410 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Hoy. So, 1^9?. 
trout breeders in a climate colder than is found in South 
Africa. But Mr. Latour has more to say on this subject, 
which is of more than ordinary interest. Continuing 
about the introduction of trout into any country with a 
winter water temperature not above 60°: 
"Everything depends upon the operator until a few fish 
can be reared and kept to give acclimatized ova. It is im- 
possible to say which height of temperature would be fatal 
to the fry when hatched, for they soon came on the feed 
in the rearing ponds, which were innocent of any shMe be- 
yond that afforded by a few planks laid across one end ; 
and while in charge at Stellenboscb during the hot weather 
the two-year-old fish fed like bulldogs in water on several 
occasions of a temperature, a foot below the surface, of 85° 
Fahr." 
Mr. Latour lays stress upon running a large, full stream 
of water with considerable force over the eggs, which 
every fish breeder understands, lor life and air in the 
water (vigor, Stone calls it) are vital qualities in rearing 
fish: "The dribble down a sti aw is enough to incubate ova 
in our colder clime, but abroad I like to see it swirling 
along in the troughs, and if the most forward of the fry 
will climb over each other's backs it will do no harm." 
This matter of temperature for fry and adult fish has 
had more than ordinary interest for me for some time, 
and I have for a year past been in correspondence with 
foreign fish breeders to discover if any fixed rule can be 
depended upon to determine the maximum temperature 
with force of water flow that will be safe for rainbow and 
brown trout. I have known rainbow trout (stock fish) to 
succumb at 70.5°, and the same species of fish under appar- 
ently similar conditions to live in water several degrees 
higher. It is believed that rainbow and brown trout 
can be made to thrive in a number of waters in this Slate 
if we can arrive at just the conditions demanded without 
sacrificing too many fish in experimenting. Mr. George 
A. Seagle, Superintendent of the Wytheville station of the 
XT. S, Fish Commission in Virginia, says: "Rainbow trout 
will live in warmer water than brook trout; they will 
thrive in 'vigorous' water at 85°, especially where there is 
some shade; in ponds I would consider that temperature 
dangerous, even with shade and a fairly good current." 
When I first read that statement I was somewhat 
surprised, because it was so difierent from personal 
experience, then fresh in mind, but Mr. Seagle ha 3 had 
extensive experience with the rainbow trout and I knew 
that he wrote only of what he had personal knowledge, 
so I was satisfied "that our trout died from lack of vigor- 
ous water. That is, that although the water appears to be 
vigorous, it was not vigorous enough for the fish. Now, 
what I want to get at is how can we measure the vigor of 
water to tell the maximum degree of warm temperature 
the fish will thrive in, or at least what must be avoided to 
save the fish. In all probability we will not arrive at any 
hard and fast rules, for varying conditions will upset 
very specific calculations, with so many elements to con- 
sider; but it is more than likely that some water now con- 
sidered fit only for coarse fish may be made the habitat of 
brown and rainbow trout. Another statement made by 
Mr. Latour, furnishes food for thought and possibly ex- 
periment: "Everything depends upon the operator w/itil 
a few fish can be reared and kept to give aeclimatized 
ova" How far can this be carried? If brown 
trout can be acclimatized to water many degrees warmer 
than we have believed possible. Cannot the same 
thing be done with our native brook trout, and the range 
of the fish be thus extended? Of course, there will be 
other things to be considered in this connection, in case 
the trout can be inured to warmer water than that of the 
fountains from which it derives its specific name. Will its 
game qualities be destroyed or cooked? Will its table 
qualities suffer, etc.? A writer in a New Zealand news- 
paper takes the ground that brown trout above 6 or 81bs. 
in weight may lose not only their flavor but their activity; 
but this is probably a matter of individual taste, for there 
are people who prefer for the table baby trout 3 or 4in. 
long, fried until they are hard and crisp, and can scarcely 
be told by taste from a piece of leather. Taking the sub- 
ject in all its ramifications, however, perhaps it would re- 
quire a young man to follow it to the end, through a life- 
time, to arrive at positive conclusions. A. N. Cheney. 
Niagara River Bass. 
