THE GROUNDS FOR A GREAT "ZOO." 



W. T. H. 



The final plans for the development of 

 the New York Zoological Park have been 

 completed, and on November 15th were 

 presented by the Zoological Society to the 

 Board of Parks, for formal approval. The 

 amount of close study and hard labor be- 

 stowed upon them, during the last 15 

 months, by the director, the architects, the 

 landscape gardener and the zoological ex- 

 perts whose advice has been sought, has 

 been great. The Zoological Society has 

 spared neither time, labor nor money to 

 make the park arrangement, and the plans 

 for the buildings, as perfect as human 

 knowledge and skill can make them. 



The society has had the good fortune to 

 secure, as a site for the Zoological Park, 

 a tract of land quite accessible to the mill- 

 ions of Greater New York, and so well 

 adapted to the various ends in view that it 

 will prove a powerful factor in the achieve- 

 ment of complete success. The possession 

 of South Bronx Park (261 acres) will make 

 it possible to produce, with a total outlay 

 of about $500,000, a more perfect zoological 

 park than could be developed on any other 

 location in New York City for 4 times that 

 sum. 



By way of illustration, consider the pro- 

 posed buffalo range, a view of a part of 

 which is shown herewith. Instead of a pen, 

 such as is the limit in the ordinary 40 acre 

 zoological garden, and instead of an area 

 so large that it is impossible for visitors to 

 see the animals, this range contains 20 

 acres of fine, rolling meadow, with enough 

 trees to afford abundant shade in hot 

 weather, 2 extensive basins in which the 

 grass is abundant and good, and a great 

 ridge on which the ground is always dry. 

 The accompanying view was taken from the 

 end of the ridge, near the Southeast corner 

 of the range, looking along its crest toward 

 the famous Rocking Stone, which is seen 

 in the distance toward the left. On the ex- 

 treme right of the picture appears the 

 " lower meadow," a beautiful glade lying 

 along the Eastern side of the ridge, which 

 in the spring will be cut off from the main 

 area, and used as a breeding range, for the 

 cows and calves of the herd. Around more 

 than one-half of the entire buffalo range, 

 visitors on the boundary walks will look 

 oyer the top of the fence (of Page's steel 

 wire), and it will be quite impossible for 

 the animals to get too far away to be seen 

 to good advantage. 



It would be an agreeable task to fill sev- 

 eral pages of Recreation with facts setting 

 forth the delightful adaptability of the open, 

 hard-wood timber and sunny knolls for the 

 herds belonging to the deer family; the 



A BIT OF FOREST IN THE ZOOLOGICAL 

 PARK. 



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