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pulsion came under my own observation; and but | robbers had been appropriating his property; they recently a garrison of these criminals was sent to stripped him even to his suspender buckles, and Mazatlan, and it had scarcely reached there before asked what he was, where he was from, &c., conit threatened a sack of the town. Seven assassina- cluding by beating him with their swords. The tions occurred in one Mexican town during my robbers-three in number-were masked. The short residence in it, and I never heard of anything minuteness of their inquiries caused us to feel someworse happening to the criminals than being made what apprehensive, as, in case of their ascertaining soldiers of, although one of them had despatched our nationality, they might think they rendered the his third victim. At Guadalaxara, we were star-state some service by taking our lives; and consetled by receiving the Mexican account, in triumph-quently no choice was left us but to fight in case of ant and boastful language, of the capture of Cap- an attack. The Mexican servant accompanying us tain Thornton's dragoons. This intelligence placed being called in to the council, expressed his willingus in a very precarious situation. All the repre-ness and ability to handle a gun. In addition to the sentations we received being through the Mexican arms in our possession, two fowling-pieces were obpress, gave us great uneasiness as to the result of tained from the manager of the fonda; and as it was our interests on the frontier, notwithstanding the more than probable the robbers were from the villarge allowance we made for Mexican braggado- lage itself, and had their agents about us at this cia. Soon after the arrival of the intelligence, time, we gave some little publicity to our preparaboys were crying extras about the streets, crying tions. I discharged a Colt's pistol, and re-loaded out, "Triumph over the North Americans." We it, in presence of this respectable public. Having determined to hurry on our way, though it was in made these preparations, and arranged our plan of anxiety and gloom that we did so. defence, we started at four in the morning, and From Guadalaxara a line of diligences runs to were upon the look-out, finger on trigger, for two Vera Cruz, and this line is worthy of all commenda- or three hours, after this our uneasiness somewhat tion. The conveyances are good Troy-built coach-subsided, and we made the day's journey safely, es; the horses and mules are in fine order, and the and to our own satisfaction, if not to that of the coachmen possess great skill and dexterity. Ori- robbers. Through most of this day the country ginally, the coachmen were all Yankees ; but now was very much the same as that of yesterday; desthey are Mexicans who have grown up on the road, titute of population, water, or any growth but the and among the coaches and horses. It is some- nopal, or prickly pear, and a few scattering acawhat amusing to notice the amalgamation they have cias. Late in the afternoon it was quite refreshmade on the Mexican costume with that of our ing to come upon a fine valley prairie, watered by coachmen or drivers. The universal Mexican se- a small stream, and covered with wheat-fields rape has given way to the box coat; but the split- ready for the harvest. Our stopping-place for the leg pantaloons hold their own, and a brightly-col-night was a town of about eight thousand inhabitored handkerchief tied over the throat and chin, ants, called Lagos, rather a neat place, with the seems a type of the woollen cravat so generally usual share of enormous churches. From Lagos worn by our drivers in cold weather. The fondas our road on the following morning continued (hotels) are regulated by a system extending along through the same beautiful prairie and waving the whole route, prescribing what shall be given, wheat-fields, upon which we had entered the preand the hours of meals, and also regulating the ceding evening, and this was the character of the charges. These rules also direct that every pas-country until our arrival in the afternoon at the senger shall be furnished with clean sheets and pillow-case, which no one has used, at every lodging-place on the route. The hours of travel are from three to four in the morning to the same hour in the afternoon.

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mining town of Guanajato. This city has a very picturesque situation, climbing up the sides and over the summits of a range of hills; the streets are exceedingly intricate and precipitous. miles before reaching the city there are a succesLeaving Guadalaxara at half-past three in the sion of immense establishments for reducing the morning, our first day's journey was over a desolate-metals from the ore. Viewed from one of the surlooking rolling table land, in many places rocky; the soil was a stiff blue clay, here and there broken by the plough and ready for corn, but the general face of the country was covered by a short yellow dried grass. The road (thanks to Nature!) was generally good; but where she had left any impediments, art had disdained to remove them; and in some places, for short distances, our strongly-built coaches had terrible encounters. Over thirty leagues of such a country, by four o'clock in the afternoon, we reached the wretched little hamlet of San José, and the diligence coming in the opposite direction not having arrived, we were compelled to await its arrival for dinner. The delay became unusual, and the sun was going down, leaving San José and the desolate country about it to the additional gloom of night, when the expected stage rattled into the court-yard; one solitary passenger leaped from it, with his dress all loose and disordered; his trunk being taken from the boot, he gave it a kick of ineffable disgust, and which betrayed its lightness and emptiness. While we had been awaiting his arrival to dinner, he had been lying under the coach with his mouth to the ground, and a carbine at his head, and a band of

