Mr. H. Holland o« //j^ Cheshire Rock-salt District. 43 



springs actually appear, but several circumstances indicate that brine 

 has at some former period been discovered there, and this as high 

 up the stream as the neighbourhood of Congleton. No springs 

 have been found in the valley of Witton Brook, except at the part 

 of it immediately adjoining the Weaver at Northwich. 



The evidences of the presence of rock-salt occur, as I before stated, 

 in very few places out of these vallies, and even some of the excepted 

 instances appear to have a local relation to the southern or central 

 plain. This is the case with the salt springs of Dirtwich, in the 

 south-western angle of Cheshire ; with a spring of very weak brine 

 lately found at Adderley, in the northern extremity of Shropshire ; 

 and probably also with other saline springs which occur in the con- 

 tiguous parts of Flint and Denbighshire. At Dunham, however, in 

 the north of Cheshire, we find a weak spring, which cannot strictly 

 be considered as connected with the formations of the southern plain. 

 At Barton and Adlington, in the southern parts of Lancashire, brine 

 springs likewise appear ; and it is not improbable that other instances 

 of the same kind may occur in the northern portion of the great plain* 

 It appears possible, however, that these weak springs may derive 

 their saline contents, not from distinct subjacent beds of the fossil 

 salt, but merely from beds of clay or argillaceous stone, strongly- 

 impregnated with particles of the muriate of soda. 



Manufacture of white salt. 



It would be foreign to the object of this paper to enter with 

 minuteness into the natural history of the salt springs, or into the 

 processes employed in the manufacture of white salt. Those mem- 

 bers of the Society, who may wish for further information on these 

 subjects, I beg leave to refer to the Survey of Cheshire before noticed. 



F 2 



