continued for the extent of seven miles on arcades, some of them very lofty. This grand and extensive aqueduct still continues to afford its advantages to the inhabitants of the modern city; and from the great excellence of the water afforded by this source, it has obtained the appellation Aqua Felice. Our moral didactic poet, John Dyer, while residing in Italy, contemplated these magnificent works, and has given the following felicitous description of them : “ The radiant aqueducts Turn their innumerable arches o'er The spacious desert, brightening in the sun, Limpid and salubrious water seems to have been generally held in the highest estimation by the ancient Romans, from their sparing neither labour nor expense to obtain it. A circumstance strikingly evincing their solicitude to have this fluid pure and transparent, was that of actually procuring it from the distance of thirty miles beyond Tivoli, though the cascade at that place is more elevated than the site of the city of Rome. On this subject Professor Leslie observes that, "Trajan showed particular solicitude in improving the aqueducts. Those works were executed in the boldest manner; nothing could resist the skill and enterprise of the Romans; they drained whole lakes, drove mines through mountains, and raised up the level of valleys by accumulated arcades. The water was kept cool by covering it with vaults, which were often so spacious, that according to Procopius, who wrote in the time of Belisarius, a man on horseback could ride through them. So abundant indeed was the supply as to induce Strabo to say that whole rivers flowed through the streets of Rome."* It has been stated that the number of reservoirs was more than 1300; and that the quantity of water daily amounted to 500,000 hogsheads. “The great abundance of water which, at one period, was conveyed to Rome, has often excited admiration and astonishment. From Frontinus's statement it appears that the nine aqueducts constructed prior to his appointment to be curator, daily supplied 14,018 quinaria of water, which quantity is equivalent to 27,743,100 cubic feet. But after the construction of various others, and the whole were in full operation, the supply probably amounted to 50,000,000 cubic feet; if therefore the population of Rome, at that time consisted of 1,000,000, fifty cubic feet would be the proportionate quantity for each inhabitant. According to an estimate of M. Prony, three of the ducts which at present supply Rome, the Aqua Felice, Juliana, and Paulina, with some other sources, deliver every day, 5,305,000 cubic feet of water, which being divided by the number of its present population-130,000 -averages about forty cubic feet for each inhabitant; making the proportion only one-fifth less than the supply in the most splendid and populous era of ancient Rome.” aque Professor Leslie remarks that "such a profusion altogether transcends our conceptions. The supply of London in the year 1790 was only 2,626,560 cubic feet daily; and even now when the rivalship of the several Water Companies has almost deluged the streets, it amounts only to 3,888,000 cubic feet. This quantity is abundantly sufficient for all the wants of a luxurious mass of inhabitants, equal certainly to the population of * Elem. Nat. Phil. p. 418, ancient Rome, where the consumption, however, was fourteen times greater. How paltry then appears the actual supply of Paris, amounting only to 293,604 cubic feet of water a day! It affords scarcely half a cubic foot, or thirty pounds avoirdupoise, to each inhabitant, in a population of upwards of 600,000.”* As a sequel to this narrative, perhaps, it may not be uninteresting to notice the Cloaca, or sewers of Rome. Pliny designates them as "the greatest of all the works;" and according to his description" they were constructed by cutting through, and forming enormous tunnels in the hills on which the city was built, apparently suspending it to a considerable extent, so that vessels might sail under it. During the time that Agrippa was Ædile, he contrived that seven different streams should unite in them, so that their collective force occasioned such a rapid current, as agitated and carried away every thing entering into them. Sometimes they received the superabundant water from the floods of the Tiber, when the meeting of the different streams produced furious contention, and by their commotion beat violently against their bottoms and sides. The ruins of buildings destroyed by fires, or other accidents, were likewise sometimes precipitated into and carried down their channels; besides earthquakes occasionally shook their foundations, without affecting their stability, which was such as to prevent their sustaining any serious injury through the long period of 800 years, which had elapsed from the time when Tarquinius Priscus first constructed them."+ Such is the interesting account given by Pliny of the origin and use of these extraordinary structures, which consist of large arched * Elem. Nat. Phil. p. 420. These remarks were written by the professor, in 1823. + Plinii, Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvi. cap. 15. galleries constructed in every direction under the city of Rome. The principal channel, called Cloaca Maxima, has a breadth of about sixteen feet, with a height of thirty, and all the others communicate with it. The bottoms, sides, and arches are formed with large blocks of stone, well and strongly connected together; and notwithstanding the weight of the buildings, ruins, and other things either incumbent upon, or forced down them, recent travellers represent that their solidity and good condition is still very remarkable, although choked up at one end through the neglect, laziness, or indifference of the present public functionaries of Rome. "Such the sewers huge, Whither the great Tarquinian genius dooms; JOHN DYER. CHAPTER XI. Materials employed in the construction of the Roman Aqueducts. Variations in forming them. Knowledge of Hydrostatics displayed by the Romans. Lead and Earthern Pipes. Instruments used for taking levels. Modes of distributing and measuring Water. Magnitude and splendour of Antoninus Caracalla's Baths; adorned with fine Paintings and Sculptors. Extraordinary grandeur of those erected by Dioclesian: number of People employed in constructing them. Titus's Baths on the site previously occupied by the house and gardens of Mæcenas, and near the residences of Virgil and Horace. Great number of apartments in the Baths of Caracalla: their uses and conveniences. Methods of heating the Baths. Motives for constructing the great Roman works. Contrast of modern times. VARIOUS circumstances concerned in the formation of the Roman aqueducts are deserving of observation;— for instance, the materials employed were different even in the same aqueduct; and in constructing an arch of the Aqua Martia there were used three kinds of stone, one reddish, another brown, and a third of an earthy colour. The Aqua Claudia was constructed with a beautiful hewn stone, whilst others were built with bricks and a strong cement, which so firmly united them as to render the work almost a solid mass. Moreover, the Aqua Appia differed from the others, by its having a peculiar construction of width, as it approached the point where the water was disembogued. Although several of the Roman aqueducts might have been constructed in a straight line, yet it is remarkable that their contrivers adopted a sinuous course with numerous windings. Various plausible reasons have been sug |