11 



immediate increase in their allowance of food, since which no 

 further accidents have occurred, nor has there been a single 

 instance of sickness of any kind. The lion Pompey, whose 

 recent loss was the only natural death that has occurred in 

 the new terrace, had contracted the fatal disease before his 

 removal, and fell a sacrifice, like most of his predecessors, to 

 the mistaken practice of confining these animals in heated 

 rooms and small apartments. The injurious effects of this 

 principle have been strongly manifested by an ingenious re- 

 turn which the Assistant Secretary of the Society, Mr. Rees, 

 has made of the average duration of the lives of all the larger 

 fehne Carnivora since the commencement of the Society. It 

 appears from this, that lions, tigers, leopards, and pumas, 

 taken separately, have lived on an average only twenty- 

 four months in the Society's Gardens, and computing the 

 general stock of these animals in the collection at eighteen 

 or twenty, which is about the average number, it follows 

 that there must have been one death at least among them 

 in every month since the first establishment of the Society. 

 Again, taking the average value of lions and tigers at £150 

 each, and of leopards and pumas at £15 a piece, it follows 

 that the replacing of casualties in this department alone must 

 have cost the Society £200 per annum, allowing the stock to 

 consist of seven or eight lions and tigers, and ten or twelve 

 leopards and pumas. This is equivalent to an investment 

 of £5000 at £4 per cent., and exhibits the advantages of 

 the new system in a very favourable light, if, as there is every 

 reason to suppose, the beneficial effects already produced be 

 found to continue. The Council, therefore, notwithstanding 

 an increased expense in the erection of the terrace, which 

 they had neither reason nor right to anticipate, and of 

 difficulties in the settlement of the accounts, which have oc- 

 casioned them great trouble and annoyance, cordially concur 

 in the trust expressed by the Auditors of Accounts, that the 

 sum expended on this important building may prove a judi- 

 cious investment rather than an actual expenditure ; " The 

 better accommodation of the animals, and the perfect ventila- 

 tion of their dens, causing health and longevity, whereby the 

 cost of new specimens will be decreased." 



