Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Rock-salt, the mineral halite.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Sometimes gem-salt appears to oscillate between variegated sandstone and muschelkalk.

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • Those geologists who are of opinion that the gem-salt of Italy penetrates into a stratum above the Jura limestone, and even the chalk, may be led to mistake the limestone of the Penas

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • The co-ordinate layers of gem-salt, muriatiferous clay and gypsum present the same difficulties in both hemispheres; these masses, the forms of which are very irregular, everywhere exhibit traces of great commotions.

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • However difficult it may be to distinguish separately the strata of marl and clay belonging to variegated sandstone, muschelkalk, quadersandstein, Jura limestone, secondary sandstone with lignites (green and iron sand) and the tertiary strata lying above chalk, I believe that the bitumen which everywhere accompanies gem-salt, and most frequently salt-springs, characterizes the muriatiferous clay of the peninsula of Araya and the island of Marguerita, as linked with formations lying below the tertiary strata.

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • It is enlarged by the spurs of the Rio Beni, * rich in gem-salt, and composed of several ranges of hills (latitude 8° 11′ south) which advance into the plains on the eastern bank of the Paro.

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • Now, in the peninsula of Araya, and in the island of Marguerita, saliferous clay impregnated with bitumen is met with in connexion with this early formation, nearly as gem-salt appears in Calabria in flakes, in basins inclosed in strata of granite and gneiss.

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • The gem-salt oscillates from zechstein to muschelkalk. (d)

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • They are scarcely ever covered by independent formations; and after having been long believed, in Europe, that gem-salt was exclusively peculiar to Alpine and transition limestone, it is now still more generally admitted, either from reasoning founded on analogy or from suppositions on the prolongation of the strata, that the true location of gem-salt is found in variegated sandstone (buntersandstein).

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • Do these circumstances serve to support that ingenious system, according to which all the co-ordinate formations of gypsum, sulphur, bitumen and gem-salt (constantly anhydrous) result from floods passing across the crevices which have traversed the oxidated crust of our planet, and penetrating to the seat of volcanic action.

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • Jura limestone, gem-salt (plains of the Meta and Patagonia) and coal-sandstone are found in the Llanos of South America; quadersandstein, *

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

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