and no change of transparency was produced, when left exposed to the air in an open vessel, for several days.
Its taste is intensely saline, but without any degree of bitterness; neither is there any bitter taste in the crust which is deposited at the bottom of the pans, after several successive portions of brine have been evaporated.
The temperature of the brine in the pits, a few feet below the surface, differed very little from that of springs in general. It was 55°.[1]
§ 10. Specific Gravity, and Amount of the solid Contents.
The specific gravity of the several brines I found to be as follows:
| Walker's pit, | 1206.11[2] |
| Walwyn's pit, | 1203.83 |
| Romney's | 1200.15 |
| Stuckey's pit, | 1184.67 |
| Farley's pit, | 1174.71 |
- ↑ I omitted to note down the temperature of the air, but it was a warm day for the season of the year.
- ↑ This is not an absolutely saturated solution, for by adding salt to the brine at a boiling heat, and allowing it to cool to 60°, I obtained a perfectly limpid solution of the specific gravity of 1210.39. This sp. gr. almost exactly corresponds with that of Hassenfratz, An. de Chemie. vol. 28, p. 298. In the sixtieth volume of the Philosophical Trans. Dr. Watson, the present Bishop of Llandaff, has given a valuable paper, entitled, “Experiments and Observations on various Phenomena attending the Solution of SaIts.”─He has constructed a table of the specific gravity of water impregnated with different quantities of common salt, from 13 down to the 1024th part of the weight of the water, at a mean temperature of 50°. The salt used was sea-salt, of the finest kind, and extremely dry.
The highest specific gravity which he gives, is 1206, which very nearly corresponds with that of Walker's pit; but from what has been said above this is not the specific gravity of a fully saturated solution.
