The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-06-17
correspondence
LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA..
No. IS.

| MESSRS. EDITORS: L nave promised
perhaps threatened would be the more APP
propriate word-to give you few items
in reference to the Saltworks in this county,
embracing their history, management, rev.
"nncs, &C., and hope l may be able to in
vest the subject with some interest to that
portion of your readers who may have a
tondness for studying out and contempla-
ting the wondrous prodigality of Nature in
filling the earth with treasures, hidden
and revealed, and the grand design of the
Maker and Builder Of the Universe in the
equitable and impartial distribution of his
blessings among the jewellers upon his foot
stool.
Without taking wider or more COM
prehensive range, this can be abundantly
illustrated by the valuable deposits in the
hills and valleys of this mountain region,
to which it was almost an impossibiity,
in its earlier settlement, to transport MANY
of the prime and indispensable necessities
oflife. For instance, the first settlers could
not do without iron, and to have hauled it
across the mountains would have made it
almost as valuable as gold, thus placing it
beyond the reach ofthe pioneer So with re-
gard to lead, and salt, and gypsum, and lime,
and many other articles of difficult and
costly transportation. Hence the provi.
sions of Providence have placed all these
within the reach and means of these people
These provisions are not all the manifesto
tions of His wisdom and His benevolence
towards His erring and Maynard children,
| if you will allow me to moralize little be-
fore | settle down upon the salt question.
We see the equal distribution of Gods
blessings i'll all things and every where
In the tropics beneath the gorgeous flower
that ladies' the passing zephyr with its
fragrance, turks the most venomous reptile
The bird OF sweetest song and most bril-
liant plumage, sports upon the shrub that
eXhales the deadlest poison. SO here, in
this mountain-girt region, where to some
extent we are denied some of the higher
order of luXuries, the earth is pregnant
with all that is absolutely necessary to our
comfort and prosperity. If we cannot
pluck oranges and pineapples we have not
the miasmas of the Eyerglades-if we can
not feast upon melons and oysters we have
not the tevers of Bush and Gunpowder.
But am straying from my subject
talking about flowers, and trees, and birds,
and snakes, and oranges, and oysters, and
all that sort of thing, and seemingly slight
ing the subject had picked up my pen to
write about. proposed to tell you some
thing about the Saltworks, which | shall
now try to do. They are 16 miles north
east Of Abingdon, and so near the line
dividing the counties of Washington and
Smyth, that two wells, one in each county,
are not more than twenty PAGES apart
These saltworks are situated in an exceed
ingly fertile valley, embracing some 300
acres entirely surrounded by hills-some
of them very high and precipitous They
form natural amphitheatre, and from in
Vulnerable indications, this valley, or hop
per-like depression in the hills, is supposed
to have been a lake at some period in the
worlds history. When / first came to this
part of the State, nearly 80 years ago, there
were several aged persons living who had
; known the place anterior to the discovery
of the subterranean saline stream from
which the salt is now manufactured, and
when the valley was an immense Click"
frequented by herds of elk, buffalo, and
other herbivorous animals. Before the
time of the old persons referred to, how
ever, salt had been manufactured around
what might have been the margin of the
lake. perhaps by the aborigines, and in the
first settlement of the country within reach,
persons came from considerable distances
with their sleds and kettles, and made a
sutficiency Of salt in their simple way for
their own consumption.
That this beautiful little valley of 300
acres was once lake, is evident, not only
from the deep alluvial soil, but from the
fossils and petrifactions found there from
time to time, beneath the surface. During
the construction of the railroad to the
works in 1856, many large bones were
found in an excavation, among which were
the limbs of an animal much larger than
those of an elephant. Several of these
limbs were found, together with a Jaw
bone, and several teeth, some of the latter
weighing eight pounds-all found some 6
or 8 feet below the surface. But I am
wandering off again, and instead of con-
filming myself to the substance into which
Lots wife was transformed for her DISC
bedience and curiosity-the latter natural,
very-I have gone away back to what may
have been antediluvian.
During the last quarter of the past century,
William King, native of the Emerald
Isle, made the first successful experiment
in digging for saltwater at this dick
The larger portion of the click" believe,
belonged to an old English survey, and
joined the possessions of Gen. Campbell,
(of whom | gave you brief account in
your issue of the Sd inst,) near where the
present wells are located. Mr. King had
been peddler, and in his peregrinations
through the country, had observed and
examined the salt which had been formed
upon the surface by evaporation. Reflect
ing upon this, he reasoned himself to the
conclusion that there must be a subterra-
mean saline stream, and, feeling his own
pecuniary inability to purchase and expe-
riment upon the property himself, he tried
to persuade Gen. Campbell to purchase
the survey and sink well. The General,
not being able to see as far and as hopefully
into the earth as Mr.. King had, declined,
particularly as he already had thousands
of acres of unproductiye lands under oner-
GUS taxation. Mr.. King could not shake
off the conviction that there was an i'm
mense fortune for somebody under the sur
face of that bog, and he determined to try
his luck, snake or break" Having accu-
mulated some means by his calling, he pur-
chased a small boundary at nominal price,
which had previously been offered for
pony and rifle gun, for which he paid at
least half a dozen times, to as many indi.
viduals who fabricated claims.
After little preparation he commenced