255 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
observed and recorded, and exotic animals acclimatised. No notice, appears 
to have been taken, at the time, of this admirable proposal. In 1867 
however, Dr. (now Sir) Joseph Fayrer, then President of the Asiatic Society 
of Bengal, formulated a scheme: for the foundation of a Zoological Garden 
in the British Indian metropolis, and his proposal seems to have met with a 
favorable response from the Calcutta public, who promptly came forward 
and raised a large amount of money by subscription ; but, as no suitable site 
for the location of the institution could be found at that time, the scheme 
was temporarily shelved. In 1873 Mr. Carl Louis Schwendler, electrician to 
the Government of India, and a gentleman well-known for his ardent love of 
natural history pursuits, again brought the subject forward and submitted a 
scheme for establishing a public vivarium, and for acclimatising foreign 
vertebrates in Calcutta, to the Bengal Government and the Council of the 
Bengal Asiatic Society. A sub-committee, composed of the members of the 
Asiatic Society of Bengal and of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society 
of India, was formed to consider Mr, Schwendler’s proposal ; but, as in 1867, 
the scheme was once again placed in abeyance, as no suitable site could be 
found, Mr. Schwendler’s suggestions were again taken up for consideration 
during the régime of Lord Northbrook; and Sir Richard Temple, then 
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, not only highly approved of the scheme, but 
adopted it. 
It was mainly through Sir Richard Temple’s liberal assistance and Mr. 
Schwendler’s warm advocacy, indomitable perseverance and determination, 
that the Calcutta Zoological Gardens became a fart accompli in 1875, The 
Government of Bengal liberally granted two tracts of land, situated on the 
sides of the Belvedere Road, south of the Zeerut Bridge, at Alipore, for the 
location of the institution, and sanctioned an annual grant of Rs. 20,000 for 
the purchase of animals and the maintenance of the gardens in a state of 
efficiency, and also appointed an Honorary Committee of Management to admin- 
ister the affairs of the institution. To the menagerie, then in a state of infancy, 
Mr. Schwendler presented his private collection of animals, birds and reptiles, 
and these formed the nucleus of the splendid display of indigenous and exotic 
vertebrates which now adorns the Calcutta Zoological Gardens. It was on 
the 1st January, 1876, that the first sod was turned by H. R. H. the Prince of 
Wales, who was then in Calcutta ; and the Calcutta Zoological Gardens were 
formally opened to the public on the 1st of May of the same year. Thus this 
institution, which was established, as is stated in the original prospectus issued 
in 1875, under the sanction of Government, for the purpose of developing and 
displaying the zoological wealth of the country, and facilitating the acclima- 
tisation, domestication, and breeding of animals, and improving the indi- 
genous breed of cattle and farm-stock, has now been in existence for seventeen 
years. 
In the eyes of both God and civilised man, we owe a responsibility to the 
dumb creatures whom we bring from their native wilds and place in durance 
