680 report— 1878. 



3rd. For the proper development of water power. 



4th. For the drainage and irrigation of land. 



5th. For navigation and commerce. 



Oth. For the preservation of fish. 



In the eirly days of the world's history there were attempts to regulate and 

 control the waters of rivers — some of them devoted to military and dynastic 

 objects, but the majority to generally useful ends. Herodotus, speaking of Semira- 

 niis, who lived some 2000 years B.C., tells us that she raised certain embankments, 

 well worthy of inspection, in the plain near Babylon to control the river Euphrates, 

 which till then used to overflow and flood the whole country round about. He 

 also mentions a lady, who lived at a still earlier period, who altered the course of 

 the same river, as a defence against the Medes, to such an extent that, " whereas 

 the river Euphrates ran formerly with a straight course to Babylon, Nitocris, by 

 certain excavations which 9he made at some distance up the stream, rendered it so 

 winding that it comes three several times within sight of the same village" 

 (Ardericca, in Assyria). " She also made an embankment along each side of the 

 Euphrates wonderful both for breadth and height, and dug a basin for a lake a 

 great way above Babylon, close alongside of the stream, which basin was sunk 

 everywhere to the point at which they came to water, and was of such breadth 

 that its whole circuit measured 420 stadia (more than 50 miles). % The soil dug 

 out of this basin was used in the embankments along the water side. When the 

 excavation was finished she had stones brought, and bordered with them the entire 

 margin of the reservoir. These two things were done — the river made to wind, 

 and the lake excavated — that the stream might be slacker by reason of the number 

 of curves and the voyage rendered circuitous, and that at the end of the journey it 

 might be necessary to skirt the lake, and so make a long round. All these works 

 were on the side of Babylon where the passes lay, and the roads into Media were 

 the straightest ; and the aim of Nitocris in making them was to prevent the Medes 

 from holding intercourse with the Babylonians, and so to keep them in ig-norance 

 of her affairs." The same energetic princess made brick embankments and quays, 

 and a bridge over the Euphrates, and to do this she turned the entire stream of the 

 river into an artificial cutting, the natural channel being left temporarily dry until 

 the bridge was finished, when the Euphrates was allowed to flow into its ancient 

 bed. It was into this very cutting that Gyrus directed the course of the Euphrates 

 when he took Babylon, 538 B.C. In the time of Herodotus himself, about B.C. 450, 

 there were embankments to the river at Babylon ; for he says, " The city wall 

 is brought down on both sides to the edge of the stream ; thence from the 

 corners of the wall there is carried along each bank of the river a fence of burnt 

 bricks, with low brazen gates opening on the water." 



The same historian, in his second book, describes the hydraulic works of the 

 first king of Egypt, Men or Menes, which were not only gigantic in themselves, 

 but productive of the most important results to the inhabitants of his kingdom. 

 " Before his time," Herodotus says, " the river flowed entirely along the sandy 

 range of hills which skirt Egypt on the west side. He, however, by banking up 

 the river at the bend which it forms about 100 furlongs south of Memphis, laid the 

 ancient channel dry, and dug a new course for the stream halfway between the two 

 lines of hills." 



Passing to Greece, perhaps the most wonderful instance of the successful regu- 

 lation of water is to be found in the subterranean channels (the modern Greek 

 Katabathra), by which the waters of the river Cephisus are carried through Lake 

 Topolias (the ancient Copais) into the sea. These tunnels, which are partly natural 

 and partly artificial, have always served to prevent the lake overflowing the 

 adjoining country. 



The well-known tunnel, or emissarium, from the Alban Lake is an example of 

 Roman work. This tunnel, of a man's height, and cut through 6,000 feet of lava, 

 is said to have been begun in obedience to the Delphic oracle in the sixth year ot 

 the siege of Veii, B.C. 398. By it, the overflow of the lake which used periodically 

 to flood the Campagna was prevented, and the waters were conducted through it 

 in an even flow for the irrigation of the fields which it had formerly laid waste. 



