If we are mistaken in the wishes of the Common Council, we shall be glad to be informed of the same. Under this arrangement of the work, the whole amount required by this depart- ment to bring the water to Murray's Hill, will not differ materially from $650,000, which includes the settling up the demands for work already done on the several contracts not yet completed. CLENDENING VALLEY. The Common Council will recollect that we informed them, through their Committee, in July, 1840, that we proposed dispensing with the arched bridges contemplated to be made by the original plan, over 96th, 97th, and 101st streets. The two Boards, by resolution, in 1840, approved the contemplated change. His Honor, the late Mayor, fearing enormous damages would be exacted by the contractors, doubted the expediency of the measure, and deemed it his duty to veto the resolution of the two Boards. Neither of the Boards of the Common Council took into consideration the veto message of the late Mayor, that we are aware of, and as the responsibility of the work, and its mode of construction, was legally with this Board, we" deemed it our duty to dis- pense with the bridges in question, and the work at the Clendening Valley is now comple- ted without them. The saving, by this alteration, has been $52,000, and a more substantial and durable work made to supply the place of arches. We have also arranged with the contractors, CROTON AQ.UEDUCT. 193 to settle all their claims for this departure from the original plan, and for the material which they had provided for the arches, for the sum of $4,500. The excavation of about 50,000 cubic yards of rock has been dispensed with in the receiving reservoir, of which about 45,000 lie in the northern division. This constitutes a saving of $50,000, one dollar per cubic yard being the price for excavatin g. The unfinished work on this island, is on sections Nos. 88, 89, 90, 91, 94, 96, inclu- ding the receiving reservoir, 97, 98, and the distributing reservoir, all of which can be completed early in the ensuing season. ENGINEER DEPARTMENT. — Under the direction of the Board, the chief engineer has reduced the corps to one chief, one principal assistant, and two resident engineers, with the assistants and inspectors mentioned in his report. The total expenditures up to 31st December, 1841, for all objects connected with the aqueduct, were $7,107,463 03. . The early part of the working season of 1842 was rainy, and occasioned some soli- citude lest the contractors, especially those for the dam, should not be able sufficiently to advance their work, to realise the expectations of the citizens to behold the Croton flow- ing in their streets on the 4th of July ; but after the state of the weather permitted opera- tions to be resumed, the work on the dam was carried on with such diligence and energy, that the water in the Croton lake was raised sufficiently high to flow into the aqueduct with a depth of 18 inches, on the morning of the 22d June. The report made by the Commissioners on 8th August, announces the gratifying fact that the CROTON HAD REACHED NEW YORK, and was flowing in her streets. We give the language of the report itself, in describing this most important and inte- resting event. It also keeps up the record of the progress and condition of the works at the period of its date : CROTON DAM. The work on this dam is now so nearly completed, that whenever it is considered safe and proper to do so, the quantity of water sent into the aqueduct may be increased to its full capacity. This massive structure, of which the dimensions and a description were given in the last report, is supposed to be one of the most beautiful and substantial of its kind in the world. The cut stone masonry of the overfall being now completed, with the exception of 15 or 20 feet at the southern end adjoining the waste culvert, a perfect idea can be formed of its finished appearance ; and this is well calculated to impress a spectator with the belief that it is almost, if not entirely, indestructible by the elements, or time. Between the Croton Dam and the influent gate-house at Harlem River, the line of aqueduct was finished last season, and during the present season this gate-house has been nearly completed. The embankment in the Harlem River, which serves the double purpose of securing the cofferdams for the piers of the bridge, and forming a foundation for the temporary 49 194 MEMOIR OF THE water pipes, has been finished, and the pipes were laid upon it, and a connection formed between the two sides