The quantity of foundation wall laid, amounted to 28,000 cubic yards, and of protection wall, 13.160 cubic yards. This is but a very brief sketch of the work which has been performed, and is con- fined altogether to the operations on the first and second divisions, exclusive of the large amount of excavation in rock and earth on a line of thirty-three miles in length, nearly the whole of which has been completed, together with a large amount of building mate- rials prepared. The contractors on the sections lately placed under contract, comprising the whole of the THIRD and a portion of the FOURTH divisions, have commenced their work with spirit, and appear unwilling to be outdone by their predecessors on the works. The num- ber of mechanics and laborers employed on the whole line, on the 25th ultimo, was 3043 ; they will be very considerably increased during the summer, as the Commissioners have good reason to hope ; which will enable them to show, in their next semi-annual report, an important addition to the work under their charge. The whole length of aqueduct now under contract, extending from the Croton to the Harlem River, is THIRTY-THREE MILES. Owing to a turn-out for wages early in the season, the work on the line between the dam and Sing Sing, was somewhat retarded. The promptness of the magistrates of that town prevented the evil from spreading, and the contractors having taken back such of the laborers as they were still willing to receive, and refusing on any terms to employ the ringleaders of the rioters, order was restored and the work resumed. But a more fruitful and formidable cause of disaster than casual dissatisfaction with the rate of wages, soon occasioned trouble on the line. The Commissioners, as has been already stated, bound all the contractors to prohibit the use of ardent spirits, and on the part of these contractors} entire good faith seems to have been observed on that head. But indivi- dual cupidity, and want of thought, or of a due appreciation of the consequences, on the part of the licensing magistrates, led to the opening of grog-shops in their worst form, in some of the neighboring farm houses, and in shanties erected for the purpose without the line where the contractors could exercise any authority. Here the poison was freely sold, and although the contractors and superintendents exerted all their vigilance to prevent its being introduced on the line, and repeatedly discharged laborers who were found intoxi- cated, the "enemy of man," as it is justly called in the report, prevailed so far, that in the month of April, during a drunken frolic, one of their ancient national feuds broke out among the Irish laborers, and under the respective denominations of Corkites and Fermanaghs, the two parties rushed into a desperate fight, in Avhich one man, named Baxter, was killed, and very many were wounded and mangled in a shocking manner. As, during the preceding year, no disturbance, misconduct, nor depredation had occur- CROTON AQUEDUCT. 159 red among the laborers — no place for the sale of liquors having then been opened — and as it was all-important, alike for the progress of the work, and for restoring the confidence of the inhabitants along the route, that decisive measures should be taken to punish the rioters, indictments were found against several for murder. The swearing, however, was so contradictory, that the act of killing could not be fixed upon any individual, and the Court and Jury, foregoing the capital charge, were content to bind the most conspicu- ous, under recognizance, to keep the peace. Order was by these means restored, and every thing went on again in harmony. The Commissioners, in this report, draw the attention of the Corporation to the fact, that the assessors of the towns in Westchester county, along the line, proposed to include not only the lands occupied by the aqueduct, but the unfinished work of the aqueduct itself, in the property of the town to be rated for taxation ; and that instead of rating the lands only at the valuation of the neighboring farms from which they had been taken, they had in the town of Greensburg alone, valued the property of the aqueduct at $60,000 Believing such a measure, in regard to such a work, to be unprecedented, the Com- missioners recommend to the Corporation, to invoke legislative protection. They also renew a request, previously made, that the Corporation would take imme- diate measures for opening and establishing the grade of the avenues and streets through which the line of the aqueduct passed, and also those by which the receiving reservoir is bounded. After bearing testimony anew to their constant satisfaction with the ability and devo- tedness of the engineer