“Oh yes! the fishermen called them skate barrows; but you told me they were the eggs of the skate.”
They now walked on in silence for a short time, till Agnes’s attention was caught by a building which some men were busily employed in pulling down.
“What is that, mamma?” cried she: “and why are those people taking off the roof?”
Mrs. Merton pointed to a portion of the walls that remained standing, and on which the words “salt-works” might still be read.
“Salt-works!” repeated Agnes; “what is salt made of, mamma?”
“Salt,” said Mrs. Merton, “can hardly be said to be made, as it is a mineral which is formed naturally in the earth, and which we procure in three different ways. Sometimes it is dug out of the salt-mines, as at Northwich in Cheshire, and in the Austrian dominions; but this kind of salt is coarse and dark-coloured. Another way of procuring it is from salt-springs; that is, from water which has become saturated with salt in its passage through the earth, as at Nantwich and other places in Cheshire, and at Droitwich in Worcestershire; and this salt is what we have in common use. The last kind of salt is what is made from the sea-water, and most of the works that have been erected for this purpose in England are in Hampshire, particularly in the Isle of Wight.”
“And how do they get the salt out of the salt-water?” asked Agnes.
“By boiling it,” said her mother, “in large shallow pans, such as that which you see before you.”
While they were examining the pans, Agnes asked her mother a great many questions respecting the salt-works, and Mrs. Merton told her, that the salt obtained from sea-water is of so much coarser kind than that obtained from the salt-springs, that it is principally used for curing meat, and for manuring the land.
“Ah!” said Agnes, “that reminds me of a question that I have often wished to ask you, mamma. When I was at Shenstone, my cousin George told me that salt would be excellent manure for my plants, and I put some on my annuals, which were just coming up, and, would you believe it, mamma, it killed them every one.”