> FWIW, in his book SALT, Mark Kurlansky says that hunter-gatherers do not
> collect salt for use with food because they obtain adequate salt from the
> meat  they eat.  Collecting salt for consumption is
> associated with agriculture since plants do not provide adequate sodium
and other minerals.

When the Europeans first came to North America, the natives living inland
were very much into collecting salt. They were, by that time, no longer
living a true hunter-gatherer lifestyle. I can't help thinking, though, that
they had known where the slat licks were for thousands of years.

Tom Barber