Untitled

TOPOGRAPHY. 223
Fusung, is a depot for the salt from the famous salines of Tzuliu-ching, some 60
miles farther north-east. This remarkable salt district, recently visited by Gill,
comprises a tract over 6 miles broad, everywhere pierced by pits hundreds of yards
deep. Gill saw one which had already been sunk to a depth of 2,170 feet through
sandstone and argillaceous strata. The work, which advanced at the rate of about
2 feet daily, had been in progress for thirteen years, although frequently interrupted
by the breaking of the boring machines. Other wells have already been carried to
a depth of 940 yards, and Gill mentions a
"
brine-pit two thousand and some
Fig.
99. THE TSIUO-LINO AND SINOAX.
According to Klaprotb. Scale 1 : 1,700,000.
108" I09 1
, 30
Mile*.
hundreds of feet in depth, and about 3 inches, or perhaps a little more, in diameter
at the top."
'Most of the bores tap the brine at depths of from 600 to 1,000 feet, beyond
which they reach the petroleum reservoirs. Inflammable gases escape from these
with great violence, whence the term " fire well " commonly applied to these pits.
In 1862, when the country was invaded by the rebels, one of the pits took fire, and
burnt for a long time, illuming the whole country like a lighthouse. According
to (Jill, the district is pierced by at least 1,200 wells, yielding from 80,000 to
120,000 tons of salt yearly. Most of the mines belong to wealthy corporations,
but the bulk of the people are extremely poor. Few places present a more wretched
appearance than T/uliu-ching, whose industry enriches the capitalists of Chung-
cheng. Recently some of the master miners, associated with a company of
European traders, attempted to introduce English pumping engines to economize