SALT IN THE SECOND GEOLOGICAL DISTRICT. 



Salt is made in the following counties in the Second Geological Dis- 

 trict : Meigs, Athens, Perry, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, and Guernsey. 

 In 'former days salt was made in Jackson county, and a little in Scioto, 

 and, possibly, a very small quantity in one or two other counties. Brine 

 of greater or less strength has been found in wells bored for oil in almost 

 all the counties in the district. The geological formation which affords 

 the supply of brine used at the various salt-works is the Carboniferous, 

 and chiefly the lower member of it, viz., the Waverly. In many places 

 in railroad cuts, and similar exposures, we find the salt appealing as an 

 efflorescence on the face of the rock. Where the Waverly constitutes 

 high ridges, with ample opportunity for the drainage of the waters 

 which have for ages percolated through the sandrock, it has been found 

 that the saline elements have been removed, and the water within the 

 rock is now fresh. 



A well bored at the State Reform School, on the high lands south-weBt 

 of Lancaster, into the Waverly conglomerate, affords fresh water. But 

 where the Waverly has dipped below the surface, and passed under the 

 productive Coal Measures, we find almost universally more or less brine 

 in the wells which penetrate it. The salt-works on the Ohio River, in 

 Meigs county ; on the Hocking River, on Monday Creek, in Perry county ; 

 on the Muskingum River, in Muskingum and Morgan counties; and the 

 Scott works, in Guernsey county, all draw their chief supply of brine 

 from the Waverly. The small works at Olive, Noble county, obtain 

 brine from a sandrock in the Coal Measures. It is probable that in sev- 

 eral wells at other points named brine from the upper, or Coal-Measure 

 sandrocks, is mingled with Waverly brine, the upper brine not being 

 tubed off; but as a rule the chief supply comes from the Waverly sand- 

 stone. The depth at which the Waverly is reached varies with the loca- 

 tion of the well. 



The wells at the salt-works in Athens and Perry counties, being nearer 

 the outcrop of the Waverly, are less deep than at Pomeroy, as are also the 

 wells in Muskingum less deep as a rule than those in Morgan. The 

 wells at Pomeroy are proximately one thousand feet deep. Those at 

 Salina, in Athens county, are scarcely six hundred. The M'Cuneville 

 wells on Monday Creek, in Perry county, are nearly nine hundred feet 

 deep below the surface, which is one hundred and fifty feet below the 



