For surface excavations in solid earth the Lidgerwood Cableway is an important and labor saving device. A track cable is stretched from two distant towers, and a bucket holding well on to a ton of earth is made to travel on a trolley running on said cable track, rising at one end out of the excavation, and dumping at the other end to fill in the excavation as the cutting progresses, all in a continuous and economical manner. This device is made under the patent to M. W. Locke, No. 295,776, March 25, 1884, and comprehends many subsequent improvements patented by Miller, Delaney, North and others. The Chicago Drainage Canal is a work just completed, which largely employed these devices. This canal was designed to connect the Chicago River with the Mississippi River, so as to send the sewage of Chicago down the Mississippi instead of into Lake Michigan. Although it cost $33,000,000 and required seven years for completion, the labor-saving cableways greatly cheapened its cost and shortened the time of its construction. Among the leading inventions relating to canal construction may be mentioned the bear-trap canal-lock gate (patents Nos. 229,682, 236,488 and 552,063), and the Dutton pneumatic lift locks. The latter provide ease and rapidity of action by a principle of balancing locks in pairs, and are covered by his patent No. 457,528, August 11, 1891, and others of subsequent date. _Artesian Wells_ represent an important branch of engineering work, and they are so called from the province of Artois, in France, where they have for a long time been in use. Extending several thousand feet into the subterranean chambers of the earth, they have brought abundant water supply to the surface all over the world, from the desert sands of Sahara to the hotels of the modern city; they have contributed oil and gas in incredible quantities to supply light and heat, and have made valuable additions to the salt supply of the world.