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THE WHITE CUry 21
some nomad race has left its tents, when driven out
by its successors. These pyramids, upon closer in-
spection, remind you of dirty snow, and if you taste of
them you will find they are made of salt.
For this apparently fruitless region is one of Spain’s
great natural resources; these are the salt fields of
San Fernando. This confusion of fragmentary canals
covering miles and miles of area is connected by nar-
row sluices with the long main canals, which in turn are
connected with the sea, so that in exceptionally high
tides every dike can be filled. Work ceases only in
winter and the salt-dikes fill themselves and empty
themselves four times every twenty-four hours as the
water ebbs and flows. But in May, when the sun bakes
all things hot and no rain has fallen for months, the
actual work with the salt begins. The sea water is
prevented from flowing out and is left standing at a
depth of about three feet in the dikes. In the course
of ten days it will evaporate completely, leaving be-
hind on the bottom of the dikes a layer of salt two
inches thick, not unlike hoarfrost in the fields.
After crystallization is complete, the salt is shoveled
into great heaps, loaded on the backs of donkeys, and
piled into great pyramids along the large canals. Flat
scows next deliver it to the ships lying in the bay. To
northern eyes it is like the shoveling of snow from a
skating pond, a strange thing to be happening under
the tropical sun.
As soon as the salt has been removed, the canals
are filled again and this may normally be repeated
from four to six times in a single summer. But if rain
should fall during the process of evaporation the salt
will not deposit and the harvest is ruined. The strong
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