108 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



More important even than this was the influence of the 

 Aquarium in preparing the way for the foundation of biological 

 stations, fresh-water and marine, where systematic work could 

 be carried on by trained observers. 



The basement storey of the giraffe house was fitted up in 

 1854 to afford sleeping accommodation for six keepers. Three 

 years later the wire fence on the south-west boundary was 

 strengthened to keep out dogs, which "in some instances 

 had occasioned actual loss of life in specimens of value." 

 There is a record of a fallow deer having been killed by 

 leaping against a fence in the grazing land when pursued by 

 a dog belonging to a stranger in the park. 



In 1859 that part of the antelope house which faces the 

 south entrance was opened, and stocked with the zebras and 

 wild asses, which were kept here for some time. The cost 

 of this section was £1,100. The swine sheds are of the same 

 date, and a walk was made thence to the reservoir, which 

 stood near the site of the present reptile house ; this joined 

 another walk leading to the south entrance. One great im- 

 provement was introduced — the labelling of the houses to 

 correspond with the headings in the Guide. 



There was general satisfaction with the housing; but sug- 

 gestions were made for improvements. In 1855 a writer in 

 the Quarterly Review (Dec, p. 233) pleaded for some kind 

 of open-air arrangement for the carnivora : 



With half an acre of enclosed ground strewn with sand, we might see 

 the king of beasts pace freely, as in his Libyan fastness, and with twenty feet 

 of artificial rock might witness the tiger's bound. Such an arrangement 

 would, we are convinced, attract thousands to the Gardens and restore to 

 the larger carnivora that place among the beasts from which they have 

 been so unfairly degraded. We commend this idea to Mr. Mitchell, the 

 able secretary to the Society, who has shown by his system of "starring" 

 how alive he is to the fact that it is to the sixpenny and shilling visitors 

 who flock to the Gardens by tens of thousands on holidays that he must 

 look to support the wise and liberal expenditure he has lately adopted. 



By bequest of the late President, the eland herd, con- 

 sisting of two bulls and three cows,^ passed from the 



* The hulls, under a year old, were received at Knowsleyin June, 1851; two 

 of the cows, prohahly horn in 1849, were imported in 1850, and the other was 

 bred at Knowsley in 1844. 



