Read Ebook: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature Science and Art fifth series no. 134 vol. III July 24 1886 by Various

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Release date: December 31, 2023

Original publication: Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, 1853

THE GERMANISATION OF AMERICA.

Those who know any part of America, or have even a small acquaintance with Americans, will not have been surprised at the list of names published in the daily papers of the persons who were arrested as the authors of the late disturbance at Chicago. With perhaps one exception, there is not an English name among them; they are all foreign, and to the true American public, must bring home in full force the certain operation of a process hitherto only half apparent--that their country is fast passing through a period of incubation, which, if allowed to continue, will end in the development of a new Germanism, destroying the individuality of the Anglo-Saxon, and flooding the land with theories for the relief of an Old World discontent.

Before steamships and railways had made travel a matter of comparative ease, it was customary to laugh at the peculiarities of our American cousins, in the belief they were the result of the natural growth of transatlantic life; but a wider knowledge of the continent has brought to light the indisputable fact that they are to a very considerable extent the habits and customs of the lower middle class of Germany. The true American, taking into consideration difference of thought, is as much a gentleman, from the English point of view, as the Englishman himself. If there is anything which characterises an Englishman, as distinct from the rest of his species, it is his sensitiveness on the point of similarity to his kind, and his willingness in carrying this out, to submit himself to personal inconvenience, rather than allow any singularity to appear. Where this comes in, the American does not bow to the same strict conventional rule, his constant activity and the dissimilitude of life having of necessity forced him to take circumstances into account. Laying aside the distinction, however, and it is one which does not always intrude itself, making allowance also for a greater conservatism which has retained old English customs and expressions, where is the line to be drawn in cultivated circles between an Englishman and an American? If, also, we look into the great upper middle classes of the two countries, who will grant that the dead level of uniformity in England is more attractive in its outward than its inward form; and who will doubt that for the pleasure of intercourse, the advantage is wholly on the side of America both as regards originality of thought and freedom from restraint?

It would be easy to multiply questions proving the origin of supposed Americanisms; and indeed, the better classes are more tinged with continental ways than they might care to admit, as, for instance, the 'Pap-a' and 'Mam-ma' of well-born babies; or the Mrs Colonel and Mrs Dr So-and-so, like the Frau Pastor or Frau Doctor of Germany; but we have only desired to show how the foundation has been almost unconsciously laid for the naturalisation of European customs, and, as a consequence, of thought also, so that what is called American is really German. These ideas have been carried to America, of course, by the tide of emigration; and as the population grew out of the emigrants of all nations, native manners were partially lost by the lower orders.

That America should be more Germanised than Irishised or Frenchified, is a tribute to the higher qualities of the Teuton; and that a certain class of Americans could become so transformed from its original type, only tells how completely it has been absorbed, and how far away it already is from the Anglo-Saxon race. That this is a matter of grief to all true Americans, is well known; and it is always said, whenever a case comes up, the man in question is a 'German American.' The tenacity of the Teuton has preserved his individuality under foreign conditions, and he now forms a distinctly powerful element in the country, lives the same way as if he were in Germany, thinks the same thoughts, and clings to his language. The American, true to trade instincts, has studied his wants and ministered to them, as, for example, in the consumption of Rio coffee, so that in a way he is responsible for the fostering of nationalities. Societies, too, representing these, formed on philanthropic grounds, everywhere exist; and though the man may call himself American, he is in reality partly Irish, Swiss, or Dutch.

There is, therefore, a hard task before the American people--the necessity to weld into an harmonious whole European elements with long histories of animosity to each other, at all times more or less active, possessing Old World grievances that are inoperative in the United States, and bent upon maintaining their own ideas under the shelter of a common home. That measures will be taken to suppress the disturbances of divers nationalities whenever they occur against the American people, there is no doubt; but it is rather hard upon a new country to have to submit up to fighting-point to the airing of doctrines which do not affect it, and that might create artificial grievances causing endless trouble. In the attempt to banish national distinctions, to develop the Anglo-Saxon race, America has a firm friend here; and just as her truest sons, when desirous of looking beyond themselves, turn for their inspirations to the genius of the British people, so do we in return take a leaf from that chapter of events in the progress of humanity which it seems to be the mission of Americans to arrange.

