root. Tliis is evidently and obviously 

 wrong, and the only remedy I know of is 

 to entirely empty the tank, boil the gravel 

 and allow the plants to float in a shallow 

 dish until the roots lose the blaek color, 

 wliieh will sometimes take a week. In 

 extreme cases loss of the entire ])]ant may 

 occur. Then, after thoroly washing the 

 boihl gravel in running water, lay a half 

 inch of it on the bottom of the afjuarium, 

 over this scatter a thin layer of pulverised 

 slieeji manure, covering this with at least 

 ail inch and ;i lialf of boild. waslit gravel. 

 Small holes may now be made with the 

 finger and the plants, — preferably safrit- 

 tarid and hidwigia — inserted as thickly as 

 disired, after which the water should be 

 carefully pourd in so as to avoid bringing 

 any of the manure to the surface thru a 

 disturbance of the sand. In order to make 

 sure that the manure was not injurious to 

 the fish I experimented by taking a large 

 5r)-inch washtub, filling it with water into 

 which I stirred several jiounds of manure 

 until it had all settld to the bottom and 

 the water was black, so that a fish could 

 not be seen an inch below the surface. 

 Into this water I floated a lot of loose 

 Aiiac/ifiri.s- gigantica, nud put one dozen 

 one and a half-inch young scaleless fringe- 

 tails in good health, and three that were in 

 poor condition from bruising and cold in 

 transit. These fish I left in the tub for 

 three weeks, feeding tlieni daily or every 

 other day as the opportunit}' arose, and at 

 the end of that time I examined them. All 

 were fat and lively, and of good color, with 

 the excejjtion of one very sick one of the 

 three, the other two were com]:)letely cured, 

 and the third on the road to recovery. 

 Proof conclusiv that even the intense heat 

 and excessiv ammonia fumes were not in- 

 jurious to fine goldfish. The Anaeliaris had 

 grown about a foot and a half on each 

 stalk. I immediately started to dismantle 

 my entire collection of big a(iiiariunis, 



some 22 in all. 



(To BE Conci.iided) 



A Hunt for Darters 



(Continued fkom I'AciK:}) 



Hut the few we got repaid us for all the 

 ertbrts. They are a most l)eautiful (ish, 

 especially when in full courting ri-galia, and 

 they take very kindly to acjuarium life. 

 After one bitter experience in which a 

 l)eautifully colored specimen leapt to his 

 death on the schoolroom floor it was found 

 necessary to keej) the tank cox ( red. 



Besides the dace we took a few green 

 sunfish (Lcpomis ci/anellns) and one small- 

 mouth black bass {Micropterus dolojuicu). 

 On the way back to the bridge we seined 

 some weedy, quiet stretches of the creek 

 and added to our collection a lot of fine 

 top-minnows or killifishes {Fuitdulus nola- 

 tus). These quiet, social little fellows are 

 very acceptable additions to our finnv fam- 

 ily and hav fallen in very easily with tin' 

 ways of the small aquarium. 



Getting back to the bridge we sought 

 our coat pockets for the cold bites our 

 wives or mothers had carefully stowd 

 away, and there in the big out-of-doors we 

 munchd our sandwiches and talked over the 

 ex]H-riences of the day. By the time we 

 had divided our sjkuIs and cared for our 

 ])ets the afternoon train came jiuffing u)) 

 and we dejiarted for our homes in the city, 

 vowing to return at the first opportunity 

 in the Spring. 



^^'atcll your snails carefully, the vege- 

 table feeders may ))rove dangerous, espe- 

 cially to soft tissued ))lants which are 

 frequently (hstroyed by the snails. Snails 

 h;iving covers (oj)i-rcles) are not danger 

 ous, thev are mostlv carnivorous. 



^ on can do nothing more inqxtrtant than 

 to interest your friend in the homely do- 

 ings of nature; one way is to j)reseiit him 

 (or her) with a year's subscription to the 

 AgiAHiiM magazine. 



