A Thunderstorm In a Lion House.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 240, 4 February 1888, Page 7

A Thunderstorm In a Lion House.

'■A , oorreSponde^t sends ' the ' 'following ;; a cqounb of his experiences in .the Zoological' JGardens,duringa£hunderstbrm to«the "• Pall SMall Gazette :"-^" Chance took me to the grounds of the Zoological Society yesterday' evening, and 'after a stroll around I had just time to slip into the building known afc the Lion House, where also are the tigers, jaguars, and leopards, when the storm burst in all its fury. In the waning light the situation was anything but agreeable for the little band of belated visitors, most of them without umbrellas. The rain poured down with such violence that the floor of the place was soon covered, owing to the pro.sence of various overflow pipes which discharged themselves inside the building. The flashing of the lightning was incessant, and the roar of the thunder simply deafening. As each flash lit up the dim recesses of* the cages, the eye ■ lighted upon the .savage forms behind the bars. Here was a lion standing up with his ears pricked, as though the clamour of the elements brought back to his mind dim memories of a time when he prowled the forest and shrank from the savagery, greater even than his own, of a tropical storm. Two leopards who had been snarling at one another appeared to bury the hatchet in presence of the mysterious flashes which ever and anon blinded their fierce eyes ; and their demeanour evinced a certain mutual conciliatoriness. For the most part, the animals lay perfectly motionless about the dens. A tigress from Turkestan was, however, j an exception, as she seemed to rovel in the storm, and bounded from corner to corner with a bold defiance of the lightning which, with almost the brilliancy of limelight,' played upon her. In the next c«ge a tiger and tigress, whose course of true love did not appear to run smoothly, to judge from the nasty snaps of the lady when her mate attempted to rub his nose on her shoulder, were completely subdued by the crashing and flashing which was going on around them, and they crouched down in opposite corners, with every appearance of terror. When a slight cessation in the rainstorm emboldened the keepers to drive us forth into the horrors of the night, it was with some feelings of relief that I left this particular refuge, for the thought would intrude itaelf that if by chance a bolt were to strike down a wall there, my four-footed friends would be very disagreeable companions in the dark.