242 On the O^-igin of Salt Springs. 



of the alluvial of New-Jersey, from which good iron for 

 castings may be extracted. It is generally mixed with 

 mountain ore in the furnace. The phosphate of iron is not 

 unfrequently found imbedded in the bog-ore of New-Jersey. 

 A valuable chalybeate spring, is situated in the town of 

 Shrewsbury. White pipe-clay is abundant near Amboy 

 Bay and the Delaware. The inhabitants of the New-Jer- 

 sey sea-board generally subsist by a little farming, wood-cut- 

 ting, fishing, and grazing of cattle on the salt-meadows. 



Akt. III. — On the probable Origin of certain Salt Springs. 

 By Professor Amos Eaton. 



To the Editor. 



Every fact which tends to disclose that hidden operation 

 of nature by which the Salt Springs of the west are produc- 

 ed, is interesting to the geologist.* 



I took a specimen of the rock called water limestone from 

 a hill adjoining Nine-mile Creek, a few miles west of the 

 Onondaga salt-springs. If this specimen be pulverized and 

 examined ever so minutely, it presents nothing to the sens- 

 es resembling common salt, (muriate of soda.) I do not 

 mean that the elementary constituents cannot be found in 

 it, but I do not propose heie to have any reference to a 

 chemical analysis of the rock. On exposing a fresh frac- 

 ture of a specimen from this rock, for two or three weeks in 

 a damp cellar, it shoots out crystals of common salt, suffi- 

 cient to cover its whole surface. It may be proper to state, 

 that I have made the trial only in very cold weather; during 

 which time a fire was sometimes made in the cellar room. 

 I do not know, however, that these circumstances had any 

 influence on the result. 



This proves conclusively, that one rock at least, repos- 

 ing over the floor of the salt springs, contains in itself the 



*This discovery, made in my first excursion on the canal route, in the 

 employment of the Patroon of Albany, (the Hon. S. Van Rensselaer,) I take 

 the liberty to communicate ia his absence ; because I know it is not his wish 

 to withhold interesting subjects one moment from the public. As the exten- 

 sive circulation of your Journal will bring this fact to the knowledge of 

 scientific gentlemen in the vicinity of other salt-springs, it may induce sat- 

 isfactory research. 



