On the west side of the isle where the road for ships is, there is a large sandy bay and a sandbank of about 40 paces wide within it which runs along the shore 2 or 3 miles; within which there is a large salina or salt pond, contained between the sandbank and the hills beyond it.  The whole salina is about 2 miles in length, and half a mile wide; but above one half of it its commonly dry.  The north end only of the pond never wants water, producing salt from November till May, which is here the dry season of the year.  The water which yields this salt works in from out of the sea through a hole in the sandbank before mentioned, like a sluice, and that only in spring tides when it fills the pond more or less, according to the height of the tides.  If there is any salt in the ponds when the flush of water comes in it presently dissolves:  but then in 2 or 3 days after it begins to kern; and so continues kerning till either all or the greatest part of the salt water is congealed or kerned; or till a fresh supply of it comes in again from the sea.  This water is known to come in only at that one passage on the north part of the pond; where also it is deepest.  It was at a spring of the new moon when I was there; and I was told that it comes in at no other time but at the new moon spring tides; but why that should be I can’t guess.  They who come hither to lade salt rake it up as it kerns, and lay it in heaps on the dry land, before the water breaks in anew:  and this is observable of this salt pond, that the salt kerns only in the dry season, contrary to the salt ponds in the West Indies, particularly those of the island Salt Tortuga, which I have formerly mentioned, for they never kern there till the rains come in about April; and continue to do so in May, June, July etc. while the wet season lasts; and not without some good shower of rain first:  but the reason also of this difference between the salt ponds of Mayo and those of the West Indies why these should kern in the wet season, and the former in the dry season, I shall leave to philosophers.

Our nation drives here a great trade for salt, and have commonly a man-of-war here for the guard of our ships and barks that come to take it in; of which I have been informed that in some years there have not been less than 100 in a year.  It costs nothing but men’s labour to rake it together, and wheel it out of the pond, except the carriage:  and that also is very cheap; the inhabitants having plenty of asses for which they have little to do besides carrying the salt from the ponds to the seaside at the season when ships are here.  The inhabitants lade and drive their asses themselves, being very glad to be employed; for they have scarce any other trade but this to get a penny by.  The pond is not above half a mile from the landing-place, so that the asses make a great many trips in a day.  They have a set number of turns to and fro both forenoon and afternoon, which their owners will not exceed.  At the landing-place