FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 131 



"It now houses the finest collection of fishes in the world, 

 but it has almost completelj^ lost its old character. 



"Instead of covering a tiny island, it rests bedded in the 

 stone slabs of Battery Park and looks somewhat like a half- 

 sunken gas tank. Sentiment may cling about it, and the folk 

 with neither New York ancestry nor history may reverence it 

 because it is so 'very old' but in reality it is sad rubbish and has 

 little place in the new city. There is not a building in lower 

 New York that goes back to the time of the Dutch occupation, 

 and very few that belong to the later English occupation." 



Our legal maintenance fund of $45,000 is no longer suffi- 

 cient. With the proposed additions and improvements it should 

 be increased to $65,000. Even then it w^ould be only one-third 

 that allowed the other museums. 



The maintenance of an aquarium like ours with four dif- 

 ferent water systems and with pumps running day and night is 

 necessarily expensive and salt water is destructive to all kinds 

 of machinery. Our present attendance undoubtedly warrants 

 the increase proposed. 



The various improvements enumerated above should place 

 the Aquarium on a proper basis for the performance of its func- 

 tions for some years to come. 



Its development appears to be thrust upon us. 



I am convinced that in the future the demands made upon 

 this institution will continue to increase as they have in the past. 



These conclusions are not based on the personal ambitions 

 of the Director. Seven years of experience in the institution 

 have simply led him to the belief that the public will utilize to 

 the limit, all the facilities which the Aquarium can possibly be 

 made to afford for its entertainment and instruction. 



There has been no time during his incumbency when he has 

 not been in contact with men of science and prominent citizens, 

 both at home and abroad, who were keenly interested in the 

 work of the institution, and these men all constantly urging the 

 development of the Aquarium into a real museum. 



Although the Aquarium has four water systems, that is, 

 warm and cold sea water and warm and cold fresh water, it still 

 lacks the equipment necessary to the keeping of many kinds of 

 local marine species of both fishes and invertebrates. The new 

 stored sea water sj^stem carries all tropical species and such 

 local species as can stand warm water. Those which live en- 

 tirely in cold water, require still to be kept in tanks supplied 



