354 



SALINE SPRINGS. 



States in 1829, was 3,804,229 bushels; of which the 

 Onondaga springs furnished 1,291,220 bushels. In 

 1835, the amount of salt made at these springs was 

 2,222,694 bushels; so that, reckoning the total 

 amount of salt manufactured in the United States, 

 at present, to amount to 8,000,000 bushels, the 

 springs of Onondaga furnish more than one fourth 

 of the whole. The following statement exhibits 

 the relative strength of the different brines from 

 which salt is made in the United States : One bushel 

 of salt is obtained from 450 gallons of sea-water at 

 Nantucket; 450 gallons of brine at Boon's Lick 

 (Missouri) ; 300 do. Conemaugh (Penn.) ; 280 do. 

 Shawneetown (111.) ; 213 do. Jackson (Ohio) ; 180 

 do. Lockhart's (Mississippi); 123 do. Shawneetown; 

 120 do. St. Catharine's (U. C.) ; 95 do. Zanesville 

 (Ohio) ; 75 do. Kenawha (Virginia) ; 80 do. Grand 

 River (Arkansas) ; 50 do. Muskingum (Ohio) ; 41 to 

 45 do. Onondaga (N. Y.) ; thus showing that the 

 saline springs of New- York are the strongest yet 

 discovered. 



Prof. Beck, in his able Report to the Legislature, 

 from which these facts are gathered, maintains, 

 with great plausibility, that these salines originate 

 from a solution of beds of rock-salt, at a considera- 

 ble distance below the surface, and recommends 

 deep borings to ascertain the fact. We have not 

 space for his arguments, which are numerous, and 

 to us perfectly conclusive. The valleys of the 

 Ohio and Mississippi abound in saline springs of 

 various degrees of strength. Indeed, nearly, if not 

 entirely, the whole valley of the Ohio is based on 

 saliferous or muriatiferous rocks, which afford an 

 abundance of water highly charged with muriate 

 of soda. We find it stretching along the base of 

 the Alleghany range of mountains, amid the coal 

 and sandstones of that region ; and Dr. Hildreth 

 supposes that it extends far north to Lake Erie, 

 though at a considerable depth. The rock which 



