The tables were ranged all round, and in the centre there was a boarded platform for dancing.

The ladies were there all ready dressed for partners; and the music was so lively, that I felt very much inclined to dance, but we had agreed to go and see the wild beasts fed at Mr Polito's menagerie, and as it was now almost eight o'clock, we paid our bill and set off.

It was a very curious sight, and better worth seeing than any thing in the fair; I never had an idea that there were so many strange animals in existence.

They were all secured in iron cages, and a large chandelier with twenty lights, hung in the centre of the booth, and lighted them up, while the keeper went round and stirred them up with his long pole; at the same time he gave us their histories, which were very interesting.

I recollect a few of them.
There was the tapir, a great pig with a long nose, a variety of the hiptostamass, which the keeper said was an amphibilious animal, as couldn't live on land, and _dies_ in the water--however, it seemed to live very well in a cage.