CROTON AQUEDUCT. tion of 244,000, much beyond that then contained in the city of New York, would be accommodated.

Notwithstanding the expense which the city had incurred by these preliminary surveys and estimates, no farther action seems to have been taken in the matter, for on 17th January, 1825, we find the Recorder presenting to the Common Council a resolution for enquiring into the expediency of vesting in the Corporation exclusively, the right to introduce water into the city.

This course was adopted in consequence of an application then before the Legislature for supplying water to the city, concerning which the Corporation had not been consulted. The matter was referred to a committee, who reported in conformity with the resolution, and dwelt with emphasis upon the inconveniences and wrong to the city, that

might result from conceding to a private association, the right to tear up the pavements to lay down pipes. A memorial, was in consequence, forwarded to the Legislature, urging upon it, the protection of the corporate rights of the city. With strange inconsistency, on the 28th of February, only a fortnight after the above report, the Common Council retraced their steps, and actually approved a plan presented to the Legislature by Gideon Tucker and others, for supplying the city with water

through the agency of a private association. The result of all this was the incorporation, by the Legislature, of the New York Water Works, with authority to supply the city with pure and wholesome water. Canvass White was employed by the Company as Engineer, and in his report to the directors, recommended that the Bronx river be the source, and that the water, being taken at Underbill's Bridge, would yield a daily supply of 9,100,000 gallons, at an expense for the whole construction, of $1,450,000. They were to be conveyed in an arched conduit of masonry to Harlem river, and thence across the river and to the city by iron pipes.