THE METROPOLITAN PARK SYSTEM. 165 



ized this regiou of the Bhie Hills as "a park such as any king- 

 would be proud to call his own, a public forest possessing a vastly 

 finer scenery than any of the great public woods of Paris can 

 show, a recreation ground far surpassing in its refreshing value 

 even London's Epping Forest." 



The reservation is something like five miles long, and of varying 

 width, its boundaries following contour line of from two liun- 

 dred to three hundred feet above the sea level. The reservation 

 includes eleven prominent sunnnits, and the beautiful piece of 

 water on the southerly side called Hoosicwhissic Pond. The Blue 

 Hills are the highest points of land near the ocean from ]Mount 

 Agamenticus in southern Maine along the entire Atlantic and Gulf 

 coast to the southward. The highest summit is 635 feet above the 

 sea level, but being near the ocean the altitude counts for its full 

 value and gives the range a really mountain-like appearance. 



These hills have a special historic interest, in the fact that they 

 gave our famous Commonwealth its name ; Massachusetts mean- 

 ing, in the Algonquin tongue, "the place of the great hills." 

 "Massachusetts Mount" is the name given to these hills by 

 Captain John Smith, and when he asked Prince Charles to christen 

 the -various places on the map of New England which he placed 

 before him, that royal boy gave the name of Cheviot Hills to the 

 range. The suggestion has been made that Massachusetts JMount 

 be the name of the chief eminence, commonly called the Great 

 Blue Hill ; and it seems entirelj^ appropriate that this should be 

 done, thus recording in perpetuity a historic fact of uncommon 

 importance. 



The prospects from the Blue Hills are very wide, varied, and 

 beautiful. The scenery is grand and wild. The air is pure, and 

 the existence of such a magnificent tract of wilderness within ten 

 miles of the State House assures a great and steadily increasing 

 popularity for the place as a magnificent natural recreation ground. 

 It is accessible by rail at either end, from the Readville stations of 

 the New York and New England and the New York, New Haven 

 and Hartford railroads, on the west, and the West Quincy station 

 on the Granite Branch of the latter railroad, on the east In all 

 probability Blue Hill Avenue will in the near future become a 

 grand boulevard, with electric car communication, running in 

 a bee-line from Franklin Park to the westerly end of the reserva- 

 tion. In addition the joint action of the Boston Park Board 



