Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-11-17
MORNING LEADER.
TIE SALT HINES OF CRlC0W.
BY BAYARD TAYLOR.

/ uCEt anu luSit Will ulluUlt sld1S- Lights
glimmered ahead, and on turning the corner we
came upon gang of workmen, some hacking
away at the solid floor, others trundling wheel
barrows full of the precious cubes. Here was
the chapel of st. Anthony, the oldest in the
mines-a byzantine excavation, supported by
columns with altar, crucifix, and hie-size stat
ues of saints, apparently in black marble, but all
as salt as Lots wife, as | discovered by putting
my tongue to the nose of John the Baptist =
The humid air OF this upper story of the mines
has damaged some of the saints. Francis, es-
pecially, is running away like dip candle, and
all of his head is gone except his chin.
The limbs of Joseph are dropping off as if he
had the Norwegian leprOsy, and Lawrence las
deeper scars than his gridiron could have made,
running up and down his back. A Bengal
light turned at the altar, brought into a sudden
life this strange temple, which presently van
ished into darkness, as if it had never been
seem
cannot follow, step by step, our journey of
| two hours through the labyrinths of this won
derful mine. 1t is bewildering maze of gal
leries, grand halls, staircases and vaulted cham
bers, where one loses all sense of distance or
direction, and drifts along 5lindly in the wake
OF his conductor Everything was solid salt,
except where great piers of hewn logs had been
built up to support some threatening roof, or
vast chasm, left in quarrying, had been bridged
across. As we descend to lower regions, tho
air become more dry and agreeable, and the sa-
line walls more pure and brilliant. One hall,
los feet high, resembled Grecian theater, the
traces of block taken out in regular layers rep
resenting the seats for the spectators Out of
the single hall 100000 cwt. of salt had been
taken, or enough to supply the 40,00O,OO0 in
habitants in Austria one year
Two obelisks of salt commemorated the visit
of Francis l and his Empress in another
spacious irregular vault, through which we
passed by means of d wooden bridge resting
on piers of the crystalline rock. After we had
descended to the bottom of the chamber, boy
ran along above with burning Bengal light,
throwing flashes of blue lustre ON the obelisks,
on tine SCARED walls, vast arches, the entrance
to deeper halls, and the far roof fretted with
the picks of the workmen. The effect was ma
gical-wonderfuL Even the old Prussian, who
had the face of an exchange broker, exclaimed,
as he pointed upwards: SIT is like a sky full
of cloud ambkins." Presently we entered an
other and loftier chamber, yawning downward
| like the mouth of hell, with cayernOus tunnels
opening out of the further end. In these tun-
nels the workmen, half naked, with torches in
their hands, wild cries, fireworks and the firing
| of guEs (which here so reverberate in the i'm
prisoned air that one can feel every wave of
sound gave rough representation of the in
fernal regions, for the benefit of the crowned
heads who visit the mines The effect must be
indeed diabolic4l. Even we, unexceptionable
characters as we were, looked truly unearthIy
in our ghostly garments, amid the hvid glare
| OF the fireworks.
A little further, we struck upon a lake four
| fathoms deep, upon which we embarked in a
/ haavx- s0oara hoaf and aptarad uloarny tunnal
over the entrance of which was inscribed lin
salt letters "Good luck to you'll" In such a
place the motto seemed ironical. Abandon
hope, all We who enter here" would have been
more appropriate. Midway7in the tunnel, the
| halls at either end were suddenly Illuminated,
| and crash as of a hundred cannon bello wing
| through the hollow vaults, shook the air and wa
ter in such wise that our boat had not ceased
trembling when We landed in the further hall.
A tablet inscribed Heartily welcome ~ saluted
us on landing. Finally, at the depth of 45O
feet, our journey ceased, although we were but
half way to the bottom. The remainder is a
wilderness of shafts, galleries and smaller cham
bers the extent of which we could only con-
lecture. We then returned through scores OF
tortuous passages to some vaults where a lot OF
gnomes, naked to the hips, were busy with pick,
mallet and wedge, blocking out and separating
the solid pavement.
The process is quite primitive, scarcely diff
fering from that Of the ancient Egyptians in
quarying granite The blocks are first marked
out on the surface by series of grooves. One
side is then deepened to the required thickness,
and wedges being inserted under the block, it is
soon split off 1t is then split transverse
ly into pieces of a cwt. each, in which form it
is ready for sale. Those intended for Russia
are rounded on the edges and corners until they
acquire the shape of large cOeoons, for the con
venience of transportation into the interior OF
the country.
The number of workmen employed in the
mine is l50U, all of whom belong to the " up
per crust, that is, they live on the outside Of
the world. They are divided into gangs, and
relieve each other ever six hours. Each gang
quarries out, on an average, on an q
little more than LOCO cwt. of salt in that space
of time, making an annual yield of 4,5O0,OOO
ewt The men We saw were fine muscular,
healthy looking fellows, and the officer, in an
swer to my questions, stated that their sanitary
condition was quite equal to that of the field
laborers. Scurvy does not occur among them,
and the equality of the temperature ofthe mines
which stands at "a of Fahrenheit all the year
round-has a favorable effect upon such as are
predisposed to diseases of the lungs He was
not aware of any peculiar form OF disease in
duced by the substance in which they work,
notwithstanding where air is humid salt crys-
tails form upon the wood work. The wood |
may here remark never rots, and where un-
touched, retains its quality for centuries. The
officer explicitly denied the story of men being
born in these mines, and having gone through
life without ever mounting to the upper world.
So there goes another interesting fiction of our
youth.
1t requires a stretch of imagination to con.
ceive tae extent of this salt bed. AS far as ex-
plored, its length is two and half English
miles, its breadth little over half mile, and
its solid depth $50 feet It commences 200
feet below the surface, and is then uninterrupt-
ed by sandstone, such as forms the peaks of the
Carpathian mountains. Below this there is no
probability that it again re-appears. The gener-
al direction is east and west, dipping rapidly at
its western extremity, so that it may no doubt
| be pushed much further in that direction Not
withstanding the immense amount already quar-
ried-and it Will be better understood when I
state that the aggregate length of the shafts and
galleries amount to four hundred and forty miles
it Is estimated that at the present rate of ex-
ploration, the known supply cannot be exhaust
ed under three hundred years The tripartite
treaty on the partition of Poland, limits Austria
to the present amount, 500 ,OOe cwt annual.
ly-of which she is bound to furnish 80, ,0OO cwt
to Prussia and 100000 to Russia, leaving
100000 to herself This sum yields her net
revenue from the mines of two millions of for
ins, 100000 annually -
It is not known how this wonderful deposit
more preseiOus than gold itself-was originally
discovered We know that it was worked in
the 18th century, and perhaps much earlier
The popular faith has invented several miracles
to account for it, giving the merit to favorite
saints. One which is gravely published in the
History of CIacow,' states that Polish king
who wooed Princess Elizabeth of Hungary
(not the Saint of Wartburg) in the tenth centu-
ry, asked what she should choose as bridal
Il