The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-11-26
THE ORIGIN OF SALT.
All Our Sources or supply UIsImateI
Derived from the Briny Ocean.


The world was once q 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, hoated in q gaseous condi-
ton on the outside. But the great en-
velope Of Vapor thus produced did not
consist merely of tho 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
emit atmosphere. BY and by. as the
cooling and condenslng process con-
tinued, the water settled down from
the condition of steam into one of o
LIQUID at a dull red heat As it con-
densed it carried down with tia 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
tiers close up to the point of saturation.-
1t was full of lime and raw flint. and
sulphates, and many other miscella--
neous bodies. Moreover, it was not
only Just as salt as at the present day.
but even a great deal 'salter. For from
that time to this evaporation has been
constantly going on in certain shallow.
isolated areas, laying down great beds
of gypsum and then OF salt, which still
remain in the solid condition. while the
water has likewise happened In 3
slightly different way with the lime and
4, not esh
the water chiefly by living animals, and
afterwards deposited on the bottom of
the ocean in immense layers, as lime
stone, chalk, sandstone aud clay. Thus
it turns out that in the end all our
sources Of salt supply are alike ulti-
mateiy derived from the briny ocean.
Whether we dig it ont as solid rock
salt from the open quarries of the Pun
lab, or pnmp il up from the brine wells
sunk into the triassic rocks of Chess
shire, or eFaporate il direct il the salt
pans of the Mediterranean shore, it Is
often at bottom essentially sea salt.
| However distant tho connection may
seem our salt is always in the last re-
sort obtained from the material held in
| solution in some ancient or modern
sea. Even the saline springs of Cana
! da and the northern States of America.
| where the wapita lore to congregate.
and the noble hunter turks In the
thieket to murder the impoverished. de-
/ rive their saitness, as an able Cana
dian geologist has shown, from the
| thinly-scatfered salts still retained
among tbs sediments Of that very
| archaic sea whose preeipitates form the
| earliest known lns-bearing rocks. Ii
the Homerie Creek rs 10 MIR. Dick
i. SWiyeller, the ocean WAS always hrinyi
| to modern science, on the other hand
| (which neither of these worthless woult
probably have appreciated at its owE
Il valuation), the hriuy Is always thS
oceanic. The fossil food which VI
find to-day npon ail our dinuer.tables
dates back is origin primarily 20 ths
; Hrst seas that ever covered the eurfafs
4 OF orr planet, aud seeoHdaxily 70 Ihi
!, great rock deposits Of the sried-n.
friassic inland sea, And ret eur mel
OF science hahlgually deSsFihe that Hn
eisnt lalnerzi IS epmmen ssih Cora
hfft H1ecsfns.