102 0>i the Extraction of Salts from Sea-Water. 



soon came to interrupt the process, so that during a large part 

 of the year the labours of the salines were suspended. The 

 enlightened director of the works of Berre, Mr. Felicien Agard, 

 has however introduced a very important improvement in 

 the management of the salines, by means of which he car- 

 ries on the works throughout the whole year, and is en- 

 abled to increase, the produce by 50 per cent. During the 

 months of the autumn, the evaporation, which is still carried on, 

 though more slowly, enables him to obtain brines marking 8°, 10°, 

 and even 20°. These are stored away in large pits, where the 

 depth of liquid being considerable, the diluting effect of the spring 

 rains is but little felt, and at the commencement of the warm season 

 these brines are- raised into the evaporating basins, so that the 

 summer's labours are commenced with concentrated liquors, and 

 the salt is all harvested in the months of August and September. 



In selecting the site for a saline it is of great importance to 

 choose a clayey soil, an earth of this character being required to 

 render the basins and dykes impervious to water. In the saline of 

 Berre. a coriaceous fungous plant, to which botanists have given 

 the name Microcoleus corium, was observed to vegetate upon the 

 bottom of the bf.sins, and this being carefully protected, has finished 

 by covering the clay with a layer like felt, which protects the salt 

 from contamination by the earth, and enables it to be collected in 

 a state of great purity. 



The conditions of exposure to sun and wind offered by the 

 locality chosen for a saline are also to be carefully considered, for 

 upon these will of course greatly depend the rapidity of evaporation. 

 The salines of the lagoons of Venice, to which we have already al- 

 luded, have recently been re-organised by Biron S.M. Rothschild and 

 Mr. Chas. Astric, and cover an area nearly twice that of Berre. 

 The tides of the Adriatic are considerable, and from the lowness 

 of the ground, the labour of constructing the basins and dykes 

 could only be carried on at low water. The moist and rainy 

 climate of Venice also offers serious obstacles to the manufacture 

 of salt ; to overcome these, two plans are adopted. The salting 

 tables are so arranged that in case of heavy rains, the concentrated 

 brines can be rapidly run off into deep reservoirs, while other 

 reservoirs of saturated brine at higher levels serve not only to feed 

 the salting tables, but to cover with a thick layer those tables 

 which may contain a large amount of salt, and thus protect them, 

 from the atmospheric waters. 



