3 oe mn
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. DIVISION oF Fisugs

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- Se NATIONAL Kw SEL

‘*Books in the running brooks, z,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

ILLUSTRATED PAPERS

on the various questions arising in
the care of an aquarium or
the window garden.

-PRICE FIVE FOR
25 CENTS EACH. _ ONE DOLLAR.

HUGO MULERTT,

(Member of the Imperial Russian Society of
Acclimatization)

Publisher, S

BROOKLYN -NEW YORK.

CopyricHT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

JULY,

1896, No. 40.

Copyricut 1896. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:

IDYL OF A RAMBLER.
BY H. B. SMALL.

When man was banished from the
Garden of Eden, he received the dread
sentence, that ‘‘the ground should be
cursed for his sake; and that in sor-
row should he eat of it all the days of
his life.” But we are all aware that
this language, though true in its gen-
eral application, is not to be understood
in a literal and exclusive sense. Man
was told that the earth should ‘ bring
forth thorns and thistles ;” but it also
produces flowers to gratify, and fruits
to nourish him, The Infinite Being
has said that the ‘‘ days of our life
shall be marked with sorrow,” and they
are ; but the afflictions to which we are
subject are attended with blessed anti-
dotes. Moral sources of enjoyment are
given us, as fruits and flowers for the
soul, and the teachings of interest
should lead us to consider with atten-
tion those gifts which enlarge the capa-
cities of the spirit, and call forth won-
derment at the mighty workings of all
bounteous Nature. For instance, who
is insensible to the beauties of the
rising or the setting of the summer
sun ? Who can behold the moonbeams

reflected from silent river, lake, or sea,
and not feel happy in the sight ?
None, I believe in early life. But
when hardened in the ways of the world,
and of man; when the chief end pur-
sued is the accumulation of wealth,
acquisition of power, or pursuit of
pleasure, then mankind loses sight of
the beauties of Nature. Were the in-
herent love of them cherished by early
education, how seldom would it be
destroyed or become dormant, as it too
often is. But the student of Nature
finds in every sphere of existence a
means of rational enjoyment, a pleas-
ure so fascinating when grasped at that
the mind for the time forgets the ills
of life, and the glories of Eden spring
up in imagination through the mists
of troubles; for in every bank, and
woodland, and running stream, in every
bird among the boughs and every
cloud above his head, stores of interest
abound which enable him to forget
awhile himself and man, and all the
care of life in the inexhaustible beauty
and glory of Nature, and of the God
who made and controls her.

Let us walk side by side in imagina-
tion with a naturalist in his daily ram-
ble; let us blend our mind with his to

50 THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896.

receive those impressions which he
feels, to share the train of reflection
that comes crowding on his mind, as
the affinities of objects lead his ideas
to wander from the leafiness of the
temperate to the exuberant foliage of
the torrid zone. We approach a
woodland. How inspiriting are the
odors that breathe from the upland
turf ; from the rock-hung flower ; from
the hoary and solemn pine. Deep, and
dark, and still are the shadows of the
surrounding trees and bushes. The
green leaves seem to infuse into our
hearts a portion of their happiness as
they ‘‘clap their hands in glee,” and
the joyous birds make melody all
around. Here let us pause and gather
a single blade of grass and examine for
a minute, quietly, its narrow, sword-
shaped strip of fluted green. Ruskin
says of this, nothing, as it seems there
of goodness and beauty. A very little
strength, and a very little tallness, and
a few delicate long lines meeting in a
point ; not a perfect point either, but
blunt and unfinished ; by no means a
creditable or apparently much cared for
example of Nature’s workmanship,
made, as it seems, only to be trodden on
to-day, and to-morrow to be ‘* cast
into the oven.” And yet, think of it
well; and judge whether of all the
gorgeous flowers that beam in summer
air, and of all strong and goodly trees,
pleasant to the eyes, or yielding fruit ;
stately palm and pine; strong ash and
oak; scented citron or burdened
vine, there be any by man so deeply
loved, by God so highly graced, as that
narrow point of feeble grass. And well
does it fulfill its mission. Consider
what we owe merely to the meadow
grass, to the covering of the dark
ground by that glorious enamel, by the
companies of those soft and countless

