Year: 1860




| The Joint Special Committee to whom was re-
ferred resolution respecting "the removal of the
soil. vegetable matter, &C., at the proposed lake at
the Relay House before letting in the water" sub
nit the following report:


The committee have carefully examined the ques-
| tion. They have visited the locality OF the pro-
! posed lake. with many members of the CITY Coun-
Gil, attended by the Water Commissioners and their
| engineers, and they have been favored with the
| presence and the advice of Capt. Meigs, the able
superintendent of the Potomac aqueduct at Wash
! ington.


The committee have arrived at the ncuson
that it would be unwise in the City Council to in
| terfere in the matter.


The Water Commissioners have been, for a long
| time, assiduousy engaged in this important work;
have faithfully dlSbursed than three millions
of dollars, and that their gratuitous labors are
| drawing to close, it would certainly be a work of
supererogation to interfere between the Board and
their plans, adopted by deliberate and unanimous
decisions.


If difference in opinion existed in the Water
Board, an appeal to some tribunal might be neces.
sary but the committee find that they are of one
mind, and are sustained by the sound Judgment of
| their engineers, and the advice of Captain Meigs
in the opinion that the bottom of the lake should
not at this time be disturbed But your committee
deem it their duty to investigate the question for
themselves.


bottom of the lake, overgrown with grass and
weeds.


Assuming that the limited quantity of one foot of
the entire surface is to be excavated and carted
away, the cost would be, at the contract prices,
| fOrty-fve thousand dollars, and to remove the
tire auvial deposit which is several feet in thick
ness, would involve expense in the same ratio.


a question naturally presents itself: What dis
| position can be made of this material? If depos
tied below the dam it will find its way to the ba-
sin and fill up the harbor. If piled up in the CEN
tre of the lake to form island, or placed upon
the neighborng fields, it will be the abating of an
! mn


To accomplish this unnecessary labor, at such
enormous cost, would postpone the consummation of
this great public work for another season or
| probably for nearly whole year.


The committee entertain the opinion that the
purity of the water will not be impaired, and that
the heathfulness of the neighborhOod will not be
affected by permitting the natural bed of the lake
| to remain.


The vegetable matter above the surface will be
destroyed or removed before the water is admit
ted and the roots Cf the class of plants to be sub
merged will Immediately perish from being de-
prived of their natural elements


a part will harmlessly pass away by infusion,
and what remains will not be subject to unwhole-
some decomposition. Nor can any evil in sani-
tary point of view be apprehended from a new
growth OF aquatic plants. They are strangers to
this region and if transplanted could not thrive be-
of the depth of the water and the steep slope
of the banks of the lake. This species of yereta-
BILE growth cannot exist in water of the depth of
the lake, not even the greatest of them all-the
''NictOria Regina"


The plan determined upon by the engineers re-
qmred that no part OF the lake should be less than
10 feet Deep but coming to beds of gravel for a
small portion of the at and feet, su ch por-
tiOn was made an exception to the general rule
But with this exception, this lake of 100 will
| contain body OF water varying from 10 to
20 feet in depth with steep banks, ,witho ything
within its compass or anything leading into it that
| can corrupt it.


| If the atmosphere should be rendered insalubri
Gus by this wide spreading lake. it will not result
from the material composing the bottom, but the
| mischief will originate at the surface.
| Experience teaches that shallow water in COM
parative state of repose and raised to a high tenn
perature by the heat of the sun, may become stag
nant, producing peculiar minute vegetat ion in.
! tested with myriads of anmalculoe rendering the
water unit for domestic purposes, and poisoning
the air with an invisible, invidious miasma so in
| scrutable, that chemistry furnish no test to
prove even its existence, and science only treat
| of it from its effects.


With so much mystery, therefore we cannot
venture to predict what will be the result of this
great physical change upon the salubrity of the air
round about the lake, but when consider that
the water is supplied from sources in primitive
rocks quite near, and that the demand for the city
will cause a constant motion, and that an active
upward and downward circulation will result from
the heated surface when the depth is great we
NAV conclude that the water will never reach that
condition of stagnation which produces malaria


But it is with the bottom of the lake that YOUR
committee have to do.


The soil which it is proposed to remove has been
examined and closely scrutinized. 1t is almost
entirely composed of sand, the debris from the dis
ntegration of the primitive rocks of the country,
and can no more be prejudica to health after deep
submersion, than now when exposed to the sun
and air. Its composition is the as the meadows
which occupy the valleys of Jones' Falls and its
tributaries 1t is of such c0usstence as to sustain
the tread of grazing cattle and the wheels of
heavily loaded wagons. la its broad extent it is
very rare to find anything approaching the charac
ter of marsh.


If it should hereafter ecome necessary to exca.