HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



7 



information has been gathered. These are still, so far as definite 

 information is concerned, practically unknown, although a slight 

 beginning has been made by the United States Geological Survey. 

 The information given herein is therefore, such as is available, 

 either from personal knowledge or the work of others. 



The information as to the hydrology of New York has grown 

 so rapidly in the last few years that considerable condensation 

 was necessary in order to keep within the limits of even as great 

 an extension of the original papers as is herewith included. The 

 omission of some matters which may seem to the reader important 

 is therefore no certain index that they have been overlooked, but 

 merely indicates that they have not seemed to the writer import- 

 ant enough to mention. The report has been very largely rewrit- 

 ten and extended from an original length of 200 pages to 900 pages. 

 The meteorological tables, as well as the tables of stream flow, 

 have never before appeared in their present form. All these 

 tables have been specially computed and rearranged for this 

 report. The data of rainfall, temperature and stream flow have 

 been arranged with reference to a water year beginning with 

 December and ending with November. Cubic feet per second, 

 inches on the catchment area and cubic feet per second per square 

 mile are, except in some of the longer records, given in columns 

 side by side, thus showing at a glance the comparative results 

 and very greatly extending the value of the tables. The writer's 

 thanks are due to his daughter, Myra Willson Rafter, for com- 

 puting these tables. 



The criticism has been made that the writer's views on some 

 of the questions herein discussed are not the same now as for- 

 merly. On this point it may be stated that his work on the 

 hydrology of New York has, aside from several formal reports, 

 as on Genesee river, Hudson river, report to the Board of Engineers 

 on Deep Waterways, etc. been largely a matter of opportunity, and 

 such writing, while extensive enough, is scattered through a large 

 number of miscellaneous papers. Nevertheless the writer has 

 casually discussed in these papers a number of the most important 

 questions confronting the people of New York. With more study 



