56 Mr. H. Holland on the Cheshire Rod-sak District. 



this subject which I have had the opportunity of seeing, is one by 

 M. Hassenfratz, contained in the eleventh volume of the Annales de 

 Chimie. From this memoir it would appear that the general situa- 

 tion of the Rock-salt in Transylvania and Poland is very similar to 

 that which it occupies in Cheshire ; the beds of this mineral being 

 disposed in small plains, bounded by hills of inconsiderable height, 

 forming a kind of basin or hollow, from which there is usually only 

 a narrow egress for the waters. The situation of the Austrian salt- 

 mines near Salzburgh is however very different. The mineral here 

 appears to be disposed in beds of great thickness, which occur near 

 the summit of limestone hills, at a great elevation above the adjoin- 

 ing country.* This fact is a singular one ; and if we admit the idea 

 that rock-salt is formed from the waters of the sea, makes it ne- 

 cessary to suppose the occurrence on this spot of the most vast and 

 wonderful changes. M. Hassenfratz states it as a general fact, that 

 in countries where salt-mines occur, fragments of primitive rocks 

 appear in great abundance over these beds. It does not seem, how- 

 ever, that any deduction of importance can be connected with this 

 fact. 



The disposition of the beds of salt in the continental mines seems 

 to be very generally a horizontal one, and as in the English mines, 

 they are separated by strata of clay of a varying thickness. It would 

 appear, however, with respect to extent of dimensions, that they are 

 in general gready inferior to the bodies of rock-salt met with in our 

 own island. In Hungaiy and Poland these beds do not present a 

 thickness of more than one or two feet, and are separated by layers of 



* I am informed by Mr. Greenough that the lapelsgrabeny which is the highest gallery 

 of the saltmine at Halstadt, is stated in Von Buch's Travels through Germany and Italy 

 to be two thousand nine hundred and seventy. five feet above the sea, and that the salt 

 mines at Hall in the Tyrol arc at a much more considerable deration. 



