creatures was that they did not thrive in captivity; 

 therefore I could reasonably expect to have in no 

 long time a dead animal as an added difficulty in 

 the way of a beginning. 



My plan was soon formed. I would do what was 

 possible with the subject at hand, until the arrival 

 of spring when serpent-stars would be found in 

 greater abundance. Meanwhile, I would also con- 

 sult the available literature of the subject to see 

 what it had to offer. 



Ill 



Picture, if you can, a large room (16 x 20 feet, 

 to be explicit) well lighted on two sides by a row 

 of nine great windows; overhead is a skylight 

 through which the warm afternoon sun is stream- 

 ing, flooding a huge glass tank filled with salt- 

 water and sea-lettuce with an emerald brilliance. 

 A score or more of smaller tanks, of various kinds 

 and sizes, are clustered close to the row of win- 

 dows at one side, almost completely covering a 

 long shelf-like work-bench that ranges the lower 

 sills. These aquaria, too, like their larger counter- 

 part, give out a greenish glow, casting a delicate 

 glaucous hue over the other objects in the room, by 



[51] 



