39 — 
The Alwar Tiger House. 
This enclosure was built by the late Maharaja of Alwar ; 
it is so arranged that when driving to the palace or walking 
in the park one can see the wild animals, apparently at 
liberty. The animals actually live on a flat plateau, circular 
in plan, 75 J feet (23’03 metres) in diameter. This plateau 
is furnished with a sunk retiring room, a small pond of 
water, and a tree, a Banyan, Ficus hengalensis (apparently). 
The tree is pollarded with due discretion, so that, while 
giving shade to the animals, no broken branch may form a 
bridge by which they could escape. 
The plateau is surrounded by a ditch, 18 feet (5'48 me- 
tres) in depth, and 30 feet (9T4 metres) in width. 
Access for the keepers to the plateau is arranged for by 
a door in the garden opening on to a staircase leading un- 
derground to a passage which passes below the ditch and 
ascends by another staircase to the centre of the plateau, with 
of course the necessary iron gates to exclude the animals. 
Both the platform and the underground passage and staircase 
are lighted by electricity. At the time of my visit the 
underground passage was full of water and so could not be 
used. 
A hedge, planted in a circle round the outside of the ditch 
22 feet (6*70 metres) from its outer edge, serves to hide 
the ditch from the view of visitors walking in the garden 
and completes the illusion of the tigers or leopards being at 
large. 
The walls of the ditch are finished in smooth-faced cement. 
The sunk retiring room in the centre of the plateau is sur- 
mounted by a small open-sided cage, the roof of which forms 
a bench for the animals, and above it is a pole carrying two 
powerful electric lamps. 
In case the animals fall into the ditch, an opening has 
been constructed in the lower part of the outside wall of the 
ditch leading into a chamber, which can be closed by a drop 
door. Another door divides this subterranean cage from the 
steps leading to the surface of the garden. 
