105 
Red Spring. The water is generally drank, but baths are also 
erected. High Rock Spring flows from a white conical lime¬ 
stone rock, five feet high, in which there is a round aperture 
above, about nine inches in diameter, through which the water in 
the spring is seen in a state of constant agitation. So much fixed 
air escapes from it, that an animal held over it, as in the Grotto 
del Cane , near Naples, cannot live above half a minute. Mr. 
Shoemaker held his head over the opening, and though he had 
covered it with a handkerchief, immediately fainted away; he re¬ 
tained besides, during several days after this experiment, a bad 
dry cough. The vicinity of Saratoga Springs possesses no attrac¬ 
tion. Promenades are not yet constructed. The only pleasure 
which can be enjoyed must be sought in company. A large 
piazza is built before Congress Hall, to the pillars of which wild 
vines are attached, which almost reach the roof. I passed the 
evening in the lower parlour by the fire, with the governor and 
Mr. Schley, from Maryland, in very agreeable and instructive 
conversation. The ladies did not entertain us with music, be- 
cause it was Sunday. 
The governor had the kindness to give me some letters for 
New York, and a letter of introduction to the Shakers of New 
Lebanon. Furnished with these, we left Saratoga Springs, Sep¬ 
tember 12th, at 9 o’clock, in a convenient stage to go to Albany, 
thirty-six miles distant. We passed through a disagreeable and 
sandy country. The uniformity was, however, very pleasingly 
interrupted by Saratoga lake, which is eight miles long. At Still* 
water village, we reached the Hudson. Not far from this, runs 
the new Champlain Canal, which was commenced at the same time 
with the Erie Canal,but is not yet completed, and which I mention¬ 
ed on my passage from Albany to Schenectady. At Stillwater we 
visited the two battle-grounds, Freeman’s Farm and Bernis’s 
Heights, which became celebrated September 19th, and Octo¬ 
ber 7th, 1777* These actions, as is known, took place dur¬ 
ing the expedition of Burgoyne. They closed with taking the 
whole corps of this general, to which also the Brunswick troops, 
under General Von Riedesel belonged, at Saratoga. 
Our guide to both battle-grounds, which are adjacent, was an 
octogenarian farmer, called by his neighbours Major Buel, be¬ 
cause he had been the guide of the American army during the 
campaign. The ground has since greatly changed; wood has 
grown again, so that with the exception of some remains of the 
English lines, nothing is to be seen. Not far from the river, on 
an eminence, are the remains of a very small work, called the 
great English redoubt. Here lies General Fraser, of whose bu¬ 
rial Madam Von Riedesel gives a description so attractive, and 
yet so terrific. I broke off, near his grave, a small branch of a 
Vol. I. 14 
