Public Wells.

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Chap. 4.]

dug for water. Kotzebue’s Voy. ii, 28, 66, and iii, 145, 223. The freshwater which Columbus found in the huts belonging to the Indians ofCuba , was probably obtained from similar Wells ; but which the Span-iards, who found none but salt water, were unable to discover. PersonalNar. of Colum. 67. Boston , 1827.

These simple excavations would naturally be multiplied and theirdimensions enlarged as far as the limited means of man, in the early ages,would permit, and his increasing wants require. But when the discoveryof the metals took place, (in the seventh generation from the first pair, ac-cording to both Moses and Sanchoniathon, ) the depth of Wells would nolonger be arrested by rocks, nor their construction limited to locationswhere these did not occur. From very ancient wells which still remain,it is certain, that at a time long anterior to the commencement of history,the knowledge of procuring water by means of them, was well under-stood, perhaps, equally so as at present. On this supposition only, can wereconcile the selection of locations for them composed wholly of rock.Some of the oldest wells known are dug entirely through that material,and to a prodigious depth.

Man’s ingenuity was, perhaps, first exercised in procuring water;and it is not improbable, that the art of constructing wells was morerapidly carried to perfection than any other. The physical character ofcentral Asia, its climate, universal deficiency of water, its swarms of in-habitants, and their pastoral, and agricultural pursuits, would necessarilycontribute to thisresult. The Abbe Fleury, in his “ Manners of the An-cient Israelites,” justly observes, “ their numerous herds of cattle necessa-rily induced them to set a very high value on their wells and cisterns; andmore especially as they occupied a country where there was no river butJordan, and where rain seldom feil.” Chap. iii. In no other part of theWorld, even in modern times, has more Science been evinced, or mechani-cal skill displayed in penetrating the earth, than is exhibited in some of theancient wells of the east; and it is to their authors, that we are indebtedfor the only known method of sinking wells of great depth, through loosesoils and quicksands, viz : by first constructing a curb, (of stone, brick,&c.) which settles as the excävation is deepened, and thereby resists thepressure of the surrounding soil.

Wells are mentioned by Moses , as in common use among the ancientCanaanites ; some of which at that remote age adjoined roads, for the be-nefit of travelers and the public at large. Indeed, all people who have hadrecourse to wells, have consecrated some of them to the convenience ofstrangers and travelers. The first wells were probably all of this descrip-tion. Most of those mentioned in history were certainly such. At one ofthese, Hagar rested and refreshed herseif, when she fled from the ill treat-ment of Sarah. And it was “by the way” of this well, that Isaac was goingwhen he first met with Rebecca. And we learn from Gen. xxv, 11, thathe subsequently took up his abode near it; a custom by which wellsfrequently became nuclei of ancient cities. Jacob’s well is an example,if really dug by him. When that patriarch and his family drank of itswaters, few dwellings were near it; (Gen. xxiii, 19 ;) but, before the timeof Alexander, these had so far increased, as with the ancient Shalem, toform the Capital city of Samaria . And 600 years before Alexander’s con-quest of Judea , Jeroboam when he governed the ten tribes had a palacein the vicinity of this well. Josephus , Antiq. viii, 3. “ Tadmor in the wil-

derness,” or Palmyra, one of the most splendid cities of the old world,was built by Solomon (2 Chron. viii, 4,) in the Syrian desert, and its loca-tion determined according to Josephus , (Antiq. viii, 6,) “ because at that

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