What guns she is destined to mount is a question which has not been definitively settled.
In so large a community as that of New York, the supply of water forms a subject of the highest importance, especially when the rapid increase of the population is taken into account.

Some conception of this extraordinary increase may be formed from the statistical fact that the city, which in the year of Independence contained only 35,000 inhabitants, has now 850,000, if the suburbs are included; nearly 4000 vessels enter the port annually, bearing merchandise valued at 25,500,000l., and bringing 300,000 emigrants, of whom one-third are Irish and one-third German.

The tonnage of New York is upwards of a million, or equal to one-fourth of that of the whole Union: the business of the city gives employment to upwards of fifty banks.

Religion is represented by 250 churches, of which 46 are Presbyterian, and 45 are Episcopalian.

The Press sends forth 155 papers, of which 14 are published daily and 58 weekly.
This short sketch will suffice to show that the city required a supply of water upon a gigantic scale.