of Georgia and Carolina speak of them, we are told, with as much familiarity as our Londoners speak of Bath or Cheltenham ; * and when the summer heats and the dread of the yellow fever, drive them to their plantations, the gentry of the southern climate repair to New York, whence they ascend the Hudson to Albany, and take the stage to Ballston. The Falls of Niagara, Glen's Falls, and the romantic scenery of Lake George, are among the attractive localities, which are generally comprehended in the excursion.

In the year 1792, when Dr. Dwight first visited Ballston springs, they were surrounded with an abso❤ lute forest extending to a great distance; and except a miserable cottage or two, there was not a house within two or three miles. The Rev. Mr. Ball, from whom the township derives its name, informed him, that they were discovered by the resort of deer to them, which was so great as to have made a well-beaten path. Soon after the discovery, they began to be used as remedies for various diseases, particularly chronic rheumatism, which they have sometimes cured in a remarkable manner. They rise in a valley watered by a branch of the same "mill-stream" that flows by Saratoga. In the valley and on the bordering declivities, has now risen a very pretty watering-place, called Ballston Spa. The waters contain in solution†, carbonic

*Hodgson's Letters, vol. i. p. 51.

+ Dr. Steel gives the following analysis of the principal fountain at Ballston Spa. One gallon (or 232 cubic inches) of the water Grains.

yielded

66

acid, muriate of soda, carbonate of lime, carbonate of soda, carbonate of iron, and carbonate of magnesia. They are strongly diuretic, gently diaphoretic, and aperient; are a pleasant and powerful stimulus to the stomach, and produce a fine exhilaration of spirits." They are deemed most useful in cases of dyspepsy, calculous complaints, cutaneous eruptions, ulcers, and scrofula. To persons affected with pulmonary complaints, they are positively injurious.

The waters of the Saratoga springs are of a similar character. The principal one, called the Congress spring, is found to contain in a gallon of water, 343 cubic inches of carbonic acid gas, (a quantity of fixed air exceeding anything hitherto discovered,) and 676 grains of marine salt and various carbonates.* Large quantities of the water of this spring, as well as of that at Ballston, are bottled and transmitted weekly to the cities on the sea-coast. Indeed, these waters have become so much an article of merchandise, that considerable quantities are exported every year to the West Indies and to Europe. Saratoga has within a few years become a considerable place, containing several elegant hotels and lodging-houses; and a handsome Presbyterian church has been built, which is supplied by a resident clergyman.t

The following analysis is the result of repeated experiment. In 232 cubic inches of water are found

The temperature at the bottom of the spring is uniformly 50° Fahr.

† Dwight, vol, iii. pp. 396--401.

Lake George, about 20 miles N. of Saratoga, is universally considered, Dr. Dwight says, as being in itself and its environs the most beautiful object of the kind in the United States; and several European travellers have given it the preference to the lakes of Switzerland. Even Captain Basil Hall was compelled to acknowledge that here he had "come, at last, to some beautiful scenery in the United States,-beautiful in every respect, and leaving nothing to wish for. I own," he says, "that Lake George exceeded my expectations as far as it exceeds the power of the Americans to overpraise it."* For a description of the scenery, we must have recourse to the pages of the American Writer.

"The access to the Lake from the South, is eminently noble, being formed by two vast ranges of mountains, which commencing several miles south of Fort George, extend beyond Plattsburg, and terminate near the north line of the State, occupying a distance of about 100 miles. Those on the East are high and bold, and in many places naked and hoary. Those on the West are somewhat inferior, and generally covered with a thick forest to their summits. The road for the last three or four miles, passes through a forest, and conceals the lake from the view of the traveller, until he arrives at the eminence on which Fort George is built. Here is opened at once a prospect the splendour of which is rarely exceeded. The scenery of this spot owes its beauty equally to the water, the islands, the shore, and the mountains.

"The water, probably, is not surpassed by any in the world; † pure, sweet, pellucid, of an elegant hue

* Detecting nothing in the scenery to find fault with, this determined Censor turns upon the Americans, and rates them for not admiring it more, and then abuses their steam-boats,

† See page 41 of this volume, note †.

when immediately under the eye, and at very small, as well as at greater distances, presenting a gay, luminous azure, and appearing as if a soft lustre undulated everywhere on its surface, with a continual and brilliant emanation. The islands are interesting on account of their number, location, size, and figure. Their number is very great, fancifully computed at 365. Their location is exquisite; solitary, in pairs, and in groupes, containing from three to perhaps thirty, arranged, with relation to each other and the neighbouring shores, in unceasing variety. Their size varies from a few feet to a mile and a half in length. But the diversity of their appearance is peculiarly derived from their surface. A few are naked rocks, and, by the power of contrast, present very interesting features in the aspect of the groupe; while some are partially, and most are completely covered with vegetation. Some are bushy; others, ornamented with a single tree, with two, or three, or many trees. A yet greater number exhibit an entire forest. Some of them, of a long and narrow structure, present through various openings in their umbrage, the sky, the mountains, the points, and other distant beautiful objects, changing to the eye as the traveller approaches and passes them. On a great number, the lofty pine lifts its head above every other tree, waving majestically in the sky. On others, the beech, maple, and oak, with their clustering branches, present the strongest examples of flourishing vegetation. On many, again, decayed, bare, and falling trees are finely contrasted with this vivid effect.

"The shores of this lake exhibit a scarcely less striking aspect. On one side, you are presented with a beach of light-coloured sand, forming a long-extended border, and shewing the purity of its waters in the

strongest light; on another, a thick, dark forest rises immediately from the rocky shore, overhanging and obscuring the waters with its gloomy foliage. Here, the shore is scooped by a circular sweep; the next bend is perhaps elliptical; and the third, a mere indent. The points also are alternately circular, obtuse, and acute angles. Not a few of them are long, narrow slips, resembling many of the islands, shooting either horizontally or with easy declension far into the lake, and covered with a fine variety of forest. In many places, a smoothly-sloping margin, for the distance of one, two, or three miles, presents a cheerful border, as the seat of present or future cultivation. In others, mountainous promontories ascend immediately from the water.

"The mountains consist of two great ranges bordering the lake from north to south. The western range, however, passes westward of the north-west bay, at the head of which a vast spur, shooting towards the south-east, forms the whole of the peninsula between that bay and the lake. On the latter, it abuts with great majesty in a sudden and noble eminence, crowned with two fine summits. From this spot, fourteen miles from Fort George, it accompanies the lake uninterruptedly to the northern end, and then passes on towards Canada. Both these ranges alternately approach the lake, so as to constitute a considerable part of its shores, and recede from it to the distance sometimes of three miles. They are visible also, in smaller portions and greater, from one to twenty miles in length. Generally, they are covered entirely with forests; but, in several instances, are dappled with rocks, or absolutely naked, wild and solitary: this appearance is derived chiefly, if not wholly, from conflagrations.