At the summit of the first ascent we met and were escorted
by one of the officials entrusted with the charge of these works,
which supply water of extraordinary purity to a population of perhaps
a quarter of a million, inhabiting a district of some 10,000 square
miles in extent. The tank was about sixty feet in depth, and perhaps a
mile in length, with half that breadth. Its sides and bottom-were
lined with the usual concrete. Our guide informed me that in many
cases tanks were covered with the crystal employed for doors and
windows; but in the-pure air of these hills such a precaution was
thought unnecessary, as it would have been exceedingly costly. The
water itself was of wonderful purity, so clear that the smallest
object at the bottom was visible where the Sun, still high in the
heavens, shone directly upon the surface. But this purity would by no
means satisfy the standard of Martial sanitary science. In the first
place, it is passed into a second division of the tank, where it is
subjected to some violent electric action till every kind of organic
germ it may contain is supposed to be completely destroyed.
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