and of obtaining supplies of water and of warm air. 303 
placed, especially if longitudinal flutings have been made in them by 
common tools; since the wind must be high indeed to prevent the 
water descending thus with great regularity in sufficient quantities for 
use.—I may add, that water, (to my knowledge,) has been car- 
tied for more than two. thousand yards from an elevated spring, 
through a small covered trough, formed by loose bricks. ‘These 
bricks are to be laid in part longitudinally, and in parts transversely, 
and to be surrounded, if necessary, with a coating of clay. The 
water which passes, must then be made to rest quietly in a great re- 
ceptacle, that it may become clear, before it is drawn off for the ser- 
vices of a family in the different floors of a large mansion. 
Such brick troughs indeed are said to subsist to this day, in the Le- 
vant, formed by the ancient Greeks, for similar purposes ; which is 
a sufficient proof both of their utility and durability.—-I have myself seen 
water in a suitable soil, running even in an open channel, through very 
great distances ; and fanhiog drinking places for animals remaining 
in their pastures, as it moved along.—In this enterprising age, water, 
we know, has been brought up from great depths, either by digging 
or by boring, to the gratification of a whole neighborhood ; and we 
are encouraged to hope, that the bowels of the earth, by means of 
boring, may be made to supply water, in many places, to the thirsty 
desert, for the use of caravans and their attendant animals. —Ship- 
ping also, may avail themselves of the resource of rain, when stop- 
ped at any time, in a place where good water is not at hand, by 
Spreading large sails on shore for this purpose, in the mode well 
known to seamen, the water being received in casks, to be used, 
when the vessels go to sea again, for different useful purposes.—But 
enough of this digression, which, though, it will shew that water may 
be collected with ease both from the air and from the earth, yet has 
certainly nothing to do with conflagrations; a subject to which I 
am bound to return for a few moments. 
TH. It is reserved then, as a last article for this postscript, to state 
that conflagrations in buildings of almost all descriptions, may arise 
from lightning. But, in trath, the formal provision against such an 
accident, does not lie so much in the general construction of our 
buildings, as in their position, and in contrivances to be superadded to 
their exterior.—On the latter subject, we may state, that it is not 
yet universally agreed, what those measures ought to be. In 1772 
1777, when two successive committees of the Royal Society 
gave their opinion as to the mode to be used for protecting the pow- 
