xin ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 181 



exotic animal life with which the world abounds. An ex- 

 tensive, well -arranged, and well-kept collection, where the 

 circumstances of exhibition were more favourable than in the 

 institutions just referred to, seemed then to fulfil a national 

 need, as the rapidly-acquired popularity of the Society already 

 alluded to testifies. Indeed, when we consider the amount of 

 enjoyment and instruction which has been afforded to the 

 24,572,405 visitors who are registered as having entered our 

 Gardens from their first opening in 1828 to the end of last 

 year, it is easy to realise what a loss the country would have 

 sustained if they had not existed. There was a period, it is 

 true, in which they fell rather low in popular favour, the 

 record of 1847 showing both the smallest number of visitors 

 and the lowest income of any year in the Society's existence. 

 A new era of activity in the management of the Society's 

 affairs was then happily inaugurated, which resulted in a 

 prosperity which has continued ever since, with only slight 

 fluctuations, arising from causes easy to be understood a 

 prosperity to which the scientific knowledge, zeal, and devotion 

 to the affairs of the Society of our present Secretary, ably 

 seconded in all matters of detail by the Eesident Superin- 

 tendent, have greatly contributed. 



Among the great improvements which have been gradu- 

 ally effected in the Gardens in recent years is the erection 

 of larger, more commodious, and more substantial buildings for 

 the accommodation of the animals than those that existed before. 

 A few examples will suffice to illustrate the successive steps 

 that have been taken in this direction. The primary habita- 

 tion of the lions and other large feline animals was the 

 building near the north-east corner of the Gardens, which many 

 of us may remember as a Keptile-house, and which has been 

 lately restored as a dwelling-place for the smaller Carnivora. 

 The Council Eeports of the period frequently speak of the bad 

 accommodation it afforded to the inmates, the consequent injury 

 to their health, and the disagreeable effects on visitors from 

 the closeness of the atmosphere. In September 1843 the 

 terrace, with its double row of cages beneath, was completed ; 

 and the report of the following spring, speaking of this as 

 " one of the most important works ever undertaken at the 



