3-016-960 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Shipping wild animals in the London Docks, 1864. 'Amidst the diverse commodities brought into the port of London by so many vessels from every region of the globe, a visitor to the docks may now and then have an opportunity of seeing the arrival of a cargo of wild beasts, though it is but rarely, of course, that such an importation takes place. The zoological collections in the metropolis and in some provincial towns, as well as the exhibitions paraded in travelling caravans, must indeed be constantly recruited with fresh specimens, not only to make up for a rate of mortality which exceeds that of the same kinds of animals in their native clime, but also to provide novelties for the popular gratification...The Engraving to which we now refer is from a sketch made upon a late occasion, when some wild animals of Messrs. Howe and Cushing's menagerie, were embarked in the London Docks, affording much amusement to the spectators. The huge elephant is being hoisted up, as is done with horses and bullocks, by a chain and girth, to be put on board the vessel; whilst a cage full of lions, tigers, and leopards, and the less dangerous ferae naturae not in a cage, await their turn for shipment'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.