recommended the Bronx as a sufficient source, with some artificial reservoirs, to answer all the city purposes.

The frightful ravages of the cholera, during the summer of 1832, gave to the subject of a supply of pure water a deeper interest, and the minds of the citizens were again aroused to the importance of it. The Committee of the Board of Aldermen, on " Fire and Water," James Palmer, chairman, pursued the subject with energy ; exhibiting on

all occasions perseverance and industry in their researches. Myndert Van Schaick, Esq., being a member of the Board of Aldermen at that time, was familiar with the question of a supply of pure and wholesome water, and holding the situation of Treasurer of the Board of Health, became deeply interested in the measure, and urged it as a matter of the deepest importance to the permanence, welfare and financial interests of the city, that every method should be

taken to investigate and probe the subject which cautious men could adopt, and his efforts in the subsequent measures and provisions of law in relation to it are of the same character. In December, 1832, De Witt Clinton, Esq., of the United

States Corps of Engineers, made a report pursuant to a request of the Committee on Fire and Water, in which, after stating the substance of the several reports in favor of

the Bronx as the source of supply, he arrives at the conclusion, that an adequate supply can only be obtained from the Croton River. He proposed to take the waters of the Croton at Pine's bridge, which he stated to be 183 feet above the level of the Hudson ; to conduct the water in an open Aqueduct, following the line of the Croton and Hudson Rivers, and cross Harlem River on an arch of 138 feet in height, and 1,000 feet in length.