and peaceful spears. The fields! Fol-
low forth but for a little time the
thoughts of all that we ought to recog-
nize in those words. All spring and
summer is in them ; the walks by silent
paths, the rests in noonday heat; the
joy of herds and flocks, the sunlight
falling in emerald streaks and soft blue
shadows, where else it would have
struck upon the dark mould or scorch-
ing dust ; pastures beside the babbling
brooks ; soft banks and knolls of hills,
thymy slopes of down, overlooked by
the blue line of the distant sea ; crisp
lawns, all dim with early dew, or
smooth in evening warmth of sunshine;
all these are summed up in the simple
words, the fields !

Whatever course our thoughts may
take, we must remember there is no
plant, however humble, no flower or
weed that springeth from the earth,
but is an organized and living mystery.
The secrets of the abyss are not more
inscrutable than the work that is
“wrought in its hidden germ. The
goings on of the heavens are not more
incomprehensible than the growth of a»
simple plant as it waves in the summer
breeze. The functions that constitute
its growth, flower, and fruit, the organs
and affinities by which every part re-
ceives the material that answers its
purpose, who can unfold or explain
them? As the fruit of one year
falls the seed of centuries of growth is
sown. By the mechanism of nature,
the stocking of the earth with every
kind of growth, from the oak of a thou-
sand years to the weed of a day, is
carried on. The acorn falls in moist
earth and is trodden in by man or
beast to become an oak in course of
years, whose timber may resound to
and tremble under the roar of warfare
on the ocean; berries are carried by

THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 51

birds and dropped on ledges of rocks, in
any handful of soilthat may grow there,
tosprout and germinate and grow, and to
reproduce in their turn seeds for future
growth ; winged seeds, such as the
thistle, the dandelion, etc., are elevated
by the winds till they stop in some
favored places ; hooked seeds, such as
are familiarly called ‘‘cleavers” or
‘‘burrs,” entangled on the dress of the
passer-by, or hanging to the hair or
fleecy coverings of animals, may be
carried miles away and find their rest-
ing place even in other lands. Whilst
men put seeds into the ground by mill-
ions, with due care, Nature plants and
sows on a larger scale, surpassing man
while he is busy, and going on with her
work whilst he is sleeping or making
holiday. For every tree that falls, thou-
sands are sown; for every flower that
fades, millions moreare provided, What
we do with pains and care in our flower
beds, is done silently all over the
continents of our globe. New life is
provided before decay begins. How
beautifully are the shadows thrown
abroad and the fine transparent haze,
which is diffused over the valleys and
plains. The shadows play all day long
at silent games of beauty ; everything
is double if it stands in light. The
tree has an unrevealed and mufiled self
lying darkly along the ground; the
slender stems of flowers, ‘‘ golden rod,”
‘wayside asters,” ‘‘meadow daisies”
and rare lilies cast forth a dim and
tremulous line of shadow that lies long
all the morning, shortening till noon,
and creeping out again all the after-
noon until the sun descends yon western
horizon. Meanwhile the clouds drop
shadows like anchors, that reach the
ground but will not hold ; every brows-
ing creature, every flitting bird, every
unconscious traveler writes itself along

