"Yes," said he, "every bushel of earth
which forms this broad embankment, extending for miles, was brought by
the single basketful from yonder mountain upon the heads of men and
women."

The remains of one of these capacious tanks which stimulated industry
and insured abundant crops in Ceylon so long ago is to be seen at
Kalawewa, near Dambula, already spoken of, and is known to have been
built fourteen centuries since. It was originally some forty miles in
circumference, covering seven square miles, with a depth of twenty
feet of water, and having an embankment of stone twelve miles long
laid in solid tiers, with the large blocks ingeniously secured
together. These tanks are found in a more or less ruinous condition
all over the island, but especially at the north, where they were more
required than in the southern portion. The conserving of water in
large quantities for agricultural and other necessary purposes was
naturally one of the earliest developed ideas of civilized people.
Aden, the important peninsula commanding the entrance of the Red Sea,
now held and fortified by England, is situated in a rainless zone, so
that the inhabitants see no fall of that invaluable element sometimes
for two years together, though when it does visit them it comes in
floods. The dependence here for the needed supply in the dry season is
upon enormous tanks hewn out of the solid rocks with infinite labor,
and connected with each other by a well-devised system. These tanks,
being cut in the solid rock, as we have said, are virtually
indestructible, and form the means of supply for the inhabitants
to-day, as they did thousands of years ago. The great antiquity of the
Aden water reservoirs renders them intensely interesting, since they
are believed to be as old as the most ancient monuments in existence
raised by the hand of man,--not excepting those of Egypt.

In entering the harbor of Aden, one passes through the dangerous
Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, so called by the Arabs, and signifying the
"Gate of Tears," because it has proved so fatal to human life and to
commerce. The author well remembers, when passing this famous point,
seeing the tall masts of a big European steamship still standing above
the water of the strait. A few days previously, the vessel had been
swept by the treacherous currents upon some of the many sunken rocks,
and had instantly gone to the bottom with all her crew on board.

The water preserves of Ceylon are of