The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-12-03
THE ORIGIN OF sAIr.
All Our Sources or Supply UItimatsiy
Derived from the Brsny Ocean.

The world was once haze of fluid
light, as the poets and the men OF
science agree in informing US. As soon
as it began to cool down little the
heavier materials naturally sank to-
ward the centre, while the lighter,
now represented by the ocean and the
atmosphere, Aoated in a gaseous condi-
ton on the outside. But the great en-
veiope of vapor thus produced did not
consist merely of the constituents OF
the air and water; many other gases
and Vapors mingled with them, as they
still do to far less extent in our pres
ont atmosphere. BY and by, as the
cooling and condensing process con-
tinued, the water settled down from
the condition of steam into one of .
liquid at adult red heat. As it con.
densed it carried down with it a great
many other substances, held in solu.
ton, whose component elements had
previously existed in the primitive gas
.eous atmosphere. Thus the early ocean
which covered the whole earth was in
all probability not only very salt, but
also very thick with other mineral mat
ters close up to the point of saturation.
1t was full of lime and raw flint. and
suiphates, and many other miscella-
neous bodies Moreover, il was not
only just as salt as at the present day,
but even great deal saIter. For from
that time to this evaporation has been
constantly going on in certain shallow.
isolated areas, laying down great beds
ofgyPsum and then of salt, which still
remain in the solid condition, while the
water has likewise happened in q
slightly different way with the lime and
flint. which have been separated from
the water chiefly by living animals, and
afterwards deposited on the bottom of
the ocean in immense layers, as lime
stone, chalk, sandstone and clay. Thus
It turns out that in tne end all our
sources Of salt supply are alike ulti-
mately derived from the briny ocean.
Whether we dig it out as solid rock
salt from the open quarries of the Pun
5ab, or pnmp 1t up from the brine wells
sunk into the triassic rocks of Ches-
shire, or evaporate II direct In the salt
pans OF the Mediterranean shore, it is
often at bottom essentially sea salt.
However distant the connection may
seem our salt is always in the last re-
sort obtained from the material held in
solution n some ancient or modern
sea. Even the saline springs of Cana
da and the northern States of America.
Whero the wnpita love TO congregate,
and the noble hunter turks fl the
shicket 70 murder the unperceived, de-
rive their Rastness, as an able Cana.
dian geologist has shown, from the
thiniy- sca9tersd salts still retaiued |
among the sediments OF that very
archaic sea whose precipitates form the |
earliest known iifs-bearing rocks. 10 /
the Homsric Greek, IS 50 Mr.. Dick |
sHivelieE, the ocean WAS always brinyt |
% modsrn science % the other hand /
(which neithgr Of these Hnrthies would /
probably hare appreciated At Ets own /
eslHAtlo1t, tho hriny Il alWars fEa /
aesania, Tha fossil toed Ehieh Hs /
Rad tssdAr Upon aii nnr diHEsksfabias
less hsek he ofigia primarily - the /
.fss asaH t4ss ever covered tbs aEsfsea
81 1ssF pianek ard aeeoEdefIly . The
gesas tpek dspnsits q 1he dy:sd-rf
.lssssia iniaed ssa. Ard yaf osiT ntsa
e aefsu6e hasltHaii7 isssfIfa Inst So
tat s1sssEsi IS ealssEeH SELF sfis