the ground in dim shadow. And,
speaking of the clouds, let us pause for
a few minutes while we look with ad-
miration at the ever changing variety
and beauty, at the gorgeous scenery of
summer cloudland, the exquisite variety
of tints, the graceful motions and the
changing shadows which flit over hill
and dale. The finest dyes and most
skillful looms can never equal the tap-
estry with which God decorates our
earthly abode. These are pictures shut
up in no secluded gallery, to be seen
only by the rich, but they are spread
alike before the lowly and the lofty, in
the city and in the remotest solitudes,
where all may drink in their beauty
and discern the wisdom and the skill of
Him who made them. Even the child,
as he gazes dreamily at the tiny white
speck floating far away in the blue
ether, has his little soul filled with in-
terest ; and when he sees dark masses
of vapor come rolling up slowly and
majestically, fold after fold, from the
distant horizon, his imagination will
transform those fantastic shapes into
gigantic snow-capped mountains, tow-
ering peak upon peak, until he almost
longs for wings to fly and explore their
far-off summits. But how compara-
tively few, children or adults, ever
pause to give themselves a matter of
fact explanation of the actual forma-
tion of clouds, the unerring laws of
their creation or dispersion, or the vast
beneficent part they take in the econ-
omy of Nature. The question may be
asked, why there are on some days
clouds, and again on others none? The
answer is, there are clouds always,
although not always visible, or, to be
more correct, the material of which
clouds are made is always there ; for if
the air is warmed by the shooting
down of the sun’s rays for days

52 THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896.

past, it holds in solution, invisible,
the vapor it has imbibed. But let
that air begin to cool, and it parts with
its mass of moisture; in other words,
it deposits it in the shape of white
vapor, being no longer able to retain
it in an invisible form. ‘This delicate
little cloud, or mass of white vapor,
however, is of very precarious existence.
One ray of bright sunshine, the faint-
est return of heat, would send it back
again from a state of visible vapor to
invisible moisture. Its outward form
would be gone, and although we know
that its essence would still subsist, in-
deed, could never be destroyed, yet its
apparent existence would beended. It
would thus vanish like many an infant
at its very entrance into life, before
accomplishing any specific purpose of
its being; but again, like the infant,
it is only the outward form which sus-
tainsannihilation. But heat is not the
only thing by which clouds are affected.
Life is ever changing with them as with
mortals ; they are liable at any moment
to be whirled into the most fantastic
shapes by every fickle wind that passes.
If the temperature of the atmosphere
continues to lower, the delicate, gossa-
mer-like vapor (beautifully compared
by Lamartine to the world’s incense
floating upwards to the throne of God)
will resolve itself into large masses
of rolling clouds, and the mass of
vapor, no longer able to poise it-
self in air, descends to earth in
grateful, refreshing showers, and _per-
chance in the bosom of the cloud now
passing overhead are liquid treasures
sucked up from swamps of Florida to
go and shower fertility and wealth on
the plains of the far-off west. Winter
and summer the “‘ clouds drop fatness,”
but they have other offices to perform
besides those merely of dispensing

showers, of producing the rains and of
weaving mantles of snow for the pro-
tection of our fields. They have other
commandments to fulfil which, though
less obvious, are not therefore the less
benign in their influences, or the less
worthy of our notice. They moderate
the extremes of heat and cold; they
mitigate the climate. They spread
themselves out, preventing radiation
from the earth, and keeping it warm ;
at another time they interpose between
it and the sun ; they screen it from his
scorching rays, and protect the tender
plants from the heat, the land from
drought. Having performed this, they
are evaporated and given up to the sun-
beam and the winds, to be borne on
their wings away to other regions which.
stand in need of their offices. And
here I would say that I know of no
subject more fit for profitable thought
on the part of the knowledge-seeking
student than that afforded by the at-
mosphere. Of all parts of the physical
machinery, of all the contrivances in
the mechanism of the universe, the at-
mosphere, with its uses and adapta-
tions, appears to be the most wonder-
ful, sublime and beautiful. Jn its con-
struction the perfection of knowledge
and wisdom is involved, and to turn to
Holy Writ, how appropriately does Job
burst forth in laudation of the latter as
God's handiwork in the twenty-eighth
chapter.

