58 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 27, 1857. 
many old men of tlie sea. Indeed, any kind of stock which 
requires shallow water and occasional visits to the surface 
may be kept in these, so as to fulfil the necessary con¬ 
ditions, and prevent escape without need of a cover; and, 
by the way, a cover to a tank is, as a rule, objectionable, and 
should be used only on occasions when there is much dust 
about, and as quickly removed as possible. _ 
The other kind of vessel to which special notice may be 
directed is that known as Sanders andWoolcot’s improved 
Warrington tank. Long ago Mr. Warrington made ex¬ 
periments in the culture of marine Algee, vulgarly called 
sea -weeds, and he soon discovered that an excess of light 
was prejudicial to the growth of most of them, and 
especially so to the Rlwdospevwis , or those having leddish 
and crimson tints, the most beautiful of all. Now, this 
fact renders all ordinary tanks and bellglasses which 
admit a full flood of daylight by no means the best for 
marine stock; for consider how accustomed to gloom and 
subdued light must be both plants and animals whose 
natural habitat is at any considerable depth in the sea; and, 
indeed, in confinement ordinary shore gatherings are averse 
to the constant action of full daylight on them. 
To remedy this Mr. Warrington coloured those sides of 
his tanks that were placed next the window, and a common 
vessel made of glass all round may be so adapted by 
having the side next the window stained of a soft blue or 
sea green, the latter tint being most natural as well as most 
agreeable to the eye. 
But another reason for darkening a tank used for marine 
objects is to prevent the rapid growth of Confervse, which, 
if they once take possession of the glass, become very 
troublesome, and, if allowed to have their own way, soon 
shut out the view by rendering the glass semi-opaque. I 
confess that though I have stocked tanks all sorts of ways, 
have had them in strong light and in subdued light, stained 
and unstained, and of all shapes, sizes, and degrees of 
transparency, I never was much inconvenienced by Confervje 
in a marine aquarium ; but in a river vessel there always is 
some amount of growth, and if you attempt to prevent it 
by subduing the light the proper plants of the vessel cease 
to thrive. Not so with marine stock; even the common 
Ulva and Enteromorpha, not to mention Nictophyllum, 
Grijffithsia, and others of delicate make and tint, always do 
best when but partially illuminated by the daylight, and 
such we might expect on a consideration of their origin. 
Now, to imitate nature more closely than by the mere use 
of a coloured medium, Mr. Warrington invented a tank 
having an opaque sloping back, opaque ends, and with glass 
in the front only. This sort of vessel closely imitates 
rock pool or shallow hollow on the coast, and the light can 
reach the water from above only just as it does in nature 
But Mr. Warrington’s first tanks of this description were 
made with the slate back sloping upwards at an angle of 
fifty degrees; but Sanders and Woolcot, acting on the 
advice of scientific experimenters and their own practical 
acquaintance with the management of aquaria, have adopted 
an angle of thirty degrees, so as to admit still less light 
above, render the difference in width between the top and 
bottom less, and allow more room proportionally for the 
necessary rockwork and pebbly beach which make up the 
imitation of a rock pool when the vessel is furnished. 
Mr. Gosse has prejudiced the public against this form of 
vessel by describing it as “lumbering and inelegant;” 
but, as there is nothing like judging for yourself, I procured 
one of Sanders and Woolcot’s make about a year ago, kept 
it constantly in use, frequently altered the arrangement and 
the nature of the stock, and have always considered it the 
very perfection of a tank for marine plants and animals, not 
only as fulfilling the conditions necessary to their health 
and longevity, but producing the most enchanting scene 
within doors it is possible to conceive; or rather, it is not 
possible to conceive it, but “ seeing is believing.” Mine is 
but a small one ; it measures across the front plate of glass 
eighteen inches, from back to front across the top fourteen 
inches, and is nine inches deep. When carefully built up 
with loose blocks of granite and seaside gatherings of 
honey-combed stone, and with a bright beach of shells and 
pebbles, the tufts of brilliant vegetation and the lovely 
Actinia and lively Hermit-crabs make it a fairy revelation of 
the sea bottom—facts the most romantic in their nature 
dressed in wondrous tints and outlines. 
Now, there are two special advantages of this form of 
vessel that recommend it, even if its adaptations to scientific j 
purposes were not so perfect as they are. In the first 
place you can build up rockwork in any fantastic way you 
please ; indeed, you cannot well use it without covering the 
whole of the slate back and sides with stones, and all these ; 
may be firmly arranged without one particle of cement, for 
depend upon it the less you use cement the better, for salt 
water will dissolve lime out of it for a long time, to the 
injury, perhaps destruction, of many delicate creatures. 
Another advantage is that a glass lid may be kept on con¬ 
stantly without the possibility of an accumulation of noxious 
gases, for the glass front and the sloping slate back are 
made so that their upper edges are an inch below the edges 
of the slate sides, and as the glass rests on these sides 
there is a clear open space back and front for the gases to 
escape as fast as they are given off from the water. I use 
a sheet of green glass on mine, and the soft hue which this 
gives to the water and its contents, combined with the 
subdued character of the light, is one of the secrets of its 
magical aspect, as well, also, as an additional aid to success 
in the culture of Algae. 
Common propagating glasses are largely used for aquaria 
on account of their cheapness, and, as they may be seen 
and purchased almost everywhere, but little need be said 
about them. Neatly turned stands are sold for their 
reception, and when well managed they are really elegant 
objects. One caution is necessary in respect to them—the 
larger they are the more liable are they to spontaneous as 
well as accidental fracture. I have used and broken a vast 
number, but still like them for their gracefulness and 
cheapness, because they enable the poor man to indulge in 
a pleasure which, without them, would be reserved for 
those of ampler means. Those of from ten to sixteen 
inches in diameter are the most useful; they are made 
as large as twenty-one inches, but the largest sizes are 
very apt to fly without any apparent cause, change of 
temperature being the most probable. I shall never 
forget the state of my study when I entered it one 
morning after a severe night frost two winters ago. A 
twenty-inch vessel stocked with tame dace, carp, bleak, and 
minnows, over the teaching of which many pleasant hours 
had been spent by my wife and I, had burst in the night, 
deluged the room with mud and water, flung fragments of 
glass everywhere, and left my pretty pets, that when I said 
“ good night ” to them were as jolly as bacchanals, stranded 
and defunct upon their muddy biers. There had been a 
roaring lire in the room till eleven, then from twelve till 
daylight it froze outside most furiously; hence the cause of 
the disaster was no mystery, but the mention of it may be 
