The Soil. 
5 
of the surface would justify the assumption that there is no hydro¬ 
static pressure upon the water in the gravel stratum; at most it can 
scarcely be enough to force the water through the clay into the soil 
above. This would lead us to the surmise that the water in the 
gravel may be entirely different from the water in the overlying 
soil. Analyses made in the early part of our work corroborated 
this view. 
DRAINAGE. 
§ 6. The drainage of the area, of which the plot under obser- 
tion forms a part, is into the Cache a la Poudre river, at a point about 
one and three quarters miles below the town of Fort Collins. There 
is at present an open ditch running through this swale for a con¬ 
siderable distance, and the College management has laid tile drains 
for a long distance, serving to extend the drainage system almost to 
the line of the College property. The lateral drains are laid with 
four inch tiles; the main drains with six, eight and ten inch tiles. 
On the lower portion of the property there are two drains, laid with 
eight and ten inch tiles. These drains are parallel for a portion of 
their length and in part divergent. 
§ 7. A study of the country shows that this swale was form¬ 
erly the bed of a considerable stream formed by the union of 
streams issuing from the foothills through Spring, Dixon, Soldier 
and probably what is now the Poudre canon. This fact accounts 
for the strata of gravel and sand encountered in and along the 
margins of the swale. 
The foundation of the Chemical Laboratory, situated on the 
north side of the swale, had to be put down to a depth of 20 feet 
on account of quicksands. At this depth, however, the workmen 
encountered a stratum of course gravel. 
The fall from the plot of ground under observation to the 
Poudre river is about 150 feet, more rather than less. This old 
water course is now filled up. Ten or twelve years ago this plot 
of ground was very wet and boggy, the principal vegetation being 
cat-tails. This condition was undoubtedly due to the character of 
the soil, which, as I have stated, is very retentive of water. 
ORIGIN OF THE SOTL. 
§ 8. The source of this soil is evident and will not account for 
the alkali salts or its physical properties. The gravel, where there 
is any at all, is clearly granitic, and can not be the residue from the 
breaking down of the younger formations of the foothills and plains. 
The mechanical analysis of the soil shows that even the finest sand 
is granitic and has been derived from the mountains within the 
foothills, carried and deposited by the waters which at one time 
had this swale for their bed. The only evidence that any of the 
