There are, besides these artesian wells, 35 monumental fountains, 88 plain fountains and over 2,000 water-plugs in the city.

Notre Dame.

The Cathedral Church of Notre Dame is the grandest church of the rose-window class that I met with in my whole tour of Europe, The length of this edifice is 390 feet, and its greatest width at the transepts 144 feet.  It is said to be capable of holding 21,000 persons.  The nave is 225 feet long, 39 feet wide and 102 feet in height to the vaulting; the windows are 36 feet high.  Its two western towers are each 204 feet high, and the spire about 270 feet.  The first thing that arrests the attention of the visitor on approaching it, are the grotesque figures of its antique gargoyles, several hundred in all, which give the church a very odd appearance.  The three portals (at the west end) contain about 300 images.  Its organ is 36 feet broad, 45 feet high and contains 3,484 pipes.  But among the most remarkable features of this magnificent cathedral are its splendid rose-windows, representing a variety of scripture and legendary subjects, and its choir and sacristy.  Here, are mitres and crosses glittering with jewels, and the church-utensils and vestments.  The most gorgeous are the robes worn by Pius VII. at the coronation of Napoleon I., and several series of brilliant robes profusely embroidered in silver and gold.  It seems that the place upon which Notre Dame now stands, was first occupied by a heathen temple erected in the time of the Romans; for, among nine large stones dug up in 1711, one bears the effigy of the Gallic deity Hesus, and the other was a votive altar raised to Jove.

The Pantheon.

About half a mile distant from the island of the Seine upon which Notre Dame stands, on an eminence south of the river, is located the Pantheon, or church of St. Genevieve.  This building cost $6,000,000.  The six fluted columns of its portico are 6 feet in diameter and 60 feet high.  The whole number of Corinthian columns in and about this superb edifice is 258.  The arched ceilings of the interior are 80 feet high.  The dome is 66 feet in diameter and its height from the pavement to the top is 268 feet.  I have seen no other dome in Europe that resembles so closely the dome on the Capitol of the United States, both on account of its fine illumination by natural light, and in its general design.  One section of the frescoes in the canopy of the dome on our national capitol, represents the deification of Washington.  In the dome of the Pantheon at Paris, Clovis, Charlemagne, St. Louis and Louis XVIII., are represented as rendering homage to Ste. Genevieve, who descends towards them on clouds, and Glory embraces Napoleon.  In the heavenly regions are represented, Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, Louis XVII. and Madame Elizabeth.

In 1791, Mirabeau was interred here with great pomp, and in the same year took place, the celebrated apotheoses (deifications) of Voltaire and Rousseau.  The remains of Mirabeau and of Marat were afterwards depantheonized, and the body of the latter was thrown into a common sewer.