14 
[Assembly 
Origin of the Brine Springs. 
The origin of the brine springs of our State is a subject of the deepest 
interest, and no pains or expense should be spared for its complete elu- 
cidation. It has already been stated that, in consequence of the superior 
strength of the Onondaga brines, they are almost the only ones from 
which salt is manufactured in this State. Now if brines of still greater 
strength could be obtained, by boring or otherwise, it would increase the 
value of this manufacture, inasmuch as it would reduce the expense of 
the process and the price of the salt. Whether such a desirable result 
is within the compass of probability, can be determined only by a care- 
ful examination of all the circumstances connected with the occurrence 
of these springs. 
Upon the supposition that the whole of the interior of this continent 
was originally covered with the waters of the primeval sea, it is not dif- 
ficult to imagine that these waters may have remained in various places 
after the general subsidence, and that by long continued evaporation they 
may have been brought to the state of concentration which we find in 
these brines. The extent to which this evaporation must have been car- 
ried in the present instance, will appear from the fact that sea-water rarely 
contains more than four per cent of saline matter, whereas the Salina brine 
yields fourteen or fifteen per cent. But a serious objection to this the- 
ory of the origin of our brine springs is, that they are usually at some 
distance below the surface of the earth, where it is difficult to see how 
the process of evaporation can take place. Moreover, if the increase in 
the strength of the brine was due to this cause, it would be fair to infer 
that this process of concentration was still going on, and that the brine 
was constantly though gradually becoming stronger; of which there seems 
to be no proof.* 
Professor Eaton has advanced the opinion that the brine is produced 
by combinations continually in progress between the elementary mate- 
rials furnished by the subjacent rock, and some of the superincumbent 
strata.! This view is thought to be supported by the fact observed by 
him, that crystals of salt were formed upon a fragment of the saliferous 
rock, when exposed to a moist atmosphere. Another fact turned to the 
same account is of sufficient interest to merit particular attention. It 
* According to Dr. Benjamin DeWitt, the specific gravity of the Salina brine in 1801, was 
from 1.078 to 1.110. (Transactions of the Society of Arts, &c. I. 268.) In 1810, Mr. George 
Chilton found the specific gravity of the Onondaga brine to be 1.0958* (Silliman's Journal, 
VIL 344 ) In 1826, 1 found it to be, 1 .10800, and in 1837, 1 .0884. So that if any reliance is 
to be placed on these observations, there does not appear to have been any appreciable altera' 
lion in the strength of the Salina brine for the last thirty-six years. 
t Canal Rocks, p. 108. 
