THE 



AMERICAN 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &lc. 



Art. I. — On the Muriate of Soda, or Common Salt, with 

 an account of the Salt Springs in the United States ; hy 

 George W. Carpenter, of Philadelphia. 



There is perhaps no individual article more important or 

 indispensable for the support of the animal creation than 

 common salt ; and, the Creator, in his arrangements for the 

 comfort, happiness, and sustenance of man, has placed, in 

 the most systematic and best adapted order — in situations 

 easily accessible, and in astonishing profusion, the substan- 

 ces most essential to the support and comfort of human life ; 

 hence we find salt, iron, coal, limestone, &c. to be almost 

 universally distributed over the surface of the globe in large 

 quantities, and in the most accessible situations ; whilst the 

 less useful bodies, as gold, silver, diamonds, &-c, exist in mi- 

 nute quantities, and often in places not to be explored without 

 great labor and expense. Salt, as before observed, exists 

 in immense masses or beds, either at the surface of the earth, 

 or at a great depth below the soil. It has been found in 

 regions much elevated above the sea, and in some instan- 

 ces it constitutes whole mountains of very considerable al- 

 titude. The ocean however is the greatest depository of salt ; 

 nearly one-thirtieth part of the whole weight of the waters of 

 the ocean is muriate of soda. Other salts, viz. the muriates 

 both of lime and magnesia, and the sulphate of soda, exist in 

 the waters of the ocean. According to La Place, the average, 

 depth of the ocean is ten miles; were the water evaporated, 

 the sah would form a bed of seven hundred feet in thickness, 

 a mass sufficient to cover all the present dry land with salt to 

 the depth of two thousand feet ; and as the ocean has once 

 covered our present continents, we need not be surprised at 



Vol. XV.— No. 1. ! 



