MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 11 



fresh as well as salt, is stored in three subterranean cisterns of 

 concrete, holding each about fifteen hundred gallons. From these 

 it is pumped by compressed air into wooden reservoirs, — being 

 at the same time aerated, — whence it is led. through wooden 

 pipes to the aquaria. The overflow from the aquaria percolates 

 through sand filters back into the cisterns. The water nowhere 

 comes in contact with metal. The pumping is done by a one- 

 horse-power electric motor. The planning and supervision of 

 construction has taken much of the spare time of the Director, 

 who has had the valuable assistance of Professor Burke of the 

 Engineering Department. 



Mr. Samuel H. Scudder has given to the department a con- 

 siderable number of valuable optical, drawing, and dissecting 

 instruments which have been used by him in his scientific 

 work. 



During the latter part of April Professor Mark, in company 

 with Professor Bristol, of the University of New York, made a 

 visit to Bermuda on the invitation of the Bermuda Natural History 

 Society, for the purpose of gaining information as to the desirabil- 

 ity of establishing a permanent biological station for research on 

 the islands. The conditions appeared so favorable, and the offers 

 of the Society so generous, that it was decided to raise money for 

 the equipment of a temporary laboratory. An invitation was sent 

 out late in the spring (May) to biologists to avail themselves of 

 the opportunity. The laboratory was opened on the 22d of June, 

 and closed on the 21st of August. There were thirty-four per- 

 sons enrolled, fourteen of whom were or had been connected with 

 Harvard University or Radcliffe College. The others came from 

 parts of the country as widely separated as New England, Kansas, 

 Minnesota, and Mississippi. Two persons received aid amounting 

 to $57.86 from the income of the Humboldt Fund. Many of the 

 collections were brought to Cambridge, and the results of the 

 investigations will be published in various journals. 



The meetings of the Zoological Club were held on Monday 

 afternoons throughout the year. The average attendance was 

 between seventeen and eighteen. The papers read and topics 

 discussed were announced in the University Calendar. 



