The dam across the Deerfield next claimed the observation of the inspector, who appears to have regarded it with much surprise, both on account of its cost and because it was thrown across a fitful mountain torrent, so feeble at the time of Mr. Bird's visit, that it was only allowed to run by night, for the reason, as he "guessed," that "if it was allowed to run by day, under the hot sun, it would all evaporate before it reached Shelburne Falls!" This _guess_ is associated in the same paragraph with an assertion that "there was not then in the river, and had not been for some weeks, and has not been since, (unless they have had heavy rains,) water enough to give under a thirty feet head, twenty, or even a ten-horse power, for twenty-four hours a day." It is as well established a fact that the Deerfield river was never known to be so low as at one time during last year, as it is that wells all over the State were dry last autumn, which were never dry before. Yet, at the time of Mr. Bird's visit, when the river was lowest, Mr. Doane, the chief engineer, states that the water was running at the rate of "thirty-four cubic feet per second. On a head of thirty feet this gives, theoretically, one hundred and sixteen, and, practically, eighty-seven horse power." The intelligent reader will not be at much loss to decide whether he will rely upon the guesses, observations and loose assertions of Mr. Bird, or the record and word of the careful and skillful engineer. Mr. Bird says, "it is discreditable that the precise quantity of water has not, so far as we know, been ascertained by actual measurement." Such measurement had been made, and Mr. Bird _might_ have known it if he had taken pains to inquire of Mr. Doane or Mr. Hill. The testimony of Messrs. Lamson & Goodnow, of Shelburne Falls, as to the power and reliability of the Deerfield river, is that "this is the first season we have been at all troubled on account of the scarcity of water, but not as Mr. Bird stated it. We have not been compelled to stop our mills _except one half day_, and we employ four hundred men on cutlery."