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Report on the Water Supply of Albany, 



slate or to the glacial clay. In all such excavations, water 

 will be found moving towards the river. Many of the 

 best wells of the city, as formerly existing, had their 

 source in this gravel, and some of them are still in use, as 

 we are informed. 



The evidence of the presence of water in the gravel, and 

 its movement towards the river, may be observed a short 

 distance to the north of the city, on the slope of the hill 

 west of the McAdam road. Here there are (or formerly 

 were) numerous small springs where the water accumu- 

 lated in considerable quantities and escaped in small 

 streams, uniting in a main one at the roadside. Evidence 

 of the same condition is also observed on the east side of 

 the road and along the southern slope of the hill near the 

 margin of the Patroon's creek. Were it desirable to do so, 

 a very large quantity of water could be utilized in this 

 neighborhood by excavating a large and deep well, and 

 pumping the water from it into a reservoir for distribution. 

 We believe the water beneath the surface would be found 

 in much greater quantity than would appear from the springs 

 at the surface. The experiment of sinking the well would 

 be a comparatively inexpensive one. 



There is no doubt that numerous productive wells can 

 be obtained along the base of the hill where there is any 

 considerable depth of the gravel. 



The subject of artesian wells has been suggested. The 

 conditions for artesian wells are. those which present strata 

 of impervious rock lying above a pervious one, with the 

 outcrop of the pervious rock at a higher level than the 

 place sought to be supplied with water. Now such con- 

 ditions do not exist in the neighborhood of Albany : the 

 slate rock here is folded and contorted, and though its 

 thickness when undisturbed has been estimated at about 

 one thousand feet, it extends in its present condition to a 

 depth at least twice as great in this vicinity, as has been 



