624 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



of tlie city to consumers who were unable to obtain tlieir supply 

 from tlie public wells. 



This scarcity was so severely felt in the autumn of 1850, that 

 an ai^plication was made to the Legislature at its session in the 

 succeeding January, for the passage of " An act for the ap- 

 pointment of Commissioners in relation to supplying the town- 

 ships of Hoboken, Van Vorst, and the city of Jersey City, with 

 pure and wholesome water." 



The Legislature passed the law as desired, and it was approved 

 18th March, 1851. The commissioners named in it were Edwin 

 A. Stevens, Edward Coles, Dudley S. Gregory, Abraham L. Van 

 Boskerck and John D. Ward; and it was made "their duty to 

 examine and consider all matters relative to supplying the said 

 townships of Hoboken, Van Vorst, and Jersey City, with a suffi- 

 cient quantity of pure and wholesome water for the use of their 

 inhabitants, and the amount of money necessary to effect that 

 object." These commissioners entered upon the performance of 

 the duties assigned to them in June, 1851, electing John D. 

 Ward, President, and Edward Coles, Secretary, and shortly 

 afterwards engaging the services of William S. Whitwell as 

 engineer. 



They first considered a plan which was proposed for obtaining 

 water from a small reservoir which had been excavated by the 

 New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company, at the side 

 of their road where it passes through Bergen hill; a report in 

 favor of this as the source of supply having some time before been 

 made to the municipal government of the city. 



Another plan brought to their notice was, to pump the water 

 required directly from Hackensack river, after building a dam 

 at some point not far from Snake hill, and extending embankments 

 each way from the dam across the meadows to the high ground, 

 to prevent the salt water below from being carried at any time 

 by the tide and mixed with the fresh water above. 



It was supposed by some that a good supply could be obtained 

 by converting the Western slope of Bergen hill into a gathering 

 ground, and collecting the water from the net work of under- 

 ground drains, into a canal extending along the foot of the hill, 

 from which it was proposed to raise it by a steam engine to a 

 reservoir upon the summit. 



It was also proposed to take water from the Passaic river 

 above the falls at Paterson, and conduct it to Jersey City in 

 pipes; and another proposition was to take it at the Dundee 



