264 Supply of Water to the Metropolis. 



things which may thus be held in solution, but are never at 

 the pains of actually experimenting upon the subject, which 

 might enable them to state what really is there found. The 

 result of several experiments upon the Grand Junction water 

 leads us to believe that it is not objectionable when its mecha- 

 nical impurities have been separated ; we have found none of 

 4;hat abundance of animal and vegetable matter which the said 

 chemists had led us to anticipate. Carbonic acid, carbonate 

 of lime, a little sulphate of lime, and some common salt, are 

 the leading ingredients which we have detected ; and these, in 

 no alarming relative proportions to the whole mass, a pint of 

 the water yielding upon an average a grain and a half of so- 

 luble matter, and always less than two grains. We therefore 

 repeat, that whenever the Company have so far improved their 

 arrangements as to enable them to supply no other water than 

 that which has completely deposited its suspended matters, 

 there will be no longer any grounds of complaint, provided 

 they neither increase their rates, which are already enor- 

 mous, nor diminish the quantity, nor alter the regularity 

 of their service. We have been at the pains of examining 

 water from other parts of the river between Chelsea and Lon- 

 don Bridge, and the results are not unfavourable to the state- 

 ments of the Grand Junction Company ; it is neither chemi- 

 cally purer, nor mechanically cleaner. In the supplies of the 

 West Middlesex Company we have not discerned any import- 

 ant shade of improvement ; the water is neither softer nor 

 cleaner. To conclude, we have no hesitation in saying, that 

 the only source whence the metropolis can obtain river water 

 in sufficient abundance, and of unobjectionable purity, is 

 from the Thames, and the higher up the river the better. 

 Some years ago a plan was suggested for carrying Thames 

 water from the vicinity of Teddington to the top of Hampstead 

 Hill, and thence supplying London and its environs ; it was 

 deemed visionary, and laid upon the shelf The fact is, that 

 the difference between the water there and at Chelsea, is not 

 such as would justify the outlay of a million of money, and 

 a proportionate increase of the rates. 



