Kanawha Salt Works.
At the first settlement of this place there was a great "buffalo
lick," as it was called, was discovered where some weak salt
water oozed out of the bank of the river. After some time the
inhabitants sunk hollow gums into the sand and gravel at that
place, into which the water collected, but it was so weak that,
although sufficient quantities might be collected, not more
than two to four bushels were made in a day. After the prop-
erty came into the possession of my brother, Joseph Ruffner,
and myself (by divisee), we were desirous to see the effect of
sinking large sycamore gums as low down as we could force
them. We found great difficulty in this on account of the
water coming in so rapidly. When we got down about eight-
een feet below the surface of the river we discovered that our
gums lodged on a solid, smooth freestone rock, and the water
was but little improved as we descended. We then bored a
hole in the rock about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, the size generally
used subsequently for that purpose. After penetrating the
rock eighteen or twenty feet, we struck a vein of water saltier
than had been attained in this place before. Our neighbors
followed our example and succeeded in obtaining good salt
water in the distance of 2i miles below and four miles above
us on the river. They all have to sink the gums about eighteen
feet to the rock, into which they bore a hole from 100 to 200
feet deep. The rock is never perforated, though the water
seeps into the holes in soft or porous places. The cost of bor-
ing was from $3 to $4 a foot. The first water that is struck in
the augur hole is fresh, or an inferior quality of salt water,
which is excluded by means of copper or tin tubes put down
into the augur hole and secured so that none of the water
that comes in above the lower end of the tube can discharge itself
into the gum, which has a bottom put into it immediately upon
the rock, and is secured in such a manner that no water can
get into the tube except that which comes up through the tube
