--All this
was very remarkable: but I cannot say that I much admired them, though I
was much struck by the sight of an Egyptian mummy, embalmed and unwrapped,
and supposed to have been in its present state far more than a thousand
years. We none of us very much enjoyed the sight of the dead specimens, we
therefore gladly left them, in order to pay our respects to their living
neighbours, whose houses were not very far off.
"The Garden of Plants contains a very considerable number of wild animals,
and who all appear to be living very much at their ease. Indeed they are
surrounded with every thing that can be devised to render their captivity
as little irksome as possible. They are confined it is true; not in narrow
cages, but in wide enclosures; around them grow trees of their own country,
and under their feet springs the herbage of which they are most fond. The
Polar bear is indulged with a fountain of water, and when the camel is
inclined for a nap he reposes on a bed of sand. Of the usefulness of this
animal I must not omit to give you an instance, and that is, that so far
from eating the bread of idleness, he actually more than earns his living
by raising all the water that is used in these extensive grounds, and thus
he may be regarded as a general benefactor to all the plants and animals
by which he is surrounded.
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