A Missionary Enigma.

I.

One who was almost persuaded to be a Christian.

II.

One of the first and last commands of Jesus to Simon Peter.

111.

Something in heaven which proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb, and which David speaks of as making glad the city of God.

IV.

One of the titles of Christ.

V.

A cry for help from a heathen land, to which cry one of the apostles immediately responded.

VI.

A king of Judea, who, when he was in trouble, sinned more against God, and sacrificed to idols, which it is said were the ruin of him.

VII.

A large and wicked city, which God threatened with destruction, but the people repenting, it was spared for a time.

VIII.

The ancient name for the city where Jesus was born.

IX.

Something we are to do when we are in any way suffering for Christ's sake.

The initial letters will give you the name of a noted ferocious chief in Africa, who was a terror to his countrymen, but was converted to God, and became one of the most eminent of Christians.

M. S. D.

THE SALT LAKES.

BY A MISSIONARY'S WIFE.

GANY of my young readers will be surprised to hear that in India good, pure salt is almost as dear as sugar."Ah, that is because it is very scarce," I think I hear you say; "or, because it can only be got from countries very, very far off." No, these are not the reasons, for India produces fine natural salt in abundance, and there are few parts of the vast interior where salt is not produced naturally, sometimes in the low plains, at others in the swampy lakes, or from the long ranges of lofty hills; indeed, it is said that India might literally supply half the world with salt; certainly it might supply all Asia and Africa, Angali ***

You would be interested to see the great salt quarries of the Punjaub, and the salt lakes of Bajpootana would seem mch more curious. a „hrm]...--- 13.

One of these is called Sambhur, and yields such a large quantity of salt, that I will give you a little account of it.

It looks like a vast sheet of show sixteen miles long and eight broad, and in the rainy season enlarges to thirty miles long and ten broad. It is so shallow that a man can vade over nearly its whole extent. The rains replenish the lake annually, but they do not give the salt, and the neighbouring wells contain sweet and fresh water. When the rains are unusually heavy the natural production of salt is slight. No geologist or chemist has yet brought the present teachings of science to bear upon this curious abject. The bed of the lake is difficult of examination,

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being covered with a treacherous ooze encrusted with the white salt. The primary origin of the salt is thought to be below the surface, in rock salt, or brine springs of such a depth that the surrounding wells are not affected.

Mr. Blair, writing on this subject, says of this lake: "The snowy sheet is approached over half a mile of black dry mud, on which salt is produced when the water is high enough. This is dotted with conical mounds of salt, fifteen feet high, ready for exportation. All around are rude guard-houses, one of whose occupants must be employed as a guide in the labyrinth of paths which stretch into the ocean beyond. One step to right or left will plunge the unwary visitor some feet in the ooze. There are at

least 3000 coolies, men, women, and children, in gangs, each troop making its own narrow pathway over the slime on branches of trees, till the good salt field is reached. There the white crust is in slabs of one and two inches, which the men, wading in filthy water and mud, break up into crystals, and these are carried away by the women and children into small heaps of 320lbs. The work is miserably paid, and the bare legs and feet of the coolies are apt to be cut by the ice-like slabs and crystals, and the slightest abrasion causes them to tingle painfully from the salt water. In the hot season the duty is so trying that all work is over at nine o'clock in the morning.

"If only a fifth of the salt in this one lake were manufac tured, no less than a million of tons would be turned out, or more than all India could use.

"If the visitor asks the people who dwell on their shores the history of the salt lakes of Rajpootana, they will tell him