rounding elevations, it appears as though there was a separate town on each hill as far as the eye can see, the church crowning each summit. Here we sat down to table with some more unfortunate fellows, who had been robbed the preceding evening in the stage approaching us. In this case there were eight robbers; and not feeling it to be necessary to go far, or take much trouble in the matter, they robbed this stage in sight of the gates of the city of Queretero-a city of 20,000 inhabitants; not even taking the precaution to mask themselves; and one of the robbers on the following day, near the door of our hotel, asked a gentleman whom he had relieved of his purse and watch for the light of his cigar. No one acquainted with the country would take the responsibility of denouncing a robber; to do so would take nothing from his impunity, and would insure the assassination of the informer. Soon after leaving Guanajato, we passed from the rugged mountain region in which it is situated to a continuation of the fertile valley upon which we had been the preceding day, and continued along this our whole day's journey of forty leagues, to the handsome city of Queretero, passing on the

way several pretty towns of five or six thousand charity is paralyzed by the consciousness of inainhabitants each. Just before reaching the town bility to relieve the mass. The comfort of the of Celayo, we fell in with a group of half-naked stranger is by no means increased by the convicpeasants, some on foot and some on donkeys, being tion that all his vigilance will not prevent his driven in by a few Mexican soldiers to form part pocket being picked in the most public places, an of the army destined for Matamoras. The stage event which happened twice to my companion in stopped one day, being Sunday, in Queretero, and one day, and twice I detected the depredator's on the first night of our arrival the house of a curate hand in my pocket; the third time he was more nearly opposite to us was entered by a band of rob- successful. Soldiers seem an essential part o bers and stripped of all its portable valuables, with every institution of the country. If the host passes five thousand dollars in specie. Here we, for the the streets and brings the whole population to its first time, learned through a Mexican paper the knees, it is accompanied by soldiers; if you visit name of our unfortunate dragoons, and the unhap- a peaceful scientific institution, a filthy soldier expy fate of Col. Cross. amines your right to admission. He is, however, an appropriate sentinel; for scientific institutions with high-sounding names, upon being entered display nothing but disorder, neglect, and filth; they indicate a people degenerating into the dark

of general ignorance may be imagined when those who ought to be the receptacles of knowledge are among the most ignorant. Standing near a Franciscan friar, in the museum, examining a model representing a section of the mines, the good father contemplated it with great earnestness, and graciously informed me that it was a kind of representation of the birth of our Saviour.

As an evidence of the facilities of Mexican civilization in this handsome and populous city of Queretero, having occasion to receive six cents in change, I was compelled to take it in four cakes of white soap, the common currency of the coun-ness, without the energy of barbarism. The state try. Before leaving this city on Monday morning, we called a council of war to determine whether we should defend ourselves or yield, in case of an attack. There were eight of us, but one was a priest, the other an old man of seventy, two were invalids, and none would entertain for a moment the question of war. They had no arms; we therefore laid ours aside and determined to submit quietly to any fate. We fortunately entered Mexico on the evening of the second day from Queretero without any interruption. On the night before our arrival in the city we put up at an antiquated and prison-like fonda, the court-yard of which was occupied by part of a company of soldiers, and a machine on wheels which greatly excited the curiosity and attention of our companions. A glance at it was only necessary to discover that it was a camp forge; for there were the bellows and the anvil. But a particularly luminous Mexican explained to the whole party that it was a "bomba"-a bomb carriage for the destruction of us North Americans.

Upon our arrival in the city we were naturally anxious to learn something of the state of affairs on the frontier; but at first could learn nothing but the probability that an action had taken place; then that it had been fatal to us: finally, the truth began to leak out, and we learned that the Mexican arms had sustained a defeat. No public promulgation was made of this state of affairs, and long after the government was apprized of the truth, the news-boys were crying among the deluded people the triumph of the Mexican arms. The press, of course, dared publish nothing that Parades did not approve.

