1912] The Ottawa Naturalist. 177 



to be perfectly satisfactory for city supplies, not only from 

 their extreme softness (which means a considerable saying in 

 soap and labor to the community) but from the hygienic stand- 

 point. These waters keep well, for their dissolved peaty matter 

 does not readily undergo further decay, is in fact remarkably 

 stable. It is true that temporary indisposition frequently 

 follows the use of these waters when one has been accustomed 

 to a hard, colourless water, but it is equally true that the reverse 

 happens. Any change in the character of the water consumed 

 may bring about a slight derangement, for the system becomes 

 habituated to a certain water and some persons are very sus- 

 ceptible, for a time, to any difference in its character. The 

 case, however, with coloured waters from low-lying swampy, 

 shallow lakes and ponds is very different. Such bodies of 

 water being more or less stagnant, produce an abundance of 

 vegetable growth largely algal, which under favourable weather 

 conditions may rapidly decompose, giving rise to offensive and 

 nauseating products. If, as frequently happens in summer /these 

 decay products accumulate, in other words get ahead of growth 

 that can utilize them, the water becomes foul and unfit for con- 

 sumption. The result of drinking such water usually shows 

 itself in an attack of diarrhoea or nausea. From these con- 

 siderations it would be obvious that colour is not in itself a 

 quality or factor that can be used alone in deciding upon the 

 suitability of a supply. Leaving out of consideration sewage 

 pollution, we may have on the one hand a comparatively colour- 

 less water but one in which algae and other low forms of life 

 are present in large numbers and in which chemical analysis 

 proves the presence of easily decomposable organic matter, 

 and on the other hand a highly coloured peaty water from a 

 large and quickly flowing river, and the former will be distinctly 

 the inferior water, one that must be efficiently filtered and 

 purified before it can be regarded as a wholesome, potable supply. 

 Ground Water. This is the rain and melted snow absorbed 

 and retained by the soil and subsoil. It is the source that 

 supplies the shallow, domestic well so commonly used on the 

 farm homestead and in the village. When the surroundings 

 are perfectly satisfactory from the sanitary standpoint, these 

 wells are frequently a source of excellent water, but, when, as is 

 usually the case, convenience to the house or farm buildings is 

 alone considered in the location of the well, the water is seldom 

 of first class quality and more often must be adjudged as quite 

 unfit for consumption. On the larger number of farms we find 

 these wells, usually between 10 and 25 feet in depth, sunk in 

 the barnyard or under the stable or other outbuildings, or not 

 very far from the privy (a most crude and unsanitary affair 



