62 Saliferous Rock Formation in the Valley of the Ohio. 



wells, salt water and inflammable gas rise in company with a steady 

 uniform flow. In others, the gas rises at intervals of ten or twelve 

 hours, or perhaps as many days, in vast quantity and with over- 

 whelming force, throwing the water from the well to the height of 

 fifty, or a hundred feet in the air, and again retiring within the bowels 

 of the earth to acquire fresh power for a new effort. This phenom- 

 enon is called " blowing," and is very troublesome and vexatious to 

 the manufacturer. The explosion is sometimes so powerful as to 

 cause the copper tube which lines the upper part of the well to col- 

 lapse, and to entirely misplace and derange the fixtures about it. By 

 constant use this difficulty is sometimes overcome, by the exhaustion 

 of the gas, and in others the well has been abandoned as hopeless of 

 amendment. A well on the Muskingum, ten miles above McCon- 

 nelsville, at six hundred feet in depth, afforded such an immense 

 quantity of gas, and in such a constant stream, that while they were 

 digging, it several times took fire, from the friction of the iron on the 

 poles against the sides of the well, or from scintillations from the au- 

 ger ; driving the workmen away, and communicating the flame to the 

 shed which covered the works. 



It spread itself along the surface of the earth, and ignited other com- 

 bustible bodies at the distance of several rods. It became so trouble- 

 some and difficult to extinguish, when once ignited, being in this res- 

 pect a little like the " Greek fire," so celebrated by Gibbon, that, 

 from this cause only, the well has been entirely abandoned. In the 

 days of superstition and ignorance, this would doubtless have been at- 

 tributed to the anger of the Genius, who presided over the spot, and 

 thus protected it from the unhallowed approaches of man. 



At R. P. Stone's well, on the opposite side of the river a little be- 

 low McConnelsville, the gas rises in small regular puffs, or dis- 

 charges, averaging one to every minute or two ; causing the water 

 to flow in jets from the spout, as it falls into a large cistern below. 

 The water rises in the head through a bored log to the height of twen- 

 ty five feet above the surface of the earth. Through a hole in the 

 top of a small receiver, or cap, the gas issues in a constant stream, 

 and when a candle or torch is applied, kindles into a beautiful flame, 

 burning steadily, until extinguished by closing the hole, affording 

 in the stillness and darkness of midnight, a striking and interesting 

 phenomenon. It is supposed, that this well alone furnishes sufficient 

 gas, if properly applied, to light the town very handsomely. No 

 petroleum rises with it, and very little in any of the other wells at this 



