4 METROPOLITAX PARKS. [Jan. 



Mr. Eliot, and the secretary of the temporary Board, Mr. 

 Sylvester Baxter. It seems unnecessary now to repeat what 

 was then sufficiently said. 



Acting upon this view of the purpose of the Legislature in 

 creating the present Board, the Commissioners, as soon as cir- 

 cumstances warranted their so doing, proceeded to carry out 

 the plans and recommendations of the previous Board. In 

 view of the character of the work to be done and the engineer- 

 ing and legal proceedings involved, the progress made has 

 necessarilv been slow. It will be remembered that in the 

 report of 1893 the Commissioners called attention to the fact 

 that the scheme proposed involved two classes of acquisition : 

 one exemplified in the case of the Middlesex Fells and the 

 Blue Hill forest, where it was possible to proceed with com- 

 parative rapidity ; the other, exemplified in the cases of the 

 Revere and Xantasket beaches and the Charles River basin, 

 involvins: elaborate enirineerinof plans and difficult questions of 

 law. In the cases of this class the expense would necessarily 

 be large, as well as difficult to estimate in advance, and progress 

 correspondingly slow. 



Even the acquisition of the ^Middlesex Fells and the Blue 

 Hill region has necessitated careful surveys, which could be 

 made under favorable circumstances onlv durinof the colder 

 season when the trees are stripped of leaves. Those surveys 

 have been in steady progress, and, as will appear from the 

 accompanying report of the secretary, all the steps requisite 

 to the acquisition of both of these reservations either have 

 been taken or will be taken at an early day. Together they 

 will include an area of not less than 4,850 acres — 950 in 

 the case of the Middlesex Fells, and 3,900 in the case of the 

 Blue Hills ; and it should also be borne in mind in regard to 

 the former reservation that the water boards of Maiden, Mel- 

 rose and Medford and the town of Stoneham own within and 

 adjacent to this area about 1,600 acres additional, which will 

 practically increase the reservation within Middlesex Fells to 

 2,550 acres. 



The group of trees in Belmont and Watertown commonly 

 known as the Waverly Oaks, but more properly the Beaver 

 Brook Oaks, has been acquired. The Commissioners were en- 

 abled in this case to act with greater quickness owing to the lim- 



