168 
ROCK-SALT. 
This mine produces about six thousand tons of salt every 
year. 
According to the description of Dr. Townson, the salt in 
the upper mines does not form continuous strata, or rocks, 
but exists in immense detached blocks or masses, imbedded 
in marie. He gives the following account of the strata which 
cover the salt. 
Yards. 
.Vegetable soil.. • • 4 
Stmd clay .. 
Fine sand effervescing with acids . ' 
Marie with sand, containing fragments of sandstone 18 
Sand-stone .. • • -- •••••• ^ 
Marie mixed with salt, in small particles and cubes 40 
At the depth of forty yards in this marie the salt is found. 
The blocks of this mineral are of such a size, that in passing 
through the galleries formed in them, sometimes the upper, 
and sometimes the lower end only of a block may be seen ; 
but often, though the galleries are three or four yards high, 
the breadth can only be observed, and even in some places 
the blocks of salt form .the sides of the gallery for fifteen or 
twenty yards. These blocks compose the upper bed of salt, 
and from them the whole of what is called the green salt is 
obtained. This salt, which is of a greenish or blackish hue, 
owes its colour to numerous fine particles of a substance 
which seems to be of the nature of argillaceous schistus scat¬ 
tered through it. This variety of salt, on account of its im¬ 
purity, is retained in the country for home consumption. 
In this marie, also, blocks of sand-stone are sometimes found 
imbedded, and the marie itself is strongly impregnated with 
salt. Lower down there is another bed of salt, called szy- 
bicker salt, which is in some places two or three yards thick; 
it is of a purer quality than the former, and is exported to 
foreign countries. This variety of salt-rock is disposed in 
very extensive beds. The mine has been driven in one place 
twelve hundred yards, from east to west, and four hundred 
from north to south ; salt being still found there. The ut¬ 
most extent is yet unknown. The nature of the stratum be¬ 
neath the szybicker salt has not been ascertained ; for the 
miners being apprehensive of increasing the quantity ot 
water, have never proceeded to a great depth in this stratum. 
The greatest depth of the mine is two hundred and forty 
yards! It does not appear that the remains of organized 
bodies have been found in great abundance in the strata con¬ 
nected with the salt-rocks now described. None have been 
observed, according to Dr. Townson’s information, in the 
szybicker salt, or the lower strata; but some have been seen 
in the marie which envelopes the block of green salt; such 
as bivalve shells, at the depth of seventy-two yards; crabs’ 
claws at the depth of eighty yards ; and charred coal, mixed 
with salt and gypsum, at the great depth of two hundred 
ya From the circumstance of mass being formerly celebrated 
in these mines two or three times a week, it has been said 
that the workmen, to the amount of five hundred, live con¬ 
stantly below ground. They do not, however continue 
longer than their hours of working. To keep the mines dry, 
the salt water is drawn up in leathern sacks, and is thrown 
away; the small quantity of fresh water which they afford is 
reserved for the use of the horses which are employed in 
the subterraneous operations. At the time Mr. Townson 
visited them, twenty-four horses were constantly kept below 
ground. . . 
In the mine of Bochnia the salt presents itself in a stratum 
at once, and not in detached pieces. The strata of clay, as 
well as those of salt, are undulated, and not of an uniform 
thickness. The salt is sometimes brown, at others reddish, 
and at others transparent. The different coloured salt is not 
arranged in parallel layers. The strata dip at an angle of 
about forty degrees with the horizon. Dr. Townson informs 
us that very beautiful specimens of fibrous muriate of soda 
are found in it. . 
At Thorda the mass of salt is divided into horizontal but 
undulated strata. These strata are about eight or ten inches 
thick. The lowest are the most undulated. 
Near Ockna, in Moldavia, there is a hill of rock-salt, in 
many parts of which the salt appears exposed to view. 
The mines on the south-east of the Carpathian chain appear 
more numerous, and are dispersed through a greater space 
of ground than those on the north-east. They are in general 
very near the surface. Some of those in Transylvania are so 
to such a degree, that persons are appointed to cover the salt 
with turf, when it is washed bare by the rain. These masses, 
however, are so thick, that their bottom has never been 
found. They are not worked to the depth of more than a 
hundred and seventy or eighty yards, because the extraction 
of the salt becomes then too expensive. In the county of 
Marmarosch they have been wnought to the depth of upward 
of two hundred yards. These mines contain likewise a great 
deal of petroleum, and the ground in which they are con¬ 
tained is everywhere furrowed by rivers. The mud interposed 
between the water of these and the salt, is imagined to pre - 
vent the salt from being dissolved by them. 
At Paraid, in Transylvania, there is a valley, the bottom 
and sides of which are of pure salt. Walls of salt appear 
there sixty or seventy yards high. 
The mine of Eperies is three hundred and sixty yards 
deep. 
In the salt mines of Marmarosch, water has been found 
included in the substance of the salt-rock. 
The mines of the south-west of the Carpathian mountains 
are generally wrought by means of shafts. There are at least 
two to each mine; one for the workmen, the other for 
drawing up the salt. The salt is cut out in ascending steps 
which produces empty spaces, of a conical form, in the 
midst of the strata. The ladders reach perpendicularly to 
the bottom of this conical space: so that within it they stand 
perfectly detached. Thus the greater part of the body of 
salt is extracted, leaving empty spaces, which are conical, 
and which communicate with one another by means of gal¬ 
leries. It has been thought, that, in order to leave less salt, 
it would be better to give these spaces the shape of a para¬ 
bola. The salt is so plentiful, that the miners are paid only 
for such pieces as weigh upwards of eighty pounds; the 
others being rejected as useless. 
The Transylvanians and Moldavians extract salt from their 
brine-springs, by throwing the water on wood fires, as the 
Gauls and Germans did in former times. 
No salt-mine, or brine-spring, is known either in Sweden, 
or in Norway. 
There are a great number of both, and particularly of salt 
lakes, in Russia. Among these is the salt lake of Tor, to¬ 
wards the northern extremity of Little Tartary. 
There are similar salt lakes in the Crimea. 
At Balachna, on the banks of the Wolga, are some very- 
rich brine-springs. 
In Russia, in Asia, we find the brine-springs of Permia, 
of which there are a great number at the loot of the moun¬ 
tains of Poyas. 
About eighty verst from Yena Tayeoska, in the desart 
between the Wolga and the Uralian mountains, there is a 
mine of rock-salt. 
In the government of Astracan, to the north of the Cas¬ 
pian sea, in the environs of Orenburgh, and in the country 
of the Bashkirians, salt lakes are very common, and the 
water evaporating during the summer, the salt appears 
crystallized on their surface, and round their borders. When 
this water is highly concentrated, it has a deep red colour. 
The salt formed in them has often the same hue; and when 
this is the case, it diffuses a very perceptible violet smell. 
One of these is the salt lake of Elton, above Astracan, in 
the re-entering angle formed by the Wolga. The Kal¬ 
mucks called it the Golden lake, because of its red appear¬ 
ance, when the sun shines on it. 
The lake of Bogdo, situate near this, yields a perfectly 
white salt, free from sulphate of magnesia, and preferred to 
that of lake Elton. 
Near 