IN ALL SHADES.

Twilight, the beautiful serene tropical twilight, was just gathering on Wednesday evening, when the negroes of all the surrounding country, fresh from their daily work in the cane-pieces, with cutlasses and sticks and cudgels in their hands, began to assemble silently around Louis Delgado's hut, in the bend of the mountains beside the great clump of feathery cabbage-palms. A terrible and motley crowd they looked, bareheaded and bare of foot, many of them with their powerful black arms wholly naked, and thrust loosely through the wide sleeve-holes of the coarse sack-like shirt which, with a pair of ragged trousers, formed their sole bodily covering. Most of the malcontents were men, young and old, sturdy and feeble; but among them there were not a few fierce-looking girls and women, plantation hands of the wildest and most unkempt sort, carelessly dressed in short ragged filthy kirtles, that reached only to the knee, and with their woolly hair tangled and matted with dust and dirt, instead of being covered with the comely and becoming bandana turban of the more civilised and decent household negresses. These women carried cutlasses too, the ordinary agricultural implement of all sugar-growing tropical countries; and one had but to glance at their stalwart black arms or their powerful naked legs and feet, as well as at their cruel laughing faces, to see in a moment that if need were, they could wield their blunt but heavy weapons fully as effectively and as ruthlessly in their own way as the resolute, vengeful men themselves. So wholly unsexed were they, indeed, by brutal field-labour and brutal affections, that it was hard to look upon them closely for a minute and believe them to be really and truly women.

The conspirators assembled silently, it is true, so far as silence under such circumstances is ever possible to the noisy demonstrative negro nature; but in spite of the evident effort which every man made at self-restraint, there was a low undercurrent of whispered talk, accompanied by the usual running commentary of grimaces and gesticulations, which made a buzz or murmur hum ceaselessly through the whole crowd of five or six hundred armed semi-savages. Now and again the women especially, looking down with delightful anticipation at their newly whetted cutlasses, would break out into hoarse ungovernable laughter, as they thought to themselves of the proud white throats they were going to cut that memorable evening, and the dying cries of the little white pickaninnies they were going to massacre in their embroidered lace bassinettes.

'It warm me heart, Mistah Delgado, sah,' one white-haired, tottering, venerable old negro mumbled out slowly with a pleasant smile, 'to see so many good neighbour all come togedder again for kill de buckra. It long since I see fine gadering like dis. I mind de time, sah, in slavery day, when I was young man, just begin for to make lub to de le-adies, how we rise all togedder under John Trelawney down at Star-Apple Bottom, go hunt de white folk in de great insurrection. Ha, dem was times, sah--dem was times, I tellin' you de trut', me fren', in de great insurrection. We beat de goomba drum, we go up to Mistah Pourtal?s--same what flog me mudder so unmerciful dat de buckra judges even fine him--an' we catch de massa himself, an' we beat him dead wit stick an' cutlass. Ha, ha, dem was times, sah. Den we catch de young le-adies, an' we hack dem all to pieces, an' we burn de bodies. Den we go on to odder house, take all de buckra we find, shoot some, roast some same we roast pig, an' burn some in deir own houses. Dem was times, sah--dem was times. I doan't s'pose naygur now will do like we do when I is young man. But dis is good meeting, fine meeting: we cry "Colour for colour," "Buckra country for us," an' de Lard prosper us in de work we hab in hand! Hallelujah!'

One of the women stood listening eagerly to this thrilling recital of early exploits, and asked in a hushed voice of the intensest interest: 'An' what de end ob it all, Mistah Corella? What come ob it? How you no get buckra house, den, for youself lib in?'

