The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-22
AN ENGLISH PARADISE.
The Many Animals on the Duke of
BedfOrd-s Estate.
CFrom the London News.)


A paradise" is the technical term for a
preserve in which attempts are made with
more or less success to acclimatize foreign
birds and animals. The three most sue
cessful paradises in England are Hagger-
stone Castle, near Beaie; Leonardslee, in
Sussex, and Woburn Abbey. Leonardslee
provides the nearest approach to perfectly
wild conditions, and the innumerable for
eign species-the big red kangaroos, the
wallabies, the moufon. or wild sheep; the
prairie dogs, the Patagonian CAVES and
countless ether species-give the landscape
a very un-English appearance. A writer
in the Quarterly Review" thus describes
a vista on the Duke of Bedford's estate at
Woburn Abbey:
There. in single picture, axis deer,
japanese deer. Pekin deer, red deer, eau
casian red deer Virginian deer. and a
moufon sheep may be seen grazing quiet
ly together, while the portraits of many
other stays and bucks show to what
health and vigor the animals attain in
this unique paradise. But no photograph
could ever do justice to the general eff
feet of the herds there gathered together
Probably nothing like it could be seen
anywhere nearer than the Athi plains in
our East African Protectorate, where the
great fauna OF Africa still wander ana
feed in herds of hundreds of individuals,
all at peace with one another and not
greatly scared by man. In the centre of
the scene lies the big grey palace. set
among rolling waves of park, studded with
ancient trees. Under the trees, out on the
open lawns and glades. all along the sky
line and round the pools, gaze the fallow
bucks and does. japanese stays, red deer
and hybrid fawns and stays. Among them
stalk gigantic wapiti, lords and masters
OF the mixed multitude. Under the chest
nut trees is a herd of black and white
yaks with their calves, with thar and
other wild sheep. and close to the drive
is q small herd of zebras, with foal or
two. as much at their ease as if they
were commoners' ponies on Matley Heath
in the New Forest.
The variety OF strange birds is just as
great. Chiefly remarkable are the brilliant
Reeves pheasant and the Australian
brush turkey"
One OF the most useful functions OF
paradise" is 10 preserve moribund species
which once fourished in this country The
beaver, for instance, is busy with his mar
yelous feats of engineering and architec-
ture in the brook at Leonardslee though
1t is probably 800 years since a beaver
made a weir on a British stream. Says
the writer in The Quarterly"
"If beavers are to flourish on a river
they must have a constant depth of water
in which to dive and to cover the entrance
to their lodges, even If the surface is
frozen thick with ice. AS few small rivers
or brooks have constant flow, but are
sometimes shallow, sometimes in food the
beavers make their weir to keep up a head
of water. How serious are the difficulties
of building and maintaining such a weir
every engineer knows.
aa,rh., nh and
Of beavers are devoted TO this end This
is not the place 10 give details of their
log-rolling paths, canals wood-cutting
and weir making; but. apart from the two
former processes. which were not needed
in their home at Leonardslee, all The
mechanical skill of beavers may there be
seen to admiration. They soon made and
have ever since maintained large weir,
cutting down all the unprotected trees, ex-
cept some large beeches and big pines and
usir & all the branches, large and small, for
building with. They left one tree, a small
oak. to support what was to be the centre
of the weir Soon a long deep pool was
formed above the weir, flooding the ada
cent banks and submerging the bases OF
several large trees which the beavers had
begun to cut. One, a large beech, they
rooted up when the water had moistencd
the earth below. In order to cut down
another. around which their pool had
formed deep water. they built a platform,
and then sat on that and gnawed the tree.
Later they cut down the supporting oak,
probably knowing that the dam was strong
enough without it, and began a new weir
below"