THE ARTESIAN WELL. In driving through the gay, beautiful streets, squares, and boulevards of Paris, a stranger has every reason to believe that the capital he is admiring is singularly endowed from the laboratory of Nature not only with the purest description of air, but with a superabundant supply of water, which from upwards of a hundred different fountains is to be seen, like fireworks of various names, furiously rushing, rising, streaming upwards, breaking, and then, in myriads of small particles, slowly descending in prismatic radiance to the earth from whence they sprang. Nevertheless, notwithstanding this magnificent outward demonstration, Paris is very poorly supplied with water; indeed, while the fountains of the city are gambolling, dancing, and revelling in the way I have described, lean horses and jaded donkeys, with drooping heads, are drawing carts full of this simple necessary of life, amounting in cost to four million francs per annum. siderable number of houses, from top to bottom, A con are supplied with water from large barrels on wheels, which no sooner arrive at their doors than the donkey-driver, going to the rear, is seen to pull out a plug, from which there instantly flows into a bright tin pail, which but a moment before he had placed at a considerable distance off, a stream of water that looks exactly like a very long semi-parabola of glass. As soon as one pail is full, with scarcely the loss of a drop it is replaced by another, and when that is filled and the plug stopped, both, suspended, fore and aft, across one shoulder on a short stick, are carried across the foot pavement, and up stairs to their destination, often the highest story of the house. With this uncomfortable fact sticking fast in the gizzard of my mind, I own I never passed a fountain in Paris without comparing it to the immense ring which in certain countries so often glitters on a very dirty forefinger, or to the flashy waistcoat and gaudy stock which are in every region occasionally to be seen blooming together over a rumpled shirt. "Verily, I swear 'tis better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, As the rocky strata on which Paris stands are to a great depth barren of springs, immense sums have at different periods been expended in bringing water to the city. In 1613 Louis XIII. laid the first stone of a magnificent aqueduct, 18,200 yards long, from Arcueil to the Château d'Eau, near the Observatoire, and which crosses the valley of Arcueil upon 25 arches, 72 feet high; this aqueduct was repaired in 1777, since which period the municipal authorities of Paris, at a considerable cost, have enabled it to supply the city with 36,000 hogsheads per day. From the Canal de l'Ourcq, 24 leagues in length, and which cost 25,000,000 francs, about 260,820 cubic mètres of water per day are consumed for the purposes of the navigation, for the lockage of the two canals St. Denis and St. Martin, and for the supply of the public fountains, markets, and houses of the capital. In 1809 an immense reservoir, 740 yards long by 77 broad, called the "Bassin de la Villette," was constructed outside the Barrière de Pantin to receive the water from the northern extremity of the Canal de l'Ourcq. From this reservoir there is an aqueduct 10,300 yards in length, called l'Aqueduc de Ceinture, which, bounding Paris on the north, supplies by five branches-1. The Château d'Eau, Boulevart St. Martin, la Place des Vosges, le Marché des Innocents; 2. The Fauxbourgs Montmartre and Poissonnière, with the Palais National; 3. The Chaussée d'Antin, the Quartier des Capucines, and the Marché St. Honoré; 4. The Champs Elysées, the Tuileries, the Invalides, and the Ecole Militaire; 5. The splendid fountains in the Place de la Concorde. From the suburb of Belleville, built on a hill abounding in springs, there is conducted into two large reservoirs (one of which, situated at the Barrière de Menilmontant, receives 432 hogsheads per day) a considerable supply of water. From the heights of Romainville, Bruyères, and also from Menilmontant, flow per day into a reservoir about 648 hogsheads of water. From the Seine pipes are also laid across the plain of St. Denis for the supply of Batignolles and Montmartre. At the corner of the Rue St. Paul, in a building a portion of which was formerly a royal residence, is an establishment belonging to a company for distributing the water of the Seine, raised by a steam-engine, and filtered through charcoal. There are in Paris, at Montmartre, Belleville, and Passy, eight great reservoirs; besides which the city has lately voted a million of francs for the construction of a very large one near Buc, capable of containing 1,000,000 cubic mètres of water. 1 Of the water which flows into the large reservoirs enumerated, a considerable portion has, under Providence, been summoned by science to arise from a dark subterranean depth, exceeding, by 100 feet, five times the height of the cross on the summit of St. Paul's church in London! Although I was aware that there exists in the locality in which this feat has been performed but little to behold, I felt, on arriving at the gate of Grenelle, that sort of satisfaction which every pilgrim enjoys in reaching the shrine he has long desired to worship. On ringing the bell, the gate was quickly opened by a very young lady in curls; and on my stating I had come-I was so tired that I must have looked as if I had walked from Jerusalem-to see the Artesian well, she replied, with evident satisfaction, that she would be happy to show it to me, and accordingly, without putting on her bonnet, or granting me the smallest opening to remonstrate, she conducted me, tripping by my side, to the foot of a weather-beaten scaffolding, 112 feet high, containing a rude ladder-staircase, and encircling three iron pipes. My first object was to get myself quietly divorced; and as soon as this important measure-which, after all, only cost me a few civil words, two or three bows, and tenpence was consummated, I enjoyed for some |