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67
WATER-SUPPLY.
artificial river of supply; on the other hand, it
might be requisite to carry the interference of art
still further, to absorb the filtering moisture of this
large sand-district before it had become confluent
into streams, and thus from day to day, by extensively
ramified works of artificial sub-drainage,
to derive immediately from the soil, the varying contributions
of rain-fall and dew. The Board, apparently
solicitous for the completer security of their
plan, preferred to estimate its cost on the latter very
expensive supposition; they allowed apparently
for the diffusion of drain-pipes over 150 square miles
of country, and for a reservoir which should contain
storage of water equivalent to a very long metropolitan
consumption. The later examination, made
by Mr. Napier and confirmed by others, tends and
appears to show, that these large sources of expense
may be avoided; that the waters may be collected
of unusual purity and softness, where they have
united themselves into rivulets of considerable volume;
that the gauged and estimated discharge of
these rivulets is sufficient day by day for the needs
of the metropolis, according to the largest construction
of those needs; that capillary drain-pipes
and very extensive storage-room may thus be dispensed
with; and that under the modification of
arrangement suggested by these facts, some very
large reduction might be inferred for the total estimate
of this comprehensive plan.
Many of these particulars are already before the