1596 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



RED SNAPPER 



Sacramento, three hundred miles from the sea. 

 the appearance of which was very different 

 from rainbows taken at the same point. 



It is now known that the so-called steelheads 

 introduced with remarkable success by the Bu- 

 reau of Fisheries into Lake Superior, are re- 

 cognizable as rainbow fronts when they enter 

 the streams. Moreover, the young rainbows 

 artificially propagated in streams flowing into 

 Lake Michigan, acquire to some degree the ap- 

 pearance of steelheads. 



The appearance of fronts is affected by the 

 waters they frequent, and this probably ac- 

 counts for such changes in coloration as take 

 place when the rainbow moves from streams 

 into large lakes. As rainbows were introduced 

 into streams tributary to Lake Michigan before 

 the first so-called steelheads were introduced 

 into Lake Superior, the presence of fishes re- 

 sembling steelheads in Lake Michigan cannot 

 well be explained otherwise. 



ITEMS OF INTEREST 

 By C. II. Townsend 



A Larc/c Octopus. — Dr. \Y. II. Dall the vet- 

 eran curator of Mollusks in the U. S. National 

 Museum, recently visited the Aquarium. While 

 looking at a photograph of an octopus, he gave 

 an account of one he saw captured in Alaska 

 in 1880. 



It was observed in shallow water in the har- 

 bor of Unalaska, and was soon harpooned and 

 taken on board the Coast Survey vessel of which 

 Dr. Dall was then in charge. When hung by 

 the bodv from the main boom over the stern. 



the relaxed arms touched 

 the surface of the water 

 from a height of sixteen 

 feet. This means that it 

 measured across the out- 

 spread arms the distance 

 would have been more 

 than thirty-two feet. 



Ancient Doors of the 

 Aquarium. — These doors. 

 like the building itself, are 

 over one hundred years 

 old, and are of consider- 

 able interest to visitors. 

 They are. in fact, the 

 doors of a fort — West 

 Battery, as the building 

 was first called — and were 

 constructed to withstand 

 almost any force except 

 the cannon shot of that period. 



Today they seem as out of place in New York 

 as though they belonged to the Tower of Lon- 

 don. It is not unlikely, however, that some other 

 forts in the country have doors like them. 



The great doors of the Aquarium are each 

 twelve feet high, five feet wide, and seven inches 

 thick. They are constructed of three layers of 

 heavy cross planking, thickly studded with 

 bolts, the heads of which are over two inches in 

 diameter, all riveted on the inside. The bolts 

 on each door are in twelve vertical rows, with 

 thirty-two in each row. a total of 768 bolts, five 

 inches apart, for both doors. 



The hinges, three to each door, are propor- 

 tionately massive. The small sentry, or postern 

 door cut in one of the large doors, is fifty-seven 

 inches high and twenty-one inches wide, with a 

 ponderous lock, the key to which must have been 

 three times the size of the key to the Bastile. 

 that Lafayette presented to Washington and is 

 now exhibited at Mount Vernon. 



The large doors were fastened with heavy 

 timbers, the ends of which were let into the ma- 

 sonry at each side. 



More Large Exhibition Tanks. — The work 

 of enlarging the glass-fronted tanks at the 

 Aquarium has been carried on until more than 

 half of the ground-floor series have been extend- 

 ed to a depth of twelve feet back from the glass. 



Most of these tanks have been rebuilt by the 

 employes of the Aquarium, and all of them with 

 material charged to the regular maintenance 

 fund, without extra cost to the City for con- 

 struction. 



