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[[Evans?}} 238

From the time I left New York, till I reached Chicago, I had nowhere seen in the towns clear drinking water. At New Orleans it was of the colour of a Mulatto, at Cincinnati of a Mistizo, & at the intermediate places of the intermediate shades. At Richmond it had a kind of ochcreous? tint. The reason is the same everywhere. The wells, with the water of which the towns are supplied, all run through a yellowish or reddish loamy soil, sometimes sandy, sometimes clayey. This is easily worn away, & carried off in suspension by the stream, and is largely added to after rains, by the surface washing of the country. At Chicago by a boldly conceived, & most successfully carried out plan the whole city is supplied with the purest water. A tunnel, large enough for two mules to work abreast in it, was carried out for a distance of two miles beneath the Lake. At this point they have reached water which is perfectly free from all the impurities of the shore; & here it is admitted into the tunnel in sufficient volume to supply all the wants of a population of about 280,000 souls. It is calculated that this tunnel will be ample for all that 100,000 more inhabitants will require. When the population has grown to this extent a second tunnel will have to be constructed. The water is pumped up from the level of the tunnel to reservoirs that are above the level of the city. Which unclear is not the original level of the Prairie, but considerably above it, for it having been found, often a great part of the city was built, that it was subject to being occasionally