PUBLIC AQUARIUMS IJV EUROPE. 25 



the water measures over twelve feet, giving a depth which results 

 iu an enormous pressure upon the glass fronts of the aquaria. 

 This dangerous strain, however, has been cleverly counterbal- 

 anced : instead of attempting to employ a large plate of glass to 

 resist the water pressure, the designers have prudently broken 

 the front of the tank into a series of stouter panes, whose outlines 

 are larger above, smaller below, framed massively by log-shaped 

 beams of iron. Rockwork has been largely employed as the back- 

 ground of the aquaria, and the great water depth has favored the 

 use of delicate strings of vertically growing water plants. At 

 present the tanks are almost entirely stocked with fresh-water 

 forms. Adjoining the main corridor has been added a laboratory 

 devoted to experiments in fish culture. Here the hatching troughs 

 are arranged in vertical banks to give the cascadelike waterflow 

 recommended by the earlier culturists. 



Berlin. Like that of the Trocadero, the Berlin Aquarium, 

 next to be mentioned, ranks among the earliest in Europe, it hav- 

 ing been opened, under the directorship of Dr. Brehm, in 1869. 

 From that time onward its success has been remarkable none 

 the less so that its foundation and management have been due 

 to private enterprise, in the form of a stock company. And to its 

 credit it may safely be said that there has been no other aquarium 

 in Europe which has appealed to a greater number of people and 

 has accomplished its object with greater tact or at the cost of 

 greater efforts. 



A visit to the aquarium has come to be one of the interesting 

 sights of Berlin, and the stranger has but little difficulty in find- 

 ing its tall, stuccoed, buff-colored building at the corner of one 

 of the streets crossing Unter den Linden, although he may feel 

 at first, perhaps, inward qualms at finding the grotto-planned 

 aquarium, of which he has so often heard, incased by a building 

 which differs in no way outwardly from its apartment-house- 

 looking neighbors. He is apt, therefore, to look about him some- 

 what suspiciously when he discovers that its entrance is strangely 

 theaterlike : there are the box office, the flight of marble steps, the 

 walls over-frescoed with mermaids, the lines of posters, to carry 

 him to its threshold. The serpent gallery is the first to be entered 

 a long, iron-arched, well-lighted corridor, with glass- or wire- 

 fronted cases on either side. This seems to be intended as the 

 vestibule of the aquarium proper, where the curious visitor can 

 whet his appetite on the sight of tarantulas, land turtles, and 

 lizards before he descends into what seems like the mouth of a 

 huge cavern ; for from here onward the walls are of rough stone- 

 work, and there are rock-cut steins and darkened stone-arched 

 passageways to lead the visitor from grotto to grotto as he wan- 

 ders along, gazing at the aquaria on either side. The grotto 



TOL. L. 3 



