And getting up the steam; there is no expensive engineer who may
be sick or absent when required; but the wheel is turned either by night
or day by mules or oxen, driven by a child. Wind vanes might be attached
to this principle, and could be connected on favourable occasions.
The peculiarity throughout the lower levels in Cyprus (specially
exhibited in the plain of Messaria) of a water-supply within a few feet
of the surface, at the same time that the crops may be perishing from
drought, is in favour of the general adoption of the Egyptian wheel.
Although this simple construction is one of the oldest inventions for
raising water, and is generally understood, I may be excused for
describing it when upon the important topic of irrigation.
A large pit is sunk to about three feet below the level of the water,
and should the earth not be sufficiently tenacious for self-support, the
sides are walled with masonry; this pit would usually be about twenty
feet long, four feet wide, and twenty feet deep for a first-class wheel.
When the wooden wheel of about seventeen feet diameter has been fixed
upon its horizontal shaft, it is arranged with a chain of large earthen
jars; those of Egypt contain about three gallons each, but the Cyprian
pots are very inferior, scarcely exceeding the same number of quarts.
