OF THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 59 



The following is Capt. Campbell's reply : 



Burlington Canal, Dec. 29th 1884. 



Dear Sir, — Yours of 23rd inst. is to hand. When the current 

 is running in from the lake, or when wind is strong from the north- 

 east, which has the effect of driving a large quantity of water from 

 the lake, the water in the canal and in the neighborhood of the 

 beach is considered pure and fit for use ; on the other hand, when 

 the current is out and a south-west wind is blowing we do not pretend 

 to use the water. 



It is not true that there is an outward flow of water at the 

 bottom of the canal, no matter which way the wind is ; the currents 

 in the canal are controlled entirely by the winds. If the wind is 

 strong from the north-east and a large body of water is forced into 

 the bay, I have noticed that the water, would rise eight or ten 

 inches and remain so for perhaps three or four hours, then turn and 

 run out against the wind, (but not the same quantity as at first came 

 in), and then turn round and run in again, and keep acting in 

 that way until the wind would moderate, thus the surplus water 

 would run out and come to its natural stage. Again, when we have 

 a strong wind from the westward the water will lower as above, and 

 remain so until the weather moderates, then come into its natural 

 level ; when there is a dead calm for any length of time, there is no 

 current either way. Hoping the above will answer your enquiry, 



I remain. 



Yours respectfully, 



Thos. Campbell, 



Now, if these small streams and the inflows through the canal 

 are the only means of renewing the waters of the bay (except what 

 falls from the sky), it seems as if there were need of taking great 

 care that no more impure matter should be allowed to vitiate them 

 than cannot be prevented. But what are the facts ? Is the city 

 doing that ? 



In 1854 the first sewer was completed, — down James street to 

 the inlet near the Agricultural Implement Works — when the defile- 

 ment commenced, and has been going on increasing as the sewers 

 have been extended. 



Quite recently the citizens were asked for a hundred and five 

 thousand dollars with which to extend and repair the old, as well as 

 to build new sewers, through which it was intended, presumably, 

 that every citizen should be compelled to have his water closet 

 empty into the bay, thus making what we have so justly been proud 

 of for all these years, a grand cesspool. It has been maintained by 

 some that the tossing and tumbling about of the water by the winds 



