THE 
AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. 
—>>— 
Art. 1.—On the Muriate of Soda, or Common Salt, with 
an pet emt of the Salt Springs in the United States ; by 
Grorce W. Carpenter, of Philadelphia. 
RE is perhaps no individual article more important or 
indispensable for the support of the animal creation than 
and, the Canta: in his arrangements for the 
eiontfort, happitiesd, and sustenance of man, has placed, in 
the most systematic and best adapted order—in situations 
easily accessible, and in astonishing profusion, the substan- 
ces most essential to the support and comfort of human life ; 
hence e find salt, iron, coal, limestone, &c. to be almost 
universally distributed over the surface of the globe in large 
quantities, and in the most accessible situations; whilst the 
less useful bodies, as gold, silver, diamonds, &c. exist in mi- 
nute quantities, and often in places not to be explored without 
great labor and expense. Salt, as before observed, exists 
in immense masses or at either at the surface of the earth, 
or at a great depth below the soi s been found i 
regions much elevated above the sea, and in some Pista an- 
ces it constitutes whole mountains = Bt) eeliderable al- 
titude. The ocean mab # is the test depository of salt ; 
nearly one-thirtieth the whole weight of the waters of 
the ocean is muriate of ae Other salts, viz. the muriates 
depth of the ocean is ten stiles 5 ; iret the water evaporitted, 
ie a would form a bed of seven hundred feet in thickness, 
t to cover all the present dry land with salt to 
the. ‘depth of two thousand feet ; and as the ocean has once 
aR Ae seas continents, = need not be surprised at 
0. I 
Mo. Bot. Garden, 
i901. 
