A Guide To The Virginia Springs Part 2

"A ride of ten miles brought us to Crow's, with a relish for breakfast, or anything else that might be offered us.

"This is the place where so many excursions are made from the Springs, for dinner parties and picnics. The tavern stands on the corner of the road at the foot of a mountain, and the sign-board swings out in front, after the manner of Nicholas Vedder of old, and many a Rip Van Winkle can be found in the whereabouts, who knows the legends of the neighbourhood." Leaving Crow's, he continues:--"We left the picturesque behind us, and for the next six miles of our journey, we pa.s.sed through a more cultivated country, with many large fields of waving wheat tops and corn blade. Within a mile or two of the Sweet, we came to what is called the Red Spring, an old dilapidated building, gray with age, and all its windows shattered.

"Before 12 o'clock we entered the smiling valley of the Sweet Springs.

Whoever comes to the mountains, should make a visit to the Sweet Springs, if but for one day. Much of the scenery in the neighbourhood is of the most beautiful and refreshing kind, and the whole place is redolent of life and animation, particularly at a time when thronging with company."

The accommodations at this place are sufficient for about 400 persons.

RED SPRINGS.

One mile nearer the White Sulphur are the Red Springs, or Sweet Chalybeate. This place has of late years been acquiring considerable notoriety.

About 200 persons can be comfortably accommodated here. "The waters are said to be good in neuralgia, and in rheumatic complaints. There are two springs here, the one near the hotel, essentially the same with the Sweet Springs, the other containing a larger quant.i.ty of iron, which being deposited about the spring in the form of red precipitate, has given the name of Red Spring. Professor Rogers' a.n.a.lysis of this water gives:--

"1st. Solid matter procured by evaporation from 100 cubic inches, weighed, after being greatly dried at 112, 40.76.

"A portion of this is combined water.

"2d. Quant.i.ty of each solid ingredient estimated as perfectly free from water:--

In 100 cubic inches.

Sulphate of lime, 14.233 Sulphate of magnesia, 3.107 Sulphate of soda, 1.400 Carbonate of lime, 1.166 Chloride of sodium, 0.037 Chloride of magnesium, 0.680 Chloride of calcium, 0.010 Sesquioxide of iron, 0.320 Organic matter in small quant.i.ties.

Iodine, a mere trace.

"The iron is no doubt dissolved in the water as a carbonate.

"3d. Volume of each of the gases contained in a free state, in 100 cubic inches of water:--

Carbonic acid, 46.10 cubic inches.

Nitrogen, 2.57 " "

Oxygen, .20 " "

Sulphuretted hydrogen, a trace, too small to be mentioned.

"4th. Composition of 100 inches of the mixed gases rising in bubbles in the Spring:--

Nitrogen, 62.5 Carbonic acid, 37.5

"The temperature of the Red Spring is from 77 to 80 Fahrenheit."

SALT SULPHUR SPRINGS.

In the County of Monroe, twenty-six miles southwest from the White Sulphur, are the Salt Sulphur Springs; they are two miles from Union, the county seat. From a pamphlet written by Dr. Mutter of Philadelphia, we copy the following account of these Springs:

"The Salt Sulphur Springs, three in number, are situated in the county of Monroe, in 37-1/2 north lat.i.tude, 5 longitude west of Philadelphia, and at an elevation of about 1400 feet above tide water.

All the springs are situated on 'Indian Creek,' a small limestone stream, which rises in a valley a few hundred yards above the Old or Sweet Spring, and after pursuing its 'devious way' for about 23 miles in a southwest direction, finally empties into New River, in Monroe County. It derives its name from the circ.u.mstance of the Indians, who, in former times were in the habit of entering the valley of Virginia from Kentucky and Ohio, almost invariably making it their '_Camping Stream_.' Their graves, along with other traces of their frequent resort to this particular spot, are occasionally met with at the present day.

"The Salt Sulphur is hemmed in on every side by mountains. To the south and east, in full view, and about 10 miles distant, is Peters Mountain; due north, and about 14 miles distant, is a low spur of the Alleghany; and west, it is bounded by Swope's Mountain, at or near the base of which, are the two princ.i.p.al springs.

"It appears from the statement of some of the 'oldest inhabitants,'

that the Old or Sweet Spring was discovered in 1802 or 1803 by Alexander Hutchinson, Esq., who was engaged in boring for salt along Indian Creek. For several years it enjoyed much celebrity, and was annually the resort of a large company.

