52 Saliferous Rock Formation in the Valley of the Ohio. 



i 



of the river, and rises six feet above, being in all about twenty four 

 feet. Within this the boring of the rock-strata commences. The 

 depth of a well is on an average about three hundred and eighty feet. 

 The salt rock is reached at two hundred and fifty feet, and penetra- 

 ted until a supply of water is obtained, sufficient for the demands of 

 the furnace, evidently shewing the salt deposit to be much thicker 

 here than on the Muskingum river, where it probably approaches its 

 northern termination. When the supply of water grows scanty, as, 

 at low stages of the river, in the autumnal months, is frequently the 

 case, the auger is again introduced, and the depth increased fifteen 

 or twenty feet, when a more abundant quantity is caused to flow. 

 The rock in which the salt water is found is apparently the same with 

 that on the Muskingum, being a white calcareous sand rock, full of 

 fissures and cavities of some inches in diameter, and affording more 

 or less water, as these are more or less abundant. The superincum- 

 bent strata are, different qualities of sandstone, slate, ironstone, and 

 stone coal, but in much less variety than on the latter river. The 

 formation in the adjoining hills, through which the Kenhawa passes, 

 is principally of sandstone, to the height of five or six hundred feet, 

 with thick beds of stone coal at their bases, affording an inexhausti- 

 ble supply of fuel to the manufacturers of salt. Fossil organic re- 

 mains of plants and trees, are also found in the lower sand rocks. 

 In boring the wells, one bed of coal is usually passed in the first one 

 hundred and fifty feet, varying in its thickness from two to six feet. 

 The salt water rises in the heads or "gums" to near the surface of 

 the river at low water, but not so uniformly, nor so certainly, as it 

 did ten or twelve years past, serving to imply that the gas, finding 

 so many outlets, had diminished in its upward pressure. Since that 

 period, recourse has therefore been had to "suck or force pumps," 

 to aid the rising of the water into the heads or cisterns. Little, if 

 any, difference is found in the strength of the water, whether a well 

 has lain idle for a few weeks, or whether it has been kept in constant 

 use. Neither has there been any perceptible change in that respect 

 in the course of twenty four years, the period of time since the manu- 

 facture commenced, proving the sources of supply to be vast, if not 

 inexhaustible ; in as much as the quantity made has, for several years, 

 been more than one million of bushels per year. The process of 

 manufacturing salt is the same with that pursued on the Muskingum, 

 which is fully described in this paper. In the course of the last sea- 

 son, the manufacture of alum or coarse salt has been commenced 



