110 
Tlie Paris Sewage Irrigation at Gennevilliers. 
sage through the city has scarcely tainted its pellucid trans- 
parence. Confined between stately quays, spanned by a long 
succession of monumental bridges, uncontaminated by the 
outlet of any sewer, its bright stream only adds freshness and 
beauty to the splendour of the scene, and it issues from the city 
nearly as pure as it entered it. 
Even at Clichy the line of the sewage remains well defined, 
as if the pure water of the river recoiled from the foulness of the 
invader. On the left bank, skirting the plain of Gennevilliers, 
the water preserves its purity until it reaches St. Ouen, where 
another outlet disgorges a new supply of sewage, and fouls the 
river altogether. Further on, St. Denis is reached ; and there 
the northern sewer, together with the outflow of the Bondy 
poudrette manufactory, turn the poor riA'er into a huge open 
sewer, the foulness of which is more easily imagined than de- 
scribed. It is at St. Denis that the apex of the first bend of the 
Seine is reached. At that spot, frightened, as it were, at the mass 
of filthiness that pollutes its waters just at that point, the river 
turns sharply to the left, bending its course past Argenteuil and 
Bezons, towards St. Germain, Poiss}', 6cc. 
The extreme end of the kind of peninsula enclosed within that 
first loop of the Seine is called the plain of Gennevilliers ; and 
it is opposite Clichy, on the southern reach, and Argenteuil on 
the northern, that the now famous village is situated. 
It would have been difficult to select a more eligible field for 
the disposal of the Paris sewage by absorption and cultivation 
than the plain of Gennevilliers. Its immediate vicinity to the 
principal outlets of St. Ouen, Clichy, and St. Denis, sparing the 
necessity of constructing any great length of costly mains, ren- 
dered it particularly adapted for the experiment of absorption. 
The loud and threatening complaints raised by the inhabitants 
on account of the foulness of the river, ami the accumulation of 
putrid filth all along its banks, compelled the Paris municipal 
authorities to attempt this plan without delay. But it ^was not 
the proximity of its position alone which particularly fitted the 
plain of Gennevilliers for such a purpose. The porous character 
of its gravelly soil supplied a natural filter, both deodorising 
and disinfecting, whilst its utter barrenness offered an admirable 
field to test the fertilising powers of sewage. 
Tlio plain of Gennevilliers consists of a gravelly drift several 
yards in thickness ; and before the contents of the Paris sewers 
were diverted to its surface, it was a perfect waste, chequered 
with pits and quarries ; and scarcely any attempt had ever been 
made to bring any portion of it under cultivation. 
Having described the position and nature of the place so 
happily selected by the Paris Commissioners to demonstrate the 
