Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-08-05
SKETCHES OF SOUTHWEST WIZ
GINA.
NO. s-saIsvIlIe and Abingdon.

and Plaster Company" 1t is joint stock
company Of S1,OOO,O 900, owned chiefly by
themselves, and they and their predecessors
have Invested much capital in land, ma
chinery and buildings, and are working the
gifts OF nature to their own profit, and to
the advantage and prosperity Of the coun-
try.
The valley is a sudden depression Of the
higher country around, hemmed in by the
most beautiful, smooth end rounded hills
imaginable. 1t is evidently the bed Of a
once salt sea, and Nature, in drying 1t up,
has adorned it with her most charming dress
and most picturesque form. The gaps be-
tween these hills are backed by other hills
OF like shape, the smooth tops and slopes Of
all being dotted with trees, and the valley
bottoms covered with luxuriant grass.
It's natural beauties remind one Of Ma
coochee valley, in upper Georgia, but are,
think, inferior, though both are wonder
fully attractive. Imagine Nacoochee to be
the seat of prosperous little village, grow
ing rich by mining the products Of nature,
with telegraph lines threading 1t, and a
telephone crossing its width, and you will
have an idea of the mingled beauties Of
nature and art that delight the visitor to
Saltville. Add to this that the larger part
Of the valley is a fine herd farm, on which
is raised some of the finest stock 10 South
west Virginia, and you will not wonder that
visitors in this region often make Saltville
an objective point.
Perhaps write in a more sober style, be-
cause l have just read the following over
drawn picture by native of this spot;
"Saltvtlle stands In basin cut by the hand
of nature out of an emerald. This lovely
vale sits the mistress of all scenery. Beyond
the power of description, vocabulary of
praise would hang like an ugly web upon
its quiet beauty. 1t Is sweetest nature in
its nOblest moment, frozen into eternal re-
pose. 1t is a poem of Heaven, making
music in the hearts of the glad and the sad
alike. 1t is the last and most beautiful
touch Of the Almighty Hand, renewed every
year in changing hues, speaking plainly:
This is ma handiwork, behold TT"
At all events, the accounts | had had Of
the beauty and interest of Saltville Valley
was such as to lead me thither last week,
and so in company with two young Savan-
nah friends, whom l had induced to stop
over here, left Wythevlle on the night
train for Glade Springs, forty miles west
After breakfast, the next day, we got IN the
cars of the Saltville Railway, a branch Of
this great railroad, and built by 1t to facili-
tate the salt and gypsum freight, and after
nine miles Of slow travel we were set down
In front Of the company's store. This little
road runs through a beautiful country,
which prepares one to expect a beau
tiful terminus; while the approach to
Nacoochee is so destitute of fine
scenery that l think the valley is all
the more lovely for that very reason. Two
miles from Glade Springs depot are the
"Seven Springs" where, in the space Of an
acre, ARE found seven distinct mineral waters,
each with a single ingredient predominant,
such as alum, magnesia, iron, etc, etc.
These waters are drunk separate or mixed,
as one desires, for curative purposes, or,
when mixed and evaporated, they yield
residuum, technically called 'mass," that is
sent abroad and sold SIS a medicine. | tried
the alum water, and found 1t thoroughly
answering to its name. This branch rail-
way is peculiar in the fact that from the
summit point there is gradual
ends, and so train, drawn
by engines from either end to this point,
will descend by gravity to the other end. In
this way our car entered SaltVille seemingly
propelling itself.
| regretted to learn that the proprietors,
to whom / had brought letters of introduce
ton, were both absent, but all the. courte-
sizes that we could desire were rendered us by
Mr.. PalmeT's son-in-aw, Mr.. Wiley, to
WuOu We are lIu6Dt6u lot Tue kluu6SL az
tention during the few hours of our stay,
and for the information which this letter
contains.
