I read George Sand's fantastic novel _Consuelo_ many years ago, and I
am aware that she introduced a well, in an ancient castle, in which
the water could be made to rise and fall at will, in order to
establish or interrupt communication with a secret chamber. I do not
know whether she imagined the construction or had seen a similar one,
for such wells are said to be found in more than one old fortress in
Europe. The "lost water" really exists at many points under Rome; its
rising and falling are sometimes unaccountable; and I know at least
one old palace in which it has been used and found pure, within the
memory of man. So far, the explanations suggested by engineers have
neither satisfied those who have propounded them, nor those who have
had practical experience of the "lost water." The subject is extremely
interesting but is one of very great difficulty, as it is generally
quite impossible to make explorations in the places where the water is
near the surface. The older part of modern Rome was built haphazard,
and often upon the enormous substructures of ancient buildings, of
which the positions can be conjectured only, and of which the plans
and dimensions are very vaguely guessed by archaeologists. All that
can be said with approximate certainty of the "lost water" is that it
must run through long-forgotten conduits, that it rises here and there
in wells, and that it is mostly uncontaminated by the river.
Pages:
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404