Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/38

32 continues level, but is much of it low and swampy, and is thinly settled.

South of the State road as it approaches the Scioto, twenty-eight miles in a southeasterly direction from Chilicothe and 83 from Galliopolis on the Ohio, are the Great Scioto salt-works. The land is hilly and covered with a heavy growth of timber. The salt water is found near the banks of a stream which runs into the Scioto, and is called Salt Creek, at the depth of about, twelve feet from the surface of the ground. Fresh water, as it passes over, is prevented from flittering into the salt water, by an extremely hard pan of clay. There are sixteen furnaces, and when in operation, each furnace will make 70 or 80 bushels of salt in 24 hours. The method of constructing a furnace is to dig a long trench in a hard pan of clay, four feet deep at one end and ten feet at the other, with a gradual descent into the deep end, which is the mouth of the furnace. Ninety kettles of thirty gallons each, arranged in two tiers, are placed in the trench. A fire is made at the deepest end, and a chimney is formed at the other, in a manner that will admit of a strong draught through the length of the furnace. The water is pumped by horses or mules into a large cistern, and then laded into the kettles. An intense heat is necessary for boiling the water. As the water evaporates at the mouth of the furnace, what remains in the kettles is laded into those near the chimney, and these kettles are again filled with water,