I'IRST AXNTAL RKPORT. 20 



My own conclusion in regard to accessibility is that with 

 due allowance for future developments that may be considered 

 fairly probable, Bronx Park will always be more accessible than 

 any other site suitable for a zoological park in New York ever 

 will be. unless it should happen that elevated trains should 

 e\entually run up into Van Cortlandt Park without change, 

 over the Putnam Division of the New York Central. 



2. Shade. — For the purposes of a zoological park, I con- 

 sider the forestry conditions of South Bronx Park to be very 

 nearly perfect. Throughout the north-west quarter of the tract, 

 the timber consists of large and fine old forest trees, chiefly oak, 

 chestnut, beech, tulip, sweet gum, ash and hickory, sufficiently 

 open to permit the growth of a fine carpet of grass under foot, 

 and also for the reception of buildings of moderate size without 

 the necessit}' of tree-cutting. The accompanying map is 

 intended to show the meadow lands, open woods, and heavy 

 forest.* 



An important consideration in the work before us is the 

 selection of ground which will receive the buildings to be 

 erected without the necessity of cutting trees, and with the 

 farther advantage of having trees to screen the large buildings 

 from distant view. In my opinion, we do not wish a zoolog- 

 ical park in which all the large buildings will loom up con- 

 spicuously, like the buildings of an exposition, with a park as 

 a mere adjunct ; but it would seem as if every reasonable effort 

 should be made to screen and conceal the buildings from dis- 

 tant view, and in every possible w'ay preserve the existing 

 aspect of natural wildness which is conceded to be the highest 

 attainment possible in the development of a park. 



It is therefore, in my opinion, to be set down as a great ad- 

 vantage that we find in Bronx Park not only open woods as 

 described above, but also a beautiful open glade, situated on 

 a knoll, and entirely surrounded by old forest trees, wherein 

 the largest of the buildings can be located, around its margin, 

 and be entirely screened from view. If an opening in the 

 forest had been made for this special purpose, I undertake to 



* See map at end of volume. 



