Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

VOL. XIII.-No. 73.-A

rheumatic, the dyspeptic, and the scrofulous in- | torily answered. Saratoga, Sharon, Richfield, valids gather as at the pool of Siloam, and where Chittenango, all were fashionable or were raptheir gay companions and attendants find rare idly becoming so, and therefore to him distasteenjoyments in the pleasant summer time. The ful; for Portfolio is a modest, quiet man. Light chief of these are Avon, Clifton, Chittenango, came. Long ago he had heard of Avon, in the Richfield, Sharon, Saratoga, Columbia, and Mas- lovely valley of the Genesee; of its quiet, the sena. The first five are in Central and Western efficiency of its waters, and the beauty of its New York, the next two are toward its eastern surroundings. He remembered that when he border, and the last is in the midst of the nar- was a lad the virtues of the Avon fountains were row strip of cultivation between the St. Law- highly prized, and a new charm had been given rence and the vast wilderness and hunting- to the Genesee Valley by his now venerable grounds in the northern counties of the State. friend, Dr. Francis, who published a scientific Let us listen to the experience of a friend who, analysis of its waters, and a pleasing pen-picduring "the season" of the year of grace 1855, ture of its locality. Then, as now, the word of visited the whole eight. Dr. Francis was a bond in such matters not to be disputed. This recollection settled the question, and a few days afterward Portfolio sat at an open window in a pleasant garden-cottage at "Knickerbocker Hall," gazing with exquisite delight upon the broad acres of the Genesee Valley spread out before him, and then covered with ripening wheat and growing maize.

Our friend Portfolio is a dabbler in literature and art-a scribbler and limner-with a very little encumbrance of wealth and family, and floats along on the tide of society, stopping his shallop here and there occasionally to leave his card with the dear public. Just at the close of June last year, a rheumatic twinge in his shoulder, and a profusion of cutaneous jewels upon his nose and forehead, urged him to seek relief from both, not only for personal comfort, but to sustain a hard-earned reputation for sobriety then endangered. Whither should he go? was a question easier asked than satisfac

"Knickerbocker Hall!" The memory of a three weeks' sojourn there is yet green and delightful to Portfolio. The old Hall stands upon a gentle eminence on the verge of the Genesee flats, between the two sulphur springs, and is completely embowered and surrounded

by gardens and pleasant fields. It is a short mile westward of Avon village; and, next to the "United States," it is the most popular of the public houses there. Near it is the "American," pleasantly situated upon a slope above the upper spring; and opposite the "United States," in the centre of the village, is the "Avon," the least pretending of the four. These compose the chief accommodations at Avon. Invalids prefer the "Knickerbocker," because the atmosphere is continually medicated by the gas from the springs without being made offensive; while the gay and fashionable find more enjoyment at the "United States" or the "American."

upon the broad verandas or tufts of grass in the cool shades, with books or newspapers; and toward evening riding-parties, in chaise or on horseback, started off in every direction, with a hilarity that kept the more serious invalids in comfortable good-humor until their return. At sunset new-comers were eagerly waited for, for the advent of a fresh guest kept curiosity on tiptoe, until the clerk's register had been scanned by each eye, and the "position" of the last visitor had become manifest to all. Backgammon, chess, whist, music, social conversation, anecdotes, and other light amusements, with an occasional "hop," occupied the evenings; and so the days and nights went on like a magic world to Portfolio. The programme was sometimes varied by fishing excursions to the beautiful little lake in the neighborhood, or trips to Rochester, Canandaigua, Batavia, or Geneseo.

Life at Avon was a counterpart of that at all of the sulphur springs visited by Portfolio. To him all was new and delightful-a change from workshop to paradise-and the very atmosphere seemed replete with suggestions for his pen and I was privileged to peep into Portfolio's pencil. Expecting to be a solitary, he was sketch-book on his return, and found it filled pleasantly disappointed in finding himself sur- with views of places rather than of characters. rounded by persons as sociable as old friends, Only one sketch of life at the Springs attracted and he experienced many regrets at parting.my special attention. It was drawn hastily The early mornings were spent in walks and conversation, and at half-meridian the bathhouse swarmed with bathers. Then billiards, ten-pins, quoits, and other sports for exercise, occupied the time until early dinner. Then some read, some napped, and others lounged

"from life" with a dull pencil, and, as Portfolio observed, with a duller pen. It was a scene at the Lower Spring at drinking-time-the stated hour when omnibuses and coaches came from the village filled with the imbibers and bathers. At this hour scenes often occurred which would

mous Van Twiller, he was "five feet six inches in height, and six feet five inches in breadth," and was troubled with an "orrid heruption." It was his first appearance in the comedy, and he made all the fuss of a supernumerary. Holding up the skirts of his blue, bright-buttoned coat with his left hand, he overshadowed the fountain with his presence, and raising the goblet to his lips, he swallowed the contents almost to the last thimbleful, when, according to the philosophy of Uncle Ned, "the clapper in his throat got lazy and shut up." Bull instantly expanded, like the fabled bull-frog, almost to bursting, then "blowed" like a whale, and per

mel's coat was "sponged" in an instant; and a mischievous little beauty, with her eyes and dimples full of fun, whose bonnet had been baptized, shouted "Nimbus !" with ringing laughter, and called for umbrellas. Bull almost roared with anger because the company roared with laughter; and from that moment until his hegira, ten days afterward, he was known only as Nimbus, or the rain-cloud.

