487 



" In certain regions of the earth nature has placed obstacles 

 apparently insurmountable, to the free and comfortable enjoy- 

 mentof existence; one of thesehas hitherto baffled all the efforts 

 of art, and is caused by the prevalence of drought : thus, in 

 Australia rain falls at certain periods of the year in such great 

 abundance, that the rivers overflow their banks, and large 

 tracts of country are entirely inundated for a considerable 

 length of time; shortly after the close of the rainy season the 

 water subsides, and in the course of a few weeks, so great 

 has been the evaporation, that where deep and rapidly flowing 

 rivers existed, nothing remains but stagnant pools, water- 

 holes, and lake-like reaches of the rivers, occurring at inter- 

 vals in their former beds. These natural reservoirs of water 

 are of the most vital importance to the colonists and their ex- 

 tensive flocks. But there are many seasons, during which 

 the air becomes so extremely hot and dry, that even those re- 

 servoirs are dried up, and man and beast are forced to quit 

 the now inhospitable district. A similar defect of climate ex- 

 ists in many other countries, such as Hindostan, Scinde, and 

 those kingdoms bordering on the banks of the Euphrates, 

 which were the very first settled and occupied by civilized 

 peoples. Man has in all these places struggled from the 

 earliest periods to secure for himself a sufficient and continuous 

 supply of water, the life-blood of living beings, whether ani- 

 mal or vegetable. To promote an object of such paramount 

 importance, we find that national works of the most expensive 

 and magnificent description have been undertaken by the rulers 

 of those countries; thus, in Hindostan the Mogul emperors 

 have each emulated his predecessor in the construction of 

 tanks of immense magnitude, and at an enormous expense, to 

 preserve the necessary supplies of water during the dry season. 

 The Kings of Ceylon even exceeded the Mogul emperors in 

 the size of their tanks, constructed for the same purpose ; while 

 in Mesopotamia, and the countries watered by the Tigris and 

 Euphrates, as likewise in Persia and Affghanistan, the in- 



VOL. IV. 2 o 



