The seventh Inca, _Viracocha_, constructed some water works, which, in their beneficial effects, perhaps equalled any similar undertakings in any other part of the world. “He made an Aqueduct 12 feet in depth, and 120 leagues in length; the source or head of it arose from certain springs on the top of a high mountain between Parcu and Picuy, which was so plentiful that at the very head of the fountains they seemed to be rivers. This current of water had its course through all the country of the Rucanas, and served to water the pasturage of those uninhabited lands, which are about 18 leagues in breadth, _watering almost the whole country of Peru_.” There is _another_ Aqueduct much like this, which traverses the whole province of _Cuntisuyu_, running above 150 leagues from south to north. Its head or original is from the top of high mountains, the which waters falling into the plains of the Quechuas, greatly refresh their pasturage, when the heats of the summer and autumn have dried up the moisture of the earth. “There are many streams of like nature, which run through divers parts of the empire, which being conveyed by Aqueducts, at the charge and expense of the Incas, are works of grandeur and ostentation, and which recommend the magnificence of the Incas to all posterity; for these Aqueducts may well be compared to the miraculous fabrics which have been the works of mighty princes, who have left their prodigious monuments of ostentation to be admired by future ages; for, indeed, we ought to consider that these waters had their source and beginning from vast, high mountains, and were carried over craggy rocks and inaccessible passages; and to make these ways plain, they had no help of instruments forged of steel or iron, such as pickaxes or sledges, but served themselves only with one stone to break another. Nor were they acquainted with the invention of arches, to convey the water on the level from one precipice to the other, but traced round the mountain until they found ways and passages at the same height and level with the head of the springs.” “The cisterns or conservatories which they made for these waters, at the top of the mountain, were about 12 feet deep; the passage was broken through the rocks, and channels made of hewn stone, of about two yards long and about a yard high; which were cemented together, and rammed in with earth so hard, that no water would pass between, to weaken or vent itself by the holes of the channel.