220 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Au 



water the excess of lake brine was removed, after which 

 the shrimps were cooked with no accompaniments save a 

 little bntter and a suggestion of pepper. They were actu- 

 ally delicious. If the shrimps could be caught and pre- 

 served in quantity, I doubt not they would soon be class- 

 ed as an epicurean delicacy. Repeated washings for five 

 minutes removed the brine so completely that salt had to 

 be added to make the dish palatable. 



As to their food — in captivity they live upon meat, 

 bread, or vegetables, in fact upon almost anything in the 

 nature of food ; and they are not slow in attackiug the 

 bodies of their own dead. In the lake they probably sub- 

 sist upon the organic particles brought down by rivers, 

 upon the algas which flourish about the shores, and upon 

 the larva? and pupse of the insects tenanting the water. 



The mounting of specimens of the brine shrimp for per- 

 manent microscopical use requires considerable care and 

 some modification of the ordinary procedure. Most of the 

 common mounting media cause the delicate structure to 

 become distorted, or produce such a degree of transpa- 

 rency as to render the object invisible. A method which 

 has given the writer good results consists in mounting 

 the specimen in a preparation of lake brine with corrosive 

 sublimate and an alcoholic solution of carbolic acid. To 

 this fluid, placed upon the slide, the living artemia is 

 transferred direetly from the lake brine ; the creature dies 

 quickly, and in so doing spreads itself most perfectly. 

 While objects so prepared are of admirable arrangement 

 and definition as temporary mounts, the structure is lia- 

 ble to break down after a lapse of months. 



A better permanent result may be secured as follow : 

 Place the artemiaa in Peryeni's fluid ; they will be quickly 

 killed, and will be hardened by the action of the fluid in 

 from 12 to 20 hours. They should then be trausfered to 

 alcohol, the strength of which should be increased by de- 

 grees, beginning with 40 per cent and running to 95 per 



