386 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



tals of carbonate of soda are placed in a box made on purpose, and 

 are surrounded by carbonic acid gas under pressure. The salt 

 absorbs the gas, and, as the bi-carbonate requires but little water, 

 much of that contained in the crystals of the original carbonate drip 

 away in the form of a solution. When gas ceases to be absorbed, 

 the salt is taken out, and dried at a moderate temperature. 



Upon examination, after the absorption of gas has ceased, the 

 portions of salt are found in their original form, but porous and 

 friable, and the fracture without lustre. Each consists of an aggre- 

 gation of crystalline grains as white as snow, and scarcely alkaline 

 to the taste. In this way all the trouble of solution, evaporation, &c. 

 involved by the ordinary process, is obviated. The production of 

 gas should be continued for a sufficient time, and the subsequent 

 drying of the salt should be at a moderate temperature, or else por- 

 tions of carbonate may remain. 



When a portion of salt thus prepared was washed with a little 

 water, to remove any carbonate, then dried and analysed, it proved 

 to be, not sesqui-carbonate, but true bi-carbonate. M. Boullay has 

 repeated the process on a large scale, and obtained exactly similar 

 results*. 



14. ROCK SALT IN ARMENIA. 



Armenia was incorporated with Russia in 1828, by the treaty of 

 Tourkmantchai, made with Persia. The salt is found in a mountain 

 two leagues and a half from Nakchitchevane, situated on an exten- 

 sive plain extending along the left bank of the Araxes. The moun- 

 tain is seven leagues and a half in circumference, and, from the ap- 

 pearance of very ancient works, has evidently yielded salt for many 

 ages. These remains consist of enormous horizontal galleries, sup- 

 ported by pillars of salt; and, according to the traditions of the 

 people, many mines have been abandoned from the difficulties of 

 working them, occasioned by the depth of the strata and frequent 

 inundations. The Persian government, for the last fifteen years of 

 its time, let them for a sum equal to 16,000 francs annually. 



The salt is worked by gunpowder ; the works are wrought by the 

 irmabitants of a small neighbouring village, consisting of Armenians 

 and Tartars, from three to twenty persons being required at a time. 

 The Russian government has let the works, since March, 1829, for 

 a year, for a sum equal to 16,000 francs t. 



15. PREPARATION OF LITHIA. (Quesneville, jils.} 



One part of triphane is pulverised in water, mixed intimately with 

 two parts of pulverised litharge, put into a crucible and heated to 

 whiteness. In a quarter of an hour the whole is liquid ; it is to be 



* Journ.de Pharm. 1830,~p. 118. 

 f Revue Ency. xlviii, p. 504. 



