nt course of the channel, for the vaults and arches were in
some places one hundred and nine feet high. It is said that Rome was
supplied with five hundred thousand hogsheads every twenty-four hours by
means of these aqueducts.

The _cloacae_ or sewers were constructed by undermining and cutting
through the seven hills upon which Rome stood, making the city hang, as
it were, between heaven and earth, and capable of being sailed under.

Marcus Agrippa in his edileship, made no less than seven streams meet
together under ground, in one main channel, with such a rapid current,
as to carry all before them, that they met with in their passage.
Sometimes in a flood, the waters of the Tiber opposed them in their
course, and the two streams encountered each other with great fury: yet
the works preserved their old strength, without any sensible damage:
sometimes the ruins of whole buildings, destroyed by fire or other
casualties, pressed heavily upon the frame: sometimes terrible
earthquakes shook the foundation: yet they still continued impregnable.

The public ways were built with extraordinary care to a great distance
from the city on all sides; they were generally paved with flint, though
sometimes, and especially without the city, with pebbles and gravel.

The most noble was the Appian way, the length of which was generally
computed at three hundred and fifty miles: it was twelve feet broad,
made of huge stones, most of them blue. Its strength was so great, that
after it had been built two thousand years, it was, in most places, for
several miles together, perfectly sound.

CHAPTER XI.

_Of Augurs and Auguries._

The business of the augurs or soothsayers was to interpret dreams,
oracles, prodigies, &c. and to tell whether any action should be
fortunate or prejudicial to any particular persons, or to the whole
commonwealth.

There are five kinds of auguries mentioned in authors--1st. From the
appearances in heaven,--as thunder, lightning, comets and other meteors;
as, for instance, whether the thunder came from the right or left,
whether the number of strokes was even or odd, &c.

2d. From birds, whence they had the name of _auspices_, from _avis_ and
_specio_; some birds furnished them with observations from their
chattering and singing,--such as crows, owls, &c.--others from their
flying, as eagles, vultures, &c.

To take both these kind of auguries, the observer stood upon a tower
with his head covered