THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1895. 



rial desire was evinced to handle them. 

 Over- feeding was one of the most try- 

 ing evils to contend against, for the 

 superfluity of bread and meat supplied, 

 in all good intent, for the use of the 

 inmates, had a tendency to sour and 

 discolor the water, and to create, when 

 overdoses were administered, a fermen- 

 tation by no means conducive to vital- 

 ity. However, for the sake of encour- 

 aging research and creating amongst the 

 cadets an interest in my aquarium, I 

 would naturally put up with all these 

 little inconveniences, removing as soon 

 as possible, when left to myself, all ex- 

 traneous matters from the water, and 

 by frequent use of the siphon with- 

 drawing the disturbed contents to be 

 replaced with fresh, healthy, spring 

 water. In a very little time the aqua- 

 rium ceased to be a wonder and became 

 an object of interest, and so my point 

 was gained. 



I well remember its first inmate, 

 which was the larva of a Dragon-fly, 

 the various stages of whose subaqueous 

 i life were of continual interest, and 

 great was the astonishment one day, 

 when only an empty case was found 

 attached to the stalk of the water 

 weeds, its inmate having taken to itself 

 wings and disappeared. The locality 

 afforded a splendid field for collecting, 

 as the Croton River emptied into the 

 Hudson within a mile or two of the 

 College. Rockland Lake and Haver- 

 straw Bay were on the opposite shore, 

 whilst in the hills back of us were nu- 

 merous ponds and streams abounding 

 with life. Near the mouth of the Cro- 

 ton River lay the old Van Cortland 

 Manor House, on the lawn of which 

 was a fish-pond, constructed by some 

 of the early Dutch occupants and well 

 stocked with gold-fish. During a 

 heavy freshet one spring, some years 



previous to the time I am talking of, 

 the banks of this pond gave way, dis- 

 charging its waters and its contents 

 into the Croton River. As a conse- 

 quence of this, the gold-fish took up 

 their quarters in the Croton and Hud- 

 son Rivers, and it was no unusual thing 

 when the fishermen were drawing their 

 seines in this vicinity, for a number of 

 gold-fish to be among the fish taken. 

 These were generally thrown back, but 

 anyone on hand at the time could al- 

 ways procure what he wanted, aud I, 

 at various times, picked out such as I 

 chose. These fish had also from time 



to time been taken by boys to various 

 ponds in the hills, so that there is no 

 lack of gold-fish in the waters of West- 

 chester county. I may here mention, 

 that further up the Hudson River a 

 similar fish pond years ago gave way, 

 well stocked with the European Carp 

 that had been brought from Holland. 

 These have also taken to the Hudson 

 River, and are from time to time netted 

 there. Being of the same family, they 

 have crossed with the gold-fish in 

 breeding, and the result is that a mot- 

 tled fish is frequently to be seen, some 

 of which bear very little of the dis- 

 tinctive red that marks the gold-fish 

 proper. I have seen the latter in the 

 lagoons along the railway in that vicin- 

 ity, eight or nine inches long, and al- 

 though it may seem scarcely credible, 

 I have seen them lying in shoals near 

 the surface of the water on a bright, 

 sunny day, jd such abundance that the 



