FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 61 



made for the improvement of one of the great northern parks of 

 this city in a manner calculated to promote its utilization by 

 pedestrians. 



The amount of work accomplished during 1899 at the expense 

 of this fund was very considerable, and the opinion has been freely 

 expressed by citizens in no way connected with the work, save as 

 taxpayers, that it is to be doubted whether the City has ever 

 secured more results for the money expended than it obtained in 

 this Park during the year 1899. 



As has previously been stated, all the improvements made were 

 in harmony with the general scheme of development proposed in 

 1897 by the Zoological Society. The general plans and specifica- 

 tions furnished by the Society were elaborated by Chief Engineer 

 Daniel Ulrich into detailed plans and specifications, and various 

 contracts were let by the Park Department to the lowest bidders. 

 Assistant Engineer John P. Schermerhorn and a field party were 

 specially detailed to take charge of the work in progress, and it 

 required very nearly his undivided attention. It was the duty of 

 the Director of the Park to explain and interpret to the Engineers 

 the general scheme of the Society, in order that the work per- 

 formed by the City might exactly fit together with that of the 

 Society, and that both might harmonize with the natural surface 

 and other natural features of the Park. 



From the very beginning all parties concerned have labored most 

 earnestly to fit the general plan to the grounds, and not to make 

 the grounds conform to the plan. The exact lines and grades of 

 every walk and road, and the lines of every enclosure for animals, 

 were determined upon the ground, not in an ofifice. The 12,000 

 lineal feet of walks and roads have been carefully fitted to the 

 natural contours of the Park, and the construction of the entire 

 system completed thus far has not cost the life of even one valuable 

 tree ! 



The task of providing this very uneven tract of forest and 

 meadow-land with walks, water, sewers, buildings, dens, aviaries, 

 and ponds, all of which shall serve their functions and yet main- 

 tain the harmony of Nature, is to-day, and from the beginning has 

 been, a difficult one. It is both a duty and a pleasure to record 

 the fact that Park Commissioner Moebus and his engineers have, 

 in every possible manner, and on all occasions, labored most ear- 

 nestly in co-operation with the Society to secure for the public 



