Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/55

 Rh springs actually appear, but several circumstances indicate that brine has at some former period been discovered there, and this as high up the stream as the neighbourhood of Congleton. No springs have been found in the valley of Witton Brook, except at the part of it immediately adjoining the Weaver at Northwich.

The evidences of the presence of rock-salt occur, as I before stated, in very few places out of these vallies, and even some of the excepted instances appear to have a local relation to the southern or central plain. This is the case with the salt springs of Dirtwich, in the south-western angle of Cheshire; with a spring of very weak brine lately found at Adderley, in the northern extremity of Shropshire; and probably also with other saline springs which occur in the contiguous parts of Flint and Denbighshire. At Dunham, however, in the north of Cheshire, we find a weak spring, which cannot strictly be considered as connected with the formations of the southern plain. At Barton and Adlington, in the southern parts of Lancashire, brine springs likewise appear; and it is not improbable that other instances of the same kind may occur in the northern portion of the great plain. It appears possible, however, that these weak springs may derive their saline contents, not from distinct subjacent beds of the fossil salt, but merely from beds of clay or argillaceous stone, strongly impregnated with particles of the muriate of soda.

It would be foreign to the object of this paper to enter with minuteness into the natural history of the salt springs, or into the processes employed in the manufacture of white salt. Those members of the Society, who may wish for further information on these subjects, I beg leave to refer to the Survey of Cheshire before noticed.