LoCKPOTOT, N. Y., Nov. 5.— I have repeatedly told Fobest 
AND Stkeam that I was no angler, never having put a hooK 
and line in Niagara county's water during the thirty -tive 
years I have resided here; but I am always interested in pis- 
catorial matters, and when shown the photos of ninety-one 
small- mouth black bass, taken on Sept. 17 last, at Four Mile 
Point, on Niagara River below Youngstown, by Messrs. B. J, 
Ferguson, .J. E. Emerson and J. E. Eoaerson, Jr , of this 
city, I thought the catch might intercbt the many angler 
readers of your paper, Mr. Emerson, Sr., is the tfHcient 
treasurer of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Savings Bank here, 
and Mr. Ferguson is a prosperous fruit dealer, and both en- 
joy their day off. 
The ninety-one bass weighed an even 2001bs. It seems to 
me that that is almost too much hsh for three persons to take 
in one day, but as I am not an angler I suppose that I can- 
not take an angler's interest in the excitement of capturing 
them. J. L. Davxson. 
Mashkiuoje. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In my note on the spelling of mashkinoje and wininiche 
in FoBBST AND Stkeam for Oct. 30, I made up the words 
from my Indian note- book vocabulary, and Mr. Cheney's 
appeal for something authoritative and classical has led me 
to hunt the thing up this morning, I find in Bishop Bar- 
agas' "Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language," 1878 edition, 
Parti, this authority: "Pike (flsh) kinoje. Another kind, 
mashkinoje," It seems to me that that ought to act as a 
mordant in fixing a common name that has been protean. I 
feel sure that Mgr. Lafliche had a typewriter who was in a 
hurry to go to a ball game if he is quoted as saying that 
"mash" means "deformed." "Manades" is the word for 
"deformed." "Mash" means "strong." I am strong, "niu 
mashkawis." It is strong, "mashkawissin." Pike, "kinoje"; 
Strong pike, "mashkinoje." Rob. T. Morbis. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended for publicatiou 
should reach us at the latest by Monday, cmd a» much 
earlier a« pratiicaile. 
THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
[Continued.) 
One of the good things done under the new management 
was shutting down the light in the building, so that the 
visitor can see into the water better, as the light should come 
through the water; but the central floor tank is tjo dimly 
lighted, which might possibly be remedied by electric lights 
and reflectors so arranged as to light no other places The 
five other floor tanks have light enough, but the central one 
is inclosed by pil]ar«s, and covered by a dome. In all the al 
teralions, it was forbidden to change the historic old fort on 
the outside. 
After it ceased to be a fort, it was a theatre, and was re- 
christened "Castle Garden," and here .Jenny Lind sang in 
1850. Then, as the city had grown too far away from the 
Battery, it was used as a clearing house for emigrants, and a 
thriving colony of rats dwelt below its decaying floors until 
the new place for emigrants was made on Eilis Lsland a few 
years ago. Thus it happens that the aquarium is in a cir- 
cular building, the worst possible form for arranging tanks, 
instead of a square one, or, better yet, in the form of a cross 
with a circle in the middle. The tanks do not complete the 
circle, as on the park side, the foyer, check-room and office 
make the chord of an arc. As no canes or umbrelllas are 
allowed inside, to be used to lap the glass to "stir 'em up" 
and scratch the plate, a check-room is a necessity, as is also 
a Cerberus, who stands at the portal and sees that no cane 
or umbrella escapes being checked, A child with a gold 
watch and a hammer could not work as much damage in an 
hour as a hundred men addicted to the cane habit would 
make in an aquarium in the same time; for the cane and um- 
brella tip always cany sharp sand, and scratched glass in 
such a place is opaque glass. 
The semicircle of wall tanks is broken in the middle by 
the entrance to the engine rooms, and this break makes a 
convenient division of the salt and fresh-water tanks, which 
are on the main floor and on the gallery above. These wall 
tanks are not near the walls of the buildit g, as there is space 
back of them for the attendants to walk, clean the tanks and 
HELLBBNDSRS. 
fLed the fish. Plate glass lin. thick is used in all the^e 
tanks, the fronts, backs and sides being wood, which in 
most cases is covered with white tiles. The tiles are gradu- 
ally being removed and the wood covered with asphalt in- 
stead, and in time this becomes beautifully covered with 
vegetation of many kinds, and adds not only to the appeal - 
atice of the tanks, but also to the health of their inmates. 
There are two pumps which, at a very slow movement, 
easily throw 400 gallons each minute into the tanks. The 
engines and pumps are in duplicate in case of accident. 
