ZOOLOGISCHER GARTEN, AIX-LA-CHAPELLE (AACHEN): DIRECTOR, AUG. BAST
This Garden was founded in 1886 by Sir Emil Lochner, and his widow is
now proprietress.
On paying twenty pfennig one is confronted by a large, handsome
concert-hall with glass roof and sides, with pretty beds of tulips in
front of it. At first I could find no animals, although I found several
empty cages and pens. At length, however, I came upon a deer house
with outside enclosure, containing, amongst others, a pair of wapiti
about half grown. Close by it was a bear den built like a castle, and
containing a brown and a polar bear; in two other pens close at hand
were a pair of white goats and a pretty roe deer. What, apparently, had
been an antelope shed now housed two monkeys and some parrots. There
was rather a nice lion house, but there was not a single animal in it.
There was a llama pen inhabited by one llama, and a pheasant house
and a duck lake finished a very disappointing show, considering the
accommodation and possibilities of the place.
To add to the enjoyment of my visit to the Garden, I was caught in a
snowstorm there, May 7.