The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-02-09

situated the famous salt-mines at
Wieliczka, in Galicia. The area OF this
wonderful mineral deposit, as at present
defined, measures two and one'half
miles in length, by little more than
one-half in breadth, and its solid depth
is about 900 feet 1t is intercalated in
strata of the tertiary formation, con-
sisting of compact fossiliferous clays,
and rests at the base on foundation of
sandstone. The principal minerals as
sociated with it are gypsum, bitumen,
anhydrite, and the sulphates of baryta,
strontia, and sulphur. The quality of
the salt varies greatly-one portion of
it, named green salt" containing from
5 to per cent. of clay; another, called
spiza. being mixed with sand. and a
third. known as szytk, and occurring
chiefly at the lower levels, being per-
fectly pure, and deposited in large crys-
talline masses.
The mines are entered by eleven sep
arate shafts, which open at five diff
ferent levels, into galleries that branch
into a perfect labyrinth of passages
and chambers. 1t is said that the gal
leries which have already been exca-
waited have an aggregate length of con-
siderably more than 400 miles. The
salt lies about 200 feet below the sur
face and thence extends down to a
depth of about 1 900 feet. The direc-
ton of the bed is east and west. fol-
lowing the trend of the Carpathian
Mountains, and appearing in small de-
posits at intervals until it enters Tran
sylvania, where extensive mines exist.
The annual product of the Wialiczka
mines is 800, 900 cwt.; and at this rate
it is calculated that the yield will not
be exhausted for at least 800 years. 1t
is not known when the deposit was dis
covered, but it was being quaried by
Poland at tie beginning of the twelfth
century, and had become a source of
great profit under Casimir the Great, in
the fourteenth century. In 1858 the
yearly net income of the mine was
$1,OOO,O0O According to the treaty
executed on the partition of Poland,
Austria is compelled to furnish to Rus
STA 800, 900 cwt. of the annual product
of salt, and 10000 to Prussia, leaving
100000 cwt. to herself.
Some of the old chambers in the
mine are $50 feet in height, but the
more recent ones are much smaller
The most ancient of the halls is called
the Chapel of ST. Anthony, and is
adorned with columns, statutes of the
saints, an altar a crucifx, etc., all cut
out of solid salt. This is in the upper
story of the mine, which is penetrated
by humid air from without coming
down the shafts; and the salt figures in
the chapel are consequently undergo
ing a slow process of dissolution. An
other large chamber, designated as
Francis Joseph's Hall, is fitted up as a
ballroom, with large chandeliers, and
statues of Vulcan and Neptune, wrought
out of the universal mineral. On the
occasion of the visit of any Of the
Royal family to the mines, and also at
the occurrence of festivals, the chambers
and passages are brilliantly illumin-
ated, fire. works and guns are shot off,
and the scene is altogether like CHIP
ter from a fairy tale, or like passage
from the account of the PlutOnian
regions in the mythologies of the an
clients.
In one part of the mine there is a
lake $50 feet long and forty feet deep,
which is formed by the accumulation
of the water trickling through the
strata. Visitors are padded across in a
boat-thereby enjoying an excursion,
it may be presumed, quite similar in
its gloomy and weird sensations to that
which travellers experience in the trip
over the rock bound lake in Mammoth
Cave. Bayard Taylor says of the Vie
liczha mine: cit is bewildering maze
of galleries, grand halls, staircases and
vaulted chambers, where one looses all
sense of distance or direction, and
drifts along blindly 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 chasms, left
in quarying, had been bridged across.
As we descended to lower regions the
air became more dry and agreeable,
and the saline walls more pure and
brilliant One hall, los feet in height.
resembled Grecian theatre-the traces
of blocks taken out in regular layers rep
resenting the seats for the spectators.
Out of this single hall 900, 900 cwt., of
salt has been taken, or enough to supply
the 40, OO0. 900 inhabitants of Austria for
one year"
OF the method of mining the salt,
Mr.. Taylor writes: 1.-The process is
quite primitive - scarcely differing
from that of the ancient Egyptians in
quarrying granite. The blocks are
first marked out on the surface by Il
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