HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
57 
captured. The losses on that trip amounted 
to about £5,000. As, however, all these prob- 
lems have been successfully solved by Germany, 
they can be confidently tackled by ourselves. 
There is perhaps only one department in this 
field which may be said to be in the hands of 
the British, tha't of the anthropoid apes, and in 
particular the chimpanzee. These animals are 
exceedingly delicate, and have to be most care- 
fully nurtured and weaned in the countries where 
they are first captured, for otherwise it is al- 
most certain that they will die in a short time. 
Up to the present time the gorilla has never 
been known to live more than a year or so at 
the outside, and he usually survives for even a 
much shorter period than this. Greater success 
has been met with in handling the chimpan- 
zee, however, due to its affectionate disposition 
and the rapidity with which it will make friends 
when captured. This friendly trait in the chim- 
panzee considerably modifies the difficulties in 
rearing the animal, and thus they are usually 
fairly well tra'ined before they leave their natural 
land. 
" I sincerely hope that the potentialities of 
this industry will be carefully reviewed and con- 
sidered, and that adequate efforts will be made 
to tackle the problems involved, with the ulti- 
mate aim of securing the bulk of the trade to 
this country when peace is declared. 
JOHN ALFRED JORDAN." 
Having the pleasure of Mr. Jordan's acquain- 
tance, it might interest my readers if I give the 
following facts. 
Firstly, I thank him for taking such a very 
great interest in the Wild Animal Business, but 
at the same time I absolutely decline to accept him 
or any of his associates as -experts in this particu- 
lar business. 
The name of Jordan is very well known from 
Zanzibar, across the Dark Continent down the 
Congo to Boma, Congo Free State. He is a pro- 
fessional ivory hunter, one of the most daring shots 
in the world, a man with an absolute iron nerve. 
The number of big game which has fallen to his 
unerring aim constitutes a record. During his 
journey across East to West he was accompanied 
by his wife, and I believe Mrs. Jordan was the 
second woman to make that wonderful journey. 
Bel'.eve me, gentle reader, to travel from Zanzi- 
bar, Mombassa, to Boma, on foot constitutes a 
record. 
The first and only animal transaction that 
Jordan has had was the collection for the Barnum 
Bailey Ringling Syndicate in East' Africa. He 
certainly acquired from the Boer hunters in and 
around Nairobi a wonderful collection. It con- 
sisted of giraffes, various, antelopes, amongst 
which was one Bongo antelope, zebras, hons, leo- 
pards, cheetahs, etc. 
I have always pointed out to my readers that 
anyone with unlimited capital can acquire any 
animal on the Dark Continent, but having made 
the capture or purchase, the trouble is to bring 
the animals down to the seaboard for shipment to 
Europe. 
There are not a dozen men in Europe to-day 
who can undertake the transport successfully of 
the larger animals mentioned above. 
The Zoological Gardens, Regents Park, some 
many years ago, commissioned the well-known 
German traveller, Windhorn, to bring only one 
giraffe from Bechunanaland. I was present at the 
Gardens when the animal arrived — dead. In 
Jordan's case all the giraffes were dead before 
they arrived at Mombasa. I believe the number 
was either six or ten; that alone was a serious loss. 
Unfortunately, the lions (cubs), leopards, etc., 
lived, for any recognised dealer knows full well 
that lion cubs, leopards, etc., will not pay the 
cost of transport. 
I was told that the freight alone on these 
leopards was either £15 or £20 each — lion cubs 
in proportion. You cannot import these animals 
at a profit not if they are given you in East Africa. 
The last arrivals of lion cubs from ;the Nile 
Region were a male and female from the White 
Nile — miles above Khartoum. They were brought 
down on camel back, a three months journey to 
Khartoum, by the Military Officer in charge of 
that district when going home on leave. They 
made the railway journey from Khartoum to the 
Suez Canal, arriving at Plymouth in excellent con- 
dition. The owner was persuaded to send them 
down on approval for sale to a well-known ama- 
teur, who offered a price which did not cover the 
cost of the rail journey in the Nile Region. I 
was only too pleased to pay £50' for these two 
pets, and even at that price I feel sure the owner 
had a considerable loss. These were the last two 
imported African lions into Great Britain that I 
know of. They were a loss. 
Periodically, we have the Amateur, the Trav- 
elling Artiste, also the Travelling Showman, who 
wish to become Wild Beast Dealers. The latest 
is somewhere in the Far East. Roundabout Singa- 
pore and the Malay States there is a youthful 
individual fired with the ambition of controlling 
the animal business. Dear, dear me ! Others 
have done so before and failed. He will not only 
fail; it will be a catastrophe. The idea is twelve 
ourangs, with ten Malay tigers, taken to New 
York via San Francisco. 
Once more, any fool can buy ourans and tigers 
in Singapore at the present time. They are being 
practically given away there. The trouble com- 
■ mences with food, boxes, and freight. Freightage 
is out of all reason at the present time, and has 
