A BARBARY RAM, DÜSSELDORF.
A curious Egyptian building, with outside paddocks, contains camels (two kinds), pigmy cattle, and an Indian elephant. This house is followed by others containing roe deer, axis deer, rabbits, kangaroos, and monkeys. I must not omit to mention a baby Bactrian camel born in the Garden.
This is quite one of the most picturesque of the many beautiful Gardens on the Continent.
I next journeyed to Krefeld by a most circuitous route, and found that the Thiergarten (wild-beast garden) contained not a single beast, but only a man, who asked me about a dozen questions in German, none of which I could answer.
CHAPTER XVI
THE WESTPHALIAN ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN, MÜNSTER: DIRECTOR, DR. LANDOIS
The so-called ‘island’ upon which this Garden now stands was originally laid out by the Abbot Bernard von Galen. A fortress which stood on the island was destroyed and replaced by a public park, a coffee-house, and a summer theatre.
On December 10, 1873, Professor Landois and Sanitary Inspector Nübel took a lease of the island and everything standing upon it until February 14, 1874, when they bought it right out and set to work to form a Zoological Garden upon it.
In order to improve the appearance of the place, they induced Herr Carl Koller to sell them a neighbouring meadow for 2,000 thalers. With extraordinary activity they worked until June 26, 1875, when the Garden was formally opened to the public. In 1881 the pillar-hall—a large entrance-hall—was built; this, however, was subsequently destroyed by fire. In 1894 it was replaced by a new building in the modern style, approached by a bridge over the river.
The entrance-hall bears over its gate the inscription: ‘Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci’ (Everyone hits the right nail on the head who combines the useful with the beautiful).