239

227

of potash. This is done in a very simple way
all the wood ashes of the house are saved and collected
from time to time and put into a holder
shaped like an inverted cone with the bottom
open; a little straw is placed over the hole at the
bottom, a receiver placed beneath, and water
poured on the ashes the water filters through
and runs into the receiver having extracted
the alkali contained in the ashes which stains
it of a dark colour and is called salts of ley
which being beat up with fat or kitchen
stuff makes a soap amply sufficient for the
domestic purposes of washing and scouring.

Mrs. Mathews presented me with a few
small cakes which she had clarified and prepared
for the toilet having an admixture of camphor
which served as a cure as well as a preservative
against chapped hands in the winter a precaution
considered highly necessary among all good housewives
and a provision never neglected by the ladies
as it has the property of rendering the hands particularly
soft

This Salts of ley or lye is thus simply
made from the ashes obtained in the bush when
the woodsmen are employed clearing the forest
for cultivation, it is then sold by them who keep
a potashery, where it is cleansed from its impurities
by being burnt in a furnace, and thus it
is rendered the Potash of commerce

After a most agreeable visit of the