The Commissioners were also informed, that in excavating this canal, which sunk several feet below tide, the wells in the vicinity were deprived of water. The fact is, as the Commissioners think, that the same principle in respect to the obtaining of fresh water, operates in every part of our island, namely, that the earth becomes so saturated, at a depth on a level with the tide on the East and North rivers, that water will not descend lower and in the digging of ;

wells, where the rock does not interfere, water is uniformly found at that depth.

Any supply from the sources alluded to, therefore, would be entirely inadequate to answer all the various purposes of domestic consumption to supply the numerous manu- ;

factories that would spring up in the northern and eastern parts of the city, the increasing number of shipping daily departing from this port, the extinguishment of fires, and the washing and cleansing of the streets and sewers of this metropolis. Nothing less than a river, distributed through thousands of channels, and brought to the premises of every householder, will be commensurate to the wants of a population such as the city of New- York contains, and will contain. If further evidence was required, the Commissioners might refer to the experience of other populous cities and villages, both in our own and other countries. Their example ought, surely, to have some weight with us, when making up an opinion on this subject. To suppose that they would expend millions of money to procure water from a distant source, or to raise it from their rivers by powerful machinery, when at the same time they could obtain a sufficient supply, and as good an article, at a comparatively trifling expense, by sinking wells within the bounds of the city or village, is to suppose them destitute of common sense and prudence.