake, the Yamdok Cho or Palte, over 13,000 ft. above seo.-level, whence borax hiss been obtained nom time immemorial.
The raw tincal is sometimes submitted by the carriers to a refining process, and is then known as "refined East Indian borax." This process generally eonsists in dissolving the crude substance in two parts of hot, or ten parts of eold, water, and then allowing it to crystallize. The tshoochal has to be broken up first, on aceount of its hardness. Formerly the erude tincal used to be covered over with ghee (clarified liquid butter from buffalo milk), to prevent deliquescence in damp weather ; but this practice has been partially, if not entirely abandoned. An improved process of purification adopted at Tag6dri is as follows :—One maund of tincal is mixed with double its weight of water, plaeed in an iron pot over a fire, and then boiled for two to two and a half hours ; when the whole has boiled down to a fourth of its original bulk, it is removed from the fire and poured into earthen jars (sabdcha); after three days, the impurities settle at ths bottom, and the borax crystallizes above ; the water is then poured off, and the borax is taken out separately from the impurities, and dried. The product of refined borax obtained will depend upon the eharaeter of the raw material ; if of good quality, the yield will bo four.fifths ; if moderate, one half ; if inferior, two-fifths only. Part of the produetion from tbe western lakes finds its way down towards Bombay, but the bulk of it, together with ell from the more eastern sources, goes to Jagadri (where it is purified), and thenee vid Furrnckabad or Mirzaptir to Calcutta. The transport from the lower hills to Jagadri was, and probably still is, effected on pony or mule back ; thence to Furruckabad, in hackeries or Indian bullock earts, 25 maunds being a load ; and finally by river craft to Caleutta. Thenee it is shipped in double gunny-bags, eontaining 2 maunds, or 164 lb. each ; sometimes, in empty beer-casks. Before paeking, it is often bulked, and mixed with mustard or rape oil and curd of milk, to prevent efflorescence during the long voyage, otherwise it is said to heat aud erninble into powder. The ducal as imported into this country consists of a mass of little, hard, loo,u crystals, varying in size from small shot to lentils, dirty white in colour, and more or less translucent. The " refined East Indian borax " comes in thin cakes of crystals more or less crumbled, whiter and more transparent than the tincal. Some manufacturers prefer the finest tincal to the purified borax, as the former will often give 98 to 99 per cent. of pure borax, while the latter seldom reaches above 85 per cent., on account of containing large quantities of soda and moisture.