In 1858 a shaft eleven feet square was sunk round the spring to a depth of thirty feet.  The stream seemed to come from a lateral direction, and a tunnel was excavated for a distance of thirty feet.  At this point the earth gave way, and the water and gas flowed in so suddenly that the workmen hardly escaped with their lives, leaving their tools behind them.  In fifteen minutes 12,000 gallons of water, and double that quantity of gas, filled the excavation.  Rotary pumps, worked by a steam engine, were insufficient to remove the water.  Another shaft, near the end of the tunnel, was sunk to a depth of twenty-eight feet, when the water burst into this also, and it had to be abandoned.  A third shaft, twenty feet in diameter, and held by a strong coffer dam, was sunk southeast of the former.  When the rock was reached two streams were found issuing from a fissure; one of them was tubed, and water rose to the surface.

This brief sketch will give a little idea of the difficulties and dangers incident to the tubing of some of these springs.

Properties.

This is a chalybeate or iron spring, having tonic and diuretic properties.  It is not a saline water, and the peculiar inky taste of iron is perceptible.  It should be drank in the afternoon or evening, before or after meals, or just before retiring.  One glass is sufficient for tonic purposes.  Many regard this as the most agreeable beverage in Saratoga.  It is frequently called the “Champagne Spring” from its sparkling properties.

The grounds in the immediate vicinity are very picturesque, and in the evening are lighted by gas.  The Clarendon Band discourse their music on the neighboring piazza, and large numbers of fashionably attired people throng beneath the majestic pines, forming one of those peculiar group pictures which render Saratoga so charming.

EUREKA WHITE SULPHUR SPRING

Is about a mile east of Broadway and only a few rods distant from the Eureka Mineral and the Ten Springs.  Lake avenue and Spring avenue lead directly to it.  Stages run between the spring and the village every hour, passing the principal hotels.  Eureka Spring Co. are the proprietors.

This is the Sulphur Spring of Saratoga. It is said to be unsurpassed by any Sulphur spring in the State. Sulphuretted or hepatic waters acquire their peculiar properties from beds of pyrites or by passing through strata of bituminous shale and foetic-oolitic beds.  These we regard as organic sulphuretted waters, while the others are mineral.