PARK AND CEMETERY. 
264 
a glimpse of Massachusetts Bay and Bos- 
ton Harbor. Around the summit' of the 
Great Blue Hill is a memorial path and 
bridge in honor of Charles Eliot, which 
has been previously illustrated and de- 
scribed in Park and Cemetery. 
Close to the Blue Hills Reservation is 
part of the Neponset River Reservation, 
consisting of much low, marshy land 
through which the Neponset River flows. 
Another of these forest parks, and near- 
ly as far north of the State House as the 
Blue Hills is south, is the Middlesex 
Fells. Spot Pond, a large and very ir- 
regularly shaped lake, and several other 
bodies of water, all used as reservoirs, 
together with the wooded, rocky country 
renders the scenery of the Fells both 
varied and striking. From this wildness, 
it is called the great wilderness reser- 
vation. The lakes are under the control 
of the Metropolitan Water Works, but 
as the whole park is managed conjointly 
by the Water and Park Commissions, it 
is practically a beautiful public domain 
of 3,300 acres in extent. Boating, of 
course, is not permitted here but a flock 
of ducks can be seen swimming about in 
Spot Pond and sheep guarded by collies 
browsing on the open spaces. From 
lookouts on high points of land are ob- 
tained fine vuews of Lynn Woods, Na- 
hant Bay, the ocean beyond and greater 
Boston. 
The Park Commissioners with the ex- 
ception of opening fine roads in the Blue 
Hills and Middlesex Fells, clearing away 
some of the underbrush for the benefit 
of picnic parties, or as the English call 
them “trippers” ; guarding the trees 
against fires, and fighting the brown-tail 
and gypsy moths which are a serious 
menace to the trees, have made but few 
changes in these woods, wisely deciding 
that nature cannot be improved upon. 
Though the trees are young these two 
great parks are very attractive, and most 
delightful retreats for people desiring an 
outing. Fifty years hence, with the care 
they are now receiving, they will be 
splendid forests, rivals of Fontainebleau, 
France, or Epping Forest, near London. 
In both of these reservations, and in 
others of them also, are houses for the 
superintendents and in their vicinity are 
some acres of enclosed ground where 
are kept breeds of choice fowl and ani- 
mals. As Boston has, as yet, no zoolog- 
ical garden, these may be the beginnings 
of one. These creatures are quite an at- 
traction, as wild fowl is very scarce here. 
Only a few grey squirrels and an occa- 
sional partridge are met with. All of the 
reservations are carefully patrolled by 
park policemen, both mounted and on 
foot, particularly during the summer 
months. 
A third great tract which covers two 
thousand acres of land, and is situated 
ten miles northeast of the State House, 
is that known as the Lynn Woods. As 
is belongs to the city of Lynn and is 
managed by its park commissioners, it 
is not strictly- speaking one of the Me- 
tropolitan Parks’ holdings, but it is con- 
sidered one of the important parks in the 
Metropolitan District. One way to reach 
it is through Lynn, the great shoe town, 
which with its sixty thousand inhabitants 
is the third city in size in the district. 
In this tract of country are some love- 
ly lakes while nearly every tree com- 
mon to New England is to be found 
here. Like the Fells it is wonderfully 
rocky. The roads leading through the 
woods are natural and add greatly to 
its rural appearance while handboards 
whose hands point in the direction of the 
places indicated by such names as Dun- 
geon Rock, Old Man’s Walk, Fox Ledge, 
Wolf Pits and Glen Dagyr, a secluded 
ravine, are met with at every turn so that 
one’s curiosity is constantly piqued to 
follow the trails leading to these roman- 
tic sounding places. Glen Dagyr was 
named in honor of the Welsh shoe- 
maker who came to Lynn and founded 
its great industry. Beautiful views are 
had from observatories in these woods 
of the ocean near at hand, the Saugus 
River with its picturesque marshes, and 
the five lakes. 
With the exception of an electric car- 
line which intersects the Blue Hills Res- 
ervation, no cars run through any part 
of these forest parks. The land con- 
tained in the Charles, Mystic and Ne- 
ponset RiVer Reservations, though ag- 
gregating many acres, does not consist 
of one solid tract -like those of the 
wmods, but is more like a ribbon follow- 
ing along the course of the rivers on 
either bank. Thus there are 583 acres of 
varying width, contained in the land bor- 
dering on the Charles, and the length of 
the river’s bank controlled by the Metro- 
politan Park Commission is sixteen and 
a half miles, running along in seven 
towns, including Boston. 
The original plan embodied in the first 
report to the Commission, to construct a 
conjoint dam and bridge at the mouth of 
the Charles River where it is crossed by 
Cragie Bridge, has been adopted, after 
much opposition, and is now well under 
way. The work is in charge of a com- 
mission created expressly for the pur- 
pose, which is called the Charles River 
Dam Commission. This dam will change 
the character of the Charles from a tidal, 
salt water stream to a fresh water one, 
and will do away with . the unsightly 
looking mud flats which are now so con- 
spicuoits when the tide is out. The en 
gineers say, also, that with this improve- 
ment the disagreeable odor which fre- 
quently makes this section so unpleasant, 
will disappear. The width of the Charles 
where the dam is being constructed, is a 
quarter of a mile. The lock will be 250 
feet long and 43 feet wide. It will re- 
quire two years longer to complete the 
work, for which $3,000,000 has already 
been appropriated. There will be a 
depth of water in the basin, when it is 
ROAD IN BLUE HILLS RESERVATION 
Boston Metropolitan Park System 
