CHAPTER III
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, MARSEILLES
These Gardens, which are worked under the control and direction of the Jardin d’Acclimatation at Paris, contain a collection of both useful and wild animals, many of which are bought and sold here. The Gardens also serve as a resting-place for the animals which the Jardin d’Acclimatation imports from the far East and exports to the hot regions by the Mediterranean. The animals remain and get acclimatized before they are sent on further north to Paris.
Shrubs and plants are also grown, and by their situation behind the Palais de Longchamp the Gardens constitute one of the most attractive promenades in Marseilles.
One of the entrances to the Gardens is through a most magnificent set of buildings, having a large cascade of water in front. This imposing building is called the Palais de Longchamp, and contains an art museum and picture-gallery. On passing through the gate, and going up two flights of steps, you come into a large garden above, and, keeping to the right, you fall in with the pay-gate to the Zoological Gardens.
It must, however, be borne in mind that the quickest way to reach the Zoological Gardens is by an ever-ascending electric tram-car, which finally lands you right in front of the ordinary entrance-gate. On arrival there, you put a franc into a sort of missionary-box made of tin, and are ushered through into the Gardens by the gate-keeper. You are at once confronted with a pretty little grotto arrangement, down the rockwork of which trickles a waterfall. In the basin at the foot of the fall are a number of flamingoes wading about and feeding.
LE PALAIS LONGCHAMP, MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS, MARSEILLES.
The Gardens will be found to lie upon a steep hillside, upon which walks and terraces are cut one above another. On the second terrace you find a grotto, with another waterfall higher than the one below. This grotto is extremely picturesque, the situation of the Garden on the hillside lending itself well to this form of garden decoration. Here, at the foot of the second grotto, are to be seen some white swans with black necks, and some pretty black ducks with dark-green heads. It was a cold February day when I visited the Gardens, but, to show how early is the breeding season in the South of France, I may say that the ducks were already beginning to pair.
On the right the visitor will come upon three cleverly-constructed cages of a circular shape, backed with rockwork. In this rockwork are the sleeping apartments of the animals in the cages. These sleeping apartments have doors communicating with the outer cages, so that when rain or wind comes the animals can find shelter. The cages have been cleverly thought out, and are extremely picturesque.
The inmates of the first cage were two lionesses. I wished to get close to the bars in order to obtain a photograph of these big cats without showing the iron bars, but as a man was intently watching my proceedings, I thought it best not to venture over the barrier. I was unable to make out whether he was one of the keepers or perchance a French officer, and could not make up my mind whether I would offer him a franc to let me go closer or not.
In the next circular cage was a most amusing polar bear. His keeper happened to come along, and he dropped some large pieces of bread into the water-tank for him, but, strange to say, the bear would not go in after them. However, after vainly endeavouring to reach them with his outstretched paw, he made a spring, and stood crossways over the tank, with his fore-paws on one side and his hind-paws on the other, where he stood like a white stone bridge stretched over a river, and, bending down his head between his fore-paws, he seized each bit of bread in his mouth and tossed it on to dry land; then, springing back, he devoured it greedily. When he had finished every bit, he came to the front of the cage within a few feet of me, and obligingly sat up to be photographed.
Next to the bear were a pair of extremely handsome leopards in very good coat. They growled and snarled and showed their teeth at one another, and pretended to fight, but in reality this was only their rough-and-tumble way of flirting with each other. After all, are not some human beings just the same?
Further to the left you find a picturesque little pagoda for the elephant, with a space railed off in front in which he can take air and exercise and have a cooling bath in the deep water-tank.
Crossing a bridge over the street below, we come to a long viaduct, under each arch of which is an enclosure for birds or animals. On the extreme right was a moufflon, which also obligingly stood up with its fore-legs on the rail in front of it in order to have its picture taken. This animal’s legs were somewhat deformed, and stretched outwards from the knee, giving it the appearance of being knock-kneed. Next to the moufflon, under the second arch of the viaduct, were a camel and a zebu housed together. On the left of them was a pair of nylgai (Indian antelopes), male and female, which appeared to be in the very best of health and condition; but I should say they could not have been long in the Gardens, as they were so wild, and whenever I moved the male raced about its enclosure, whilst the female retired into its shelter-shed, unlike the very docile pair in the London Zoological Gardens, which will feed from your hand. By the side of the nylgai, but separated by a wire fence, raced up and down a fine Barbary sheep, whilst his wife and child lay down close by taking things easily.
The next enclosure contained a very pretty sight—a red-deer stag, hind, and calf making a very picturesque group when standing up together. Under the remaining arches were enclosed some large birds of prey. Just opposite the arches on a bank is an enclosure where was to be found a pure white llama, with its baby, a youngster about six days old. Another Eastern pagoda and railed-off enclosure contained a very fine Bactrian camel. There were many smaller mammals, such as coatis, lemurs from Madagascar, wolves, jackals, a European wild-boar, etc., besides many enclosures of birds, including a pheasantry, tenanted for the most part by domestic fowls, peacocks, French partridges and an occasional golden and Lady Amherst pheasant. In one pen you will notice French partridges running with a Lady Amherst pheasant.
There is a small monkey house with outdoor cages, furnished with wooden railings for the amusement of the inmates. These outdoor cages are connected with the interior cages by little square doors.
I must not forget to mention a large brown bear in a very picturesque bear pit made of rockwork, with a front of stout iron bars.
One of the inmates of a row of sheds devoted to small animals was a caracul, or African lynx, in very good coat and condition. When in Somaliland, North-east Africa, in 1897, I captured one of these beautiful cats in the mountains, but unfortunately it escaped two days afterwards. The face of this animal is very like that of the American puma, whilst its ears are long and very pointed, and are furnished with tufts of black hair at the tips.
The second day I visited these Gardens it snowed, and the light was so bad that I did not attempt to take any photographs. As on my approach I found nobody at the entrance-gate, I walked in. Apparently there is no fixed charge, but a man usually jingles a tin box before you, and you can put what you like into it. I saw the Marseilles Gardens under the most unfavourable circumstances; still, on the finest day I do not think anyone would be very much impressed by them. The laying out of the Gardens on a bank is pretty, and the rockwork and the waterfalls very picturesque, but the show of animals and birds, on the whole, is small and somewhat poor.
I had a short talk with one of the keepers, a stern man with a gloomy countenance and few words. I did not gather much information concerning the Gardens, but I raised one laugh out of him when, wishing to know when the animals were fed, I asked: ‘A quelle heure est la table d’hôte des animaux?’