James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 1James, Edwin
History
James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 1
James, Edwin
Indians of North America; Rocky Mountains; United States -- Discovery and exploration; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
The Kenhawa salt-works supply about thirty thousand bushels of
salt per annum. The rocks about these springs belong to the
secondary formation, and are limestone, variegated sandstone,
and bituminous shale: we were informed that two hundred and
fifty gallons of this water yield one bushel of salt. At
the Salines of the Little Sandy, ten thousand bushels are
manufactured yearly. The waters, like those of the Kenhawa,
hold in solution muriate and sulphate of soda, sulphate of
lime, and probably a small portion of sulphate of magnesia.
Limestone and sandstone are the only rocks to be met with in the
neighbourhood. The United States' salines, near Shawaneetown,
produce at present about a hundred and thirty thousand bushels
of salt per annum; they formerly yielded more than two hundred
thousand in the same time. There are now seven furnaces in
operation: the water is procured from three wells, two of which
are rented by Major I. Taylor. At these works the salt water
formerly issued from the earth at the surface. A well of sixteen
feet deep brought the workmen to a spring, which now discharges
sixteen gallons of water per minute. Two hundred and fifty
gallons yield fifty pounds of salt. About one thousand yards
to the east of this well is a basin, or hollow, one hundred
and thirty-five feet in diameter. The soil in and about it is
intimately blended with fragments of earthen ware.
In the middle of this basin a well has been sunk, which
affords a more concentrated brine than that before mentioned;
one hundred and ten gallons yielding fifty pounds of salt.
In digging this well, the first fourteen feet was through a
light earth mixed with ashes and fragments of earthen ware:
the remaining fourteen through a bed of clay, deeply coloured
with oxyde of iron, and containing fragments of pottery. The
clay has something the appearance of having been subjected to
the action of fire. At the eastern side of the basin appears
to have been a drain for the purpose of conveying away the
superabundant water. In this drain, about four feet below the
surface of the earth, is a layer of charcoal about six inches
deep. The stones in the vicinity appear as if they had been
burnt. Four miles west of this point, a well has been sunk
sixty feet through the following beds.
First—— twenty feet of tenacious blue clay, at the bottom of
which they came to a small spring of salt water.
Second—— another bed of clay, of a similar character,
twenty-five feet thick.
Third—— a bed of quicksand, about ten feet deep; in which
they met with a large vein of salt water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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