466 N E W N E W in width and 17 feet in height. From Jersey City one tunnel had been, in August 1882, completed a distance of 1600 feet, and the other a distance of 640 feet ; from New York 170 feet of one tunnel only is completed. Unfinished work has been pushed a considerable distance farther on each side. The material through which the tunnel is cut has made its construction very difficult on the New Jersey side silt, and on the New York side a light sandy soil, through both of which the overlying water percolates freely, and it was necessary to keep this water out of the excavated sections as the work proceeded. The plan adopted consisted of the sinking, at each mouth, of a heavy caisson of timber to the required depth. In the river side of this, when it was completed, a hole was cut corre sponding with the mouth of the tunnel. The caisson was air-tight, and into it the air was pumped until it reached a density sufficient to prevent the entrance of the water. As soon as a short section is excavated it is lined with iron plates firmly braced. The interior of the tunnel will therefore consist of an outer lining of iron, and an inner lining of bricks laid in mortar. Whenever one section is completed an iron bulkhead is moved to its further end, and a new air-tight chamber is formed beyond the bulkhead. The company has met with financial embarrassments, and the work has mean while been suspended. Parks, Museums, and Galleries. The city is well supplied with parks and public gardens. There are in all thirty of these, includ ing small open squares. The principal are the Battery, at the southernmost point of Manhattan Island, containing 21 acres; the City-Hall Park, containing 6 ; Washington Square, 8 ; Union Square, 3|; Tompkins Square, 10J; Madison Square, 6.^; Keservoir Square, 4f ; Mount Morris Square, 20. The chief is, however, the Central Park, lying nearly in the centre of the island, and contain ing 843 acres ; it is 2 miles long by half a mile wide. It was laid out in 1858, and is considered a masterpiece of landscape garden ing. It contains the building of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, immediately in front of which stands the obelisk brought in 1880 from Alexandria. Outside the Central Park, but within Man hattan Square, a small addition recently made to it on the west side, stands also the American Museum of Natural History, which, like the Museum of Art, is the property of a private corporation. The National Academy of Design, situated at Fourth Avenue and Twenty-Third Street, has a frontage of 80 feet and a depth of 98 feet 9 inches. The exterior is Venetian ; the material used is grey and white marble and blue stone. The first and second stories con tain offices, lecture-rooms, and rooms for art schools. On the third are large exhibition rooms, lighted from above. Every year one exhibition of oil paintings and one of water colours are given, and in later years supplementary exhibitions have been added. The art schools are free, and are open to both sexes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was chartered by the legisla ture in 1870. It is managed by a board of officers, comprising the comptroller of the city, the president of the department of public parks, the president of the National Academy of Design, and certain private citizens who are members of its corporation. The museum building, opened in 1880, was erected by the park department, at a cost of about $500,000, and is situated in the Central Park, near Fifth Avenue and Eighty-Third Street. It measures 218 by 95 feet. The material is red brick with sandstone trimmiugs. Among its valuable possessions are the Blodgett collection of pictures, the Cesnola collection of articles taken from the Cypriote cities and tombs, two paintings by Rubens, two by Van Dyck, and many other works of eminent masters. The museum is open to the public free, on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. On the other days an admission fee of 25 cents is charged. The American Museum of Natural History was incorporated by the legislature in 1869, and its present building was opened in 1877. It is situated in Manhattan Square. The exterior is of red brick with yellow sandstone trimmings. It is four stories high, and each of its halls measures 170 feet in length by 60 in width. It is governed by a board of twenty-five trustees. The building was erected by the park department, which has charge of it and the surrounding grounds. It is open free. Among its possessions are the Veneaux collection of natural history specimens, the museum of Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, the Elliot collection of the birds of North America, the Jay collection of shells, the James Hall collection of geological specimens of New York State, the Bement specimens of the Stone Age of Denmark, the De Morgan