Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1861-03-27
THE Salt if you Please. "

EVeryposy mas u paItidilly lor ulnner,
and one of the most frequent expressions
at dinner table is the one which forms our
title, and in order that our readers may
know something of the substance they
are using, we will tell them few facts
about salt. This is a chemical compound,
oftwenty y'three parts, by weight, of a
beautifully silyer-white but soft metal
called sodium, discovered by Sir Fl. Davy
in 1907, and thirty five parts ola pungent'
ycllowish green grass, called chlorine,
discovered by Schecle in IVA these two
combined form this, the most widely diff,
fcsed and useful of any one compound in
the world. II is found in the sea, and in
the rocks, from which our principal sup
ply comes. The most wonderful deposits
are in Poland and Hungary, where it is
quartied like rock, one of the Polish
mines having been worked since 1851.
These Polish salt mines have heard the
sroan Of many POOR captive, and have
seen The last agonies Of many brave
man for until lately, the wore worked
entirely by the state prisoners of Austria.
Russia, or Poland, whichever happened
to be in power at The time; and once the
offender, or fNnciei hiRdrance to some
other PERSONS advancement was let down
into this subterranean prison, he never
saw the light of day again. So salt ha$ts
history as well as science. Other large
deposits are found in Cheshire, England,
where the water is 'orced down by pipes
into the salt, and is again pumped up as
brine, which is evaporated and the salt
obtained. To such all extent has this
been carried, that one town in the "salt
country" as it is called, has scarcely an
upright house in it, all the foundations
having sunk with the ground, to fill up
the cavity left by The extracted salt
In Virginia there a'e beds of salt, and
the Salmon Mountains, in Oregon, ara ca
pa5le Of afording large quantities of the
same material, The brine springs of Sa-
lima and Syroc"ec Nro VOL l'no~n, and
moan about forty gallons Of their trire one
bu,he of salt is obtained There are also
extensive salt springs in Ohio The brine
,pumped Up from wells made in the rock
ani into which it flows and runs into
brlers These boilers are large iron ket>
lies Sc, ia brickworlI, and when fires are
hghled under them, the brine is quickly
cgaporated. The moment the brine be-
rms to boil, il becomes turbid, from the
compounds Of lime that IL contains, and
Which are soluble in cold, but not in hot
water; these first sediments are taken out
gith ladies' called Diitern ladies', and the
salt being next deposited from the brine
carried away to drain and dry. The
remaining liquid contains great quantity
oimagnesia in various forms, and gives it
the name of bittern,' from the taste
peculiar to magnesia in c, cry FORM
Bat how did this salt come into The
rock ? is the natural query, and the won=
der seems greater, when we recollect that
salt beds are found in nearly every one OF
the strata composing the earth's crust
This fact proves another, that as the mas
jorty Of these salt beds have come from
the lakes left in the hollows of the rocks
ty the recedence OF the sea, the sea has
through all the geologic ages, been rs salt
as it is to-day. Let us take the Great SAL
Lake as an illustration ii being the lar
gest salt lake in the world, but by ~
means the only one, as such inland mas
ses of saline water are found over the
whole earth but rs this is the greatest il
extent. It VIII form the best ex
ample. It's situated at an elevation o
1900 feet above the sea, on the Rock
Mountains, and has an area of2, 900 squar
miles yet, high as It is, once upon
time,' as the siory-books Of our juvenal
ity used to say, it was part of the ser
which retired, by the upheaval OF tb
rocks, aud that great basin took its sal
water up with it. There are also however
salt rocks taking their place in regulo
geologic series with other rocks, inter
spersed between red sandstone, magnesi
and earbouiferous strata; these we ca
only account for, as we do for other stra
tailed rocks, viz: that they were dc
posted from their solution in water,
carried mechanically TO the spot wher
now found by that ever mobile liquid.