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domestic service in remote parts of the system. A large part of the power of the pumps is consumed in the friction of the water in passing through the pipes; and as the city extends and increases, the protection against fire is becoming more and more precarious. There is also a very widespread impression prevailing that the amount paid for water rates, fire service, and electric lighting is sufficient to supply the city on a much more ample and liberal scale, and at the same time secure incidental advantages of great value.

The project before the city is:

• First. The construction of a massive dam across the Colorado to furnish power for pumping, for electric lighting and propelling street cars. Second. The construction of a reservoir at a height sufficient to maintain fire pressure in the pipes.
• Third. The extension of the distributing system on a scale of magnitude commensurate with the present and prospective wants of the city.
• Fourth. As an incident of the project it is expected that there will remain a large surplus of power susceptible of such uses as will greatly promote the future prosperity of the city.

THE DAM.

The Colorado above Austin flows in a deep cut or canyon worn in the limestone rock. It is skirted by limestone bluffs rising often to the height of 150 feet above the bed of the river, broken by the erosion of tributary streams. No extensive meadow or bottom lands exist. This situation permits the construction of a high dam with but little damage to private property. The river, in it normal condition, occupies but a small part of the channel in the rock, the remainder being occupied by alluvial deposits to the depth of average high water. In great floods the river spreads from bluff to bluff.

Several situations have been examined with reference to the construction of the dam. One on Taylor's lime chute, about 3.75 miles from the city limits, appears most favorable to the construction of the dam itself, but one on the Brackenridge property, about three-fourths of a mile nearer town, possesses greater advantages as regards the canal and works appertinent to the water power. This site has been selected for the purpose of the estimate.

The channel in the rock is here about 1,150 feet wide at a height of 60 feet above the summer level of the river. The cross section of the channel is not far from level on the bottom, and is bounded by nearly perpendicular walls of rock rising to the height of a-little over 60 feet on the city side of the river and 125 or more on the other side. The river bed proper occupies not more than one-half of this width, the remainder of this being alluvial deposit, rising to the height of 40 or 50 feet above the river bed. The situation here is admirably well situated to the development of water power by a dam about 60 feet in height, the perpendicular face of rock rising to about that height, and thence receding from the river in a gentle slope, forming a bench on which the canal or feeder could be constructed, the alluvial strip of ground between the canal and river furnishing sites for pumping and power stations and any other establishments requiring power. An estimate has accordingly been prepared on the basis of a 60-foot dam.

Its crest will be about 1,150 feet in length [the crest was really 1,091 feet long]. It is contemplated to make it some 16 feet thick at the top, increasing downward and spreading out in a broad toe or apron, to give the water a horizontal direction, making its extreme width at the bottom about 50 feet. The body and upstream face of the dam to be made of limestone rock abounding in the vicinity, the upstream face being of quarry-faced work with close joints. The downstream face and toe are intended to be of granite found in abundance in Burnet County, split to approximately regular shape. and laid with but a small amount of tooling. The capping is of granite in as large blocks as can be handled, worked to regular shape. The entire work to be laid in hydraulic cement.