64 [Senate 



and limestone are abundant; clay altogether in the digging to the 

 rock; sandstone plenty; no bituminous coal. Our market for salt 

 is St. Louis and the points on the upper Mississippi." 



In another letter, which I recently received from my correspon- 

 dent, Dr. John Croghan, of Locust Grove, Ky. he remarks: 



" I formerly owned an extensive body of land denominated ' the 

 Salt Lick Bend of Cumberland,' on which there were strong indica- 

 tions of salt water. The only unfavorable appearance was that of 

 lime stone rock — a rock which is not an associate of the salt forma- 

 tion; and almost invariably when the salt water is found under such 

 circumstances, it (to use the workmen's expression) ' gives out;' or 

 after the introduction of the copper tube, it blows, by means of which 

 the whole of the water is thrown with great force out of the cavity 

 which contains it. I have heard of the poles being driven, much to 

 the consternation of the workmen, to a great height in the air. 

 When this is the case, it is unaccompanied by any discharge of wa- 

 ter. The gas, set free by the introduction of the boring rods into 

 the cavity which contained it, is the carburetted hydrogen, and is 

 found in water springs called ' burning springs.' A well was bored 

 on Green river, in the county of Casey or Adair, Ky. in which I am 

 told a terrible explosion occurred, caused by the mixture of atmos- 

 pheric air with the carburetted hydrogen. Rocks and the largest of 

 trees were lorn up, and thrown a considerable distance. There is a 

 salt well on Ren wick creek, Cumberland county, Ky. in which the 

 water is contained in a cavity; the salt makers work it until they 

 exhaust the cistern, and renew their operations when it is replenish- 

 ed, which takes (as well as I recollect) two or three months. At the 

 works which I own on Cumberland river, the earth is excavated to 

 the depth of 30 or 40 feet, embracing an area of about half an acre. 

 An incredible number of buffalo and other bones were found here. 

 Salt was manufactured nearly forty years ago at this place, by per- 

 sons living in the neighborhood. They dug but a few feet inethfe 

 ground, and obtained water, which I understood was very w ak. 

 About fifteen years since, I hired some borers and commenced ope- 

 rations in the bottom of the excavated ground, only 30 or 40 yards 

 from the river. In descending to the depth of 80 feet, we struck a 

 small vein of very strong salt water, and after going to tie depth of 

 200 feet through solid rock, the auger (to use the language of the 

 borers) 'fell,' and a large stream of water mixed with petroleum 

 poured out of the well. In the course of a short time the petroleum 

 ceased running; the water, though very abundant, was, as I antici- 

 pated from the bad company in which the salt rock was found (lime 

 stone,) exceedingly weak, so much so that I would not work it, and 

 I rented it to some men in the neighborhood for a term of years. 

 Since steamboats commenced navigating the Cumberland, salt can be 

 purchased at so reduced a price that no one could manufacture it at 

 my works without sustaining a loss." 



These weaker salines in the far west, were, in former times, and 

 before the white men settled in those regions, the resort of buffalo, 

 deer, &c. 



