Saliferous Rock Formation in the Valley of the Ohio. 49 



mediately from the kettles to the pack horses of the purchasers, who, 

 transporting it into the various settlements, sold it to the inhabitants 

 for three and four dollars per bushel, as late as the year 1808. This 

 saline was thought to be so important to the country, that when this 

 territory was erected into a state in the year 1802, a tract of six 

 miles square, was set apart by Congress for the use of the state, em- 

 bracing this saline. Two other tracts of six hundred and forty 

 acres each, were also reserved for the same purpose, one on Salt 

 Creek in Muskingum County, and one in Delaware County, as too 

 valuable to fall into the hands of individuals, lest they should create 

 a monopoly of the article ; these being the only places then known 

 in Ohio, where salt could be made. A special act was passed by the 

 Legislature, in the year 1804, regulating the management of these 

 salines, and an agent appointed to rent out the small lots to manufac- 

 turers, laid out on the borders of the creeks, where salt water was 

 found most abundant. The rent demanded was sixteen cents per 

 year on each gallon of capacity in the kettles, and no one person was 

 allowed to use more than four thousand, nor less than six hundred 

 gallons in each furnace, guarding here also, carefully, against monop- 

 oly. The agent was authorized to inspect the salt before it was of- 

 fered for sale, and to lay off suitable wood lots for the use of the 

 furnace holders, free of expense. The amount manufactured in any 

 one year, never produced a revenue to exceed five hundred dollars. 

 As other and much better saline springs were discovered on the navi- 

 gable streams, the works at the agencies went gradually to decay ; 

 and finally in the year 1826, the "salt reservations" were sold and 

 the proceeds placed in the treasury of the state. In the year 1808, 

 a new era commenced in the manufacture of salt. Previously to 

 this time, the water had been obtained from wells, sunk no deeper 

 than to perforate the superincumbent earth to the rocks below, 

 through some crevice in which it had made its way to the surface. 

 But now, attempts were made to come at the sources of the fountain, 

 by boring, or drilling through the rock formations, to the saline de- 

 posit itself. The first trial of this kind was made on the Big Ken- 

 hawa, six miles above Charleston, and only to the depth of seventy 

 or eighty feet; on further trials, it was discovered, that the water be- 

 came stronger as they descended, and the first wells were gradually 

 deepened to three hundred and fifty feet, with the roost satisfactory 

 results. Water was obtained of such strength that seventy five gal- 



lons would make a bushel of salt of fifty pounds weight, or as much 



Vol. XXIV.— No. 1. 7 