collection of stone implements from the valley of the Somme in France, and the Squire and Davis collection from the Mississippi valley. The Cooper Institute, or " Union for the Advancement of Science and Art," occupies a huge brown stone building at the junction of Third and Fourth Avenues, the gift of Peter Cooper, who erected it in, 1857 at a cost of over $600, 000, and further endowed the union with $200,000 for the support of a library, reading-room, and schools of science and art, all of which are free, and are largely attended by .young men and young women of the working classes. Its evening schools are attended by over 3000 students annually, and in the women s art school instruction is given gratuitously to 350 pupils yearly. The library contains 15,000 volumes, a notable feature being a complete and fully indexed set of the reports of the United States patent office. The reading-room is supplied with about 300 periodicals and newspapers, and is frequented daily by over 2500 readers. No one instrumentality is doing more than the Cooper Union for the instruction of the working classes in the city. The principal works relating to Xew York are Thomas Jones, History of New York during the Revolutionary War, 1879; Mrs Lamb, History of the City of New York, 1877; Stone, History of the City of New York, 1872; Perge, History of the -City of New York, 1859; Mary L. Booth, History of the City of New York, 1880; Valentine, History of the City of New York, 1853; The City Charter, with Chancellor Kent s notes, 1836; Bourne, History of the Public School Society, 1870; Newberry, The Geological History of New York Island and Harbour, 1878 ; Dis- ttirnell, New York as it was and as it is, 1876 ; C. L. Brace, The Dangerous Classes of New York, 3d eel., 1880; The Laws of New York (consolidated), 1882; Boese, Public Education in the City of New York, 1869; Cammann and Camp, The Charities of New York, 1868 ; Friedrich Kapp, Immigration and the Com missioners of Emigration of the State of New York, 1870. (E. L. G.) Plate XIV. NEW ZEALAND consists of two large islands, the North Island and the South Island, of another much smaller one named Stewart Island, and of islets around the coast. The colony includes also the Chatham Islands and the Auckland Islands. New Zealand extends from 34 25 to 47 17 S. lat., and from 166 26 to 178 36 E. long. The Chatham Islands lie between 43 25 and 44 20 S. lat., and 176 10 and 177 15 W. long., and are about 365 miles eastward of Cape Palliser, Cook Strait, New Zealand. The Auckland Islands, which are uninhabited, lie between 50 30 and 51 S. lat., and 165 55 and 166 15 E. long. The whole group comprised in the British colony of New Zealand is situated in the South Pacific Ocean, and is nearly antipodal to Great Britain. The area of New Zea land is about 100,000 square miles, or one-sixth less than that of Great Britain and Ireland. The area of the North Island is about 44,000 square miles, or 28,000,000 acres ; that of the South Island is about 55,000 square miles, or 36,000,000 acres ; and Stewart Island has about 800 square miles, or 512,000 acres. The Chatham Islands and the Auckland Islands are of inconsiderable dimen sions. The North and South Islands together extend over twelve degrees of latitude, and vary from 46 miles to 250 miles in breadth, the average breadth being about 140 miles. The North Island is in area about three- fourths that of England and Wales. The South Island is larger ; its area is about equal to that of England and Wales. The mountains in the North Island occupy about one- Moun- tenth of the surface, and are covered with dense forests tains - containing an almost inexhaustible supply of fine timber. In the northern half the mountains are not so frequent as in other parts, and do not exceed 1500 feet in height, with the exception of a few extinct volcanoes between 2000 and 3000 feet high. In the centre there are some higher volcanic mountains. Tongariro (6500 feet) is occasionally active. Ruapehu (9100 feet) and Mount Egmont (8300 feet) are extinct volcanoes. The main range of the island, beginning to the eastward of these mountains, is at its greatest height 6000 feet. The plains in the North Island lie chiefly on the western side of the range. Mount Egmont is surrounded by an extensive and very fertile district. Nearly four-fifths of the South Island is occupied by mountains. The greater part of them is open, well grassed, and adapted for pasture. The Southern Alps, as they are called, run close to the west coast the whole length of the island. Mount Cook, the highest peak, is 12,349 feet high, and has many glaciers. Its summit was for the first time reached in March 1882 by the Rev. W. S. Green, a member of the Alpine Club, and his two Swiss guides, Messrs Kaufmann and Boss. The main range is crossed at intervals by low passes. Extensive agricultural
