Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/326

few years Saratoff will be situated on a shoal about 1 mile wide. In 1882 and 1883 steamers were compelled to discharge cargoes 50 miles below Saratoff or at the Pokrovskaya suburb on the left bank,—so that a branch railway for conveying the cargoes of the steamers has now been constructed south of the city.

The town of Saratoff was founded at the end of the 16th century, on the left bank of the Volga, some seven miles above the present site, to which it was removed about 1605. The place it now occupies (Sarytau, or Yellow Mountain) has been inhabited from a remote antiquity. Although founded for the maintenance of order in the Volga region, Saratoff, which was not fortified, was several times pillaged in the 17th and 18th centuries. Razin took it, and his followers kept it until 1671; the insurgent Cossacks of the Don under Bulavin and Nekrasoff pillaged it in 1708 and Pugatcheff in 1774. After being placed under Kazan and later under Astrakhan, it became the chief town of the Saratoff government in 1797.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, a village of the United States, whose mineral waters, apart from any charm of situation, have rendered it one of the most fashionable of summer resorts. It lies in the east of Saratoga county, New York, 186 miles by rail north of New York city, on a level plateau in the valley of the Hudson, not far from the junction of this river with the stream discharging from Saratoga Lake. The number and size of its hotels (some of which are among the largest in the world and can accommodate upwards of 1000 guests) and the large influx of wealthy and fashionable visitors, bringing its population up to 30,000, render Saratoga Springs anything rather than a “village.” Its resident inhabitants even numbered 8421 in 1880 and the township contained 10,820. There are Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic churches, a large town-hall, a high school and other educational institutions, a fire department building, a circular railway, and numerous private mansions. Congress Park was laid out in 1875–6. In July and August the racecourse of the Saratoga Racing Association attracts the best patronage of the American turf.

Plan of Saratoga Springs.

The Indians seem at an early date to have known of the medicinal virtues of the High Rock Spring, and in 1767 Sir William Johnson, carried thither by a party of Mohawks, was restored to health by drinking its waters. General Schuyler cut a road through the forest from Schuylerville, and in 1784 erected the first frame house in the neighbourhood of the springs. Hotels began to be built about 1815. New springs have from time to time been discovered, and their number has also been increased by boring, so that now there are 28 in all. They rise in a stratum of Potsdam sandstone underlain by Laurentian gneiss, &c., and reach the surface by passing through a bed of blue clay. All are charged with carbonic acid gas. The following are among the most notable:—Congress Spring in Congress Park, discovered in 1792 (chloride of sodium, bicarbonates of lime and magnesium); Washington or Champagne Spring (1806); Columbian Spring (1806); Hathorn Spring (1868); Pavilion Spring (1839); Putnam Spring; Geyser Spring (bored in 1870 to a depth of 140 feet and spouting 25 feet into the air); Glacier, spouting spring (bored in 1871 to 300 feet); Flat Rock Spring, known as early as 1774, but lost, and only recovered in 1884. The water from several of the springs is largely bottled and exported. The Geyser Spring (1$\scriptstyle {\frac {1}{4}}$ miles S.W.) and White Sulphur Spring and Eureka Spring (1$\scriptstyle {\frac {1}{2}}$ miles E.) are beyond the limits of the accompanying plan.

SARÁWAK, a territory in the north-west of Borneo, which, reclaimed from piracy and barbarism by the energy of Sir James Brooke (q.v.), was converted into an independent and prosperous state. With an area estimated at from 35,000 to 40,000 square miles, it has a population of about 250,000. The coast extends from Tanjong Datu, a prominent cape in 2° 3′ N. lat., northwards to the frontier of Brunei in 3° 10′—a distance in a straight line of about 280 miles, but, following the sinuosities, about 400 miles. Inland the boundaries towards the Dutch territory are hypothetically determined by the line of watershed between the streams, flowing north-west and those flowing east-south-east and south-west, but the frontier districts are to a considerable extent unexplored. Towards the coast there are tracts of low alluvial land; and some of the rivers reach the sea by deltas out of all proportion to the length of their course. The surface of the country soon, however, begins to rise and to be diversified with irregular hills, sometimes of rounded sandstone, sometimes of picturesque and rugged limestone. The Bongo Hills, in the residency of Saráwak, are about 3000 feet high; and along the frontier, where the Seraung Mountains, the Klinkong Mountains, the Batang Lupar Mountains, &c., are supposed to form more or less continuous ranges, there are altitudes of from 4000 to 8000 feet. In some of the limestone mountains there are caves of enormous extent (a detailed account will be found in Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, 1865). The Rejang is the largest river in Saráwak. Its sources are only 120 or 130 miles directly inland near Mount Lawi, Mount Marud (8000 feet), and Gura Peak; but it flows obliquely south-west for 350 miles, and the principal branches of its delta (the Eyan river and the Rejang proper) embrace a territory of 1600 square miles with a coast-line of 60 miles. In their upper course the headwaters have a rapid descent, and none of them are navigable above Balleh where the Rejang is deflected westward by the accession of the Balleh river. Left-hand tributaries from a low line of hills to the south—the Katibas, Nymah, Kanowit, and Kajulan rivers—continue to swell the main stream; but there are no tributaries of any importance from the right hand, the country in that direction being drained directly seawards by a number of short rivers—the Oya, Mukah, Balinean, Tatau, and Bintulu,—of which the first three rise in the Ulat-Bulu Hills (3600 feet). At the apex of the Rejang delta lies the village and government of Sibu, and at the mouth of the Rejang branch is the important village and shipping-port of Rejang. Passing over the small river basins of the Kalukah and the Saribas we reach the Batang Lupar, which ranks next to the Rejang, and is navigable for large vessels as far as Lingga, about 30 miles from its mouth—the bar having 3$\scriptstyle {\frac {1}{2}}$ fathoms water at high tide. The value of the navigable portion of the Batang Lupar is, however, greatly lessened by the formidable bores to which it is subject; they begin about three days before full moon and change, and last about three days, rushing up the river with a crest about 6 feet high for a distance of 60 miles. In several of the other rivers a similar phenomenon is observed. The broad mouth of the Batang Lupar opens in the angle where the coast, which has run nearly north and south from the delta of the Rejang, turns