Salt is made chiefly by evaporation Of
ocean water, or the water of salt lakes and
open springs or by mining the white rock
salt, found In some counties in beds like
coal in the mine. But In SaItville there are
no surface salt springs nor beds of pure salt
fit TO be mined and used. Salt water under
lies and permeates the strata OF rock salt,
and it is reached by boring through these to
the depth of $50 to 300 feet after the artesian
style. These masses of salt water may be
called salt springs, Just as every well is a
spIiDg, and when the water is reached 1t
rises by atmospheric pressure to about 200
feet from the top, and is then pumped up
by a steam engine to the ground surface
These wells are sunk through the solid beds
and the pumps pour out a continuous stream
OF nearly saturated salt water. From the
pumps IL is delivered into reservoir TWEEN
tvfive or thirty feet high, to give it a head,
and is then conducted through pipes-pine
logs bored QUITO the boilers.
1t is useless, and would be impolitic, to
mine these salt beds, for, being full Of dirt
and other refuse, they would have to be
dissolved in water before this refuse could
be precipitated by boiling. So nature her
self assists man by dissolving this impure
salt within the earth, and accumulates there
volumes of salt water that need only to be
bored for and pumped up for use. This
water holds in solution nearly all the salt
possible, that is, it is nearly saturated
solution.
The boilers are our common sugar kettles,
holding about eighty gallons each, and
hundred and fifty of them are set In three
double rows on brick foundation or bed,
q path being left between the rows for the
workmen to pass up and down, and the heat
is applied to the furnace below, bituminous
coal being the fuel. There are five such
furnaces in the works, holding in all seven
hundred boilers, but at present only one fur
mace is in use. In this, however, we had the
novel sight Of twelve thousand gallons Of
salt water converting itself into four thous-
and gallons Of salt by the agency of one
fire. 1t even eXcites one to behold the fu-
rious ebullition of there masses of water,
and the rapid production OF the snow white
salt as 1t is lifted out and allow
ed to drip from baskets be-
fore removal, making the whole
atmosphere hot and thick with volumes of
vapor, salt enough to stimulate and benefit
weak lungs. Persons of delicate health are
much benefited by imhaling this vapor.
The salt is beautifully white and smooth,
as the water precipitates all the dirt and
other coarse and insoluble matter which
from time to time is scTaped off the kettles.
All the salt made is fttest for cooking and
table use, though it may be used in putting
up meat, but there is an objection that it
keeps the meat damp and causes 1t to drip.
The degree Of fneness depends on the
quickness Of the boiling, the finer grain re-
sulting from the quicker boiling. There is
no coarse salt proper-alum salt-made.
After fairly drying, the salt is wheeled
away in barrows to the packing room, three
bushels, or one hundred and fifty pounds,
allowed to the bag. This process is the
simplest possihle--an iron bar working on a
pivot, to one end of which the sack is hung,
and its mouth open, land a weight of one hun
dred and fifty pounds suspended at the other,
the equipOis being seen at once, without any
graduated scale, as the sack is filled. The
sack, already stamped "HostOn Salt and
Plaster Company, of Saltville, Va" is sew
ed up while the next oneis filling, and is ready
for shipment to the first purchaser. The
salt is sold here at 81 IS per sack, but fur
Their to the East, where 1t completes with
Liverpool SALT It fetches a smaller price.
l believe have said that the water con-
tains 331< per cent of salt, as is shown by
the prUprietor's statement that twenty four
gallons OF water yield a bushel (eight gal
lons) OF salt It ia therefore as strong as
the safest waters Of open lskes-the Great
Salt Lake, for instance. The proprietors do
not speak Of this sadness at 335< per cent,
but a. 80 per cent which, as commonly un-
derstood, is incredible !; but their meaning
is that the water lacks but 10 per cent. OF
saturation, which may be true
enough. At first took their meaning to
be that the solid matter in the water was
8 10 chloride Of sodium.
These salt wells were discovered many
years ago by accident, the boring being