The Washington times., 1901-10-27
A TOWN WHICH Is SINKING
Northwich Rapidly Disappearing
Into a Salt Mine.
Blocks of Houses Have Dropped Into
Subterrnnean Cnvitics-Thousnnds
OF buildings Damaged Through
Their Foundations Slipping Away

Their Foundations Slipping Auny
| Northwich, England, a town located
| over salt mine. cuts a hole under itself
| every little bit and then slips down in the
| hole. It's funny thing to live In North
| wich, for nobody who lives there keeps
on level long. Some times the windows
are above the street and sometimes on the
street level, and then again sometimes
! beneath the street level But Northwich
| is used to it.
! In Northwich a householder may go to
bed in the attic and awaken in the bow
| els of the earth in the morning. He
| doesn't swear He digs himself up to air
| and daylight with calm mind. born of
contemplation OF similar occurrences on
| every hand. If COW or friend or a
| house is missing in Northwich the inhabi-
| tants do not offer a reward. They merely
| look into the latest hole. In Northwich, IL
| a man is talking business or gossip with
another manfand the other man suddenly
| begins to sink away, the first man simply
says 80 long," and passes on
| When a whole house dives headlong into
| subterranean mysteries in Northwieh no
! one worries. for the houses are hooped
| with iron bands andt fastened together
| with nuts and bolts in readiness for just
such a trip Periodically Northwich has
| to take hold of itself by its suspenders
and hoist itself back into a proper and
| becoming dignified position in the upper
world.
Northwich sinks away because, like the
man who sawed off the limb that he was
sitting on, it burrows under itself and
takes away its own foundations all the
time.
1t cannot secure Itself, because 1t makes
| money by taking away its own props. 1t
| isn't worth a pinch of snuff as town,
compared with what ii is worth as
| hole in the ground. That is because it Is
a town built on salt.
To mine this salt the clever persons
who owned the mines found that they
needed a town for ttler employees to live
IN, and for shops TO supply them. and for
offices and works. But their calculations
showed that, were they 20 buy land
enough for that purpose near their salt
deposits the necessary investment and
| interest on that investment would be
sad figure to contemplate. So they hit
on the happy idea of building the little
city on top of their subteTranean treas
ure house and then letting it fall into the
holes whenever necessary. 1t was cheap
er in the end.
Northwich has salt enough to pickle all
the world. The ancient Romans knew of
its salt springs and used them with sin
cere pleasure to cure soH:e of the ills ac-
quired by high diet and low living. But
no one delyed deep to find the source Of
the saline supply until the strenuous sew
enteenth century appeared on the stage
and produced the unpleasant. type of man
who wanted TO know why. For long
time only the upper stratum was worked
But finally 1t was discovered that deep
below It were great underground seas of
pure brine; and now the chief method of
mining is to pump this brine to the sur
face and to crystalline 1t in the works. 1t
is this pumping method that makes exist
ence SO elusive and puzzIing az thing in
Northwich Formerly, when men simply
dug holes. 1t was comparatively easy for
person to calculate that whatever stood
over that particular place would fall
down after all the bottom had disappear
ed But now that the pumps are at work.
1t is vastly different. The pump may
suck few thousand cubic feet from un-
der the northeast end of the town and
the southwest end will fall down. 1t all
depends on how the hidden brine moves
in response to the suction.
Salt brine that amounts to 10000 cubic
yards of solid salt is removed annually
hole large enough to accommodate the
entire town once a year. And the town
takes full advantage of the opportunity.
One respectable and sober ccitizen sat
in front of his honest fireplace one raw
evening watching the ruddy flames curl |
upward and feeling happy and safe in |
The snug domesti2ity of his home, listen |
ing to the wild storm without: suddenly |
the domestic hearth cracked a little, sigh |
ed a little, caved little, and then slid |
away into lower blackness, leaving him |
sitting before a yawning well in the |
gloomy depths of which he saw the |
twinkle of his far withdrawn fire.
A good and able COW was being MIXED |
when at once the mixer was left before |
an open cavity in the earth whence is |
sued plaintive mocs. There was no sweet |
fresh milk that night in his house |
or the next morning-not in |
deed. until poor Blossie had suffered the
indignity of being fished for like a shark,
and finally, having been caught around
the horns. of being hauled to daylight
like bag of meal. She was covered with !
brine, and some Northwich persons aver |
that the cow has since given salted milk |
Among the articles that have disap- |
peared suddenly in full view of the spec |
tators like the ghost of HaInlet's father, |
are such things as a sausage machine a |
whipping top a coat rack, and pair of |
overshoes. These and other dire losses
are chronicled not in the small beer his
torical legends of the towkn, but in a
serious and heavy parliamentary report
No American town could have furnished |
the matter for such a grave array of
statements as are contained in this bulky
volume of statistical humor What
American town. for instance could have
foregone the opportunity to cut loose from
sober declaration of fact and make funny
side remarks when reporting the interest
ing circumstance. as the parliamentary
report does with soIemnity, that coinci-
dent with the subsistence into a chasm of
the sausage machine, a valuable dog be-
longing to a prominent citizen of North
wich also disappeared?
A whole jewelers. stock mas found the
briny deep under the town In the even
ing the trusting jeweler locked up his
shop with padlocks and burglar alarms
and all complete. In the morning he
found it locked as he had left it, but in
side it was different The burglarious salt
mine had reached up from the depths in
the night and taken the real diamonds
and the massive gold and the pearls and
sapphires to deck its gnomes and ogres.
Maybe even Lots wife wears some of
that poor Northwich jewelers. stock to-
day-who knows?
The Wonan's Christian Temperance
Union should feel delighted by the knowi- |
edge that among the things that have
been buried without warning were the en- |
tire contents of the cellar of the best bar
room in the town. All Northwich feels |
this calamity keenly, for the salty condi-
tion of the place is conducive to thirst. |
1t is recorded that no other loss ever wor-
lied the town SO much unless perhaps it