[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] The water is of great purity and on evaporating leaves no deposit. The pressure in the pipes varies from one hundred pounds to the square inch in the highest parts of the village to one hundred and sixty-three pounds to the square inch at the docks. In the business portion the pressure is one hundred and ten pounds, which is sufficient to throw a stream from an inch nozzle to the height of one hundred and fifty feet. At the docks a stream can be thrown one hun-dred and eighty feet high. The Peekskill Fire Department.— There are (1884) in Peekskill five fire companies. Two are en-gine companies, two hose companies and one is a hook-and-ladder company. Owing to the strength of the pressure in the water mains the engines have not once been called into requisition since the construc-tion of the water works. Each of the engine companies has a hose carriage. Columbian Engine Company, No. 1, is the first com-pany which was organized in Peekskill and dates its existence from the 8th of June, 1826. In 1827, when the village government was organized, it came under the control of the trustees. The number of members then allowed was twenty-five. William B. Birdsall was the first foreman and the members were the fore-most citizens of the place. The first engine was of the kind known as "goose-nock." It was replaced in 1848 by the " piano-engine," which is owned at pres-ent. In 1SS4 Columbian Engine Company had forty-nine members.