42 PEPACTON 



the vicinity afford rare mill-power. At Harrison- 

 burg, 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 conversed ; 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, 

 pebbles, foliage, seclusion, etc. Its effect is over- 

 powering. 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 

 with trout. The trout are fat and gamy even in 

 winter. 



The largest spring in England, called the Well 

 of St. Winifred, at Holywell, flows less than three 



