38 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



shrubs. The task of lig-hting; the interior of a 

 building originally constructed a century ago, with 

 walls ten feet thick to resist the round shot of 

 hostile warships, could not have been an easy one. 

 The difficulty was overcome by the installation of 

 large skylights. Very attractive effects have been 

 obtained by lining the salt-water tanks with coral 

 rock specially obtained from the Bahamas, and 

 those containing fresh - water fishes with river 

 gravel. These backgrounds, rendered still truer to 

 nature by the addition of suitable aquatic plants, 

 are a vast improvement on the old-fashioned white 

 tiles, and enhance the beauty of water-pictures that 

 recall the submarine tableaux dimly seen through 

 the water telescope. Apart from such merely 

 spectacular advantages, they contribute to the 

 health and comfort of the fishes themselves. The 

 result is to reproduce under water the natural effects 

 that go so far to soften the harshness of captivity at 

 Bronx. Unreserved praise must be bestowed on 

 the way in which Mr Townsend has labelled the 

 tanks. In the ordinary aquarium, the authorities 

 are content with giving the trivial and scientific 

 names of each fish. At New York, an attempt is 

 made to anticipate the questions likely to be put by 

 intelligent visitors, and something is said of the 

 geographical range and particular haunts, the habits, 

 market value, importance to the angler and such 

 details. Each label bears an accurate portrait of 

 the fish, indispensable in cases in which several 

 kinds share the same tank. The letterpress in 

 which this information is conveyed is printed in 

 bold type on oiled paper, which forms a trans- 

 parency between sheets of glass, legible at some 



