NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 91 
mals, must unquestionably be large and substantial. There 
is no pleasure in seeing a ponderous elephant chained to 
the floor of a small room, unable even to walk to and fro, 
and never permitted to roam at will in the open air and sun- 
light. It is no wonder that dungeon-kept elephants go mad, 
and do mischief. If an elephant—or for that matter any 
animal—cannot be kept in comfortable captivity, then let it 
not be kept at all. 
The Elephant House of the City of New York is a large 
and roomy structure, built to render good service for two 
centuries. Its extreme length over all is 170 feet, and its 
width is 84 feet. Its two sides are divided into 8 huge 
compartments, of which 4 are for elephants, 2 for rhinoc- 
eroses, and 2 for hippopotami. Each of these is 24x21% 
feet. 
The Hippopotami have within the building a tank 24x21 
feet, and 8 feet in total depth; and another will be con- 
structed in their corral. 
Each end of the building furnishes two cages of smaller 
dimensions, for tapirs, and young elephants. The whole 
area surrounding the building, excepting the axial walk, is 
devoted to open-air yards, so arranged that each cage in the 
interior connects directly with a corral which affords both 
sunshine and shade. Nature seems to have made this beau- 
tiful open grove—strangely free from trees in its center— 
especially for the purposes to which it now is devoted. 
It is by no means the intention of the Zoological Society, 
that, because an axial walk leads through the Elephant 
House, the building shall be used as a thoroughfare for foot 
traffic between the northern and southern portions of the 
Park. Such use would surely defeat the main purpose of 
the structure. It is intended to be entered only by persons 
who desire to see the animals, and all others must pass around 
it, by one or the other of the two very direct promenades 
which will be provided. The employees of the Park are 
strictly forbidden to consider the walk through the build- 
ing as a convenient highway, and visitors are requested to 
observe the obvious necessities of this case. 
The Indian Elephant, (Elephas indicus), is the universal 
elephant of captivity, the Afriean species being shown only 
as a great rarity. For every elephant that comes from 
Africa, about thirty come from India, and of those about 
twenty-nine are prosy and unromantie females. In order 
to secure a male Indian Elephant, it must be specially 
ordered. 
