28 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



works that any country has ever produced. Under Louis XIV. 

 Paul Riquet, of Bezieres, after employing twenty years in a minute 

 consideration of every particular relating to it, during which he had 

 no other counsellor than his gardener, completed his plan. The 

 first stone was laid in the year 1667, and the canal was opened in 

 1681, but it was not completed until many years after. 



It begins in the harbour of Cette, on the Mediterranean, and tra- 

 verses the lake of Thau, and a quarter of a mile below Toulouse is 

 conveyed by three sluices into the Garonne. It is every where 

 six feet deep ; so that a 'cargo of eighteen hundred quintals may be 

 forwarded to any place upon it, and its breadth, from one bank to 

 the other, is a hundred and forty-four feet. 



At St. Ferreol, a quarter of a mile below Revel, between two 

 rocky hills, that are in the form of a half-moon, is a large reservoir, 

 twelve hundred fathoms in length, five hundred in breadth, and 

 twenty deep, the whole surface being six hundred and eighty-seven 

 thousand four hundred and thirty-eight feet. Into this bason of 

 water the rivulet of Laudot, which runs down the hills, is received, 

 and inclosed by a wall two thousand four hundred feet long, a hun- 

 dred and thirty-two in height, and twenty-four feet thick, having a 

 strong dam, defended by a strong wall of free stone. Under the 

 dam runs an arched passage reaching to the main wall, where three 

 large cocks, of east brass, are turned and shut by means of iron bars; 

 and these cocks discharge the water, through mouths as large as a 

 man's body, into an arched aqueduct, where it runs through the 

 outer wall, beyond which it goes under the name of the river Lau- 

 dot; continuing its course to the canal called Rigole de la Plaine. 

 Thence it is conveyed to another fine reservoir, nej^r Naurouse, two 

 hundred fathoms in length, a hundred and fifty in breadth, with the 

 depth of seven feet; and out of this bason is conveyed, by means 

 of sluices, both to the Mediterranean Sea and to the ocean, accord- 

 ing as the canal requires it. Though the above cocks remain open 

 for some months successively, yet there is no visible diminution of 

 the water in the great reservoir. Near Bezieres are eight sluices, 

 which form a regular and grand cascade, nine hundred and thirty- 

 six feet long, and sixty-six high, by means of which vessels may 

 pass across the river Orb, and continue their voyage on the canal. 

 Above it, between Bezieres and Gapestan, is the Mai. Pas, where the 

 canal is conveyed for the length of a hundred and twenty fathoms,, 



