232 GEOLOGY OP ILLINOIS. 



latter is referred to the same horizon as the coal at Karris' mine. The 

 intercalated limestones, in the space between the sandstone and the 

 limestone above No. 7 coal, in the northern part of Saline county, pos- 

 sess a variable character, and seldom exhibit the same features at any 

 two localities. 



Drift. — The drift in this county is characterized by a yellow plastic 

 clay mixed with small gravel, with occasionally a granite bowlder as 

 large as a goose egg, more rarely as large as a man's head. In some 

 places the clay is replaced by sand, which forms the only source of sup- 

 ply in this county for the sand which is used in mortar for plastering 

 houses and for masonry. The drift is from ten to twenty feet thick, and 

 extends all over the county, except where it has been removed by 

 denudation or other causes. 



Hi nerals. 



Copper. — I was informed by Dr. Smith, a very intelligent and observ- 

 ant gentleman, who lives near Gallatin, in the northern part of the 

 county, that he had at different times found small pieces of native cop- 

 per both in this county and the southern part of Hamilton, in ravines 

 or washed places, and in the beds of branches. The doctor spoke of a 

 gentleman who had picked up in the bed of a branch, near Gallatin, a 

 lump of native copper larger than a hen's egg. The latter specimen is 

 still owned in the town, and Dr. Smith tried to procure it for my inspec 

 tion, but the parties to whom it belonged were away on a visit, and it 

 was locked up in their residence. From the malleability and other 

 characteristic tests to which the specimens were subjected by Dr. 

 Smith, they are proved beyond a doubt to be native copper. 



The circumstances connected with the finding of small quantities of 

 native copper in Hamilton and Saline counties, clearly indicate that it 

 came from the drift deposit. Therefore, it will be useless to expend 

 time and money in searching for valuable mines of copper in this county, 

 The drift, as before stated, covers a large portion of Saline county, and 

 is composed of material transported by glacial agency from and beyond 

 the copper regions to the northward. 



Salt.— At an early period, when the agents of the General Govern- 

 ment were manufacturing salt at the Saline works, in Gallatin county, 

 some speculative adventurers dug a well on the Middle Fork of the 

 Saline river, about two miles east of Harrisburg ; it is reported, that at 

 the depth of eighty feet they found a brine from which a considerable 

 quantity of salt was made. At this late day, it is impossible to obtain 

 any information respecting the quality or number of gallons which it 

 required of this brine to make a bushel of salt, but there is reason to 



