ERECTIONS a 
S3 
heral, within the limits of the city, is agree¬ 
ably undulated; but none of the risings are 
so great as to become objects of inconvenience 
in a town. The soil is chiefly of a yellowish 
clay mixed with gravel* There are numbers 
of excellent springs in the city, and water is 
readily had in most places by digging wells. 
Here are two streams likewise, which run 
through the city, Reedy Branch and Tiber 
Creek *. The perpendicular height of the 
source of the latter, above the level of the tide, 
is two hundred and thirty-six feet. 
By the regulations published, it was settled 1 
that all the houses should be built of brick 
or stone | the walls to be thirty feet high, 
and to be built parallel to the line of the* 
street, but either upon it or withdrawn from 
| 
it, as suited the taste of the builder. How- 
ever, numbers of wooden habitations have been 
built; but the different owners have all been 
cautioned against considering them as perma¬ 
nent, They are to be allowed for a certain 
* Upon the granting possession of waste lands to any per¬ 
son, commonly called the location of lands, it is usual to give 
particular names to different spots, and also to the creeks and 
rivers. On the original location of the ground now allotted 
for the seat of the federal city, this creek received the name 
of Tiber Creek, and the identical spot of ground on-which 
the capitol now stands was called Rome. This anecdote is 5 
related by many as a certain prognostic of the future magni¬ 
ficence pf this city, which is to be, as it were, a second Rome, 
Q % 
