Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct
take some loading ; but when the commander wanted to sail again he could not raise the anchor. This fact attracted much attention, and many people went to witness the singular circumstance. The Captain, unwilling to lose his anchor, sent down a man, to find what was the matter. The diver reported that the anchor was hooked under something round, but he could not tell what it was. A capstan was applied to raise it, which succeeded.
It brought up a leaden conduit pipe from the bottom of the Rhone, which crossed it from the City of Aries, towards Trinquetaillade, over a breadth of about 90 toises (576 feet)
in a depth of 6 or 7 toises (about 40 feet,) the deepest part of the Rhone. I saw some pieces of this conduit of lead, 5 or 6 inches in diameter, about 4 lines (one third of an inch) thick, in joints of 1 toise each soldered lengthwise, and covered by a strip or sheet of lead of the same thickness covering the first solder about 2 inches. The conduit was soldered at the joints, 6 feet apart, by the same material, On each joint were which made a swell at that distance. these words in relief C. CANTIUS POIHINUS. F. which was apparently the name of the maker or architect, who laid down the conduit pipe in the time of the Romans. I delayed
not to inform Mr. Begon, at Rochefort, of this discovery, because he had always favoured my project of conducting water along the bottom and across the Charente, which would not have been half so difficult as it had no doubt been, to lay one across the Rhone where this was found.