Gen. LINCOLN's Account of Jeveral remarkable Springs. 375 
On my return to Philadelphia, in the neighbourhood of Read- 
ing, I came to the greateft {pring of water I had ever feen.—It 
is about fourteen feet deep, and about one hundred feet {quare. 
A full mill-ftream iffues from it. The water is clear and full 
of fifhes. To account for this bedy of water, was my enquiry. 
I foon found, that it was probably the.rifing and burfting forth 
of a very confiderable river, which funk into the ground and 
totally difappeared, one mile and an half or two miles diftant 
from this place. 
In the northern parts of Pezz/ylvania, theres a creek, called 
Oil-Creek, which empties itfelf into the ZZ//egbana-river, ifu- 
ing from a fpring, on the top of which floates an oil, fimilar. to 
what is called Barbadoes tar, and from which may be collected, 
by one man, feveral gallons in a day. The troops, in march- 
ing that way, halted at the fpring, collected the oil, and bathed 
their joints with it. This gave them great relief, and freed 
them immediately from the rheumatic complaints with which 
many of them were affected. The troops drank freely of the 
waters :—they operated as a gentle purge. 
There is another {pring in the weftern parts of Virginia, as 
extraordinary in its kind as the one juft mentioned, called the 
Burning-Spring. lt was known a long time to the hunters. 
They frequently encamped by it for the fake of obtaining good 
water. Some of them arrived late one night, and, after making 
a fire, they took a brand to light them to the fpring. On their 
coming to it, fome fire dropped from the brand, and, in an in- 
ftant the water was in a flame, and fo contimued, over which 
they could roaft their meat as foon as by the greateft fire. It 
was left in, this fituation, and continued burning for three 
months without intermiflion. The fire was extinguifhed by 
excluding 
