3 ‘ 
+ 
226 Salt Springs of Moutiers. 
height by a machine; but this mode of evaporation was found to 
answer only in very hot weather, and the process is given up. - 
The saline water is received into reservoirs from the springs, 
where it remains.some time before it passes to the Maisons d’Epines, 
and here it deposits a considerable quantity, or nearly all of its fer- 
ruginous matter; the canal along which it runs to the reservoirs is 
also lined with a red ochreous incrustation. ' 
The total length of the Maison d’Epines is as under: ~ 
eke Yards, English. 
Nos. 1. and 2. together.- - 700 
pene By a ee STO 
es hes 2 eee 
S: Total, 1140, or nearly two-thirds of a mile. 
The fuel used at the pans for the last process is partly wood, and 
partly anthracite from the neighboring mountains. The anthracite 
answers remarkably well when once ignited, as it preserves for @ 
long time a regular degree of heat. The consumption of wood was 
formerly so great, that it has denuded many of the higher mountains 
in the Tarentaise, and exposed them to the action of the atmosphere, 
which has occasioned vast eboulements}; for it is found that forests 
are of the greatest utility, in preserving precipitous mountains from 
destruction. The fact is now so well ascertained, that the govert- 
ment, for this cause alone, has lately paid particular attention to the 
preservation of the wood. The quantity of salt made here annually, 
is estimated at 100,000 myriagrammes, or about 2,250,000 Ibs. 
avordupois, and about 9000 myriagrammes of sulphate of soda, ° 
about 187,000 lbs. The other alkaline matter which adheres to the 
pans is sold to the glass-makers. ‘The government receives, 7 the 
average, one hundred and fifty thousand francs for the products, out 
of which it is estimated that thirty thousand are expended for 
and fuel, eight thousand for materials employed in the buildings, 
for faggots, &c., and sixty-two thousand for the wages and the sala- 
ries of the different officers, leaving an annual profit of fifty thousand 
francs. In some of the mountains of the Tarentaise, the gyps¥™ 
intermixed with rock salt en masse, and was worked by the peasants, 
but the places are now closed up, and so strictly guarded by oF . 
of the government, that I found it difficult to procure specimens. 
These mines were formerly worked, the = being separated from 
the gypsum by solution, and subsequently evaporated by fires 
and 
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