Myriads of these animalculæ are to be found in the salterns at Lymington, in the open tanks or reservoirs, where the brine is deposited previous to boiling. A pint of this brine contains about a quarter of a pound of salt. These tanks are called clearers, as the liquor becomes clear in them, an effect which the workmen attribute, in some degree, to the rapid and continual motion of the brine-worm, or the particles which cloud the liquor serving for its food; but this is mere conjecture. So strongly persuaded, however, are the workmen of this fact, that they are accustomed to transport a few of the worms from another saltern if they do not appear at their own. They increase astonishingly in the course of a few days.
It is observable that the brine-worm is never seen in the sun-pans, where the brine is made by the admission of sea-water during the Summer, and which are emptied every fortnight; but only in the pits and reservoirs, where it is deposited after it is taken out of the pans, and where some of the liquor constantly remains, when it becomes much diluted with rain water. From October till May, (during which time the manufacture is at a stand,) a few only of the worms are visible; but at the approach of Summer, young ones appear in great numbers.
THE END.
London:
John W. Parker, St. Martin’s Lane.
[List No. 1.]
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