Fortuitous circumstances reserved for the gentleman, who in 1829, in his place in the Common Council, gave the pledge, " that in case the well to be dug on the point of the rock on 13th street would not fill the tank and pipes in Broadway and the Bowery with water, that they should be filled, if need be, with quart bottles," 13 years afterwards, on the 4th of July, 1842, to open the gates of the reservoir and fill these very pipes and " this very tank, not from quart bottles," but from the Croton River, passing through the whole line of the Croton Aqueduct !

The gentleman here referred to, was Samuel Stevens, Esq., the presiding officer of the Board of Commissioners, whose name and services will be recorded with those of

Stephen Allen, and Douglas and Jervis, for the enduring gratitude of the distant generations, whose health, comfort, and safety will, while " grass grows and water runs," continue to be promoted by the great work, to which these gentlemen devoted such faithful and intelligent care. On the 20th January, 1843, the then Commissioners made their final report, which, announced the completion of the Croton Dam, and that it had undergone, without freshet caused by the warm rains, and the breaking damage, the test of a full ordinary up of the ice in the early part of January. The utmost rise of the water above the dam was 25 inches although, according to estimate, a million gallons per minute passed over ;