120 



SALSIFY 



SALT 



Salsify, or SALSA FY ( Tragopogon porrifolium ), 

 a biennial plant growing in meadows throughout 

 Europe, locally indigenous in 

 the -outh e.-i-teni counties of 

 England, cultivated in gardens 

 for tin- ttake of its root, which 

 is used iii tln> same manner as 

 the carrot, and is very delicate 

 and pleasant, with a flavour 

 resembling asparagus or scor- 

 zonera. Cooked in a certain 

 way it somewhat resembles the 

 oyster in flavour, hence the 

 popular name Oyster Plant. 

 The root is long and tapering, 

 and in cultivation white and 

 fleshy, with much white milky 

 juice; the stem 3 to 4 feet 

 high, with smooth and glaucous 

 leaves, which resemble those of 

 the leek ; the flowers are of a 

 dull purple colour. The seed 

 is sown in spring, and the root 

 is ready for nse in winter. 

 Next spring, when the flower- 

 stalks are thrown up, they are 

 used like asparagus. The genus 

 Salsify ( Tragopogon Tragopogon belongs to the 

 porrifolium). natural order Compositir, sub- 

 order Cichoracece. The Yellow 

 Goat's Beard (T. pratensts), a native of Britain, 

 was fonnerly cultivated in England for its roots, 

 which are similar in quality to salsify. Scorzonera 

 is sometimes called Black Salsify. 



Salt, or CHLORIDE OF SODIUM (syra. NaCl ; 

 sp. gr. 2' 15). This substance is called by chemists 

 common salt to distinguish it from a great number 

 of other bodies termed Salts (q.v.) in scientific 

 language. Rock-salt or halite crystallises in cubes, 

 colourless and usually transparent when pure, and 

 sometimes measuring an inch on the side. It is, 

 however, generally coloured by the presence of 

 some foreign body, and occurs of yellow, reel, 

 blue, and purple tints. When decidedly impure 

 it is often of a dull-gray colour. Salt is one of 

 the few substances which are nearly as soluble 

 in cold as in hot water. A saturated solution 

 has a specific gravity of 11205. Sea-water, which 

 contains salt to the extent of from 2 '5 to 27 

 per cent., has a mean specific gravity of M >_',. 

 Salt has a saline but not a bitter taste, and is 

 inodorous. Some of the physical properties of 

 rock-salt are remarkable ( see HEAT, Vol.V. p. 610). 

 Salt is of great importance as a condiment and 

 antiseptic, and equally RO in some chemical manu- 

 factures. As rocK-salt it is found in most coun- 

 tries, and in some extensively ; but salt from any 

 source is scarce and costly in some places certain 

 parts of the interior of Africa, for example. It can, 

 of course, be obtained by evaporating sea-water. 

 Some beds or deposits of rock-gait have no doubt 

 been formed by the slow eva)>oratioii of large 

 bodies of salt water, which by one means or an- 

 other by a sandbank, for example have been 

 cut off from communication with the sea. This 

 procesn would sometimes be repeated by sea-water 

 again getting in through a breach in the liank, 

 and this again Iwing filled up. There are instances 

 where it nan certainly been formed in this way 

 on a limited scale. But geologists seem to ! of 

 opinion that beds of rock-salt have more generally 

 arisen from the long^contimied evaporation of 

 large inland lakes without outlet* ; these had 

 long been fed by rivers or streams which dissolved 

 salt out of the soil or strata over which they 

 (lowed. The Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake of 

 Utah are examples of lakes without outlets at the 

 oottonm of which rock-salt is forming. All salt, 



wherever found, has probably come originally in 

 some wav or other from the sea. Kock Milt beds 

 arc usually associated with deposits of sulphate of 

 lime (calcium sulphate), and are more common in 

 the Trias than in other geological formation-. 



Valuable beds of rock-salt, usually accompanied 

 with brine, occur in England. The Cheshire 

 deposits, which are in the basin of the river 

 Weaver, have been long worked and are still pro 

 ductive. At Northwich in that count v rock-salt- 

 is found at from 200 to 250 feet below the surface. 

 There are four beds of an aggregate thickness of 

 240 feet, but the two lower ones are mixed with 

 marls. The two upper beds each average aUuit 

 90 feet in thickness, with some brine just aliove tin- 

 top bed. At Winsford and Wheelock in the same 

 county thick beds of rock-salt also occur at moder- 

 ate depths. In Worcestershire, at Stoke Prior 

 and at Droitwich, rock-salt occurs, 164 feet thick 

 including marls in the former locality, ami brine 

 is likewise found at both places. At Stafford 

 Common in Staffordshire the salt is 78 feet thick : 

 and in these two counties the deposits are not far 

 below the surface. In Cheshire some rock-salt is 

 still mined at Northwich, but here, as in other 

 places in the west of England, most of the salt is 

 obtained from brine naturally overlying the rock- 

 salt or from inundated salt-mines. In 1889 an im- 

 portant discovery of rock-salt was made at Walney 

 Island and at Fleetwood ( Preesall ), in Lancashire, 

 where the deposits are roundly from 100 to 500 feet 

 in thickness, and at the former place from 270 to 360 

 feet below the surface. This Lancashire salt was 

 first worked (as Preesall brine) in 1890. On the 

 east side of England, between Middlesborough and 

 Hartlepool, there is an extensive deposit of rock- 

 salt, which was accidentally discovered in lioring for 

 water in 1862. Its proved area is between 30 

 and 40 sq. m., the salt is from 50 to 115 feet 

 thick, and its depth below the surface varies from 

 800 to 1000 feet This is greatly deeper than the 

 beds in the west of England. Hitherto in this 

 district the rock-salt has not been mined. A bore- 

 hole is made, into which a double iron pipe one 

 within the other is inserted, ami in the jacket or 

 annulus thus formed fresh water is lot down to 

 form brine, which is pumped up through the inner 

 lube by a steam-engine. In 1890 the rock-salt 

 mined in England ( Cheshire ) amounted to 159,000 

 tons, while the salt obtained from brine was as 

 much as 1,958,000 tons, Cheshire producing more 

 than two-thirds of the latter. Some rock-salt is 

 mined at Carrickfergus in Ireland. 



Rock-salt is found in Galiria, the mines at 

 Wieliezka, which have been worked since the 13th 

 century, being the most famous in the world. 

 The system of mines extends over an area of about 

 6 miles from east to west, and 2 miles from north 

 to south, with underground streets, squares, &c., 

 and o\er 30 miles of tramway ; the greatest depth 

 reached lieing about l!2,U(N> feet. In \Vallachia, 

 Transylvania, Hungary, Upper Austria, St\iia, 

 Salzburg, and Tyrol many ini|M>rtant sail mines are 

 worked. Rock -alt i- HMO found in liiissia. llal\. 

 and largely at Stassfurth in Germany and Cordova 

 in Spain. Of eastern countries IVt-in is perhaps 

 the iM-hl supplied with salt ; India has productive 

 mines in the Salt Range (q.v.), but salt is :<l-<> 

 largely imported ; and both rock-salt and salt 

 lakes occur in Asiatic Russia. The Wielie/.ka rock- 

 salt is of Tertiary age ; that of Cheshire, Bavaria, 

 anil the Austrian Alps Triassic : in Permian 

 deposits near Berlin borings have gone down in 

 rock-salt for nearly 4000 feet. Deposits of the 

 same age occur also in Holstcin, and in eastern 

 Russia. Brine-springs rise from manv other geo- 

 logical systems: thus, in Nortlmmt>erland ami 

 Leicestershire they issue from Carboniferous strata, 



