American Fisheries Society. 205 



and the second lot smothered in the aquarium ; aud you will find 

 that in the ordinary city water supply, if you try to operate an 

 aquarium, it is desirable to have a receptacle through which to 

 pass the water in order to deaerate or regulate it, before it passes 

 into the aquarium. If you pass it directly into the aquarium 

 from the ordinary aqueduct supply, you will occasionally get this 

 superabundance of air. It will come in big bubbles, and the fish 

 will become uneasy immediately and dart about, getting out if 

 they can. That was an experience I had a number of years ago. 

 Mr. Ravenel : I think that Mr. Marsh's paper is exceedingly 

 interesting from the fact that I think he has explained the cause 

 of our failure in Charleston, South Carolina, a year and a half 

 ago. The Fish Commission used the same aquarium there that 

 was used at Buffalo, except that the supply of salt water wa& 

 drawn from a pond near by hand and pumped directly into the 

 supply pipes just over the tanks. The suction pipe was a tem- 

 porary afEair and hastily put up under very adverse conditions, 

 and although we did not notice any leaks, and we thought that 

 every precaution had been taken to make the aquarium success- 

 ful, several car loads of fish delivered in excellent condition died 

 within from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Later on we cap- 

 tured within a hundred yards of the aquarium, mullet squeatog 

 and numbers of other fishes, and lost them almost as fast as we 

 could put them into the aquarium. Mr. Marsh was sent down tc 

 investigate this matter, but before he arrived there the suction 

 pipe had been changed from the pond and run to a distance of 

 500 feet to the end of the dock, so that when he got there the fish 

 were not dying, and he had not seen the conditions that existed 

 during the earlier part of the season. I discussed this matter 

 with Mr. Marsh before his paper was read tonight, and I recol- 

 lect very clearly that large numbers of the fish were covered with 

 air bubbles, and after a while they began to swim zigzag around 

 the aquarium, then they would turn around on their backs and 

 swim on their backs for a while. Two carloads of these fish 

 came from Tampa and one from along the Georgia coast. I am 

 satisfied, bearing in mind the fact that the first suction pipe run 

 was a temporary affair, that the water was su])ercharged with air, 

 and I have no doubt at all but that the large death rate resulted 

 therefrom. I must sav, thougli. that T have also noticed the 



