certified his opinion that "the discovery is of vast importance, and
may be of the greatest usefulness in our inland navigation." James
Rumsey, with just a suspicion of the irritability of talent, accused
Fitch of "coming pottering around" his Virginia work-bench and
carrying off his ideas, to be afterward developed in Philadelphia. It
is certain that the development was great. Rumsey died in England of
apoplexy at a public lecture where he was explaining his contrivance.

A sun-burnt, dark-eyed young Virginian now guides us up the
mountain-road to the Springs, where we find a full-blown Ems set
in the midst of the wilderness. The Springs of Berkeley, originally
included in the estates of Lord Fairfax, and by him presented to the
colony, were the first fashionable baths opened in this country. One
half shudders to think how primitive they were in the first ages, when
the pools were used by the sexes alternately, and the skurrying nymphs
hastened to retreat at the notification that their hour was out and
that the gentlemen wanted to come in. They were populous and civilized
in the pre-Revolutionary era when Washington began to frequent them
and became part owner in the surrounding land. The general's will
mentions his property in "Bath," as the settlement was then called.
The Baroness de Reidesel (wife of the German general of that name
taken with Burgoyne at Saratoga) spent with her invalid husband the
summer of 1779 at Berkeley, making the acquaintance of Washington and
his family; and whole pages of her memoirs are devoted to the quaint
picture of watering-place life at that date.

[Illustration: SCENE AT CUMBERLAND NARROWS.]

Berkeley Springs are probably as enjoyable as any on the continent.
There is none of that aspect of desolation and pity-my-sorrows so