2 9 o THE PARIS ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS IN 
Bulwer Lytton’s Parisians , “ dainty, but not nu- 
tritious.” That evening he found, at Voisins, the 
famous elephant sausage, and he dined on it. 
The rarer animals from the Jardin d’Acclimatation 
in the Bois de Boulogne were transferred before the 
siege to the Jardin des Plantes. These were mostly 
bought by the proprietor of the English butcher’s 
shop, M. Debos ; he also bought the elephants of 
the Jardin des Plantes for 27,000 francs. “ Personally, 
I have eaten the flesh of elephants, wolves, cassowaries, 
porcupines, bears, kangaroos, rats, cats, and horses,” 
says the author of the Englishman in Paris. His 
views on these creatures as articles of food are only 
given at length in the case of the dog, cat, and horse. 
The last was supposed to have become a recognized 
part of the food supply of Paris in the year before 
the siege, but it never acquired any popularity. “ It 
is very curious, but a positive fact nevertheless, that 
I have heard Parisians speak favourably afterwards 
of dog’s and cat’s flesh, even of rats baked in a pie ; 
I have heard them say, that for once in a way, and 
under ordinary circumstances, they would not mind 
partaking of those dishes ; I have never heard them 
express the same good-will towards horse-flesh. 
One thing is certain. At the end of the siege, the 
sight of a cat or dog was a rarity in Paris, while 
by the official reports there were thirty thousand 
horses left.” 
The same writer records the opinion of an officer 
who was most successful in “ siege cookery ” on the 
