52 THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
"w. s. Ei<a.itoi-. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 24 , 1877 . 
The New Yoke Aquarium Journal will be pub¬ 
lished monthly at the 'Aquarium, corner of 35/^ 
Street and Broadway, New York Citv. 
Though intended for distribution among the 
patrons of the Aquarium, the Journal will also be 
forwarded for one year, by mail, or delivered by 
carriers to any address on receipt of one dollar, which 
sum is a mere nominal one, since it includes postal 
charge and expense oj mailing and delivery. 
All communications should be addressed to W. 
C. COUP, corner 35 th Street & Broadway. 
The endeavors which have been put forth 
by the manager of the Aquarium, Mr. W. C. 
Coup, to favor the interests of popular educa¬ 
tion, are bringing about the desired result. 
As the Aquarium was a novel institution in 
America, it is not altogether surprising that 
at the outset a certain degree of doubt should 
Save prevailed as to its-actual character and 
Tae a*, 
the public became aware by actual observa¬ 
tion of the nature of the enterprise, words of 
approbation, encouragement and approval, 
were received from every quarter. From the 
press particularly did the management receive 
a grateful recognition and to their sincere, 
repeated and favorable notices much of the 
immediate success of the enterprise is due. 
No sooner were the doors thrown open than 
the opinion gained ground that to the chil¬ 
dren of our city should be granted the privi¬ 
lege of visiting this marine world, and that 
any move in this direction should be met 
more than half way by the heads of our edu¬ 
cational institutions. Prompted by a sincere 
desire to further the cause of popular educa¬ 
tion, and wishing to gain for his pet scheme a 
rank among the educational agents of our 
land and time, Mr. Coup at once expressed not 
only his willingness but his determination to 
secure the attendance of the children of our 
pub.ic schools. When this desire of the man¬ 
ager became known many gentlemen, whose 
names have been identified with the cause of 
popular education, signified their approval 
and, in certain instances, addressed to Mr. 
Coup such letters and words of endorsement 
of the Aquarium as should be sufficient to gain 
for it the high rank which the manager Covets. 
Among the recent visitors to the Aquarium 
was our distinguished citizen Mr. W. C. Bry¬ 
ant, and so charmed was he with the Aquarium 
itself and so convinced of its value as an edu¬ 
cational agent that he addressed to the Nat¬ 
uralist of the institute the letter here given, 
and which may serve to enforce the claim 
which has been made by the manager. 
The measures which have now been taken 
to give practical force to the manager’s wishes 
are of a nature to secure the desired end. A 
gentleman of culture and experience has been 
specially engaged to visit the public schools 
of the city and organize visiting classes, which, 
accompanied by their teachers, shall visit 
the Aquarium and under the guidance of 
their instructors be informed regarding the 
structure and habits of the many rare forms 
here displayed. In addition to this effort in 
behalf of the children, others have been made 
with a view to heightening the interest of the 
Aquarium as a school of Natural History. 
During the last two weeks Professor Ebet.t., 
an instructor of acknowledged experience, has 
been engaged in delivering an illustrated 
course of lectures on Natural History subjects, 
while measures are far advanced to give a 
definite form to the free educational depart¬ 
ment. Following Professor Ebell will be a 
second series of lectures on animalcule life 
illustrated by the magic lantern. As an evi¬ 
dence that these additions are for the sake of 
advancing the cause of science, it should be 
known that no extra charge is made for these 
additional attractions, but that they are given 
free to the audiences assembled. 
Mr. Bryant’s letter is as follows : 
New York, Dec. 20, 1876. 
Dear Sir:— I have been much interested in 
a visit which I lately paid to the Aquarium 
the post of Naturalist. ' It deserve,o~a hLh 
place among the expedients for popularizing 
knowledge. One might learn from it in two 
hours, I think, more of the peculiar forms 
and habits of the creatures inhabiting the 
water than one could learn in as many weeks 
from books. That the collections of land an¬ 
imals, which everybody makes a point of see¬ 
ing, are valuable means of instruction, all 
admit. The realm of water occupies more of 
the earth’s surface than the region of land 
and the creatures by which it is peopled vie 
with those of the land in number and diver¬ 
sity of shape and habits; but unless they are 
brought together with great pains and ex¬ 
pense, and placed in some well-contrived re¬ 
ceptacle, they cannot, except in regard to 
some well-known species, be made the subject 
of actual and close observation. 