The old man shook his head mournfully, as he answered with a meditative sigh: 'Ah, buckra too strong for us--too strong for us altogedder; come upon us too many. Colonel Macgregor, him come wit plenty big army, gun an' bay'net, an' shoot us down, an' charge us ridin'; so we all frightened, an' run away hide in de bush right up in de mountains. Den dem bring Cuban bloodhound, hunt us out; an' dem hab court-martial, an' dem sit on Trelawney, an' dem hang him, hang him dead, de buckra. An' dem hang plenty. We kill twenty--twenty-two--twenty-four buckra; an' buckra kill hundred an' eighty poor naygur, to make tings even. For one buckra, dem kill ten, fifteen, twenty naygur. But my master hide me till martial law blow ober, because I is strong, hearty young naygur, an' can work well for him down in cane-piece. Him say: "Doan't must kill valuable property!" An' I get off dat way. So dat de end ob John Trelawney him rebellion.'

If the poor soul could only have known it, he might have added with perfect truth that it was the end of every other negro rebellion too; the white man is always too strong for them. But hope springs eternal in the black breast as in all others, and it was with a placid smile of utter oblivion that he added next minute: 'But we doan't gwine to be beaten dis time. We too strong ourselbes now for de soldier an' de buckra. Delgado make tings all snug; buy pistol, drill naygur, plan battle, till we sure ob de victory. De Lard wit us, an' Delgado him serbant.'

At that moment, Louis Delgado himself stepped forward, erect and firm, with the unmistakable air of a born commander, and said a few words in a clear low earnest voice to the eager mob of armed rioters. 'Me fren's,' he said, 'you must obey orders. Go quiet, an' make no noise till you get to de buckra houses. Doan't turn aside for de rum or de trash-houses; we get plenty rum for ourselbes, I tellin' you, when we done killed all de buckra. Doan't set fire to de house anywhere; only kill de male white folk; we want house to lib in ourselbes, when de war ober. Doan't burn de factories; we want factory for make sugar ourselves when de buckra dribben altogedder clean out ob de country. Doan't light fire at all; if you light fire, de soldiers in Port-ob-Spain see de blaze directly, an' come up an' fight us hard, before we get togedder enough black men to make sure ob de glorious victory. Nebber mind de buckra le-ady; we can get dem when we want dem. Kill, kill, kill! dat is de watchword. Kill, kill, kill de buckra, an' de Lard delibber de rest into de hands ob his chosen people.' As he spoke, he raised his two black hands, palm upwards, in the attitude of earnest supplication, towards the darkening heaven, and flung his head fervently backward, with the whites of his big eyes rolling horribly, in his unspoken prayer to the God of battles.

The negroes around, caught with the contagious enthusiasm of Delgado's voice and mutely eloquent gesture, flung up their own dusky hands, cutlasses and all, with the self-same wild and expressive pantomime, and cried aloud, in a scarcely stifled undertone: 'De Lard delibber dem, de Lard delibber dem to Louis Delgado.'

The old African gazed around him complacently for a second at the goodly muster of armed followers, to the picked men among whom Isaac Pourtal?s was already busily distributing the pistols and the cartridges. 'Are you ready, me fren's?' he asked again, after a short pause. And, like a deep murmur, the answer rang unanimously from that great tumultuous black mass: 'Praise de Lard, sah, we ready, we ready!'

'Den march!' Delgado cried, in the loud tone of a commanding officer; and suiting the action to the word, the whole mob turned after him silently, along the winding path that led down by tortuous twists from the clump of cabbage-palms to the big barn-like Orange Grove trash-houses.

With their naked feet and their cat-like tread, the negroes marched along far more silently than white men could ever have done, toward the faint lights that gleamed fitfully beyond the gully. If possible, Delgado would have preferred to lead them straight to Orange Grove house, for his resentment burnt fiercest of all against the Dupuy family, and he wished at least, whatever else happened, to make sure of massacring that one single obnoxious household. But it was absolutely necessary to turn first to the trash-houses and the factory, for rumours of some impending trouble had already vaguely reached the local authorities. The two constables of the district stood there on guard, and the few faithful and trustworthy plantation hands were with them there, in spite of Mr Dupuy's undisguised ridicule, half expecting an insurgent attack that very evening. It would never do to leave the enemy thus in the rear, ready either to attack them from behind, or to bear down the news and seek for aid at Port-of-Spain. Delgado's plan was therefore to carry each plantation entire as he went, without allowing time to the well-affected negroes to give the alarm to the whites in the next one. But he feared greatly the perils and temptations of the factory for his unruly army. 'Whatebber else you do, me fren's,' the old African muttered more than once, turning round beseechingly to his ragged black followers, 'doan't drink de new rum, an' doan't set fire to de buckra trash-houses.'

