WONDERFUL SALT MOUNTAINS OF NEVADA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 183, 29 September 1876, Page 15

WONDERFUL SALT MOUNTAINS OF NEVADA.

++ One mile from the ferry the Virgin river comes in from the north, and on and near it is, perhaps, the most wonderful and extensive salt formation on the continent. The formation is, in fact, one of mountains of salt — hard rock-salt, which is blasted and quarried out like quarries of granite and marble. Commencing six miles up the Tirgin river, these mountains of salt extend for thirty or more miles up the Virgin or Muddy rivers. There are openings now made from six to twenty miles up the Virgin river at different places. From six to twelve miles up, these openings uncover a species of dark gray salt, ninety-two per cent, pure, presenting to the casual observer the appearance of common coarse gray granite. The openings are all on the eastern side of the Virgin river, from one-fourth to one-half mile from its banks. At a point twenty miles up the river and on the western side, is a mountain of pure white crystalized salt, white as the driven snow, and transparent almost as glass. It is at once a pleasing and interesting spectacle to see the great masses of crystal-like salt, as thrown out by a three or four-foot blast. These pure and beautiful blocks resemble somewhat blocks of the purest ice when prepared from the ice house. Upon placing a mass of six inches thick over a column of a newspaper, the fine print could be easily read. The formation of the salt deposit is, no doubt very ancient datiag back in years beyond computation. Long since the deposits were made, the great upheaval and earthquake eras have occurred, which have changed the -whole appearance of the country for great distances around. These salt bluffs or mountains can be identified for a long distance by the peculiar color of the surface, which is of a reddish orange color. Underneath this formation, as well as in it is a kind of micaceous sedimentary granite. I found sufficient evidence to warrant assumption that veins of valuable mica will yet be discovered in or near the salt formation. The whole country is deserving of through investigation by the miner, prospector and the student.

Another very interesting natural curiosity visited and examined here is a natural salt well, a mile northwest of the ferry. It is on a mesa which extends up and down the river on its northern bank. This mesa is a drift formation of small pebbles and boulders mixed with earthy matter. The well is a large circiilar opening in the mesa some three hundred feet in circumference, with abrupt descent to the surface of the well, which is fifty feet below the surface. The water is exceedingly salty, far more so than any salt spring, and has been sounded to a depth of one hundred and thirtynine feet. It is a splendid natural salt bath, in which the bather floats almost as buoyantly as a cork upon a pool of water. From a careful examination of all the surroundings, I feel confident that this interesting salt well is all that is left of a once great salt lake, which, in the lapse of time, has been filled in by the drift formation, only leaving the present opening as an evidence of its former existence. — ' Exchange.'

The nuns are rapidly getting charge of the hospitals in the union workhouses in Ireland, thus causing great saving of rates, and improvement in tlie health and the moral condition of the afflicted. A 'Tribune's' Washington correspondent says: — An interesting incident which has never been printed has just transpired. On the day when Lincoln was inaugurated the second time in 1865, and just at the east portico, a man, recognised by several to be John Wilkes Booth, pushed hurriedly through the passage leading from the Senate chamber to the rotunda, and in an excited and determined manner broke through the line of policemen which kept the crowd back from the procession, and made a desperate effort to reach the eastern door of the capitol. He was discovered by a member of the capitol police force who seized the excited stranger, and after a severe struggle succeeded in forcing him back into the crowd. Booth had already been noticed by at least two persons who knew him, and saw him pass hurriedly from the direction of the Senate chamber towards the rotunda, and some idea of his determination to reach, the inaugural may be formed from the fact that he broke away from the man who first seized him, and but for the closing of tlie side door would probably have accomplished his purpose, whatever it was. Those who stopped Booth, and -who, in all probability, preserved the President's lil e, were not aware who the excited stranger was, but the importance of their action can hardly be over-estimated. The man who stopped Booth is named Westfall, and was made commissioner of public buildings aad grounds, and was recently discharged by the House. Histobical ! Vide " Jurors Reports and Awards, Kew Zealand Exhibition." Jurors : J. A. Ewen, J. Butterworth, T. C. Skinner. 11 So far as the Colony is concerned, tlie dyeing of materials is almost entirely confined to the re-dyeing of Articles of Dress and Upholstery, a most useful art, for there are many kinds of material that lose their

colour before the texture is half worn. Or. Hjbsoh, of Dunedin (Dttiteihn Dye Wobks, George street, opposite Royal George Hotel) exhibits a case of specimens of Dyed Wools, Silks, and Feathers, and dyed Sheepskins. The colors on the whole are very fair,' and reflect considerable credit on the Exhibitor, to whom the Jurors recommended an Honorary Certificate should be awarded." Honorary Certificate, 629 : Gustav Hirsch Dunedin, for specimens of Dyeing in Silk Feathers, &c.