388 BULLETIN 109, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



It liai>pened in the year 1819 that a certain physician interested 

 in geology stopped at the house of a Mr. Chandler, the owner of a 

 salt well in the Muskingum Valley. During the course of the evening 

 the doctor asked about the character of the rock bored through. 

 Mr. Chandler enumerated the rock formations, mentioning in par- 

 ticular one that was very hard, from which the pump brought up 

 nodules of a very malleable metallic substance. The two searched 

 about the well the next morning and found several pieces the size 

 of wheat grains. Before the blowpipe they yielded silver of the 

 purity of a Mexican dollar. A company was at once formed and 

 incorporated by the Ohio legislature under the name of " The Mus- 

 kingum Mining Co." For the privilege of working in a reserved 

 section belonging to the State the company agreed to pay to the 

 State treasury 15 per cent of all profits. Drilling was begun near 

 the well where the metal had been found and was prosecuted with 

 great difficulty owing to a constant influx of water. Silver, there was 

 none, but the workmen drilled through a T-foot seam of coal. As 

 coal was not the object of search, its presence did not excite much 

 notice at the time. At a depth of 140 feet they began to work later- 

 ally, extending the work to the salt well, which they carefully 

 plugged. Their next attempt was to work up 15 feet to the horizon 

 of the silver in the salt well. By some blow or concussion the plug 

 was knocked out and the miners barely escaped. The company lost 

 $11,000, expenses and damages for the ruin of the salt well. The 

 work was abandoned and the shaft filled with rubbish. 



Salt and iron industries were not all that attracted the attention 

 of the people. In 1818 Caleb Atwater, of Circleville, provoked a 

 discussion by an article on the Origin of the Prairies and Barrens 

 of the West. From the depth of soil he inferred that the whole 

 region was once under water, and that the outlet of the Great Lakes 

 was through the Ohio. This brought forth various opinions as to 

 the probable origin of prairies and barrens. 



The American Journal of /Science and Arts was the chosen medium 

 for communication of facts and opinions of those interested in the 

 resources of the State. Articles concerning the formations in dif- 

 ferent parts of the State, the useful products, and the industries are 

 numerous. The finding of fossil bones, even those of human beings, 

 is recorded; also that of vegetable impressions connected with the 

 coal formations, and of fossil trees in the sandstone formations. 

 The presence of the drift is noted and its southern boundary ap- 

 proximated. All the contributors of that day agree in ascribing 

 its presence to water as the transporting agent. 



In 1830 Judge Tappan contributed the discovery of cannel coal 

 1^ miles west of Cambridge, Guernsey County, near Grummon'a 



