1094 



ZOOLOtHCAL SOCIKTV Bl'LLETIN 



exhibited. The Boston Aquarium has been a 

 popular institution from the start, and had, it 

 is understood, nearly a million visitors the first 

 vear. 



The aquarium in Detroit, of wiiieli, unfortu- 

 nately, no picture is available, was opened in 

 190i! The building is 2(30 feet long by 72 feet 

 wide, and is now visited by more than a million 

 persons a year. It contains botli fresh and salt 

 water equipment and collections. 



The aquarium in Philadelphia, whicii has 

 been in operation for a couple of years, is situ- 

 ated in Fairmount Park and is installed in an 

 old building wliich originally formed part of 

 the city water works. Altliough handicapped 

 by its location in a structure of this kind, it 

 is well patronized by tiie public, and additional 

 and larger exhibition tanks are being installed. 



The new aquarium in Berlin, a picture of 

 which is presented in this Bulletin, is situ- 

 ated on tiie Kurfurstendamm, near the elephant 

 gate of the Zoological gardens. It contains in 

 the lower story tlie aquarium proper, the room 

 being equally divided between fresh and salt 

 water, with fourteen large tanks and twenty- 

 five smaller ones. An upper floor is devoted to 

 terraria, with nineteen large and about sixty 

 smaller receptacles for reptiles and amphibians. 

 A large glass-covered room is constructed to 

 hold a tropical creek, with sandbanks upon 

 which crocodiles may bask and pools in which 

 turtles may swim about, while the border is 

 planted with bamboo. The uppermost story 

 houses an insectorium. 



In another portion of the same building are 

 administration and service rooms and labora- 

 tories for scientific study. In the basement are 

 located the pumps and reservoirs for both 

 fresh and salt water. A water tower contains 

 distributing tanks which supply the aquaria 

 with water directh-. 



The public aquarium idea has taken a pretty 

 firm hold in this country, and doubtless we shall 

 soon have as many as Europe. The city of 

 Chicago is now making great efforts for the 

 establishment of an aquarium and will prob- 

 ably have one before long. The Director of 

 the New York Aquarium has been from time 

 to time called upon to furnish information rela- 

 tive to its equipment, to officials of most of the 

 large cities in the country. 



There is every reason to believe that a large 

 aquarium will be a feature of tiie coming Pan- 

 ama Exposition in San Francisco, and certain 

 public-spirited citizens are exerting themselves 

 to have it made a permanent feature of the 

 city of San Francisco. C. H. T. 



THE INCREASED UTILIZATION OF 

 CARP. 



PROB.VBI.Y no fish has been the subject of 

 more discussion regarding its edible quali- 

 ties than has tlie German" carp. Moreover 

 it would be difiicult indeed to imagine a wider 

 range of opinion in regard to the general econ- 

 omic status of any fish. Among the advocates 

 of the carp there are those who consider it a 

 delicacy; those who consider it a coarse food 

 suitable especially for the poor, to whom it may 

 atford a sufficient quantitj- of a meat diet at a 

 low price, and those who value it only as a 

 source of food for the game fishes. On the 

 otiier hand, there are those who consider it as 

 unfit for food for anyone at any price; who 

 believe that it is highly destructive to our na- 

 tive game and food fishes by devouring eggs, 

 by destroying breeding places and by fouling 

 the water; who mark it with the stigma of 

 "spawn eater," and who would eradicate it 

 from our waters entireh'. 



The original home of the carp is in eastern 

 Asia. Just when it was introduced into Eu- 

 rope seems to be problematical, but it reached 

 England as early as 1514. According to De- 

 Kay it was introduced from France into the 

 United States in 1831, bv Henry Robinson, and 

 was reared successfully by him in his ponds at 

 Newburgh, N. Y. In 1872 Mr. J. A. Poppe 

 introduced five small carp from Germany into 

 his private ponds at Sonoma, California. The 

 offspring of these fishes were distributed to 

 numerous places in California and thus the 

 carp industry of that State was established. 

 (Report U. S. Commissioner of F'isheries for 

 1878.) 



The vogue in carp raising dates from 1877, 

 when, under the influence of the late Professor 

 Spencer F. Baird, then United States Com- 

 missioner of Fisheries, they were again intro- 

 duced and widely heralded as most desirable 

 pond fish. Within a few years carp ponds be- 

 came very common throughout the eastern and 

 central states. As a rule the farmers who con- 

 structed these ponds became discouraged in a 

 short time, upon finding that the carp had to 

 be fed if they were to grow and multiply rap- 

 idly, and that wlien taken from stagnant, muddy 

 ponds they did not possess as fine a flavor as 

 tliey had been led to expect. The breaking of 

 dikes and water gates in time of freshets per- 

 mitted the carp to escape to the streams and 

 lakes, where they at once proceeded to estab- 

 lish themselves. 



They have now become so widely distributed 

 in the larger lakes and streams that their eradi- 