On the day of my departure from Mexico, (May I shall not, in a flying tour of this kind, under- 27,) the Mexican Congress was about to meet. It take a description of the oft-described city of is, however, a burlesque to call it a Congress of Mexico, or the emotions with which a stranger the nation, being a body selected from the clergy enters a place which has been alternately the capi- and military chiefly, originally convened for the tal of the Montezumas, the capital of Cortez, and purpose of confirming the usurpation of Paredes. the theatre where one military chief has contended Some of the departments could not be coerced into with another, not for the honor of his country, but sending deputies, and several of the deputies sent for the possession of the returns of the custom-made strenuous efforts to avoid the responsibilities house.

of their position, knowing that at this time they could not much longer bolster up Paredes.

It is difficult to conceive what is the proper remedy for the present disorders of Mexico. With a population of eight millions, seven are of the poor, oppressed, humble, and submissive Indian race, the victims of all changes, and the feeling of despair and melancholy has impressed itself upon the countenances of even the children. The other million is the Mexico-Spanish blood, from which are taken the clergy, the twenty thousand soldiers, and the twenty thousand officers, most of whom are left to pay themselves in any way they can. It is evident that this population wants the intellectual and moral basis upon which to form a gov

Mexico is indisputably a magnificent city; but as Madame Calderon justly remarks, its elegant houses, without having the dignity of ruins, induce the impression of fine buildings in a state of neglect. One accustomed to a different state of things, walks the elegant streets of Mexico with feelings of melancholy and disgust, at finding himself amid throngs of epauleted and laced soldiers, in a mingled attire of decoration and dirt; and crowds of the most revolting beggars of every age from infancy to decrepitude. This disgusting spectacle accompanies the traveller across the whole stage route of Mexico. The coach cannot stop for a moment without being surrounded by these wretched objects, displaying their disgusting ernment. infirmities and uttering piteous moans. At one Sympathy with Mexico, in relation to her conpoint they start off with the stage; children, young quest is a sympathy undenied by Mexicans whose girls, and men, old women with infants on their interests are those of peace and order; indeed, to backs, and with their hands pressed together, desire the introduction of any influence opposed to uttering a continued moan. With marvellous principles of rapine and revolution, becomes the speed they keep up with the coach for near a mile. part of patriotism; for Mexico is now the subject Sensibility becomes blunted by the continued con- of other powers by principles as strong as those templation of disease and wretchedness, while of arms. All her resources are in the hands of

foreigners her mines, manufactures, and commerce; because, among other reasons, the reputable and enterprising Mexican cannot protect himself against the exactions of his own government. The system of bribery by which the revenue is collected is known to the whole world; and another evidence of narrow policy is seen in the fact that, although Mexico can grow tobacco equal to that of Cuba, bands of armed men are sent annually to destroy the green tobacco crop, except in those two provinces where the government monopolize the growth of an inferior article."

The greatest curse of the country is found in its military establishment, and a view of the evils of this almost causes one to regard the glitter of an uniform as a crime against civilization.

Yours, truly,

WM. MAXWELL WOOD.

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE Antwerp corrrespondent of the United States Gazette, speaking of the Oregon question, in his letter of 1st June, says:

"On the whole, we may, as Americans, feel proud of the firmness which has been manifested on this occasion by the coördinate branches of our government; for though we may have come in for a share of censure occasionally, yet, on the whole, I believe, we will come off with flying colors, and no mistake. There is an old soldier's proverb, which says, 'fortune favors the brave!' and a man who insists on his rights cannot, under any circumstances, be refused respect. But I refrain from further observations, as, in all probability, the whole difficulty is already arranged to the satisfaction of the lovers of peace, and without sacrifice of the national honor.

"The most important feature on the continent, at this moment, is the emigration to America. It seems as if the populations of all Europe, after in vain attempting to establish liberal governments at home, had now resolved to elect the United States as their future theatre of action, and the field of their manly industry. At this port (Antwerp) the price of steerage passage to the United States was last year 50 francs a head, the passenger finding his own provisions. It has this year already risen to 100 francs, just double the amount, and the charterers besides offer to find the water casks, which was not customary in this place, and which makes the actual price of passage agree to 103 francs a head. All American vessels are chartered long before they enter the Scheldt, and Germans, Swedes and Norwegians equally profit by this unexpected increase of business. When all the vessels fit for an American voyage are engaged, agents are sent over to England to pick up vessels as they come in, and there are instances where charter parties have actually been concluded in the mouth of the Channel. Hamburg and Bremen do three times the emigration business of former years, and engaging besides every American vessel that touches there. The number of Germans emigrating this year to the United States will not be less than 60,000, and those from Ireland and England 140,000 or 150,000, in all about 200,000; enough at least to form the population of two new States!

which the people give to their respective sovereigns of the estimation in which they hold their respective governments; but if any one doubt that political motives are the cause of the phenomenon, let him read the official acts of the German governments in which these emigrants are all stigmatized as malcontent and political fanatics.'

