consisting of Stephen Allen, S. Cowdery, and H. I. Wyckoff. The report was favorable, and they pre- sented a memorial, and then drafted a law, which was accepted and sent to Albany. In their memorial, the Common Council, in urging that an act of incorporation be granted to the applicants, took care, while reserving a right to subscribe for a portion of the stock, to guard themselves against any obligation to do so. They at the same time, in the bill accompanying the memorial, sought to provide a fund, on the faith of which they might borrow such sums as they should subscribe, by asking authority to raise, for that purpose, 1-2 of 1 per cent, on sales at auction within the city, in addition to the duty then paid to the State. In consequence of the assent of the Common Council, the Legislature granted to the 26 MEMOIR OF THE applicants, an act of incorporation, with power to make a canal from the western boun- dary of the State of Connecticut, to the city of New York. The route of this canal commenced in the State of Connecticut, at the junction of the Oblong river with a small stream which flows from the Mudge and other ponds. It followed the course of the Oblong river to Dover, thence entering the valley of Swamp river, and passing through the towns of Paulding, Patterson, and south-east to Crawford's Mills on the east branch of the Croton, making a distance of forty miles. From Craw- ford's Mills, the route by an undulating course, requiring the construction of two tunnels, one 1,320 yards in length, and the second 1,760 yards, reached Macomb's dam, at an ele- vation of 97 feet above tide ; the length of this part of the work would be 52 miles. This scheme, like so many preceding ones, seems not to have found favor with those who were to furnish the means, which circumstance together with the misconduct of the first President, and the failure of several of the Directors, and withal an expensive law suit, prevented any progress in the work. Accordingly, we find the Common Council again occupied next year with the ever recurring, and ever unsatisfied, want of an adequate supply of water. Canvass White, at the request of the Mayor, S. Allen, had made an examination of the various sources of supply, and estimates of the cost of bringing water to the city by the different routes. The Report was presented to the Common Council in April, 1842. It looked to the Bronx as the source of supply. The instructions to Mr. White, were, that the water should be brought to the city at a height of 30 feet above the level of the Park. Mr. White presented various plans and estimates, some for an open canal to Ma- comb's dam, and thence the water to be raised by means of the water power furnished by the dam to the requisite elevation on the New York shore ; another, for taking the water of the Bronx at the higher elevation of the Westchester cotton factory pond, and conduct- ing it in an arched tunnel of masonry to the Harlem river, and passing it over by its own head through iron pipes. Mr. Benj. Wright, who was associated with Mr. White, gave a decided preference to the latter plan, notwithstanding its greater comparative cost. The estimate was $1,949,- 542. That for either of the other routes through open canals, and the use of power to lift the water at Harlem river, did not exceed one million of dollars. The quantity of water which the Bronx would deliver, even in the dryest season, was stated at 3,000,000 gallons daily, which could be more than doubled by damming the Rye ponds, the source of the Bronx. The experience of Philadelphia had indicated 27 gallons per head, as an adequate daily supply for the inhabitants, at which rate a popula- CROTON AQUEDUCT. tion of 244,000, much beyond that then contained in the city of New York, would be accommodated. Notwithstanding the expense which the city had incurred by these preliminary sur- veys and estimates, no farther action seems to have been taken in the matter, for on 17th January, 1825, we find the Recorder presenting to the Common Council a resolution for enquiring into the expediency of vesting in the Corporation exclusively, the right to introduce water into the city. This course was adopted in consequence of an application then before the Legisla- ture for supplying water to the city, concerning which the Corporation had not been con- sulted. The matter was referred to a committee, who reported in conformity with the resolution, and dwelt with emphasis upon the inconveniences and wrong to the city, that might result from