464 Mr. A. B. Northcote on the Brine-springs of Cheshire. 
two, from springs a few miles apart, through the kindness of 
Mr. Johnson Fletcher; the places selected in this instance were 
Anderton and Marston; proceeding in the south-easterly direc- 
tion, a specimen was chosen from the active department of Wins- 
ford, in the central district, and Messrs. Kay and Son furnished 
me with the brine which they employed; whilst in the extreme 
south-east, Mr. Blackwell provided me with samples from the 
spring which supplies his extensive works at Wheelock. 
The depth at which the brine is found, and the level to which 
it rises, vary very much at different places. It appears that it 
is generally necessary to sink from thirty to fifty yards, in 
some cases even to a depth of eighty yards, before the spring is 
arrived at; the water then rises in the shaft to within from 
twenty to ten yards of the top, sometimes even to the surface. 
The general ievel of the brine in the pits is, however, far below 
this standard, as its removal by the pumps is so rapid as never 
to allow it to rise to its full height. 
As in the ease of the Worcestershire brines, I was desirous of 
ascertaining whether the composition of these springs varied with 
‘the different seasons of the year; with this view analyses were 
made in every instance of separate specimens taken respectively 
in January and August, and, as I had already found in the 
case alluded to, no difference worthy of note existed between 
them. 
The analytical methods which have been adopted in the exami- 
nation of these brines, are precisely those described in the former 
memoir on the Worcestershire springs; instead, however, of 
evaporating small portions of the waters to obtain mother-liquors 
and residues which might contain the rarer constituents, I ob- 
tained portions of the liquid which remains in the pans after the 
removal of the salt, and of the solid cake of earthy matter which 
adheres so tenaciously to the bottom of the pan as to require 
separation by the pick, and is called by the workmen “ pan- 
scale,” The former of these was tested for potassium, bromine, 
iodine and phosphoric acid; and the latter for arsenic, antimony, 
tin, iron, manganese, aluminium, strontium and fluorine. The 
brine itself was also examined for silica, for organic matter and 
its resultants, ammonia and nitric acid, and the metals precipi- 
table by hydrosulphuric acid. The principal constituents of 
these waters are sodium, calcium, magnesium, chlorine and sul- 
phuric acid ; of the bodies occurring in less quantity,—a minute 
trace of potassium was found, a small quantity of iron with a 
little alumina and considerable traces of manganese, not, how- 
ever, in proportions capable of determination. Bromine was 
ascertained to exist in rather large quantity, the unconcentrated 
brines becoming distinctly yellow upon the passage of a few 
