lace. This water is not used as a beverage.
More than a hundred gallons per day are taken away by _real invalids_,
besides that drank at the spring. To become acquainted with its
wonderful cures one needs only to go there and spend an hour
conversing with those who are using it for their various ailments. The
water is used at all hours of the day and a short time is all that is
needed to learn the high estimation in which it is held as a remedial
agent.

SARATOGA "A" SPRING.

The "A" Spring is situated on Spring avenue, a little beyond the
Empire Spring, on the eastern side of a steep bluff of calciferous
sand rock, upon grounds which could be made quite attractive by a
moderate outlay.

History.

The memory of that reverend being, the oldest inhabitant does not
recall the time when the existence of mineral water in this immediate
locality was not known. As the merits of spring waters were so little
known and understood in the earlier days of their discovery, the
demand was far below the supply, and no attempt was made to introduce
this spring to public attention, nor any provision for the use of its
waters. In 1865, Messrs. Western & Co. purchased the property, and at
once instituted plans for securing the fountain; and a shaft twelve
feet square was sunk to the depth of sixteen feet. The surface above
the rock consists of bluish marl, similar to that found all along
this mineral valley. A tube, in the usual form, was placed over the
spring, and clay was used as packing around it. In the spring of the
next year the fountain was more perfectly secured by a new tubing, and
the water was bottled and shipped all over the country.

An ill wind seemed to be blowing, and in 1867 the bottling-house was
nearly destroyed by fire; and the spring was again retubed to the
depth of _thirty-two_ feet, going down to the solid rock, where one of
the most perfect veins of water was found flowing in all its original
purity, which was secured with the greatest care, in order to prevent
the mixture of sulphurous or other waters, and carried to the surface
through a tube made of maple.

At present the spring itself is protected by a temporary structure,
while the water is bottled in a portion of the original building which
was not destroyed by fire. The spring is at some little distance from
the business part of Saratoga, and, since the bottling-house was
destroyed no special efforts have been made to attract a crowd of
v