At the foot of the little knoll under whose base the trash-houses lay, they came suddenly upon one of the faithful field-hands, Napoleon Floreal, whose fidelity Delgado had already in vain attempted with his rude persuasions. The negroes singled him out at once for their first vengeance. Before the man could raise so much as a sharp shout, Isaac Pourtal?s had seized him from behind and gagged his mouth with a loose bandana. Two of the other men, quick as lightning, snatched his arms, and held them bent back in a very painful attitude behind his shoulders. 'If you is wit us,' Delgado said, in a hoarse whisper, 'lift your right foot, fellah.' Floreal kept both feet pressed doggedly down with negro courage upon the ground. 'Him is traitor, traitor!' Pourtal?s muttered, between his clenched teeth. 'Him hab black skin, but white heart. Kill him, kill him!'

In a second, a dozen angry negroes had darted forward, with their savage cutlasses brandished aloft in the air, ready to hack their offending fellow-countryman into a thousand pieces. But Delgado, his black hands held up with a warning air before them, thundered out in a tone of bitter indignation: 'Doan't kill him!--doan't kill him! My children, kill in good order. Dar is plenty buckra for you to kill, witout want to kill your own brudder. Tie de han'kercher around him mout', bind rope around him arm an' leg, an' trow him down de gully yonder among de cactus jungle!'

As he spoke, one of the men produced a piece of stout rope from his pocket, brought for the very purpose of tying the 'prisoners,' and proceeded to wind it tightly around Floreal's body. They fastened it well round arms and legs; stuffed the bandana firmly in his mouth so as to check all his futile attempts at shouting, and rolled him over the slight bank of earth, down among the thick scrub of prickly cactus. Then, as the blood spurted out of the small wounds made by the sharp thorns, they gave a sudden low yell, and burst in a body upon the guardians of the trash-houses.

Before the two black policemen had time to know what was actually happening, they found themselves similarly gagged and bound, and tossed down beside Napoleon Floreal on the prickly cactus bed. In a minute, the insurgents had surrounded the trash-houses, cut down and captured the few faithful negroes, and marched them along unwillingly in their own body, as hostages for the better behaviour of the Orange Grove house-servants.

'Now, me fren's,' Delgado shouted, with fierce energy, 'down wit de Dupuys! We gwine to humble de proud white man! We must hab blood! De Lard is wit us! He hat' put down de mighty from deir seats, an' hat' exalted de lowly an' meek!'

But as he spoke, one or two of the heaviest-looking among the rioters began to cast their longing eyes upon the unbroached hogsheads. 'De rum, de rum!' one of them cried hoarsely. 'We want suffin for keep our courage up. Little drop o' rum help naygur man well to humble de buckra.'

Delgado rushed forward and placed himself resolutely, pistol in hand, before the seductive hogsheads. 'Whoebber drink a drop ob dat rum dis blessed ebenin',' he hissed out angrily, 'before all de Dupuys is lyin' cold in deir own houses, I shoot him dead here wit dis very pistol!'

But the foremost rioters only laughed louder than before, and one of them even wrenched the pistol suddenly from his leader's grasp with an unexpected side movement. 'Look hyar, Mistah Delgado,' the man said quietly; 'dis risin' is all our risin', an' we has got to hab voice ourselbes in de partickler way we gwine to manage him. We doan't gwine away witout de rum, an' we gwine to break just one little pickanie hogshead.' At the word, he raised his cutlass above his head, and lunging forward with it like a sword, with all his force, stove in one of the thick cross-pieces at the top of the barrel, and let the liquor dribble out slowly from the chink in a small but continuous trickling stream. Next moment, a dozen black hands were held down to the silent rill like little cups, and a dozen dusky mouths were drinking down the hot new rum, neat and unalloyed, with fierce grimaces of the highest gusto. 'Ha, dat good!' ran round the chorus in thirsty approbation: 'dat warm de naygur's heart. Us gwine now to kill de buckra in true earnes'.'

