instance can only be imagined by one who has gone through the ordeal, as everything at first 



seems to combine for the mortification and disappointment of tlie manager. As a matter of 



fact, the public have very little idea of 



the difiit'ulties to be overcome. Nearly 



every one knows that fish are most delicate 



creatures, and very soon expire on being 



removed from tlieir native element. Here 



they live in an imitation sea, and all the 



conditions are artificial. 



It is evident that it is only by close 

 observation of the conditions observable in 

 creation that man can artificially keep such 

 delicate creatures as the inhabitants of the 

 ocean are in captivity, without simulating 

 as much as possible by scientific means the 

 conditions imposed by nature on all its 

 creatures. 



'Water when staernaut contains no atmos- 



pheric air for living creatm'es to respire, the 

 tiny pools left in the hollows of the rocks 



l;l;IIH,l; OF AQUARIUM. 



by the ebbing- tide and into which all of us have gazed with wonder and delight at the mimic 

 forests of seaweed and coral, blending in harmony with beauteous colour and exquisite form 

 with the stolid crustaceans, wandering like the ghosts of departed heroes througli ancestral 



HAULING ON SOUTH MELBOURNE BEACH. — FRO-M A I'lCTUKE BV VICTIjR HENRY. 



halls, with members of the finny tribe darting from point to point, must have wondered at 

 and admired the all-powerful laws of nature ; for were it not that the water were duly refreshed 

 at the a])poiuted time by the incoming tide, the bright clear crystal water would lose its 

 brilliancy, the colours of the vegetation would fade, the living creatures perish one by one, and 



