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height from the bottom to the top, three hundred and thirty feet. The first forty yards of the pit: are composed of earth; after which a stratum of rock salt comes in, twenty-seven yards in thickness, of the colour and consistence of brown sugar-candy, but extremely hard; this the miners worked in an horizontal direction about fifty yards, and twelve yards deep, leaving fifteen yards of the stratum for a roof. Here for a moment our impressions were those of terror, as we appeared to hang in gloomy vacuity, with nothing to be seen below or on each of us. Coarse flag stone occupies the next ijttecn feet; after which comes in the second stra- tum of rock salt, ahead}' worked to the depth of forty yards. Having performed this descent with case and safety, we found ourselves in a circular ap irtment, whose area included nearly an acre and a half, the height about thirty feet; the flooring clay, and as hard as adamant; the roof fiat and iar, aipportcd by eight enormous pillars of salt, hewn by the workman into uniform shapes, about feci v Us: a! the 'font, twelve at the back, and 11 or ixiccn i'cci in thickness; the air of a most agreeable temperature; and the sceue around at once singular and beautiful.
The miners having previously provided some of their companions with tapers, and stationed them
VOL. II. W
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