A GARDEN IN VENICE 



the day before the long-desired tardy rainstorm 

 fell. 



Then I heard that artesian wells had already 

 been sunk in Venice, and visions of running rills 

 and splashing fountains excited our imaginations. 

 One well, Peter told me, that had been sunk near 

 a church and convent, was perfect in its yield 

 and conduct, but another attempt made in a less 

 holy place had brought itself and surroundings 

 to fiery grief. The devil, perhaps, had toyed 

 with its bottom and blown the water, the well 

 itself, and the houses round to pieces. 



On inquiry, I became acquainted with a well- 

 maker from Badia Polesine, who had invented a 

 new way of boring wells that is most ingenious, 

 and saves some four-fifths of the expense incurred 

 under the old system. He provides a number of 

 iron tubes, about five inches in diameter and ten 

 feet long. The tube to be first put in use is shod 

 with a steel point, and the lower yard of its length 

 is pierced with holes. This tube is planted at 

 the spot chosen for the well, and driven into the 

 ground as piles here are driven, by a gang of men 



m 2 91 



