General Properties.

Writers upon mineral springs generally divide them into the following classes:  Carbonated or acidulous, saline, chalybeate or iron, alkaline, sulphur or hepatic, bitter and thermal springs.

The Saratoga waters embrace nearly all of these except the last two; some of the springs being saline, some chalybeate, some sulphur, and nearly all carbonated; and in the list may be found cathartic, alterative, diuretic and tonic waters of varied shade and differing strength.  The cathartic waters are the most numerous and the most extensively used.  The curative agents prepared in the vast and mysterious laboratories of Nature are very complex in constitution and different in temperature, and on that account do not, like iron, opium, quinia, etc., exhibit single effects; they exercise rather, with rare exceptions, combined effects, and these are again modified by various modes of employment and the time and circumstances of their use.

The Discovery of the Springs.

All the older springs have been found in beds of blue marl, or clay rather, which cover the valley more or less throughout its whole extent.  On digging into this clay to any considerable depth, we are pretty certain to find traces of mineral water.  In some places, at the depth of six or eight feet, it has been discovered issuing from a fissure or seam in the underlying limestone, while at other places it seems to proceed from a thin stratum of quicksand which is found to alternate with the marl at distances of from ten to forty feet, below which bowlders of considerable size are found.

The spouting springs have been found by experimental boring.  As this is the cheapest and more certain method, it is “the popular thing” at present, and the day may not be far distant when all Saratoga will be punched through with artesian wells reaching hundreds of feet, if not through to China, and thus an open market made for the Saratoga waters among “the Heathen Chinee.”

Mr. Jessie Button, to whom we are indebted for both the Glacier and the Geyser springs, seems best to understand the process of successfully boring artesian wells, having made these his special study and profession.  Like Moses of old, he strikes, or taps, the rock and behold streams of water gush forth.

Are the Springs Natural?

Is a question that will probably seem absurd to those who are at all familiar with mineral springs or Saratoga waters.  Nevertheless, it is a not unfrequent and amusing occurrence to hear remarks from strangers and greenies who have a preconceived notion that the springs are doctored, and that a mixture of salts, etc., is tipped in every night or early in the morning!  Strange that the art should be limited to the village of Saratoga!  The incredulity of some people is the most ridiculous credulity known.  Such wonders as the spouting springs, the “strongest” in Saratoga, come from so small an orifice in the ground, as to preclude the least possibility of adulteration.  Besides, the manufactured article would be too costly to allow such immense quantities to flow away unused.