"The house occupied as the hotel, and several of the old cabins, are still standing. The opening of the Salt Sulphur Spring, the medical properties of which are so much more strongly marked, and the erection of commodious buildings near it, soon destroyed the fame of the Sweet, the water of which at the present time is used almost exclusively for the baths, although there are some individuals who still prefer it to that of either the Salt or New Spring. To gratify such, and at the same time to test the value of the water, the enterprising proprietors, in the summer of 1839, caused the spring to be deepened and thoroughly repaired. At present it is enclosed in a white marble reservoir, two feet square by two feet four inches in depth, over which is erected a neat wooden edifice, of an order 'sui generis.' In taste, smell, colour, and const.i.tuents, it closely resembles the Salt Spring, but is much more feeble as a remedial agent, which is to be attributed to its containing a smaller quant.i.ty of the active principles common to both.

"The second spring, or the Salt Sulphur proper, was discovered in 1805, by Erwin Benson, Esq. He was induced to believe that either sulphur or salt might be found in considerable quant.i.ties at the spot now occupied by the spring, from the fact of its being the favourite 'lick,' of immense herds of buffalo and deer. Under this impression he began boring, and penetrated but a short distance below the surface, when he struck the vein of sulphur water, now const.i.tuting the spring. Like the old, this spring is enclosed in a marble reservoir, two feet square, and about two feet ten inches deep, but from the boldness of its sources, it is probable, that this spring will be enlarged. It is protected from the influence of the weather; by a neat and appropriate edifice, furnished with seats. The water possesses all the sensible properties of the sulphur waters in general; its odour, for instance, is very like that of a 'tolerable egg,' and may, in certain states of the atmosphere, be perceived at some distance from the spring, and in taste it is cousin-german to a strong solution of Epsom salts and magnesia. In a short time, however, strange to say, these disagreeable properties are either not observed, or become on the other hand, attractive; indeed, there is hardly an instance of an individual's retaining his original repugnance to them longer than three or four days, and some there are, who become so excessively fond of the water, as to give it the preference over any other liquid. Like most of the sulphurous, this water is perfectly transparent, and deposits a whitish sediment composed of its various saline ingredients mingled with sulphur. It is also for the most part placid; occasionally, however, it is disturbed by a bubble of gas which steals slowly to the surface, where it either explodes with a timid and dimpling smack, or is eagerly caught up by some careworn and almost world-weary invalid, as a gem from the treasury of Hygeia!"

_a.n.a.lysis of the Salt Sulphur Springs, by Professor Rogers_

"Temperature variable from 49 to 56. Solid matter procured by evaporation from 100 cubic inches, weighed after being dried at 212, 81.41 grains.

_Quant.i.ty of each solid ingredient in 100 cubic inches, estimated as perfectly free from water._

1. Sulphate of lime, 36.755 grains.

2. Sulphate of magnesia, 7.883 "

3. Sulphate of soda, 9.682 "

4. Carbonate of lime, 4.445 "

5. Carbonate of magnesia, 1.434 "

6. Chloride of magnesium, 0.116 "

7. Chloride of sodium, 0.683 "

8. Chloride of calcium, 0.025 "

9. Peroxide of iron derived from protosulphate, 0.042 "

10. An azotized organic matter blended with sulphur, about, .004 "

11. Earthy phosphates, a trace.

12. Iodine, a trace.

_Volume of each of the gases, contained in a free state, 100 cubic inches._

Sulphuretted Hydrogen, 1.10 to 1.50 cubic inches.

Nitrogen, 2.05 " "

Oxygen, 0.27 " "

Carbonic acid, 5.75 " "

"I enclose you a list of the ingredients in the Salt Sulphur water, which applies to the New as well as the Old Spring; the former having rather a smaller amount of saline matter in general, though in some ingredients surpa.s.sing the other. It has been very minutely a.n.a.lyzed, and is the first of all the waters in which I was able to detect traces of iodine, which it contains in a larger amount than the Old Spring, and, indeed, most of the other waters in which I have been so fortunate as to discover this mineral.

_Diseases to which the Salt Sulphur is applicable._

"Chronic diseases of the brain, neuralgia, nervous diseases, chronic diseases of the chest, disease of the heart, chronic diseases of the abdominal viscera, hepatic affections, chronic splenitis, chronic gastric irritation, gastralgia, or nervous dyspepsia, pyrosis, or water brash, chronic irritation of the bowels, constipation, hemorrhoids, chronic diseases of the urinary organs, chronic diseases of the genitals, chronic rheumatism and gout, mercurial rheumatism, periost.i.tis and inflammation of the bones, chronic diseases of the skin, &c."