Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/594

576 that in the east ravine they sunk a well and curbed it down to the bed-rock, a depth of 42 feet, and made a boring of about 150 feet in its bottom. That all the way from the surface to the rock they found pieces of broken pottery, and on the rock a pitcher or jug, with a handle within the rim; this jug was sent to the Philadelphia Museum. My informant expressed the opinion that, at the time the aborigines used the waters, the spring had its outlet at or near the bed-rock, and had since gradually filled by surface-washings, just as the well in the west ravine has been filled since my first visit, and is now a cattle-tramped salt-swamp.

The present outlet of the spring is not over six or eight feet above low water of the Saline River, and the character of its bed precludes the possibility of its ever having been on a lower level; for at Island Ripple, within two miles of the spring, the river falls over a broad reef of rocks which backs the water—forming a pool—up to this place, where there is another slight ripple.

This, to me, is conclusive evidence that, whoever the people were who left the masses of broken pottery as proof of their having used the salt-waters, they resorted to precisely the same means as did their more civilized successors of our time—that is, sinking wells or reservoirs to collect the brine; and the dipper-jug which had been dropped had sunk to the bottom, showing that their reservoirs were down to the rock.

Running nearly in an east-and-west course on the south side, and close to the outlet of the springs, is an upheaval that has brought the carboniferous limestone to the surface standing on edge. The sulphur and fresh-water springs rise south of the line of this dike. On the line of it, about the centre of the raised bottom or plateau between the two ravines, say ten or twelve feet higher than the springs, and embracing an area of about eight acres, occurs a sink of about 120 feet in diameter. It was on the raised rim of this sink that I discovered the heaps of clay and shells, and what I took to be the inside mould or core on which the kettles had been formed. It was then a pool of water, around which I found the most abundant remains of pottery, not only represented by fragments of the large, coarse salt-pans, but by many pieces of small vessels of much finer texture, and of superior workmanship, such as would be used for domestic purposes. From these and large quantities of chippings and offal, I inferred that this was the site of the old settlement. The broken pottery, the black soil, the waste from long occupancy extending a considerable distance both east and west of the springs, and to the foot of the bluffs on the south, covering an area of about thirty acres, were confirmatory of this view; but the fact of the annual overflow made me look further for a permanent settlement.

The hills at this point run nearly an east-and-west course, forming a range of upheaval that crosses the State of Illinois, from the