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REPOSITORIES OF ROCK-SALT. 



" Hungary and Poland afford the most numerous and extensive 

 repositories of rock-salt in Europe. The salt mines of Wieliczka 

 near Cracovia have been long celebrated and frequently described ; 

 they are worked at the depth of 750 feet. The rock-salt is covered 

 by alternate beds of marl and conglomerate ; blocks of salt occur 

 also in the marl. The beds of rock-salt are inclined at an angle of 

 40 degrees, it is remarkable, that in these mines of rock-salt, there 

 are springs of fresh as well as of salt water. At Paraid in Transyl- 

 vania, there is a valley the bottom and sides of which are pure rock- 

 salt. The mine of Eperies is about 990 feet deep. Water is some- 

 limes enclosed in the blocks of rock-salt." — Brongniart, Mineralogie, 



There is an extensive formation of rock-salt, stretching on each 

 side of the Carpathian Mountains for six hundred miles, from Wie- 

 liczka in Poland towards the north, to Rimnie in Moldavia on the 

 south. It has indeed been observed, that rock-salt and brine springs 

 most generally occur near the feet of extensive mountain ranges, 

 which adds probability to the opinion, that these ranges were once 

 the boundaries of extensive salt lakes. 



In the lofty deserts of Caramania in Asia, according to Chardin, 

 rock-salt is so abundant, and the atmosphere so dry, that the inhab- 

 itants use it as stone, for building their houses. This mineral is also 

 found on the whole elevated table-land of Great Tartary, Thibet, and 

 Indostan. Extensive plains in Persia are covered with a saline ef- 

 florescence ; and according to the account of travellers, the island of 

 Ormus, in the Persian Gulf, is one large mass of rock-salt. 



In the elevated mountains of Peru, rock-salt is said to occur at the 

 height of 9000 feet above the level of the sea. In North America 

 there are various salt springs called Licks, because the herds of wild 

 cattle formerly repaired to them, to lick the soil impregnated with 

 salt. Near to these places, at a small depth below the surface, the 

 immense bones of the great Mastodon are frequently found. Ac- 

 cording to the account of Hornemann, a mass of rock-salt, so vast, 

 that, in one direction, no eye can reach its termination, and whose 

 breadth he computed to be several miles, spreads over the mountains, 

 that, to the north, bound the desert of Lybia. Rock-salt has been 

 found also in New South Wales. 



It would exceed the limits intended for the present volume, to 

 enumerate the different places in which this valuable mineral occurs. 

 I propose to note only the more remarkable situations, presenting 

 phenomena that may tend to illustrate the mode of its formation. 

 Among these should not be omitted the salt lakes on the borders of 

 Caffraria, east of the Cape of Good Hope, which contain, at their 

 bottom, thick beds of rock-salt variously coloured. 



There is a remarkable formation of salt at Posa, near Burgos, in 

 Castile, placed in an immense crater of an extinct volcano, in which 

 are found pumice-stone and puzzolana. The volcanic mountain of 

 Calogero, near Sciacca, in Sicily, contains, in its beds, a considera- 



