The Best Zoo
The many people who will visit New South Wales in this anniversary year will make a mistake if they do not visit the Sydney Zoo. Many Zoos are set in pleasant places. From our Whipsnade stretches as spacious and pleasant a view as any in the Midlands ; and the soft short turf above the chalk is a rival to the oaks and firs. The natural outcrop of rock sets a flourish on the Bronx Zoo of New York, which has many claims to be the best in the world. The Sydney Zoo is one of its near rivals, if not in zoological variety, yet certainly in scenery. That sharp and well-treed slope declining to the edge of one of the world's greatest harbours is unparalleled. The Zoo excelled when I saw it in finches, mostly collected in the north of Australia ; and indeed many of the birds, from brush turkeys to bower birds, were of altogether exceptional interest. Has any town so grand an approach as Sydney ? I should confess, if .I dared, that the scenery about Rio is grander and richer, but the narrowness and salience of the entrance (which evaded the sharp sight of Cook before he landed at Botany Bay) clinch the claim of Sydney to be supreme as har- bour. A yet neater and preciser entrance gate sets a flourish on the charming little harbour of Albany in Western Australia.
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