One of the most interesting problems connected with the water service of large cities is that presented by New Orleans. The City of New Orleans is built upon a deep bed of silt which has been deposited in past ages from the silt-charged waters of the Mississippi. The curious fact has been discovered that at a considerable depth beneath the surface, reached only by artesian wells, a water is supplied which is practically a bog water. It is extremely soft, as bog waters usually are, and very deeply colored with the organic matter which is held in colloidal suspension in water supplies. Large quantities of this brown water are found in the hotels and other public buildings and in use for technical purposes in different parts of the City. Another important supply for New Orleans has been cistern water. A dwelling house in the residential portion of New Orleans is not considered complete without a large wooden cistern. Owing to the character of the soil and the nearness of the water line to the surface it has been found impracticable to build cisterns in the ground. They are therefore constructed as wooden tanks above the surface. All of these supplies, however, were found to be insufficient as the city increased in size. It therefore became necessary to study the possibilities of supplying the water from the Mississippi River.