WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



sent the office boy towards the elephant-house to tell the 

 men to prevent any one from coming towards the beast, 

 and, going round the back way, I saw the door of the 

 Hippo's house wide open. While thinking how to act, I 

 met Scott, the elephant-keeper, who was always an object 

 of dislike to the hippopotamus, and at him the brute 

 would always rush whenever it saw him. A thought 

 occurred to me, and I at once decided what to do. " Scott," 

 said I, " if you go round and call at him he will come after 

 you, but make sure he doesn't catch you ; you must run 

 into his house and up the steps on to the platform, and we 

 will follow up and shut the door after he gets in." Scott 

 was delighted at the idea, and, with a broad grin upon 

 his face, carried out my instructions with full and complete 

 success. At that time there was a flight of steps leading 

 to a platform over the water-tank in the house to enable 

 the keepers to escape from the animal should the brute 

 turn savage.^ 



DEATH OF " OBAYSCH." 



This old hippopotamus came to the Gardens in May 

 1850 and died in March 1878. Two or three winters 

 previous to his death " Obaysch " (from the name of the 

 river in which he was captured) was observed to be in an 

 unsatisfactory state of health, getting thin and emaciated. 



During the summer months, when plenty of green food 

 was at hand, and the weather warm, he got into better 

 condition. There was no organic disease discovered when 

 the post-mortem was made, and it is pretty certain that 



' A similar account of the escape of Hippo was published 

 in the Life of Frank BucUand, p. 284, by Bumpus, in which, 

 however, there are some inaccuracies, especially about the bank- 

 note said to have been handed to Scott. 



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