L E T T E R XIX.
Singular mmnlain o f foffil fait, n ia t the town o f Cardona, in Catalonia,
asdefcribed by Don Guillermo Bowles.
THE town o f Cardona is fixteen leagues from Barcelona,
at no great diftance from Montferrat, and
near the Pyrenees. It Hands at the foot o f a rock o f fait,
which on the fide o f the river Cardonero appears cut
perpendicularly, forming a mafs of folid fait between
four and five hundred feet high, without the leaft crevice,
fiffure, or firata, nor is any gypfum to be found
in the neighbourhood. This amazing rock is about a
league in circumference, and much about the fame
height as the adjacent mountains, but its depth being
unknown, it cannot be ascertained on what bafis it refts.
The fait is commonly white from the bottom to the top,
though in fome parts it is red, which the people of the
country cut into pieces like bricks, and think it o f ufe
for pains in the fide, by applying it to the part after being
moderately warmed ; fometimes it, is of a light
blue, but thefe colours are of no importance, as they,
difappear in grinding, the fait remaining white, and being
eatable, having no flavour or taile either p f eartb^
or vapour.
' ' This
This prodigious mountain of fait, divelted o f any
other fubftance, is unparalleled in Europe; philofophers
have an ample field to ftudy its formation ; it will not be
fufficient to fay, it proceeds from an evaporation o f
the fea, as this will not be deemed fatisfacfiory.
In the (hop of a fculptor at Cardona, I purchafed
feveral figures, candlefticks, caikets, and other toys
cut dut of this fait, as tranfparent as cryftal: when
one of the workmen was carving a candleftick, I obferv-
ed he wet it with water, then rubbed it dry with a towel,
and wiped off the white powder which enfued on the
working o f it, and gave it a greater tranfparency. The
fait is fo hard and compact that water will not diffolve it
if it is foon rubbed dry again.
This mountain has a confiderable furface, neverthelefs
the rain does not diminiih the fait (a). The river which
runs at its foot is briny, and when it rains the faltnefs of
the water increafes, and kills the fiih ; but this effeff does
not extend above three leagues, beyond which fiih live
as ufual.
After many experiments which I made with the water
of this river by evaporation diftillation, and various
|a) Perhaps not fenfib ly; but how fhall we otherwife account for the addition o f fait to
the water mentioned in the next fentence.
different