CRO TON RESER VOIR, 1 1 5 



But the end must come to everything, and 

 although 



" Rivers to the ocean run, 

 Nor stay in all their course," 



the Croton will be one of the exceptions. Its 

 happy days will soon pass away, and it will 

 settle down to dull repose as a motionless lake. 

 " A stagnant pond it will be," said Mr. Orlando 

 Potter, whom I met in my travels. 



''Well, Mr. Potter," I said, "you have 

 fought till the end against the scheme, but its 

 advocates have triumphed over you." "Yes," 

 he replied, " but they have to contend against 

 the Almighty now. First, they have to sink 

 for a foundation no feet to a porous bed-rock 

 that may let all the water out as fast as it 

 runs in, and then the dam is to be 177 feet 

 above the ground level, the water to flow back 

 more than eight miles, and to spread itself 

 from one to two miles up into the valleys. 

 What a reservoir that will be for a little river 

 like this to fill ! What with the leakage and 

 the evaporation, it cannot be kept full in hot 

 weather. There will then be a slimy border 

 of decomposed vegetation, breeding malaria 

 around the country, and the putrid water will 



