The great canal, like the great wall, is unrivalled by any similar existing work.

It is twice the length of the Erie Canal, is from two hundred to a thousand feet wide, and has enormous banks built of solid granite along a great part of its course.

One of the important mechanical inventions of modern Europe is the Artesian well.

That sunk at Grenelle, in France, was long supposed to be the deepest in the world, going down eighteen hundred feet.
One at St.Louis, in the United States, has since been drilled to a depth, as has recently been stated, of about four thousand.[9] But in China these wells are found by tens of thousands, sunk at very remote periods to obtain salt water.

The method used by the Chinese from immemorial time has recently been adopted instead of our own as being the most simple and economical.