One of the most interesting of Mr. Myers’ exhibitions, is the bathing and swimming of the elephants, which takes place in the lakes of the Crystal Palace. The sight is a most amusing one; in fact, one day’s casual bathe of the elephants in the Rhine, when Mr. Myers was at Cologne, so excited the curiosity of the townspeople, that a guarantee of some thousands of thalers was raised to ensure its repetition on successive days. The great beasts play hide-and-seek with each other, and, with their keepers, they turn somersaults in the water; they are as uncontrollable and spontaneous in their mirth as a pack of boys turned loose into a playground after school hours with _carte blanche_ to amuse themselves. Indeed the only drawback to their being allowed to enter the water is the difficulty of getting them back for their more serious duties. Pursuit with boats is attendant with the risk of the sudden elevation of the vessel and its occupants some ten or twenty feet into the air; and even when one is captured and seemingly brought to a sense of its duties, the temptation to rejoin its sporting comrades is too strong for it, and if unwatched for an instant, it takes the opportunity of plunging in again. Nothing but the firm though mild rule of John Cooper then avails to bring them up to the time and place for their other performances. John Cooper and Lion Taming. With the lions of Mr. Myers’ Hippodrome the name of John Cooper is inseparably associated. This foremost animal trainer in the world, was born at Birmingham in 1838, and entered upon his present career under the auspices of George Batty (brother of the Batty of hippodromatic fame of 1851), who was then travelling on the Continent with his circus and menagerie. Cooper commenced lion-taming at the early age of twelve, and has followed the profession of trainer of wild animals without cessation till the present time. He remained with George Batty about fifteen years, and at the expiration of that time bought some lions, and started on his own account. In 1866-67 he met Mr. Myers, who ultimately bought Cooper’s lions, and engaged the services of their owner at a salary unprecedented in the profession. The secret of Cooper’s success is his love of animals, allied with a temperament in which fear is no element, and a calm sense of superiority which is felt by his brute servants no less than by himself.