Delgado stood by, mad with rage and disappointment, as he saw his followers, one after another, scrambling for handful after handful of the fiery liquor, and watched some of them, the women especially, reeling about foolishly almost at once from the poisonous fumes of the unrefined spirit. He felt in his heart that his chances were slipping rapidly from him, even before the insurrection was well begun, and that it would be impossible for a crowd of half-drunken negroes to preserve the order and discipline which alone would enable them to cope with the all-puissant and regularly drilled white men. But the more he stormed and swore and raved at them, the more did the greedy and uncontrolled negroes, now revelling in the unstinted supply, hold their hands to the undiminished stream, and drink it off by palmfuls with still deeper grunts and groans of internal satisfaction. 'If it doan't no hope ob conquer de island,' the African muttered at last with a wild Guinea oath to Isaac Pourtal?s, 'at anyrate we has time to kill de Dupuys--an' dat always some satisfaction.'

The men were now thoroughly inflamed with the hot new rum, and more than one of them began to cry aloud: 'It time to get to de reg'lar business.' But a few still lingered lovingly around the dripping hogshead, catching double handfuls of the fresh spirit in their capacious palms. Presently, one of the women, mad with drink, drew out a short pipe from her filthy pocket and began to fill it to the top with raw tobacco. As she did so, she turned tipsily to a man by her side and asked him for a light. The fellow took a match in his unsteady fingers and struck it on a wooden post, flinging it away when done with among a few small scraps of dry trash that lay by accident upon the ground close by. Trash is the desiccated refuse of cane from which the juice has been already extracted, and it is ordinarily used as a convenient fuel to feed the crushing-mills and boil the molasses. Dry as tinder, it lighted up with a flare instantaneously, and raised a crackling blaze, whose ruddy glow pleased and delighted the childish minds of the half-drunken negroes. 'How him burn!' the woman with the pipe cried excitedly. 'Sposin' we set fire to de trash-house! My heart, how him blaze den! Him light up all de mountains! Burn de trash-house! Burn de trash-house! Dat pretty for true! Burn de trash-house!'

Quick as lightning, the tipsiest rioters had idly kicked the burning ends of loose trash among the great stacked heaps of dry cane under the big sheds; and in one second, before Delgado could even strive in vain to exert his feeble authority, the whole mass had flashed into a single huge sheet of flame, rising fiercely into the evening sky, and reddening with its glow the peaks around, like the lurid glare of a huge volcano. As the flames darted higher and ever higher, licking up the leaves and stalks as they went, the negroes, now fairly loosed from all restraint, leaped and shrieked wildly around them--some of them half-drunk, others absolutely reeling, and all laughing loud with hideous, wild, unearthly laughter, in their murderous merriment. Delgado alone saw with horror that his great scheme of liberation was being fast rendered ultimately hopeless, and could only now concentrate his attention upon his minor plan of personal vengeance against the Dupuy family. Port-of-Spain would be fairly roused by the blaze in half an hour, but at least there was time to murder outright the one offending Orange Grove household.

For a few minutes, helpless and resourceless, he allowed the half-tipsy excited creatures to dance madly around the flaring fire, and to leap and gesticulate with African ferocity in the red glare of the rapidly burning trash-house. 'Let dem wear out de rum,' he cried bitterly to Pourtal?s. 'But in a minute, de Dupuys gwine to be down upon us wit de constables an' de soldiers, if dem doan't make haste to kill dem beforehand.'

Soon the drunken rioters themselves began to remember that burning trash-houses and stealing rum were not the only form of amusement they had proposed to themselves for that evening's entertainment. 'Kill de buckra!--kill de buckra!' more than one of them now yelled out fiercely at the top of his voice, brandishing his cutlass. 'Buckra country for us! Colour for colour! Kill dem all! Kill de buckra!'

