Others occur in the neighbourhood many times larger, and with a floor of salt, two and three feet in thickness, even when under water during the winter.

One of these brilliantly white and level expanses, in the midst of the brown and desolate plain, offers an extraordinary spectacle.

A large quantity of salt is annually drawn from the salina: and great piles, some hundred tons in weight, were lying ready for exportation.
The season for working the salinas forms the harvest of Patagones; for on it the prosperity of the place depends.

Nearly the whole population encamps on the bank of the river, and the people are employed in drawing out the salt in bullock-waggons.

This salt is crystallised in great cubes, and is remarkably pure: Mr.Trenham Reeks has kindly analysed some for me, and he finds in it only 0.26 of gypsum and 0.22 of earthy matter.