6 On the Salt Springs at Salina, Syracuse^ <^-c. 



discovered, they are at present of moderate extent. They 

 will no doubt be extended and enlarged in a short time. 



Considerable quantities of salt are obtained in North Car- 

 olina from a neck of the sea, by digging pits near the shore, 

 which are filled by the tide ; it is then carried by trenches to 

 a distance, where it is evaporated by the sun ; and being situ- 

 ated near extensive fisheries, is employed to great advantage 

 and profit in putting up fish for exportation.* 



Nearly ail the salt furnished in the United States is ob- 

 tained by boring, and the brine is evaporated by heat ; the 

 mother water, or bittern, as it is termed, is thrown away. 

 It is astjrong solution of muriate of lime, and magnesia. As 

 this article is produced in considerable quantities, Epsom 

 salt and magnesia might be advantageously manufactured 

 from it. It is stated that the bittern has proved very delete- 

 rious to animals ; horses, cows, &c. have been killed by tak- 

 ing small portions of it, which frequently happens, as it forms 

 on evaporation, incrustations which are mistaken for salt. 



Art. II. — Notice of the Salt Springs and Manvfacture of 

 Salt at Salina^ Syracuse, ^-c. N. Y. made at the request of 

 the Editor ; by Stephen Smith, Superintendent atSaUna. 



In the town of Salina, and state of New-York, nearly equi- 

 distant from Albany on the river Hudson, and Buffalo at the 

 north-eastern extremity of Lake Erie, are situated the works, 

 the most extensive in the United States, for the manufacture 

 of salt from natural brine. The indications of that substance 

 along the margin of Onondaga lake, were similar, as is be- 



* The following method is adopted for extracting salt from sea water by- 

 spontaneous evaporation in hot climates : Several parcels of flat ground, under 

 the mark of the high tides, and properly surrounded by dikes, are disposed near 

 the sea, into many compartments, the last of which are well lined with clay, 

 and properly beaten in an even horizontal surface ; so that when the sea wa- 

 ter is allowed to run into these, after it has partly evaporated in the former 

 ones, the heat of the sun, in a few hours, evaporates it enough to crystalize the 

 salt, which falls to the bottom, and is drawn out with a flat piece of board at 

 the end of a pole, &c. 



But in cold climates, much labor and fuel may be spared by letting the sea 

 water stand to freeze, and after separating the ice, which is formed only of the 

 watery particles, the remaining brine contains a much larger quantity of salt, 

 which may be very soon evaporated by fire. This method is stated by Gene- 

 ral Baur to have been practised with great success in Russia, and perhaps is 

 also now used in various other parts of the north. — Cronstedt, Vol. I. p. 360. 



