Mr. A. B, Northcote on the Brine-springs of Cheshire. 471 
the months of November and December, originated the fears 
which were entertained of a general failure being at hand. I 
have been enabled to obtain a statement of the fluctuations in 
the level of the brine in a pit at Anderton, during the two nor- 
mal years 1854-55, and the abnormal year 1856, by which the 
matter is clearly exemplified. The shaft upon which the ob- 
servations were made, was between 70 and 80 yards deep, and 
the numbers given express the height in yards to which the 
brine rose. 
1954, 1855. 1856. 
January ...... } 15—16 30 24—30 
February...... 35 23—24 
March......... 10—7—35—20 18—24 
TIT Wie idehs oan'e aduall 18—19 
fey ee eran Ppeentiing | © Pang 
June vate]. TRRESIRE 173—19 
SME A otc a8 6 4 17—193 
August ...... 7 4 19—194 
September ... 7 4 19—20 
October ...... 8—20 increasing 20—22 
November ... 20—25 22 18—11 
December ... 30 30 10—11 
By this account it is seen that in ordinary years the average 
depth of brine in the shaft is thirty yards in the depth of winter, 
whilst in the midst of summer five yards may be taken as the 
mean ; and the origin of the alarm in 1856 was evidently the 
observation of a diminution setting in at a period at which an in- 
crease had usually happened hitherto. The fact, however, appears 
to have been disregarded, that in the warmer period of the year 
the supply of brine had been far more abundant than was gene- 
rally the case, nor am I aware that any attempt was made to 
explain this part of the phenomenon. The sudden decrease 
was attributed by those on the spot best able to form an opinion, 
to one of those dislocations of strata which frequently on a 
smaller scale cause the occasional failures in the supply of brine: 
a sudden subsidence of land in one part of the Northwich district, 
to the depth of a three-storied building, is described as having 
occurred simultaneously with this sinking of the brine, and it was 
believed that in some of the deserted mines which honeycomb the 
rock-salt strata of that region, the pillars of salt, which are always 
left to support the roof, had been removed by the action of water, 
and the immense weight of the superincumbent mass had then 
caused the excavation to collapse. By an extensive disarrange- 
ment of this nature, either some new channel of escape might haye 
been opened for the brine, or at least the communication between 
some of the streams or reseryous might have been closed or 
