Report on the Water Supply of Albany, 223 



proved by Mr. Van Benthuysen in the boring of the well 

 at Cohoes. 



We might here allude to the possibility of obtaining 

 something like an artesian well by penetrating through 

 the clay to the gravel below at a point some distance from 

 the river. The water would rise as high as its source in 

 the outcrop of the gravel, but from the known inequality 

 of the thickness of the gravel, no definite results could be 

 predicted.' The experiment of boring through the clay 

 to the gravel has not, to our knowledge, been tried, except 

 near the margin of the valley or of the lateral ravines. 

 Such an experiment, we believe, would be undertaken were 

 the matter of supplying water left to individual enterprise. 

 "Were such a well or boring to strike the gravel at some 

 point in its thicker accumulations, a large supply of water 

 could be obtained by pumping. 



The practicability of obtaining an increased supply of 

 water from the Hungerkill and Normanskill has been so 

 fully treated in the report of the engineers that we need 

 not here enter into the discussion — merely alluding to the 

 fact that all sources of this kind, when the water-shed is 

 subject to continued clearing and cultivation, are liable to 

 constant diminution of supply, with an increasing amount of 

 impurity in the form of organic matter. 



The sources of supply, which have been suggested upon 

 the east side of the river, do not, we believe, offer in any 

 manner a superiority over what may be obtained from 

 the streams on the west side. 



The arguments long since made in favor of obtaining a 

 supply from Thompson's lake upon the Helderberg, do not, 

 in our opinion, merit serious consideration. The area of 

 drainage or water-shed of this or any other of the smaller 

 lakes is too small to secure the supply needed, and it should 

 be borne in mind that there as well as elsewhere the source 



