344 
maintenance of the Zoological Park it be- 
gins by furnishing $5,coo a month, but 
with the growth of the collections this 
amount will of course be increased. Of 
its Own current funds the Society ex- 
pends about $8,coo a year, in addition 
%o, its special’ building fund. The city 
of New York is cooperating promptly 
and cheerfully in the task of providing 
9) 
a ‘‘zoo”’ which shall be in every sense a 
National institution, and worthy of the 
metropolis of the American continent. 
Mayor Robert A. Van Wyck, Comptrol- 
ler Bird S. Coler, Corporation Counsel 
John Whalen and Park Commissioner 
August Moebus, oneand all, are thorough- 
RECREATION. 
the Zoological Society has had an average 
of 120 men on its monthly pay roll, not 
counting probably 100 more mechanics of 
various kinds at work on contract work. 
The Society has had about 15 gangs of 
men steadi.y employed on its own con- 
struction work. At the same time, the 
work being done by the city has kept 
busy between 50 and 75 more men. The. 
Page Woven Wire Fence Co. secured the 
contract for 5% miles of its wire fencing 
for buffaloes and deer, and in 2 months 
of keen hustling earned its $10,800, by the 
erection of the finest series of range and 
corral fences, on steel posts set in con- 
crete, to be found anywhere. The fences 

AQUATIC BiRDS’ HOUSE, 
ly in earnest in promoting the progress 
of the Zoological Park, and whenever 
asked to act in its behalf, they act prompt- 
ly and generously. 
So much for the foundations on which 
the New York Zoological Park rests. lI 
deem it well to state how broadly and 
generously they have been laid. 
A year ago, when I visited the site of’ 
the Zoological Park, I found it, as I have 
already stated, a tangled wilderness. Last 
week I went again. And what a change! 
The universal expression of visitors re- 
garding the work of the past year is one 
of complete surprise. For 12 months the 
Society has been “sawing wood” and say- 
ing nothing. A year ago the director said 
to the newspaper men: ‘“‘We have said 
enough about what we are going to do. 
Henceforth you must write about what we 
have done. Wait until the opening day.” 
During the past spring and summer, 
are so nearly invisible ,they do not dis- 
figure the park in the least. 
All summer long the city contractors 
have been digging trenches, blasting out 
rock for sewer and water lines, and haul- 
ing in mountains of stone for walks and 
roads. In July the many excavations, the 
army of workmen, the piles of stone, and 
the endless processions of teams made it 
difficult and even dangerous to go through 
the park on foot. At that time it seemed 
as if order never could be evolved from 
such chaos. But presto! On the first of 
October the change was almost incredible. 
Instead of huge piles of earth and broken 
rock beside yawning trenches, I found 
long stretches, miles, in fact, of smooth 
gravel walks from I2 to 20 feet wide, a 
beautifully finished service road nearly a 
mile long, with borders of rich earth al- 
ready green with young clover and blue 
grass, steps of cut stone wherever steps 

