SALT MINES AND SPRINGS OF CHESHIRE, ENGLAND. The Cheshire rock-salt, with very few exceptions, has hitherto been ascertained to exist only in the valleys bordering on the river Weaver and its tributary streams; in some places manifesting its presence by springs impregnated with salt, and in others being known by mines actually carried down into the substance of the salt strata. Between the source of the Weaver and Nantwich, many brine springs make their appearance; and occur again at several places, in proceeding down the stream. At Moulton, a mine has been sunk into the body of rock-salt, and a similar mine is wrought near Middlewich. At Northwich, brine springs are very abundant; and there also many mines have been sunk for the purpose of working out the fossil salt. In that vicinity a body of rock-salt has been met with in searching for coal. The brines in this district are formed by the penetration of spring or rain waters to the upper surface of the rock-salt, in passing over which they acquire such a degree of strength, that one hundred parts have yielded twenty-seven of pure salt, thus nearly approaching to the perfect saturation of brine. Their strength is therefore much greater than that of the salt springs met with in Hungary, Germany and France. The brine having been pumped out of the pits, is first conveyed into large reservoirs, and afterward drawn off as it is needed, into pans made of wrought iron. Here heat is applied in a degree determined by the nature of the salt to be manufactured, and various additions are made to the brine, with a view either to assist the crystallization of the salt, or to promote the separation of the earthy particles, which exist in a very small proportion. The importance of the manufacture of Cheshire salt will be sufficiently obvious from the statement, that, besides the salt made for home consumption, the annual amount of which has exceeded sixteen thousand tuns, the average of the quantity sent yearly to Liverpool for exportation, has not been less than one hundred and forty thousand tuns.