SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 91 



been reduced from fifty to twentj'-five cents, greatly increasing 

 sales. The gain over the previous year amounted to about forty 

 per cent. It had been planned to issue new limited editions of 

 a fifty-cent and one-dollar booklet ; but this plan had to be 

 given up because of the large amount it was necessary to invest 

 in the new edition of the guide books. We hope to be able to 

 get them out during 1912, as there is a persistent demand for a 

 higher class souvenir book. During 1911, all arrangements were 

 made, and work begun, on the largest issue of souvenir postal 

 cards we have yet attempted. The series consists of 20,000 each 

 of seventy-two subjects, in four colors, or nearly a million and a 

 half in all. At the close of the year the old stock of postals was 

 almost exhausted, and preparations are under way for receiving 

 and putting up the new cards, which will be sold in three sets 

 of twenty-four cards at twenty-five cents each. 



Guide Book. — The tenth edition of the guide book was ex- 

 hausted about the middle of July. Although the preparation of 

 a new edition had been under way for some time, unavoidable 

 delays made its delivery impossible until late in the month of 

 August, so that we were entirely without copies for four or five 

 weeks. The new edition, known as the Spectacled-Bear Edition, 

 was carefully and completely revised, and about twenty pages of 

 new matter, with many new illustrations, were added. Sales 

 from the new issue during the last month of the year were fully 

 up to previous records. The total for the year would have passed 

 all previous records, out for the lack of books during part of 

 July and August. 



Boat-HoHse Resfaiornit. — The Boat-House Restaurant con- 

 tinued to gain in patronage during the year. The table d'hote 

 dinner, the service of which on Sunday and holiday evenings was 

 begun last season, was continued throughout the year, and was 

 the means of bringing the Boat House to the attention of a large 

 number of new patrons. 



Quite a number of club dinners were served with such 

 satisfaction as to add materially to the restaurant's popularity. 



Boating. — The rebuilding of the dam od Bronx River at 

 182nd Street, forming Bronx Lake, which was finished late in 

 1910, greatly facilitated the handling of the boating business dur- 

 ing the past season. This work made it possible to maintain a good 

 level for the lake throughout the dry season of mid-summer, and 

 carry on the boating business without the annoyances and 



