THE MAKINE AQUAKIUM. 97 



for a little time, thus removing- many torn portions of 

 fronds that, if not absolutely injurious, are unseemly in a 

 well-arranged tank. 



The water can. be procured direct from the sea-shore, 

 and should be taken when the tide is high. It can, with 

 ease, be obtained by inhabitants of the city of New York 

 from the East River, about a mile or so above the city at 

 Hurlgate, or by sending a barrel down the bay on one of 

 the steamboats that ply to and from Staten Island. The 

 cask or barrel that we place it in for removal should be 

 perfectly clean ; and, for this reason, it is best to use a 

 new one that has been often and well washed out so as to 

 remove all dust and other matters. Mr. Gosse condemns 

 oak barrels as apt to impart deleterious substances to the 

 water ; but I have never found it so, and think it must 

 only be when the water travels in the cask a considerable 

 distance. For my own part, I have often been unable to 

 make real sea water succeed to my entire satisfaction, and 

 mauy of my friends have complained of the same thing. It 

 seems, that genuine sea water contains seeds of algsc and 

 decomposing animal and vegetable matter which, after a 

 time, will generally upset the economy of our tank, and I 

 have often not been able to make it succeed for a longer 

 time than sixteen days, after which it would turn foul. I 

 have now a tank, however, containing real sea water which 

 has been in vigor-ous operation for about two months, and is 

 in so flourishing a condition that all the stones are covered 

 with young alga: and snails have been depositing their 

 eggs in the grottoes of my miniature ocean. 



