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are occupied by the old or Lower Reservoir, and one hundred and six by the new fabric now in process of construction. The old work is a parallelogram, reaching lengthwise from Seventy-ninth to Eighty-sixth Street, and taking from the centre of the grounds a little more than onefourth of their whole width. The new and larger basin begins just above the lower one, and extends to Ninety-sixth Street. It is irregular in contour, and at some points stretches so nearly across the entire breadth of the Park as scarcely to leave good elbow-room for the carriage and bridle roads and foot-paths. The Reservoirs are too much elevated to form a part of the Park landscape; on the contrary, they obstruct the view so much that the best way to treat them would be to plant them out as much as possible. Yet when the visitor leaves the roads and walks below, and trudges up their green slopes to the grand promenade upon the top of the ponderous walls, and looks thence into or across the vast reaches of crystal waters, or beyond to the distant glimpses of the city and its surroundings, he will find himself in a new and beautiful world, and will thank Fortune for the Reservoirs after all! More especially will he rejoice and be glad

if he should happen to remember that upon the priceless treasure which they hold, or will hold when filled, of nearly a thousand millions of gallons of pure water, not only the great city below, but the lakes and fountains and verdure of the Park itself depend for refreshment and sustenance. It may be instructive to say here that the quantity of Croton water expended, or to be expended, each year, upon the lakes, fountains, drives, and walks, and for the general irrigation of that part of the Park lying below Eighty-sixth Street, is nearly one hundred and thirteen millions of gallons; and that the supply which will be required by the entire Park will be not less than two hundred millions of gallons per annum.

The construction of the new Reservoir is a gigantic undertaking, employing a thousand men, in addition to the three or four thousand engaged upon the Park outside. It advances slowly-so slowly as to delay the embellishment of the surrounding grounds, which are cumbered and obstructed by its materials and débris.

We come now to the district lying north of the Reservoirs, and popularly known as the Upper Park. This section of the ground possesses eminent capabilities for the production of

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THE BLUFF AT THE UPPER END OF THE PARK, ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH STREET.

grand rocky bluff which looks out, far and wide, over the broad stretch of the Harlem plains; the view to the right taking in the city, villages of Yorkville and Harlem, the East River and its municipal institutions, the Sound and the shores of Long Island; the vista northward, including the High Bridge of the Croton Aqueduct and the lands of Westchester County; and, in the northwest, wandering over the village of Manhattanville to the Hudson and its famous Palisades-altogether a noble panorama, such as no other park in the wide world may approach.

The bluff of which we were speaking may be well devoted, at some future day, to the uses of an observatory. At the present time it is capped by a venerable gray-stone powder-magazine, and makes an impressive picture, seen from the plain below, and particularly under the weird effect of moonlight.

The Pass is traversed by a fine brook, which is to be exploited in the formation of the proposed North Lake. There still exist in the neighborhood some traces of the fortifications that

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ARBOR IN THE RAMBLE

abounded at the period of the Revolution, among which is the fine knoll, with the lines of a redoubt, seen in our view of the old site of Mount St. Vincent, from the exterior of the grounds upon the northeast.

The only improvements, thus far, within the limits of the Upper Park, are in the partial construction of roads in the great meadow already mentioned, and in the preparations for an arboretum in the northeast angle, to cover an area of no less than sixty-eight acres, which will contain specimens of every tree and shrub that it may be possible to grow upon the site in the open air.

Upon the east side, near the line of One Hundred and Sixth Street, there yet stand the edifices vacated

VOL. XXIII.-No. 135.-U

THE TUNNEL IN THE TRANSVERSE ROAD.

by the Catholic Seminary of Mount St. Vincent, together with the old M'Gowan's mansion. One of the Seminary buildings is a new and picturesque brick structure containing a fine chapel. This will probably be preserved, and converted

to some pleasant usemaybe a Picture Gallery, just as the old State Arsenal in the Lower Park is to be retained and transmuted into a Museum.The older wooden buildings at present serve a good purpose as offices for the Commissioners, the architects, and other employés of the Park. It is the temporary residence also of Mr. Olmsted, the architect-inchief, and of Mr. Vaux, the assistant - architect,

and their families, and the head-quarters of the great police force of the Park. Here the little army of Park-keepers-already between fifty and sixty in number, all classes and ranks includedare daily trained in the way in which they should

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THE HUDSON PALISADES, FROM THE BLUFF.

go; and an excellent way it is too, as the marked | silvery spray, and stately statuary will arise to intelligence, courtesy, and kindness of the corps make the verdure brighter by its marble whitewhen on duty may testify.

If by chance we have, in anywise, at all overpainted the present aspect of our noble Park, let the reader remember how short will be the time before its daily developing charms will far exceed all we have or could have said. Wonders have been achieved, it is true, but still the work is, after all, only begun. Much of the grand area is yet scarcely touched, and the finished portions will yet be embellished a hundred-fold. Before long pretty lodges for the homes of the superintendent and the head keeper will spring up; the attractions of a Museum, a Gallery of Art, of Zoological and Botanical Gardens, are anticipated; fountains will send up their cool,

ness. The present rude exterior wall will give way to a structure of fitting elegance, and the surrounding streets and avenues will be graded and paved, and lined with beautiful trees and splendid mansions. The ample capabilities of the grounds, and the equally ample experience, taste, and industry of the architects in charge, are so clearly seen in what has already been accomplished, that we may be sure the great work will go on prospering and to prosper. Our Park is not for the present day alone, but for all the generations yet to come; and if the generous people of New York shall be remembered and blessed by their posterity for any good deed, above all others it will be for this inestimable gift.