Delgado seized at once upon the slender opportunity. 'Me fren's,' he shrieked aloud, raising his palms once more imploringly to heaven, 'kill dem, kill dem! Follow me! Hallelujah! I gwine to lead you to kill de buckra!'

Most of the negroes, recalled to duty by the old African's angry voice, now fell once more into their rude marching order; but one or two of them, and those the tipsiest, began to turn back wistfully in the direction of the little pool of new rum that lay sparkling in the glare like molten gold in front of the still running hogshead. Louis Delgado looked at them with the fierce contempt of a strong mind for such incomprehensible vacillating weakness. Wrenching his pistol once more from the tipsy grasp of the man who had first seized it, he pointed it in a threatening attitude at the head of the foremost negro among the recalcitrant drunkards. 'Dis time I tellin' you true,' he cried fiercely, in a tone of unmistakable wrath and firmness. 'De first man dat take a single step nearer dat liquor, I blow his brains out!'

Reckless with drink, and unable to believe in his leader's firmness, the foremost man took a step or two, laughing a drunken laugh meanwhile, in the forbidden direction, and then turned round again, grinning like a baboon, toward Louis Delgado.

He had better have trifled with an angry tiger. The fierce old African did not hesitate or falter for a single second; pulling the trigger, he fired straight at the grinning face of the drunken renegade, killing him instantaneously. He fell like a log in the pool of new rum, and reddened the stream even as they looked with the quick crimson flow.

Delgado himself hardly paused a second to glance contemptuously at the fallen recalcitrant. 'Now, me fren's,' he cried firmly, kicking the corpse in his wrath, and with his eye twitching in a terrible fashion, 'whoebber else disobeys orders, I gwine to shoot him dead dat very minute, same as I shoot dat good-for-nuffin disobedient naygur dar! We has got to kill de buckra to-night, an' ebbery man ob you must follow me now to kill dem 'mediately. De Lard delibber dem into our hand! Follow me, an' colour for colour!'

At the word, the last recalcitrants, awed into sobriety for the moment by the sudden and ghastly death of their companion, turned trembling to their place in the rude ranks, and began once more to march on in serried order after Louis Delgado. And with one voice, the tumultuous rabble, putting itself again in rapid motion towards Orange Grove, shrieked aloud once more the terrible watchwords: 'Colour for colour! Kill de buckra!'

VISITS TO THE ZOO.

THE LION-HOUSE.

We are glad to observe that in spite of the general depression in trade and agriculture, and the many counter-attractions for pleasure-seekers which have sprung up in and around London in recent years, the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, still maintain their popularity with the British public. On Easter-Monday, no fewer than thirty-one thousand visitors paid at the gates; thus clearly proving that the love of natural history is not dying out among us. An expedition to the Zoo is always the more pleasant when we are accompanied by the young, eager to compare the Jumbos and tigers of their Noah's Ark and picture-book with the living realities to be seen in the Society's collection. But there are others besides our children who may gain a useful knowledge in natural history by a stroll through the Zoological Gardens; and one hopes for a still more profitable effect in the ideas of many; for when studying the structure, the form, and the habits of even the meanest of creatures, it is hardly possible for the reflective mind to resist feeling a sense of the power and wisdom of the Creator.

Before speaking individually of the many interesting animals to be seen in the Zoological Gardens, it is right to point out, for the benefit of the uninitiated, or to those who have never visited a foreign land, and consequently have not had the opportunity of seeing wild creatures in a state of nature, that though the great majority of the prisoners we see there doubtless give a true idea of their habits when roaming in their native jungles, yet many of the quadrupeds, more especially those bred in the Gardens, cannot altogether be relied upon in this respect; for instance, many of the bears from the Himalaya Mountains, or other cold climes, which, we know, hibernate during the depth of winter, are unable to indulge in their lengthened sleep from force of circumstances. There are no hollow trees or snug caves wherein to curl up comfortably and pass the winter in a state of somnolence. Again, it is often most difficult, if not impossible, to provide the natural food for some of the creatures from tropical countries, and these animals have of necessity to subsist upon whatever their keeper places before them, and that sometimes of a kind which they would hesitate or even refuse to devour in a state of freedom.

