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 lbs. exerted on 

 the most northern angrle of the stone causes its apex to swing 

 north and south about two inches. 



