Mr, Horner on the Brine Springs at Droitwich. 97 



" Until 1725 the pits had not been sunk very deep, but in that 

 " year the talc was sunk through, and soon after every one sunk ' 

 " his pit through the talc, and obtained such a profusion of strong 

 " brine that not one-tenth part of it hath ever been used, but ran to 

 " waste. In 1773 Joseph Priddey, of Droitwich, informed me that 

 " he had sunk several pits, and generally found it about 35 feet to 

 " the talc, through the stratum of talc 150 feet, under the talc a 

 " river of brine 22 inches deep, under this river a hard rock of 

 " salt. When the hole is bored through the talc, the brine bursts 

 " up with amazing violence to the surface of the ground. In the 

 " year 1774 he sunk another pit, and found it to the talc 53 feet, 

 " through the talc 102 feet, the brine river 22 inches, then a rock 

 " of salt : he bored 2§ feet into this rock, and found it still the 

 " same. In 1779 a hole was bored previous to a brine pit being 

 " sunk in the yard of Richard Norris, Esq. The strata were, 

 •' mould 5 feet, marl 35, talc 40, a river of brine 22 inches ; 

 *' under the brine, talc 75 feet, and a rock of salt, into which the 

 " workmen bored 5 feet.* I have been informed, likewise, by 

 " persons employed in sinking these pits, that immediately above 

 *' the river of brine is a thin crust, easily perforated, and, next to 

 " that, a very soft substance, perhaps two feet thick, and then the 

 " talc. This talc, or rather gypsum, or alabaster, is a shining 

 *' fissile species of stone, of a whitish colour. It is so hard that 

 *' the workmen never sink the pit through it ; they bore a hole. 



* The account of the sinking of this pit difTcrs so materially from the rest, that I 

 btispcct it must bo inaccurate. In the accounts of the sinking of the other pits, the 

 brine flows over rock-salt ; but here 75 feet of gypsum intervene between the briue md 

 the salt. As all the pits arc situated within the space of a square furlong, it is not 

 probable that so remarkable a change should take place in (he relative position of the 

 gypsum and the rock salt. 



Vol. II. n 



