The working of the three great Rumanian salt deposits present other examples of the persistent survival of ancient methods, but it must be admitted that an attempt was made at one time to introduce modern machinery. It was demonstrated that the machine produced more salt in a given time, and that the waste of about 25 per cent. of the salt attendant upon manual labour and the use of picks was saved, but as the supply of salt is practically inexhaustible, and there is no limit set upon the time of winning it, and as man-power, especially convict man-power, is cheaper than machinery, the authorities soon reverted to the old system. In the Slanic mine, in which the salt is crystalline, white, and almost absolutely pure, the free labourers, of whom about 500 are employed, are divided into gangs of six men. Each man takes an oblong piece of the floor of the mine, about as big as an ordinary tombstone, and, using his pick, scoops round it a narrow groove about 5 in. deep. This done, he summons the rest of his gang, and, standing beside him on the slab, they raise and bring down their picks simultaneously at the word of command. Force is necessary, but rhythmical accuracy in the planting of the blow is more essential, and by long practice the men have become so extraordinarily expert that they scarcely ever diverge a hair’s breadth from the point at which they aim. In a few minutes the persistent blows detach the slab, which the six men raise with the aid of a lever. The gang proceed from slab to slab until all six have been detached and lifted, after which each man breaks his own slab into chunks and loads it into a truck for removal to the shaft, through which it is hauled to the surface. An expert miner’s earnings at this work range from half a crown to three shillings a day.