Certain Observations of the Midland Salt-Springs of Worcester-Shire, Stafford-Shire and Cheshire. Of the Grude Salt, Which Grows from the Stone-Powder Dejected by the Said Brines in Boyling. Of the Specifick Difference betwixt Sea Salt and Common Salt. A Way (Which Seems to be the True Method of Nature) of Distilling Sweet and Fresh Water from Sea Water, by the Breath of Sea Plants Growing in It. That This Breath Probably is the Material Cause of the Trade or Tropick Winds. In a Letter to the Publisher from the Learned Martin Lister Dr. of Physick of the University of Oxon

Certain Observations of the Midland Salt-Springs of Worcester-shire, Stafford-shire and Cheshire. Of the Crude Salt, which grows from the Stone-powder dejected by the said Brines in Boyling. Of the specific difference betwixt Sea Salt and Common Salt. A way (which seems to be the true method of Nature) of Distilling Sweet and Fresh Water from Sea Water, by the Breath of Sea Plants growing in it. That this Breath probably is the Material Cause of the Trade or Tropick Winds. In a Letter to the Publisher from the learned Martin Lister Dr. of Physick of the University of Oxon. SIR, I Made all the Witches or noted salt Springs in my way home from Bath, the last Summer, and spent some few hours in the examining of them. And what particulars I found over and above not mentioned in the Phil. Transact. f where they are very accurately writ of, I am about to tell you, as follows. But before I proceed I must needs bear witness to the truth of Dr. Guido's experiments, most of which I tried myself at Bath, and find him to be a most Authentic, and faithful writer. I do only yet doubt of the existence of Bitumen for I cannot find the Floating Scum when dried to have any such thing in it. At Northwich in Cheshire upon the Weever in 4 Pits is great plenty of Brine, it stinks of Sulphur Apparently in all the Pits; it becomes Atramentous with Galis. Here are used Sand Pans, which are let down in the Corners of the great Iron Boilers, before the Salt shoots into grains, and these catch the Sand. f N. 53. N. 54. N. 142. Besides there are thick Stone Flakes raised from the Bottom of the said Iron Boylers, once a week. N. B. Within half a Mile of these Brine Pits at Marberry a Salt Rock was found by the Augur in boring for Coals. Here, and at Middlewich, also at Nantwich and all along the River Weever, which are places many miles distant, sink on either side of the River, and you will scarce miss of Brine, as I was credibly informed by the most knowing men in that particular: But yet it proves a venture whether the Brine will be strong enough to boil, and turn to Account; and for this Reason their Pits sometimes fail them, to their great loss (as they shewed me one, which had been wrought to very great profit,) by a small sweet Spring breaking into it, and sometimes the River Weever itself does them this mischief. A' Nantwich upon the same River, is one very large Brine-Pit: This water also plainly smells as it were corrupted, or like Sulphur, but notoriously upon a few days forbearance of the Pit. It becomes Atramentous with Galls. It yeilds a White Sand or Stone adhering in the manner of thin Scales to the Bottom of the Iron Pans, in which the Brine is boiled. And thus much of the Cheshire Brine Pits. Weston Brine Pit near Stafford. This water in the Pit Stinks like rotten Eggs: with Galls it becomes suddenly Atramentous. It Purges and Vomits violently, and that drank in a small Quantity. Here are used Sand-pans, to catch the white Sand, and there are flakes of Stone also, raised from the bottom of the great Iron Boylers. Droitwich in Worcestershire. The upper Wich or Brine-Pit is very neatly kept, and exceedingly drawn, because there are so many Proprietors, and but a small Pit, com- Phil. Trans. N. cc. paratively to those which have been named above. Here the Salt is boiled in small Leaden Pans, and there is not the least grain of Sand at any time, which either falls before the Graining of the Salt, or that adheres to the Pans bottoms; notwithstanding what hath been said to the contrary: and therefore this Brine being naturally without Sand, it must yeild the more wholesome Salt. The Lower Pit at the ne'er her Wich in the same Town, hath but one Proprietor, as I remember, and therefore is less drawn, but yet is constantly and well wrought. Here also is no news or knowledge of any Sand at all. The water of these Pits stinks like Rotten Eggs, especially after Sundays rest: And (N.B.) will, if flesh be pickled in them, make it stink in 12 Hours. And yet the Salt that is boiled out of these Pits is accounted the very best inland Salt of England, and I believe as good as any in the world. I doubt not but they are Atramentous; but I forgot to try them with Galls. I observed in a Ditch over against the other Wich-houses, the water standing with a White Scum as at the Sulphur Spaws in Yorkshire. I shall add by way of Corollarie, 1. That all our Yorkshire Wells called Sulphur Spaws (which are many) are no other than so many Brine Pits, and if they were well drawn and wrought would be as little offensive in smell. 2. That this Stone-powder is also to be found adhering to the Iron-pans, where the Sea-water is boiled into Salt, as it is at Shields in the Bishoprick of Durham; But I do not remember it to be in the lead pans at Med p and Milthrop in Lancashire where the Sea Sands are lixiviated, and that Lixivium boiled into Salt; nor is it remembered in the ac- b John Collins S. and Fish p.8 52. count given of the making of Sea-Salt by Infolation; Nor could I observe it in the least in distilling of Seawater in a Glass still, or in the Yorkshire stinking Wells, of which a good quantity is yearly made for Medical use or rather Curiosity to vend to Strangers. N. B. This Sand falls to the Bottom before the Salt grains. This is so also in all other Mineral Salts, whose Brines being boiled, ever let go first this stony part: the Okar falls in powder upon the first boiling but the Lapis Calcarius rises in flakes like Wafers, which yet falls in powder by frost, as we have elsewhere observed. 