12 



THE FAMILY AQUARIUM. 



beaming with the innocent loveliness of the one, and 

 manifesting the destructive instincts of the other, are 

 there. The graceful fish — the brilliant reptiles — the 

 shining insects that people this rare world, whilom 

 hermetically sealed up from our yearning view, are now 

 displayed in the Aquarium, sporting — feeding — slum- 

 bering — pursued and pursuing — leaping into life, and 

 fading into dissolution— each in its natural haunts, and 

 yet all at home," in these crystal palaces, to the enrap- 

 tured eye of the most timid spectator. 



But, what is an Aquarium ? questions, perhaps, some 

 reader unenlightened upon this new topic of popular 

 excitement ? 



An Aquarium, we answer, in plain, untechnical lan- 

 guage, is a recej)tacle for aquatic animal and vegetable life 

 in fresh or in salt water ^ which (like the water of a river 

 or an ocean) need never be changed. 



To complete the illusion, the bed of the Aquarium is 

 assimilated, in appearance, to the bottom of the river and 

 ocean, and is supposed to unmask all its diversities of hill 

 and dell, rock and meadow, flower-field and forest, bar- 

 ren sand and luxuriant herbage. 



Aquariums (or Aquaria, as they are generally termed, 

 v/hen two or more of them are alluded to,) are usually 

 made of glass, in order to facilitate the popular obser- 

 vation of their living contents, and are prepared in a 

 i^anner which we have intelligibly described, and at full 

 length, in another chapter. 



