550 BOOK XII. 



water is heated more quickly by the fire, and is boiled away rapidly. The 

 more salty the water is, the sooner it is condensed into salt. To prevent 

 the brine from leaking out at the points where the metal plates are fastened 

 with rivets, the caldrons are smeared over with a cement made of ox-liver 

 and ox-blood mixed with ashes. On each side of the middle of the furnace 

 two rectangular posts, three feet long, and half a foot thick and wide are 

 set into the ground, so that they are distant from each other only one and 

 a half feet. Each of them rises one and a half feet above the caldron. After 

 the caldron has been placed on the walls of the furnace, two beams of the 

 same width and thickness as the posts, but four feet long, are laid on these 

 posts, and are mortised in so that they shall not fall. There rest trans- 

 versely upon these beams three bars, three feet long, three digits wide, and 

 two digits thick, distant from one another one foot. On each of these hang 

 three iron hooks, two beyond the beams and one in the middle ; these are a 

 foot long, and are hooked at both ends, one hook turning to the right, the other 

 to the left. The bottom hook catches in the eye of a staple, whose ends are 

 fixed in the bottom of the caldron, and the eye projects from it. There are 

 besides, two longer bars six feet long, one palm wide, and three digits thick, 

 which pass under the front beam and rest upon the rear beam. At the rear end 

 of each of the bars there is an iron hook two feet and three digits long, the 

 lower end of which is bent so as to support the caldron. The rear end of the 

 caldron does not rest on the two rear corners of the fireplace, but is distant 

 from the fireplace two thirds of a foot, so that the flame and smoke can escape ; 

 this rear end of the fireplace is half a foot thick and half a foot higher than 

 the caldron. This is also the thickness and height of the wall between the 

 caldron and the third room of the shed, to which it is adjacent. This back 

 wall is made of clay and ashes, unlike the others which are made of rock-salt. 

 The caldron rests on the two front corners and sides of the fireplace, and is 

 cemented with ashes, so that the flames shall not escape. If a dipperful 

 of brine poured into the caldron should flow into all the comers, the caldron 

 is rightly set upon the fireplace. 



The wooden dipper holds ten Roman sextarii, and the cask holds eight 

 dippers fulP. The brine drawn up from the well is poured into such casks 

 and carried by porters, as I have said before, into the shed and poured into a 

 tub, and in those places where the brine is very strong it is at once trans- 

 ferred with the dippers into the caldron. That brine which is less strong is 

 thrown into a small tub with a deep ladle, the spoon and handle of which 

 are hewn out of one piece of wood. In this tub rock-salt is placed in order 



^The following are approximately the English equivalents : — 



~ Quarts. Gallons. 



2-97 

 7-93 

 23.78 



5-94 



The dipper mentioned would thus hold about one and one quarter gallons, and the cask 

 ten gallons. 