Such a receptacle is your Aquarium, which 
is on a much larger scale than I expected to 
find it. It has, I am told, in the respects of 
light end dryness of situation, some advan 
tages over the public Aquariums of Europe. 
I did not know, till I visited it and put my¬ 
self under your guidance, that there is a free 
reading room connected with it, supplied 
with the scientific periodicals, and opening 
into a naturalist’s laboratory, where casts are 
taken of the most remarkable creatures of 
the Aquarium when they happen to die, and 
other processes are carried on. 
It seems to me that one of the most import¬ 
ant offices of this Aquarium is to give the 
pupils of our public and private schools a 
distinct idea of the multitude and diversity 
of the tribes of living things by which the 
waters of our planet are peopled. Whatev¬ 
er new and strange is seen by young eyes 
makes a deeper impression than when seen 
later in life. After having walked along the 
ranges of cells constantly supplied with run¬ 
ning water, in which these creatures are 
lodged, the young student feels that he has 
formed a sort of acquaintance with them, and 
reads with more interest the story of their 
peculiar habits and remembers it more accu¬ 
rately. 
I hope, therefore, to see the Aquarium more 
generally frequented than it now is by the 
pupils of our schools, under the direction of 
their teachers, assured as I am that the visits 
they make will result in an increase of knowl¬ 
edge. 
I am, Sir, very truly yours, 
W. C. BRYANT. 
-- 
OUR NEW PUMP, 
In our introductory description of the Aqua¬ 
rium, attention was called to the fact that the 
hard rubber pump used in circulating the sea 
water was procured in England, since up to the 
present time no such complicated piece of me¬ 
chanism had been made of this material in 
America. In this instance, however, as in many 
others, where American genius has been called 
into action to accomplish special ends, we find; 
that had there been time to wait there would; 
have been no need to call upon our English 
cousins to help us. 
Within the last month there has been placed 
in the Aquarium a hard rubber pump of Amer¬ 
ican manufacture, which can justly be claimed 
to excel in construction, finish and relative ca¬ 
pacity for work any yet constructed abroad, and; 
hence, in commending the genius and enter¬ 
prise which has accomplished this end, we do so 
with a certain degree of pardonable national 
-wfe-for.(his- pump was made 
ft the Knowles Pump Company, •’•hose pumps 
^•vere recognized as superior to all others at the 
Centennial Exhibition. The hard-rubber or 
vulcanite pump, cylinder valves, &c., were made 
by the Rubber Comb Company of College Point 
and the principle is that of the Knowles Pump 
though the material is hard-rubber. 
This pump which deserves to rank as one of 
the attractions of the Aquarium, has been given 
a place of honor on the right of the main en¬ 
trance, and any visitor who has an eye for me¬ 
chanical novelty and good workmanship, would 
do well to examine it. 
In accordance with the determined purpose of 
the Manager of the Aquarium to render the in¬ 
stitution as complete as possible in the variety of 
marine forms exhibited, expeditions have been, 
from time to time, despatched to distant quarters- 
to procure any object of interest which could be 
obiained. Few of the visitors who stand in 
front of the Vquarium tanks and express their 
delight and wonder at the strange and rare crea¬ 
tures there exhibited, are aware of the nature of 
the efforts which have been made to secure them.. 
With the history of the whale and the story of its 
capture our readers are familiar, and elsewhere 
we give a second and equally interesting story of 
the efforts put forth by Mr. Holder to procure 
a Shark or Devil Fish, along the coasts of Flor¬ 
ida. Were the season more advanced it would 
be possible to procure either of these remarkable 
creatures nearer home, but in order, if possible, 
not to delay their capture any longer, it was de¬ 
termined in the face of many doubls and dis¬ 
couragements to send a special messenger to 
Florida. Though the result of his efforts were 
not favorable, yet the history of his trials is an 
interesting one and will serve to enforce the 
claim put forth by Mr. Coup, that he means to 
spare neither pains or expense in his endeavor 
to forward the interest of the Aquarium. 
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