Virginia Argus

EXPERIENCE & CAUTION.

Extract of a letter from a gentleman in the state of Ohio, to his brother in Trenton.

"I cannot omit informing you of a discovery of vast importance to this Western country. Salt has been made for several years past at a large lick on the Great Kanawha, in Virginia. The neighboring settlers usually dug a few feet until they met with a rock, which stopped their further progress. From wells thus made they obtained water slightly impregnated with salt, and thus supplied themselves with that necessary article. Last summer a Mr. Tobias Nutter, with an auger four inches in diameter, bored 27 feet into the rock, when his auger sunk six feet and again struck a hard substance. The workmen drew up the auger and the water immediately followed to within 8 feet of the surface of the ground. Sixty gallons of this water produce fifty pounds of salt, equal in strength and purity to any that I have ever seen. Mr. Nutter has since erected a small furnace, and makes about 50 bushels per day; a Mr. Whitaker has also perforated the rock on the opposite side of the Kanawha, and been equally successful. Successful trials have also been made, on obtaining the water on both sides of the river for 20 miles in extent; it is found at various depths from 50 to 80 feet—from which it appears that the fountain is inexhaustible. This discovery is an invaluable acquisition to this country, as salt being a heavy article, has ever been scarce and dear. To add to the utility of this discovery, it is situated on the margin of a bold navigable river, 56 miles from its confluence with the Ohio, whence it can be conveyed to any part of the Western country.

"Iron has hitherto been a difficult article to procure in this country: but there is now a furnace in blast on the Muskingum, which makes excellent castings, and a Forge is erecting which will work the ensuing year."