CHESHIRE. 



167 



Cheshire, placed OB the benches for about eight days, being well 

 N V"' salted all over, and turned every day. For six or seven 

 days subsequent to this process, it continues to be turned 

 twice daily. Then it is washed in warm water, wiped 

 dry with a cloth, and when dry, smeared over with 

 whey-butter, and placed in the warmest part of the 

 cheese-room, where it is left to acquire the proper age 

 and consistence. 



The principal mineral productions of Cheshire are 

 salt and coal. The former is more abundant in this 

 county than in any other part of England ; and the im- 

 mense trade carried on in it, with the vast revenue which 

 it affords, render it an object not only of local, but even 

 of national importance. The places which have been 

 most noted for their salt-works are Nantwich, Middle- 

 wich, VVinsford, and Northwich. The salt-work at 

 Nantwich was once very considerable ; but, in conse- 

 quence of the superior advantages in respect to situa- 

 tion belonging to other towns, it has now been deprived 

 pf a great portion of its former trade. It was expected 

 that that trade would have been renovated in some de- 

 gree, from the termination of the Chester canal in a ba- 

 ton near to this town ; but the expectation does not ap- 

 pear to have been yet realised. Mr Pennant conjectures, 

 that it was here that the native Britons first saw white 

 salt, whence they gave to the place the name of Heldd 

 Wen, or the White Brine Pits. Middk-wick derives it 

 name from its central situation between the Wiches or 

 Salt-town*. The salt manufactured there is prepared 

 from brine springs, well saturated. The quantity at this 

 time is not great ; but were a demand to offer, it might 

 easily be increased. The great seat of the salt trade in 

 Cheshire at present is Northwich. Here the salt is 

 made from brine springs, and also from the natural 

 rock. This, as it is the chief of the salt towns, is the 

 only one indeed, which, in addition to its brine springs, 

 possesses mines of rock-salt : at least there seem strong 

 ground* for believing, that the beds of rock-salt here 

 are perfectly distinct from any others in the salt district, 

 forming what the Germans would call liegenile tlocke, ly- 

 ing bodies, or masses ot the mineral. It is to be remark- 

 ed at the same time, that the brines met with in this 

 district are very generally formed, by the penetration of 

 spring or rain waters to the upper surface of rock-salt. 

 The average strength of these brines appears to be much 

 greater here than in any of the springs that occur in 

 Hungary, Germany, or France. In the places where all 

 the principal salt works are situated, they contain be- 

 tween 25 and 26, and in some instances even more, of the 

 pure muriate of soda. The earthy salts held in solution 

 together with this muriate, are principally muriate of 

 magnesia and sulphate of lime, the quantity of which va- 

 ries in different springs, from -f s to 2 or 2^ per cent. 

 The springs of Cheshire were known to the Romans, 

 and had the common name of Salinz. The mode in 

 which they turned them to account was very similar to 

 the process now employed, and this process, it is sup- 

 posed, they communicated to the natives. There is a 

 tradition moreover, that the rock, as well as the brine- 

 pits, were wrought in the time of the Romans. In 

 mod -rn times, however, the discovery of this valuable 

 min ral does not appear to have been prior to the year 

 1670, since which time it has been found in various pla- 

 ces in the vicinity of this town. 



The rock salt occurs from 28 to 48 yards Ijeneath the 

 urfacf of the earth. The first stratum or mine is from 

 15 to 21 yards in thickness. It very much resembles in 

 appearance brown sugar candy, is perfectly solid, aud 

 so hard as not to be broken, but with great difficulty, 

 bj iron pick* and wedges. Of late, the workmen have 



been accustomed to blast it with gunpowder, by which 

 means they loosen and remove many tons of it together. 

 Beneath this stratum there is a bed of hard stone, con- 

 sisting of large veins of flag, intermixed with some rock- 

 salt, the whole from 25 to 85 yards in thickness. Un- 

 der this bed is a second stratum or mine of salt, from 

 five to six yards thick, many parts of it perfectly white 

 and clear as crystal, others browner ; but all purer than 

 the upper stratum, yet reckoned not quite so strong. 

 Only these two distinct beds of the fossil salt have been 

 met with at Northwich ; but it has been ascertained, that 

 the same limitations do not exist throughout the whole 

 of the salt district, three distinct beds at least being found 

 in some situations, separated in like manner from each 

 other by intervening strata. The great body of the rock- 

 salt, both in the upper and the lower bods, is composed 

 of crystals of muriate of soda, intimately mixed with cer- 

 tain proportions of clay and oxide of iron, containing 

 likewise small proportions of certain earthy salts. 

 Throughout, at the same time, particularly in the lower 

 strata of the rock, there are found separate crystalline 

 concretions of muriate of soda in a purer state, variously 

 disposed, sometimes occurring distinctly in the cubical 

 form, in other places in masses of larger size, and irregu- 

 larly shaped. Above the whole mass of salt lies a bed 

 of whitish clay, which has been used in the Liverpool 

 earthen-ware; and in the same situation there is found 

 also a quantity of gypsum. 



Rock-salt pits are sunk at great expence, and are very 

 uncertain in their duration, being frequently destroyed 

 by the brine springs bursting into them, and dissolving 

 the pillars that support the roof; through which, then, 

 the whole work falls in, leaving vast chasms in the sur- 

 face of the earth. In forming a pit, a shaft or eye it 

 sunk, similar to that of a coal-pit, but more extensive. 

 When the workmen have penetrated to the salt rock, 

 and made a proper cavity, they leave a sufficient sub. 

 stance of the rock (generally about seven yards in thick- 

 ness) to form a solid roof ; and as they proceed, they 

 hew pillars out of the rock, also, to sustain the roof. 

 Gunpowder is then employed to separate what it is meant 

 to raise, which is conveyed to the surface in huge crag- 

 gy lumps, and is drawn up above ground in capacious 

 baskets made for the purpose. When well illuminated, 

 the crystalline surface of the roof, pillars, and sides of 

 a large pit, make a glittering and magnificent appear- 

 ance, which seldom fails to have a very impressive ef- 

 fect on the mind of a stranger. Fresh air is conveyed 

 from the mouth of the pit by means of a tube, with a 

 pair of forge-bellows fixed to it ; and thus a perpetual 

 current is preserved between the outer and inner air. 

 The pits, at the greatest depth, are dry, and of an 

 agreeable temperature. 



The largest rock-salt pit that is now worked in Che- 

 shire, is one in the township of Wilton. This has been 

 excavated in a circular form to 106 yards in diameter; 

 its roof is supported by 25 pillars, each three yards wide 

 at the front, four at the back, and six yards in the sides. 

 Each of these pillars contains 294 solid yards of rock- 

 salt, and the whole area of the pit, which is 14 yurds 

 hollow, includes 9160 superficial yards, or little lest 

 than two acres of land. The quantity of rock salt de- 

 livered annually from the pits, in the neighbourhood of 

 Northwich, is from 50,000 to 60,000 tons. Hardly 

 more than Jth of this is refined in England, the remainder 

 being exported to various parts of the continent. The 

 salt is conveyed down the Mersey, in vessels from 50 to 

 80 tons burthen, to Liverpool, where it is reshipped for 

 foreign countries, or kept to be refined. 



Besides the great quantity of salt obtained from tke 



Cheshire. 



