HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



291 



The clearing up of the catchment areas has, however, long since 

 reduced the lumbering business to nothing. These streams are 

 therefore much less extensively utilized than formerly. At pres- 

 ent, aside from one or two points, their use is chiefly for propelling 

 small sawmills and flour mills and for other moderate-sized indus- 

 tries. With one or two exceptions, there are no large power 

 developments, throughout the whole region, but undoubtedly a 

 number of developments could be made on the Susquehanna and 

 Delaware rivers, although owing to high flood flows, developments 

 should be made of a very permanent character. But this condi- 

 tion, it may be premised, implies large expenditure, and whether 

 large permanent developments can be made to pay on streams 

 where there are no facilities for water storage is an unsettled 

 question. 



In a paper on the History of the Lumber Industry in the State 

 of New York, Col. Wm. F. Fox, Superintendent of Forests, has 

 given many interesting facts relating to the early use of the 

 streams for floating logs, etc., to which the reader is referred for 

 an extended account under these heads. 1 



Streams of Long Island 



The sand areas of Long Island present conditions of water 

 yield different from those of the other catchment areas of the 

 State. We have here an extended region of course, deep sand, into 

 which the rainfall sinks easily, there being almost no surface 

 runoff. These sand areas form subterranean reservoirs, from 

 which from 0.7 to 0.8 cubic foot per second per square mile may 

 be drawn, the same as from artificial reservoirs on the earth's sur- 

 face, these natural underground reservoirs possessing the advan- 

 tage of furnishing a filtered water of a high degree of purity. 



The taking of the water supply of Brooklyn from the sand 

 areas of Long Island has led to the development of legal principles 

 relating to rights in underground water somewhat different from 

 those derived from the common law of England. The decision in 

 a test case, tried several years ago. was in effect, that when sub- 

 published by the Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1902. , 



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