THE SALT W0EKS. 



45 



yards from the lake shore, and were first worked forty 

 years since, by James Monkman. This enterprising indi- 

 vidual struggled for many years against the importation of 

 English salt, which was sold in the settlements at a cheaper 

 rate than he could afford to manufacture salt on Lake 

 Winnipego-sis. He has made salt at Swan Eiver and 

 Duck Eiver. The manufacture is now carried on with 

 profit for the Hudson's Bay Company at Swan Eiver, and 

 at Winnipego-sis Lake by Monkman's sons. 



At the " Works " there are two small log-houses and 

 three evaporating furnaces. The kettles, of English con- 

 struction, are well-made rectangular vessels of iron, five 

 feet long, two feet broad, and one foot deep. They are 

 laid upon two rough stone walls, about twenty inches 

 apart, which form the furnace. At one extremity is a 

 low chimney. The whole construction is of the rudest 

 description, and at the close of the season the kettles are 

 removed, turned over, and the furnace permitted to go to 

 ruin, to be rebuilt in the following spring. 



The process of making salt is as follows : When a 

 spring is found, a well, five feet broad and five feet deep, 

 is excavated, and near to it an evaporating furnace erected. 

 The brine from the wells is ladled into the kettles, and 

 the salt scooped out as it forms, and allowed to remain 

 for a short time to drain, before it is packed in birch bark 

 roggins for transportation to Eed Eiver, where it com- 

 mands twelve shillings sterling a bushel, or one hundred 

 weight of flour, or a corresponding quantity of fish, 

 pemican, or buffalo meat, according to circumstances. 



The brine is very strong, — thirty gallons of brine pro- 

 ducing one bushel of salt * ; and from one kettle two 

 bushels of salt can be made in one day in dry weather. 

 There are nine kettles at the " Works," seven being in 

 constant use during the summer season. The Half-breeds 



* See Chapter on the Devonian Series. 