Perhaps the most interesting spot in the Zoo to the general visitor is the well-known Lion-house, though children almost invariably show a predilection for the monkeys. The Lion-house was erected some few years ago, and is a great improvement upon the former structure, now used for the bears, wolves, and hyenas; but though fairly roomy and comfortable for the larger felidae inhabiting it, yet, considering their ever increasing number, and the importance which these carnivora hold in the animal kingdom, it is unfortunate that a still larger space and more commodious building could not have been spared for the purpose. The Lion-house contains not only several fine specimens of African lions, but also almost every known species of the larger Cat tribe, the snow leopard of the Himalayas alone excepted.

In our changeable climate, more especially during the long dreary winter-months, when the ground is often covered with snow and hard frosts prevail, animals like the lion, the tiger, and the leopard, accustomed to tropical climates and a more equable temperature than ours, necessarily require their dens to be artificially heated, and great care taken to guard against their suffering from the extreme cold. In spite of every precaution having been taken, several valuable animals succumbed to the rigours of our late almost arctic winter. But ample space and outdoor exercise are also great desiderata, and in this respect it must be confessed that the Lion-house of our own Zoological Gardens does not compare favourably with buildings intended for a like purpose to be seen at Berlin and other continental collections. At the Thiergarten, Berlin--where may be seen a magnificent troop of seven or eight lions all in one large inclosure--there is a rocky hill--made secure, so far as the public are concerned, by a circle of high iron railings, and connected by doorways with the ordinary winter dens. So soon as summer appears and the weather becomes warm, the lions are permitted to roam about at will over this hill; and it is a pleasing sight to observe the creatures really enjoying themselves, and for a time forgetful of their present captivity. Here may be seen a shaggy veteran with his wife and cubs lying together in a group upon some slabs of rock, and basking in the rays of the mid-day sun; there, an old lioness asleep under the shade of an overhanging boulder; while her two half-grown sons, full of health and spirits, are busily engaged in a romp of hide-and-seek.

But to return. The row of elevated seats provided for visitors to the Lion-house, and facing the long line of fourteen cages, affords an excellent view of the inhabitants of the different dens. On the left we see two fine male lions in separate cages; and close to them several lionesses, one with a pair of handsome cubs. To the extreme right are three tigers--two from continental India; and a third, a young, very quiet, and peculiarly dark fulvous-marked animal, recently obtained from Turkestan. It must be confessed, however, as every old Indian shikary will testify, that no one of the three before us conveys a true idea of the enormous size, strength, and muscular power which the royal tiger attains to in a wild state. It would be no exaggeration to say, that a well-fed specimen from the Bengal Sunderbunds or Central India would reach nearly twice the weight, and measure twice the thickness round the shoulders, of any one of the three narrow-chested, hollow-flanked creatures before us. Next in importance and size comes the jaguar from America--a single specimen, but a remarkably fine, powerful animal, and, to all appearance, quite a match for any one of the three undersized tigers from the Old World. The puma or cougar of South America--a pair of beautiful grayish-red cats, but wanting in the brawny limbs and muscular neck and chest of the jaguar. Three beautiful leopards in one den. Many good naturalists would pronounce one of them to be a panther, and a distinct variety from the remaining two; but this is an undecided point among zoologists, so we will not touch upon it, merely remarking upon the extraordinary dissimilarity in the colour and marking of the skins of the three specimens before us, and which fully accounts for the difficulty so many naturalists have found in classifying these felidae. Lastly, we notice the cheetah, or Indian hunting leopard, said to be the 'pard' of the ancients, common to various countries in Asia, and also throughout Africa, but not found in Ceylon, where the common leopard has erroneously gained the title of cheetah. This interesting animal has been rightly placed as a separate subgenus from the true cats, on account of the claws being only partially retractile, with the tips always visible. It is a high-standing, slender creature, thin across the loins like a greyhound, and carrying the tail more after the manner of the dog than the true cat.

