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

analysis of the Croton and the comparative purity of that supplied to different cities,

the action of water on lead, &c, see Appendix, which has been kindly furnished by

Charles A. Lee, M. D., of New- York.

gentle slope or a level of the ground near the surface of water, excavations were made so that the water should not be of less depth than four and a half feet.

The great length of this Reservoir is favourable for the purity of the water which enters the Aqueduct: spread over this large surface, it will have an opportunity to settle

and part with some of the impurities which it receives,

during rainy seasons, from the wash of the country through which it flows. The available capacity of this Reservoir, down to the level where the water would cease to flow off in the Aqueduct, has been estimated at six hundred millions of gallons. Could we suppose that the Croton River will ever in any season of drought, fail to furnish a supply greater than would be carried off from this Reservoir and the Reservoirs at the city by evaporation, we have still a supply of water which would be sufficient for one million of inhabitants during the space of thirty days (estimating the amount necessary for each inhabitant to be twenty gallons for every twenty-four hours.) But we may assume the number of inhabitants at present to be one third of a million, and therefore we have a sufficient store of water in this Fountain Reservoir to supply them for the space of ninety days, in the emergency before supposed.