SODIUM CHLORIDE -BERTHOLLET'S LAWS 428 



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

 manner in the neighbourhood of Brians tcheffky and Dekonofflcy, in 

 the Bakhmut district of the Government of Ekaterinoslav Large 

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

 these deposits, whose presence was indicated by the neighbouring salt 

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

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

 the Stassfurt deposits of rock salt near Magdeburg in Germany are 

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

 many remarkable peculiarities. 7 The plentiful- distribution of saline 

 springs in this and the neighbouring districts suggested the presence 

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

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

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

 themselves were at last arrived at. But the first deposit which was 

 met with consisted' of a bitter salt unfit for consumption, and was 

 therefore called refuse salt (Abraumsalz). On sinking still deeper vast 

 beds of real rock salt were struck. In this instance the presence of 

 these upper strata containing salts of potassium, magnesium, and 

 sodium is an excellent proof of the formation of rock salt from sea water. 

 It is very evident that not only a case of evaporation to the end as far, 

 for instance, as the separation of carnallite but also the preservation 

 of such soluble salts as separate out from sea water after the sodium 

 chloride, must be a very exceptional phenomenon, which is not repeated 

 in all deposits of rook 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. 7 llis 



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 a salt-bed which was bitter and unfit 

 for use, 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 

 4 refuse salts ' have proved to be most valuable (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. 



7 bis i n Western Europe, deposits of rock salt have long been known at Wieliczka, 

 near Cracow, and at Cardona in Spain. In Russia the following deposits are -known,: 

 (a) the vast masses of rock salt (3 square kilometres area and up to 140 metres thick) 

 lying directly on the surface of the earth at Iletzky Zastchit, on the left bank of the river 

 Ural, iii the Government of Orenburg; (b) the Chingaksky deposit, 90 versts froin the 

 river Volga, in the Enotaeffsky district of the Government of Astrakhan; (c) the 

 Kulepinsky (and other) deposits (whose thickness attains 150 metres), on the Araks, in 