It is said that the month of July is at last fixed upon by the King of Prussia for granting his people a constitutional government, but his majesty, and his majesty's illustrious father have broken so many promises, that it is extremely doubtful whether he will keep his word this time. Perhaps the rumor was only got up to punish the Czar for his want of politeness in not visiting either Berlin or Vienna on his proposed tour through Germany. The Czar, namely, has an inuate aversion to all liberal institutions, which extends even to the name of them, so that he even dislikes the constitutional states of Germany, and the constitution in futuro of Prussia. His dislike to that form of government is a perfect idiosyncracy, and he has gone so far in it as to lecture his brother-in-law, William IV. of Prussia, very severely on the meditated changes of his administration, and on being told that he (the king of Prussia) had promised to effect reform, to advise him to abdicate the crown. This is no idle rumor, no on dit, but a fact, which, if the King of Prussia had a spark of manhood, (this being exactly the property which nature has denied him,) would, long ago, have made him seek the alliance of the German people, who but awaited the word of command, to prove to the autocrat that he was free to administer his own government without asking the consent of the cabinet of St. Petersburg. But the King of Prussia is more afraid of liberalism than of the growing influence of his Northeastern neighbor, or he would not have acted such a despicable and cowardly part as the late Polish revolution. Prussia has, by the extradition of the Poles to Russia, shown that she has no idea of national independence or honor. She is hesitating commercially and politically between England and Russia, without satisfying either, and alienating every day the only source of her strength the affections and the respect of the Germans. Austria has not yet recovered from the shock she has received in Gallicia, where she is threatened with fresh insurrections in Italy. In addition to that, she is quite isolated from Russia, and has thrown the gauntlet to her own feudal aristocracy in ameliorating the condition of the peasants. The Hungarians and Croatians are quite dissatisfied, and the peasantry of Bohemia has risen. Austria, the old rival of the house of Bourbon, is near its spontaneous dissolution-the first blow from a foreign foe is sure to dismember the monarchy."

A letter to the Union from Hanover, 23d May, says:

"The number of emigrants from Europe to the United States during the present year will amount, it is believed, to not less than two hundred thousand-a third more than ever embarked in any previous year. The Dublin Post,' estimates that thirty thousand will leave Ireland alone, most of whom are substantial farmers, and they will carry with them at least £600,000 or $3,000,000. In England the number will be still larger, and con"This rage for emigration, however political fined principally to farmers, who are frightened by writers may account for it, is the best testimony the probable abrogation of the corn laws. Many

families in affluent circumstances are also quitting Holland for our shores-a country which, for a long time, has been less of an emigrating turn than any in Europe. Twenty thousand persons, chiefly French and Swiss, will embark at Havre. Forty thousand Germans, at the lowest computation, will sail from Bremen, three or four thousand from Hamburgh, as many from Rotterdam, and four or five thousand from Antwerp. Besides the increase of our wealth from this addition to our population by its industry, it carries with it an actual capital exceeding $20,000,000.

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"What higher testimonials are required of the estimation placed upon our government, our institutions, and our people, than to behold the bone and sinew,' the honest yeomanry of Europe, seek ing an abode where they can safely repose under their own vine and fig-tree,' under and among them, and none to make them afraid? At no period of our history has confidence been more unbounded with regard to the durability of the Union, and its future magnificent destiny, than at this moment, in the various powers and states of 'the Old World.' The political doctrines which constituted the creed of the late sage of Monticello, must and will prevail ultimately throughout the universe. They are extending as speedily as monarchical principles are diminishing. In the English parliament, Cobden speaks universally of the rights of the people, and his sentiments are cheered by the most distinguished functionaries.