There are two salt-water wells under the building, to which 
lOin. suction pipes run, but are so arranged that each can 
pump frnm the same well, if necessary. Of salt water there 
are 130,000 gallons pump?d twice each day and of fresh 
water 26, ('00 gallons, making nearly a complete change of 
water in the tanks twice each day The big central floor 
tank contains 54,000 gallons; it is 38ft. in diameter and tiff, 
deep, being mtended for white whales or rther large 
creatures. Thesis other floor tanks are28xi5ft., by 3ft. 
deep. On the main floor there are thirty-six wall tanks in 
the semicircle, and fifty nine more in the gallery, the latter 
being smaller. These are 6 and 81t. long by 4ft. wide and 
deep. The weight of water in the gallery tanks is l,8001bs. 
on one side and 3,000 on the other, while in the wall tanks 
on the main floor it is 2^ and 4 tons. The daily consump- 
tion of coal is from 2\ to 3 tons, the larger amouut being 
used in cold weather to warm the building. There are 
twenty one men employed, of whom nine are in the engine 
room, three on at a lime, for the pumping must go on night 
and day. 
The Aquarium is closed to the general public on Mondays 
and Tuesdays, when the water in tank after tank is drawn 
down as low as the comfort of the occupants will permit, 
and the glass is cleaned on the inside, and such other work 
done as may be necessary, and which could not well go on 
when visitors are present, because the fish are easily alarmed 
when they find thems-lves in shallow water, and in rushing 
about would be bruised on the rocks. On other days visitors 
are admitted free of charge from 9 A M to 4 P. M., and the 
place is usually thronged. 
If the Aquarium is ever put in charge of & Board of 
Trustees, as was suggested in my last article, it would be a 
good plan to have one day on which a charge for admission 
should be made. This plan works well at the American 
Museum of Natural History and at the Museum of Art, both 
in Central Park; and it not only brings in a revenue, but in- 
duces people to go there who have a horror of crowds, and 
would cheerfully pay the price of admission. The old 
Aquarium at Thirty fifth street and Broadway received over 
$100,000 in admission fees the first year of its existence. I 
gave the figures last week from my notes, but I have no 
notes of the receipts in the succeeding years. Tfie treasurer, 
Mr. Edgar, gave them lo me in confidence; but as every one 
connected with the Aquarium is dead, except the superin- 
tendent. Prof. Butler, and myself, there can be no harm done 
in giving the figures. Taking the year as 313 week days, it 
will be seen that the receipts at the door were over $800 per 
day. The admission for adults was half a dollar, but the 
amount received does not indicate the attendance, for Mr. 
Coup was liberal with "complimentaries." Every clergy- 
man whose address he could get received several weekly; 
every Saturday some school children with their teachers 
were invited, and we employees always had a few cards for 
friends; but this was the shrewd policy of a keen manager of 
a place of amusement The nlace must never be empty and 
appear to be unfn quented. Consequently he always showed 
a good front to the public, for while one may dislike a crowd, 
he does not hke the echo of his 8oli*^ary footstep in a public 
place. 
I am freely giving expression to personal views on the 
management of the present New York Aquarium, because I 
believe that great improvements can be made in it if it is 
taken from the control of an ever-ch^bging Board of Com- 
missioners of Public Parks, appointed by a Mayor who is in 
rflice for four years, and placed under a more permanent 
board of trustees, who may be selected by reason of their in- 
terest in, and knowledge of, matters directly or indirectly 
connected with fishes, and who have some idea of the diffi- 
culties in the way of managing an aquarium, and do not ex- 
pect miracles of a superintendent, as some newspaper writers 
seem to do. To superintend an aquarium is a trying posi- 
1ion and requires an education in that particular line. A 
man who is only a fishculturiat knows how lo keep the few 
fish he has transported in cans alive, but that does not fit 
him to care for the food and temperaiuie of migratory and 
tropical fishes. The ichthyologist and the closet naturalist, 
who can tell you every variation in the anatomy of fishes, is 
the surest man to blunder when he enters the field of 
aquaria, and if i had to choose between these two, I would 
take the first, but would want to put some old net fisherman 
with him to tell him some things he might not know. The 
ideal man for a superintendent is one who is both fishcultur- 
ist, naturalist and old fisherman, with added experience in 
aquaria, and such a man is Dr. Bean, and you may count 
over the fingers of one hand without finding one who pos- 
sesses all these qualifications, even if you've lost a few fin- 
gers in a saw mill. 
