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New York State Education Department 



Science Division, April 6, 19 lo 



Hon. Andrezv S. Draper LL.D. 



Commissioner of Education 



Sir : The extraordinary engineering operations which have been 

 undertaken in the effort to provide the city of New York with an 

 adequate walir supply have illuminated in most unexpected manner 

 the geological structure and histor}^ of the region of the Hudson 

 valley south of the Catskill mountains. So broad has been the 

 scientific scope of this engineering problem and so direct its de- 

 pendence on geological structure that the Commissioners of the 

 New York City Board of Water Supply early found it of essential 

 moment to enlist in their service a corps of trained geologists. 



In 1909 an agreement was effected between the Board of Water 

 Supply and the State Geologist, in pursuance of which the geolog- 

 ical data acquired in the preliminary and final surveys for the aque- 

 duct were intrusted to Dr Charles P. Berkey, a member of the staff 

 of the board as well as of the geological survey, for summation and 

 presentation of their broader and more important bearings. 



I transmit to you herewith Dr Berkey's report thereupon, entitled 

 Geology of the A' civ York City (Catskill) Aqueduct. It is a 

 document of high value not only in enlarging and perfecting our 

 knowledge of the geological structure of the commercial center of 

 the United States, but its data and conclusions must prove of pro- 

 found importance to all large engineering and architectural propo- 

 sitions concerned with the region of the lower Hudson valley. 



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