FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 37 



Director, a younger man than Mr Hornaday, whom 

 he has taken for his model in his administrative 

 work, had considerable experience with seals and 

 other marine creatures when eng-ao;ed on work con- 

 nected with the Behring Sea arbitration, and this 

 special knowledge is doubtless of great use in the 

 discharge of his present duties. 



The maintenance of varied and healthy stock in 

 the tanks is his first care. There must be no rari 

 nantes, but abundance and variety of forms, and 

 nothing is neglected that conduces towards good 

 condition in the fishes, though the wild stories that 

 have reached the press of his remarkable operations 

 on diseased inmates of the establishment have no 

 foundation. When a fish is dying, the best way is 

 to knock it on the head and get another, and in this 

 policy the Director fully concurs. The fishes in 

 aquarium tanks are peculiarly liable to epidemics, 

 particularly when impurities find their way into 

 water which circulates through the whole system. 

 Now and then the inmates give trouble, even though 

 not actually ill. In one case a sea-lion, that was 

 sent from Bronx, barked so loudly night and day 

 that, tired of sleepless nights, the Director ordered 

 its keeper to give the animal increasing rations of 

 fish "until it quit barking or bust." Fortunately, 

 the patient preferred silence to rupture, but ever 

 since its orgy it has plunged wildly about its tank, 

 perhaps to cool its overheated blood. 



Besides looking after the health of the fishes, the 

 Director is constantly engaged in studying the latest 

 improvements in lighting and labelling the tanks, 

 providing them with suitable backgrounds and 

 filling in unused spaces with palms and decorative 