These lines are written exactly as I think. These is iid 
other reason for writing them than to see the Aquarium put 
in its best shape to be of use in educating the public to a 
taste for knowledge of our fishes as they are in life, and 
which cannot be learned from pictures and descriptions in 
hooks, nor from dead fishes on the market slabs. No dead 
fish, nor picture and description of it, could give a person so 
clear an idea of that singular creation which we call a 
"trunk flsh," where the triangular body, broadest on the 
bottom and sharp on top, like a beech nut or a grain of 
buckwheat, is encased in an inflexible shell and can only 
move its mouth and its fins. One view of it in life, labori- 
ously working its dorsal, anal and caudal fins, through what 
seems like port-holes in its armor, is worth a dozen pages in 
a text- book. 
The popularity of zoological gardens and aquaria prove 
how readily the public will absorb knowledge with amu-^e- 
ment. They have no desire to be instructed and go to these 
places to be amused, to pass an idle hour, and they«depart 
with a little knowledge which has been absorbed against 
their wills. There is where the "zoos" and the aquariums 
pay, they educate the unthinking public, even if they only 
look at the big fishes and the seals. 
To illustrate this point, and to show how the average man 
exhibits contempt for things with which he is familiar, and 
takes interest in new and strange forms for a moment only, 
I win tell a story. While trying to get up an fiquarium for 
the Centennial Exposition in PhilKdelphia in 1876, the Hon. 
James Geddes, of New York, called my attention to three 
men who had come from Long Island and were looking over 
the salt water collection , 
"Look-a-bere, John," said one, "that old turtle is bigger 
'n your'u; it says he weighs 648lbs., au' he looks it." 
"Oh, yes, mine on'y weighed a little over 200. but they 
get 'em bigger down in the Gulf; but see h re! If they 
hain't got a lot of ole horsefeet in that tank, and what any- 
body wants to see them for is racre'n I know." 
Geddes remarked : "Your Ling Island friends don't care 
for that curious animal which you have labeled 'Simulus,' 
whatever that may mean ; but let's crawl up behind them 
and listen." 
When they reached the fresh water tanks they went into 
all sorts of wonder over the hellbenders and the proteus. 
"What 'n thunder 's that?" asked John. "That's the curi- 
ousest thing I've seed in the whole show. There's one feller 
lyiu' quiet an' the other is wavin' a lot of red things to fan 
himself with." 
They passed on, and then came a party from western 
Pennsylvania. Geddes nudged me, and I listened, "rhe 
hellbenders had no interest whatever for them ; they were 
familiar objects. One said: "Look at that alligator, the 
dirly ihmg; who'd a thought o' bringin' that thing to the 
CentennialV When we boys ketched one in the Allegany 
River we used ter cut the line an' let him have hook, sinker 
an' all, an' here's one o' the things stuck up for folks to look 
at." 
"That's a different opinion from the Long Islanders," said 
Geddes, "and now wait till they run up against the horse- 
shoe crab." 
A gigantic "horsefoot," measuring about a foot across the 
carapace, was trying to climb up the glass front, exposing 
its under surface, which is so like the hoof from which it 
gets its popular name as to be remarked at first sight, when 
the Pennsylvanians saw it. "Gosh all hemlock! Jake, 
there's somethin' worth comin' all the way from Pit-Hole 
City to see. Look at its legs; there's more'n forty on 'em, 
an' all a goin' to wunst." 
"An' it ain't got no head," said another, "on'y just a hol- 
ler shell an' a lot o' legs stuck into it. There it goes over 
on its back, an' I'll be dingswizzled if it ain't got a tail like 
a three-cornered file. Say, le's go get the wimmen folks 
to come an' see these things." 
As they moved oft' Mr. Geddes remarked: "That's the 
way it goes. The average man pays no attention to the 
every-day life about him, and those Pennsylvanians will 
study the horsefeet and know more about them before they 
go home than that Long Island party does which has known 
them from boyhood." 
"Yes," said I, "and the Long Islanders will carry home a 
vivid impression of the large salamander which we call a 
hellbender, and they miscall an 'alligator.' That is where 
an aquarium comes in as an educational force. A man 
might write about these animals, figure them in magazines 
or in school-books for a lifetime, and he would not make 
half the impression on any mind that a flve-minute interview 
with the living animal in an aquarium would." 
