See Chemistry-Index, in this Suppl.

Salt-Mines of Wieliczka, near Cracow in Poland, are very extraordinary caverns; for a description of which we referred, in the article Salt (Encycl.) to M. Bar. Salt Minierd in the Journal de Physique for the year 1786. Some of our readers have complained of this, and requested an account of them in the Supplement. With this request we shall comply, by giving them Mr Wraxall's description of these caverns.

"After being let down (says he) by a rope to the depth of 230 feet, our conductors led us through galleries, which, for loftiness and breadth, seemed rather to resemble the avenues to some subterranean palace, than gals and passages cut in a mine. They were perfectly dry in every part, and terminated in two chapels composed entirely of salt, hewn out of the solid mass. The images which adorn the altars, as well as the pillars and ornaments, were all of the same transparent materials; the points and spars of which, reflecting the rays of light from the lamps which the guides held in their hands, produced an effect equally novel and beautiful. Descending lower into the earth by means of ladders, I found myself in an immense hall or cavern of salt, many hundred feet in height, length, and dimensions, the floor and sides of which were cut with exact regularity. A thousand persons might dine in it without inconvenience, and the eye in vain attempted to trace or define its limits. Nothing could be more sublime than this vast subterranean apartment, illuminated by flambeaux, which faintly discover its prodigious magnitude, and leave the imagination at liberty to enlarge it indefinitely. After remaining about two hours and a half under ground, I was drawn up again in three minutes with the greatest facility."