salt should be made out of two such refractory and dangerous elements as chlorine and sodium. Both of these elements, standing by themselves, seem to be out of harmony with nature, but when combined there are few substances that serve a better purpose.

These great salt beds that are found to exist in England and America and other parts of the world were undoubtedly deposited from the water of the ocean at some stage in the formation of the earth's crust. It is well known that sea water is exceedingly saline; 300 gallons of sea water will produce a bushel of salt. Undoubtedly beds of salt are also formed by inland lakes, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Only about 2.7 per cent. of ocean water is salt, while the water of the Great Salt Lake of Utah contains about 17 per cent. When there is so much salt in water that it is called a saturated solution, salt crystals will form and drop to the bottom, which process will in time build up under a large body of salt water a great bed of rock salt.

The water in all rivers and springs contains salt to a certain degree, and where it runs into a basin like that of a lake with no outlet, through the process of evaporation pure water is being constantly carried off, leaving the salt behind. It is easy to see that if this process is kept up long enough the water will become in time a saturated solution, when crystallization sets in and precipitation follows, accounting for the deposits of rock salt.