others, expiring as mysteriously as they had lived. 

 Why it is that this creature, apparently so hardy 

 in its native habitat as to live for years, shortly suc- 

 cumbs in the indoor aquarium is an interesting 

 problem and one well worthy of any investigator's 

 efforts at analysis. It is one of those which is among 

 the hundred other equally fascinating but more or 

 less academic puzzles that I mean to take up, but 

 which I know that my multifarious and more prag- 

 matic employments will always prevent. In the 

 light of the little that is known, any interpretation 

 in this monograph would be out of place. 



None the less, some hint as to the possible causes 

 may be gained from certain peculiarities which in 

 each instance invariably preceded the death of my 

 hippocampids. 



Every amateur knows that certain sea creatures 

 thrive better than do others in confinement. In- 

 deed, there are some forms which seemingly find 

 the tank more suited to their well-being than they 

 do the sea. Anemones, for example, some fishes, 

 and certain crustaceans in the equable temperature 

 of the aquarium and supplied with the proper suf- 

 ficiency and sort of food, increase in numbers and 

 attain to sizes out of proportion to the common 



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