36 BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



brine and falls down, blocking the work and often breaking 

 the pipe for some hundreds of feet. 



MINING OF ROCK-SALT 



The mining of rock-salt is briefly described by F. E. 

 Englehardt, Ph. D. as follows: 



Rock-salt mining in the State of New York dates from 

 November 1885, when the first shaft belonging to the Retsof 

 Mining Company, situated near Piffard, Livingston Co., 

 reached the underlying salt bed. Since then and within 

 the last two years a second shaft has been sunk about 2 

 miles south of Le Roy in Genesee County by the Lehigh 

 Salt Mining Company. A third one was finished sev- 

 eral months ago at Livonia, Livingston County, and a 

 fourth one is just finished at Greigsville in the same county, 

 about 2 miles west of the Retsof shaft. 



The sinking of the shafts is done in the usual manner. 

 The sides are protected from caving in by heavy timbers 

 and to prevent water from entering the shaft a heavy layer 

 of cement is put between the walls of the shaft and the tim- 

 ber. The size of the shafts vary somewhat, the usual 

 dimensions are 12 feet by 18 to 24 feet square in the clear. 

 The main galleries are about 30 feet wide, their height 

 depending on the thickness of the salt beds. Some salt 

 must always be left as a roof and floor, hence in a vein of 

 salt 24 feet thick an allowance of 6 feet for the roof and 4 

 feet for the floor would give a gallery or chamber 14 feet in 

 height. From the main chambers cross sections or galleries 

 are run every 30 feet, thus the roof above is supported by 

 pillars 30 feet square. The salt is blasted out with dyna- 

 mite. The drills are run by compressed air about 6 feet 

 into the solid salt and they are set in such a manner that 

 when the blast takes place as much as possible of the salt 

 remains in lumps. The salt is loaded into small cars which 

 are run on tracks laid on the floors of the chambers to the 

 shaft on to the cages, by which they are carried or hoisted 



