Yesterday Mr. [John G.] Gindele, president of the Board of Public Works, invited the members of Chicago's daily press to a trip on Lake Michigan for the purpose of viewing the boring operations which are being carried on to determine the practicability of Mr. Gindele's plan to build a tunnel under the Lake.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the tugboat "George B. Wood," which was built last summer, left the pier at the Clark Street Bridge under command of Captain Bird. The members of the Board of Public Works and quite a number of guests were aboard. The leading newspapers of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Post, Chicago Times, Illinois Staats-Zeitung, and Evening Journal, were represented by reporters who were accompanied by their wives.

After a short journey over Lake Michigan's smooth, clear waters, the boat arrived at a spot about two miles from shore, just north of the present water 2works, where two scows were at anchor. The water at this particular place is as clear as crystal, and it was possible to see the iron pipe, which serves to guide and protect the boring apparatus, for a distance of at least fifteen feet downward. The depth of the lake at this point is thirty feet. Boring operations were going on between the two previously mentioned scows.

The drill which is being used is of very simple construction and is about one and one-half feet in diameter. It was driven thirty-two feet into the ground, and when it was pulled up it showed unmistakable lumps of blue clay which contained no admixture of sand or gravel. This kind of clay is the most suitable soil for tunnel construction. Hence the Board of Public Works will have a better constructed drill made, and if the clay extends all the way to the shore, as is very probably the case, Mr. Gindele's plan for constructing a water duct to the shore of Lake Michigan is not only practicable, but its execution will not even be expensive; and citizens of Chicago may soon have the most wholesome drinking water in the world.