Centennial Meeting. 



Building, and no end of useful information was readily obtain- 

 able. Both Chinamen fairly gushed and pointed right and left 

 at fish they were at home with, and opened their eyes in wonder 

 at such nondescripts as were strange to them. In fact, this 

 collection of plaster casts of fish, supplemented by the photo- 

 graphs, is like a Kindergarten, where object-teaching is made 

 intelligible to the largest children, scientific or otherwise. I 

 must recall here, too, the very complete collections of fish pre- 

 served in alcohol, coming from Sweden and Norway, which may 

 be found in Agricultural Hall. 



Of class 641, " Fishes Living or Preserved." — If I cannot refer 

 with pride to the aquaria, which, for very good reasons, were not 

 as extensive or as well filled as Mr. Mather would have wished, 

 or as Mr. Mather's great acquaintance with this subject deserved, 

 it has taught us this lesson : That aquaria, like menageries or 

 zoological collections, require special facilities, and must be 

 constructed solely for the purposes intended. I can, however, 

 point to the refrigerators stocked by Mr. Eugene G. Blackford 

 of New York, as one of the prominent features of Group V., the 

 worthy Treasurer of our Association having poured out there 

 during the whole of the Exhibition the entire riches almost of 

 the United States in edible fish. At the present moment I 

 believe there are no less than 180 in the refrigerators. The high 

 character of the award, which I understand the judges have 

 accorded him, may, I believe, be considered as a merited compli- 

 ment to the American Fish Culturists' Association. 



No. 642, " Pickled Fish and Parts of Fish," I have already 

 alluded to. If I was merely to endeavor to describe them in these 

 two days' sessions, hardly more could be done than to open, 

 figuratively, the innumerable cans, jars, casks, tubs, or barrels, 

 which contain them. To recount how they looked, tasted, or 

 smelled, might be but to offer you a Barmecidian feast. Some 



