ae. y ’ é 4 
NATURE 533 
M Naturalist’s Rooms. 
T Clerk’s Office. 
$ LL Gentlemen’s do. 
S Heating Apparatus. 
EEE Western Corridor with Tanks on each side. 
KK Ladies’ Cloak Room, 
R Grotto. 
-Ponds, &c. 
AS 
MC 
with Seal 
Hand Chairs. 
XZ 
X) 
XX? 
LSS 
D Restaurant and Dining Hall. 
YY] 
e Room, Stores, &c. 
Rockwork, 
Q 
W Inclines for 
EREN 
JJ Engin 
P Curator's Office. 
U Board Room. 
Madeira Road facing the Sea 
OF. 
SCALE 
111 Table Tanks. 
C Entrance Hall and Reading Room. 
B Entranee Court. 
O Business and Private Entrance. 
H Rockwork, Fernery, and Cascade. 
End. 
ta] }20|21|22|23]24]95|26]27} 28/25) 30]31| 
G Interspace. 
N Steps to Corridors with Promenade over 
all 
s descending from West 
P 
A Ste 
FFF Eastern Corridor. 
At the eastern extremity of the building there is still a 
considerable plot of ground unutilised belonging to the 
company ; admirably adapted for the construction of a 
supplementary reservoir, holding, say, one million and a 
half gallons, and whose contents, added to those of the 
existing ones, would yield a body of water sufficient for 
the purpose. This ground, in fact, being considerably 
above the level of the tanks, would permit of simplifying 
matters by pumping the water up from the existing reser- 
voirs to the proposed new one, whence it would 
circulate through the tanks and return to its original 
source by the mere force of gravitation. As now the 
individuality of each tank might be maintained, the water 
flowing from the main through the existing cocks, and 
escaping to the reservoirs beneath, through the same over- 
flows, two or more of which are supplied to each tank, 
which might be enlarged or further multiplied, if requisite 
to carry off the accelerated stream. Should any tank 
now become unduly turbid through unforseen circum- 
stances, the accident could be immediately remedied by 
emptying it into the large reservoirs beneath where so 
small a quantity in proportion would effect no appreciable 
alteration, the tank being refilled through the main; 
while in the event of paint or other poisonous ingredient 
being upset the water would be run off to waste as under 
existing circumstances. An important and _ essential 
preliminary step to these proposed alterations will, 
however, be to render the existing reservoirs water- 
tight, their present defective condition in this respect 
being one of the chief obstacles to the storage of 
clear water, which in an inland aquarium would have 
simply proved the ruin of the undertaking. These 
difficulties surmounted, and the reservoirs filled with water 
drawn from.some little distance off shore, say|at the head of 
the pier close by, and so free from the chalky wash and in- 
numerable organic impurities inseparable from the pre- 
sent supply, the aquarium will be entirely independent 
of the sea, and much waste of labour now occupied in 
pumping from it saved. The still more important results 
accruing to the institution through the uniform clearness 
of the water, and the capability of each tank to support a 
number of inhabitants compatible to its size, cannot be 
overrated. * 
Under any circumstances, it the remedy here proposed 
is not adopted, itis to be trusted that the weak points of 
the Brighton Aquarium here noticed will prove sufficient 
to prevent the repetition of the same errors of construction 
in any of the Aquaria now in contemplation or being 
built in this country. On the Continent, the type initiated 
by our own countryman at Hamburgh, and at the Crystal 
Palace, with such improvements as practical experience 
dictates, is almost invariably adopted, and it is incumbent 
that England, as the initiator of the movement, should 
maintain her lead. So far, from its size and its 
proximity to the sea, the Brighton Aquarium has been 
able to achieve results unrealised by any other institution 
of its description, as instanced in the recent preservation 
in its tanks of creatures so large as porpoises, and fish 
so delicately constituted as herrings and mackerel ; but 
these results are by no means commensurate with the 
' expenditure involved in its establishment, and we hope 
steps will be forthwith taken to remedy the defects 
indicated. 
The Isle of Wight and the Devonshire coast, especi- 
ally Torquay, are localities offering far greater advan- 
tages than Brighton, as zoological stations for the acqui- 
sition of specimens, and now that the financial success of 
large Aquaria under judicious management in centres of 
sufficient population is well established, the temptation 
these places offer to an enterprising company cannot be 
long resisted. W. SAVILLE KENT 
* Defects of construction in the Brighton Aquarium likely to interfere 
with’the future efficiency of the establishment were alluded to without specifi- 
cation, while the building was in the hands of the contractor.—See 
NATURE, vol. iv. p. 394- 
