338 



very different from that of the excavations for the tower of the Public 

 Buildings, and can in no wise be accepted as an indication of a want of 

 stability in tiie underlying strata of the latter structure. lie remarked that 

 he obtained from Mr. Windrim, the Architect of the Temple, a memorandum 

 of the thickness and character of the several strata through which the ex- 

 cavation passed, in reaching the foundation of the Tower, and which does 

 not agree, in any particular, with the statement recorded in the proceed- 

 ings of the Society. 



According to Mr. Windrim, the first, or upper stratum was 10 feet in 

 thickness, consisting of a sandy loam, resting on a clay bed of 5 feet deep, 

 underlying which occurred a stratum of sandy loam 12 feet thick ; at about 

 2 feet from the bottom of this, or 25 feet below the street curb, the loam 

 was permeated with water, supposed to have percolated through the ground 

 w^hen the adjacent squares were open. The next 10 feet consisted of strati- 

 fied gravel, at the bottom of which it became hard, and at the depth of 1 

 foot more, being 38 feet below the street curb, the foundations were laid in 

 a substratum of hard, compact gravel. 



Mr. Walter remarked that he considers it proper thus to refer to the 

 foundations of the tower of the Masonic Temple, as the statement in the 

 Society's proceedings deduces from what is there erroneously said respect- 

 ing the Masonic structure, that there existed a possibility of future disaster 

 to the great tower of the Public Buildings. Such an inference is not only 

 unfair and unjust, but it is damaging to public confidence in a great public 

 work, and highly detrimental to the professional reputation of its archi- 

 tect. 



The error of such an inference cannot fail to be apparent in view of the 

 actual geological formation of the strata in which it is founded, and the 

 manner of its founding. It is altogether a mistake to suppose that this great 

 tower has its foundations "laid in the upper gravel." The facts are that 

 in digging the foundation in question the first stratum passed through was 

 the ordinary sandy loam, under which occurs a clay bed varying from 4 to 

 6 feet in thickness ; then follow^s a stratum of gravel, and below that one of 

 sandy loam stratified with gravel and permeated with water from the sur- 

 face drainage, producing what is sometimes called quicksand ; underlying 

 this the hard gravel commences, and continues increasing in density as it 

 increases in depth, until it assumes the character of " water gravel, " from 

 which rises the natural flow which supplies our wells. This stratum is 

 some 10 feet in thickness, and in this the Tower of the Public Buildings is 

 founded. After the excavation had been made, and prepared to receive 

 the structure, a well was dug in the centre for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the nature of the underlying soil, when it was found to consist of hard 

 gravel, solid and compact throughout. This heavy stratum of gravel 

 through which the natural spring water percolates, being considered by ar- 

 chitects as the best possible foundation for a heavy structure, rock alone 

 excepted. 



Mr. Walter further stated that the foundation of this great Tower is 96 



