DEAR DOCTOR, - A few days ago, I rode out with two gentlemen of
this country, to see a stream of water which was formerly
conveyed in an aqueduct to the antient city of Cemenelion, from
whence this place is distant about a mile, though separated by
abrupt rocks and deep hollows, which last are here honoured with
the name of vallies. The water, which is exquisitely cool, and
light and pure, gushes from the middle of a rock by a hole which
leads to a subterranean aqueduct carried through the middle of
the mountain. This is a Roman work, and the more I considered it,
appeared the more stupendous. A peasant who lives upon the spot
told us, he had entered by this hole at eight in the morning, and
advanced so far, that it was four in the afternoon before he came
out. He said he walked in the water, through a regular canal
formed of a hard stone, lined with a kind of cement, and vaulted
overhead; but so high in most parts he could stand upright, yet
in others, the bed of the canal was so filled with earth and
stones, that he was obliged to stoop in passing. He said that
there were air-holes at certain distances (and indeed I saw one
of these not far from the present issue) that there were some
openings and stone seats on the sides, and here and there figures
of men formed of stone, with hammers and working tools in their
hands. I am apt to believe the fellow romanced a little, in order
to render his adventure the more marvellous: but I am certainly
informed, that several persons have entered this passage, and
proceeded a considerable way by the light of torches, without
arriving at the source, which (if we may believe the tradition of
the country) is at the distance of eight leagues from this
opening; but this is altogether incredible. The stream is now
called la fontaine de muraille, and is carefully conducted by
different branches into the adjacent vineyards and gardens, for
watering the ground. On the side of the same mountain, more
southerly, at the distance of half a mile, there is another still
more copious discharge of the same kind of water, called la
source du temple. It was conveyed through the same kind of
passage, and put to the same use as the other; and I should
imagine they are both from the same source, which, though
hitherto undiscovered, must be at a considerable distance, as the
mountain is continued for several leagues to the westward,
without exhibiting the least signs of water in any other part.
But, exclusive of the subterranean conduits, both these streams
must have been conveyed through aqueducts extending from hence to
Cemenelion over steep rocks and deep ravines, at a prodigious
expence. The water from this source du temple, issues from a
stone building which covers the passage in the rock.
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