NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 23 
water the foaming flood that thunders over the rocks makes 
an imposing spectacle, and it constitutes a most unusual 
feature to be found in a city park. During the year 1901, 
an improvement was made which added very greatly to the 
beauty of this feature by extending the rock ledge about 
200 feet farther, to the rocky side of Wilson Hill, thereby 
greatly increasing the water area of Lake Agassiz, and at the 
same time forming a beautiful island. 
Forests—The crowning glory of the Zoological Park is 
the magnificent forest growth which covers, thickly or 
sparsely, about two-thirds of its land area. It consists chiefly 
of white, scarlet, black, red and pin oaks, tulip, sweet gum, 
hickory, beech, sassafras, maple, wild cherry, hornbeam, dog- 
wood, tupelo, hemlock and cedar; but there are at least 
thirty other species of trees and shrubs. Thanks to the 
wise foresight and broad views of David and Philip Lydig, 
who for about eighty years were the sole owners of nearly 
the whole of the Zoological Park site, the virgin forest was 
not cut down for firewood or lumber, but was carefully pre- 
served for posterity. As the legal custodian of this splendid 
domain of Nature, the Zoological Society is as rapidly as 
possible going over the entire forest, to arrest decay and 
death, and take all needed measures for the preservation of 
the trees. It is safe to say that nowhere else within fifty 
miles of New York can there be found any more beautiful 
forests than those in the central and eastern portions of the 
Park. Throughout the enclosed grounds, it is absolutely 
necessary that visitors should be restricted to the walks; for 
otherwise the feet of our millions of visitors would quickly 
destroy every ground plant. 
The Rocking Stone, No. 45, a colossal cube of pinkish 
granite, poised on one of its angles on a smooth pedestal of 
rock, is the Zoological Park’s most interesting souvenir of 
the glacial epoch. Across the bare face of the rocky hill 
in which lies the Crocodile Pool, there are several glacial 
scratches pointing directly toward the famous boulder; and 
who will say it had no part in making one of them? 
The Rocking Stone stands on a smooth table of granite on 
the southern shoulder of the hill overlooking the Buffalo 
Range. Its extreme height is 7 feet 6 inches; breadth, 10 
feet 1 inch; thickness, 8 feet 1 inch, and its weight, as roughly 
calculated, is 30 tons. A pressure of about 50 Ibs. exerted on 
the most northern angle of the stone causes its apex to swing 
north and south about two inches. 
