REPORT OF THE i:)lRECTOR OF THE 

 AQUARIUM TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS. 



THE year 1907 has been a notable one in the history of the 

 Aquarium, the number of visitors exceeding that for 1906, 

 making another record year in the matter of attendance, which 

 was 2,131,393. 



While the exhibits received no notable additions, all the avail- 

 able tank space was occupied. The collections consisted of 

 forty-four tanks of fresh-water fishes, forty-seven tanks of sea 

 fishes, both local and tropical ; seven large floor pools containing 

 good sized specimens of sturgeon, drumfish, alligator, crocodile. 

 manatee, sea turtle, seal and sea-lion. Fresh-water turtles of 

 twenty species were exhibited in ten large table aquaria ; twenty 

 smaller aquaria were devoted to marine invertebrates and a small 

 collection of frogs and salamanders. The number of species of 

 vertebrates exhibited from year to year is usually over two 

 hundred. 



Additions to the collection of tropical fishes were restricted to 

 a single shipment from Bermuda. 



At the close of the Sportsman's Exhibition in Boston, in April, 

 a collection of over 200 specimens of fresh-water fishes, represent- 

 ing twenty species, was secured at a very low rate from the New 

 England Forest, Fish and Game Association. 



In July, and again in October, exchanges of local sea fishes were 

 made with the Detroit Aquarium for fresh-water fishes from the 

 Great Lakes. 



At the close of the Exposition at Jamestown a collection of 

 about 250 fresh-water fishes, of fifteen or more species, was 

 turned over by the United States Bureau of Fisheries to the 

 Forest, Fish and Game Society of America for exhibition at the 

 Sportsman's Show held in New York in December. These, with 

 certain fishes collected elsewhere by that Society, were later pre- 

 sented to the Aquarium. 



The young male manatee presented by Mr. A. W. Dimock in 

 1906 is now passing its second winter at the Aquarium. 



