214 Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist 



murky-looking water that is most undesirable. 

 But your troubles have just commenced. Add 

 some fresh, green aquatic plants, and you will 

 notice that they too give off scum and muddy 

 material, even though they may be placed in the 

 water with the greatest care. Now when the 

 fish runs amuck through these beautiful plants 

 and really disturbs the mud and scum, the water 

 has lost all its clearness, so that it is impossible 

 to photograph a fish through it. With tropical 

 aquatic vegetation the difficulty is even greater 

 than with our more simple northern plants. 



" The beautiful ' sea-feathers ' that one sees 

 waving about with every movement of the water 

 in the tropical seas appear to be a clear, clean 

 purple or yellow; but on putting them into 

 an aquarium they will be found to discolor the 

 water immediately. ' Sea-caps ' are even worse, 

 and sponges cause so much trouble that after a 

 few discouraging attempts we give up the idea 

 of using them. What, you may ask, is the 

 remedy for these difficulties 1 The only thing 

 I have found to answer at all is to thoroughly 

 clean each leaf by washing it with a soft cloth. 

 It is a task requiring great patience ; but once 

 the plant is really clean it will remain so for sev- 

 eral days, requiring only to be well rinsed in 

 clear water each time it is used. Between whiles 

 it is, of course, kept in clear water, which should 



