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228 The Salt Mountains of LchiL 



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merits having been made by means of pipes for conducting water to 

 and from it, the outlet is stopped up, and the chamber is filled with 

 fresh water, of w^hich the mountain streams furnish them with abun- 

 dance. In a few weeks the water in the chamber is saturated with 

 salt ; it is then let out, and conducted by aqueducts to Ebens-see; a 

 distance of twelve miles, where, as I have already described, the wa- 

 ter is evaporated artificially, and the salt is shipped for tne store- 

 house at Gmunden. When the chamber has become sufficiendy 

 dry, the workmen descend into it, clear it from the stones and dirt 

 which have been loosened by the water and fallen from the ceding, 

 and the chamber is then ready for another flooding. The large 

 chamber we were in, as the guides informed us, requires one month 

 for the process of fiUing, fifteen days more for completing the satura- 

 tion : it holds eighty thousand German Emers, is filled four times a 

 year, and has been in use thirty years : one hundred lbs. of water 

 furnish twenty-six and three-fourth lbs. of salt. There are thirty- 

 four chambers in all, in which two hundred men are employed, work- 

 ing night and day, six hours at a time. They work four days m a 

 week, and get forty-eight cents per week. When the chambers are 

 approaching so as to threaten a breach from one into the other, the 

 farther encroachment of the water in that direction is prevented by 

 a compound formed by the clay and pulverized rock, which is beaten 

 against the wall so as to form an effectual barrier. At intervals, m 

 the descent of the mountain, are three reservoirs, into which the ^^a- 

 teris successively discharged, I believe for the purpose of breaking 

 the violence of the descent. 



There is a chain of six or seven very beautiful lakes in this neign* 

 borhood, two of which we visited after leaving Ischil, and on the 

 29th August stopped for a short rest at Salzburg- Our consul at 

 Vienna had described in glowing terms the beautiful scenery a 

 Berchtsgaden, a short day's journey to the south of Salzburg, an 

 as it had also a salt mountain, I determined to pay it a visit. Ihere 

 are also salt mines at Hallein, south from Salzburg, which I did no 

 examine ; but wiiich I was informed are worked, and are about a 



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productive as those of Ischil. 



Berchtsgaden is now comprehended in the kingdom of Bavaria. 

 The royal family were there on a visit at this time : they had jus 

 been inspecting the mines, and 1 found many parts of the interior 

 ornamented in a fanciful manner ; the richest crystals of the salt and 

 gypsam hariag bt«*n collected and disposed so as to form grottoes, 



