536 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



appearance was like a frosted part. He had seen the same in 

 Canada, but never here before. We had not used salt for ten 

 days before. The morning was foggy, the noon warm, and the 

 afternoon became very cold. Almost every horse out that after- 

 noon was injured. But other horses, in stage lines, and some 

 at Astoria and Harlem, which did not come near the railroad 

 track, were affected the same way. Some of them, similarly 

 affected, were brought to his stables, from distances in the coun- 

 try, to be cured. Mr. D. thought salt cost a little more than 

 clearing the streets by hand, but not much. On the slightly 

 traveled portion, at the upper end of his road, near Harlem, it 

 is almost impossible, even with crowbar and pickaxe, to keep the 

 grooves of the rails clear, and salt is almost indispensable. The 

 snows, in the latter part of this winter, since the salt had been 

 interdicted, had been light. If there had been heavy snows, we 

 should have been blocked, as we were four years ago, and could 

 not have run through the entire line. We then did not run to 

 Peck Slip, and the Third Avenue line did not run below Pearl 

 street for some two weeks. 



Prof. Read thought the railroads were a great accommodation. 



1 • * 

 They add ten cents a day by the time saved to the laboring 



people. The doubling of the teams and reduction of the number 



of cars is a serious evil to them. He found the water running, 



off the railroad, in Brooklyn, when salted, contained only three 



per cent, of salt, and that is too small to be of much eliect in 



this regard. He found but a quarter of one per cent, remaining 



on the track after the snow was gone, and but one and a quarter 



.while the salt lay on the track. 



Mr. Ebbitt wished to learn from Prof. Read if the salt really 

 could injure paints, brussels carpets, and silk dresses, as waa 

 complained by some. 



Prof. Read thought that there was ammonia in salt which 

 might affect the paint, etc., a little, but the quantity was too 

 email to be of any perceptible effect. 



Prof. Joy said it was a common, but incorrect, opinion that an 

 acid was formed by the salting, which was an injury. 



A gentleman remarked that salt might affect dyes badly. He 

 had a black silk hat which was injured by a short exposure on 

 the sea-coast. 



Prof. Read thought that salt might decompose iron in the dyes, 

 if the dyes were not good. 



