Page 2177 - les-miserables

CHAPTER VI

THE FONTIS

Jean Valjean found himself in the presence of a fontis.
This sort of quagmire was common at that period in
the subsoil of the Champs-Elysees, difficult to handle in
the hydraulic works and a bad preservative of the subter-
ranean constructions, on account of its excessive fluidity.
This fluidity exceeds even the inconsistency of the sands of
the Quartier Saint-Georges, which could only be conquered
by a stone construction on a concrete foundation, and the
clayey strata, infected with gas, of the Quartier des Martyrs,
which are so liquid that the only way in which a passage
was effected under the gallery des Martyrs was by means
of a cast-iron pipe. When, in 1836, the old stone sewer be-
neath the Faubourg Saint-Honore, in which we now see Jean
Valjean, was demolished for the purpose of reconstructing
it, the quicksand, which forms the subsoil of the Champs-
Elysees as far as the Seine, presented such an obstacle, that
the operation lasted nearly six months, to the great clamor
of the dwellers on the riverside, particularly those who had
hotels and carriages. The work was more than unhealthy; it
was dangerous. It is true that they had four months and a

2177