(_b_)A trunck or pipe of wood through which sea-water passes, one of the last receptacles whereof salt is made.]
[Sidenote: High grounds or little hils raised by mens hands.]
The best salt then that may be, and the wholesomest, is that which is made with sea-water in _Brouage_. And after the example thereof, that the trough throughout, where the salt water is made of clay or glue, as potters earth: and that whereof tiles is made; furthermore you must _courry_ this trough by Artifice that it drink not, nor suck up the water which men draw therefrom, which is done by beating it with a great number of Horses, Asses, and Mullets, tied one to another that they may trample thereon, so long that it be firme and solid, as a certain barns flore to thresh wheate. This done, and having hollowed the channels, to put in the water, then we must have a care that the salt-pans be something lower then the Sea (_Plinie_ in his 2. Book _Chap._ 106. sets downe that salt cannot be made without fresh water) they set in the first place a great receptacle where they draw the water which is called the (_a_) _Jard_: and at the end thereof a sluce by which having applyed thereunto below a hanch with a stopple called the (_b_) _Amezau_, they make the water run from the Jard into _Parquets_, which they cal _Couches_, & of these _Couches_ giving thereto a requisite hanging, by other stopples, 2. in number, called the gate of the _Poelles_, which are therein enchased within other Parquets called soldering or planching with boord, windings and means to make the water turne, by divers windings and channels almost after the manner of a Labyrinth, which it doth for a great way before it come to render it self at last, within the _Parquets_ and hollowes where the salt must be congealed: alwayes diminishing the quantity of water, that the Sun-beames have therein more action, and that it be better warmed before it enter the floores, where it makes its finall congelation. But to come thereunto by certaine degrees, and proportionate measures, there are throughout the _Palles_ which they lift up and downe as those of a mill. All the earth that remaineth, which men draw by the _Parquets_ and the flores they _Arrange_ about them as a _Trench_ or rampart, which is called _Bassis_ of the convenient breadth, to passe two horses a front; which serves as well to retaine the water, as to put upon the heaps of salt, made and congealed, called _Vaches_, and to come and goe as upon a dike, or causway from one marish to another, to lade and carry upon the beasts of carriage of the vessels which attend there neer to the shore: In the winter they content themselves with bulrushes which they sell afterwards very well for the profit they draw from them: and that for fear of rains and snows, and other aereall moistures, that moisten then anew. And all the risings are so oblique, and turning, that for a mile travers of right way, wee must make 7. or 8. so that being therein once cast a little on, one may lose himselfe, which knew not the addresses, or had not a good guide, by reason of the turnings and bridge-ponts, that men must goe to make choice of, to passe from one place to another. And it would be very hard to make thereof a Chart or description, principally in winter, where all is well-nigh covered with water, & yet more to enter in by a strong hand, for conservation of these salt pits every year, after the heats are over, the Sun not being able to make it, but in the Months of _May_, _June_, _July_, and _August_, the salt makers doe use to open certaine _Bonds_, to suffer the sea-water to enter till all the formes and _Parquets_ be covered, otherwise the frosts would destroy them: that if while the salt freezeth or creameth there come any rain, it is so great a retardment (and for fifteen dayes at the least) we must empty al the water out of the _Parquets_, that the rain had altered, and therefore in rainy and cold years, they can very hardly make it.