Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/55

Rh a ſecond time the earth they have once exhauſted, to ſee how far or ſoon it receives another impregnation. At leaſt fifty of theſe caves are worked on the Greenbriar. There are many of them known on Cumberland river.

The country weſtward of the Alleghaney abounds with ſprings of common ſalt. The moſt remarkable we have heard of are at Bullet's lick, the Bigbones, the Blue licks, and on the North fork of Holſton. The area of Bullet's lick, is of many acres. Digging the earth to the depth of three feet, the water begins to boil up, and the deeper you go, and the drier the weather, the ſtronger is the brine.

A thouſand gallons of water, yield from a buſhel to a buſhel and a half of ſalt, which is about 80lb. of water to 1lb. of ſalt; but of ſea-water 25lb. yield 1lb. of ſalt. So that ſea-water is more than three times as ſtrong as that of theſe ſprings. A ſalt ſpring has been lately diſcovered at the Turkey foot on Yohoganey, by which river it is overflowed, except at very low water. Its merit is not yet known. Dunning's lick is as alſo yet untried, but it is ſuppoſed to be the beſt on this ſide of the Ohio. The ſalt ſprings on the margin of the Onondago lake are ſaid to give a ſaline taſte to the waters of the lake.

There are ſeveral medicinal ſprings, ſome of which are indubitably efficacious, while others ſeem to owe their reputation as much to fancy and change of air and regimen, as to their real virtues. None of them having undergone a chemical analyſis in ſkilful hands, nor been ſo far the ſubject of obſervations as to have produced a reduction into claſſes of the diſorders which they relieve,