180 CROTON WATERWORKS. [CHAP. XIII. 



Sound, a distance of ninety miles, to New York. It is only three 

 years since we were last in this city, yet in this short interval we 

 see improvements equaling in importance the increase of the 

 population, which now amounts in round numbers to 440,000 ; 

 New York containing 361,000, and Brooklyn, which is con 

 nected with it &quot;by a ferry, together with Williamsburg 79,000. 

 Among other novelties since 1841, we observe with pleasure the 

 new fountains in the midst of the city supplied from the Croton 

 waterworks, finer than any which I remember to have seen in 

 the center of a city since I was last in Rome. Two of them 

 are now, in spite of an intense frost, throwing up columns of water 

 more than thirty feet high, one opposite the City Hall, and an 

 other in Hudson Square ; but I am told that when we return in 

 the summer we shall see many others in action. A work more 

 akin in magnificence to the ancient and modern Roman aqueducts 

 has not been achieved in our times ; the water having been, 

 brought from the Croton river, a distance of about forty miles, 

 at the expense of about three millions sterling. The health of 

 the city is said to have already gained by greater cleanliness and 

 more wholesome water for drinking ; and I hear from an eminent 

 physician that statistical tables show that cases of infantine cholera 

 and some other complaints have sensibly lessened. The water can 

 be carried to the attics of every house, and many are introducing 

 baths and indulging in ornamental fountains in private gardens. 

 The rate of insurance for fire has been lowered ; and I could not 

 help reflecting as I looked at the moving water, at a season when 

 every pond is covered with ice, how much more security the city 

 must now enjoy than during the great conflagration in the winter 

 of 1835, when there was such a want of water to supply the 

 engines. Only five months ago (July 19th, 1845), another 

 destructive fire broke out near the battery, and when it was 

 nearly extinguished by the aid of the Croton water, a tremendous 

 explosion of saltpeter killed many of the firemen, and scattered 

 the burning materials to great distances, igniting houses in every 

 direction. A belief that more gunpowder still remained imex- 

 ploded checked for a time the approach of the firemen, so tnat a 

 large area was laid waste, and even now some of the ruins are 



