REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS. Xlll 



An extended biographical sketch of Downs's life on the model 

 of Smiles's little work would doubtless lie very interesting, but as 

 he was a man who sought retirement and seldom troubled himself 

 with correspondence, and as, moreover, time is fast effacing his 

 memory in Xova Scotia, it would be difficidt to get together suffi- 

 cient and reliable materials for such a compilation. I have, how- 

 ever, recently received from the recording secretary of the Xova 

 ♦Scotian Institute of Science,* of which I am a corresponding mem- 

 ber, a paper on this subject written by himself and embodying ex- 

 tracts from an article by the editor of the Xew York Forest and 

 Stream, a personal friend and admirer of Downs, whom he had 

 visited. On reading it, I Avas induced to refer to a number of old 

 diaries and notebooks of Nova Scotian days, and was glad to find 

 Downs's name frequently occurring therein, as well as an article 

 which I contributed in 1864 to a Halifax newspaper* and have for- 

 tunately preserved, undoubtedly the first notice of Downs and his 

 establistment which had then been published. I quote the article 

 here, as a contemporary account of the naturalist and his interest- 

 ing collection of animals : 



Sketches in Our lieighbourhood: An Afternoon icith Downs. 



Half an hour's walk from the city, over the Common, and down the 

 telegraph-road leading to the west, brings the visitor to the cross-roads at 

 the head of the North West Arm. If a stranger, your question — " Is this 

 the way to Downs's ? " is probably answered by a piscatorial urchin, 

 seated by a little brook which here trickles into the salt-water under a 

 bridge, by " Yaas, that's it, where yer hear them burds screaming'," point- 

 ing to the road turning off towards the Dutch Village. In confirmation 

 whereof the shrill scream of a peacock or discordant cry of a cockatoo 

 reaches your ear, and we presently arrive at the gates of Walton Cottage 

 G ardens. 



And here let me say ere pi'oceeding. that these gardens were the first 

 '"Zoo" established on the American continent— a fact often recounted to 

 me by the founder with some pride. 



Prettily surrounded and hid from the road by fir woods, Downs's 

 house, approached by a circular drive, stands on a slight eminence over- 

 looking the whole length of the North West Arm. It is a neat, rustic 

 little residence with tall, sharp-pointed gables ornamented witli trellis, 



♦Harry Piers, Esq. See "Sketch of the Life of Andrew Downs, founder of the 

 first zoological garden in America."— Proc. A'. .S'. Itifit. Sci., vol. x. p. cii, with portrait, 

 t The Acadian Recorder, edited by Mr. Peter Hainilton and Hunter Dtivar. 



