Pleasure-boats glide over it in summer, and in winter it is thronged with skaters.*' One portion of the Skating-Pond is devoted exclusively to the gentler sex. These, of nearly all ages and conditions, throng the ice whenever the skating is good.

Open spaces are to be left for military parades, and large plats of turf for games, such as ball and cricket, will be laid down -- about twenty acres for the former, and ten for the latter ; and it is intended to have a beautiful meadow in the centre of the park.

There will be arches of cut stone, and numerous bridges of iron and stone (the latter handsomely ornamented and fashioned in the most costly style), spanning the trafiic-roads, ravines, and ponds. One of the most remarkable of these, forming a central architectural feature, is the Terrace Bridge, at the north end of the Mall, already approaching completion. This bridge covers a broad arcade, where, in alternate niches, will be statues and fountains. Below will be a platform, 170 feet wide, extending to the border of the Skating-Pond. It will embrace a spacious basin, with a fine fountain jet in its centre. This structure will be composed of exquisitely wrought light brown freestone, and granite.

Such is a general idea of tlie park, the construction of which was begun at the beginning of 1858; it is expected to be completed in 1864-- a period of only about six years. The entire cost will not fall much short of 12,000,000 dollars. As n;any as four thousand men and several hundred horses have been at work upon it at one time.f