In case of fire the danger now is in doing more damage with the water than will be accomplished by the flames. Fire protection is afforded by 75 hydrants so placed that, with few exceptions, all the property in the village is reached. The works were completed in 1875, and in all respects, viz. : economy in construction ($141,000), quality and quantity of water and substantiability, they will ever remain as an enduring monument to the Board of Water Commissioners under whose supervision they were constructed from plans submitted by Chas. E. Fowler, Esq., the engineer. The Board consisted of Reuben R. Finch, George W. Robertson, Chas. F. Southard, Wm. S. Tompkins, and Gilbert T. Sutton. The following named gentlemen constitute the present Board: Geo. W. Robertson, Ardenus R. Free, Chas. F. Southard, Wm. S. Tompkins and John Halstead.

Superintendent -- Chas. R. Swain.

The town is well situated for purposes of education, furnishing, as it does, facilities for communicating daily and almost hourly with the great city of New York. There are two union free school districts in the town. The amount expended, the pupils taught and the number of teachers are about the same in each district, and the schools are efficiently and economically managed, the annual expense in each school being about $5,000. A principal and seven assistants are employed in each, and the average daily attendance in each is about three hundred.

THE TOWN OF CORTLANDT.

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The Peekskill Military Academy is delightfully situated upon Oak Hill, a high eminence overlooking the surrounding country and commands an extended view of the ever changing scenery of the Hudson.