64 Saliferous Rock Formation in the Valley of the Ohio. 



success in rheumatism, burns, coughs, sprains, &;c. was justly enti- 

 tled to all its celebrity. It acquired its name of Seneca oil, that by 

 which it is generally known, from having first been found in the vicin- 

 ity of Seneca Lake, N. York. From its being found in limited quan- 

 tities, and its great and extensive demand, a small vial of it would 

 sell for forty or fifty cents. It is, at this time, in general use among 

 the inhabitants of the country, for saddle bruises, and that complaint 

 called the scratches, in horses. It seems to be peculiarly adapted to the 

 flesh of horses, and cures many of their ailments with wonderful certain- 

 ty and celerity. Flies and other insects have a natural antipathy to its 

 effluvia, and it is used with much effect in preventing the deposit of 

 eggs by the " blowing fly," in the wounds of domestic animals during 

 the summer months. In neighborhoods where it is abundant, it is 

 burned in lamps in place of spermaceti oil, affording a brilliant light 

 but filling the room with its own peculiar odor. By filtering it 

 through charcoal, much of this empyreumatic smell is destroyed and 

 the oil greatly improved in quality and appearance. It is also well 

 adapted to prevent friction in machinery, for being free of gluten, so 

 common to animal and vegetable oils, it preserves the parts to which 

 it is applied, for a long time, in free motion — where a heavy vertical 

 shaft runs in a socket, it is preferable to all or any other articles. 

 This oil rises in greater or less abundance in most of the salt wells 

 on the Kenhawa, and collecting as it rises, in the head on the top of 

 the water, is removed, from time to time, with a ladle, and put by 

 for sale or use. The greater abundance of stone coal in this locality, 

 than that of the Muskingum, gives it a decided advantage in the elabo- 

 ration of petroleum. On the latter river, the wells afford but little oil, 

 and that only during the time the process of boring is going on j it ceas- 

 es soon after the wells are completed ; and yet all of them abound 

 more or less in gas. A well on Duck Creek, about thirty miles north 

 of Marietta, owned by Mr. McKee, furnishes the greatest quantity of 

 any in this region. It was dug in the year 1814, and is four hundred 

 and seventy five feet in depth. Salt water was reached at one hun- 

 dred and eighty five feet, but not in sufficient quantity ; however, no 

 more water was found below this depth. The rocks passed, were 

 similar to those on the Muskingum river above the flint stratum, or 

 like those between the flint and salt deposit, at McConnelsville. A 

 bed of coal two yards in thickness, was found at the depth of one hun- 

 dred feet, and gas, at one hundred and forty four feet, or forty one 

 feet above the salt rock. 



