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. To effect the aforesaid object, the Commissioners engaged John Martineau, Esq., civil engineer, to make the necessary surveys, levels, and estimates, having special reference to the erection of a lofty dam at some station on the river nearer its mouth than the place selected by Major Douglas to ascertain the damag-e that would ensue by overflow- ;

ing the land and injuring the mill seats and to estimate the expense of erecting such ;

dam and compensating those injuries to ascertain and report the best plan for conveying ;

the water from said dam to the city ; the quantity per diem that will be conveyed by the plan recommended the cost of the necessary excavations, embankments, bridges, cul- ;

verts, and reservoirs, required to deliver the water on a declivity of fifteen inches to the mile, to a receiving reservoir on the high grounds near Harlem river, and from thence across said river to another reservoir of sufficient elevation, near Manhattan ville, (should he be of opinion that these reservoirs will be necessary,) then to a distributing reservoir three or four miles from the City Hall, near Thirty-eighth-street and the Fifth Avenue, preserving an elevation of 117 to 120 feet above tide at said reservoir; but if any of the reservoirs named can be dispensed with, or if additional ones be required, to report the reasons why, and to conform the estimate to the alterations in the plan, should any be commended to furnish a report in writing, with a profile and map of the survey, show- :