of large dimensions, subject, as it would be, to the numberless casualties incident to such constructions, besides being the receptacle of much filth in its long passage, the wash of the country, and the dissolving of the mineral and other substances combined with the earth through which it passes. The complaint raised in London against the water of the New River, is "that being an open canal, it is subject to the drainage of the country through which it runs, in consequence of a right claimed by the proprietors of the adjacent lands, and which the company have no means of obviating, neither have they any power to prevent persons from bathing in their aqueduct." Mr. Rhodes, however, has altogether misconceived the construction of the aqueduct proposed by our report, for instead of its admitting any of these substances or impurities, it was to be impervious on three sides to any external fluid or substance whatever, and on the fourth, the proposition was, to have it covered with a board or shingle roof. These several inconsistencies have tended to destroy the confidence of the Commissioners in the projects of Mr. Rhodes and they would not have spent so much time on ;

their examination, had it not been their opinion that the Common Council would expect some notice of a proposition that offered to effect the important object of supplying this city with pure and wholesome water, at a cost two-thirds less than that estimated by our engineer, in his report of 1833. They have, therefore, deemed it their duty to ascertain by actual survey, whether a dam may not be raised at some point nearer the mouth of the river, than that proposed by their report of 1833, from which might be drawn an equal quantity of water, and at the same time save much in the expenditure.