262 SPARKS FRO^^r A geologist's hammer. 



Mr. James Frazier had found brine by sinking a common 

 well to the depth of eighty feet; and a similar result had 

 been reached at Banc^or. 



On the 12th of August, 1859, a well was begun at 

 Grand Rapids by the "Grand Rapids Salt Manufacturing 

 Company, " under the direction of James Scribner, and 

 this was completed October 14 to the depth of 258 feet, 

 with brine not exceeding 20 in strength. The impelling 

 motive for this location was the traditional belief that 

 the springs of that vicinity issued through fissures from 

 a deep-seated supply. In October, 1859, I visited Grand 

 Rapids, after completing the tour just indicated, and first 

 declared, through the public prints of the city, that the 

 salt springs of that vicinity were supplied by an overflow 

 at the margin of the " salt basin "' which lay eastward 

 from that point ; and hence all expenditures at Grand 

 Rapids must jDrove comparatively unproductive. I stated 

 on that occasion that the configruration of the strata 

 pointed to the Saginaw valley as the position of the prin- 

 cipal synclinal, and added that the very presence of the 

 Saginaw bay and river indicated that region as overlying 

 the deepest depression of our formations. Meantime, 

 however, other wells were begun by the " Grand River 

 Salt Company " and by Mr. R. E. Butterworth, but they 

 led to no satisfactorv results. The same must be said of 

 three other wells bored at a still later date, all of which 

 reached over 400 feet.* 



* On the very day on which these words are penned, I have received infor- 

 mation of a simiUar demonstration of the wisdom of heeding scientific advice. 

 Some years ago I was commissioned by Governor Austin, of Minnesota, to 

 make a survey for salt in the vicinity of Belle Plaine on the Minnesota river. 

 A land bounty had been offered for defrayment of expense of boring, in case 

 competent geological authority should approve the venture. Though my re- 

 port to the Governor was unfavorable, I have been informed that the company 



