HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



5 



The data herein embodied have been gathered from many 

 sources— the reports of the State Engineer and Surveyor, the 

 Superintendent of Public Works, the Forest Commission, the State 

 Board of Health, the State Weather Service, and other public docu- 

 ments. The data in the reports on the water power of the United 

 States, Tenth Census, have been used in some cases where later 

 data are not available. During the years 1896 and 1897, the 

 writer, in addition to his regular duties in the State Engineer's 

 Department, gathered a large amount of information bearing on 

 the hydrology of the State and not published in the reports of the 

 State Engineer. Much of this was in the way of piecing out 

 earlier information and bringing the subject up to date. 



Some of the figures as to the catchment areas have been obtained 

 by checking those given in the reports on the water power of the 

 United States, Tenth Census, so far as they are available, and 

 by planimeter measurement on the topographic quadrangles of 

 the State made by the United States Geological Survey. Bien's 

 atlas of the State of New York has also been used as a check, and 

 a number of areas have been taken from the report of the Deep 

 Waterways Commission, while a large number of catchment areas 

 have been taken from the report of the United States Board of 

 Engineers on Deep Waterways. 



After completing the original report to the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey, the writer continued the collection of data, and 

 specially in 1898 and 1899, when he undertook for the Board of 

 Engineers on Deep Waterways the investigation of a water supply 

 for enlarged canals through the State of New York. The report 

 to this Board includes a detailed study of the hydrology of cen- 

 tral New York, covering three hundred and eighty octavo pages. 

 This report was published as an executive document of Congress, 

 but only a few hundred copies were issued. It results, then, that 

 most people have not seen this report, and accordingly consider- 

 able use has been made of the matter contained therein. The 

 report is, however, in most of the leading libraries and may be 

 consulted by any one interested. 



