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huge well, sometimes as much as 10 feet in diameter, which 
is cylindered to keep out the fresh water. Till recently 
there has been no great diminution in the quantity of brine. 
As soon as the 'flag’ overlying the 'rock head’ was pierced 
the brine rose very copiously and the most rapid pumping 
only produced a slight change of level. The height of the 
brine above the surface of the rock salt varied in all the 
districts, but in every case was considerable, being frequently 
50 yards. The level of the brine when at rest or unpumped 
has fallen very considerably of late years, owing to the 
enormous increase in the make of salt. At Winsford 
the level in 1880 was 20 yards lower than in 1865. It is 
evident that more brine is being pumped out than fresh 
water getting in to make new brine to replace it. Many 
shafts have been completely exhausted. 
Of late years a number of old worked out mines in the lower 
bed of rock salt have been used as reservoirs into which the 
brine from the rock head runs night and day. These enormous 
reservoirs are nearly always full, and in the majority of cases 
the brine rises high up the shafts. The mines in the bottom 
rock salt vary from 100 to 112 yards from the surface, and the 
salt is worked out to a depth of about 15 feet. Some of 
these reservoirs will hold more than 50,000,000 gallons of 
brine. Every day the trade consumes more than 4,000,000 
gallons in making white salt. This enormous consumption 
has produced very startling results which I shall refer to 
later on. The brine is pumped up by means of powerful 
steam engines into reservoirs or tanks, and from these it is 
distributed to the pans through pipes. 
The specific gravity of fully saturated brine is about 1*2, 
and it contains 26 per cent of salt. Roughly speaking, the 
Cheshire brines consist of 1 part salt, 3 parts water. The 
business of the salt manufacturer is to drive away the water 
and to retain the salt. This is done by heat, and the rationale 
of the process of making salt is extremely simple. When 