As being the largest of the group before us, the lion and the tiger naturally attract our chief attention. These champions of the Old World have many a time in the days of ancient Rome been pitted the one against the other in mortal combat; but there is still a difference of opinion which of the two is the more formidable animal. Probably the tiger, on account of his more muscular hind-quarters, would have most friends; but many experienced travellers and sportsmen who have witnessed the extraordinary strength and ferocity of the lion, hold the contrary opinion. In parts of Central India, as also in Kutch and Guzerat in the Bombay Presidency, the Asiatic lion and tiger are still found in the same jungles; but we never hear of the two animals quarrelling and coming to blows. Formerly, the lion of India, on account of the male having a shorter mane, was considered to be of a different species from his African brother; but more recently, our scientific naturalists have rightly come to the conclusion that the two are identical. It must be allowed, however, that the Asiatic lion is altogether a less courageous and dangerous beast than the animal inhabiting the African continent; and our experienced Indian hunters assert that the former, even when fired at, wounded, and driven to bay, seldom turns on his pursuers and fights to the death after the manner of the royal tiger.

It is somewhat extraordinary that neither lion nor tiger has the power of climbing trees. They can make prodigious springs and bounds, but cannot clamber up a tree 'hand over hand,' so to speak, like the bear; and this is the more surprising when we remember that the jaguar, the puma, and the leopard, like all the smaller cats, are active, expert climbers. True, both lion and tiger are far larger and heavier than any other of the felidae; and undoubtedly their great strength lies in the massive proportions of the shoulder and forepart of the body, as compared with the hind-quarters; yet, when we consider the general symmetry and graceful movements of these two gigantic wild cats, we cannot help feeling disappointed that they are wanting in one of the chief characteristics of the tribe.

Most of us probably who are in the habit of constantly visiting the Zoological Gardens have heard the roar of the lion--that grand, deep-toned, terrible voice, which seems to make the very air in close proximity to the king of beasts vibrate and quiver. We also frequently read and hear tales of the roar of the tiger; but the writer ventures to say that this impression is erroneous. The Bengal tiger, when going his nightly rounds, often makes a low yawning kind of whine or sigh, ending with a subdued grunt sounding like distant thunder; and a highly unpleasant cry it is to the belated traveller on foot as he hurries along the jungle path. But this night-moan of a prowling tiger has no resemblance whatever to the deep, grand, resounding roar of the lion. Again, every tiger-shooter who has witnessed the scene can readily recall to mind that never-to-be-forgotten moment when a royal tiger worthy of the name--perhaps wounded and goaded to fury and desperation by his eager pursuers--at length turns to try conclusions with them, and with open jaws, ears laid back, flashing eye, and tail on end, a truly terrible object, bounds towards his enemies. At such times he makes the jungle resound with a succession of deep-drawn coughing growls, evidently delivered with the intention of striking terror into the hearts of his foes. But again we say, these murderous snarls of an enraged tiger are altogether dissimilar in character to the roar of the king of beasts.

The wild tribes of Central India have often told the writer that at certain seasons of the year they are made aware of tigers being in the neighbourhood by horrible 'caterwauling' sounds emanating from the jungle; and doubtless this is correct, for we all know the agony of mind we often labour under when a conclave of our domestic cats are holding a palaver on the garden wall.

In India, the sportsman when out in camp during the hot-weather months, often finds himself far away from towns and villages, in some wild spot in the depths of the jungle. Here, the stillness of the night is constantly broken by the calls of various creatures inhabiting the neighbouring forest--the deep solemn hoot of the horned owl, the sharp call of the spotted deer, or the louder bell of the sambur. But these familiar sounds attract no notice from the domestic animals included in the camp circle. But should a panther on the opposite hill call his mate, or a prowling tiger passing along the river-bank mutter his complaining night-moan, they one and all immediately show by their demeanour that they recognise the cry of a beast of prey. The old elephant chained up beneath the tamarind tree stays for a moment swaying his great body backwards and forwards, and listens attentively. His neighbour, a gray Arab horse, with pricked-up ears, gazes uneasily in the direction the sound appeared to come from; while the dogs, just before lying panting and motionless in the moonlight, spring to their feet with bristling back and lowered tail, and with growls of fear disappear under the tent fly.

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