SALT WORKS. 121 



The ladle is kept during the whole process in 

 the caldron, and it is said collects all the feculent 

 matter. 



The salt is of three kinds ; common, rectified, 

 and basket, or table : and salt is made at Monte- 

 zuma by solar evaporation. Fifty-six gallons of 

 water make a bushel of salt. It is said that it 

 takes 100 gallons at the Great Kanhawa river, 

 and 300 at the Conemaugh works, near Pitts- 

 burgh. Wood can be procured at 62 cents a 

 cord, and two cords will supply a block of cal- 

 drons for a day. 



The common salt is verv excellent — the recti- 

 fied extraordinary so. The best kind of the lat- 

 ter is put up in baskets of 3 lbs., which cost each 

 twelve and and a half cents. 



It is supposed that the salt springs originate 

 from subterranean rivers running over mines or 

 beds of fossil salt, and as Salina is elevated 100 

 feet above the Oswego falls, which are composed 

 of sand stone, that the mineral can be found at 

 that depth. Many phenomena all over this coun- 

 try demonstrate the former presence of the ocean 

 and it is supposed that a line of country consider- 

 ably above the Cayuga marshes, and the Salina 

 plains has been a sea shore. On the recession of 

 the ocean, those great hollows must have retained 

 of sail water, which would be con- 



