be necessary to arrive at a right conclusion in the premises.'' This bill was passed by the legislature on the 26th of February, 1833, and the governor appointed as water commissioners, for the period of on*1 year, Stephen Allen, B. M. Brown, S. Dusenberry, S. Alley, and William W. Fox.1 The commissioners engaged two engineers, Mr. Canvass White and Major Douglass, formerly professor of engineering at West Point, to undertake the requisite surveys, examinations, and estimates. Mi-. White being occupied otherwise at the time, the whole work was performed by Major Douglass, who sub-

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ft

A If ..t. 4m--^-"

GREAT

FIRE

(NEW

YORK

CITY).

mitted his report in the November following. " Major Douglass adhered unfalteringly to the conviction that the Croton, and the Croton only, should be looked to and relied on. Like the Roman Marcius, . . . who, when the decemvirs and sybils indicated the Anio as the stream which the gods preferred for the supply of his aqueduct, still adhered to the cold, pure, and abundant springs from the mountains of Tivoli, so Mr. Douglass, disregarding difficulties real and 1 Mr. Fox was at that time the most promiiienl citizen of our Village of West Farms.

GENERAL

COUNTY

HISTORY

imaginary, and heeding not at all the efforts still to cause the Bronx to be preferred, held fast to the Oroton." Major Douglass disposed forever of the Bronx proposal by demonstrating thai it was impossible, by whatever expedients, to procure from the Bronx a supply which for any considerable period would be satisfactorily large. Regarding the quality of the Oroton water, he made the following interesting statements: The supplies of the Croton are derived almost exclusively from the elevated regions of the Highlands in Westchester and Putnam Counties, being furnished by the pure springs which so remarkably characterize the granitic formation of that region.