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 conceding to a private association, the right to tear up the pavements to lay down pipes. A memorial, was in consequence, forwarded to the Legislature, urging upon it, the protection of the corporate rights of the city. With strange inconsistency, on the 28th of February, only a fortnight after the above report, the Common Council retraced their steps, and actually approved a plan presented to the Legislature by Gideon Tucker and others, for supplying the city with water through the agency of a private association. The result of all this was the incorporation, by the Legislature, of the New York Water Works, with authority to supply the city with pure and wholesome water. Can- vass White was employed by the Company as Engineer, and in his report to the direc- tors, recommended that the Bronx river be the source, and that the water, being taken at Underbill's Bridge, would yield a daily supply of 9,100,000 gallons, at an expense for the whole construction, of $1,450,000. They were to be conveyed in an arched conduit of masonry to Harlem river, and thence across the river and to the city by iron pipes. Benjamin Wright, who was invited to examine Mr. White's plans and estimates, expressed his entire concurrence in their accuracy. The charter of this company proved so defective in practice, that they were unable to proceed in their work, and accordingly they applied to the Legislature, in 1826, for an amendment, authorising the company to take such of the waters, lands, and materials as they needed, by appraisement of indifferent persons. In this application they were defeated by the opposition of the Sharon Canal Com- pany, who claimed under their charter, all the water on the route of their Canal. The Water Works Company, unable to proceed, surrendered their charter in 1827. Tired, apparently, of relying upon sources of water at a distance, a committee of the 104 MEMOIR OF THE Common Council, in March 1826, was directed to inquire whether " water of the best quality, and in quantity sufficient to supply the wants of the city, cannot be obtained from wells sunk, or to be sunk, on Harlem heights." This led to the incorporation by the next Legislature, in 1827, of a fourth company, called the New- York Well Company. The water was to be procured on the island, by sinking wells in the most elevated grounds. The Company made several attempts to procure water, but being satisfied by their experiments of the impracticability of the undertaking, the enterprise was abandoned. The hope next embraced was that of Artesian Wells. Mr. Levi Disbrow had about this time succeeded, by boring to a great depth through earth and rock, in procuring a copious supply of good water, at the Manhattan Reservoir, corner of Bleecker and Mercer streets. The diameter of this perforation is eight inches ; its depth, 442 feet. A tube extends from the top to near the bottom, in order to exclude any springs that may be met with in the descent, and of which the quality might impair that of the main supply. Mr. Disbrow made several other borings, varying from 72 to 250 feet in depth. Encouraged by his success, Mr. Disbrow proposed to supply the city by an Artesian well and reservoir in each ward. But, inasmuch as the product of these wells is limited, even supposing, what is by no means certain, that the multiplication of them at different levels would not diminish the supply, and drain the sources of the more shallow to the deeper perforations, it seemed obvious that the cost of such an enterprise, taken in con- nection with the uncertainty of the result as to the adequate supply, forbade the under- taking. Nevertheless, the Corporation caused various perforations to be made in the public markets, and in Jacob-street, in the Swamp. In this last, at the depth of 128 feet, a mineral water was obtained, unfit for domestic purposes ; but which, for a time, was supposed or represented, to possess valuable medicinal qualities. After so many years of fruitless resolutions, enquiry, and experiments, in March, 1829, the first positive step towards something like action on the part of