CHAPTER XYIII 



ZOOLOGISCHER GARTEN, HAMBURG : DIRECTOR, 

 DR. BOLAU 



On January 28, 1860, Baron Ernst von Merck, Herr 

 H. Meyer, Consul Schiller, General Consul de Craecket, 

 and others met together and formed a provisional com- 

 pany for the founding of a Zoological Society, the 

 main end and aim of which should be to settle the 

 site of a Zoological Garden in Hamburg. Baron Ernst 

 von Merck was elected President and Herr H. Meyer 

 Vice - president, whilst Consul Schiller was made 

 Treasurer. 



On July 10, 1860, the first general meeting of the 

 shareholders took place to consider the construction of 

 the society and the making of regulations. The 

 directors approached the Municipal Council with a 

 view to obtaining a suitable site for a Zoological 

 Garden, and the Council gave a plot of land to the 

 society free of ground-rent for fifty years. The build- 

 ings were at once taken in hand by Herr Meuron and 

 Herr Haller, and the landscape-gardening by Herr 

 Jiirgens. The capital was taken up by 800 share- 

 holders. 



The preparing of the land, which consisted of a 

 large sand-desert, occasioned endless trouble and waste 



