West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1885-10-16
ORIGIN OF eNoLANo's SALT.
The Dricd-Up Rays from Which THAT
Country obtains Her supplies.


The Drlod-Up Bays from witch THAT
Country obtains H.r supplies.
Our English salt supply is chiefly de-
rived from the Cheshire and Worcester
shire salt regions. which are of trasSic
age, Many of the places at which tho
salt is mined have names ending in
Wi"h. such rs NOrthwich, Middlewich.
Nantwich, Droitwich, Ncthcrwich aud
Shirlcywich This termination wich is
itself curiously significant, rs Mr.. Isaac
TAYLOR has shown OF the necessary con-
nccton between salt and the sea- Tho
earliest known way of producing salt
was of course in shallow pans ON the
sea-shorc. at the bottom of shoal bay,
called in Morse and early English n
wick or wich; and the material so pro-
duood Is still known in trade as bay
salt. BY and by, when poUplo came to
discover the inland brine pits and salt
mines, they transferred Co them tho
familiar name, n wich; and the places
whore the salt was manufactured came
to he known as wyCh- houses. Droit-
wich. for example, was originally such
n wich, where the drot, or dues on salt
We're paid at the time when William the
Conqucror's commissioners drew up
thor great survey for Domcsday Book
But the good oasy-going medieval pco-
pie who gave these quaint names to the
inland wichos had probably no idea
that they were really aud truly dr'cd
mp bays, and tha' the salt they
mined from their pits was genuine
ancient bay salt, the deposit OF an
old inland sea evaporatcd 10y slow de-
grces countless number of ages since.
exactly rs the Dead Sea and the Great
Salt Lake arc getting cvaporatcd in our
own time
Such, nevertheless, is actually tho
case A good sized Caspian usod to
spread across the center Of England
and north Of Ireland in triassic times,
bounded here and there, rs well ~ DIR.
Hull can make ont, by the Welsh Mount
aims. the Chcviots aud the Donegal Hills,
aud with the Peak of Dcrbyshirc and tho
Isle OF Man standing ont rs separate
islands from its blue cXpansc Slowly,
like most other inland seas. this early
British Caspian began TO lose weight
and TO Shrivol away to ever smaller di-
mcnsions. In Devonshirc, where il APP
pears To have first dried up, we got no
salt, but only rcd mari. with here and
there a cubiCal cast, filling hole once
occupied 10y rock-salt, though the per
collation. of the rain has long since melt
ed out that very soluble substance and
replaced il by n mere mold i'm the char
actcristic square shape of salt crystals.
But Worcestershire and Cheshire were
the seat of the inland sea when it had
contracted 10 the dimensions of mere
salt lake and begun TO throw down its
dissolved saline materials. One of tho
Cheshire beds Is sometimes n hundred
feet thick Of almost pure and crystalline
rock salt The absence of fossils shows
that animals must have had as bad II
timesof il there as i'm the Dead Sea or
our modern Palestine.
The Droitwich brine pits have been
known for many centuries, since they
were worked (pnd taxed even before che
Norman conquest, "a were many other
similar wells elsewhere. But the actu-
al mining Of rock salt, as such, i'm En-
| gland, dates back only rs far as the reign
| OF King Charles H.. or more definitely
TO the very year in which the Pill
| grim's Progress was conceived and
written by John Bunyan. During that
| particular summer. an cntcTprising
person at Nantwich had sunk u shaft
for coal, which he failed TO find; bat
| ON his way down he came unexpectedly
across the bed of rock salt, then for the
first time discovered as naive miner
al. Since that fortunate accident, the
beds have been so cncrgctically worked
and the springs so cncrgctically pumped
that some Of the towns built on top Of
| them have got undermined and now
| threaten from year TO year, in the most
| literal sense. 30 cave in. In fact, one
or two subsidenCes of considerable ex-
tent have already taken place due in
| part. no doubt 10 the diesOlving action
Of rain water, but in part also TO the
| mode Of working. The mines arc APP
| preached by shaft and when you get
down 90 the level Of the old sea bottom
| you find yourself in a sort OF artificial
| gallery, whose roof, with all the world
on top of IL. Is supported every here and
| there by massive pillars, about fifteen
| feet thick. Considering that the salt
| lies often hundred and fifty yards
| deep and that these pillars have ~
hear the weight OF all that depth Of solid
! rock, II is not surprising that subsi-
! dcnces should sometimes occur i'm
abandoned shafts, where the water is
| allowed TO collect and slowly dissolve
away tho supporting columns. COrH-
! mn MOqnziHe.