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     GREEN'S EXPEDITION - When the news of the victory reached the settlements an expedition was at once organized to go to the Scioto Licks before winter set in.  This expedition was the first of the kind that proved a success.  Others had sought the licks, but as long as the Indians remained in possession none succeeded in making salt and escaping with their lives.  We are indebted to Hildreth, the Ohio valley historian, for the following graphic account of the visit of Green's expedition to the licks:
     Among the other privations and trials of the early settlers in the Ohio company's lands, was the dearness and scarcity of marine salt.  From 1788 to some years after the close of the war, their salt was all brought over the mountains on pack horses at an expense to the consumer of from six to ten dollars a bushel.  The salt was of the coarse, Isle of May variety, of an excellent quality and measured instead of weighed as it now is.  A bushel of this salt weighs about eighty pounds, while one of our present bushels weights only fifty pounds.  It was as late as the year 1806 when the changed took place in the mode of vending this article, after salt was made in considerable quantities at the new salines on the Big Kanawha.
     Its great scarcity was a serious drawback on the prosperity of the country, and a source of annoyance to the people.  The domestic animals suffered from its want, as well as man; and when ranging in the woods, visited the clay banks that some times contained saline particles, licking and gnawing them into large holes.  The deerlicks so common at that day were seldom anything more than holes made in the clay by wild animals and filled with water, sometimes of a brackish quality.  Nearly all the salines, since worked, were pointed out to man by the deer and the buffalo.  This was the fact at Salt Creek and Kanawha.  It was hoped that as the country was opened and cultivated, salt springs would be found sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants; but it was a dark and doubtful feature in the future prosperity of the country.
     In the autumn of the years 1794, Griffin Green, esq., whose fertile mind was always full of projects for the benefit of the country, had heard from the report of some white man, who had been a

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prisoner with the Indians, that while he was with them, they had made salt from a spring on a tributary branch of the Scioto river, afterward known as Salt Creek.  He described the spot as somewhere near the present location of the town of Jackson, and although it was in the midst of the Indian war, and in the vicinity of their towns, so great was the anxiety to ascertain its truth that a company was formed to visit and search out the spring.
     Mr. Green associated with him in the enterprise Major Robert Bradford and Joel Oaks, he paying one-half the expense and his two partners the other.  A large pirogue was provided with provisions for twelve men, for ten or twelve days, the period supposed necessary to accomplish the journey.  They hired some of the most experienced woodsmen and hunters from Bellville as guides and guards.  Among them were Peter Anderson, Joshua Dewey and John Coleman, all noted for their bravery and knowledge of the woods.
     They left Farmer's Castle in the fall of the year, at a time when the water in the Ohio was quite high; accompanied with the good wishes of their neighbors for their success, but damped with many fears and evil forebodings from the dangers that attended the enterprise.  The Indians had for many years kept with jealous care the knowledge of the locality from the whites, viewing the spring as a valuable gift from the Great Spirit to the Red men, and with the game and fish, as perquisites to which the pal faces had no right.  It was not known that any white man had ever been at the salines, except when visited by some prisoner in company with the Indians, and who even then did not let him actually see the spot, but only the salt made by them at the time of the visit.
     At the month of Leading creek the adventurers landed their boat, secreting it among the trees and bushes as well as they could.  This point is about forty miles from Jackson, and probably about thirty miles from the heads of the south branch of Salt creek, but of the actual distance they are ignorant, only knowing that it lay some distance beyond the west boundary line of the Ohio company lands.  After several days travel and making examinations, they fell upon a stream which led in the right direction, and fol-

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lowing it down, soon met with paths leading as they supposed to the spring.  They soon discovered where fires had recently been made, and searching carefully in the bed of the creek found a hole which had been scooped out by the Indians in the sandrock and filled with brackish water.  A small brass kettle which they had with them for cooking, when filled with water and boiled away, made about a tablespoonful of salt.
     Although the water was weak, yet it proved that they had discovered the long talked of and desirable fountain, whose waters afforded the precious article of salt.  It was like the discovery of the philosopher's stone to the alchemist, for every ounce of it could be turned into gold.  After spending one night and part of a day at the place, they commenced their homeward journey, well pleased with the success of their search.  They dare not stay longer and make a larger quantity, lest some straggling Indians should discover them and give notice to the village of Chillicothe, distant about twenty-five miles.  They were too numerous to fear any small hunting party.
     Their return to the mouth of Leading creek was accomplished in a much shorter period than in going out.  The night after they left Salt creek, while all were buried in sleep by their camp fire, they were awakened by a terrific scream.  All sprang to their feet, seized their arms, and extinguished the fire, expecting every moment to hear the shot and shouts of the savages.  After listening a minute or two and no enemy appearing they began to inquire into the cause of the alarm, and found that one of the party had been seized with cramp in his sleep and made this terrible outcry.  They were rejoiced that it was from no worse a cause, and lay down quietly until morning.  When they reached the mouth of Leading creek the water had fallen ten or twelve feet, and had left the pirogue high and dry on land.  It required half an hour or more to launch the boat and get under way.
     By the time they had reached the middle of the Ohio, proposing to cross over and go up on the Virginia shore, a party of Indians appeared on the bank at the spot they had just left, in hot pursuit.  Fortunately, they were out of reach of their shot.  The adventurers

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felt very thankful for their providential escape, for had their pursuers reached the river a few minutes sooner, while all hands were engaged in getting the "boat into the water, they would in all probability have fallen a sacrifice to the Indians.  At the treaty two years after, an Indian who was with the pursuing party, two Colonel Lewis, of Kanawha, that the whites had been discovered while at the creek boiling salt by two Indians, who were then on a hunt, and had seen the smoke of their fire.  They were too weak to attack so large a party and hastened back to their town for assistance.  Twenty Indians immediately went in pursuit, but greatly to their disappointment, did not overtake them until they had left the shore and were out of danger.  They reached the garrison unmolested and relieved the fears of their families and friends, as to their safety, it having been in fact a very dangerous enterprise.
     So desirable a discovery was considered to be very valuable, and Esquire Green, in a visit he made to Philadelphia soon after, sold the right of his discovery for the benefit of himself and partners, to John Nicholson, a merchant of that city, for $1,500, who was to come into possession of the spring by purchasing the land on which it was situated as soon as it was surveyed by the United States and offered for sale.