256 
Rustic Adornments. 
thousands ; the liveliness of its inmates and our own familiarity with them, 
whether they be 
“Weird inhabitants of lonesome pools,” 
or, as is much more likely and desirable, 
“ Fairy fishes from the mountain tarn,” 
we cannot but be amused by their gambols, and we may find in their recogni¬ 
tion of our attentions, the basis of an intimacy resembling friendship. Here 
are the finny favourites of our rills and lakes, the mosses of our own moors, 
the ferns that we have wandered miles to see waving under their native 
waterfalls; the traditional glories of our own old English water scenes—the 
lilies, the arrow-heads, and, if you will, the bonny flowering rushes, over which, 
in the green old time, the bride walked in fragrance to the altar. 
Each rising charm the bounteous stream bestows, 
The grass that thickens, and the flower that blows. 
And while the vale the humid wealth imbibes, 
The fostering wave sustains the finny tribes ; 
The carp, with golden scales, in wanton play ; 
The trout in crimson-speckled glory gay ; 
The red-finned roach, the silver-coated eel ; 
The pike, whose haunt the twisted roots conceal ; 
The healing tench, the gudgeon, perch, and bream ; 
And all the sportive natives of the stream. 
Although much that has been said as to the construction and management 
of marine aquaria applies to the subject before us, nevertheless, the river tank 
needs somewhat different treatment, and we must consider its several require- 
ments in detail. It may be remarked in the first place, that we have here 
ample scope for the exercise of taste and ingenuity; almost any kind of vessel 
may be employed, and there is no great difficulty in associating with the fishes 
many forms of both fluviatile and terrestrial vegetation, as for example, ferns 
and mosses, as well as vallisneria and anacharis. To consider the case in 
the first instance in the most elementary manner, we may safely discard the 
heavy slope-back tanks of slate recommended for marine animals for a lighter 
vessel more freely illuminated. A good form for a river tank is suggested by 
the accompanying engraving. 
