1745.] DOCTOR colden. 329 



we have good success, may afford us a fine opportunity of many 

 curious observations. 



DOCTOR COLDEN TO JOHN BARTRAM. 



Coldengham, November 7th, 1745. 



Dear Mr. Bartram : 



I am much obliged to you for the information in yours of the 

 4th of October, which did not come to my hands till the 3d of this 

 month. Mr. Colllnson wrote to me that he had forwarded my 

 packet to Doctor Gronovius ; and mentioned the curious instruc- 

 tions Doctor Gronovius had sent you, and wished I could see 

 them. Perhaps Lewis Evans may take the trouble to copy them 

 for me. 



The experiments Doctor Fothergill would set you upon, and 

 has enabled you to make, may certainly be very useful, if care- 

 fully executed. 



We have very few Mineral Springs in this Province.* All that 

 I have heard of, is a stream on the south side of Anthony's Nose, 

 a mountain in the Highlands, between my house and New York. 

 It runs down a precipice into Hudson's River. Sloop men, who 

 use the river, say that they have always found it purgative ; and 

 lately I heard that a sloop, being in want of water, took in some 

 from that stream. They had many passengers, men and women. 

 The water proved purgative to all of them. * * * * 



As there is no anchorage on that side of 

 the river, near that stream, I never had any opportunity to ob- 

 serve it ; and I doubted of the truth of the accounts I had casually 

 received of it. But now, if I have any opportunity, I shall take 

 some more notice of it. 



There is a good deal of ore found in that hill a mixture of iron 

 and copper; and they being mixed, has made the ore of no use. I 

 am not sufficiently accpiainted with the methods of trying mineral 

 waters. I have never thought on that subject ; but I find that 

 Sal Ammoniac will give a blue tincture to anything impregnated 

 with copper, and galls give a black to the tinctures from iron. If 



* The waters of Saratoga, now so celebrated, and so much resorted to by the 

 fashionable world, were then unknown. 



