CARL HAGENBECK 241 



' Will you come now and see my animal park at 

 Stellingen ?' asked Herr Hagenbeck. 



' With pleasure,' I answered, eager to see more 

 wonders. 



A handsome carriage and pair soon drove up to the 

 door. We stepped in and were driven away. Carl 

 Hagenbeck now told me of his great scheme. He had 

 bought a large property at Stellingen, and here, in 

 two years' time, he hoped to amalgamate his whole 

 collection in one vast park. On one huge square plot 

 of ground would be the stables for the elephants and 

 the dens for the carnivorous animals, with the training 

 cages in the centre. The whole of the rest of the land 

 would be devoted to buffaloes, zebras, antelopes, deer, 

 ibex, etc. 



' There will be no cages there,' he said ; ' there will 

 be no bars and no netting. You will stand here and 

 look over a vast plain covered with animals of every 

 description, all apparently in the same enclosure. But 

 they will be separated by wide ditches, so ingeniously 

 hidden by rockwork that it will appear to the eye as 

 if all the animals were in the park together.' Hagen- 

 beck grew quite animated during the description of 

 his vast plans. ' In two years I shall spend on this 

 property £20,000. And you know,' he added, ' in 

 Germany you can do with £20,000 what you could not 

 do with £40,000 in England, labour and materials 

 being so much cheaper. But we have arrived, so let 

 us get out and have a look at the place, such as it is 

 at present.' 



In one large pen there were no less than 102 

 flamingoes. Such a sight I had never witnessed since 



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