FROM CARLISLE TO THE OHIO 255 



salt-springs, already found at sundry places. It is re- 

 markable that in the whole of eastern North America, 

 or between the Atlantic ocean and the mountains, no 

 traces of these have so far appeared. There are a few 

 dirty salt-spots, or plashes, of no great importance, (at 

 the foot of the more easterly mountains and among 

 the mountains), which taste mildly of salt and in warm 

 weather show a white skim. Wild animals and do- 

 mestic cattle are the first to find these out, and they 

 like to keep near them. On the road from Pittsburg 

 to Virginia there is, near a brook, a salt-spring from 

 which a good quantity of salt has been boiled, but this 

 spring is often overflowed, and the water fouled and 

 made unusable for some time together. The attempt 

 was made to divert the spring and dig it out elsewhere, 

 and it was very nearly ruined in consequence. How- 

 ever, other improvements may be made, or by refining 

 the salt obtained the profits may be increased. Be- 

 tween here and Lake Erie, at a distance of some 60-70 

 miles, there are many salt-licks, which is the name 

 given such spots, because the buffalo and deer are ac- 

 customed to lick up the crystallized salt. It is said the 

 Indians have long obtained their salt from such places,* 

 although the use of it is not universal among them. 

 For the supply of the mountains and adjacent regions, 

 salt might still be fetched from the coast, whither it 

 is brought partly from Europe, partly from Tortuga 

 and other of the West India islands. But with the in- 

 creasing population of the more remote interior parts 

 of this vast country, it would be no slight incon- 



* By others it is asserted that the Indian nations never used 

 kitchen-salt until they learned the custom of the Europeans. 



