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pense of the donor. They were given quarters near the deer and kangaroo, but have not done as well as the deer, elk and buffalo.

The Bear Pits in Golden Gate Park are a never-ending source of interest to old and young visitors. The Park Commissioners have difficulty in accommodating the numerous increases to their bear collection which includes the grizzly and many varied other huge varieties.

Stow Lake, where is situated the Golden Gate Park boathouse and where one can often see a great gathering of wild fowl, including all the migratory species of ducks, is one of the most picturesque artificial lakes in the world. In September the wild ducks from the Arctic, including the lordly canvas-back, begin to arrive at Stow Lake. One of the prettiest sights imaginable is that of children feeding the wild fowl, which become so tame during their sojourn that they almost take the food out of the children's hands. Swans, black and white, are numerous on the lake, and there are also pelicans and brant.

Huntington Falls which are part of Stow Lake are Park features of wonderful beauty.

The Lake itself is a marvel of the engineer's skill, art and nature being so subtly blended that one scarcely perceives the blending. The body of water is serpentine in form around the base of Strawberry Hill, leaving its banks and winding around many verdently fringed islands.

The drive around the Lake is famed for enchanting vistas which meet the eye at many of the curves of the roadway. The Lake is also a practical reservoir, having a capacity of 25,000,000 gallons of water. It is the central source of the park's irrigation system.

One of the most attractive resorts in Golden Gate Park is the Children's Playground. Here are swings, merry-gorounds, May-poles, donkey rides, goat carts, restaurants and candy stands. The popularity or success of this enterprise is an object lesson to park governing bodies. This most admirable feature would require a long article in itself to do it justice.

The Commissioners in 1890 authorized the building of a Bird House. The Aviary with its many birds of goreous plumage, is one of the interesting features of the Park and is constantly improving.

An article on Golden Gate Park would be incomplete without eulogistical reference to the Conservatories, which were begun in 1877, at which time an appropriation of $40,000 for them was authorized. The Conservatories buildings were subsequently destroyed by fire, but through the generosity of Charles Crocker, the Railroad King, means were proIvided for their restoration. Since then nothing has occurred to prevent the horticultural development of Golden Gate Park. In no other part of the world is there such a wealth of rare flowers and plants, for perhaps no other public park, under the direction of a municipal board, is so fortunate in its selection of a park superintendent. In many respects Superintendent John McLaren of Golden Gate Park, is unique among botanists, for he not only possesses a perfect knowledge of the requirements of all forms of gardening, but is also a practical man in the fullest sense of the terms. Without Mr. McLaren's knowledge, energy, and honesty the Golden Gate Park of today would not have been possible of achievement. He nursed it in its infancy and guards it in its matured beauty.

In his long term of office as superintendent of Golden Gate Park, Mr. McLaren is being loyally supported by the various boards of Park Commissioners that have been appointed by Mayors of San Francisco. Under no board has there been any question of partisan unfairness, or misuses of the public money. The character of the citizens selected as Park Commissioners by the Mayors of San Francisco, has been such that suspicions of anything savoring of graft would be preposterous.

Park Commissioners have been chosen because they are men who had distinguished themselves in professional lines of commercial activity. Usually they have been men of large fortune, and always men of public spirit. They receive no salaries. Several of them have been liberal contributors out of their own for

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tunes, to the beautification of Golden Gate Park.

A recent and notable case of such generosity was furnished by the late Banker Steinhart, whose principal gift will provide Golden Gate Park with a costly aquarium.

The donations of generous citizens have made the park museums treasure houses of art and historical mememtoes. The statuary of Golden Gate Park, which is far above the grade of monuments usually seen in such public places, also represents the contributions of patriotic citizens.

One might epitomize the attractions and advantages of Golden Gate Park, by saying that nothing is omitted from the list which should belong to a great popular playground, where hundreds of thou

sands of the citizens, annually, find rest, recreation and enjoyment.

Golden Gate Park, large, important as it is, forms but one link in the chain of public breathing places, which come under the supervision of the unsalaried park commissioners.

The list of parks maintained by the City of San Francisco include: Mission Park, Lincoln Park, Buena Vista Park, Union Square, Portsmouth Square, Franklin Square, Bernal Park, Duboce Park, Alta Plaza, Pioneer Park or Telegraph Hill, Holly Park, Alamo Square, Washington Square, Sunnyside Park, South Park, Garfield Square, Columbia Square, Hamilton Square, Lafayette Square, Lobos Square, Fairmont Park, McKinley Square, Jackson Square and several smaller and less important parks.

The Ground Squirrels of Old Grizzly

T

grass."

By R. A. Sell

HE 'watch' of the mountain slopes, sly and inquisitive, but recklessly bold-this animated bunch of dead

There are two well marked trails that lead from Berkeley to the top of Old Grizzly. Whichever trail you take, you will have at least two steeps from two hundred to four hundred feet in length with an elevation of fifty-fifty.

On entering the trail, there is a surprising suddenness of transition from populous city streets and suburban avenues to the quiet desolated hillside. The upper vales are peaceful and unfrequented. Beyond the foothills three populous cities appear as chess boards with houses for counters and the still bay stretches to the Golden Gate where it is framed in by a fringe of purple hills.

But there are cities above the clouds. Even above the campanile and the famous eucalyptus grove, the California ground squirrels have erected their sentry mounds and constructed their underground passage ways. According to Dr. Joseph Grinnell and Joseph Dixon who have made an exhaustive study of the

ground squirrels of California, there are no less than three thousand individuals in the ground squirrel villages that are spread out along the sides of Old Grizzly These villages have well-marked streets or paths that connect the open spots or sentry mounds and while an entrance to a burrow is usually found near the center of a bare spot, there are many entrances that are hidden by a bunch of grass, a few weed stems or a friendly stone.

This chubby ground squirrel is a looser animal than the swift striped "picket pin" of the prairie country, but there is something audacious about this half-skulking shadowy sentinel of the mountain side.

The air is notably cool and bracing on these open hillsides and there seems to be some kind of aromatic perfume born of these upper regions which tempts you to throw your shoulders back and inhale deep draughts; thus you may feel weary from the climb when your senses are alert making the conditions very favorable for observing these squirrels.

No one climbs Old Grizzly without seeing several of these cheerful little rodents but it takes two or three hours

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