responsibility for it is purely financial. There are, however, within the city limits 950 acres of Metropolitan parks and parkways. Perhaps the most notable is the Stony Brook Reservation in West Roxbury which contains over 400 acres of "wild forested land and dale with many rocky knolls and an extensive view of the Charles river valley and beyond."

Another Metropolitan undertaking of more direct importance to the city, and involving a great piece of engineering was the construction of the Charles River Basin with its embankment and park on the Boston side. Legislative authority had been obtained for building a dam across the Charles River to include the construction of a new bridge between Boston and Cambridge for the damways and to serve as a highway. The dam keeps the water level constant and thus creates a sizeable lake between Cambridge and Boston. The mudflats which formerly offended the eye at low tide have disappeared under a sheet of water affording every opportunity for sports and capable of infinite development as a place of recreation and beauty.

Since the Metropolitan Park Commission came into being, more than one-half of the expenditures for parks has been on account of the Metropolitan outlay over which the city has no control. Here is another example of the substitution of state for municipal administration, but in this instance it will probably be conceded that it has been for the common good.

Boston has today twenty-four large parks aside from the many public grounds, squares, etc., the area of which is measured in square feet rather than in acres. The total park area belonging to Boston covers 2,685

acres.

The main park system, so-called, contains the Boston Common, the Public Garden, the Fens, the Arnold Arboretum and Bussey Park, and Franklin Park, besides some of smaller dimensions and the connecting parkways. Aside from the Common and Public Garden, the principal parks of the main system are the Arnold Arboretum and Bussey Park with their wonderful collection of flowering shrubs and trees collected from all parts of the globe, and Franklin Park of 527

acres, containing a zoological garden, golf course, many miles of beautiful walks a playground of rare beauty and utility because of its accessibility from all parts of the city.

The Marine Park system is of later development, but it is a fine example of the utilization of waterfronts for common recreation. The Marine Park was the first to be opened and to it was added an aquarium in 1912. Castle Island, with its 104 acres, was made a part of the system some years later.

The crowning feature of the Marine Park system has been the construction of the Strandway. The project had been under consideration as early as 1890, but nothing was done until 1913 when a joint commission was authorized by the General Court to make the necessary studies and report plans for betterments. In 1916, the City of Boston was authorized to improve the shore flats and channels of the part of Dorchester Bay known as Old Harbor, an appropriation of $599,000 being granted for the undertaking. The whole area to be improved was in a deplorable condition, the sewage from South Boston and Dorchester emptying on the flats constituting a menace to health at all times and especially in summer. Furthermore, the shores of Old Harbor had been used as a general dumping ground.

The purpose of the Strandway project was to remove the sewage nuisance; to provide bathing facilities; to make the basin suitable for yachting purposes; to create an athletic field, and to make a park on the reclaimed area.

This most ambitious plan is not fully completed, but the work done has more than justified the hopes of its sponsors. The large portion already finished shows that the original objects will be realized, and that the city is adding to its park system one of the most beautiful, wholesome and useful parkways in the entire city. Aside from this, the great value of the 265 acres of reclaimed land is a feature rarely combined with park undertakings.

Among the miscellaneous parks deserving special mention are Governor's Island, about one mile north of