CHAPTER III. 



THE TANK. 



HOW TO FIT IT UP PICTURESQUELY. 



j(;^'^E will now suppose the tank suitably con- 

 structed, to be ready for fitting up," as a pre- 

 liminary to stocking " it. Now an opportu- 

 nity is afforded for the display of much ingenuity and a 

 correct taste. So far, whether it was intended for a fresh 

 or for a salt-water Aquarium, our tank has been the 

 same in all its process of preparation. At this point, 

 however, we begin to diverge. It is obvious that the 

 scenery, or the landscape (if we may use the term in 

 this sense), intended to represent the bed of the ocean, 

 will not answer for the bed of a river or lake. Each 

 locality has its characteristics, just as it has its respective 

 population. To render the fitting up " picturesque is 

 one thing — to give it vraisemUance is another. Branches 

 of coral might look pretty enough in a fresh-water tank, 

 but they would be as ludicrously out of place as warming- 

 pans in the tropics, or grapes growing in Nova Zembla. 

 And yet we have been shocked with just such niaiseries in 



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