14 
The chief disappointment of the year attended upon the 
efforts of Dr. William H. Furness and Mr. Alfred Harrison, 
Jr., to convey to the Society as a gift, a family of orangs. 
Though fully aware of the difficulty of safely transporting 
these adult apes, these gentlemen generously secured in 
Singapore a full-grown female with a young one and an 
old male, and provided with all possible forethought against 
the needs of the voyage. The female and the young one 
died, however, in transit, and the surviving male reached the 
Gardens on June 13th in such a weak state that he died on 
the following day. This animal was fully adult, measuring 
four feet one inch in height, seven feet two inches across 
the outstretched arms, and ten inches across the temporal 
callosities. The impression produced by this truly extra- 
ordinary animal upon those who saw him during the brief 
interval before his death, was so marked that it is a lasting 
regret that he could not have lived long enough to enable 
the visiting public to observe the characters of this species 
when fully mature. 
The collection of small mammals never having been suit- 
ably provided for, it was determined to erect a building for 
the purpose upon the site of the old Monkey House, the 
destruction of which was begun in May, all of the building 
being torn down with the exception of the part of the cut- 
stone foundation above the ground line. The new building 
is of buff brick with terra-cotta facings, upon a cut-stone 
base, and in plan is a square of forty-eight feet with the 
corners cut off. The whole effect is pleasing, and the heat- 
ing and ventilation have proved to be especially satisfac- 
tory. On the night of February 9th, when the temperature 
outside fell to — 6° F., the minimum thermometer inside of 
the building registered sixty-nine degrees. It was com- 
pleted at a cost of ^6535, and was opened to the public on 
October 23d. 
Early in the morning of October 20th a fire broke out in 
the Restaurant and destroyed the whole interior of the 
building. The old Small Mammal House, from which the 
animals had not yet been removed, was immediately made 
