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In that year, however, the duty was reduced to one cent, and they now yield a net revenue of about 30,000 - dollars a-year. But the production has been largely increased, and the State is greatly benefited in other ways by the reduction. About twelve cents a bushel is now the market price of the Syracuse salt.

The salt is manufactured in three ways: First, by solar evaporation. This is conducted in large wooden vats 18 feet square, and about 12 inches deep, provided with movable lids, by which they can be easily covered in rainy weather. These vats are arranged in long rows communicating with each, and at different levels, so that the water which is put in at one end can be made to flow forward as its concentration advances. The iron is the first constituent of the water which is deposited; after that the gypsum, which forms beautiful small crystals on the bottom and sides of the vats; and then the common salt, in large coarse crystals like those of bay salt-the deliquescent magnesia and lime salts remaining in the waste mother liquors.

The second mode is similar to that followed on our coasts in extracting salt from sea-water, by evaporation in large shallow iron pans. The third method is by boiling the water in deep iron pots, or kettles, as they are called, of which forty, built up in two parallel rows, form what is called a block. These kettles are supplied with water from the private cistern of the establishment in which the brine has been purified, by standing some time, or by the addition of quicklime, which carries down the iron, magnesia, and some other impurities. As the water boils away, gypsum first falls in the kettle, and is continually ladled out as it collects at the bottom; and as the liquor concentrates, the salt falls in the form of a fine white powder, which is lifted out, set to drain, and dried. It is then ready for market. This is the favourite and quickest mode; but it makes a less pure salt. About

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ORDER OF DEPOSITION OF THE

300 acres are covered with vats for solar evaporation; and these, in 1848, yielded 713,000 bushels, while only 75 acres are occupied by the blocks, which manufactured upwards of 4,000,000 bushels of fine salt. About one half of the coarse salt is crushed or ground, and sold under the name of dairy salt, being preferred for dairy purposes.

In the order of deposition of the several ingredients of the natural brine in the solar vats, Mr Vanuxem finds a resemblance to, and an explanation of, the mode and order of deposition of the several members of the Onondaga salt-group. "This group shows first a thick mass coloured red with iron, being its red shale." This corresponds with the oxide of iron first deposited in the vats. "Above the red shales are the gypseous masses, towards the upper part of which are the salt cavities "—(that is, the hopper-shaped cavities in which crystals of salt are supposed formerly to have existed.) "Above the whole of these deposits is the sulphate of magnesia, its (former) existence there being manifested by the needle-form cavities" in the rock. This explanation is very natural,

and not void of beauty. It may require some modifications to adapt it to the local phenomena in detail-such as the occurrence of the green and blue shales, the limestones, and the calcareous marls. It is, however, neither an unnatural nor unlikely general representation of the probable cause of some of the special chemical characters exhibited by the several successive beds.

A more refined examination of the salts successively deposited in the open wooden troughs in which the water is exposed to spontaneous evaporation might lead to interesting results of another kind. The brine most probably contains both iodine and bromine; and it is possible that, at a certain stage of the evaporation, the saline compounds of

*Geology of the Third District, p. 109.

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these substances (iodides and bromides) may either be deposited more abundantly, or retained in solution in larger proportion than the common salt, and might in consequence, in such large operations, be largely, easily, and profitably extracted. I suggest the examination of this point to my chemical friends in the State of New York especially, as a very likely source of abundant supplies of bromine.

CHAPTER VII.

Railway to Buffalo.-The Americans a clever people.-Incorrectness of speech on both sides of the Atlantic.-Joe Smith, founder of the Mormons. Outline of his history while in the State of New York.— His removal to Missouri, to Ohio, and Illinois successively. His imprisonment and death.-Rapid progress of his sect.-New State of Utah, on the Salt Lake.-Outline and character of the book of Mormon. Its claims as an American revelation.-Canandagua.-City of Rochester; its rapid rise.-Genesee flour.-Money-value of farms on the Genesee River.-Profits of farming in this valley.-Mr Wadsworth's farms and farming.—Rent, and rotation on his land.—Capital of farmers on this estate.-Inducements to invest money in land in New York State.-Sowing and reaping of wheat.-Relative values of rural produce and of human labour.-Average produce of the Genesee country.-New York does not produce wheat enough for its own consumption.-North-east America not a dangerous competitor in the English wheat market.-Upper Canada might for a time successfully compete with the English farmer.—Duty upon Canadian wheat in the United States ports.-Expected effects of a repeal of this duty. -Made an argument for annexation.-Importance of the direct trade to Europe by the St Lawrence.-Erie Canal; its length, and that of its branches.-Amount of traffic and revenue.-Number of emigrants from different countries.-Cost of passage from New York to Lake Erie.-Influence of the New England States on the development of the new States.-Democratic party in the United States.-Principles of the Old Hunkers and the Barnburners.-Forest and half cleared land on approaching Buffalo.-Speculators in land.

SEPT. 15.—At seven in the morning I was at the railway station to take my departure for Buffalo. I here encountered one of those embarrassing mes-entendres which are unavoidable when travelling among people who will use old words in new senses. I was introduced to

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a gentlemanly-looking physician, who followed up his question of how I liked the country, with the question, "Don't you find us a very clever people?" This was a thrust so decidedly home that I could not believe he meant what he asked. He looked also perfectly innocent, but evidently expecting an answer. As I could not conscientiously say yes, I hesitatingly said what had more than once occurred to me in passing through the States-" At least you think yourselves so." But the instant the words had escaped me, I apologised for my rude speech, recollecting that, only two or three days before, an American lady had remarked to me that this word, in the States, is often used in the sense of goodnatured, or ready to oblige." That the people of the United States, wherever I have been, are clever in this sense, I can honestly say. I added, therefore, avec empressement, "I understood your question wrongly; in your sense of the word, you are a clever people." My new acquaintance felt the situation as much as I did, and explained his question as a bit of local slang. A stranger ought not willingly to give offence to a people among whom he is travelling, nor to say what is likely to hurt their feelings; but this was a case where the fault was on the side of those who are not careful to maintain the fountains of speech in their primitive purity.

Were we, however, to criticise the home speech of the midddle classes among ourselves, as we feel inclined to notice peculiarities abroad, we should find many more instances of incorrectness than we are generally aware of. Just before I left home, a lady of my acquaintance, the daughter and sister of a clergyman, being asked of her sister's health, answered that "she was very shabby;" and here, in this western New York, I have been talking to an Englishman, on his

VOL. I.

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