412 PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY 



salt. A perfectly-saturated brine, however, may be procured from the 

 depths of the earth by means of bore holes. The deposits of rock salt 

 themselves, which are sometimes hidden at great depths below the 

 earth's strata, may be arrived at by the guidance of bore-holes and the 

 arrangement of the strata of the district. Deposits of rock salt, about 

 35 metres thick and 20 metres below the surface, were discovered in this 

 manner in the neighbourhood of Briaustcheffky and Dekonoffky, in 

 the Bakhmut district of the Government of Ekaterinoslav. Large 

 quantities of most excellent rock salt are now (since 1880) won from 

 these deposits, whose presence was indicated by the neighbouring salt 

 springs (near Slaviansk and Bakhmut), and bore-holes which had been 

 sunk at these localities for procuring strong (saturated) brines. But 

 the Stassfurt deposits of rock salt, near Magdeburg in Germany, are 

 distinguished as being the first discovered in this manner, and for their 

 many remarkable peculiarities. 7 The considerable distribution of saline 

 springs in this and the neighbouring districts suggested the presence 

 of deposits of rock salt in the near vicinity. Deep bore-holes sunk 

 'in this locality in fact did give a richer brine even quite saturated 

 with salt. On sinking to a still greater depth, the deposits of salt 

 were themselves in the end arrived at. But the first salt which was 

 met with was a bitter salt unfit for consumption, and which was, there- 

 fore, called refuse salt (abraumsah). On sinking still deeper through 

 fresh bands of earth, vast beds of real rock salt were struck. In this 

 instance, the presence of these upper strata containing salts of potas- 

 sium, magnesium, and sodium, is an excellent proof of the formation of 

 rock salt from sea water. It is a self-evident fact that not only a case 

 of evaporation to the end for instance, to the separation of carnallite 

 but also the conservation of such soluble salts as those which separate 

 out from sea water after the sodium chloride, forms a very excep- 

 tional phenomenon, which is not repeated in all deposits of rock salt. 

 The Stassfurt deposits, therefore, are of particular interest, not only 

 from a scientific point of view, but also because they form a rich 

 source of potassium salts which have many practical uses. In Western 



7 When the German savants pointed out the exact locality of the Stassfurt salt- 

 beds and their depth below the surface on the basis of information collected from 

 various quarters respecting bore-holes and the direction of the strata, and when the 

 borings, conducted by the Government, struck out a salt-bed which was bitter and unfit 

 for use, then there was a great outcry against science, and the doubtful result even 

 caused the cessation of the further work of deepening the shafts. It required a great 

 effort to persuade the Government to continue the work. Now, when the pure salt 

 encountered below forms one of the important riches of Germany, and when those 

 'refuse salts' have proved to be most precious (as a source of potassium and magnesium), 

 we should see in the utilisation of the Stassfurt deposits one of the conquests of science 

 for the common welfare. 



