FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 115 



The relations of the Aquarium with the schools and colleges 

 of the City have become such that provision must be made for 

 laboratory space. The colleges, especially, demand facilities for 

 a certain amount of marine work, such as only a well equipped 

 Aquarium can afford. 



The Aquarium should also have space for statistical work 

 in connection with the great commercial fishery industries cen- 

 tered in New York. 



The attendance exceeds three millions of persons a year and 

 continues to increase. Such increase of space as might be se- 

 cured by the removal of the boilers and machinery to an outside 

 building, projecting over the sea wall, would permit of a slight 

 expansion of the exhibits, but would afford no relief to visitors. 



Provision should be made for the future as well as for the 

 present, as the Aquarium already faces the necessity of providing 

 for more visitors than all of the other museums of the City com- 

 bined. Its attendance is, in fact, greater than that of any 

 museum of any kind in the world. While the New York Aquar- 

 ium is already larger than any other aquarium, it is not large 

 enough for New York. 



The plan of enlargement proposed by the Zoological Society 

 provides increased space for visitors and for exhibits, as well as 

 sufficient office and laboratory space. It calls for the best pos- 

 sible utilization of the present building by the introduction of a 

 third tier of tanks, and for a slight extension forward of the 

 structure, to secure additional room for offices, with short wings 

 as exhibition halls. This arrangement would provide everything 

 necessary for years to come. 



Already the most popular resort of the people, exceeding 

 even the Hippodrome in attendance, it would, with an enlarged 

 and beautiful building like that proposed by the Zoological So- 

 ciety, become almost immediately one of the most celebrated in- 

 stitutions in the world. 



The general report has been prepared by the Assistant Di- 

 rector and is transmitted herewith. 



Respectfully submitted, 



Charles H. Townsend, 

 January 1, 1911. Director. 



