Читать книгу Life at the Zoo: Notes and Traditions of the Regent's Park Gardens онлайн
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It is in the leading facts which make such minor developments possible that the wonder and significance of these discoveries lie,—in the defiance of such physical obstacles as are set to life by enormous pressure, and in the artificial lighting of the abysmal darkness by the invading creatures. Sir Richard Owen once suggested an extension of the limits of terrestrial life, by pointing out that the light of the planet Jupiter was suited to the form of the vertebrate eye. When the mind which has once grasped the physical conditions of the ocean abyss, is confronted with the triumph of living creatures over such surroundings, it no longer lies with it to reject as impossible the surmise that life, which so transcends the limits set by ordinary experience to its scope on earth, may also extend to the planets.
THE LION HOUSE AT THE ZOO.
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[“Hic habitat leones.”—Old Map of Central Africa.]
Just fifty years ago, when the best means of keeping wild animals in health and vigour when confined was still matter for experiment, an interesting set of statistics of the length of life of the large felidæ in the Gardens was submitted to the Society by Mr. Rees. It appeared from the records of the menagerie that lions, leopards, tigers, and pumas only lived, on an average, for two years in the Gardens, which gave a rate of mortality of about one per month. The value of lions and tigers was then about £150 each, and of leopards and pumas £15.