of erecting on the summit of the Trocadero a Grecian
temple in white marble, destined to receive the busts of the great men
of France with commemorative inscriptions--a project which the downfall
of the Second Empire found unrealized. The ancient site of the village
of Chaillot seemed like one of those spots of which we read in monkish
legends, which are haunted by a demon that destroys the work and blights
the existence of whoever attempts to build upon them. Palace, barracks,
monument and temple alike never existed, and were but the shadowy
precursors of disaster to their projectors. It was reserved for the
Third Republic to break the evil spell, and to crown the picturesque and
historic eminence with an edifice worthy of the beauty of the site and
of its associations with the past.

L. H. H.

SWISS ENGINEERING.

Switzerland, of all the countries of Europe, presents the most grave and
numerous obstacles to intercommunication. The number and size of the
mountains and glaciers, the depth of the valleys, the torrential
character of the rivers,--everything unites to make the highways cost
enormously in money, while the feats of skill they necessitate are "the
triumph of civil engineers, the wonder of tourists, the despair of
shareholders and the burden of budgets." Among these triumphs are the
viaduct of Grandfey; the railroads that climb the Righi and the
Uetliberg; the Axen tunnel and quay; and the Gotthard tunnel, over nine
miles long--a solid granite bore through a mountain. One that was
honored by a national celebration on the 16th of last August was the
reclaiming from the water of the vast plain called Seeland, the
territory occupying the triangle bounded by the river Aar and the Lakes
of Bienne, Neufchatel and Morat. It was wholly under water, and had
slowly emerged after many centuries; but despite an extensive system of
drainage the land was never dry enough for serious cultivation. In rainy
years it was even covered with water, making, with the three lakes, a
sheet nearly twenty-five miles square.

The great work celebrated last August was no less than the changing the
bed of the Aar and the lowering of the three lakes mentioned. The Aar in
this region is about the size of the Seine at Paris or of the Hudson at
Troy, but it is subject to sudden floods that are the terror of dwellers
and property-owners along its borders. A Swiss colonel named La Nicca
was the author of the grand scheme for reclai