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 savaged 
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 fQst-morUm was made, and it is pretty certain that 
^ A similar account of the escape of Hippo was published 
in the Life of Frank Bucidand, p. 284, by Bumpus, in which, 
however, tliere are some inaccuracies, especially about the bank- 
note said to have been handed to Scott. 
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