[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] The commissioners selected Major Douglass as their chief engineer, and on the 6th of July, 1835, that gentleman, with fifteen assistants, took the field for preliminary work in our county. Their first care was to stake out the lake to bo formed by damming the Croton, which it was at first calculated would have an area of 496 acres. But it was nearly two years before construction work was actually begun. Much trouble was experienced in satisfying the land owners along the line of the proposed aqueduct, who made vexations demands, among them the extraordinary one (expressed in a memorial to the legislature) that the legal possession and use of the land should remain with the original proprietors, notwithstanding the circum-stance of its having been paid for by the city. A measure to con-ciliate the Westchester County owners was passed by the legislature, but it gave little satisfaction. "The consequence of this discontent was that the commissioners were unable to make any purchase, by private contract, of lands along the line, and were therefore com-pelled to resort to the vice-chancellor for the appointment of com-missioners to take by appraisement whatever was needed." Major Douglass was superseded as chief engineer in 1836 by Mr. J. B. Jervis, under whose direction the whole work was carried to com-pletion.