934 PARKS 



Pumps should be made of bronze, as salt water is not only destructive 

 to iron pumps, but the stored supply of water eventually becomes dis- 

 colored by iron rust. In most large aquariums the pumping machinery is 

 installed in duplicate as a safeguard against accidents, but the practice 

 of driving air to the exhibition tanks having proved effective when for any 

 reason it was necessary to stop the flow of water, the reserve pump is seldom 

 used. A large air compressor has been used for several days at a time with 

 satisfactory results. 



The public aquarium is an institution which exists under the necessity 

 of procuring its living exhibits directly from nature's sources of supply, the 

 animal dealer having but a limited list of aquatic forms of life to offer. The 

 collector for the aquarium must be prepared to go afield whenever specimens 

 are needed for exhibition, and in northern latitudes enough collecting must 

 be done in summer to provide against accidents that may occur in winter. 

 Fresh-water forms cannot be had when lakes and streams are frozen, and 

 the winter season is unfavorable for the transportation of collections from 

 the tropics. 



Exchanges of specimens with other aquariums are helpful only in 

 varying the exhibits, since each must do its own collecting, and aquariums 

 in the United States are few in number and so located as to be under similar 

 geographic limitations. The collecting of aquatic animals involves their 

 transportation in weighty tanks of their natural element, which moreover 

 must be kept pure in transit. This compulsory procedure is always expen- 

 sive. Experience has shown that the handling of fishes and other strictly 

 aquatic creatures intended for exhibition alive can seldom be entrusted to 

 fishermen. The untrained collector fails to appreciate the importance of 

 taking those precautions in capture and shipment which are necessary for 

 success. Aquatic animals must reach their destination not merely alive, 

 but able to endure the conditions of captivity, always more or less unfa- 

 vorable to wild creatures. 



In addition to the necessity of guarding the water supply of an aqua- 

 rium every hour of the twenty-four, and the daily care of the living exhibits, 

 the staff of a large aquarium has the added duties of a public museum. 

 There are crowds of visitors to be looked after, supplies to be purchased, 

 machinery to be renewed, and a heavy correspondence with the public, the 

 press and with zoologists working in many lines. There are also labels, 

 circulars and pamphlets to be prepared. The duties of clerk, bookkeeper, 

 stenographer, etc., are, of course, similar to the duties of such employees 

 in other museums. In the matter of assistance to teachers of biology alone, 

 the New York Aquarium has stocked small marine aquaria in more than 

 three hundred schoolhouses in Greater New York. The seashore collect- 



