226 Salt Springs of Moutiers. 



height by a machine ; but this mode of evaporation was found to 

 answer only in very hot weather, and the process is given up. 



The saline water. is received into reservoirs from the springs, 

 where it remains some time before it passes to the Maisons d'Epines, 

 and here it deposits a considerable quantity, or nearly all of its fer- 

 ruginous matter ; the canal along which it runs to the reservoirs is 

 also lined with a red ochreous incrustation. 



The total length of the Maison d'Epines is as under : 



Yards, English. 



NoS. 1. and 2. together - - 700 



3. - - - - 370 ^ 



4. - - - - 70 



Total, 1140, or nearly two-thirds of a mile. 



The fuel used at the pans for the last process is partly wood, and 

 partly anthracite from the neighboring mountains. The anthracite 

 answers remarkably well when once ignited, as it preserves for a 

 long time a regular degree of heat. The consumption of wood was 

 formerly so great, that it has denuded many of the higher mountains 

 in the Tarentaise, and exposed them to the action of the atmosphere, 

 which has occasioned vast eboulements ; for it is found that forests 

 are of the greatest utility, in preserving precipitous mountains from 

 destruction. The fact is now so well ascertained, that the govern- 

 ment, for this cause alone, has lately paid particular attention to the 

 preservation of the wood. The quantity of salt made here annually, 

 is estimated at 100,000 myriagrammes, or about 2,250,000 lbs. 

 avordupois, and about 9000 myriagrammes of sulphate of soda, or 

 about 187,000 lbs. The other alkaline matter which adheres to the 

 pans is sold to the glass-makers. The government receives, on the 

 average, one hundred and fifty thousand fraacs for the products, out 

 of which it is estimated that thirty thousand are expeuded for wood 

 and fuel, eight thousand for materials employed in the buildings, and 

 for faggots, &SC., and sixty-two thousand for the wages and the sala- 

 ries of the difFerent officers, leaving an annual profitof fifty thousand 

 francs. In some of the mountains of the Tarentaise, the gypsum is 

 intermixed with rock salt en masse, and was worked by the peasants, 

 but the places are now closed up, and so strictly guarded by order 

 of the government, that I found it difficult to procure specimens. 



These mines were formerly worked, the salt being separated from 

 the gypsum by solution, and subsequently evaporated by fire ; but 