The sighing of the wind as it sways
the branches of the forest, which now
bend before the summer zephyr like
courtiers doing homage, now bend be-
neath the fury of the storm like strong
men in adversity, sounds to our nat-
uralist as angels’ whispers in its gentle-
ness, or in its fury as the voice of One
mightier than Manoah’s son, speaking
in anger: ‘* The voice of One who break-

\N THEIR HOMES

ae
ae ae

THE PROFESSOR AND THE TEASING NAIADS.
--From the Fliegende Blatter.

54 THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896.

eth the Cedars, yea, the Cedars of Leb-
anon!” But, he will tell you this,
nature’s music is never still, never
silent, though often varied, for each
tree has its part; the surging of the
oak, the whispering of the elm, the
rustling of the beech, the laugh of the
birch, the sighing of the willow, the
moaning of the hemlock, the dirge of
the cypress. ‘The pine alone remains
constant to melody throughout the
year. Every breeze that touches the
pine in any season of the year wakes
up myriads of fairy harps which united
set the air trembling with the most
moving harmony that nature affords,
the harp music of nature’s orchestra.
Even the aspect of the woodland itself,
if thick with tangled underbrush, the
unexplored, impervious forests of the
Amazon rise up to the imagination, or
if thick with ferns and grasses, it re-
calls visions of Australian fern trees
and wattles ; fern trees, now the only
corresponding and connecting link to
the fossil plants of the coal formation,
beneath whose mighty coverts the sau-
rian monsters roamed, the giants of the
earth in those days, monsters extinct
and passed away, leaving their epitaph
in stone to be deciphered only by the
researches of science centuries after
their existence.

Should the road lead near, or by a
pond, our naturalist shrinks not from
the wet and swampy ground surrounding
it, for the “‘ Forget me not” is there,
with blossom blue as the sky of
Heaven, and its golden eye bright as
Hope itself; there is the calamus, or
sweet-scented flag, the iris, the bullrush,
heavy and swaying in the wind, the
water-lily, rivaling in its blossom the
magnolia of southern climes, and har-
boring under its broad leaves the pike
and the perch, the bass and the pickerel,

those favorites of meek Walton’s fol-
lowers. The delicate whites and pinks,
and yellows and blues of the aquatic
blossoms, how bewitching are they in
the sunlight !

Adhering to the pond-weed, or slowly
drawing their homes along with them,
are visible the water snails, amongst
which is conspicuous the Planorbis or
Coilshell, a representative left us of the
ammonite, one of the most universal
fossils of the secondary rocks; shells,
whose proportions have dwindled down
from their colossal size in days of yore,
when their circumference equaled that
of a wheel, to that of an ordinary copper
coin, contrasting in their diminution
the present pigmy race of man with his
predecessors.

Here wesee the Dragon-F ly disporting
on its gauzy wings, itself glittering
with blue and green, flashing back the
sunshine,now hovering poised above the
surface of the pool, as if desirous of
telling its kindred larve who still re-
main below, and from one of which it
lately sprung, the glorious beauty here-
after waiting them when their trans-
formation takes place; but the watery
element defies the advance of insect
life, and between them there is a great
gulf fixed. Fancy may lead us to pic-
ture to ourselves the grub preparatory
to bursting his prison house by the
water side, and rising on glittering
wings into the summer air, promising
tidings to his fellows of the state it is
about to enter, and the longings of
those left behind to hear something of
that state, dimly fancied by them, but
unknown. We could fancy him re-
turning amidst the transports of
his wildest flights, ever and anon, to
the precincts of that water world which
had once been the only world to him ;
and thus divided, yet near, parted, yet.

THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 55

united by love, he hovers about the
barrier that lies between them, darting
over the crystal water in the raptures
of his new life.

