TREASURE-HOUSE OF THE GULF STREAM 



The Completion and Opening of the New Aquarium and 

 Biological Laboratory at Miami, Florida 



By John Oliver La Gorge 



Author of "Devil-fishing in the Gulf Stream," "A Battle-ground of Nature: the Atlantic Seaboard, 

 "Pennsylvania, the Industrial Titan of America," etc. 



NO LONGER can the land animal 

 kingdom of the earth and its pe- 

 culiar relation to mankind be 

 called a mystery, for painstaking scientists 

 and intrepid hunter-explorers through the 

 centuries have penetrated to the remote 

 places of the world and brought back to 

 civilization minute accounts of the habits 

 and characteristics, the skeletons and 

 skins, as well as living specimens of wild 

 animal life. As a result, we find that 

 today only at rare intervals is a new and 

 distinct species of quadruped or biped 

 made known to us. 



Our knowledge of the denizens of the 

 deep is another story. In this department 

 of zoological research, however, though 

 the recognized species have increased 

 from fewer than 300 to more than 12,000 

 within less than two centuries, there are 

 numerous varieties yet to be recorded, 

 many more to be studied, and large areas 

 rich in marine fauna still to be explored 

 scientifically for the common good of 

 mankind. 



Since the dawn of human history, man 

 has studied land animal and bird life — 

 in fact, he now knows much of prehistoric 

 creatures long since extinct.* But the 

 ''waters under the earth" still hold count- 

 less fascinating secrets which challenge 

 the ichthyologist, who pursues a branch 

 of science pertaining to the study of fish 

 life only a few hundred years old, with 

 a world of sub-sea life to conquer, es- 

 pecially among the warm waters of the 

 semi-tropic regions. 



the: part the poor pish will, play in a 

 world peace 



This challenge now has a mighty urge, 

 in that a mounting population faces a 

 dwindling pro rata food supply, and must 



*See "Hunting Big Game of Other Days," by 

 Barnum Brown, in the May, 1919, National 

 Geographic Magazine. 



turn to the. sea, as its primitive ancestors 

 once did for an entirely different reason, 

 if it would assuage its hunger and avert 

 the national "land hunger" which is a 

 potent stimulus to war. In the light of a 

 better realization of the economic causes 

 of wars, it is not stretching the imagina- 

 tion to say that he who discovers a new 

 food-fish supply is an apostle of future 

 peace. 



Once more, as in its other natural re- 

 sources, the United States of America is 

 favored among nations. Paralleling our 

 eastern coast for hundreds of miles, the 

 Gulf Stream, that mightiest river of the 

 ocean, which sweeps northeastward with 

 such giant force to turn back the icy 

 waters of the Arctic from our shores, 

 performs another and less widely recog- 

 nized service in depositing upon America's 

 southeastern threshold a gift of fishes 

 which some day may be regarded as 

 providential, if not miraculous. Indeed 

 the map-minded person might even pic- 

 ture a peninsular hand, in the shape of 

 Florida, reaching out to receive this boon, 

 nourished in the warm waters of the 

 kindly current. 



The Gulf Stream is, in truth, a happy 

 hunting grounds for scientist, amateur 

 angler, and professional fisherman. In 

 its waters there have been found some six 

 hundred varieties of fishes, composing 

 practically one-fifth of the entire fauna 

 of the American continent north of 

 Panama. 



The most southerly city on the Florida 

 mainland is Miami, nestling beside the 

 limpid waters of Biscayne Ray. separated 

 from the ocean by a peninsula which 

 completely protects the city from the 

 lashing of an angry ocean during seasonal 

 storms. At Miami Beach has been con- 

 structed an aquarium and biological labo- 

 ratory (latitude 25 degrees 46 minutes 

 north and longitude 80 degrees 7 min- 



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