than elongated cesspools, indescribably filthy and offensive; without the necessary fall to give a current to the rain water when it falls, and absorption and percolation are the chief agents in checking the bad effects. Nor are the injurious effects confined to the most filthy parts of the native town, but they taint the health of the inhabitants of its palaces.
A considerable reservoir of river water, filled by a steam pump, stands upon the esplanade, with a canal extending into Chowringee; but it is useless as a detergent for the public sewers; the original object of it was to water the streets, and to fill the tanks;but the chief use made of it is by sweating natives and sweating horses to bathe with.
For the last twenty years, we have had one committee after another sitting upon the conservancy department of Calcutta, but bringing forth nothing vital. All of them have lamented the most unhealthy state of the public sewers; all have suggested something being done, but the original evils remain to this day unmitigated.
Nevertheless, the drains of Calcutta admit of being as well purified as any town in the world, the rise of the tide is from twenty to thirty feet; indeed, a great part of Calcutta is below the level of the spring tides, and it is only necessary to sink the present drains ten or twelve feet to have
