THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



809 



Monday morning came, and when my aqua- 

 rium was looked at, all were dead. The 

 crab had a watery, semi-transparent look; 

 the eel was much paler in death than in 

 life ; the hermit crab was out of its shell ; 

 and the water was unpleasant to smell. I 

 had left it where the full rays of the sun 

 would fall upon it, which with over-crowding 

 had helped the catastrophe. I said every- 

 thing was dead, — but the limpet was still 

 alive. It was put in a basin of salt water 

 and I tried again. 



I now procured a large propagating glass 

 holding perhaps ten gallons. I had a wooden 

 stand turned to fit the curve at the top, with 

 a hole for the nob, and in this it stood 

 securely. A few inches of sand and fine 

 gravel were put in, and some rockwork 

 made of seaweed-covered stones ceniented 

 together, with plenty of dark chambers, 

 ledges and crannies. The whole rested on 

 a slate, and as soon as the cement was set it 

 was put into the water with a fresh stock 

 similar to the last, but more in number, and 

 including a moderate sized smooth anemone. 

 Next morning all were dead, except the 

 anemone and the limpet which had survived 

 the previous destruction. The lime in the 

 ceinent had, no doubt, contributed to this, 

 but, n thing daunted, I tried again. Luckily 

 I had not lar to go either for salt water or 

 marine animals. I need not recapitulate 

 evei*y disaster, even if I could remember 

 them correctly, but at last I seemed to 

 succeed. By this time the seaweeds I had 

 introduced were all dead, but a fine, frosh 

 gr wth were springing up, as well on the 

 sides of the glass as on the rockwork. I 

 had discarded the eels, which always died, 

 and had a few pretty little blennies instead, 

 which were lively little fish, not seeking 

 concealment as the otliers did, b it always 

 in the open water, and soon becoming so 

 tame as to come to the side of the glass at a 

 tap, or to the surface if the fingers were held 

 over it. They would eat any kind of meat 



or fish, but not bread or any vegetable diet. 

 I now learned to aerate the water with a 

 glass syringe, and it seemed to improve it 

 greatly. After syringing, the ancmonies 

 would spread their tentacles ; the crabs, 

 especially the hermits, would move about 

 more freely ; and everything appeared to 

 enjoy their bath of fresh air. The sides of 

 the gla s, especially that near the window, 

 became thickly coated with gaeen weeds, 

 with here and there a dark brown one, some 

 of which grew well on the rockwork. This 

 I used to remove as far as possible with a 

 rag on the end of a stick, or rather, I used 

 to follow the periwinkles, &c., to clear off 

 what they had left. I always carefully 

 avoided the darker weeds, which were thus 

 allowed to grow. It continued in this state 

 all through the summer, and for six months 

 the water was never changed. At first I 

 added salt water to make up for .oss by 

 evaporation. After I had learned my error 

 I added rain water. As autumn approached 

 the weeds began to die, and I had no idea 

 how to deal with the decayed matter, which 

 began to accumulate at the bottom. The 

 underside of stones became black, and when 

 the sand was disturbed all below the surface 

 was black also. Still the animals seemed 

 tolerably healthy ; but on looking at it one 

 morning I found the water thick and foul 

 smelling, and every animal it contained was 

 dead. 



W th your permission I will give you a 

 few jottings of odd observations made dur- 

 ing the time I kept it, but they had better 

 b- held over for another article. 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



Bv John E. Rohson. 



Genus DEILEPHILA. 



Dkilephila, Och., Dcile'phila, from two 

 Greek words, signifying to love the evening 

 alluding to their period of tlight. 



