124 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



Academy. This sum was at once invested and interest has 

 been accumulating. Dr. Evermann, accompanied by Civil 

 Engineer T. Ronneberg, has made an inspection trip to all the 

 notable aquariums in the United States in order that the 

 Academy may have the advantage of the latest and best ideas 

 on general arrangement, lighting and operation. The archi- 

 tect, Mr. Lewis P. Hobart, thereupon made a number of pre- 

 liminary studies from which it presently became apparent that 

 the funds at our disposal were not adequate to provide a 

 building of the size, dignity and architectural finish which 

 would be required if the aquarium is given the place of 

 honor in the Academy's building scheme. It was found im- 

 practicable, in other words, to put the aquarium to the East 

 of the unit in which our present exhibits and activities are 

 housed, where it could be made, if funds permitted, an im- 

 posing central feature at the rear of an aquatic court. When 

 this fact became apparent the architect did the next best thing. 

 He so arranged a design that only a small portion of the ex- 

 terior of the building would require finishing in stone. But 

 even with this arrangement under which only a narrow front 

 of the building would be architecturally ornamental, there has 

 been difiiculty in finding a site at once appropriate and ac- 

 ceptable to the Board of Park Commissioners. The matter 

 of selecting a site and of suggesting a building suited to the 

 site is now in the hands of a joint committee of the Park 

 Commission and of the Academy. 



It is regrettable that the funds placed by bequest at the 

 disposal of the Academy are limited to an amount which will 

 not srive to San Francisco all that is desired in connection 

 with a first class, fully equipped aquarium in which the ma- 

 rine life of the Pacific Ocean and the aquatic life of the 

 streams which flow into the Pacific Ocean should be ade- 

 quately represented. Even with extreme restriction of the 

 exterior ornamentation of the aquarium building it will not 

 be possible to provide more than about 50 tanks of moderate 

 size. There will be no space provided in accomplishing this 

 result for fishery and display exhibits, for research work, or 

 for offices. The bare housing of the fish tanks, and of the 

 machinery and appliances required to store, filter, aerate and 

 cool or heat the water, is all that can be accomplished with 

 the means at command. 



