Ten Days in Ohio. 295 
several small bits the size of half a wheat corn. -On the doctor’s ar- 
rival at Putnam, a town opposite to Zanesville, the specimens were 
put under the blowpipe and furnished a handsome button of very 
fine silver, equal in purity toa Spanish dollar. On further econver- 
sation with Mr. Chandler, he thought, as near as he could recollect, 
that the same material had been brought up for the distance of several 
feet ; leading to the conclusion, that the vein of silver was five or six 
feet in thickness. On comntunicating these facts to another physi- 
cian in Putnam, a man of considerable science, and great mechani- 
cal ingenuity, he became so fully convinced of there being a’ large 
body of silver in that spot, that he forthwith visited Columbus where 
the Legislature were then in session, and procured an act of incor- 
poration for a company, by the name and style of the “ Muskingham 
Mining Company ;” with ample powers for conducting mining oper- 
tions. For the privilege of working the mine on the salt section, be- 
longing to the State, the company were to pay into the State Treas- 
ury, fifteen per centum of the net proceeds. The capital was 
$50,000, divided into one hundred shares of $500 each. The 
stock was soon taken up, as it was thought that six or eight thousand 
dollars would sink the shaft one hundred and twenty feet to the silver, 
and after that, it would pay its own way. Before commencing the 
shaft, a fresh examination was made, by letting down the boring rods, 
to which was attached a steel scraper, with suitable springs. At the 
depth of about one hundred and twenty feet, a spot six feet in ex- 
tent, was found exceedingly hard and smooth; while all above or be- 
it was either soft, or gritty. When the rods were brought up, sever- 
al particles of silver were found in the bottom of the scraper, suffi- 
cient to turn out a small button from the blowpipe. It was repeated 
several times, and always with particles of silver. ‘Therefore, it was 
considered as almost certain, that a bed of pure silver, several feet in 
thickness, was actually seated at that depth. A shaft was commenced 
of an oval form, of the dimensions of eleven feet by eight, and sunk 
to the depth of one hundred and forty feet. In prosecuting the 
work, serious difficulties arose in keeping out the water, which rush- 
ed in through the crevices of the rock; but the ingenuity and per- 
severance of the superintendant, assisted by a cast iron force-pump, 
worked by horses, overcame all difficulties. The shaft was opened 
about forty feet from the salt well. The first twelve feet weré compos- 
ed of red argillaceous earth, covering the strata of rock. The next 
forty or fifty feet, were a kind of —— decomposing after ex- 
vom XXV.—No. 
