-554 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



masonry, lined with cement, and had steps leading to the bottom. One historian 

 says that Nebuchadnezzar, wishing to brick the bottom of the Euphrates, which 

 flowed through the center of Babylon, caused a reservoir forty miles square to be 

 dug so as to allow his masons a dry river bed. Another historian writes that 

 Nitocris, a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, is said to have dug a reservoir 420 stadia 

 in circumference, lined with stone, for the waters of the Euphrates, in order that 

 the river-bed at Babylon should be dry so that she could build piers for a bridge. 

 A stadium being 625 feet, it would make this circumference forty miles. These 

 two reservoirs may be the same, and this shows what discrepancies there are 

 among writers. 



The melting snows from the Armenian mountains sometimes caused an 

 overflow of the Euphrates, whereby the city of Babylon and the country surround- 

 ing sufi^ered from inundations. It was therefore necessary to drain the country, 

 and to prevent any future trouble two canals were cut west from Bossippa to the 

 river Tigris, which makes these canals about seventy-five miles long. Ancient 

 Greek authors attribute this work to the ruler who made the greatest city of ancient 

 times and one never excelled in any age — Nebuchadnezzar. There are many 

 ■canals now of modern engineering, but few, if any, constructed to drain and to 

 receive waters from overflowing rivers. The longest canal is the Erie, in New 

 York State, 350;^ miles long and 70 feet wide, finished in 1862. The largest 

 canal is the Suez, authorized by Said Pasha in 1854, built by M. Ferdinand de 

 Lesseps, and finished, or rather, officially opened in 187 1. It is 100 miles long, 

 of which 25 miles are lakes. Its width varies from 325 to 197 feet at the top, 

 and is about 70 feet wide at the bottom ; the depth varies from 30 to 85 feet. 

 The Erie canal entire cost nearly $46,000,000, while the capital stock of the Suez 

 company was $60,000,000. The United States leads all other nations in number 

 of canals — forty-four altogether. 



The length of this paper forbids our writing further, although the archaeolog- 

 ical fields are blooming with undescribed beauties of art. Many more comparisons 

 could be made which would place the modern age in an unenviable position. 

 Readers who have been our companions so far will notice many so-called errors, 

 but when it is borne in mind the large number of historians and archaeologists, 

 also the difficulty of deciphering the writings of those whose sarcophagi have 

 been violated, it will be apparent that dates and measurements, at the best, are 

 merely approximate. 



Kansas City, Mo., January 21, 1885. 



UNDERGROUND WIRES. 



Representative Bond of St. Louis has introduced in the Missouri Legisla- 

 ture a bill providing for the removal of all telegraph, telephone and electric light 

 wires from poles and buildings to channels under ground. 



It provides that no person or persons, or company, or corporation shall be 



