448 MERGE TO GYRENE.

took especial care, notwithstanding the beauty of the descent, to keep closer to the high rock on one side of the road than to the edge of the charming precipice on the other.

There is a good deal of building, of very excellent construction, about the stream which runs along the bottom of the ravine ; and the water seems originally to have been inclosed, and covered in, and (we think) also raised to a considerable height above its bed, (as appears to have been the case in the fountain of Apollo,) to be distributed over the country in its neighbourhood. It is difficult to say in what precise manner this end may have been accomplished ; and whether or not the water so raised was connected with the aqueduct which has already been mentioned as running down to this ravine from the edge of the cliff above the principal fountain ; and which we have also stated appears to have crossed it, and to have been continued on the opposite side. As the supply from both fountains is plentiful and constant it would be well worth the labour and expense of preserving; and the level of both would render them comparatively useless to the town, as well as to the high o-round about it, unless some means of raising the water were resorted to. They who had leisure to examine the remains of building connected with these two streams, attentively; and were able, at the same time, to bring to the search a sufficient knowledge of the principles of hydraulics and hydrostatics, would find the inquiry a very interesting one ; for our own part we confess that, without enjoying either of these advantages, we were usually tempted to bestow a portion of our time, when passing along the ravine in