BRISTOL NATURALISTS SOCIETY. 
From the Bristol Daily Post of March 6th, 1865. 
! The thirty-fifth meeting of this society was held on 
jThursday evening last, March 2ad, at the Philosophical 
jinstitution. Mr. W. Sanders, F.R.S., presided over a large 
lattendance of members and friends. The hon. secretary, 
'Mr. A. Leipner, announced the election by the council of 
jthe following new members: — Major Tubby, Messrs. S. V, 
Baker, A. Billings, J. C. Chandler, F. Cordeux. J. S. Hare, 
!H. K. Jordan, G. Phillips, and H. P. Willway, and also 
stated that a Zoological section had been formed, open to all 
members of the society on payment of the usual sectional 
jsubscription, to meet on the first Wednesday of every month, 
jexcept the four summer months, at half-past seven in the 
[evening. 
Mr. Benjamin N". Lobb then made a verbal communica- 
tion entitled, " My first experience in Aquaria." He stated 
that his object was to excite an interest in the study of 
marine and freshwater aniraal3,similar to that which had been 
iawakened in his own mind, but that he did not possess any 
very profound knowledge of his subject. His first aquarium 
had been established at Margate four years previously, the 
vessel being an inverted cucumber glass, which he had 
arranged with sea water, pebbles, stones, seaweed, &c., in the 
manner recommended by Mr. Shirley Hibberd in " Recreative 
Science," the seaweeds which furnished the most oxygen 
being the purple or green plants, especially Ulva latissima, 
Zostera, &c., by the use of which he was enabled to keep the 
water fresh and pure for a lengthened period, and thus 
avoided the trouble of changing it. Mr. Lobb then proceeded 
jto describe some of the animals which inhabited what he 
[termed his watery world, and the habits which he had ob- 
served. The movements of the fish were very graceful, and the 
(extreme transparency, as well as the great pugnacity of the 
prawn, very remarkable. The sea-anemones he had obtained 
iwere Actinia mesembryanthemum and A. crassicorius, the 
former common, and multiphMng in confinement, the latter 
jmore difficult to capture, covering its body with frag- 
ments of sand, stone, &c. ; the best food for them was the 
isandhopper. The curious hermit crabs were then noticed, 
land the battles fought among them for the possession of 
[empty shells amusingly described, as also the cannibal pro- 
Ipensities of ordinary small crabs. The small microscopic 
'animals, the medusae, &c., which caused the phosphorescent 
lappearance in the water, the elegant Beroe, and the delicate 
Balanus or acorn shell, with its feathery tuft, were then 
alluded to, the author observing that the wonderful changes 
which took place and the enormous energy of the animalcules 
reminded him somewhat of perpetual motion. He then pro- 
ceeded to describe a fresh water aquarium, in which he pre- 
ferred to have no vegetation beyond what made its appear- 
ance from the water itself. He had kept a large number of 
the fourteen-spined stickleback, a very handsome and pugna- 
cious fi^h, many of which had been killed by a boat beetle, 
itself a very curious and handsome insect, The fish were 
fed on earthworms, or on aphides, and the eels were remark- 
able for their enormous voracity, the size of the body being 
often increased one-third at a single meal. The hydra, with 
its long tentacles, and development by budding, was then 
described, and Mr. Lobb concluded with a few observations 
upon the tetadency of such pursuits to open the mind to 
hitherto unobserved beauties in nature. 
A short discussion ensued, Mr. Sanders remarking that 
familiar observations, like those detailed, were the means 
by which many profound investigations were commenced. 
Mr, Stoddart observed that the water at the Hotwells, at 
high tide, if filtered through paper, answered admirably for 
marine aquaria, but that the Conferva was better in that 
case than the Ulva latissima. Mr. Alfred Smith gave an 
interesting account of the mode in which the thornbacks 
built nests in which to deposit their eggs, the male keeping 
