8o RIO DE JANEIRO. 
open area — glaring emblem of the brilliant exploits of the 
Portugiieze nation in earlier times ! 
In accomplishing a plan for affording a convenient and 
ample supply of water to every part of the town, an article of 
the first necessity in all situations, but more especially so in a 
warm climate, the government has shewn a laudable atten- 
tion ; and the name of Vasconccllas, the Viceroy under whose 
administration the works Avere constructed, is very properly 
recorded in an appropriate Latin inscription, engraven on one 
of the sides of the obelisk in the great square. All the foun- 
tains derive their supply of water from a large reservoir, 
which is constructed on the summit of a hill just above the 
town. This reservoir is fed by means of an aqueduct, raised 
on arches across a deep valley, on the opposite side of which 
the water is received into it from a succession of stone 
troughs, laid under an arched covering of brick-work to the 
spring-heads in the mountains. That part of this great work 
which crosses the valley, and communicates immediately with 
the reservoir, seems to be as unnecessary as it must have been 
expensive ; it is supported on a double tier of lofty arches, 
consisting of more than forty in each row, and is no incon- 
siderable ornament to the city, as will readily be perceived by 
the annexed view. A series of pipes laid along or under the 
surface would unquestionably have answered the purpose of 
conducting the water equally well ; but, as Sir George 
Staunton has justly observed, " shew and magnificence, 
" as well as utility, are sometimes the objects of public 
*' works/^ 
