Ten Bays in Ohio. 225 



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 to a Spanish dollar. On further conver- 

 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 communicating 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 " Muskinghani 

 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- 

 lt 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 were compos- 

 ed of red argillaceous earth, covering the strata of rock. The next 

 forty or fifty feet, were a kind of greywacke, decomposing after ex- 

 VoL. XXV.— No. 2. 29 



