340 State of the Sarcrs and Water Siipplij of Paris. 
fittod to a railway-truck, containinj^ 6 to 10 tons, has been made 
and exliibited in our International Exhibition, which will be con- 
veyed for 60 miles on the Eastern Railroad at a charge of 25. for 
G tons. The present "night-soil," when delivered in "hungry" 
champagne, is valued at 8s. per ton. If then the "soil" retain 
anything like its old strength, its value to the farmer will leave 
a large margin to pay for its transport along the subterranean 
street to a reservoir at the railway terminus. But if there be a 
great dilution, and many small sources of supply have to be 
visited and tapped 'in succession, the costs of removal will roll 
up, until this " gold may be bought too dear." 
At all events those philanthropists and philosophers who long 
to see the circle of reproduction completed by the restoration to 
the field of all the human faeces which contaminate our great 
cities, must cast a curious and anxious eye to the magnificent 
new French suburb, where, if anywhere, their views may be eco- 
nomically realised, because a solid foundation has been laid, and 
there are means and appliances for the distribution, which only 
wait for one or two connecting links. In other quarters of the 
town practical improvements have been introduced, by which 
the carts are filled at night by means of a joint and hose fastened 
to an opening in the pit, so that it is emptied from the street by 
suction. The loaded cart then proceeds to the depotoir, or sink, 
from which the deposits are propelled by a steam-pump through 
a tunnel 7 miles long, to an opening cut in the Forest of Bondy. 
Here they are either desiccated and made into poudrette, or 
shipped by barge-loads along the Canal de I'Ourcq to Vaujours 
and elsewhere. 
The Water Supi-ly of Paris. 
For centuries the supply of water for Paris has occupied the 
attention of the French Government, Philip Augustus erected 
the first fountains ; his successors and the municipality organised 
in the squares and open spaces supplies of water drawn from the 
northern springs. Marie de Medicis, restoring a Roman aque- 
duct, led in the waters of Arcueil. In the reign of Louis XIV., 
pumps were placed by the bridges of Notre Dame and the Pont 
Neuf, to raise the water of the Seine. A century later similar 
works were set up at Chaillot. But they all turned their backs 
on drains, and sewers and their contents, leaving the sun, the 
rain, and the river to settle those matters. 
Water which had served domestic purposes ran in streams down 
the streets in mid-channel, and either joined the Seine on the 
south, or on the north the ditch of Menilmontant. This ditch, 
when its exhalations began to tin-eaten the health of the neigh- 
bourhood, was paved and vaulted, and converted into the main 
