342 State of the Sewers and Water Supphj of Paris. 
to tlic improvements of Paris. Traffic of all sorts was inc reased 
tenfold, and, as a consequence, streets required to be widened, 
and the whole town, as it were, re-organised. Then it was that 
Government came forward and sketched the plan, which is 
realised in the magnificent city such as it now stands. 
Two great lines intersect one another at right angles, so as to 
form a cross — an idea of the time of Philip Augustus : the one, 
the Rue de Rivoli, runs parallel to the river ; the other, the 
Boulevard de Sebastopol, comes sloping down from the hills on 
the north, and again rises to the south. On the latter line 
sanitary arrangements have been comprehensively planned and 
carried out. We find a complete subterranean town, provided 
with vaulted thoroughfares 35 yards wide, macadamised or 
paved, which contain sewers showing a section {projil) of 3, 4, 
or 6 yards, with polished sides and serviceable foot-pavements, 
in which, through an inner channel, the stream of sewage-water 
flows, fed at the corner of each street by lesser sewers, them- 
selves drawing their supplies from the drains which abut on 
every house. This is such a sclieme as the English Board of 
Health suggested, but with this difference, that instead of a 
system of small pipes, provision is here made on a large scale 
for all the requirements of town life, including water and gas. 
Besides the rain-water and that which has been used for domestic 
purposes, the drainings from the closets run down these channels, 
the solid portion of the deposit being retained in the pits by the 
•filter. There is no connection with the outer world : the system 
is self-contained ; water and gravitation are the sole agents 
employed. 
The drains connected with the private houses are oval sewers, 
4 feet 2 inches by 7 feet G inches, in which the workman passes 
easily to and fro with his barrow. The main drains, constructed 
under the great lines of traffic parallel with the river, are circular 
tunnels of 10 feet in diameter, containing a railway with a 3 feet 
11 inch gauge, and a channel for the waters between the lines of 
rail. Lastly, the main sewer, which forms a chord to the windings 
of the Seine, between the Pont de la Concorde and the Pont 
d'Asnieres, is an elliptic tunnel, having a horizontal diameter of 
20 feet, in which is contained a canal 11 feet 8 inches wide, 
traversed by a barge, with a footpath on either side 3 feet 
wide. All these works are executed in cement, so that the 
smooth and polished walls and their softened outlines reflect the 
light, transmit sound, and give free passage to the waters, which 
leave no taint behind. From the dwellings they received grease, 
the refuse from the kitchen, and the household water (caux 
menariires), as well as the disinfected liq\iids drawn from the 
pits of the closets. The paved streets transmitted their mud, and 
