the winter season: not, of course, in that
clime a winter of frost and snow, but a time of cold winds and heavy
rains, most trying to the poor labourers in the fields. If they had
better ploughs they might break up the ground before the winter set in,
and leave the ploughed land ready for the sower at the proper season.
The Syrian plough, too, only does its work slowly, and the whole set of
men working together will plough scarcely more than one-third as much as
an English ploughman, with a pair of good horses, would do in the same
time.

MARVELS OF MAN'S MAKING.

X--THE BIRMINGHAM WATERWORKS

[Illustration]

Hard working Birmingham was getting short of water, and it certainly
looked as though the time would soon come when there would be none to
quench its thirst with. The wells and streams in the countryside had
served their purpose splendidly while the city did not demand too much,
but as the number of people increased, the number of taps increased too,
and water was getting short.

In this unpleasant state of affairs, Mr. Mansergh, a well-known civil
engineer, said that he knew where to get the water from. Forty years
before, when travelling in South Wales, he had been struck by the
suitability of the country for storing water in. The rivers Elan and
Claerwen, he said, flowed through valleys which would make splendid
natural reservoirs if only they were crossed by the necessary dams. The
distance, it was true, would be seventy-three miles from Birmingham, but
then it would be all down-hill, and so the water would flow of its own
accord. The rivers Elan and Claerwen, in Brecon and Radnor, collect
their waters from mountain streams over an area of seventy-one square
miles. If preserved in reservoirs, this would supply one hundred and
two millions of gallons a day. A certain proportion of this would, of
course, be allowed to escape, as it would never do to stop the river
Elan altogether. It is an important tributary to the Wye, and the city
of Hereford would have had cause for complaint if its water supply had
been interfered with.

[Illustrations: Valley before Building the Dam. A Sluice in the Dam.
Building the Pen-y-Gareg Dam.]

The work was begun in 1894. Just below the point where the two rivers
join, preparations were made for building the first dam. A stank, or
wall of timber, was first constructed to turn the water of the river
aside, and in the channel over which it had flowed, thus rendered dr