[Illustration:  PAVILION SPRING.]

The rock has been replaced over the spring, and the water now flows over it.  A very beautiful and expensive colonnade has been built over the rock by the “High Rock Congress Spring Company.”  This company was formed in 1866, and was inaugurated under favorable auspices and with brilliant prospects of success.  But though founded on a rock, it was not successful in withstanding the storms.  Whether the rock was too slippery, or the Spring rains too severe, or what was the slip-up, or rather slip-down, we do not presume to say, but the company failed, and the spring was sold at auction during the present month for $16,000.

Those who invested their dollars in it sank them in a well, and unlike “bread cast upon the waters,” they do not seem to return again.

A new company has been organized, and under their direction the spring is being retubed.  With honest and careful management it ought to be profitable to the owners and conducive to the health of the public.

FOOTNOTE: 

[A] A lecture on Water by C.H.  Chandler, Ph.D., delivered at the American Institute.

PAVILION SPRING.

A few steps from Broadway, in a somewhat secluded valley, though in the very centre of Saratoga and directly at the head of Spring avenue (now being completed), bubble up the clear and sparkling water of the Pavilion Spring.

The pleasure seeker strolling up Broadway is directed by a modest sign down Lake avenue to “Pavilion Spring and Park.”  A few steps, less than half a block, brings him to the handsome arched gateway of this very pretty park in which one can pass the time as pleasantly as could be wished.  The colonnade over the spring is one of the most elegant of its class.  It was erected in 1869, at a cost of over $6,000, and is a fine ornament to the park.  The United States Spring is under the same colonnade.  Our cut is a very faithful likeness of the grounds.

History.

The spring was originally owned by the Walton family.  Though long known, its situation was such, being in the midst of a deep morass, that the owners took no steps towards tubing it.  In 1839 it passed into the hands of Mr. Daniel McLaren, who tubed it at a heavy expense and trouble by sinking a crib twenty-two feet square to a depth of forty feet.  A tube was constructed in the form of a boot, and to render the ground dry and firm around it several tons of iron filings from Troy were packed around.

When the work was finished, the water was bottled to some extent and was a favorite drink with many of the citizens.  It was then esteemed as a tonic spring.  In 1868 it was retubed and the tube extended down ten feet further to the sandstone rock.  Clay was used for the packing, and the water has since been of a finer flavor and of cathartic properties.  At this time the spring became the property of the Pavilion and United States Spring Co., composed of enterprising business men, under whose management the grounds have been rendered quite attractive and the water is becoming celebrated as one of the leading cathartic springs of far-famed Saratoga.