The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-01-10
A Marvel of Engineering.

A work equal in difficulty and magni-
tude to the projected draining of the
Zuyder Zee has been accomplished in
Italy, only some auxiliary operations of
minor consequence still awaiting COM
pletion. We refer to the draining of
the Fucine Lake, executed by the Prince
Torlonia, an undertaking which has
exacted the labor of twenty-five years
and an outlay of ten million dollars.
By this achievement forty thousand
acres of rich land have been opened to
tillage, and a scheme which had vainly
taxed the resources of the ancient Ro-
man Empire is translated into fact.
The Fucine Lake, and the mountain
locked basin of which until lately it en-
crossed the larger part, is better known
to the student than to the traveller. The
region is singularly difficult of access,
lying as it does in the exact heart of the
Italian peninsula, and embedded in the
Apennine chain. No modern railway
has replaced the Valerian road which
traversed the district eighteen centuries
ago. When this great highway was
built across the mountains by Claudius
Cesar the edge of the lake was dotted
with thriving towns, and its fruitful
slopes formed one of the granaries of
Rome. 1t was in the reign of the same
Emperor that the design of sluicing off
the waters of the Fucine cistern was
adopted, and the notorious freedman
Narcissus was charged with the conduct
of the enterprise. 1nasmuch as the
main outlines of the plan conceived and
brought to the verge of fulfilment by
the Roman engineers have been fol-
lowed in the modern works, it may be
well to mark the physical conditions of
the problem.
The Fucine Lake was vast reservoir,
replenished by the rainfall and a num-
Der of mountain streams, but without
natural outlet. Evacuation, therefore,
by dredging and deepening an existing
channel was plainly out of the question.
Some three miles, however, to the
northwest runs the river Liri, at an al
titude much lower than that of the ba-
sin. 1t is true that the high mountain
of Salviano rears its bulk between the
river and the lake, but this obstacle the
engineers of Claudius proposed to sur
mount by piercing the hill at depth of
some three hundred yards. According
ly, the head of the sluice on the north
west rim of the cistern was fixed at a
point twenty-five yards above the bot
tom of the Liri, while the mouth being
opened about thirteen yards above the
river bed, there resulted total incline
of nine yards in course of three and a
half miles. Thirty thousand workmen
are said to have been employed for
eleven years in the undertaking, and the
tunnel was actually constructed, but so
imperfectly that an attempt to draw off
the waters of the reservoir entailed
catastrophe which went near to
ruin the imperial favorite.
1t would seem that Narcissus
had nothing to learn from public serv-
ants of our day, for he was accused of
embezzling gigantic sums through col
lusions with contractors. 1t appears,
however, that at later period, under
the Emperor Hadrian, the sluice was so
far turned to account as to considerably
lowtR the level of the lake.
Neglected in the middle ages, the Ro-
man works lost even this measure of eff
fciency, the waters of the basin recov-
cred their ancient area, and the periodi-
cal inundations wrought widespread de-
struction. 1t was one of these calami-
ties, the terrible flood of 1916, which
reused the Neopolitan Government to
attempt the repair of the old culvert.
But the task was onerous and the out
lay stinted, and the sluice was scarcely
opened when the freshet of 1851 burst
the locks and blocked up a large Sec
ton of Che channel under an avalanche
of earth and stones. When, therefore,
a company was organized with view
of draining the basin, it soon appeared
that the scheme presented difficulties
far exceeding their expectations or their
resources. Accordingly, the Prince
Torlonia, who had subscribed for one
half the stock, now purchased the re-
mainder, and, obtaining formal con-
cession of all land to be recovered, un-
dertook the work at his own expense.
The French engineers who were sue
cessively charged with the management
of the operations did not confine them
selves to reconstruction of the old tun-
mel, their object being not to circum-
scribe the lake within the bounds main
tanned in Hadrian's time, but to convert
the entire Fucine basin into dry, arabic
land. In the main the excavations fol-
lowed the line of the former conduit !;
but the walls were Strengthened and
greatly enlarged, the inclination of the
floor regulated, and the passage deep
} ened throughout its course; being, for
, instance, on the lake side at least ten
feet lower than the head of the Roman
sluice. On the whole it may be said
that the chief advantage derived from
the ancient works lay in the numerous
air-wells and ventilation galleries hewn
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