The successful building of a great city on the site of New Orleans is a triumph of engineering skill. As the city lies below the high-water mark of the Mississippi, it was necessary to build great banks of earth to hold back the water in the flood season. These levees, as they are called, form the water front of the city. In the early days the only drinking-water in New Orleans was rain water caught from the roofs and stored in cisterns. Imagine a city without a single cellar. Then not even a grave could be dug in the marshy soil. The cemeteries were all aboveground. In some cemeteries there were tiers of little vaults, one above the other, in which the dead were laid. In others, magnificent tombs provided resting places for the wealthy. Such was old New Orleans. To-day modern sewers and huge steam pumps draw off the sewage and excess water, discharging them into the river, while a splendid water system filters water taken from higher up the river, giving a supply as pure as that enjoyed by any city in our land. The marshes have been drained by the construction of canals, which are used as highways for bringing raw materials from the surrounding country to the factories of New Orleans. Many of these canals extend for miles into the interior of the state of Louisiana. [Illustration: THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS] The city proper covers nearly two hundred square miles and is laid out in beautiful streets, parks, and driveways, crossed in many places by picturesque waterways. Here are splendid trees, belonging both to the temperate zone and to the tropics. Palms and cypresses abound. In the City Park is one of the finest groves of live oaks in the world. Audubon Park, named for the great lover of birds, who was born near this city, is another of the beautiful parks of New Orleans. [Illustration: CANAL STREET]