304 MIXES, METALS, AND GEMS. 
tuulties of breathing the fresh air in tlic fielJs, 
the surrounding prospects. The subtemneous P‘” (-tijf i 
galleries, are very .spacious, and in many of 
are hewn out of tire rock-salt. In tliese passaged ^ 
are set upi together with the images of .saj” J. A 
which alight is kept constantly burning. The 
the salt is hewn out, and the empty cavities r ivl' < 
■veval ° 
nd S' 
been removed, are called chambers, in sevc 
where the water has stagnated, the bottoms ai^^^ 
covered with very thick incrustations of thoiisau [ir, 
crystals, lying one oiv the other, and 
weighing half a pound and upwards. • When 
placed before them, the numerous rays of light i ^ 
these crystals emit a surprising lustre. ^ 
111 several parts of the mine huge columns 
left standing, to support the rock ; and thes® 
fancifully ornamented. But tlie most curion* jiJ,; 
the inh.ibited part, or subterraneous town, 
which is considered by the immured inbabt 
actual ti'ansmutation of Lot’s wife into a pillar m ^ 
a 
tnot®, 
ih’ ,/ 
statue appears eitlier_ a 
iher above srround is inh' 
in' , 
in proportion as this 
the state of the weather above ground 
windings in this mine are so numerous ape 
that the workmen have frequently lost their ^ 
several, whose lights have been extinguished’ 
perished. The number of miners to whorn 
ployment, is computed at between four and p' .j. js * 
but the whole amount of the men employed in 
seven hundred. ^ 
The salt lies near the surface, in large ^ 
out of which blocks of sixty, eighty, or a 
square, may be hewn 3 but at a considerable j 
found in smaller lumps. About six hundp 
0 ^/ 
iimiiu iu auiuuL.1 iuuaj.'s. oia, 4“-»* . m 
quintals of salt are annually dug out of the np^ 
cow. The worst and cheapest is called '''f a 
its greenish colour, occasioned by an heterogen®^|j(j y;’ 
of a greyish mineral, or clay, and entirely jj /, J 
crj'stals of difterent dimensions. A finer sold J’ 
large blocks 3 and the third kind is the 
crystal salt, which is found in small jiieces 'd jtjid V 
the rock, and, when detached from it, 
of rectangular prisms. This is usually si^'“ 
