to see anything of practical
agriculture, the quickness of her perception and the correctness of
her inferences not a little surprised me. The path we pursued led
directly to the object of our visit. The waters of the higher hills
were collected in a vast tank excavated in an extensive plateau at the
mid-level. At the summit of the first ascent we met and were escorted
by one of the officials entrusted with the charge of these works,
which supply water of extraordinary purity to a population of perhaps
a quarter of a million, inhabiting a district of some 10,000 square
miles in extent. The tank was about sixty feet in depth, and perhaps a
mile in length, with half that breadth. Its sides and bottom-were
lined with the usual concrete. Our guide informed me that in many
cases tanks were covered with the crystal employed for doors and
windows; but in the-pure air of these hills such a precaution was
thought unnecessary, as it would have been exceedingly costly. The
water itself was of wonderful purity, so clear that the smallest
object at the bottom was visible where the Sun, still high in the
heavens, shone directly upon the surface. But this purity would by no
means satisfy the standard of Martial sanitary science. In the first
place, it is passed into a second division of the tank, where it is
subjected to some violent electric action till every kind of organic
germ it may contain is supposed to be completely destroyed. It is then
passed through several covered channels and mechanically or chemically
cleansed from every kind of inorganic impurity, and finally oxygenated
or aerated with air which has undergone a yet more elaborate
purification. At every stage in this process, a phial of water is
taken out and examined in a dark chamber by means of a beam of light
emanating from a powerful electric lamp and concentrated by a huge
crystal lens. If this beam detect any perceptible dust or matter
capable of scattering the light, the water is pronounced impure and
passed through further processes. Only when the contents of the bottle
remain absolutely dark, in the midst of an atmosphere whose floating
dust renders the beam visible on either side, so that the phial, while
perfectly transparent to the light, nevertheless interrupts the beam
with a block of absolute darkness, is it considered fit for human
consumption. It is then distributed through pipes of concrete, into
which no air can possibly enter, to cisterns equally, air