Nov. 1905] PROCEEDINGS S. I, ASs'n ARTS AND SCIENCES. H 



county and township officers, and individuals in all parts of the 

 country * * * " 



Although the 8,900 or more names listed have been quite carefully 

 scanned the only local ones noted as included are : Staten Island, 

 Richmond County, Kreischerville, Rossville, Tompkinsville, and 

 Ward's Point ! How the above mentioned villages came to be selected, 

 and others, such as Stapleton, Mariners Harbor, New Dorp, Linole- 

 umville. Port Richmond, etc., were omitted, is not readily understood; 

 and why only one topographic feature of the Island, represented by 

 the relatively insignificant Ward's Point, should have been honored 

 above all others, it would be interesting to leani. 



Several Castletons, Middletowns, Northfields, and a Westfield are 

 listed, but our old townships bearing those names are not included: 

 while among other familiar local names, which however refer to villages 

 or towns elsewhere in the United States, may be noted Clifton, GifTords, 

 Graniteville. Xew Brighton. Pleasant Plains and St. George. — A. H. 



II. — " Report of the New York Bay Pollution Commission to Hon. 

 Frank Wayland Higgins, Governor, March 31, 1905." State of Ne^i) 

 York, Senate Document No. 39, May i, 1905. Pamph., 8vo., pp. 135 

 and map. Albany, 1905. 



This report, prepared by a commission of which our fellow member 

 Mr. Louis L. Tribus was secretary, includes information that is of 

 considerable economic importance to Staten Island. The proposition 

 to discharge the sewage from an extensive territory in New Jersey by 

 means of a large trunk sewer into the waters of New York Bay, about a 

 mile north of Robbins' Reef lighthouse, was what lead to the appoint- 

 ment of the commission. 



Of special interest to Staten Island is the increased pollution of the 

 surrounding waters which would be certain to result and the increased 

 danger of infection of the clam and oyster beds at Gravesend bay and 

 along the south shore of our Island. Bacteriological examinations of 

 water taken at points between the Battery, Coney Island and Raritan 

 Bay, showed the presence of the colon bacillus {Bacillus call communis) 

 quite generally, and wherever this was found in the water it was also 

 found that the shell-fish were similarly polluted. The facts in connec- 

 tion with these analyses and the conclusions derived from them may be 

 found in Appendix 3, under the authorship of Commissioner Geo. A. 

 Soper. 



The general conclusion arrived at is that although the present pol- 

 lution of our adjacent waters is appreciable and measurable, they would 

 not be likely to be polluted to such an extent as to become dangerous 



