22 
The sum of £525 Os. 9d. was expended in 1875 in com- 
mencing the rearrangement of the paths and walks round 
the new building. These have been rapidly proceeded 
with since the commencement of the present year; but so 
much alteration in the levels and other necessary labour is 
involved in them, that it will be still some time before they 
can be regarded as complete. The four large outdoor iron 
cages at the back of the building have also still to be 
erected; and a contract has been made with Mr. Hickson, 
of Cleveland Street, W., for their completion by the 1st of 
August next for ‘the sum of £1350. When-these have 
been finished and the rearrangement of the adjoining 
grounds completed, it is estimated that the total expendi- 
ture on the new Lion-house and its surroundings will not 
have been less than £11,500. 
The new Lion-house, when thus complete, will, it is be- 
lieved, form by far the largest and most perfect building 
for the accommodation of the larger Carnivora ever 
erected. The total length of the main building is 228 feet, 
exclusive of the porticoes; the width, up to the front of 
the dens, 35 feet. The dens are fourteen in number, and 
will accommodate, if necessary, as many pairs of animals, 
each animal having a separate inside den. The larger 
dens measure 20 feet by 12. The smaller are about 12 feet 
square. The height of the building at the central elevation 
is 30 feet. At the back of the dens is a wide passage ex- 
tending the whole length of the building. From this passage 
doors open into every inner den, and in this are fixed the 
chains and pulleys for opening the sliding doors between 
the dens, so that the whole of the work connected with 
cleaning and management of the animals is effected from 
behind. In the centre, at the back of the passage, are two 
day-rooms and four sleeping-rooms for the keepers, two of 
whom will always sleep on the premises. ‘The four out- 
door playing-cages behind, which are still to be erected, 
measure 44 feet by 29. The animals will be transferred 
into them through a kind of movable tunnel running on 
wheels along the keeper’s passage. 
The present occupants of the Lion-house consist of 
6 Lions, 7 Tigers, 2 Jaguars, 2 Leopards, 3 Pumas, and 
a Clouded Tiger, altogether 21 in number. The only 
desideratum among the larger Felidz is the Ounce (Felis 
uncia) of the mountains of Central Asia, of which as yet 
no living specimen, it is believed, has ever been brought 
to this country. 
