granted to the applicants, took care, while reserving a right to subscribe for a portion of the stock, to guard themselves against any obligation to do so.

They at the same time, in the bill accompanying the memorial, sought to provide a fund, on the faith of which they might borrow such sums as they should subscribe, by asking authority to raise, for that purpose, 1-2 of 1 per cent, on sales at auction within the city, in addition to the duty then paid to the State.

In consequence of the assent of the Common Council, the Legislature granted to the

MEMOIR OF THE

applicants, an act of incorporation, with power to make a canal from the western boundary of the State of Connecticut, to the city of New York. The route of this canal commenced in the State of Connecticut, at the junction of the Oblong river with a small stream which flows from the Mudge and other ponds. It followed the course of the Oblong river to Dover, thence entering the valley of Swamp

river, and passing through the towns of Paulding, Patterson, and south-east to Crawford's Mills on the east branch of the Croton, making a distance of forty miles. From Crawford's Mills, the route by an undulating course, requiring the construction of two tunnels,

one 1,320 yards in length, and the second 1,760 yards, reached Macomb's dam, at an elevation of 97 feet above tide ; the length of this part of the work would be 52 miles.