226 Ten Days in Ohio. 



posure to the vicissitudes of the weather — then sandstone of a slaty- 

 structure — then bituminous shale, with thin layers of stone coal — at 

 one hundred and ten feet, numerous geodes, coated with shale, were 

 found, containing bivalve shells ; below these, imjoressions of Palm 

 leaves between the seams in the slatestone. I have now in my pos- 

 session several specimens of the rock strata, from one hundred and 

 ten feet to one hundred and forty feet ; one of these is a fine grained, 

 dark clayslate, from the extremity of the drift, where the operations 

 ended— at one hundred and twenty feet they struck a bed of grey- 

 flint rock, six or eight feet in thickness ; at this depth the object of 

 their search was expected to be found, but no silver yet greeted the 

 eyes of the anxious miners, although every fragment was examined 

 with minute attention. Beneath the flint rock was a stratum of dark 

 argillaceous slate, so compact that no w^ter, after passing the flint 

 stratum, penetrated the walls of the shaft. The shaft was continued 

 twenty feet further in the slate rock, making one hundred and forty 

 feet from the surface ; a drift was then commenced and carried for- 

 ward forty feet, until it struck the salt well ; this the miners had pre- 

 viously plugged with great care, below the principal salt spring. No 

 silver, as yet appearing, an examination was made by digging down 

 the sides of the salt well in the floor of the drift, and a bed of very 

 fine bituminous coal seven feet in thickness was found. But as coal 

 was not the object of search, the miners made an attempt to reach 

 the spot, where the silver was brought up by the scraper, now about 

 fifteen feet above the roof of the drift. In this attempt, some un- 

 lucky blow, or the concussion of a blast, set loose the plug in the salt 

 well over their heads ; when the water came rushing down with such 

 violence, that they barely escaped drowning before reaching the buck- 

 ets, and were immediately drawn up ; the water following them rap- 

 idly to within forty feet of the surface of the earth. So sudden and 

 unexpected was the rush of water, that their tools were all left be- 

 hind ; and the cast iron pump, valued at more than one thousand 

 dollars, still remains in the mine ; a lasting memorial of the enter- 

 terprise of the citizens of Ohio. To prevent accidents, the shaft 

 has been since filled up with earth and old logs. The expenditures 

 of the company amounted to about f 11,000, several hundred dollars 

 being recovered from them in damages, for ruining the salt well. 

 As the shaft approached near the supposed silver deposit, the stock 

 rose very rapidly in value ; a share on which fifty dollars had been 

 paid, selling for two hundred and fifty ; as it had been deemed very 



