VOL. xii.] Philosophical transactions. 465 



are 6 of these pans, in some 5, some 4, some 3, some 2. In each of these pans 

 is boiled at a time as much brine as makes 3 pecks of white salt. For clarifying 

 the salt we should have little need, were it not for dust accidentally falling into 

 the brine. The brine of itself being so clear that nothing can be clearer. For 

 clarifying it, we use nothing but the whites of eggs; of which we take a quarter 

 of a white, and put it into a gallon or two of brine, which being beaten with the 

 hand, lathers as if it were soap, a small quantity of which froth put into each 

 vat, raises all the scum, the white of one egg clarifying 20 bushels of salt ; by 

 which means our salt is as white as any thing can be; neither has it any ill 

 savour, as that salt has that is clarified with blood. For granulating it we use 

 nothing at all ; for the brine is so strong of itself, that unless it be often stirred, 

 it will make salt as large grained as bay-salt. I have boiled brine to a candy 

 height, and it has produced clods of salt as clear as the clearest alum, like isle 

 of May salt ; so that we are necessitated to put a small quantity of rosin into 

 the brine, to make the grain ofjthe salt small. 



Besides the white salt above spoken of, we have another sort, called clod-salt, 

 which adheres to the bottoms of the vats, and which after the white salt is laded 

 out, is digged up with a steel picker. This is the strongest salt I have seen, 

 and is most used for salting bacon and neats tongues; it makes the bacon redder 

 than other salt, and makes the fat eat firm : if the swine are fed with mast, it 

 hardens the fat almost as much as if fed with pease, and salted with white salt. 

 It is very much used by country-women, to put into their runnet-pots, esteem- 

 ing it better for their cheese. These clods are used to broil meat with, being 

 laid on coals ; but we account it too strong to salt beef with, as it takes away 

 too much of its sweetness. There is a third sort of salt, called knockings, 

 which candies on the stales of the barrow, as the brine runs from the salt after 

 it is laded out of the vats : this salt is most used for the same purposes as the 

 clod salt, though it is not altogether so strong. There is also a fourth sort, 

 called scrapings, being a coarse sort of salt that is mixed with dross and dust, 

 that cleaves to the tops of the sides of the vats ; this salt is scraped off the vats 

 when we reach them, that is, when we take the vats off the fires to beat up the 

 bottom ; and is bought by the poor sort of people to salt meat with. A fifth sort 

 is pigeon salt ; which is nothing but the brine running out through the crack of 

 a vat, and hardens to a clod on the outside over the fire. Lastly, the salt loaves 

 are the finest of the white salt, the grain of which is made something finer than 

 ordinary, that it may the better adhere together, which is done by adding a little 

 more rosin, and is beaten into the barrows when it is laded out of the vat. 



Our salt is not so apt to dissolve as Cheshire salt, nor as that salt that is made 

 by dissolving bay-salt and clarifying it, which is called salt upon salt ; which ap- 

 pears by our long keeping it without any fire. 



VOL. II. 3 O . 



