Coal Deposits. 123 



One of the most interesting of these gaseous springs, is that 

 known by the name of " the Burning spring," near the center of 

 the saHnes. The gas rises in a cavity about a foot in depth and 

 five or six feet in diameter, through the alhivial soil, eight or ten 

 rods from the river. This cavity, except in dry seasons, is partially 

 filled with water, through which the inflammable air constantly rises 

 with considerable commotion. On applying a lighted candle, or 

 brand of fire, it becomes ignited and throws up alight lambent flame 

 to the height of two or three feet, and continues to burn until extin- 

 guished by a sudden dash of water or by a violent agitation of the 

 air. It rises near the center of an open square of about an acre, 

 given to the public by the liberality of Washington, who owned 

 large tracts of land on the Kenawha; he viewed it as an interesting 

 natural phenomenon, which no parsimonious individual ought ever to 

 appropriate to his own benefit. In the low grounds, between this 

 spring and the hill, gas is discharged at several places as well as at 

 various points along the margin of the river. There appears to be 

 no diminution in the amount of gas, from its first discovery to the 

 present time ; the same Almighty and liberal hand, which furnished 

 the perennial fountains with water, having also provided this gaseous 

 spring with the means of an exhaustless supply. 



Coal Deposits. 



The immense beds of bituminous coal found in the valley of 

 the Ohio, fill the mind with wonder and surprise, as it reflects on 

 the vast forests of arborescent plants required in their forma- 

 tion. Age after age, successive growths of plants, springing up 

 in the same region, were entombed beneath thick strata of shale 

 and sandstone, until the whole series had accumulated to a depth of 

 more than a thousand feet ; while beneath the whole, lay the bed of 

 an ancient ocean floored with fossil salt. Indications of coal are 

 found at intervals, across the great valley, from the Alleghany to the 

 Rocky mountains. It is found near the surface in Kentucky, Ohio, 

 Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and without doubt, may be found be- 

 neath the extensive tertiary deposits, which form the substratum of the 

 great prairies in the central and northern parts of the western states. 

 As low down as New Madrid on the Mississippi, coal was thrown up 

 from beneath the bed of the river, by the great earthquakes of 1812 

 — a sufficient proof of its continuation in the most depressed part of 

 the great valley. 



