A pretty walk through an avenue of trees brings us to the Zoological Garden (entrance fee fifty pfennig). The first cage is found to contain small rodents, and this is followed by a bird-of-prey aviary. We next come to the _Kindersport Spielplatz_ (children’s playground). A man in uniform came and unlocked the swings, when there was a perfect rush of children to circular swings, horizontal swings, vaulting-horses, and horizontal bars galore. How well they cater for children’s amusement in Germany! In a Chinese pagoda, painted red, were a pair of Bactrian camels and their baby, and close by a duck-pond was a large aviary containing pigeons, pheasants, turkeys, fowls, and gulls in separate pens. In the next enclosure were some moufflon, two rams having enormous horns. Opposite a large museum of natural history specimens is an owl house, with a picturesque tower above it. The next house is strikingly built in the Moorish style, with dome and minarets, and contains, besides a tapir and two striped hyænas, an amusing couple in the shape of an elephant and a black pony, which caress and play with one another. It was a very pretty sight to see the two together, evidently very fond of each other. On the keeper appearing and giving him the order, the elephant knelt down and saluted with his trunk. A lion house had the walls of the outside cages hand-painted to represent Eastern scenery; this had a pretty effect in conjunction with the living animals within. The house contained a pair of lions from Somaliland (the male in magnificent coat), a pair of tigers, an ocelot, and some parrots. The Garden contained several medallions in bronze, with portraits of benefactors struck upon them. These medallions were framed in brick towers covered with ivy, and each was surmounted by one large bird. In a corner of the Garden is a museum of antiquities connected with the Anabaptist rising in 1534-35, when John of Leyden called himself King of Münster. Here also, hanging upon a wall, are iron cages with effigies within them of John of Leyden and his two friends, who were executed within them; below are a set of iron torture instruments. Opposite a large concert-hall is a den containing two polar bears and two brown bears, the latter in very good coat. There is a quaint dark aquarium, the walls covered with imitation rock and stalactites, containing a variety of fishes. Altogether this Garden is well worth a visit, as there are some very striking and uncommon objects to be seen in it. CHAPTER XVII ZOOLOGISCHER GARTEN, HANOVER: DIRECTOR, DR. SCHÄFF The origin and the flourishing continuance of Zoological Gardens in other great towns inspired the wish for a similar institution in Hanover, and ever since 1850 people were endeavouring to bring the idea to realization. Especially active in this respect was Dr. Schlager, with whom Herr George Schultz heartily collaborated.