Sixtus V., availing himself of the remaining arches of the Aqua Claudia, brought an entirely new source into Rome, the Acqua Felice, so called from his conventual name, Fra Felice.

Yet there were some who preferred to any other the water to which they had so long been used, and attributed to it superior sweetness and health-bestowing qualities. Clement VII., 1523, carried a supply of it with him, by advice of his physician Conti, when he repaired to Marseilles, to celebrate the marriage of his niece Catherine di Medici with the brother of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II.; and Paul III., 1534, was never without it in his longest tours. Even Gregory XIII., 1573, though he filled the Papal chair after the restoration of the Aqua Virgo, drank the Tiber water constantly up to the time of his death, which occurred in the eighty-fourth year of his age.*

Cancellieri-as Moroni informs us-in a work entitled "Mercato," published in 1811, declares that up to that date the Therisians of the convent of Scala, and the Benedictines of the Monastery of Calisto, both situated in the Transtevere,† as well as the Philippines of the Chiesa Nuova, made use of this water, though they considered it necessary to allow it to settle for a period of six months.

A difference of opinion having arisen as to the wholesomeness of the Tiber, it was analyzed—according to the same Moroni-by Antonio Clementi, afterwards Professor in the University, and pronounced, not only fit to drink, but superior in quality to that of the Thames or Seine.

* Moroni Dizionario d'erudizione Ecclesiastica. Moroni observes that he had seen this statement in many authors which he had read.

+ Before the restoration of the Acqua Paolo, the ancient Aqua Alsietina, by Paul V., 1605, there was no aqueduct on the Transtevere side of the Tiber; but that, after that date, with such a supply of the purest fluid at hand, any one should prefer the water of the Tiber, may appear incomprehensible to those who do not know how clear and sweet that water becomes after being allowed to settle.

The water conveyed to Rome by the aqueducts of the Acqua Vergine, Acqua Felice, and Acqua Paolo exceeds in amount that which is furnished by the canal d' Ourc, the principal source of supply to Paris, a city containing ten times the population of Rome.

Being desirous to learn something about the quality of this water, and to form an opinion as to the time within which it might be drunk, I filled a large flagon with it at a time. when it was greatly discoloured by a sudden flood. At the end of five hours, I found that it had deposited all its yellow mud, but still retained a slightly milky hue. I had purposed to filter it, in order to render it perfectly transparent; but being otherwise engaged, and obliged to defer the operation, I was surprised to find that, on the fifth day, inclusive, it had become as clear as crystal, and in no way distinguishable from the water of the Acqua Vergine.

I drank a portion, used another portion for making tea, and found it excellent. A trial of it with soap shewed it to be of a medium degree of hardness. In short, it was very superior to the water with which Londoners are supplied from the Thames. A bottle of it well corked was left at Rome during the summer, to see whether it would undergo fermentation owing to the presence of organic matter, and develope any unpleasant taste or smell. On my return, after an interval of four months, the water was found to be perfectly sweet to the taste, and free from any disagreeable odour.

It appears from this experiment that the impurities held in suspension will be deposited as completely in six days as in six months. It is scarcely necessary to observe that those which are chemically dissolved will not separate after any length of time.

It would seem as if the presence of earthy matters held in suspension tended to deodorise and render innoxious the organic substances contained in water; for the water of all muddy rivers, which have not received the sewage of towns, has the reputation of being both wholesome and pleasant to the taste. The author of the "Attractions of the Nile "* declares the water of that river to be the sweetest, softest, and most palatable he had ever tasted. "Its thick, muddy, yellow appearance created, indeed, a feeling of aversion, but when

* Attractions of the Nile, by C. Smith, M.A.

passed through a filterer it came out bright and sparkling." Even when he was away from the filter, and drank direct from the river, no difference of taste, he said, could be perceived.

