ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1295 



GROUP OF BUILDINGS NOW BEING RECONSTRUCTED 

 Fairmount Park Aquarium. 



200 feut long and fio feet wide. The .smaller 

 i.s about completed and ready for occupancy. 

 Until tlie otlier room is ready the smaller room 

 will be used for both sea-water and fresh-water 

 fishes, but when the larger room is finished, the 

 smaller will be used entirel}' for tropical marine 

 fishes and invertebrates. For the first there are 

 twenty-five tanks with glass fronts, each seven 

 feet long, five feet high and holding twelve hun- 

 dred gallons of sea-water, also one tank fifteen 

 feet long by six feet high with a capacitv of 

 nearly three thousand gallons. 



For the invertebrates there are eight central 

 all-glass tanks averaging each five feet in length 

 with a width and height of two and one-half 

 feet. 



The larger room now under construction will 

 have forty-four tanks five feet long and five fi i t 

 high with a capacity each 

 of about one thousand gal- 

 lons and one tank thirty 

 feet long and five feet high. 

 This tank is in reality an en- 

 closed pool, having a capac- 

 ity of thirty thousand gal- 

 lons of water. One side of 

 the room will be devoted to 

 marine fishes of the temper- 

 ate zone and the other side 

 to fresh-water fishes. In ad- 

 dition there is to be a cen- 

 tral line of tanks averaging- 

 three feet in length for va- 

 rious types of gold fishes, 

 tropica! fresh-water fishes 

 and small fresh-water fishes 

 of the temperate zone, most- 

 ly carried in still water. 



The exhibition tanks are 

 constructed of concrete, 

 lined with asphalt and fitted 

 with the best and most mod- 

 ern devices obtainable to 

 maintain the fish in good 

 health. Travertine, a fos- 

 siliferous stone obtained in 

 Ohio, is used for ornament- 

 al rockwork at the back of 

 tlie tanks. Sea plants of 

 certain species are being 

 specially grown for planting 

 in the tanks for ocean fishes 

 and invertebrates. 



The large hall now occu- 

 pied by the temporary ex- 

 hibit is to be fitted up as a 

 lecture hall for free public 

 lectures on aquatic life and 

 for classes of school children to receive nature 

 lessons. One of the small buildings on the plaza 

 has been equipped with troughs and jars and 

 with a green house for the hatching of fish 

 eggs; another is utilized as the administration 

 building. Two others are to be fitted up for 

 exhibits and an open pavilion used for music 

 on summer evenings and Sundays. 



The City Councils of Philadelphia authorized 

 the establishment of the Aquarium the latter 

 part of 1911, and the temporary exhibit was 

 hurriedly installed in order that the public 

 might have something to see until the perma- 

 nent buildings were completed. Unsuited as the 

 hall is for the purpose, the temporary exhibit 

 ■.]ir;iiii; IiiId instant popularity and is visited 



HALL FOR MARINE EXHIBIT 

 Fairmount Park Aquarium. 



