The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-09-06
SALT WORKERS OF cAoIz.
Furious Ways of Strange Class In
Pint civ.

That City.
A considerable part of the province of
Cadiz, in Spain, is low. marshy ground,
unfit for cultivation. Nevertheless it is
turned to good account by being utilized
for the production of salt by evaporation.
This is one of the most extensive indus
tries and sources of revenue in the prov
ince. 1t gives employment to thousands
of workmen and makes CadiZ an impor-
tant seaport. as more than two-thirds of
the 100000 tons annually produced Is ex-
ported to foreign lands.
The pans are dug out in the muddy soil.
They vary in size, but are of q uniform
depth of ten inches. All the salt pro-
ducing land is intersected with innumer-
able small canals. From June to Sep
temher is the season for salt production.
During this period from three TO four
harveStS are gathered.
The salt workers form a distinct class
of workmen. One generation follows an
other. They are born and bred to it and
form one huge family. No outsider need
dream of getting work there.
1t is a curious sight to see the men at
work and the way they get about. The
business requires considerable skill. The
Soil is muddy and is almost a quicksand.
ANY person unacquainted with the work
setting foot on a salt pan would be
drawn down and swallowed up in a very
few minutes. The way the salt workers
get about this dangerous ground, one leg
at time, barely resting the toes and
knee on the mud, is an art in itself.
All the work is done in the most prim-
tive fashion, and it is useless to attempt
to introduce innovations. The men will
not tolerate new methods. In making
sluices for the passage of water from pan
to pan and from the larger canals they
cannot be induced to use any other i'm
plement than their toes.
The salt. as it is collected, is piled up
into pyramids about 30 feet square at the
base and rising to height of about 81
feet. and for at least 20 miles before
reaching Cadiz and travelling by rail the
Traveller is struck by the sight of hun
drcds and hundreds of these pyramids
wherever the eye can reach. At night
the glstcning pyramids form a scene at
once fantaStical and imposing.
The whole of the salt business is in
the hands of the salt workers. from the
gathering of the salt to the putting of il
into the holds of the ships. Dock labor
ers and harbor men who do all other
kinds of loading or unloading are exclud
ed. The salt workers have their own
special craft for carrying the salt from
the pans to the harbor
The process of salt loading is curious
The ships holds are lined with mating
end as soon rs the ship is ready to take
in salt the craft come alongside laden tC
the gunwale. A sheet of canvas is Their
put down from the ships hold to the
small craft alongside, and the men. with
their special wooden shovels, start throw
ing up salt. Naturally a ship of 300 tc
400 tons in ballast is very high out of the
water. and to see the men at work woulG
give one the impression that as much
salt falls back as is being thrown up
Nevertheless the ship is laden in an in
credibly short time and ready for sea
Notwithstanding this primitive and ap
parently absurd process of loading.