Aqueducts, fountains, cisterns and wells, are in numerous instances the only remains of some of the most celebrated cities of the ancient world. Of Heliopolis, Syene and Babylon in Egypt; of Tyre, Sidon, Palmyra, Nineveh, Carthage, Utica, Barca, and many others. “The features of nature,” says Dr. Clarke, “continue the same, though works of art may be done away: the ‘beautiful gate’ of the Jerusalem temple is no more, but Siloah’s fountain still flows, and Kedron still murmurs in the valley of Jehoshaphat.” According to Chateaubriand, the Pool of Bethesda, a reservoir, one hundred and fifty feet by forty, constructed of large stones cramped with iron, and lined with flints embedded in cement, is the only specimen remaining of the ancient architecture of that city. NOTE.—Roman wells are found in every country which that people conquered. Their armies had constant recourse to them when other sources of water failed. Pompey and Cæsar often preserved their troops from destruction by having provided them. It was Pompey’s superior knowledge in thus obtaining water, which enabled him to overthrow Mithridates, by retaining possession of an important post. [Illustration: PICOTAH OF HINDOSTAN.] NOTE.—The operation of this primitive device may be thus described—Near the well or tank, a piece of wood is fixed, forked at the top; in this fork another piece of wood is fixed to form a swape, which is formed by a peg, and steps cut out at the bottom, that the person who works the machine may easily get up and down. Commonly, the lower part of the swape is the trunk of a tree; to the upper end is fixed a pole, at the end of which hangs a leather bucket. A man gets up the steps to the top of the swape, and supports himself by a bamboo screen erected by the sides of the machine. He plunges the bucket into the water, and draws it up by his weight; while another person stands ready to empty it. Ephesus, too, is no more; and the temple of Diana, that according to Pliny was 220 years in building, and upon which was lavished the talent and treasure of the east; the pride of all Asia, also one of the wonders of the world, has vanished, while the fountains which furnished the citizens with water, remain as fresh and perfect as ever. Cisterns have been discovered in the oldest citadels in Greece. The _fountains of Bounarbashi_ are perhaps the _only_ objects remaining that can be relied on, in locating the palace of Priam and the site of ancient Troy. And the well near the outer walls of the temple of the sun at Palmyra, will, in all probability, furnish men with water, when other relics of Tadmor in the wilderness have disappeared; a great number of the wells of the ancient world still supply man with water, although their history generally, is lost in the night of time.