SALT AND SALINE SPRINGS. 353 



the marbles of the United States : we may, how- 

 ever, remark, that no country on the globe can 

 furnish a greater variety, or those of a more beau- 

 tiful and durable character. 



Salt. — Saline springs abound in the State of 

 New-York and in the Valley of the Mississippi. 

 Onondaga and Cayuga counties are particularly rich 

 in this mineral ; and brine-springs have been found 

 for upward of 100 miles, in a range a little west 

 of north of a line drawn through Lenox, Madison 

 county. There are at present near Onondaga Lake 

 four wells and pump-works for the raising and dis- 

 tributing of brine, under the direction of the state 

 authorities, viz., one at Salina, another at Syra- 

 cuse, a third at the village of Geddes, and a fourth 

 near Liverpool. At Salina the well is 70 feet deep, 

 and the brine is raised by forcing-pumps high 

 enough to fill a reservoir, which supplies the salt- 

 works of the village, as well as, occasionally, those 

 at Syracuse and Liverpool. Dr. Beck states, that 

 this well affords more brine than all the others, and 

 that the pumps raise 482 gallons in a minute, or 

 28,920 gallons in an hour. The temperature of the 

 brine, which is perfectly limpid and sparkling, is 

 50° (Fan.), and it requires 43 1-2 gallons to yield a 

 bushel of salt, weighing 56 lbs. The well at Syra- 

 cuse is 170 feet deep; temperature of the brine, 51° 

 Fan. ; the pumps raise 62 gallons in a minute, and 

 46 gallons make a bushel of salt. In boring for the 

 Liverpool well, which is 50 rods from Onondaga 

 Lake, the strata passed through were marl, 12 feet ; 

 fine sand, 14 feet; fine clay, 43 feet; gravel, 81 

 feet ; total, 150 feet. The brine at these wells is 

 chiefly evaporated by boiling in large iron kettles. 

 Solar evaporation also is employed to considerable 

 extent, and likewise steam, which is passed through 

 the vats in tubes. This furnishes salt in fine cubic 

 crystals, of great purity. 



The quantity of salt m? factured in the United 



