Mr. F. L. Olmsted, Jr., in his lecture last evening on "Landscape in and about Boston and Cambridge," explained the general features of the landscape of this region, and showed by the stereopticon many of its interesting and beautiful views. He emphasized the accessibility of all the country about Boston, which offers great opportunity for valuable trips. No point within a radius of twenty-five miles from Boston is more than three miles from a car line.
The general topography of the landscape about here is determined by the low range of rocky hills which surrounds this region, and the three rivers, the Charles, Mystic and Neponset, which cut through it. The most characteristic features of the views are the very numerous glacial ponds, the narrow, open valleys, the small rock-broken hills and the broad level salt marshes. Beautiful views are to be obtained along the coast at all seasons of the year. No better illustration of sand beach with its rollers can be found than Revere Beach, easily accessible by the narrow gauge railway from Boston. Here in winter, after storms the scenes are very impressive, the snow being banked up by the waves sometimes to the height of fifteen feet.
About Ispwich the marshes furnish views beautiful in their breadth and simplicity; nearer Cambridge, as in Waverly, Woburn, the Middlesex Fells, and in the valley of the Mystic there are many scenes of great attractiveness. The landscape views of this region are mostly small in effect. It is only along the coast, on the marshes and on the hills, as in the Blue Hills, that we find breadth and largeness of view.
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