A GARDEN IN VENICE 



level of the ground the discharge was some 

 sixteen litres in the minute, say twenty-four tons 

 in the day. Raising the mouth of the discharge 

 pipe two feet for the purposes of distribution, 

 reduced the yield one-third ; raising it again for 

 experiment some three feet more, and the spring 

 became a dribble. 



The well made, its water was captured for the 

 moment in an old Venetian wellhead, or Vera 

 di Pozzo, and led therefrom in gas-pipes under- 

 ground to vaschettine made in different places 

 for watering convenience. It was an easy and 

 cheap mode of conveyance. But many of the 

 pipes intended for gas would not hold water, and 

 in a year or two required changing. It might 

 be that their side joints, for that was the faulty 

 part, rusted, or do gas-pipes leak on purpose to 

 give occupation to the poor fellows who lay 

 them with much displacement of the pave- 

 ment ? 



To dig up, cut, unscrew, and replace the 

 faulty tubes with new would have given much 

 trouble, and I bethought me of merely uncovering 



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