152 Analyses of Books. 



literally to every man's door. Its cheapness has given rise to a 

 variety of manufactories. Pittsburg and its environs contain 90 

 steam engines, which employ, with other sources of consumption, 

 annually '255,500 tons of coal. This, at 4 cents per bushel, the 

 price in Pittsburg, is equal to 306,512 dollars (about £68,000). The 

 coal consumed in the western countries in the manufacture of salt is 

 very great. There are above 90 establishments which produce 

 1,000,000 bushels of salt, and consume 5,000,000 bushels of coal. 

 What a splendid prospect of future prosperity do these statements 

 hold out ! 



At Wheeling the coal exposed to view is 7 feet thick. The 

 scenery of the Kenawha valley is varied and beautiful. The surface 

 is covered with the Cliionantluis, or Fringe tree, Magnolia tripe- 

 tala, acuminata and mycrophylla, Rhododendron maximum, 

 Kalm'ia latij'olia, fyc. The rocks are shale, coal, and sand-stone. 

 The former, affords an abundant supply of fossil plants, including, 

 Equisetum columnare? Calamines Steinhaueri, C ramostts, C 

 arenacem? Sphenopteris crenulata, Neuropteris acutifolia, 

 Spkenopteris obtusiloba ? fyc. Salt water is found abundantly 

 in this valley. It is found at considerable depths, associated with 

 red marl in alternations with sand-stone, slate clay, limestone and 

 coal. Gypsum has not been found to accompany the rock strata 

 near the surface of the earth, in the valley of the Ohio, although 

 indications of it are found at great depths, and extensive beds of it 

 are deposited on the borders of the valley, in the secondary and 

 transition rocks at the surface, and, hence, may be deposited beneath 

 the series of sand-stones and coal throughout the whole valley. It 

 occurs in abundance along the south shore of Lake Erie, to the in- 

 terior of New York State. No shafts have been hitherto sunk to 

 determine whether the salt exists in strata or not, but there can be 

 little doubt of the fact, from the abundant supply which is met with. 



The Indians, it would appear, from the earliest times, were in the 

 habit of sinking in the gravel near the, river, " Gums," or hollow 

 logs for extracting salt. In 1795, Joseph Ruffner located on the 

 Kenawha; but, it was not till 1807, that his sons, David and Joseph, 

 selected a gum or hollow sycamore, 18 feet long, and 3 feet diameter; 

 which they sunk, with great labour, to the depth of 14 feet in the 

 sand, a little above Buffaloe Lick, down to the smooth sand-stone 

 forming the bed of the river. This rock was bored by means of an 

 auger or chisel passed through a tube. At 17 feet, they struck a 

 vein of salt water, the first indication of which, was a bubbling or 

 hissing of gas in the hole. It was sunk to 26 feet. A furnace was 

 then erected of about 40 kettles, which began to work, in February, 

 1808, and made abouc 25 bushels of salt per day, value 2 dollars per 

 bushel, at that time. The wells are now made deeper, coal is em- 

 ployed, and in 1834, a million and a half of bushels were raised. 

 The Kenawha presents a lively and interesting scene of activity and 

 industry, with its steam boats, and its banks lined with furnaces and 

 railroads. 



In Europe the salt is said to occur above the coal only, but we 

 have doubts of the accuracy of this statement. The facts detailed 



