ading of streets
through and across it had been commenced, and the rude embankments and
ragged rock-excavations thus created added much to the natural
irregularities of its surface. Large reaches of stagnant water made the
aspect yet more repulsive; and so ubiquitous were the rocks that it is
said, not a square rood could be found throughout which a crowbar could
be thrust its length into the ground without encountering them. To
complete the miseries of the scene, the wretched squatters had, in the
process of time, ruthlessly denuded it of all its vegetation except a
miserable tangled underbrush."

Looking around now upon the beautiful landscape, with its exquisite lawns
and shrubbery, its picturesque hills, and romantic walks and drives, its
sparkling lakes, cascades and fountains, it is hard to realize that so
much loveliness was preceded by such hideousness.

[Picture: FOOT-BRIDGE IN CENTRAL PARK.]

The Central Park, so called because it is situated almost in the centre
of the island of Manhattan, is a parallelogram in shape, and lies between
Fifty-ninth street on the south, and One-hundred-and-tenth street on the
north, the Fifth avenue on the east, and the Eighth avenue on the west.
It covers an area of 843 acres, and is about two and a half miles long,
by half a mile wide. There are nine miles of carriage drives, four miles
of bridle roads, and twenty-five miles of walks within its limits. It is
the second park in the Union in size; the Fairmount Park at Philadelphia
being the largest. It is larger than any city park in Europe, with the
exception of the Bois de Boulogne at Paris, the Prater at Vienna, and the
Phoenix at Dublin. A rocky ridge, which traverses the whole island,
passes through almost the exact centre of the grounds, and has afforded a
means of rendering the scenery most beautiful and diversified. A part of
the grounds forms a miniature Alpine region; another part is the
perfection of water scenery; and still another stretches away in one of
the loveliest lawns in the world. The soil will nurture almost any kind
of tree, shrub, or plant; and more than one hundred and sixty thousand
trees and shrubs of all kinds have been planted, and the work is still
going on. Any of the principal walks will conduct the visitor all over
the grounds, and afford him a fine view of the principal objects of
interest.

The park is divided into two main sections, known as the Upper and Lower
P