The pressure distribution due to a concentrated load on a semi‐infinite elastic body is given by the well‐known Boussinesq solution for either the two‐dimensional or three‐dimensional case. We here investigate the effect on such a pressure distribution, taken at the depthh,of the presence at that depth of a slippery rigid bed (case (b)); of a perfectly rough rigid bed (case (c)); and of a perfectly flexible but inextensible thin layer embedded in the material (case (d)). Both pressure distributions in the two and three‐dimensional problems are calculated for each case, Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. Several authors have already investigated case (b) and case (c) in two dimensions (2), (3). Their results are in perfect accordance with ours. The author is indebted to Dr. A. Casagrande for suggesting this investigation as a contribution to the field of soil mechanics.