The Water Commissioners also claimed, that since the passage of the Act of April 27, 1840, no item of expenditure made by the Common Council, can be charged to the debit of the Water Fund, without their approval. The Committee of the Common Council, the Comptroller, and the Counsel to the Corporation, contended that the original plan adopted, ratified, and approved of, for supplying the city of New York with water for the use of its inhabitants, terminated at Murray's Hill, and that the Water Commissioners cannot therefore, legally, construct or

superintend, any part of the work south of that point.

And, consequently, the Common Council had the exclusive right and power to construct and complete all the necessary works south of Murray's Hill, including the procuring and laying the distributing pipes and for this purpose can use such portions of the Water ;

Fund as may be requisite, and that the same can be paid for out of that fund, by the Comptroller, without the approval of the Water Commissioners. After reports and counter reports, opinions of counsel and various discussions, the

Corporation made good their ground, and exercised the exclusive right of distributing the water from the reservoir at 40th street.

A very serious loss, the first that deserves the name, occurred to the work on the night of the 7th January, 1841, by a great and sudden rise in the water of the Croton, and consequently of the Croton Lake, which carried away the dam for a distance of near 200 feet. It was the part described as an earthen embankment, with a base of 250 feet, and protected on the lower side by a dry stone wall of 20 feet thickness at the base. The mason work was but slightly injured. The storm and its effects are thus described by the Commissioners :