by boiling.

"For this purpose we chose a spot where the ground was carpeted with a
soft green turf; and upon it we all sat down to wait the result.

"I need not say that in this we had a deep interest, amounting, in
truth, to anxiety. It might not be salt after all. The water tasted
salt--that is true. But so, too, would water impregnated by the
sulphate of magnesia or the sulphate of soda. When evaporated we might
find one or other of these substances.

"`What is the sulphate of magnesia, papa?' inquired Frank.

"`Perhaps you would know it better by the name of Epsom salts!' rejoined
his mother, with a knowing smile.

"`Bah!' returned he, with a grin upon his face, `I hope it won't turn
out that. But what sort of thing, then, is the sulphate of soda?'

"`That is the scientific name for Glauber's salts.'

"`Worse still! I don't think we stand in need of either. Do we,
Harry?'

"`Not a bit of it,' responded Harry, also grinning at the thought of
these well-known specifics. `I would rather it should turn out
saltpetre and sulphur. Then we could make lots of gunpowder.'

"Harry was a great shot--as we have seen--and one of his fears was, that
our stock of powder would run out.

"`Do not wish for that, Harry,' said his mother. `Gunpowder we can do
very well without. Let us hope for something more necessary to us at
present.'

"With such-like conversation we passed the time, while we watched the
steaming kettle with feelings of anxious expectation.

"For myself, I had some reliance upon a fact which I had observed years
before, and had regarded as singular. It was this. I believe the
Creator has so disposed it, that salt, so essential to animal life, is
to be found in all parts of the globe, either in rocks, springs,
standing lakes, incrustations, or in the ocean itself. No part of the
earth, of great extent, is without it; and I had noticed in the interior
territories of the American continent--where the sea is too distant to
be visited by animals--that Nature has provided numerous salt springs,
or `licks,' as they are termed in the language of the country. These
springs from time immemorial have been the meeting-places of the wild
creatures of the forest and prairie, who resort thither to drink their
waters, or lick the saline soil through which these waters run. Hence
their common name of `licks.' Here, then, was a valley whose
four-footed inhabitants never roamed beyond its borders. I f