32S Some Observations 



salt district of Cheshire, having when dry some resemblaince to 

 shale but becoming plastic when moistened. It is remarkably 

 pure, and free from intermixture except of salt, large masses of 

 which are occasionally imbedded in it. 



No fibrous salt was to be observed at Cardona; nor did I dis- 

 cover the slightest trace of gypsum in that neighbourhood; a 

 remark which was also made by Bowles. On the soil near the 

 town, a small quantity of a saline efflorescence was however ob- 

 served, which had the taste of sulphate of soda; but the loss of 

 the specimen I collected, has prevented a more accurate investi- 

 gation of its properties. 



The salt mine of Cardona is wrought like an open quarry 

 with pickaxes and wedges, by which the mineral is raised in 

 considerable tabular masses. The part at present wrought pre- 

 sents an extensive horizontal floor of pure rock salt ; the level of 

 which is a little lower than the foot of the great salt precipice. 

 An enormous mass of the same mineral lies between this pre- 

 cipice and the present mine, the removal of which will, in time, 

 render the appearance of this interesting spot still more magni- 

 ficent ; for tiien the vast front of the rock salt bed will at once 

 strike the eye from the lowest part of the mine. 



Like every other public work in Spain, the mines of Cardona 

 are in a languid state from the effects of the late war which has 

 desolated the peninsula. Only two labourers are at present 

 employed in quarrying the salt, and in wheeling it to the re- 

 ceiving house. Over these, eight overseers arc appointed, who 

 do duty iu rotation ; and ten sentinels are continually stationed 

 around the mine to defend ir, from ihe depredations of the pea- 

 santry. Several clerks are employed in an office built at the 

 entrance to the mine, and the whole is under the direction of 

 an intendente or inspector, who wears the uniform of an officer 

 in the Spanish army; for the mine is the property of the crown, 

 and is most rigidly guarded. Notwithstanding the rigour with 

 which depredators are punished, the peasantry frequently at- 

 tempt to deceive the vigilance of the guardians of the mine. 

 When detected, the usual punishment for a peasant is, even on 

 the first offence, two or three years labour among malefactors 

 in some of the public works in the province. A soldier is how- 

 ever less severely punished when he commits a similar trans- 

 gression ; he is generally sentenced to a few days solitary con- 

 finement in a dungeon of the castle. On asking an overseer the 

 reason of this disproportion in the punishment of different offen- 

 ders, he replied, that the soldier's poverty was supposed to ex- 

 tenuate his crime, while the peasant of Catalonia enjoyed com- 

 parative wealth, and could afford to purchase salt for the con- 

 sumption of his family. 



Such 