"Great preparations are making in Germany for the New York steamers. The King of Hanover is hastening his railroads to completion. In twelve months the line from Bremen to Trieste will be finished; and branches from it will connect with towns and cities in every direction."

canal or railroad, the peninsula of Samana must be a tête de pont for the junction of the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean. Soon one or the other would be accomplished, and then France might establish a factory and entrepots, which, by reason of the safety for her trade and the advantages to be secured by proper custom-house laws, would speedily become the centre of operations highly useful to French commerce and navigation. Mr. Guizot dissented on the score of policy. France was pledged to the independence of Hayti; she would improve as far as possible her commercial relations with the whole island, but not interfere or involve herself in its internal affairs to recommence the disastrous attempts of old was out of the question. Accept the Dominican Republic, and the subjugation of the colored Hayti must be undertaken finally. A deputy rejoined, "Do as the English have done in China: provide yourself with a Hong-Kong on the coast of Hayti, and carry thence your goods into the interior of the island."

If the following paragraph of a letter of the correspondent of the London Morning Chronicle at Constantinople can be trusted, we may judge of the famous "integrity of the Ottoman empire" in the sense of independence:

"The French and Austrian ambassadors here have, within the last few days, exhibited an example of overweening insolence towards the sultan, such as it would be impossible, I believe, to find any parallel for. The occasion was this: The sultan had started on his tour in the provinces by the way of the Black sea, intending to disembark at Varoa. The weather, however, was very stormy, and, as the sultan suffered much from seasickness, his physicians were afraid, as his chest is The preceding extract of a letter by the last very weak, that in his violent retching he might steamer from Europe casts new light upon the break a blood-vessel. By their unanimous advice, magnificent destiny of our country. There seems therefore, the Captain Pacha determined to conto be no perceptible limit to our prosperity. No tinue the voyage no further, but to return to Conman can undertake to say, "Thus far shalt thou stantinople, which he did. The sultan little go, and no farther"-the famous expression which thought of what awaited him on his return. He is ascribed to Canute, but which he had borrowed was thereupon reprimanded sharply both by M. from the Holy Scriptures. Let us but use that Bourqueney and M. Sturmur. These envoys prosperity well, without abusing it-let us but from foreign nations have taken upon themselves prove ourselves worthy of our brilliant destiny- to chide the sovereign to whose court they are let us not run into excesses-let not our enterprise sent. In two notes to the Porte, these representarush into wild speculation, schemes that are too tives of France and Austria comment, in the most gigantic for our grasp, and overaction and over-insulting vein, on the motives which they suppose trading into projects of aggrandizement too enormous—and there never was a people under the sun more favored by Providence than those of the United States.-Union.

EXTRACTS FROM MR. WALSH'S LETTER TO THE
NATIONAL INTElligencer, dateD PARIS, 29TH

MAY.

In the chamber the case of Hayti was treated in a strain of some interest for the United States. Regrets and complaints were expressed that the French cabinet had repelled the offer of the sovereignty of the Dominican Republic. Spain could never repossess herself of that portion of the island; so that delicacy towards her was idle. The peninsula of Samana, at the east extremity of the Dominican Republic, had one of the finest roadsteads in the whole world. It commanded the Gulf of Mexico; and, whether a communication across the Isthmus of Panama were opened by

occasioned the return of the sultan, and declare that the circumstance must have a most prejudicial effect on the mind of his subjects. If the Porte had sent back to these ambassadors their notes, with their passports, and injunctions to quit the empire within the space of twenty-four hours, it would have sent them the only fitting reply; but they very well knew, when they ventured the insult, that such a reply was impossible."

The colors taken at the battle of the Obligado, in the La Plata war, have been pompously carried to the Hotel des Invalides, and five of the French combatants, who were severely wounded, are declared admissible to the hospital on their return to France. National pride relishes the French share in that aggression: the Sycee silver from Canton was welcomed in London as a better trophy than the laurels gained by the British at Obligado. O ye peace-makers, opium-heroes, and joint mediators!

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 115.-25 JULY, 1846.

From Chambers' Edinburgh Journal.
ARTESIAN WELLS IN LONDON.

DURING the late session of parliament, the bishop of London, while advocating the necessity for the building of new churches in the metropolis, stated that its population increased at the rate of 30,000 annually; an increase that requires a proportionate multiplication of all that contributes to the comforts and conveniences of life. Greater quantities of food and clothing will be wanted every year; more houses, involving the extension of streets and thoroughfares; and, above all, a greater supply of water, to quench the thirst of the additional number of throats, as well as to lay an ever-widening surface of dust. It is to be hoped that the new scheme for the erection and working of public fountains will be continued and extended until London may be as usefully embellished with jets d'eau as continental cities, of which they are generally considered the chief ornament. The initiative, as is pretty well known, has been taken by the formation of two fountains, with large basins, in Trafalgar Square; the water for which, instead of being supplied from any of the numerous companies, was obtained by boring, or the formation of Artesian wells.

