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effects of water upon beds of salt. It has been seen that 

 nature, when left to herself in dealing with salt beds, rarely 

 if ever produces violent results. If we suppose the state of 

 aifairs to be such as mentioned under our last head, viz., 

 water percolating through overlying earths and reaching 

 beds of salt, there becomiDg saturated or partly saturated, 

 and finally reaching the surface again in more or less 

 saturated brine springs, we shall have the position of things 

 when man comes upon the stage. He, not finding the 

 springs to flow copiously enough, proceeds to raise the water 

 artificially. In the earliest days, when the manufacture of 

 salt was very small, the brine was reached out of the well 

 or pit made round the small spring that formerly ran away 

 into the neighbouring brook or river, by means of buckets. 

 As the manufacture increased other springs were sought out, 

 and if none existed naturally, shallow pits or wells were dug 

 as at Northwich. Soon pumps were used, first worked by 

 hand, then by windmills, as we see on old maps; and 

 finally by steam engines. As soon as man commenced to 

 take away more water than naturally ran away in springs, 

 the action of the subterranean water was quickened, and the 

 state of quietude that naturally existed became disturbed. 

 The fresh water that travelled slowly over the saturated 

 brine overlying the bed of rock salt, now mixed with it and 

 became stronger, the water being more agitated. In almost 

 all salt districts, and especially those of Cheshire — to which 

 I shall confine myself as affording the best possible ex- 

 amples, — the brine or salty water permeated all the over- 

 lying strata and was met with very near the surface 

 whenever the marls, &c., were broken. In fact, brine could 

 be obtained almost anywhere by sinking to a little depth. 

 Dr. Lister, in 1683, says "Sink on either side of the river, 

 you will scarce miss of brine." Brownrigg, in 1744, says, when 

 " the brine is so weak that it can no longer be wrought to 

 profit, they then sink pits in other likely places, and seldom 



