THE LITERARY 



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OF THE LINN^AN ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. 



Vol. I. JANUARY, 1845. No. 3. 



SUBTERRANEAN SALT WORKS. 



BY PROF. CHAS. A. HAY, OF GETTYSBCRG. 



For an article of consumption, so necessary as salt, no government 

 will consent to be dependent upon another, whilst there is the least 

 prospect of obtaining it at home. But where the country lies at a dis- 

 tance from the sea, and possesses neither saline-springs nor mines of 

 native salt, where then must she look for a supply of this necessary 

 commodity } The mountainous regions of Austrian Tyrol furnish us 

 with an interesting answer to this query. The salt is there found satu- 

 rating the calcarious rock in the heart of the mountain ; and the mode 

 of obtaining it is by bringing fresh water into contact with lliis salty 

 rock until it acquires a sufficient saline percentage, when it is tapped off 

 and evaporated at the foot of the mountain. 



On the evening of the 19th of September, 1842, the writer, in com- 

 pany with a young friend from Boston, paid a visit to the salt works of 

 Hallein^ in the district of Salzberg, in Austrian Tyiol. It was already 

 six in the evening when we reached Hallein, and, supposing that we 

 had come too late to gratify our curiosity by an inspection of the mines 

 that day, we were making arrangements to spend the evening different- 

 ly. But a guide soon made his appearance and offered his services to 

 conduct us at once to the spot, assuring us that day was always night 

 in the mines. 



The town lies at the foot of a steep hill, the Durrenberg. This we 

 began to mount. Continuous flights of steps, with here and there a 

 gravelled walk, where the ascent was less precipitous, brought us, after 

 a fatiguing climb of three quarters of an hour, to the village nestling in 

 a depression of the hill-side and commanding a delightful prospect. 

 Hallein, with its crooked streets, smoked houses and volumes of steam 

 from the cauldrons of the salt-works, lay at our feet. The fertile val- 

 ley of the Salza stretched away to the north, populous and highly cul- 



