66 British Association for the Adcancement of Science. 



they were conveyed, in succession, to the bottom of the mine in 

 a basket lowered by means of a windlass, four descending to- 

 gether, and then conducted through the various parts of the ex- 

 cavation. There are two beds of the rock-salt, the lower one 

 being exclusively worked, owing to its superior quality. The 

 floor of the mine is 336 feet below the surface, and the portion 

 of the saline mass removed is about 40 feet in height and extends 

 over an area of 30 statute acres. A great number of successive 

 strata of clay, more or less indurated, occur between the upper 

 stratum of salt and the surface, and the two saline deposits are 

 separated by analogous formations, the portions of those next the 

 salt being intersected with little veins of the Sal gem, exhibiting 

 a beautiful scarlet color, no doubt due to the presence of a small 

 quantity of sesqui-chloride of iron. After having traversed the 

 whole of the excavation, which Avas lit up in a most magnificent 

 manner — several thousand candles having been employed for the 

 purpose — the visitors were regaled within this subterranean palace 

 with a very elegant dejeunc. We have seldom seen a company 

 sit down in higher spirits, or to a better entertainment ; and it is 

 scarcely necessary to say, that when the health of the propri- 

 etors — particularly of Mi\ Worthington, who had conducted the 

 party from Liverpool, and also through the mine, was given, it 

 was drunk with the utmost enthusiasm. The entertainment 

 being concluded, some fireworks were exhibited, Avhich lighting 

 up the excavation with various shades of colors, produced effects 

 which it is no exaggeration to describe as at once grand and ter- 

 rific. " God save the Q,ueen," and, at the suggestion of Mr. Por- 

 ter, a psalm, having been sung immediately beneath the shaft, the 

 whole party ascended, and returning by the same method of con- 

 veyance, reached the railroad station in Lime Street at five o'clock. 

 While the party was below. Dr. Crook took occasion to malie some 

 geological remarks applicable to saliferous deposits, and drew at- 

 tention to a peculiar appearance in several parts of the roof of 

 the mine, from which he concluded that the salt originally soli- 

 dified in globular masses, the crystallization proceeding from a 

 centre. The temperature of the mine, which we should conjec- 

 ture to be about 48°, was understood to be very e(juable through- 

 out the whole year, — and not a particle of moisture was any 

 where to be seen. 



