210 Miscellanies. 
As a company of the earliest explorers encamped on the banks of the 
river, one of their number, in a dark night, took a torch to light his way 
to the spring near by the encampment, and in waving it over the spring, 
to his great consternation it took fire, the gas burning upon the surface 
of the water. It was thence called the “ Burning Spring,” and is the 
same that is mentioned by Mr. Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia. It 
is still there, but, as we saw it last week, a mere mud-puddle. The water, 
agitated by the gas, resembles a boiling pot. It readily ignites, and 
for a short time it burns with a blue blaze on the surface of the water ; 
even when the water is dried up the gas will burn brilliantly between 
one rain and another. 
When, in process of time, the salt manufacturers, either from a failure 
of the salt water above the stratum of rock, some 15 or 20 feet lower 
than the bed of the river, or for the purpose of procuring the water in 
greater abundance, sunk their wells by boring far below the surface of 
the rock, the gas, in various quantities, made its appearance in the wells, 
in some instances jetting the water into the air, when being ignited, it 
spread the flame about, to the no small amazement and terror of the 
workmen. When this happened they used to say, “ the well is blowed.” 
The stream of gas, however, soon subsided, or acted only with suffi- 
cient power to force the water up into the gum or shaft, which is part of 
the trunk of a sycamore tree, about four feet in diameter, hollowed out 
so that the shell is not more than four inches thick. From the gum it 
was pumped into the cistern or reservoir. 
Our salt wells are commenced near the edge of the river at low water. 
The gum is sunk down to the rock, a distance of from 15 to 20 feet, the 
lower end resting tightly on the rock. The other end is usually a few 
feet above the ground. This excludes the fresh water above the rock, 
and serves as a reservoir to receive the salt water when it is reached 
by boring through the rock and the various strata of earth. 
Three years ago, William Tompkins, Esq. first obtained a steady 
and permanent stream of gas, of sufficient power, not. only to force 
the water up from the depth of a thousand feet into the gum, but-to carry 
it into the reservoir elevated many feet above the bank of the river. This 
saved the expense of a pump, which is worked by a steam engine. » In 
a short time it occurred to him that this gas could be turned to a still 
more useful purpose. He therefore erected, over the reservoir or cis- 
tern, a gasometer, which is simply a hogshead, placed upright, in the 
lower end of which is inserted the pipe that conveys the water and the 
gas from the wells, the water running out through a hole in the lower 
end, and in the top is inserted a pipe that conveys the gas to the mouth 
of the furnace. When ignited, it produces a dense and intensely heat- 
ed flame along the whole furnace under the row of kettles, 100 feet 
