250 Ten Days in Ohio. 



ably from the action of oxygen on the iron.* On the eastern branch- 

 es of Brush Creek the country is hilly and broken ', and as the slate 

 decomposes, these globes of pyrites tumble out and roll to the bot- 

 tom of the hills where they can be picked up of all sizes. Consid- 

 erable quantities of native alum and copperas are found in the crevi- 

 ces of the slate and are used by the neighboring inhabitants in coloring 

 iheir domestic cloths. In the same neighborhood are found in great 

 abundance, both clay and bog iron ore, and the latter is extensively 

 manufactured into pigs and castings — a few miles east of Brush 

 Creek, above the mouth of the Scioto, large beds of iron ore are 

 found, lying over limestone, containing immense quantities of fossil 

 shells imbeded in the ore j embracing many distinct species of Pec- 

 ten, Productus, &;c. with chambered univalves — some of them are fine- 

 ly preserved shewing the most minute workings and the hinge mar- 

 gin having some resemblance to the head and beaks of a bird j the 

 country people call them " Paroquets petrified." We returned to 

 Circleville in the evening, after a day spent very pleasantly. 



TO CHiLicoTHE. — Canol Bottts. 



May 29. — Morning cool — Ther. 45° day fine. Rose at an ear- 

 ly hour and went on board a canal boat, in company with a number 

 of ladies and gentlemen on a trip to Chilicothe. The boat moved at 

 the rate of four miles per hour, by the aid of two horses, which were 

 changed but once in the distance of twenty three miles. These boats 

 are fitted up with great neatness, and afford every necessary comfort 

 to the traveller. The canal passes along back of ihe Scioto bottom, 

 near the base of the uplands, which here as well as all over the Sci- 

 oto valley are composed of gravel, clay, and water worn pebbles and 



* A part of the summer of the year 1830, was excessively dry in the S. "W. por- 

 tion of Ohio. Scioto Brush Creek, is a small western branch emptying its waters 

 into the Scioto river a few miles above Portsmouth. It heads in the same slaty hills 

 with some of the branches of Adams County Brush Creek. During the drought the 

 water all disappeared from the creek, leaving its bed entirely dry for several weeks. 

 Towards the close of this period, loud and frequent explosions took place from the 

 slate at the bottom of the creek, throwing up large fragments of the rock and sha- 

 king the earth violently for some distance. The inhabitants living near its borders 

 became much alarmed, thinking a volcano was breaking out. On examining the 

 spot, large pieces of iron pyrites were found mixed with the slate stone. The wa- 

 ter, which had heretofore protected the pyrites from the atmosphere, being all evap- 

 orated, the oxygen found its way through the crevices of the slate to these beds, and 

 acting chemically upon them, new combinations took place, forcing up the superin- 

 cumbent strata with great violence and noise — when the water again covered the 

 bed of the creek, the explosions ceased. I have one or two large fragments of the 

 pyrites, given me by an intelligent friend who visited the spot at the time. 