3. This Stone powder irrigated with fair water and kept moist does yield an immature Salt of an uncommon figure; which I have described at large and figured. 4. Notwithstanding the great Affinity betwixt the Salt of the Midland Brine-Pits which is Common Salt, and the Sea Salt: I must not omit (amongst others) a specific Difference, which is by me, (that I know of) now first published, and which, in my Opinion, makes the Sea-Water, a Water of its own kind: and also shews that none of the Productions of incinerated Plants are truely a Marine Salt. The Angles of the Crystals of Common Salt, boiled out of the Midland Brine-Pits; as also of Sal Gem or Rock Salt, which I take to be one and the same, are entire, and so are all those Lixiviated-marine Salts so called and described by Dr. Grew. But the Angles of the Crystals of true Sea Salt are ever some of them cut off into Triangular planes, at least on one of the sides. And this I learnt, by suffering a Bottle of Sea Water, taken up upon the coast at Scarborough where no river near enters it, to evaporate leisurely placed in the shade, after it had been half boiled away: and here all the Crystals (which were many, c Phil. Trans. N.51. d De Fontib. Med. Angl. ed. 2. e N. P. The Inland Brine Pits yeild no bittern, of which see Mr. Collins. p. 54. and of different Magnitudes) did yet agree in a like figure, as is described. This Experiment I repeated with the like success; and do not doubt, but that it will succeed with any Sea Water, which shall be brought from any other part of the world, which this Society shall please to direct to be done. Further, I say that probably the Sea-water was the only Element of Water created at the beginning. And the congregation of the waters was called Sea. Genes. 1. that is, before any Animal or Vegetable was created, or the Sun itself. But upon the Creation of these the fresh water had its rise accidentally, because it owes its being in great part (as I have elsewhere shewn) to the Vapours of Plants and the Breath of Animals and the Exhalations raised by the sun. and by this means the Rivers may be furnished from the Sea by the Breath of its own Plants and Animals, so as to make what the wise man says very intelligible. Eccles: 1. All the Rivers run into the Sea, and the Sea is not full; into the place from whence the Rivers come, thither they return again; that is by way of Exhalation and Vapours. Now that the Sea water is made fresh by the Breath of Plants growing in it, I have elsewhere demonstrated thus; I took a long Glass Bodie and having filled it pretty full with Sea-water, taken up at Scarborough, I put therein common sea weed (Alga Marina) fresh and new gathered, some with the Roots naked, and some growing on and adhering to Stones: the Glass Bodie being full, I put thereon a head with a Beck, and adapted a Receiver thereto, all without any Lute or closing the joints; from these Plants did distil daily (though in a small quantity) a fresh, very sweet, and potable Water, which hath no Empyreuma, or unpleasant tan, as all those distilled by fire necessarily have. f De Font. Med. Angl. g De F. M. Angl. I urge this Experiment, as the most natural, most easy, and most safe way of having sweet water from the Sea, and which may be of greater use than perhaps some are apt at the first to fancy, even to supply the Necessity of Navigators. 6. And I do not doubt but there may be found other Plants growing in or near the Sea which would better suit the Experiment and yield fresh water in much greater quantity; such as Rock Sampire the Kali kind, or the Brassica Marina &c. for all or any of these may be tried how they will thrive in Sea water alone, or planted in earth well and daily wet with it. Among the known Sea Plants the Sargosse or Lenticula Marina, is not to be forgot; this grows in vast quantities from 36 to 18 Degrees Northern Latitude, and elsewhere upon the deepest Seas. And I think (to say something by the by of that great Phenomenon of the Winds) from the daily and constant breath of that Plant, the Trade or Tropic Winds do in great part arise: because the matter of that Wind, coming (as we suppose) from the breath of only one Plant, it must needs make it constant and uniform: Whereas the great variety of Plants and Trees at Land must needs furnish a confused matter of Winds: Again the Levant Breezes are briskest about Noon, the sun quickening the Plant most then, causing it to breathe faster, and more vigorously; and that Plants mostly languish in the night is evident from many of them, which contract themselves and close at that time; also from the effects of our Winters upon them, which cause them to cast both fruit and leaves too; whereas they are said (the same Plants for kind) universally to flourish all the year alike within the Tropicks. As for the direction of this Breeze from East to West, it may be owing to the General current of the Sea, for a gentle Air will still be lead with the stream of our Rivers, for example. Again every Plant is in some measure an Heliotrop, and bends itself, and moves after the Sun, and consequently emits its vapours thitherward, and so its direction is in that respect also owing in some measure to the Course of the Sun.