214 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



The surface level is from ten to twelve feet below high water mark and 

 the soil is a river or lacustrine deposit, of fiue, whitish, clay loam, con- 

 taining in spots mauy fresh water shells belonging to species now living. 

 Beneath this alluvial soil, the excavation at the "Half-moon" shows a yel- 

 lowish clay, mixed with gravel and sand, which belongs to the age of 

 the Drift. This locality must have been, likewise, a favorite resort fur 

 the Mammoth and Mastodon, huge monsters that roamed in immense 

 numbers over the country when the present site of the salt works was 

 an alluring swamp, for there has been found, from time to time, resting 

 on this drift in the Half-moon, a great many bones belonging to these 

 extinct animals. While examiniog this locality several small fragments 

 of the enameled crowns of Mammoths' teeth were picked up, the less 

 enfluring parts of the structure having mouldered into dust. The lia- 

 bility of fossil bones to crumble and fall to pieces immediately after 

 their exposure to The air, has been a serious drawback to their collection, 

 and many valuable specimens have, in consequence, been lost to stience 

 for want of knowing how to secure their preservation. 



It may not, therefore, be out of place here to state to the citizens who 

 may be interested in the promotion of geological science that bits of 

 paper should be glued over the specimen as fast as the parts are 

 exposed by the removal of the earth, as in this manner highly interest- 

 ing bones may be removed with safety from their matrix of earth, 

 which without this precaution would drop into useless fragments. A 

 further preservation may be secured by subsequently boiling the bones 

 or teeth in a weak solution of glue, which will supply the lost animal 

 matter and cement the earthy particles firmly together. 



Teeth of the Mastodon were found last summer close to the water's 

 edge in front of Shawneetown. I subsequently visited the locality and 

 saw that the bones were imbedded in a shallow deposit of bluish clay, 

 resting upon yellow clay and gravel, which corresponds in geological 

 time with the bone beds at the Half Moon. 



While the Saline salt works were under the control of the General 

 Government, the strong brine on the Kanawha had not been discovered : 

 consequently an immense district of country had to receive its supply 

 of salt from these works. The brine then used required from one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five to two hundred and eighty gallons to make one 

 bushel (fifty pounds) of salt. Between one and two thousand hands 

 were employed, and the yield of the works has been estimated at eighty 

 to one hundred bushels of salt per diem. So greatly was the demand 

 beyond the power of the works to supply, that, as I am informed, appli- 

 cants for salt coming from Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and other 

 paits of the country were regularly ticketed, and could be supplied only 

 by awaiting their proper turn. No one thought of stopping for the 



