The Discovery of the Springs.


All the older springs have been found in beds of blue marl, or clay
rather, which cover the valley more or less throughout its whole
extent. On digging into this clay to any considerable depth, we are
pretty certain to find traces of mineral water. In some places, at the
depth of six or eight feet, it has been discovered issuing from a
fissure or seam in the underlying limestone, while at other places it
seems to proceed from a thin stratum of quicksand which is found to
alternate with the marl at distances of from ten to forty feet, below
which bowlders of considerable size are found.

The spouting springs have been found by experimental boring. As this
is the cheapest and more certain method, it is "the popular thing" at
present, and the day may not be far distant when all Saratoga will be
punched through with artesian wells reaching hundreds of feet, if not
through to China, and thus an open market made for the Saratoga waters
among "the Heathen Chinee."

Mr. Jessie Button, to whom we are indebted for both the Glacier and
the Geyser springs, seems best to understand the process of
successfully boring artesian wells, having made these his special
study and profession. Like Moses of old, he strikes, or taps, the rock
and behold streams of water gush forth.