414 COFFEE. 



stomach, but in a few seconds the speed slackened, and onr guide 

 pointed out the location of the fii-st stratum, as we slowly passed it. 

 The speed again increased, and in a few more seconds we M'ere at 

 the lower stratum ; but, to my surprise, instead of finding lofty 

 chambers the entire thickness of the stratum, as I had imagined, 

 I found only a thickness of from twelve to fifteen feet, taken out 

 from the very bottom. From the shaft, tramways led off in every 

 direction, and little platform cars, on which were hoisting buckets 

 ready filled with large lumps of salt, were being drawn by horses 

 to the shaft. Following one of these galleries, I soon found 

 myself where the miners were at work. The salt-rock is about 

 as hard as anthracite coal, and is worked by being blasted in the 

 same way. Regular pillars of salt (considerably larger than Lot's 

 wife, I fancy) are left as supports for the roof, but the salt is so 

 soHd and homogeneous that there is less danger than with coal, and 

 these pillars are less frequent than in any coal mine I have ever 

 visited. The air in this salt mine was also much better, being 

 pure, dry, and cool. Here were acres and acres of cool, pure- 

 aired galleries, which, if they could be utilized for storage by the 

 brewers of Germany and America, or the champagne manufac- 

 turers of France, would be worth fortunes. 



Ascending again to the surface, I witnessed the treatment of 

 the salt-rock. Much of this is shipped as it is when raised fi'om 

 the mine, direct to Denmark, Iforway, and Sweden (whose, cus- 

 toms tariffs discriminate against refined salt), where it is refined 

 for use. Some is crushed as soon as raised from the mine, and 

 used in its natural state for agricultural and manufacturing 

 purposes, and more is refined and used in various ways. The 

 best, and by far the greater quantity of salt manufactured in the 

 Cheshire salt districts, however, is made by pumping up the water 

 which has come in contact with the salt strata, in many places 

 dissolving the rock and becoming strongly impregnated with saline 

 matter. In this way most of the earthy and insoluble matter re- 

 mains below ground, and the salt manufactured turns out pure and 

 white. As may be inferred from the above description of differ- 

 ences in the quality of the rock-salt, the quality of the brine also 

 differs, that from the lower stratum being generally the best. It is 

 pumped by steam-power into reservoirs, for the double purpose of 



