EOCKS AND COEALS. 



11 



THE PEEPAEATION. 



Tour Aquarium being "brouglit home, fixed in 

 its intended situation, and properly seasoned, the 

 next thing is to fit it up as a dwelling for its living 

 inhabitants. Two or three points may be noticed 

 here. 



Aetificial Eocks, Coeals, &c. — When the 

 two longer sides only of the Tank are of glass, the 

 two ends being made of slate, the latter should be 

 veiled, by being made to imitate the irregular 

 projections and ledges of rock, which may be done 

 in a very picturesque manner. For this purpose, 

 Roman, Portland, or other cement which hardens 

 under water, should be employed ; the slate must 

 be faced with this, which while plastic may be 

 fashioned into the semblance of rock. Pieces of 

 branching corals may be set in it, if the effect of 

 such accessories be thought desirable, and cavities 

 may be formed here and there, into which the 

 fragments of stone that support growing sea- weeds 

 my afterwards be dropped, so that the tufts may 

 droop elegantly from the mimic cliff. A more 

 elegant way of appropriating branching corals, is 

 to make a broad foot of cement to them, plunging 

 the base of the branch in it while soft; these, when 

 the cement has hardened, will stand on the floor of 

 the tank like trees, and imitate more perfectly the 

 mode of growth of the arborescent madrepores. 



Whenever cement is used, it Avill be absolutely 

 necessary to allow it to remain in water for at least 

 a month, in order to soak out the free lime, before 

 it be introduced into the water which contains 



