ring 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 there
lies a frape-boat, as our seamen call it, to take in the salt. It is made
purposely for this use, with a deck reaching from the stern a third part
of the boat; where there is a kind of bulkhead that rises not from the
boat's bottom but from the edge of the deck to about 2 foot in height;
all caulked very tight. The use of it is to keep the waves from dashing
into the boat when it lies with its head to the shore to take in salt:
for here commonly runs a great sea; and when the boat lies so with its
head to the shore the sea breaks in over the stern, and would soon fill
it was it not for this bulkhead, which stops the waves that come flowing
upon the deck and makes them run off into the sea on each side. To keep
the boat thus with the head to