It was in digging a well in 1711, that the long buried ruins of Herculaneum were discovered, by the accidental striking upon some pieces of marble and statues, which subsequently proved to be part of a temple, situated in the midst of Herculaneum, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius, 1630 years before and it is a fact interesting in itself and ;

not foreign to our subject, to add, that among the remarkable discoveries of this long buried

city, was a well in a high state of preservation, which, having been protected by a covering and surmounted with a curb, had been kept free from the lava and ashes. It still contains excellent water, and is in the same condition as when the last females retired from it,

bearing vases of its water to their dwellings, from which they were never to emerge again. The most remarkable well, probably, ever made by man, is Joseph's well at Cairo, of which we copy from Ewbank this brief arid clear description :

" This well, which for magnitude and the skill displayed in its construction, has never been surpassed, is an oblong square, 24 feet by 18, being sufficiently capacious to admit within its mouth a moderate sized house. It is excavated of these dimensions through solid rock to the depth of 165 feet, where it is enlarged into a capacious chamber, in the bottom of which is formed a basin, or reservoir, to receive the water raised from below, for this chamber is not the bottom of the well. On one side of the reservoir, another shaft is continued 130 feet lower, where it emerges through the rock into a bed of gravel, in which the water is found, the whole depth being 297 feet. The lower shaft is not in the same vertical line as the upper one, nor is it so large, being 15 feet by 9.