moments reflections which, like the water passing up the central tube before me, arose from beneath the ground on which I stood.

On the first day of the year 1834, M. Mulot, after having entered into the contract which eventually immortalised his name, commenced the work that had been intrusted to him, of endeavouring to tap the subterranean supply of water which it had been calculated must exist about 1200 feet beneath the dry, deep, rocky strata upon which the gay city of Paris. has been constructed.

During the operation of piercing through successive beds of flint and chalk, the borer several times broke, and the fragment, by dropping to the bottom of the excavation,-deserting as it were to the enemy,-suddenly became the most serious opponent of the power in whose service it had been enlisted. Indeed, on the occasion of one of these accidents, it required, at a depth of no less than 1335 feet, fourteen months' incessant labour to recover it!

After working for rather more than seven years without any apparent encouragement, on or about the 20th February there was drawn up a small amount of greenish-coloured sand, indicating that the borer was approaching water. At two o'clock on the 26th of February, 1841,

there arose through the tube a tiny thread of the element which had been the object of such ardent and long-protracted hopes; and the welcome omen of success had scarcely diffused joy and gladness among those who witnessed it, when, as if the trumpet of victory had been sounded, there arose from a depth of 1800 feet a column of warm water of 833° of Fahrenheit, which, bursting through the machinery that had called it into existence, rushed upwards with a fury it appeared to be almost incapable to control.

The height to which through an iron pipe it rises above the earth is, as has been stated, 112 feet; and thus not only is Paris gifted with an everlasting supply of water amounting, at the surface, to 660 gallons per minute, and at the summit of the pipe to 316, but the latter quantity, in virtue of its elevation, and in obedience to the laws of hydrostatics, which it is sworn to obey, can be made to ascend to the various floors, including the uppermost, on which, one above another, the inhabitants of Paris reside.

The concealed tube or passage, through which, by the magic influence of science, this valuable supply of water is now constantly arising from the deep, dark caverns in which it has been collected, into the lightsome painted chambers of the most beautiful metropolis on the surface of the

globe, has been lined throughout with galvanised iron. Its diameter is, at the bottom, about 7 inches, and at the top 21 inches.

The water, when I tasted it, was not only warm, but strongly impregnated with iron. Ast a dog grows savage in proportion to the length of time it has been chained to a barrel, so does the temperature of imprisoned water increase with its subterranean depth; and accordingly it has been calculated by M. Arago and by M. Walferdin that the heat of the water of an Artesian well which, previous to the revolution of 1848, it had been proposed to bore in the Jardin des Plantes to a depth of 3000 feet (nearly nine times the height of the cross on the top of St. Paul's), would amount to about 100° of Fahrenheit, sufficient not only to cheer the tropical birds and monkeys, the hothouses and greenhouses of the establishment, but to give warm baths to the inhabitants of Paris.

As the Artesian well of Grenelle is within the precincts of the abattoir or slaughter-house for cattle of that name, I felt desirous to look over it, particularly as the hour (it was past six o'clock) was one at which it is rarely visited by strangers.

Without repeating details which, I am aware, are not very acceptable to most people, I will

VOL. II.

I

briefly state, for the information of the few who take an interest in the subject, that, although the establishment is not as showy as the abattoirs of Montmartre and of Popincourt, it is essentially the same.

On entering the several bouveries, in which there was plenty of straw, with an abundance of cool fresh air, I found the bullocks that next day were to be slaughtered tranquilly, nay, happily, occupied in eating up plenty of good hay. The sheep, most of whom were also lying down with their knees tucked under them, appeared perfectly quiet and undisturbed; and although certainly a few odd strange sounds occasionally assailed their ears, they munched, looked at me only one moment, and then, with their lower jaws moving sideways-thoughtless of to-morrow as those for whom they were to be slaughteredthey went munching on.

HOTEL DES MONNAIES.

IN ancient times the Royal Mint of France existed somewhere in the Royal Palace of the "Ile de la Cité;" it was next domiciled in a part of the metropolis which still bears the name of "Rue de la Monnaie;" and was finally established on the site of the Hôtel de Conti in its present structure, the foundation stone of which was laid on the 30th of April, 1768, by the Abbé Terray, comptroller-general of the finances, under whose direction it was completed in 1775.

This vast building, including no less than eight courts, is situated on the Quai Conti, between the Pont Neuf and the Pont des Arts, and consequently nearly opposite to the museum of the Louvre. Its principal façade, which looks upon the Seine, is composed of three stories, 360 feet in length and 78 feet in height, containing 27 windows in each. In the centre is a projecting mass of five arcades on the ground floor, forming a basement for six columns of the