book the fubterraneous gloom without limits. The roofs of thefc
— »— ' vaults are not arched, but flat. The immenfe fize of thefe
chambers, with the fpacious pafiages or galleries, together
with the chapels above-mentioned, and a few iheds built for
the horfes which are foddered below, probably gave rife to
the exaggerated accounts of fome travellers, that thefe mines
contain feveral villages inhabited by colonies of miners,
who never fee the light. It is certain that there is room
fufhcient for fuch purpofes; but the fadl is, that the miners
have no dwellings under ground, none of them remaining
below more than eight hours at a time, when they are relieved
by others from above. In truth, thefe mines are of
a moft ftupendous extent and depth, and are fufliciently
wonderful without the leaft exaggeration. We found them
as dry as a room, without the leaft damp or moifture;
obferving only in our whole progrefs one fmall fpring of
water, which is impregnated with fait, as it runs through the
mine.
Such an enormous mafs of fait exhibits a wonderful phenomenon
in the natural hiftory of this globe. Monfieur
Guetard, who vifited thefe mines with great attention, and
who has publiihed a treatife upon the fubjecft, informs us,
that the uppermoft bed of earth at the furface immediately
over the mines is fand, the fecond clay occafionally mixed
with fand and gravel and containing petrefaclions of marine
bodies, the third calcarious ftone. From all thefe circum-
ftances he conjectures that this fpot was formerly covered by
the fea, and that the fait is a gradual depofit formed by the
evaporation of its waters *.
* See Memoir* fur les Mines de Sel de W id itfla in Hid . de ¡’Acad, des Sciences for I;702.
Thefe
Thefe mines have now been worked above 600 years, for CHAP-
they are mentioned in the Poliih annals fo early as 1237
under Boleflaus * the Chafte, and not as a new difcovery :
how much earlier they were known cannot, now be afcer-
tainedv Their profits had long been appropriated to the
king!s privy purfe: before the partition they furniihed a
confiderable part of his prefent majefty’s revenue, who drew
from them an annual average profit of about 3,500,000*
Poliih. florins, or; 97,2 2 2^. 4.J. 6d. fterling. They now belong
to* the emperor, being fituated within the province
which he difmembered from Poland hut at the time we
vifited them they were far from yielding a revenue equal
to that which they had afforded to the king of Poland ; for
the Auftrian. Gommiffioners imprudently raifed the price of
fait,, from an idea that Poland could not exift without drawing
that commodity as ufual from Wielitfka, and would
therefore be obliged to receive it at any price. This mode
of proceeding offending the Poles, the king^of Pruffia, with
his ufual fagacity, did: not negleft this opportunity of extending
his commerce^ he immediately imported large:quan- ■
tities of,fait, which he procured chiefly from Spain,.to Dant—
zic, Memmel,., and Koningfburg, from whence it was con*
veyed.up the Viftula into the interior provinces ! by thefe
means, he furniihed great part o f Poland with fait, .at-a.
cheaper rate than the inhabitants could procure it from the
houfe of Auftria; and in 17 78 the mines-of Wielitfka only
Supplied the diftrifts which immediately border upon,
Auftrian :Poland.
* Lengnich, Jus Pub, vol. I, p. 249»
I never