HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



557 



ciation and of the Society for the Protection of the Adirondack^, 

 and are actually interested in the work of these associations. 



People owning cottages on the margins of natural lakes likely 

 to be made into reservoirs object very strongly on the ground 

 that the raising of the water will be prejudicial to health. On 

 this point the writer can not but think that the popular opinion 

 is based on misinformation, although it is freely admitted that 

 the Adirondack region is now extremely healthful and the State 

 ought not to either do anything itself, nor permit anything to be 

 done which would deteriorate it. The popular view, however, 

 that the construction of reservoirs must necessarily produce 

 unhealthful conditions is thus far not sustained by any consider- 

 able amount of well-attested facts. The writer is disposed to look 

 upon such view as largely a fad. Indeed, he has taken special 

 pains to study the question both in this country and abroad, and 

 has thus far to learn of a case where well-attested facts show that 

 any considerable amount of ill health has been caused by properly 

 constructed reservoirs. 



In the Adirondack region, where at the heads of nearly all the 

 lakes there are now extensive marsh areas, the conditions will be 

 materially improved by cutting the timber and covering the marsh 

 areas with water, the more especially when the new water surface 

 is high enough to cover the entire marsh area, a. condition which in 

 the majority of cases may be easily attained. Moreover, the Adiron- 

 dack lakes and ponds have at their sides mostly sand, gravel, 

 boulder or natural rock beaches, on which the annual fluctuation 

 can have absolutely no effect. The marsh areas are usually in the 

 continuation of the valleys at the heads of the lakes. As just 

 stated, as soon as we attain an elevation of about 1800 feet, July 

 is practically the only month without frost; but the reservoirs 

 will ordinarily be full or nearly full of water during July. It is 

 mostly only in the cooler months of September and October that 

 the conditions of runoff are such as to require their being greatly 

 drawn down. There seems little reason to doubt, therefore, but 

 that the effect of constructing the reservoirs will be, on the whole, 

 to increase the healthfulness of the region by doing away with 

 numerous marsh areas which are now, during the warm weather, 

 possibly the source of malarial influences. 



