58 



Part second. 



entangled. Besides these, wicker-baskets and lines are used and, 

 for shallower water, nets with stakes, which stir up the soft ground 

 or scrape the rocks. But there are animals which cannot be 

 fished for at all, not on account of their agility or strength, but 

 because they are so delicate that they are destroyed and changed 

 into a mass of slime by the least ungentle handling. This applies 

 to many of the jelly-fish, which on this account must be carefully 

 brought up from the water in buckets. Moreover, they cannot 

 stand the movement of the waves and shun strong sunhght and 

 both on rough and on cloudless days they retire down into the 

 quiet twilight of the deeper waters. They are caught on calm 

 days with a cloudy sky when they are often brought together 

 in masses by the gentle currents. As such days are not frequent 

 and these delicate animals survive but a short time in the Aqua- 

 rium, where they are placed inside large glass-cylinders for pro- 

 tection, they can, unfortunately, only be exhibited irregularly to 

 the visitors. 



Having now brought up the animals from the "deep blue" 

 of the Gulf and placed them into the tanks of the Aquarium we 

 wish them to have the impression at once: "Quite like home!" 

 It is naturally impossible to give them all their accostomed con- 

 ditions of life, but all that is possible is done to make the guests 

 comfortable. We give the largest tanks to the swimming animals, 

 and rocky mounds are made for the inhabitants of stony grounds 

 which can exercise their talents for climbing on the projecting 

 ledges at the sides of the tanks. Opportunity is given too, to 

 those who like it, to bury themselves in sand or mud. In one 

 respect only the Aquarium does not copy natural conditions, 

 and for a good reason. The enemies which sought for his life 

 outside are here carefully kept away from the new arrival; for 

 his destiny is not to be eaten, but to be admired. Rather, he 

 himself must eat, and that with appetite. This is the first of the 

 three chief conditions through which we try to comfort the pris- 

 oners for the loss of their homes. The second is to allow them 

 to breathe in clean, constantly changing water and the third that 

 they never have it too cold or too warm. 



The feeding is by no means difficult. Sardines and shrimps 

 are taken by many of the animals with as great pleasure as by 

 men. Others show a more delicate taste, having a preference for 

 oysters and other shell-fish. Others again are vegetarians and are 

 pleased with a salad of sea-lettuce or even swallow sand or mud 

 alone and many demand no feeding at all, being satisfied with 

 the most minute organisms and organic particles which float 

 about in the water. In this manner many sessile-animals take 

 their nourishment, and, when one considers the matter, this mode 

 of feeding is essentially the same as that of the whale. Both 

 filter the food — be it microscopical organisms or herrings — 



