1894.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 48. 9 



In connection with several of these reservations it will be 

 necessary to provide proper means of ingress and egress by 

 further takings, small in extent and inexpensive in character. 

 That the expenditure of money which has been made and is to 

 be made shall be of the largest possible ])enetit and use to the 

 people of the Metropolitan District it is necessary that means 

 should be taken to acquaint the public with the easiest and 

 most expeditious means of reaching these various reservations 

 from the different parts of the district. It is my intention, if 

 it should meet with the approval of your honorable Board, to 

 prepare and issue for public use and guidance a brief pamphlet 

 upon each of the reservations, containing maps, showing the 

 means of access and the main paths wdiich traverse the larger 

 reservations. 



In spite of the fact that tlie Blue Hills and the Middlesex 

 Fells, especially the former, have been for years visited by 

 those who have by accident acquired a knowledge of their 

 beauties, the people at large have but small knowledge of the 

 charming spots of natural beauty possessed by these two 

 remarkable tracts of land. 



The larger part of the land necessary for these principal 

 reservations havinsf either been taken or about to be taken, 

 the question which becomes the important one during the 

 ensuins: year is as to their management and care. It is very 

 important that these beautiful spots shall be made readily 

 accessible to the public ; that while for several years yet to 

 come no road building or other expensive work need to be 

 undertaken, it is very desirable — in fact, it is absolutely 

 necessary, if proper security is to be had against the terrible 

 devastation of forest tires — that a reasonable amount should 

 be expended in the very near future in the cleaning up of the 

 woods themselves. This is particularly necessary in the Blue 

 Hills Reservation, but applies also, with less force, to the 

 Middlesex Fells and Stony Brook Reservations. In these 

 forests, which have never received any attention, there exists 

 upon the ground an immense amount of fallen wood in various 

 stages of decay. It is this material which affords the fuel 

 which causes the terrilic heat in the forest fires. The quick 

 burning of leaves in the autumn of the year seldom does much 

 serious injury, but in the spring of the year, when the high 



