172 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



more extended information, I engaged a surgeon, at 

 considerable expense, to make a voyage to Greenland 

 in one of the ships employed in the whale fishery, and 

 furnished him with such necessaries as was thought 

 might be requisite for examining and preserving the 

 more interesting parts, and with instructions for mak- 

 ing general observations ; but the only return I re- 

 ceived for the expenses was a piece of whale-skin with 

 some small animals (barnacles) sticking upon it." 



The labors of a naturalist can not be carried on 

 in a great city, therefore Hunter purchased a piece of 

 land, and put on it a cottage, with suitable outbuild- 

 ings, at Earl's Court, about a mile beyond B romp ton. 

 This retired spot became at length a moderate Zoolog- 

 ical Garden, and was shunned by all who are shy of 

 w T ild beasts and doctor's things. At the back of the 

 house was a lawn stocked with animals of the strangest 

 selection ; and in the lofts of his barn were eagles, owls, 

 and many kinds of rare birds. Moving free in his 

 grounds were ostriches, tortoises, kangaroos, and pen- 

 guins. On the slope were bear-pits, and dens for the 

 fiercest of beasts. One day two leopards escaped, and 

 were creating great commotion in the neighborhood. 

 Hunter, knowing the animals intimately, went to 

 them, and taking each by the nape of the neck, led 

 them safely back to their cages. 



In an underground retreat which few visited, 

 Hunter made many of his anatomical preparations. 

 It was there that the giant skeleton of O'Brien was 

 cleaned and mounted ; it was there " the old copper 

 kettle" came often into use. This subterranean pas- 

 sage was heated in winter to keep the equatorial ani- 

 mals from suffering and dying with cold. The hedge- 

 hogs, coiled up in the leaves of the garden when the 



