HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



197 



tide is fully out, and chip off some nice bits of weed- 

 covered rock. Should you light upon an empty 

 oyster-shell ornamented with serpula, or the habita- 

 tion of a defunct whelk, pop them in your bag ; 

 they will look natural, and therefore well, on your 

 miniature beach; but never, I implore you, put 

 litte bits of coloured glass or foreign shells in your 

 tank. A China mermaid, or one of those porcelain 

 representations of wonderful-looking lobsters and 

 crabs, worked up into inkstands or match-boxes, 

 which the fancy shops of Robertson-street, 

 Hastings, abound in, would be every atom as suit- 

 able. The object to be kept in mind is this, to 

 make your aquarium look as like a real sea-pool as 

 possible. 



Pass all the water through a filter after you have 

 placed the rock-work and sea-weeds in; and, when 

 your beach has been laid down (the beach, I need 

 scarcely tell you, should be composed of shingle 

 and a little sea sand), let a day elapse, so that the 

 water may be quite bright before you introduce 

 your animals into their future home. Get a few 

 "Mes" at first; they are the most hardy kinds, 

 and are commonly known as the " Strawberry 

 Anemone." Wait a little, and see how they thrive 

 ere you put in more stock. 



The chief fault almost all aqivmum-keepers fall 

 into at first, is over-crowding; they put in too 

 much animal life. Three anemones to the gallon, 

 as my Cookery Book would express it, are the 

 right number. 



Collectors who have kept fresh-water aquariums 

 may deem that a sufficiency of sea-plants will keep 

 up the proper amount of oxygen; but they must 

 not depend on this. Presh-water plants and fresh 

 waters are very different to marine ; the former 

 tanks require neither filtering nor aeration ; the 

 latter must be constantly agitated by any one who 

 wishes to keep the creatures in a healthy condition. 

 They are accustomed to it in their native sub- 

 marine homes, and therefore I continually either 

 used, what 'a very clever writer on aquariums 

 called " the drip pot," that is, hung a flowerpot, 

 with a piece of sponge in it, over the tank of a 

 morning, and having filled it with water from the 

 tank, let it drop in, or gave the fluid in the tank a 

 gentle stir. 



There are a few appliances which I found it 

 requisite to purchase, and which I will now men- 

 tion. Pirst of all, the gravity-beads', before alluded 

 to — they cost me two shillings ; a siphon to draw 

 off the water with (I used gutta-percha tubing at 

 first for this purpose, but found it objectionable) ; 

 wooden forceps like long sugar-tongs, to feed the 

 anemones with, and a syringe to aerate the water : 

 they all cost about eight shillings (the filter I 

 made, as you have read, out of a flowerpot 

 suspended over the aquarium) ; and the " sponge- 

 stick;" also, for cleaning the glass sides of the 



tank, an old cane, with a little wash-leather tied 

 securely round the top, is all that can be required. 



I have just had a full account of some aquaria on 

 a large scale, which have been fitted up at a country 

 house in Hampshire by a well-known dealer in 

 " marine stores ; " but were I rich enough to pro- 

 cure such an expensive ornament to my grounds, I 

 am very sure it would never afford me the pleasure 

 my lawn pond and greenhouse aquaria did at " the 

 Lodge." 



The amusing adventures met with when collect- 

 ing objects, some of our party looking doubtless, in 

 the eyes of the rustics we met, greater objects than 

 the queer specimens we carried, were in themselves 

 a source of great entertainment. I remember one 

 morning especially ; a friend, my little boy, and 

 self, started after breakfast to dive into the 

 mysteries of a shallow pond about three miles 

 distant. I wanted to procure a few water-beetles ; 

 and, having secured the kind I wanted, sat down 

 on the bank by the side of the pool, while 

 "Mokwa" began to draw the mud, for the said 

 pond looked more like mud in a state of solution 

 than water. "Mokwa," I should explain, was a 

 nom de plume given ray friend during his residence 

 in the wilds of North America ; it is, I believe, 

 Indian for Grizzly Bear. My boy sat by me, 

 patiently waiting until I should finish decorating 

 his straw hat with some wild flowers he had 

 picked. We were suddenly startled by a loud 

 gruff " hem ; " I looked round and saw a face 

 matching the voice peering over the hedge at my 

 back. " Hem " was uttered again ; I looked down 

 at Bertie's hat; I did not want to appear 

 frightened, but I was desperately so. 



A vision of the elderly gentleman, whom Dickens 

 so graphically describes as having fallen in love with 

 Mrs. Nickleby, and showering marks of his affection 

 on her over the wall in the shape of cucumbers, 

 came to disturb my serenity ; for there were some 

 formidable turnips in the field. Mokwa, however, 

 heard the third " hem," and rushed up the bank. 



" What are you catching ? " asked the great un- 

 known, in a voice of thunder. 



" I regret to say that I am not catching any- 

 thing," replied Mokwa, with an indescribably 

 comic expression. 



"What do you expect to catch?" was asked, still 

 more imperiously. 



"Tadpoles, sticklebacks, and caddis-worms," 

 was the answer given this time, in a facsimile voice 

 and style. The curious seeker after knowledge 

 seemed a little put out. He turned again to look 

 at me ; I cannot flatter myself that I was at all cal- 

 culated to reassure him, in a large straw hat, with 

 a flower-bedecked boy on my lap, and a bottle full 

 of beetles by my side, — I certainly did not present a 

 very sane or enchanting appearance, and I am 

 equally certain that nothing like Mokwa's Indian 



