378 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



amounts to 339 square miles above the old Croton dam and to 

 360 square miles above the new Croton dam under construc- 

 tion. The main river is formed by three branches, known 

 respectively as east, middle and west branches, which, rising 

 in the southern part of Dutchess county, flow through Putnam 

 county and unite near its south boundary. The river then flows 

 across Westchester county to the Hudson river, into which it 

 empties at Croton Point, about thirty miles north of the City of 

 New York. The principal tributaries, aside from the east, mid- 

 dle and west branches, are Kisko, Titicus, Cross, and Muscoot 

 rivers. 



The flow of the Proton river is diverted through two aqueducts. . 

 A record of the flow has been kept at old Croton dam since 1868. 



, Fig. 27 Diagram of old Croton dam. 



This record includes the quantity of water wasted over the crest 

 of the dam, as well as that diverted for the water supply of New 

 York. 



In 1000 John R. Freeman made a report on the New York 

 water supply 1 in which is an extended study of the yield of the 

 Croton catchment area. It is stated that the results previously 

 published average 10 per cent loo large, the difference between 

 the earlier estimates and the present being due mostly to the use 

 • if erroneous data, as follows: 



1) The flow wasting over the old Croton dam was overesti- 

 mated about !) iici- cent by the use of a formula not strictly ap- 

 plicable to this peculiar form of dam, and because of a mistaken 

 assumption in length of overfall. On measuring (he length of 

 cresl line of dam, it was found shorter than heretofore assumed 



l Repor1 "ii New York's Water Supply, with Particular Reference to ilio 

 Needs of Procuring Additional Sources and Their Probable Costs, by John R. 

 Freeman, C. B., 1000. 



