The country bordering upon the Croton is generally elevated and uneven, not sustaining a dense population and cleared sufficiently to prevent injury to the

water from decayed vegetable matter. The river has a rapid descent and flows over a bed of gravel and masses of broken rock. From these advantages there is good reason to suppose that the water will receive very little impurity from the wash of the country through which it flows, and there is no doubt that the sources furnish that which is peculiarly adapted to all the purposes of a large city. The water is of such uncommon purity that in earlier days the native Indian gave a name to the river which signified " clear water."*

Flow of Water in the Croton River, Capacity of the Fountain Reservoir, fyc.

The medium flow of water in the Croton, where the fountain reservoir is formed, exceeds fifty millions of gallons in twenty-four hours, and the minimum flow, after a long-continued drought, is about twenty-seven millions of gallons in twenty-four hours. The dam on the Croton River is about 38 feet above the level which was the surface of the natural flow of water at that place, and sets the water back about six

miles, forming the Fountain Reservoir which covers an area of about four hundred acres. The country forming the valley of the River was such as to give bold shores to this reservoir generally, and in cases where there was a

* For some general remarks on Water, its economical and dietetical uses, an