have delighted the genius of a Hogarth or Gilray. The old Senecas called the region around these springs Cannawagus-"the place of stinking water"-a name eminently appropriate to the mind of a new-comer or the unacclimated. Grimace was the prevailing feature of countenances when swallowing the beverage for the first few days, and grotesque groups were thus often formed around these fountains. Portfolio transferred four of such a company to his sketchbook. They were conspicuous in a group of a dozen around the little blue marble basin of the Lower Spring, composed of the young and aged, the sick and the healthy, the ugly and the beautiful. One of the masculines, from New Hamp-sonated Jupiter Pluvius admirably. Poor Brumshire, had a face like a tragic mask, and his limbs had angularities like a Virginia fence. He was the true philosopher-the Socrates of the group. Forty times he had stood at that fountain, and, like the fishwoman's eels, he had become accustomed to the "skinning," and never winced. With all the gravity of his prototype, he drained the cup, while the others generously "made faces" for him. Then a tall, sallow, dyspeptic spinster, who is further from "fat, fair, and forty" to-day than she was then, took a goblet, bent over the mysterious fountain, and pressing her hand upon her bosom to keep her Mechlin and bonnet-ribbons from the drip, swallowed the draught without breathing. "Did you ever!" she exclaimed, drawing in her breath and opening her mouth to its full extent; and at the same time flinging her arm with such force against the elbow of a fop of the Beau Brummel sort, as he was lifting a full tumbler to his lips, that it dashed the contents into his ruffled bosom. An impolite titter and an unfeeling giggle attested the lack of sympathy among the young people. The last actor in the scene sketched by Portfolio was a burly John Bull from Canada, with a nose like a red turnip-radish and cheeks like an egg-plant. Like the fa

Among the guests at Knickerbocker Hall, whom Portfolio delights to remember, was Dr. Derick Knickerbocker, the founder of that "institution." He appeared like a hale man of sixty, of middle stature, full of kindly goodhumor, and prodigal in words of medical advice. He is a nephew of the late "Prince of Schaghticoke," and of course a near relation of the great Diedrich the Chronicler. Almost thirty years ago he observed the medicinal virtues of these waters, purchased a ridge of wooded land between the two dark and tangled swamps in which they bubbled up, and with ax, spade, and pick, he commenced the foundation for a dispensary, which he called Knickerbocker Hall. There, while on a visit to Avon, Dr. Francis (who had been his medical tutor) found him at his labors, commended his enterprise,

took a bottle of the water to New York, and | ain of sulphureous water, much stronger than carefully analyzed it. The result showed the any at Avon, over which the now venerable Dr. composition of a wine-gallon to be as follows: Long has presided for about twenty years. To that spring many bathers resort, and some invalids reside there permanently.

LOWER SPRING.

Carbonate of lime...
Chloride of calcium

Grains.

29.33

8.41 57.44 49.61 13.73 158-52 Cubic inches.

10.02
5:42

56

Grains.

26.96

5.68

3-52

8.08

38.72

82-96
31.28

Dr. Knickerbocker, who resides at Rochester, yet owns and rents the Hall. The bathinghouses are the property of Mr. A. Nowlan, the proprietor of most of the land around the springs, and he was contemplating new and far more extensive accommodations for the increasing visitors. Further westward, and near the banks of the Genesee, is a fine magnesia spring; and abont two miles further up the valley is a fount

Portfolio indulges in the luxury of an antiquarian taste, and found gratification for it at Avon. Historically and legendarily, it is a classic region; and he had the rare good luck of spending an afternoon with the fine poet, Hosmer, whose genius has embalmed in the fragrant amber of verse many of the most beautiful romances of the Six Nations- the Romans of the Western World. Here and hereabout the Senecas kept the western door of The Long House, as the Six Nations fancifully called their Federal Republic, while the eastern door was kept by the Mohawks. The fire-place, where the Federal Council was held, was in charge of the Onondagas, near the modern Syracuse; and the Oneidas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras kept watch and ward over the broad lawn away down the waters of the Susquehanna and Delaware. There, near the Avon railway station, at the foot of the slope of which the village is the crown, was undoubtedly the battle-field of the French, under De Nouville, and the invaded Senecas, in 1687, when the aroused Iroquois drove the Gaul from their beautiful land, with much slaughter and great