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bling, drinking, and other vices prevailing among white men, and to which Indians have a natural inclination. As the country became more settled, it was considered profitable, owing to the high rate of compensation for white labor, to encourage these Christian tribes to adopt habits of industry, and they were employed very generally throughout the State. In the vine-growing districts they were usually paid in native brandy every Saturday night, put in jail next morning for getting drunk, and bailed out on Monday to work out the fine imposed upon them by the

local authorities. This system still prevails in in the natural course of things, must exterminate Los Angeles, where I have often seen a dozen Indians. Actuated by base motives of resentof these miserable wretches carried to jail roar- ment, a few of them occasionally rallied, prefering drunk of a Sunday morning. The inhabit-ring rather to die than submit to these imaginary ants of Los Angeles are a moral and intelligent wrongs. White men were killed from time to people, and many of them disapprove of the cus-time; cattle were driven off; horses were stolen, tom on principle, and hope it will be abolished as and various other iniquitous offenses were comsoon as the Indians are all killed off. Practically, mitted. it is not a bad way of bettering their condition; for some of them die every week from the effects of debauchery, or kill one another in the nocturnal brawls which prevail in the outskirts of the Pueblo.

The settlers in the northern portions of the State had a still more effectual method of encouraging the Indians to adopt habits of civilization. In general, they engaged them at a fixed rate of wages to cultivate the ground, and during the season of labor fed them on beans and gave them a blanket or a shirt each; after which, when the harvest was secured, the account was considered squared, and the Indians were driven off to forage in the woods for themselves and families during the winter. Starvation usually wound up a considerable number of the old and decrepit ones every season; and of those that failed to perish from hunger or exposure, some were killed on the general principle that they must have subsisted by stealing cattle, for it was well known that cattle ranged in the vicinity; while others were not unfrequently slaughtered by their employers for helping themselves to the refuse portions of the crop which had been left in the ground. It may be said that these were exceptions to the general rule; but if ever an Indian was fully and honestly paid for his labor by a white settler, it was not my luck to hear of it. Certainly, it could not have been of frequent

occurrence.

The wild Indians inhabiting the Coast Range, the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, and the Western slope of the Sierra Nevada, became troublesome at a very early period after the discovery of the gold mines. It was found convenient to take possession of their country without recompense, rob them of their wives and children, kill them in every cowardly and barbarous manner that could be devised, and when that was impracticable, drive them as far as possible out of the way. Such treatment was not consistent with their rude ideas of justice. At best they were an ignorant race of Diggers, wholly unacquainted with our enlightened institutions. They could not understand why they should be murdered, robbed, and hunted down in this way, without any other pretense of provocation than the color of their skin and the habits of life to which they had always been accustomed. In the traditionary researches of their most learned sages they had never heard of the snakes in Ireland that were exterminated for the public benefit by the great and good St. Patrick. They were utterly ignorant of the sublime doctrine of General Welfare. The idea, strange as it may appear, never occurred to them that they were suffering for the great cause of civilization, which,

The Federal Government, as is usual in cases where the lives of valuable voters are at stake, was forced to interfere. Troops were sent out to aid the settlers in slaughtering the Indians. By means of mounted howitzers, muskets, Minié rifles, dragoon pistols, and sabres, a good many were cut to pieces. But, on the whole, the general policy of the Government was pacific. It was not designed to kill any more Indians than might be necessary to secure the adhesion of the honest yeomanry of the State, and thus furnish an example of the practical working of our political system to the savages of the forest, by which it was hoped they might profit. Congress took the matter in hand at an early day, and appropriated large sums of money for the purchase of cattle and agricultural implements. From t.e wording of the law, it would appear that these useful articles were designed for the relief and maintenance of the Indians. Commissioners were appointed at handsome salaries to treat with them, and sub-agents employed to superintend the distribution of the purchases. In virtue of this munificent policy, treaties were made in which the various tribes were promised a great many valuable presents, which of course they never got. There was no reason to suppose they ever should; it being a fixed principle with strong powers never to ratify treaties made by their own agents with weaker ones, when there is money to pay and nothing to be had in return.

The cattle were purchased, however, to the number of many thousands. Here arose another difficulty. The honest miners must have something to eat, and what could they have more nourishing than fat cattle? Good beef has been a favorite article of subsistence with men of bone and muscle ever since the days of the ancient Romans. So the cattle, or the greater part of them, were driven up to the mines, and sold at satisfactory rates-probably for the benefit of the Indians, though I never could understand in what way their necessities were relieved by this speculation, unless it might be that the parties interested turned over to them the funds received for the cattle. It is very certain they continued to starve and commit depredations in the most ungrateful manner for some time after; and, indeed, to such a pitch of audacity did they carry their rebellious spirit against the constituted authorities, that many of the chiefs protested if the white people would only let them alone, and give them the least possible chance to make a living, they would esteem it a much greater favor than any relief they had experienced from the munificent donations of Congress.

But Government was not to be defeated in its

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