The grisly bear must be prodigiously powerful; what great limbs! what fearful claws! Hark! scarcely can there be a sound in the universe more desolately doleful!—it is that of the slothbear. But I must hasten onward. * * *

What a number of animals have I gazed on! antelopes, nylghaus, deer, zebras, and kangaroos, wolves, panthers, leopards, lions, and hyenas. How varied are the forms, how diverse are the habits of the brute creation! and yet not a limb, not a muscle among them, but what is suited to the economy and welfare of its possessor. How infinitely incapable is man to estimate the Great Creator,

"In these his lowliest works!"

If there were no other advantage attending a visit to these gardens than that of observing the endless variety of the animal creation, and the infinite wisdom manifested in their forms and adaptation to their several habits and modes of existence, it would abundantly repay the reflecting visitor for his pains.

Nor is it unworthy of a thought, that we are highly favoured in being able to inspect these creatures at our ease, not one of them making us afraid. Here can the wild boar be seen without the dread of his tusks; and the huge rhinoceros, free from the danger of his horn. Apes, baboons, and monkeys, play their antics with no annoyance

to the bystander; and tapirs, peccaries, foxes, badgers, and wild cats; jackalls, opossums, squirrels, lemurs, and lynxes; with porcupines, racoons, beavers, and otters, may be observed at eisure, without inconvenience. I wish the poor brutes had as much pleasure in their pens as we have in looking at them: but, alas! sunshine and shade go together.

What a goodly collection of the feathered race! the white-bosomed pelican, the bare-necked vulture, the strong-winged condor, and the crooked-beaked, iron-taloned eagle. We are lost among such a profusion of birds and water-fowl: the warlike ostrich, the emu, the cassowary, and the crane; the towering falcon, the painted parrot, and the crimson-feathered flamingo; with a hundred other kinds of a smaller size. These are the works of God! Every specimen, perfect in its kind, proclaims his Almighty care! Infinite Wisdom comprehends what to us is incomprehensible. Of what an innumerable family is God the almighty, the indulgent Father! He says, "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are mine."

What amazing antlers have the wapiti deer! and what a merciful provision is the act of shedding them, when their weight becomes burdensome!

The elephant is in the pond; how he rolls about his giant bulk, like a huge leviathan! Now he has dived altogether beneath the surface. Again he emerges as an island in the water, and slowly stalks forward, discontinuing his watery gambols.

Who can observe the childlike obedience of the bulky animal to his keeper, without reading therein a fulfilment of the promise made by the Almighty to Noah and his descendants ?—" And the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moveth upon the earth."

And these are the giraffes, the objects of general attraction. Stately creatures, what pigmies ye make of us! The cloven foot, the over-lapping lip, the tufted tail, the spotted body, and the towering neck, are all worthy of a separate regard. The eye has the fulness and the fearlessness, though not the fierceness, of that of the ostrich ; and the black, sleek, serpent-like tongue, has a character altogether its own. What news from afar, fleet coursers of the desert sands? bear ye no message from the wilderness?

Your feet have trod the burning sand,
Where the lion's lair is known;
Where panthers prowl, and jackals cry,
And fiery blasts are blown.

And ye have cropp'd the desert tree,
In haunts where man's exiled;
And heard your Maker's mighty voice,
In the tempest of the wild.

G

It seems but a short time since, in one of my visits to this place, in turning abruptly into the side walk near the giraffe-house, I came upon some oriental figures, in earnest conversation. For the moment I had forgotten that the giraffes were accompanied by Arabs, so that I was both surprised and pleased by the unexpected meeting.

The most imposing figure of the group was that of Monsieur Thibauld, a French traveller of much information, speaking seven languages, though not conversant with the English. He had succeeded in the enterprise of taking the giraffes in the desert, and bringing them in safety to England.

The following extract from his letter, dated Malta, Jan. 8, 1836, states some particulars relative to the capture of the largest of the giraffes :

"It was on the 15th of August, at the southwest of Kordofan, that I saw the first two giraffes. A rapid chase, on horses accustomed to the fatigues of the desert, put us in possession, at the end of three hours, of the largest of the two; the mother of one of those now in my charge. Unable to take her alive, the Arabs killed her with blows of the sabre, and cutting her to pieces, carried the meat to the head-quarters which we had established in a wooded situation; an arrangement necessary for our own comfort, and to secure pasturage for the camels

of both sexes which we had brought with us in aid of the object of our chase. We deferred until the morrow the pursuit of the young giraffe, which my companions assured me they would have no difficulty in again discovering. The Arabs are very fond of the animal. I partook of their repast. The live embers were quickly covered with slices of the meat, which I found to be excellent eating.

"On the following day, the 16th of August, the Arabs started at day-break in search of the young one, of which we had lost sight not far from our camp. The sandy nature of the soil of the desert is well adapted to afford indications to a hunter, and in a very short time we were on the track of the animal which was the object of our pursuit. We followed the traces with rapidity and in silence, cautious to avoid alarming the animal while it was yet at a distance from us. Unwearied myself, and anxious to act in the same manner as the Arabs, I followed them impatiently, and at nine o'clock in the morning I had the happiness to find myself in possession of the giraffe. A premium was given to the hunter whose horse had first come up with the animal; and this reward is the more merited, as the laborious chase is pursued in the midst of brambles and thorny trees.

"Possessed of the giraffe, it was necessary to rest for three or four days, in order to render it