In June last, Mr. Faraday delivered a lecture at the Roval Institution on the subject of these wells, in which he explained and illustrated the practical details of the boring, and showed that the London public must look to the accumulations of water underlying the London clay for their chief supply of the pure element, for drinking and other domestic uses. In inquiring into the geological relations of the waters lying deeply below the surface, he described the soil upon which London is situated as particularly favorable to the realization of this means of raising water. It is composed, in going from above downwards, of a layer of gravel of moderate thickness; then an enormous bed of plastic clay, known, in geology, under the name of London clay; beneath which lie calcareous marls, gravel, sand, and freestone, succeeded by massive strata of chalk; the whole thickness, from the surface to the chalk, varying from 200 to 300 feet. It was further explained that, wherever the sand and chalk crop out, or rise to the surface, they must absorb the water which falls in those parts. This water percolates downwards underneath the clay, and, finding no mode of escape, accumulates in the fissures of the chalk, ready to rush upwards through any opening which may present itself.

"The property of water to seek a level when it has descended between strata concave upwards, or between inclined beds of stratified rock, naturally accounts for the success of the Artesian operation. If two basins be supposed different strata, placed one within another, a little distance apart, and water be poured between, and a small hole be made in the bottom of the inner basin, the water will rise in a jet a very considerable height, and exemplify the nature of these springs, and multiplying the basins would afford an idea of those different springs found at varying depths, and of equally varying qualities. If, instead of the concave form, the plane of the strata be supposed to dip, the

[blocks in formation]

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water, seeking the lowest point, and pressed by that which is nearer the surface, would equally rise, and form the Artesian well or spring, if the strata were perforated at their lower level.

The general mode of constructing an Artesian well is by first digging and bricking round to a certain depth, dependent on the nature of the soil, as in an ordinary well; from the bottom of this the boring into the lower strata of sand and chalk is commenced. In order to prevent the flow of any water into the opening, except that from these particular strata, the bore is lined with iron tubes, which completely shut out all percolations except that from the main source. Two borings were sunk for the works in Trafalgar square-one of which is in front of the National Gallery, the other in Orange street, immediately in the rear, both being connected by a tunnel formed of brick laid in cement, 6 feet in diameter and 380 feet in length. The boring for the deepest well penetrated to a depth of 395 feet, the lower portion of which, passing into the chalk 135 feet, is not lined with tubes.f

A contract was next made with Messrs. Easton and Amos, who furnished the plans and constructed the works-engine-house, tanks, and cisterns in Orange street-by which they agreed to work the engines for ten hours every day, supplying 100 gallons of water per minute to the barracks, National Gallery, Office of Woods and Forests. Admiralty, Horse Guards, Treasury, Scotland Yard offices, Whitehall Yard offices, India board, Downing street, and houses of parliament, in addition to 500 gallons per minute to the fountains in the square, for the sum of £500 per annum; being just half the sum previously paid to the water companies who supplied those departments. The whole expense for sinking the wells, erecting the engine-house, laying down the mains and the pipes to the fountains, was not quite £9000. The water of the fountains is constantly running the same round of duty, being pumped out as fast as it returns from the basins: the supply of 100 gallons per minute is obtained from the deepest well, which, at the end of the ten hours, is not lowered more than five feet under the rest level. With a little more power in the machinery, the contractors are satisfied that the supply might be increased to five times the present quantity.

Not only has an important economical advantage been gained, but the quality of the water is far superior to that supplied for the consumption of the inhabitants generally. The presence of an alkali is shown, by its turning red cabbage-water blue; a reäction due to the carbonate of soda, of which it contains a notable quantity, from 16 to 24 per cent. of the total proportion of saline matter held in suspension. Mr. Faraday found 41.5 grains of solid matter, among which was a small portion of lime, on evaporating a gallon of the water. The excess of soda renders it extremely soft, and particularly useful for domestic purposes. It is at the same

*Encyclopedia Metropolitana, vol. xxv., p. 1183.

The well sunk three years since at Grenelle, near Paris, is 1800 feet in depth, and throws up 150,000 gallons of water every twenty-four hours.

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