was
determined to raise the whole quarter bodily from six to eight feet
higher! And the extraordinary feat was accomplished with the help of
screw-jacks, safely and satisfactorily.

With the growth of population--and its increase was most rapid (from
4000 persons in 1837 to about 350,000 at the present time)--the
difficulty of obtaining pure water steadily increased. There was pure
water enough in the lake outside, but along shore it was so polluted
by the sewage that it could not be used with safety. Two methods were
adopted to remedy this evil. One was, to make Artesian wells 700 feet
deep, which yield about a million gallons of pure water per day; but
another, and much bolder scheme, was undertaken, that of carrying a
tunnel under the bed of the lake, two miles out, into perfectly pure
water; and this work was successfully accomplished and completed on
the 25th of March, 1867, when the water was let into the tunnel to
flow through the pipes and quadrants of the city. Thus 57 million
gallons of water per day could be supplied to the inhabitants.

Another important and daring work was that involved in carrying the
traffic of the streets from one side of the Chicago river (which flows
through the city) to the other, without the interference of bridges.
This was accomplished by means of tunnels constructed beneath the bed
of the river. The first tunnel was carried across from Washington
Street to the other side some years since; it was arched with brick,
floored with timber, and lighted with gas. The second, lower down the
same river, was still in progress at the period of my visit to the
city in March last, and is not yet completed. By means of these
tunnels the traffic of the streets will be sufficiently accommodated,
without any interruption by the traffic of the river,--large ships
proceeding directly up to the wharves above to load and unload their
cargoes.

But the boldest project of all remains to be mentioned. It is neither
more nor less than the cutting down of the limestone ridge which
intervenes between the head-waters of the River Chicago and those of
the River Illinois, which flows into the Mississippi. The water supply
being still found insufficient, the carrying out of a second tunnel
into deep water under the bed of the lake was projected. It then
occurred to the Chicago engineers that a more simple method would be,
instead of going out into the lake for the pure water, to make the
pure water come to