the Stevens Battery a very “useful 
ornament’? to the United States 
Navy. 
RECENT LITERATURE RELATING TO 
STATEN ISLAND. 
1. Report upon New York’s Water Sup- 
ply, etc. made to Bird S. Coler, Comp- 
troller, by John R. Freeman, Civil En- 
gineer. March 23, 1900; 8 vo, cloth, pp. 
587 and 113 maps, plates and diagrams. 
This report deals with the ques- 
tion of water supply for the en- 
tire area of Greater New York, in- 
cluding Staten Island. In Appendix 
No. 15, pp. 547-552, the sources of sup- 
ply for the Island are discussed, and 
in Appendix No. 16, pp 573-581, there 
is a special report by W. O. Crosby, 
(“Outline of the Geology of Staten 
Island in Relation tothe Public Water 
Supply’’) in which the author acknowl- 
edges his indebtedness to certain 
members of our Association for the 
principal part of his information. 
So far as Staten Island is concerned 
it is of interest to note that the con- 
clusions are entirely in accord with 
those previously reached by our local 
students of the subject, as may be 
seen by reference to the papers which 
have been read from time to time be- 
fore the Association [Proc. Nat. Sci. 
Assn. S. I., Dec. 12th, 1891; Feb. 9th, 
1895; Oct. 8th, 1898.] 
Thus, in regard to the sanitary 
aspect, the report says: ‘‘The present 
sources appear already taxed to the 
safe limit and appear liable to such 
pollution as the Island becomes more 
thickly populated, that they may 
ultimately have to be abandoned.”’ 
In discussing the future supply the 
statement is made, without qualifica- 
tion, that: ‘The outlook for securing 
good water in adequaté quantity upon 
the Island itself is utterly hopeless, 
and it is plain that the supply which 
the near future demands must come 
45 
from the mainland and that it can be 
most cheaply brought across The Nar- 
rows from Brooklyn.”’ 
Such a scheme would necessitate a 
large receiving and distributing 
reservoir and to those who are inter- 
ested in the Silver Lake Park project 
the following paragraph from the re- 
port may appearsignificant: ‘‘There 
is, from surface indications, and so 
far as one can judge without numer- 
ous test pits and borings, an excellent 
site for the reservoir, of any desired 
capacity, between the hills at or near 
the site of Silver Lake. The surface 
soil appears to be remarkably imper- 
vious, as is indeed shown by the exist- 
ence of this pond.”’ 
The fallacy of this reasoning is of 
course apparent when the shallowness 
of the water is considered (maximum 
depth=about 16 ft. See Gratacap, 
Proc. Nat. Sci. Assn. S. I.,Sept 13th, 
1884, ) and also from the fact that when 
the water reaches a certain level it 
disappears by subterranean seepage, 
instead of rising high enough to over- 
flow by surface drainage. The geo- 
logical structure of the Island is rep- 
resented areally and in section in figs. 
111 and 112and the structure is briefly 
discussed, together with the known 
and probable water horizons, with the 
final conclusion that the conditions 
are everywhere unfavorable for the 
flow and storage of sub-surface water 
and that all such water is dependent 
upon the local rain fall. 
In describing the Clove Valley the 
author introduces a theory which has 
not been brought forward by our local 
geologists and which is worthy of 
careful thought and investigation, 
viz: ‘*'The Clove Valley is, everything 
considered, a somewhat remarkable 
topographic feature, the origin of 
which is probably to be sought in a 
stream flowing southeasterly across 
