398 Expedition to the 



gists, called also the " older sandstone," by Frieslieben, and 

 the " first floetz sandstone," by the Wernerians, which ap- 

 pearfe to correspond in character with the sandstone about 

 the sources of the Canadian. Rock salt is found in connec- 

 tion with this sandstone at Cheshire, Northwich, and Droit- 

 wich in England; at Cardona in the province of Catalonia in 

 Spain, and at the base of the Carpathian mountains in Mol- 

 davia and Poland. In Peru, it is accompanied by sandstone 

 and gypsum,* and along the base of the Ural mountains, 

 between Europe and Asia, by gypsum and red marle.t Ac- 

 cident or further examination, it is probable, may hereafter 

 bring to light, those extensive beds of this substance, which 



richest lands in England, consisting' of a red marie, which like that of our 

 analogous formation about the Canadian and Red rivers, is favourable to 

 the growth of the cereal gramina, the leguminous plants, and some fruit 

 trees. Many geologists appear to consider this stratum as exclusively the 

 depository of the rock salt and gj psum. If this be the case, it is to be in- 

 ferred that it occurs interruptedly throughout the interior of North Ame- 

 rica, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains. We have recently 

 seen some specimens, form Lake Huron, of amygdaloidal greenstone, close- 

 ly resembling that which is found associated with our muriatiferous sand- 

 stone. Some of the most copious and concentrated brine springs in Ame- 

 rica, occur in the horizontal formations, south of Lake Ontario. Those 

 of Salina in New York produce five liundred thousand bushels of salt an- 

 nually. W e stated in the first volume of this work, that the springs of 

 Kenhawa, yield a yearly product of thirty thousand bushels of salt, and 

 asserted inadvertently, (at page 15) that they are the most important sa- 

 lines in the country. The product of several establishments surpasses that 

 of Kenhawa. The whole amount of salt manufactured annually in the 

 United States from brine springs, is now believed to exceed a million of 

 bushels. 



* " The sandstone on the banks of Manzanares, between Cumana and 

 and Cumanacoa, is accompanied by beds of indurated clay, containing sele- 

 nite and lamellar gypsum, and resembling the muriatiferous clay of Punta 

 Araya." See Hvmb. Pers. Jfar. vol. 3. p. 11. The extensive rock salt 

 formation of ElJereed, a pan of the great Sahara, belonging to the Tuni- 

 sians, is described by Shaw, as " a solid mountain of a reddish purple co- 

 lour, as hard as stone." Travels through Barbary, page 1 15, in vol. 12 of 

 Mavor's collection. The sand in the great saline desert of Persia, is of a 

 brick red colour. Kinneir, p. 13, and Voyage of Nearchus, p. 322. The 

 magnificent salt formation of Callabaugh, in the kingdom ofCaubul, ap- 

 pears from Eiphinstone's description, to be connected with a stratum of 

 red sandstone. "The road beyond the town of Calla-baugh, was cut out 

 of'feolid salt, at the foot of clifls of that mineral, in some places more than 

 one hundred feet high above the river. The salt is hard and clear and al- 

 most pure. It would be like crystal, were it not in some parts streaked 

 and tinged with red. All the earth, particularly near the town, is almost 

 blood red.^^ 



f Annals (f Philosophy, vol. xviii, p. 23S. 



