DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0139
THE SALT MINES OF TOLAND. 117
their lives here. Through the midst of this plain, lies the
great road to the mouth of the mine. This road is always
filled with carriages loaded with masses of salt out of the
farther part of the mine, and carrying them to the place
where the rope belonging to the wheel receives them; the
drivers of these carriages are all merry and singing, and the
salt looks like a load of gems. The horses kept here are a
very great number, and when once let down, they never
see day-light again ; but some of the men take frequent oc-
casions of going up and breathing the fresh air. The in-
struments principally used by the miners are pick-axes,
hammers, and chissels^ with these they dig out the salt in
forms of huge cylinders, each of many hundred weight.
This is found the most convenient method of getting them
out of the mine, and as soon as got above ground, they are
broken into smaller pieces, and sent into the mills, where
they are ground to powder. The finest sort of the salt is
frequently cut into toys, and often passes for real crystal.
This hard kind makes a great part of the floor of the mine;
and what is the most surprising in the whole place is, that
there runs constantly over this, and through a large part of
the mine, a spring of fresh water; sufficient to supply the
inhabitants and their horses, so that they need not have any
from above ground. The horses usually grow blind, after
they have been some little time in the mine, but they do
as w'ell for service afterwards as before. After admiring the
wonders of this amazing place, it is no very comfortable re-
membrance to the stranger, that he is to go back again
through the same dismal way he came, and, indeed, the
journey is not much better than the prospect; the only
means of getting up is by the rope, and little more cere-
mony is used in the journey than in the drawing up of a
piece of salt. The salt dug from this mine is called Ziebna,
or Green Salt, but for what reason it is difficult to deter-
mine, its colour being an iron grey; when pounded, it has
r a dirty
their lives here. Through the midst of this plain, lies the
great road to the mouth of the mine. This road is always
filled with carriages loaded with masses of salt out of the
farther part of the mine, and carrying them to the place
where the rope belonging to the wheel receives them; the
drivers of these carriages are all merry and singing, and the
salt looks like a load of gems. The horses kept here are a
very great number, and when once let down, they never
see day-light again ; but some of the men take frequent oc-
casions of going up and breathing the fresh air. The in-
struments principally used by the miners are pick-axes,
hammers, and chissels^ with these they dig out the salt in
forms of huge cylinders, each of many hundred weight.
This is found the most convenient method of getting them
out of the mine, and as soon as got above ground, they are
broken into smaller pieces, and sent into the mills, where
they are ground to powder. The finest sort of the salt is
frequently cut into toys, and often passes for real crystal.
This hard kind makes a great part of the floor of the mine;
and what is the most surprising in the whole place is, that
there runs constantly over this, and through a large part of
the mine, a spring of fresh water; sufficient to supply the
inhabitants and their horses, so that they need not have any
from above ground. The horses usually grow blind, after
they have been some little time in the mine, but they do
as w'ell for service afterwards as before. After admiring the
wonders of this amazing place, it is no very comfortable re-
membrance to the stranger, that he is to go back again
through the same dismal way he came, and, indeed, the
journey is not much better than the prospect; the only
means of getting up is by the rope, and little more cere-
mony is used in the journey than in the drawing up of a
piece of salt. The salt dug from this mine is called Ziebna,
or Green Salt, but for what reason it is difficult to deter-
mine, its colour being an iron grey; when pounded, it has
r a dirty