direction of a Water Commissioner appointed by the City Council. By
special agreement, water is supplied to Oak Bay in bulk, this
municipality having its own distributing system.

The rapid increase in population, together with the fact that in recent
years very little had been done toward increasing the water supply,
resulted in the necessity for remodeling the entire system, and there
are very few cities where this would involve as many complex problems or
a greater variety of work.

Water is drawn from Elk Lake, situated about five miles north of the
city; thence it flows by gravity to the pumping station about four miles
distant, and from there is pumped directly to the consumers.

The remodeling of the system, as recently completed, provided for:

1.--Increasing the capacity of Elk Lake by a system of levees.

2.--Increasing the capacity of the main to the pumping station by
replacing about two miles of the old 16-in., wrought-iron, riveted pipe
with 24-in. riveted steel pipe.

3.--Increasing the capacity of the pumping station by the installation
of a 4,500,000-gal. pumping engine of the close-connected,
cross-compound, Corliss, crank-and-fly-wheel type.

4.--The construction of a 20,000,000-gal. concrete-lined distributing
reservoir in the city.

5.--The entire remodeling of the distributing system, necessitating the