Notes at Brighton. 147 



the Cornish coast, and is invariably found in the month 

 of July. It is not easy to acclimatize mackerel ; out of 

 five thousand perhaps only five may be saved. Strange to 

 say and this is an argument to be remembered by anglers 

 in anticipation of the time when they will be prosecuted for 

 cruelty to animals the hooked fish thrive best. There 

 is only one of the original mackerel left in the aquarium ; 

 and this having reached a period of aldermanic fattiness, is 

 not at all an Adonis amongst its brethren. Yet, once 

 acclimatised, no fish thrives better than the mackerel, 

 though we have no right to expect them to live longer than 

 three or four years. 



The happy family of the aquarium seem to be the showy 

 black bream. They keep socially together ; and when the 

 patriarch wishes to approach, I have seen them divide right 

 and left, after the manner of ballet-girls, when the chief 

 dancer comes on from the rear. The basins formed in the 

 pebbly bottom have been scooped out by the male breams ; 

 At each a fish takes up position until his female friend 

 has been persuaded to deposit her eggs there. Should 

 another interfere, the jealous sentinel, forgetting his gravity, 

 promptly attacks it, or the whole troop, if necessary. 



The salmon tank generally disappoints the uninitiated, for 

 there is only one fish that looks its character. It must 

 not be forgotten that the experiment of keeping the salmon 

 in a salt-water tank has not yet been fully worked out. The 

 oldest fish (about five pounds weight) has reached the 

 critical period when it will be demonstrated how long a 

 salmon can live in salt water. Its juniors, too, are to be 

 subject to experiments to show what difference is made 

 in transferring them from salt to fresh water, in imitation of 

 their natural habits. 



Why are there no grayling in this or some other tank ? 



