THE AQUARIUM AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 153 



Fed with chopped clams and minced liver and beef, most of our specimens ate 

 freely, became hearty and fat, healed their bruises and grew new tails when injured, 

 and several species laid their eggs or reared their young as if still in their native 

 haunts.* The smaller Atlantic sea-anemones only (MetrkUum marginatum) slowly 

 dwindled with the advance of the season, not dying, but diminishing in size to a third 

 or a fourth their original proportions. In the large, deep tank, which was the only one 

 available for them, they could only be fed by mixing minced meat with the water, and 

 this could not be supplied them in sufficient quantity without fouling the water to an 

 injurious extent. 



It was a great surprise to all concerned to tind that a collection of marine animals 

 in large variety and of the most interesting character could be maintained on the 

 shore of Lake Michigan nearly a thousand miles from the seas, as easily and almost 

 as cheaply as at Woods Holl, on the Atlantic coast — far more easily, in fact, than 

 could a similar collection of the animals of the lake itself; yet this was the common 

 and emphatic judgment of the whole aquarium force. Losses were generally heavy 

 for a few days after the arrival of a consignment from the coast, but when those 

 badly bruised and greatly weakened had died, the remainder usually lived surpris- 

 ingly well. In the middle of the season, for example, during the three weeks from 

 July 18 to August 8, only thirteen specimens died of the several hundreds in our salt- 

 water collections at the time, viz: a sea-robin, six sheepshead, a small skate, atautog, 

 a flounder, a rilefish, and two Pacific anemones; and a week of this period passed with 

 the loss of only a single fish. 



In this connection it should be remembered that the end toward which we were 

 woiking, and the forced and hurried character of our operations, made it impossible for 

 us to experiment with the various species coming to our nets, or to select to any con- 

 siderable extent those known to be hardy in the aquarium. We were compelled to 

 take our chances with everything not notoriously unfit for even temporary mainte- 

 nance. With time, experience, and opportunity for methodical procedure, a marine 

 aquarium collection could be gradually brought together in the interior which would 

 far surpass in numbers, variety, and cheapness of maintenance that which we were 

 able to hurry in pell-mell for a brief exposition season. 



It seems not especially remarkable that the salt-water aquarium should prove, in 

 the present state of our knowledge, much easier of maintenance than the fresh- water, 

 since it has heretofore received by far the greater share of attention. Most of the 

 great aquaria of the world have been either on the coast or in easy reach of the sea, 

 and have contained marine animals chiefly, since these are, on the whole, much more 

 varied, curious and beautiful, aud also of greater scientific interest than those of fresh- 



f Two viviparous perch (Micrometrus aggregatus) of the Pacific coast, brought from Monterey 

 June 20, gave birth July 9 to 17 youug, which grew rapidly and were alive at the close of the expo- 

 sition. A toadfish (Batrachus fan) spawned July 9, hut the eggs did not hatch, probably for lack of 

 fertilization. Mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitm) and stickle-backs ( Apeltes quadracus) also spawned 

 in July, and a number of young hatched from their eggs were alive November 1. August 27, a skate's 

 egg containing a young skate, still alive, was found in an aquarium tank with adult female skates. 

 In September 5 whelks (Syeoti/pus cdnaliculatus) spawned, each requiring from 2 to 5 days to extrude 

 its long string of large, tough egg-cases. Young anemones (Metridium marginatum), hatched after the 

 arrival of the lot from Wood's Holl, were abundant in the anemone tank all summer, covering the 

 rocks in hundreds. The fresh-water species spawning were the common sucker (May 4 to 20), golden 

 ide (May), goldfish (June 16), pike perch (April 1 to 30), yellow perch (April 29 to May 9), rainbow 

 trout (May 30), Von Behr trout (November 5), Mississippi cattish and blue sunfish (Lepomis pallidus). 



