ROC 



Vegetable foil ... - - 4 



Sandy clay - - - - ' - 10 



Fine fand effervefcing with acids • - - 7 



Marie with fand, containing fragments of fand-ftone 18 

 Sand-ftone ... - - 2 



Marie mixed with fait, in fmall particles and cubes 4: 



At the depth of forty yards in this marlc the fait is 

 found. The blocks of this mineral are of fuch a fize, that 

 in paffing through the galleries formed in them, fometimes 

 the upper, and fometimes the lower end only of a block 

 may be feen ; but often, though the galleries are three or 

 four yards high, the breadth can only be obferved, and 

 even in fome places the blocks of fait form the fides of the 

 gallery for fifteen or twenty yards. Thefe blocks com- 

 pofe the upper bed of fait, and from them the whole ot 

 what is called the green fait is obtained. This fait, 

 which is of a greenifh or blackifh hue, owe; its colour to 

 numerous fine particles of a fubltance which fcems to be of 

 the nature of argillaceous fchiftus fcattered through it. This 

 variety of fait, on account of its impurity, is retained in the 

 country for home confumption. In this marie, alfo, blocks 

 of fand-ftone are fometimes found imbedded, and the marie 

 itfelf is ftrongly impregnated with fait. Lower down 

 there is another bed of fait, called fzybicker fait, which is in 

 fome places two or three yards thick ; it is of a purer 

 quality than the former, and is exported to foreign countries. 

 This variety of falt-rock is difpofed in very exteniive beds. 

 The mine has been driven in one place twelve hundred yards, 

 from eaft to weft, and four hundred from north to fouth ; 

 fait being ftill found there. The utmoft extent is yet un- 

 known. The nature of the ftratum beneath the fzybicker 

 fait has not been afcertained ; for the miners, being appre- 

 henfive of increafing the quantity of water, have never pro- 

 ceeded to a great depth in this ftratum. The greater! depth 

 of the mine is two hundred and forty yards. It does not 

 appear that the remains of organized bodies have been found 

 in great abundance in the itrata connected with the falt- 

 rocks now defcribed. None have been obferved, according 

 to Dr. Townfon's information, in the fzybicker fait, or the 

 lower ftrata ; but fome have been feen in the marie which 

 envelopes the block of green fait ; fuch as bivalve fhells, at 

 the depth of fetenty-two yards ; crabs' claws, at the depth 

 of eighty yards ; and charred coal, mixed with fait and 

 gypfum, at the great depth of two hundred yards. 



From the circumftance of mafs being formerly celebrated 

 in thefe mines two or three times a week, it has been faid 

 that the workmen, to the amount of five hundred, live 

 conftantly below ground. They do not, however, continue 

 longer than their hours of working. To keep the mines 

 dry, the fait water is drawn up m leathern facks, and is 

 thrown away ; the fmall quantity of frefh water which they 

 afford is reierved for the ufe of the horfes which are em- 

 ployed in the fubterraneous operations. At the time Mr. 

 Townfon vifited them, twenty-four horfes were conftantly 

 kept below ground. 



In the mine of Bochnia the fait prefents itfelf in a ftratum 

 at once, and not in detached pieces. The ftrata of clay, as 

 well as thofe of fait, are undulated, and not of an uniform 

 thickneis. The fait is fometimes brown, at others reddifh, 

 and at others traufparent. The different coloured fait is 

 not arranged in parallel layers. The ftrata dip at an 

 angle of about forty degrees with the horizon. Dr. Town- 

 fon informs us that very beautiful fpecimens of fibrous 

 muriate of loda are found in it. 



At Thorda the mafs of fait is divided into horizontal 



n o c 



but undulated ftrata. Thefe ftrata are about eight or ten 

 inches thick. The loweft are the moit undulated. 



Near Ockr,a, in Moldavia, there is a hill of rock-falt, in 

 many parts of which the fait appears expofed to view. 



The mines on the fouth-ealt of the Carpathian chain 

 appear more numerous, and are difperfed through a greater 

 fpace of ground than thofe on the north-eaft. Thev are in 

 general very near the furface. Some of thofe in Tranfyl- 

 vania are fo to fuch a degree, that perfons are appointed I 

 cover the fait with turf, when it i- warned bare by the rain. 

 Thefe maffes, however, are fo thick, that their bottom ha= 

 never been found. They are not worked to the depth of 

 more than a hundred and feventy or eighty yards, becaufe 

 the extraction of the fait becomes then too expenfive. In 

 the county of M h they have been wrought to the 



depth of upward of two hundred yards. Tiiefe mines con- 

 tain likewiie a great deal of petroleum, and the ground in 

 . they are contained is every where furrowed by rivers. 

 The mud interpofed between the water of thefe and the 

 fait, is imagined to prevent the fait from being diffolved by 

 them. 



At Paraid, in Tranfylvania, there is a valley, the bottom 

 and fides of which are of pure fait. Walls of fait appeal- 

 there lixty or feventy yards high. 



The mine of Eperies is three hundred and iixty yards 

 deep. 



In the fait mines of Marmarofch, water has been found 

 included in the fubftance of the falt-rock. 



The mines of the fouth-weft of the Carpathian mountains 

 are generally wrought by means of (hafts. There are at 

 leaf! two to each mine ; one for the workmen, the other 

 for drawing up the fait. The fait is cut out in afcending 

 fteps, which produces empty fpaces, of a conical form, in the 

 midft of the ftrata. The ladders reach perpendicularly to 

 the bottom of this conical fpace : fo that within it they 

 ftand perfectly detached. Thus the greater part of the 

 body of fait is extracted, leaving empty fpaces, which are 

 conical, and which communicate with one another by means 

 of galleries. It has been thought, that, in order to leave 

 lefs fait, it would be better to give thefe fpaces the fhape 

 of a parabola. The fait is fo plentiful, that the miners are 

 paid only for fuch pieces as weigh upwards of eighty 

 pounds, the others being rejected as ufclefs. When the 

 workmen are incommoded by water, it is drawn up in 

 leathern bags, to be emptied out of the mine. 



The Tranfylvanians and Moldavians extract fait from 

 their brine-fprings, by throwing the water on wood fires, 

 as the Gauls and Germans did in former times. 



No falt-mine, or brinc-fpring, is known either in Sweden, 

 or in Norway. 



There are a great number of both, and particularly of fait 

 lakes, in Ruffia. Among thefe is the fait lake of Tor, to- 

 wards the northern extremity of Little Tartary. 

 There are fimilar fait lakes in the Crimea. 

 At Balachna, on the banks of the Wolga, are fome very 

 rich brine-fprings. 



In Rullia, in Afia, we find the brine-fprings of Permia, of 

 which there are a great number at the foot of the mountains 

 of Poyas. 



About eighty verfts from Vena Tayeofka, in the defart 

 between the Wolga and the Uralian mountains, there is a 

 mine of rock-falt. 



In the government of Aftracan, to the nortli of the 

 Cafpian fea, in the environs of Orenburgh, and in the 

 country' of the Bafhkirians, fait lakes are very common, 

 and the water evaporating during the fummcr, the fait 



appears 



