52 SPRINGS. 



several thousand inhabitants, is abundantly supplied 

 with water from a single spring that issues on higher 

 ground near by. Several other springs in the vi- 

 cinity afford rare mill-power. At Harrisonburg, a 

 county town farther up the valley, I was attracted 

 by a low ornamental dome resting upon a circle of 

 columns, on the edge of the square that contained the 

 court-house, and was surprised to find that it gave 

 shelter to an immense spring. This spring was also 

 capable of watering the town or several towns ; stone 

 steps lead down to it at the bottom of a large stone 

 basin.- There was a pretty constant string of pails 

 to and from it. Aristotle called certain springs of 

 his country " cements of society," because the young 

 people so frequently met there and sang and con- 

 versed ; and I have little doubt this spring is of like 

 social importance. 



There is a famous spring at San Antonio, Texas, 

 which is described by that excellent traveler, Fred- 

 erick Law Olmsted. " The whole river," he says, 

 * gushes up in one sparkling burst from the earth, 

 with all the accessories of smaller springs, moss, peb- 

 bles, foliage, seclusion, etc. Its effect is overpower- 

 ing. It is beyond your possible conception of a 

 spring." 



Of like copiousness and splendor is the Caledonia 

 spring, or springs, in Western New York. They 

 give birth to a white-pebbled, transparent stream 

 several rods wide and two or three feet deep, that 

 flows eighty barrels of water per second, and is alive 



