The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-01-13
4 Wonderful Mine.

4 Wonderful Mine.
About ten miles southeast of Cracow
the former capital of Poland, arc situa-
ted the famous salt mines at Wieliczka,
in Galicla. The area of this wonderful
mineral deposit, ms 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 goo
feet. 1t is alternated in strata of the
tertiary formation, consisting of COM
pact, fossiliferous CLAWS, and rests at the
base on foundation of sandstone. The
principal minerals associated with it
are gypsum, bitumcn, anhydrite, and
the sulphates Of baryta, strontia, and
sulphur. The quality of the salt varies
greatly ono portion of 1t, named
".green salt" containing from five to
SIX per cent. of clay; another, called
sp!!za, being mixed with sand, and a
third, known rs syyNk, and occurring
chiefly at the lower levels, being per-
fcctly pure, and deposited in large crys-
talline masses.
The mines are entered by eleven sep
arate shafts, which open, at five differ
ent levels, into galleries that branch in
to perfect labyrinth Of passages and
chambers. 1T Is said that the galleries
which have already been eNcavated have
an aggregate length of considerably
more than 400 miles. The salt lies about
200 feet beneath the surface, and thence
extends down to depth of about ,O2O
feet. The direction of the bed Is east
and west, following the bend ofthc Car
pathian Mountains, and appearing in
small deposits at intervals until il enters
Transylvainia, where extensive mines
exist.
The annual product of the Wieliczka
mines is 100000 cwt.; and at this rate
1t is calculated that the Weld will not
be exhausted for at least 800 years. 1t
is not known when the deposit was dis
covered, but il was being quarred by
Poland at the beginning of the twelfth
century, and had become source of
great profit under Casimir the Great, in
yearly net income of the mine wa, ST.
100000. According to the treaty exc
cuted on the partition of Poland, Aus
tria is compelled to furnish to Russia
100000 cwt., of the annual product of
salt, and 100000 to Prussia, leaving
iOO, 900 cwt. to herself.
Some of the old chambers in the mine
are $50 feet in height, but the recent
ones are much smaller. The most an
cicnt of the halls is called the chapel of
St. Anthony, and is adorned with col
umns, statues of the saints, an altar, a
crucifix, 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 conse-
quently undergoing slow process of
dissolution. Another large chamber,
designated as Francis Joseph's Hall, is
fitted up as ballroom, with large chan
dcliers, and statues of Vulcan and
Neptune, wrought out of the universal
mineral. On the occasion of the visit
of any Of the royal family at the mines,
and also at the occurrence of festivals,
the chambers and passages are brilliant
ly illuminated, fireworks and guus are
shot off, and the scene is altogether like
Il chapter from fairy tale, or like
passage from the account of the Pluto
nian regions in the mythologies of the
anciente.
In one part OF the mine there j. I, lake
$50 feet long and forty feet deep, which
is formed by the accumulation OF the
water trickling through the strata. Vis-
itors are padded across in boat
thereby enjoying an excursion, II NAV
be presumed, quite similar in its gloomy
and weird sensations to that W hich
travellers experience in the trip over the
rock-bound lake i'll Mammoth Gave.
Bayard Taylor says Of the Wielczha
mine: at is a bewildcring maze OF gal
lorics, grand halls, staircases, and vault
ed chambers, where one loses 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 quarrying. had
been bridged across. Az 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, rescmblcd n Grecian the
atre,-thc traces of blocks taken out in
regular layers representing the seni' for
the spectators. Out OF this single hall
l,OOo,OOO cwt. of salt has been taken,
or enough to supply the I0,0O0,0O in
habitants of Austria for one year.
OF the method Of mining the salt, Mr.
Taylor writes: '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 II series of grooves.
One side is then decpcned to the re-
quired thickness, and, wedges being in
serted under the block, it is soon split
oil. 1t is then split transversely, into
pieces of one cwt. each, in which form
il Is ready for sale. Those intended for
Russia are rounded on the edges and
corners until they acquire the shape of
large cocoons, for the convenience of
transportation into the interior of the
country. The number ofworkmen en-
ployed in the mines is 1900, all of
whom belong to the upper crust'-that
Is, they live on the outside of the
world. They are divided into gangs,
and relieve each other every six hours"
The miners are, as rule, as healthy
as the men who labor above ground,
and no particular form of disease il gen
Grated by their existence in mn atmos-
phere of salt. One might fancy that at
least their fieshy tissues would be pre-
served against all possible decay by
their thorough saturation with salt. II
is noted that the wood used in the mines
never changes, except as il Is worn by
abrasion. So should the miners last,
suffering merely gradual transforma-
ton into picked mummies.
4 Had Thing for the Lawyers.
\ demonstrating woman, about
forty years old, called AT lawyer, Of