SPRINGS. 53 



with trout. The trout are fat and gamy even in 

 winter. 



The largest spring in England, called the "Well of 

 St. Winifred, at Holy well, flows less than three bar- 

 rels per second. I recently went many miles out of 

 my way to see the famous trout spring in Warren 

 County, New Jersey. This spring flows about one 

 thousand gallons of water per minute, which has a 

 uniform temperature of fifty degrees winter and sum- 

 mer. It is near the Musconetcong Creek, which looks 

 as if it were made up of similar springs. On the 

 parched and sultry summer day upon which my visit 

 fell, it was well worth walking many miles just to see 

 such a volume of water issue from the ground. I 

 felt with the boy Petrarch, when he first beheld a 

 famous spring, that " Were I master of such a foun- 

 tain I would prefer it to the finest of cities." A large 

 oak leans down over the spring and affords an abun- 

 dance of shade. The water does not bubble up, but 

 comes straight out with great speed like a courier 

 with important news, and as if its course under- 

 ground had been a direct and an easy one for a long 

 distance. Springs that issue in this way have a sort 

 of vertebra, a ridgy and spine-like centre that sug- 

 gests the gripe and push there is in this element. 



What would one not give for such a spring in his 

 back-yard, or front-yard, or anywhere near his house, 

 or in any of his fields ? One would be tempted to 

 move his house to it, if the spring could not be 

 brought to the house. Its mere poetic value and 



