NORTHWICH, a market town of Cheshire, England, is situated at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, near the Trent and Mersey Canal, and near the main line of the London and North-Western Railway in the Chester branch of the Cheshire lines, 18 miles north-east of Chester and 22 south-west from Manchester. The streets are narrow and irregular, and many of the houses are screwed and bolted together to keep them secure from subsidences arising from the dissolving of the salt strata (180 feet in thickness), caused by the pumping of brine for the purpose of evaporation. Among the public buildings are the market-house, the drill-hall, and the Victoria club. Salt springs in Nor th wich were known to the Romans. By the Britons it was called the Black Salt Town. The substratum of rock-salt upon which the town rests was first discovered in 1670. It consists of two beds, a lower and an upper, which lie horizontally, the lower about 330 feet from the surface. In the lower stratum there exist several mines in the neighbourhood of the town. From two of these, each 40 acres in extent, the rock-salt is produced. The average quantity of salt exported from the town annually amounts to over 500,000 tons. Many of the inhabitants are engaged in building flat boats to convey the salt to Liverpool; and shipbuilding, rope and sail making, brick making, iron and brass founding, and tanning are also carried on. One mile from the town the river Weaver trustees have constructed an hydraulic lift to connect their navigation with the Trent and Mersey Canal on the higher level. By the river* vessels of 500 tons burden can approach the town. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 1920 acres) in 1881 was 12,246....