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5
INCLINATION AND LEVELS.
The surface gradually slopes towards the river, without any
elevation or depression worthy of notice. The Regent's Canal, constructed
about 36 years ago, divides the Hamlet into two unequal
portions, and, running North and South, separates the East from the
other Wards. The levels offer but little variation in their range; the
highest ground is in North Street in the North Ward—the level of
which according to the Government survey is 46 feet 8 inches, and the
lowest, near Rhodeswell in the East Ward, which is 23 feet 3 inches.*
SOIL.
The soil, for the purposes of this Report, may be described as
consisting of a variable thickness of vegetable soil, resting on a
stratum of gravel of considerable depth. The depth of the humus, or
vegetable soil, is from 2 to 5 feet, and that of the gravel from
9 to 16 feet, and even more. These rest upon what is called London
or blue clay. '
•
WATER SUPPLY.
No spring affording a (low of water is to be found. The District
is amply supplied with water by the East London Water Company,
from which source the public supply is almost exclusively obtained.
Some Artesian wells have been constructed by the proprietors of
establishments where a copious and regular supply of water is of
the first importance; these wells are from 200 to 500 feet in depth.
The supply obtained from them is less than might be expected,
and is found to be exhausted, or to diminish, so as to require an
increase of descent at the rate of 2 feet 10½ inches every year. The
chief defect in the water of the East London Works, which is derived
from the Lea River above Tottenham Lock, is its quality of hardness ;
while it contrasts favourably with other London Companies in the
* The levels are those given iu the Ordnance Sheets—the datum for which is
7 feet above low water mark al Liverpool, and they are only here used to express
the range, or to show that there is a difference of 23 feet 5 inches between the
highest and lowest ground. The average height of Mile End Old Town above th»
Trinity high water mark is 16 feet.