325 
PARK AND CEMETRRY 
mitlee to make the appeal. In response the legislature 
appointed a commission to investigate and report. Mr. 
Charles Eliot was retained as landscape architect ad- 
visory to this inquiring commission. His report has 
been published under date of 1893. His comprehensive 
and masterlv grasp of the problem and his accurate de- 
ductions were recorded with remarkable clearness. As a 
contribution to the classical literature of parks con- 
sidered in their relation to present and probable popula- 
islands in it ; the sea, rocks, hills, streams, and shores 
and vegetation. 
Accompanying the report is a map illustrating various 
areas in accordance with the conclusions deducted from 
the study. After transmitting this to the legislature a 
permanent commission was appointed. The commis- 
sion has since conformed to the recommendations sub- 
mitted in the referred to report in takings for the 
Metropolitan district. 
ELLICOTT ARCH, FRANKLIN PARK, BOSTON. 
lion in the area affected, it marks a national epoch in 
Park development and will require many years to justly 
estimate its true value. The report divides itself into 
a summary of the physical and historical geography of 
the Metropolitan district ; a study of the manner in 
which the peculiar geography of the district should 
govern the selection of the sites for open spaces ; and a 
review of the opportunities which remain for creating 
new open spaces according to the governing consider- 
ations noted. Effects of human occupancy are dis- 
cussed. Great value is attached to the Bay and the 
The areas in different parts of the system balance 
each other to a certain extent. In the northern dis- 
trict the Middlesex Eells corresponds to the Blue Hills 
Reservation, which is the southern counterpart of the 
Eells. Nantasket Beach on the south balances Revere 
and Kings beaches on the north. In the western dis- 
trict are the Waverly Oaks, and the Mystic Valley and 
Stony Brook Reservations. 
Charles River Reservation includes virtually all of 
both banks of the Charles from the Basin to Dedham, a 
distance of about 20 miles. Connecting the widely 
