220 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



In one part of his communication, he tells us of " a continuous river 

 of ice, running sixty-four miles in an almost straight line, and without 

 any break in its continuity beyond those of the ordinary crevasses of 

 glaciers. The Biafo glacier is supplied in a great measure from a vast 

 dome of ice and snow about 180 square miles in area, in the whole of 

 which only a few projecting points of wall are visible. Further west, 

 the Holi Valley produces a fine glacier sixteen miles in length. The 

 Basha Valley contains the Kero glacier, eleven miles in length, besides 

 many branches and minor glaciers. The Braldo and Basha, in fact, 

 contain such a galaxy of glaciers as can be shown in no other part of 

 the globe, except it be within the Arctic Circle. Captain Montgom- 

 ery pointed out that the Baltoro, with its main glacier thirty-six miles 

 in length, and its fourteen large tributary glaciers of from three to ten 

 miles in length, would form a study in itself, and give employment for 

 several summers before it could be properly examined. It takes its 

 rise from underneath apeak 28,287 feet high. The crevasses in the 

 ice of these glaciers were of great breadth, and of the most formidable 

 description. An attempt was made to measure the thickness of the 

 ice by sounding one of these yawning chasms, but a line of 100 feet in 

 length failed to reach the bottom of it. Observation made at the end 

 of the glaciers gave a thickness of 300 or 400 feet, but doubtless higher 



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up a still greater thickness of ice will be found. 



REMARKABLE DEPOSIT OF ROCK SALT IN LOUISIANA. 



One of the facts of scientific interest brought to light during the 



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pending civil war is the discovery of an important deposit of rock salt, 

 of remarkable purity, on the island of Petite Anse, in Vermillion Bay, 

 on the Gulf coast of Louisiana. The island is a body of very produc- 

 tive land in every part, of undulating surface, growing rich crops of su- 

 gar-cane, corn, forest trees, shrubbery, etc., and rises to a height of 

 about 170 feet, in the midst of a wide-spreading sea swamp, and is 

 about two and a half miles long from north to south, and about one 

 and a half miles wide. The soil of the island is an umber-colored ar- 

 gillaceous loam, capable of forming good bricks. The salt deposit is 

 found near the southwesterly border of the island, under dry forest 

 ground, which ground is only about fifteen feet above the level of the 

 tide-water in the bayou. The salt quarry consists of a whitish or 

 cream-colored solid smooth rock, underlying the earth, within a space, 

 so far as yet ascertained, of about forty-five acres, and on an average 

 of nineteen and a half feet below the surface of the earth, and about 

 four and a half feet below the surface of the bayou or tide-water. 



There is no water or brine moisture within the salt .deposit. The 

 rock is hard, compact, and perfectly dry. The only moisture attend- 

 ing it is contained in the earthy soil above the rock. 



The salt was discovered as follows : salt-springs were recognized on 

 the island as far back as 1791, and from time to time subsequently. 

 Salt was manufactured from their water by evaporation. In May, 1862, 

 the proprietor endeavored to improve one of the springs, and if possible 

 to find a better supply of brine by digging much lower into the earth; 



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and when only about thirteen feet below the surface, the pickaxe man 

 at the bottom struck upon, as he thought, a cake of ice, but this, upon 

 being examined, proved to be nearly pure rock salt. 



