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been introduced. There appears to be some confussion in the Japanese mind in regard to the natural law that water always finds its own level. They appear to be cognizant of it so far, that they make allowances for the water rising in the syphon pipes and wells which they have adopted, but, on the other hand, they do not appear entirely to have grasped the principle. In illustration of this, in Yedo there are placed five large wooden tanks at points where there are alterations in the inclination of the pipes. Thus, if they wished to supply a district higher than the level of the water main, instead of allowing the water to gravitate direct to that district they direct it first into one of these large boxes and allow it to rise there to the height which they desire, and then they carry it off from the box to the district requiring the supply. In the same way in the Yokohama water-works there are large boxes of a similar kind at each end of the syphons which carry the water under streams or other obstructions, so that instead of the water flowing direct through the pipe and along the syphon, it empties itself into the box at one end in the first place, the box then supplies the syphon, and the syphon empties itself into a box at the other end, from which the water proceeds along the main pipe. The adoption of these boxes must, I think, proceed from some misapprehension of natural laws, and I have been unable to discover any sufficient reason for them. The water is distributed through the towns in circular wells which are constructed in the streets. These are also made of wood and their tops project 2 or 3 feet above the level of the ground. The water is allowed to rise to a certain level in them or to overflow their edges and the inhabitants procure their supplies by dipping their buckets into them.
In other works which the Japanese have undertaken there may be observed the same want of knowledge of the properties of materials, and the same crude methods of executing work. I have confined myself in this paper entirely to a description of what the people of the country have accomplished without extraneous aid. To what ex-