Similar testimony is given by travellers to the excellence of the water of the Missouri and lower Mississipi, while the muddy water of the Hoogly at Calcutta is declared by the government analyst to be purer than that which Glasgow draws from Loch Catrine, and it is from that source that Calcutta will in future be supplied with water, the impurities, of course, being allowed to subside.*

But though the water of the Tiber was wholesome, and the supply of it abundant, the labour of fetching it from the river must have been very great, when the Romans dwelt mainly on the hills, and the reservoirs required for purifying it, if purification was thought necessary, must have occupied a considerable space, and entailed a great amount of trouble. Aqueducts, therefore, were constructed to supply the water at a higher level for the convenience of the Therma, and other public establisments, as well as of private houses. Accordingly we find that as Rome became more populous, and the people more luxurious, the water of each successive aqueduct was taken from a higher source and entered the city at a higher level. The following are the relative heights given by Murray at which the aqueducts successively constructed, entered Rome: Aqua Appia 121 feet English

Such was the quantity of water brought by the aqueducts that, to use the language of Strabo, (Lib. v. Chap. 8) whole rivers flowed through the city and the sewers, and thanks to

Letter of the Calcutta correspondent of The Times, March 25, 1873.

Agrippa, almost every house in Rome was provided with pipes for conveying the water and tanks for storing it.*

Within the city the bed of the Tiber is artificially contracted in order to gain ground for houses and gardens, or to secure a sufficient depth of water for boats; the houses in some cases being built on arches over the river. Thus, at the Ripetta the stream is not more than one hundred and ninetyseven feet in width when the river is low; and immediately above Ponte Sisto, where it appears to have been most encroached upon, it is narrower still. But at the Ponte Molle its breadth is four-hundred feet; and midway between the bridge and Aqua Acetosa it expands to the width of five-hundred feet, even in the dryest season. The average width of the river above the Ponte Molle considerably exceeds that of the Thames at any point beyond the influence of the tide, as at Hampton or Eton, and the volume of water is many times greater. In this part of the Tiber many fine positions for villas might be found overlooking the broad reaches of the river, and with the lofty range of the Apennines for a background. Judicious and tasteful planting would complete the beauty of the view. When Rome under the new government becomes a richer and more prosperous city, and the reputed unhealthiness of the Campagna has been corrected by cultivation and planting, I have no doubt, advantage will be taken of such sites, and the Tiber again present the appearance which it exhibited in the times of Ancient Rome, like that which the banks of the Thames exhibit at the present day.

* τοσοῦτον δ ̓ ἐστὶ τὸ εἰσαγώγιμον ὕδωρ διὰ τῶν ὑδραγωγείων ὥστε που ταμοὺς διὰ τῆς πόλεως καὶ τῶν ὑπονόμων ῥεῖν ἅπασαν δε οἰκίαν σχεδὸν δεξαμενὰς καὶ σίφωνας καὶ κρουνοὺς ἔχειν ἀφθόνους, ὧν πλείστην ἐπιμέλειαν ἐποιήσατο Μάρκος ̓Αγρίππας.

SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH

THE TIBER.

The Tiber, as I have before observed, had no special form of worship, though altars were raised and sacrifices offered to its tributary streams, nor in the earlier period of the history of Rome was any religious observance connected with it.* But towards the close of the republic, when Rome had become the mistress of the world, new feelings and practices came to be associated with the river of the conquering state. People of every race and creed flocked to the Imperial city, where they enjoyed the freest licence of opinion, and practised their rites, however strange, without molestation.t For it was the

*The Argei, or images of men formed of bulrushes, which were thrown into the Tiber on the Ides of May, were not intended as offerings to the river, or as a recognition of its divinity. The origin of the custom is uncertain. Two explanations were offered in the time of Ovid: first, that the figures represented old men past the age of sixty, who in barbarous times were cast into the river as burdens on the community. Second, that they were substitutes for the human victims who in a remote period of Italian history were sacrificed to Saturn. The first explanation is rejected by the Poet as absurd; the second may equally be repudiated. For there is no evidence of human sacrifices in the Saturnian times. The Argei were thirty in number, and were thrown from the Pons Publicius, as being the most venerable from its antiquity, and invested with a sacred character. Ovid represents the Tiber as settling the question by telling the story of how the practice originated.-See Fasti v. 635.

† It is scarcely necessary to observe that the Christians were not persecuted for introducing new gods, but for denying the ancient deities and denouncing the worship of the established religion. A pagan Roman might be at one and the same time a worshipper of the old established god Jupiter, and of the newlyimported divinity Isis. But when he became a Christian such a compromise was impossible. It was necessary to renounce the religion of the state and to forswear the faith of his ancestors and his family. Social ties were thus dissevered and deadly enmities engendered. Besides, associations, however harmless their ostensible object, and especially secret societies, were regarded with suspicion by the ruling powers, because it was feared that their organization might be abused for political purposes. Now, the Christians formed an associa