The same gentlemen (Messrs. Lamson & Goodnow) state that the Deerfield and North rivers furnish water enough, at Shelburne Falls, for one thousand horse power. The North river is a small stream, and deducting its contribution together with that of the brooks which find their way into the Deerfield between Shelburne Falls and the mountain, at the high estimate of two hundred horse power, and there remains to the Deerfield alone a force of eight hundred horse power, which is the estimate made by the commissioners. The measurements made by Mr. Doane and his assistants confirm their accuracy. Yet Mr. Bird who boasts of "an intimate acquaintance of over thirty years with water power," asserts that for such a privilege, "ten thousand dollars would be an extravagant price!" Would he sell even the puddle which works his paper mill at Walpole, and which, we presume, has afforded all his knowledge of water power, for half that amount? The writer of this article has not enjoyed "an intimate acquaintance of over thirty years with water power," but he has resided exactly the same length of time as Gov. Gardner said he had been a temperance man, in the manufacturing town of Fitchburg, and during that time has learned something about its _thirty-four_ water privileges and _five hundred and eighty-two feet head_ of water which they command, on the little Nashua and its tributaries. His knowledge of this water power enables him to exhibit the gross absurdity of Mr. Bird's efforts to dry up the Deerfield. One of these tributaries, which is less than eight miles long, affords a privilege with a head of twenty-one feet, of from seventy-five to one hundred horse power. The reader can form his own conclusions, by comparing this brook with that "fitful mountain torrent," the Deerfield river, which has its sources in the town of Stratton, Vt., flows southward to the foot of the Hoosac Mountain, then turning eastward, finds its way into the Connecticut, near Greenfield, traversing in its course, a distance of more than sixty miles. The length of the "fitful torrent" above the Hoosac dam, is about forty miles, and in that part of its course it is swelled by the contributions of numerous tributaries, several of which are respectively from twelve to eighteen miles long. A shrewd Yankee, who is not a civil engineer, and has not even had the experience of running a small paper mill, might "guess" that such a stream would furnish, with a head of thirty feet, as much as an eight hundred horse power. But it is not eight hundred horse power, nor four hundred that is required to operate the drilling machinery and ventilate the tunnel; for two hundred and eight horse power is all that has ever been used or needed at Mt. Cenis. This leaves a pretty wide margin for drouths, _evaporation_, and other contingencies.