I should mention that charcoal is found above all the salt mines and brine springs of the Carpathian for mation. • Four miles west of this point is another well, 60 feet deep; in digging, the workmen struck, 1. A bed of tenacious blue clay, 20 feet thick, at the bottom of which is a small spring of salt water.
2. A bed of similar clay 25 feet thick, and, 3. A quicksand bed of 10 feet, at the bottom of which is a large vein of salt water.
Bones of the mammoth and other animals were found in both the clay and sand.
The original reservation at these salines comprised 92,160 acres of woodland, and was transferred by the United States to the state of Illinois, which now de rives from its different salines an annual revenue of about 10,000 dollars.
In Missouri, Boon's Lick, long known, furnishes the wants of the neighbouring settlements. Several fur naces are erected for the evaporation of a weak brine; 450 gallons of which yield a bushel of salt. Eighty bushels are made daily and require three cords of wood. Compact limestone is the prevailing rock; but coal beds and strata of sandstone abound in the vici nity.
Lockhart's salt works, on the Saline River, yield 500 bushels of salt per week. The diggings, so often mentioned as existing here, seem to have been produc ed by wild cattle, resorting hither in large herds, and licking the ground for the sake of the salt contained in it. Four miles further north, on the Saline Fork of Le Mine River, is another establishment, where 180 gallons of brine produce a bushel of salt. One hun dred bushels are manufactured per week, and eight men are employed in the works.
There are several small works for the manufacture of salt in other parts of this state.
In .drkansas, independent of the saline incrustations, there are many valuable salt springs. On the Grand, or Neosho river, 50 miles above its junction with the Arkansas, in an alluvial basin, are valuable salt water springs, quite pellucid, issuing copiously from the sur face in various directions. One of the springs emits fetid bubbles of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The only well dug for salt water is about five feet deep; eighty gallons of brine produce a bushel of salt, and 120 bushels are manufactured weekly. The water is said
to be so strong, that after the second boiling it is not necessary to remove the lye. The salt is pure white on the first boiling, and is said to contain none but volatile impurities. The well is in dark-coloured lime stone, containing shells. No marine plants appear in the vicinity.
On the Illinois, a few miles above its junction with the Arkansas, are Bean's salt springs. They are simi lar to, and scarcely less productive than those on Grand River. In digging his wells, the workmen struck, about two feet from the surface, a stratum of charcoal, which affords conjectures, at least, that this locality has been known and worked by the aborigines.
On the \Vachitta are springs yielding a large propor tion of the muriate of soda; but I am not prepared to say exactly how many bushels are manufactured yearly; the quantity has been estimated at 50,000 bushels.
Most of the streams north of the Arkansas are said to possess salt, which might be wrought with profit; on the north side of the Arkansas the salines are con nected with the coal formation; on the south they oc cur in red clay.
In Ohio are many salt wells; that of Zanesville, on the Muskingum, is 213 feet deep, and furnishes 80 bushels of salt daily; 95 gallons of brine give a bushel, worth on the spot 1 dol. 50 cents. In Jackson, on the Scioto, and on the Hockhocking, are several salt springs; in one a shaft has been sunk 300 feet; but the brine has proved weak, requiring 213 gallons to the bushel. There are many other springs in this state, some of which are very valuable.
In Kentucky the salines of the Little Sandy River are the most productive, yielding annually about 10,000 bushels. The waters, like those of Kenhawa, &-c. hold in solution, besides the muriate of soda, the sulphate of soda, sulphate of lime, and a small portion of the sulphate of magnesia. Limestone and sandstone are the only rocks found in the vicinity. The brine at May's lick issues from alluvial argillaceous soil. There are other salines, yielding about 10,000 bushels.