A PREHISTORIC WATER-SYSTEM. 539 



A PREHISTORIC WATER-SYSTEM. 



Br M. A. LUDERS. 



THE canton of Valais, though not so much frequented by travelers 

 as some of the others, is really one of the most attractive can- 

 tons of Switzerland, and possesses, in its Alpine heights and its tem- 

 perate valleys, many beauties peculiarly its own. There are also 

 many features worthy of notice in the customs and the economical 

 devices of its population. One of the most interesting features of 

 the latter class is its system of conduits for watering the pasturage 

 and tillage lands. This canton, in fact, possesses the model system of 

 water-supply in the Alps. The people have maintained it from primi- 

 tive times, and have by it, during the whole period of their history, 

 drawn the water from the glaciers and mountain-springs, to be applied 

 directly to every part of their farms and garden-plots. Without such 

 watering as it makes practicable, the production of the district would 

 fall off one half. This was exemplified in the experience of some of 

 the towns during the building of the Simplon road in 1802, when their 

 canals were interrupted and their water-supply was cut off. The 

 grass-crop was so greatly diminished that the number of cattle fell off 

 to one fourth of what it had been, and the former productiveness of 

 the fields was not restored till new canals were made in 1810. In the 

 little town of Zenegger, also, the springs were dried up, in conse- 

 quence of an earthquake in 1855, and the number of cattle that could 

 be maintained was reduced from two hundred to fifty. New conduits 

 had to be made for this place also, with much labor and at great expense. 



The maintenance of the water-system of the Canton Valais is inti- 

 mately associated with the communal and family life of the people. 

 The water is brought down in wooden flumes, that have to cross pre- 

 cipitous clefts at hundreds of metres above the bottom. A watchman 

 has to go over them daily, and sometimes at night. His pay is very 

 small, and his office is rather one of honor, full of dangers, to which 

 some fall victims in nearly every year. By an ancient prescription, 

 no one can hold a public office till he has served for some time as a 

 guard of the aqueducts. It is not unusual, when repairs are to be 

 made in particularly dangerous places, to send a priest along with the 

 workmen, so that, if any of them meet with an accident, they may be 

 provided with the consolations of religion. 



The water is drawn from glaciers, lakes, or reservoirs, springs, and 

 melted snow. Glacier-water is best esteemed, and is preferred if it is 

 turbid, for then it holds valuable mineral constituents ; lake or reser- 

 voir water contains less of such matters, for they have settled. Spring- 

 water is least in favor, because it is most deficient in mineral sub- 

 stances, and because the time it occupies in running down the conduits 



