I'IRST ANNUAL RIvl'ORT. ;{;{ 



necessary to a great zoological park can be acceptably and even 

 beautifully located on this site without the cutting down of a 

 single tree. I am not as yet prepared to say that this is abso- 

 lutely true, to the letter ; but it seems to be so. 



7. EvENNEvSS OF Temperature. — South Bronx Park is less 

 exposed to the sweep of cold winds, either from land or sea, 

 and therefore less liable to the sudden and violent changes of 

 temperature so hard to cope with in a large menagerie, than 

 any other of the several sites considered. It seems to me this 

 is about the only spot which could be made even reasonably 

 popular wdth the public in cold weather, — the very season when 

 all our large fur- bearing animals have their finest pelage, and 

 in every way look their best. 



8. Artificiau DraixaCiE. — This year will see the begin- 

 ning of the construction of a great sewer from Hunt's Point up to 

 West Farms, and up the Boston Road to the point where it 

 enters the Park. It is then to be deflected westward by Kings- 

 bridge Road to Southern Boulevard, and thence will continue 

 northward along the Boulevard, thus passing along the entire 

 .southern and western fronts of South Bronx Park. 



Unfortunate!}', on the Boulevard the sewer will lie higher 

 than the upper end of the Park, so that the sewerage from the 

 large buildings would need to be carried by a private conduit 

 down to Boston Road, a distance of about 4,000 feet, to the 

 southern entrance of the Park, where it could empt)- into the 

 trunk sewer. Considerable rock would be encountered in its 

 construction, and it is estimated that it would cost about S-").75 

 per foot, or 815,000. 



5). Absence of vSwamp Influences. — While there are no 

 large swamp areas anywhere in or near Bronx Park, nor any- 

 thing visible suggestive of malaria,* it is at least a matter of 

 tradition that the neighborhood of the old lyorillard mansion 



*SUPPLEMENTARY NoTK. — While this is true of the natural features 

 of South Bronx Park, it is also true that the north-western portion of 

 that fine tract is now quite spoiled b}- a large sewer which opens into 

 it about .SOO feet from the Southern Boulevard, and sends an open stream 



