60 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Several special features in masonry were constructed by our 

 own masons, for the reason that satisfactory results could not be 

 secured by contract work. Of this class the leading example is 

 the series of sleeping dens for the bears. They were built against 

 a ledge of bare granite rock, and faced with weathered blocks of 

 granite, so carefully selected and so skilfully joined together, that 

 at a trifling distance the sleeping dens appear to be a part of the 

 natural ledge. The sleeping den of the Russian wolf is generally 

 considered by visitors to have been dug out of a huge bowlder 

 of solid granite. 



Owing to the complicated nature of the plumbing required for 

 the Reptile House and Bird House, the whole of it was put in by 

 our own force. 



In this connection it is worthy of note that while nearly thirty- 

 one contractors were engaged during the past year in the execu- 

 tion of orders for the Zoological Society, often upon work which 

 required additions and alterations in course of construction, the 

 Society's relations with all have been entirely harmonious. Not 

 a single serious difference of opinion has arisen, nor one requiring 

 the services of a referee. In view of the complex nature of many 

 portions of our work this result is well worthy of mention. 



ENGINEERING. 



Throughout the year, Mr. George M. Beerbower has continued 

 to serve the Society most acceptably as its civil engineer, and has 

 been obliged to work with great diligence to meet the multitude 

 of demands made upon him. He has staked out the lines of every 

 building, aviary, den, range, corral, Park boundary, walk, and 

 road, and he also has erected the batter-boards for each of seven- 

 teen buildings that have up to this date been erected in the Park. 

 All the maps produced during the year were drawn by him, as 

 also were numerous working drawings for wrought-iron work. 



GROUND IMPROVEMENTS BY THE PARK DEPARTMENT. 



In 1898-99 the Board of Estimate placed at the disposal of the 

 Park Department for the Borough of the Bronx the sum of 

 $125,000 to be expended in preparing the grounds of South Bronx 

 Park for use as a Zoological Park. Aside from the making of 

 Park roads, this appears to have been the first appropriation ever 



