406 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 166q. 



more salt of the same quantity of brine at the full of the moon than at any other 

 time. 



2. How long before the spring, or in the spring, it may be, before the foun^ 

 tains break out into their fullest sources ? A. It is not observable at all in our 

 salt springs that the brine rises more plentifully in the spring time, than at any 

 other season of the year : neither is there any sensible difference in the quick- 

 ness of the sources as to the times of the day. 



3. How much water the spring yields daily, or in an hour ordinarily, or in 

 great droughts ? Ans. Our pit is about five yards square, and of so plentiful a 

 source, that I believe it cannot be guessed; and the rather because it seems not 

 to run much when it is permitted to come at its full gauge, where a vent 

 through the bank into the river is; but being drawn much, so as to sink it be- 

 low its usual gauge, it so plentifully lets in, that it will serve all the houses in 

 the town to work, without falling much lower than a yard or two at most : so 

 that I believe, that, when it is full, its own weight balances much the influx of 

 the springs, which are much quicker in a low pit than a full one. 



4. At what distance the two richest springs of Nantwich and Droitwich are 

 from the sea ? Ans. That of Nantwich is from the sea about 30 miles. Droit- 

 wich, being in Worcestershire, is not known to me. 



5. How near the foot of a hill is to those springs; and what height the 

 next hill is of? Ans. The nearest hill to our springs is about seven miles distant 

 from them: the hill steeper, but not much higher, than Highgate hill. 



6. Wherein consist the distinctions of those sorts of salt, which are called 

 cats of salt, and loaves of salt ? Ans. As white salt is that mentioned in my 

 former discourse, and gray salt the sweepings of such as is constantly shed and 

 scattered about on the floor without taking much of the dirt; so cats of salt 

 are only made of the worst of salt, when yet wettish from the pans ; moulded 

 and intermixed with interspersed cummin-seed and ashes, and so baked into 

 a hard lump in the mouths of their ovens. The use of these is only for pigeon 

 houses : But loaves of salt are the finest of all for table use. No difference 

 in the boiling of these from the common way of the fine salt ; but in the making 

 up some care is used : for first they cut their barrows, they intend for salt- 

 loaves, with a long slit from top to bottom, equally on both sides ; then they tie 

 both sides together with cords; then fill this barrow with salt boiled as usual, 

 but in the filling are careful to ram down the salt with the end of some wooden 

 bar, continuing this, till the barrow be filled to their minds ; then place it 

 speedily in their hot-house, and there let it stand all the time of their walling : 

 wherefore they prepare for these loaves at the beginning of their work, that 

 they may have all the benefit of their hot-houses ; and when these begin to 



