from any gas-well, a powerful stream of gas has been recently struck. It forces up the water with great power; but, unfortunately for the proprietor, the water is too weak to be profitably worked. It appears from this fact, that the gas is not inseparably connected with strong brine. When struck before good salt water is reached, it will operate injuriously, for no water obtained below it can rise at all, unless the pressure of the gas be taken off by means of a strong tube extending below it. "Several wells have been bored to a depth equal to that of the gas-wells, without striking the gas; the source of which seems to lie below, perhaps far below, the depth of the wells. This light elastic substance, wheresoever and howsoever generated, naturally presses upwards for a vent, urging its way through every pore and crevice of the superincumbent rocks; and the well-borer's auger must find it in one of the narrow routes of its upward passage, or penetrate to its native coal-bed before it will burst forth by the artificial vent. "The opinion just intimated, that the gas originates in deep coal beds, is founded on the fact that it is the same sort of gas that constitutes the dangerous _fire-damp_ of coal-pits, and the same that is manufactured out of bituminous coal for illuminating our cities. It is a mixture of carburetted and sulphuretted hydrogen. Philosophers tell us that bituminous coal becomes anthracite by the conversion of its bitumen and sulphur into this gas, and that water acts a necessary part in the process. Whether the presence of salt water causes a more rapid evolution of the gas, the present writer will not undertake to say; but somehow, the quantity generated in the salt region of Kanawha is most extraordinary. "It finds in this region innumerable small natural vents. It is seen in many places bubbling up through the sand at the bottom of the river, and probably brings up salt water with it, as in the gas-wells, but in small quantity. The celebrated burning spring is the only one of its natural vents apparent on dry land. This stream of gas, unaccompanied by water, has forced its way from the rocks below, through 70 or 80 feet of alluvial ground, and within 80 yards of the river bank. It is near this burning spring where the principal gas-wells have been found; but, twenty-five years ago, or more, a gas-fountain was struck in a well 200 feet deep, near Charleston, 7 miles below the burning spring. This blew up, by fits, a jet of weak salt water 20 or 30 feet high. On a torch being applied to it one night, brilliant flames played and flashed about the watery column in the most wonderful manner." Leaving the Salines, we pass on to the Falls of Kanawha, 30 miles; to Gauley Bridge, 5 miles; and to the HAWK'S NEST, 8 miles.