470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



similar annoyances are by no means uncommon elsewhere. Regard- 

 ino- this we learn that " not loner after the introduction of the Croton 

 water into New York, and of the Cochituate water into Boston, the 

 fish-like odor prevailed for some time to a most disagreeable extent. 

 While this odor is of most frequent occurrence, others of very differ- 

 ent character are occasionally reported. Last year the Bradlee Basin, 

 which supplies a part of the water for Boston, became affected with an 

 odor described as closely resembling cucumbers. None of the other 

 ponds in the neighborhood were similarly affected. About the same 

 time the water of Springfield, Mass., exhaled the odor of green corn. 

 In 1874 the water of Cherbourg, France, became intolerable from 

 an odor undistinguishable from tliat of a pig-sty. This same odor 

 occurred last summer in Horn Pond, from which East Boston and 

 Charlestown are in part supplied. The odor of decaying wood is 

 not uncommon, especially in early summer." And, in response to a 

 circular letter sent to the various cities of the United States and 

 Canada, the author learned that the fish-like odor was far more preva- 

 lent than he had previously supposed, it having occurred in all the 

 following cities : Concord, N. H. ; Keene, N. H. ; Burlington, Vt. ; 

 Boston, Mass. ; Lowell, Mass. ; Holyoke, Mass. ; Brookline, Mass. ; 

 Springfield, Mass. ; New Haven, Conn. ; West Meriden, Conn. ; New 

 Britain, Conn. ; Hartford, Conn. ; Auburn, N. Y. ; Newburg, N. Y. ; 

 Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; Trenton, N. J. ; York, Pa. ; Baltimore, Md. ; 

 Norfolk, Va. ; Nashville, Tenn. ; and St. Paul, Minn. 



In these letters reference is made to the cucumber-odor, as having 

 been observed at Boston, Springfield, Holyoke, Mass., and at Pough- 

 keepsie, N. Y. In the majority of cases the odor was coimected with 

 the increase of temperature in the beginning of summer, and con- 

 tinued only for a week or two. In other cases it began in the autumn, 

 and continued into the winter or early spring. The supply of the 

 cities named is derived from ponds, lakes, and rivers ; but it is inter- 

 esting to note that there is no report of any fish-like odor in the water 

 of any city supplied from the Great Lakes. These odors are ex- 

 tremely volatile; boiling readily expels them, and they gradually es- 

 cape when the water is exposed to the air. 



Hemlock Lake, in Livingston County, New York, situated thirty 

 miles south of the city of Rochester, is about seven miles in length, 

 and has an elevation of about 400 feet above the level of the city. 

 The water is taken from the northern end of the lake, and conveyed 

 in a large conduit-pipe a distance of nearly twenty miles to the main 

 stoi-age-reservoir in the town of West Rush ; from here it is carried to 

 the reservoir at Mount Hope, whence it is distributed to all parts 

 of the city. " The difference of elevation between the storage and 

 tlie distributing reservoirs is 115 feet, and renders it possible, ex- 

 cept in winter, to throw up the whole volume of water, as it enters 

 the Mount Hope Reservoir, to a height of about eighty feet, thus 



