Chap. 1. 



DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 



SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS. 



MEDICINAL SPRINGS. 



lands, which, consist of a dark, deep and 

 fertile alluvial deposit. These intervales 

 are level tracts lying but little higher than 

 the ordinary height of the water in the 

 streams, and are in most cases subject to 

 being flooded, when the water is very 

 high. They were, while in a state of na- 

 ture, covered with a heavy growth of for- 

 est trees, such as oak, butternut, elm, 

 buttonwood, walnut, ash, and some other 

 kinds. Back of these flats were frequent- 

 ly others, elevated a few feet higher, and 

 covered with white pine. Still further 

 back, the land rises, in most cases very 

 gradually, into hills and upland plains, 

 and the soil hccomes harder and more 

 gravelly, but very little diminished in 

 richness and fertility. The timber upon 

 these lands, which constitute the greater 

 part of the state, was principally sugar 

 maple, beech and birch, interspersed with 

 bass, ash, elm, butternut, cherry, horn- 

 beam, spruce and hemlock. And still fur- 

 ther back the lands rise into mountains, 

 which are in general timbered with ever- 

 greens, such as spruce, hemlock and nr. 

 The loftiest mountains are generally rocky 

 and the summits of some few of them 

 consist of naked rock, with no other traces 

 of vegetation than a few stinted shrubs 

 and mosses ; but they are, in general, 

 thickly covered with timber to their very 

 tops. Along the western part of the 

 state, and bordering upon Lake Cham- 

 plain, are extensive tracts of light sandy 

 soil, which were originally covered with 

 white, pitch and Norway pine, and in the 

 northern part of the state, swamps are 

 numerous, which were well stored with 

 tamarack and white cedar. A more full 

 account of the native vegetables found in 

 this state will be given in a subsequent 

 chapter. Since the country has been 

 cleared, the soil has, in general, been 

 found sufllciently free from stone to ad- 

 mit of easy cultivation, and to be very 

 productive in corn, grain and grass. With- 

 out manuring the intervales usually pro- 

 duce large crops, and are easily cultiva- 

 ted, but these crops are liable, occasion- 

 ally, to be destroyed by floods — the same 

 agency whicii produces the fertility of the 

 soil on which they grow. All parts are, 

 however, sufficiently fertile amply to re- 

 ward the labors of the husbandman, and 



ing, because it will express our meaning more briefly 

 Bntl intelligibly to the greater part of our readers, 

 than any otber we could employ. It may be derived 

 from inter — within, and vallis — a valei or valley; 

 and in its specitic signification, it denotes those allu- 

 vial flatSi lying along the margins of streams, which 

 have been, or occasionally are overflowed in conse- 

 quence of the rising of the water. For the use of the 

 ■word in this sense, we have the authority of Dr. 

 Belknap and Di. Williams, the historians of New 

 Hampshire and Vermont, and other good wziters. 



the farmer who is saving and industrious 

 seldom fails of having his barn filled with 

 fodder for his horses, cattle and sheep, 

 iiis granary with corn, wheat, rye, oats, 

 peas and beans, and his cellar with pota- 

 toes, apples, and other esculent vegeta- 

 bles. A sufficient quantity of grain for 

 the supply of the inhabitants might easily 

 be raised in all parts of the state, yet the 

 greater part of the lands are better adapt- 

 ed for grazing than for tillage. The hillg 

 and mountains, whicli are not arable on 

 account of their steepness, or rocks, afford 

 the best of pasturage for cattle and sheep. 

 Of the fruits, nuts, berries, &c., which 

 grow in Vermont, both wild and cultiva- 

 ted, a more particular account will be 

 given in a subsequent chapter on the bota- 

 ny of the state. 



Medicinal Springs. — There are in Ver- 

 mont springs which are more or less im- 

 pregnated with mineral, or gaseous sub- 

 stances, but none which iiave yet ac- 

 quired a very general or permanent celeb- 

 rity for their curative properties. Along 

 the shore, of Lake Champlain, in the 

 counties oT A ddison and Rutland, the wa- 

 ters generally tare impregnated with Ep- 

 som salts, (sulphate of magnesia). Some 

 of the springs are so highly charged with 

 these salts, in the dryer parts of the year, 

 that a pail full of the water will produce 

 a pound of the salts. They have been 

 manufactured, for medicinal purposes, in 

 some quantities, and, did the price of the 

 article make it an object, they might be 

 made here to almost any extent. 



The medicinal properties of most of the 

 waters in this state, which have acquired 

 any notoriety, are derived from gaseous 

 and not from mineral substances. In dif- 

 ferent towns in the northeastern part of 

 the state, are springs of cold, soft and 

 clear water, which are strongly impreg- 

 nated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and 

 said to resemble the Harrow-Gate waters 

 in England, and those of Ballcastle and 

 Castlemain in Ireland. These waters are 

 found to be efficacious in scrofulous and 

 many other cutaneous complaints, and the 

 springs at Newbury, Tunbridge, Hard- 

 wick, &c., have been much resorted to by 

 valetudinarians in their vicinity. 



Of medicinal springs on the west side 

 of the Green Mountains, those of Claren- 

 don and Alburgh have acquired the great- 

 est notoriety. It is now about 16 years 

 since the springs at Clarendon began to 

 be known beyond their immediate neigh- 

 borhood. Since that time tlieir reputa- 

 tion has been annually e^xtending, and the 

 number of visiters increasing, till they 

 have at length become a place of consider- 

 able resort for the afflicted from various 



