that come from their mouths may be
imagined as bearing the words of the fable they
represent. There are a great number of
fountains, forty in all, each different in
subject, and of a style of decoration that blends
with the surrounding verdure. At the
entrance to the Maze is a bronze statue of
Aesop himself--the famous Mythologist of Phrygia."

[Illustration: The Fountain of Versailles]

To appreciate the engineering skill of the
directors of fountain construction at
Versailles it must be remembered that it was
from an arid plateau that hundreds of
streams were made to spring from the earth.
Thousands of laborers were employed to lay
beneath the surface of the ground a net-work
of canals and aqueducts to receive the tribute
of water-courses directed hither from distant
sources. The waters were finally pumped
into immense reservoirs adroitly dissembled
on the roofs of buildings overlooking the
park. From these tanks a maze of pipes
carried the water to thickets, grottoes,
basins, fountains and canals. Nothing could
surpass the ingenuity with which all this was
contrived. The play of water directed to
the Basin of the Mirrors reappeared later
in the Baths of Apollo and the Fountain of
the Dragon. Flowing in turn among
successive pools and ornamental groups--branching
hither and yon in the gardens, the
stream attained its full display in the most
majestic effect of all, the Basin of Neptune.

"Here again is the hand of Le Notre,"
remarks James Farmer, author of
"Versailles and the Court Under Louis XIV." "The
basin of Neptune, called at first the
Grand Cascades, was constructed from 1679
to 1684, in accordance with his designs. This
immense basin, surrounded on the side
toward the chateau by a handsome wall of
stone, and on the other by an amphitheater
of turf and trees,--a vast half-circle, in the
center of which stands a marble statue of
Renown, is simple in conception and imposing
from its size. The richly carved lead vases
which adorn the wall were gilded under the
Grand Monarch, and each throws a jet of
water to a great height. Dangeau tells us
that His Majesty saw the waters play here
for the first time on the 17th of May, 1685,
and that he was quite content. However,
Neptune had not then appeared in the basin
that now bears his name; for the large
groups of Neptune, the Ocean, and the
Tritons, which ornament the base of the wall at
present, were not put in place until 1739, in
the