Let us scoop up a handful of the
water from the pond and carefully ex-
amine it. Our naturalist will tell us
that there is in it a creature with
neither arms nor legs, properly so
called, but which catches animals more
lively than itself and twice its own
size, with no eyes, yet loving the sun-

These tentacles, or feelers, float in the
water like fairy fishing lines. Little
creatures invisible to our unaided
sight, that have been frisking around
full of life and activity, are seized by
them, and, one tentacle after another
being wound round its prey, the
process of digestion takes place. When
we laugh at the idea of two or three
hydras growing out of one, if severed,
we are told the reason is that the prin-
ciple of life is diffused equally in all

RHEUM COLLINIANUM.

shine, whose stomach can be turned
inside out, apparently, without hurting
it, and which, if cut in two, will not
die, but each part grow into a perfect
creature. To inexperienced eyes it
looks like a tiny piece of green sewing
silk about a quarter of an inch long
and a little untwisted at one end ; this,
however, is really a set.of delicate
limbs placed round the thicker end of
the slender body of the little Hydra
(for such is the name it goes by).

its parts ; that any part can live with-
out the rest, and, like the cutting of a
plant having life in itself, it can grow
into a perfect creature.

Journeying onward, he tells of
another animalcule provided with two
hairy wheels upon its head, whirling
continually around, producing a strong
current towards its mouth, placed be-
tween them, carrying in all lesser ob-
jects floating near, and, like the rotary
wheels of a steamboat, carrying him

56 THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896.

THE AQUARIUM.

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$1.00 a Year. Single Copies, 25 cts, Each.

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Editor and Publisher,
173 Nostrand Av., Brooklyn, N. Y.

onward, unless, desirous of rest, he
grasps with his prehensile tail some
friendly water plant. With still greater
surprise, we hear that those animal-
cules each have shells, which in some
places during the course of centuries
have formed thick layers of fine white
earth—so fine that on the shore of a
lake near Urnea, in Sweden, the
peasants have for many years mixed
with their flour this so-called ‘‘ mount-
ain meal.”?” When we come to think
that the vast thicknesses of the chalk
cliffs were all formed from the deposi-
tion of animalcular exuvie, surely the
mind of man is inadequate to count
the myriads of ages through which
this process was going on—a process
still silently and invisibly working in
the depth and darkness of the Atlantic.

Skirting the pond which has thus
engrossed our attention, we may see
rocks, now rising up precipitously in
rugged masses, now sloping quietly to
the water’s edge, partly clothed with
lichens and moss ; here covering the
stone to the depth of several inches,
there clustering around some _ bare
patch of rock. From this we learn
how the first accumulation of soil took
place, when order was first produced
from chaos ; soil which year by year in-
creasing from the decomposition of
those rudiments of vegetable life, af-
forded depth and nourishment for
plants of a higher order and larger

growth, to be in turn succeeded by a
more luxuriant vegetation adapted fer
the support of animal life. As we
gaze upon the distant mountain range,
what thoughts come crowding to our
minds. How solemnly and majestically
they raise their rugged peaks to heaven.
Now in token of their royalty, crown-
ed with a diadem of clouds, and now
with every one of their cliffs gleaming
in the sunlight like the pictures of a
dream. For ages have they held com-
munion with the mysteries of the mid-
night sky. The earliest beams of the
morning have bathed them in living
light, and theirs, too, have been the
kisses of departing day. Man and his
empire have arisen and decayed, but
they have remained unchanged, a per-
petual mockery. Upon their summits
Time has never claimed dominion.
There as of old does the eagle teach her
brood to fly, and the wild beast prowls
after his prey. There do the waterfalls
still leap and shout on their way to the
dells below, even as when the tired
hunter, centuries ago, bent him to quaff
the liquid element. There still does
the rank grass rustle in the breeze, and
the pine, and the cedar, and the hem-
lock, take part in the howling of the
gale. Upon man alone falls the curse
of Time. Nature has never sinned,
therefore her glory is immortal. In
such scenery we can understand the
full meaning of the words: ‘‘ The hills
stand about Jerusalem,” and their un-
changing aspect whispers into the ear
of man that he is but as the moth
which flutters in the noontide air.
Again the voice of Nature is perpetu-
ally singing the saddened strain,
‘*Farewell.’’. It is in the sway of the
boughs overhead, and by presentiment
when they shall stand bare and stark ;
the brook ripples already to think how

THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 57

soon it will be choked by frost into a
subterraneaneous gurgle; the moun-
tains are beautifying themselves before
they lay off their robes of beauty for a
season; even the sea, with its gentle
rise and fall, and swelling breast, is
telling how its line of beach will soon
be driven snow, and its sands no longer
warm. What is there in life or in Na-
ture that says farewell more punctually

then she sends the rest away one by
one, lingering herself until the last, in
our memories of the bygone season.
There are certain thingsin Nature in
which we can discern a human sym-
pathy, a veritable kinship ; and if we
dismiss these things by referring them
toa general fixed law, then the sym-
pathy and the friendship are merely
transferred to the law. How persist-

‘*SonGs WITHOUT WORDs.”’

and more sweetly than Nature herself.
Inspring she sends the early flowers, her
children, to foretell her coming, and
in autumn, instead of merely dis-
appearing, she summons all her chil-
dren and all her works to stand in full
array and make their tender adieu.
The order of departure reverses that of
coming. As summer goes she makes
this presentation of herself and hers ;

ently and ingeniously she thrusts her-
self upon our senses, claiming our
notice and beseeching our sympathy.
There is nothing unsightly of all the
unsightly things in the world which
she does not try to cover with her fresh
growths; she greens over battle and
ruin, and wipes off the blackening of
fire. Wedo our best to shut her out
in our cities, but it is allin vain. She

58 THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896.

—

sends her little blades of grass to push
themselves up beside the flagstones ;
her ivy climbs the stone churches and
castles, hiding the ravages of time, and
her trees are the fullest representation
of herself—the agent of Him at whose
fiat the worlds emerged from chaos :—
But, to resume our walk :—Abounding
everywhere, and full of interest, are the
birds we meet with; in the deep soli-
tudes of the woods the lugubrious caw-
ing of the crow grates upon the ear
with hollow voice, which has for ages
been an object of evil omen to the cred-
ulous and the ignorant; the monoto-
nous sound of the distant woodpecker,
“* tapping the bark of the hollow beech
tree,” or making the woods resound
with his notes of laughter, takes up the
tale; the bluebird, the titmouse, or
“‘chickadee,” that happy, restless, easy-
going creature, who scorns to leave us
for the snows of winter, and picks up
a scanty living round the outhouses of
the farm ; the finch tribe, with their
never-ceasing cry, make the very copse
alive with their melody; whilst the
bobolink on the wing, surveying the
grassy plains below him, chants forth
a jingling melody of short variable
notes, with such confusion and rapidi-
ty that it appears as if a whole colony
of birds were tuning their notes for
some great gathering in Nature’s con-
cert hall. And as he is so well-known
a bird, I cannot refrain from dwelling
on his character a little while. Rivaling
the European lark, he is the happiest
bird of spring; he comes amidst the
pomp and fragrance of the season ; his
life seems all sunshine, all song. He is
to be found in the soft bosoms of the
freshest and sweetest meadows, and is
most in song when the clover is in
bloom. Near by we may see a giant
tyrant kingbird, poised on the topmost

branch. of some veteran tree, who now
and then dashes down, assassin like,
upon some homebound honey-laden
bee, and then with a smack of his bill
resume his predatory watch. Over the
pool, the swifts, the martens and the
swallows seem to vie with each other
in acrobatic flight ; now skimming the
surface of the water, now making with
a touch of the wing, a scarcely percep-
tible ripple.

Besides the birds, the butterflies
flicker and flit hither and thither,
small and large, white, grave and gay ;
grasshoppers are noisy beside long
stretches of green paths—improvident
fellows who sing all through the live-
long summer day, unmindful and heed-
less of coming storm and winter’s stern
array; and who would think, when
looking on the painted butterfly, flash-
ing its gaudy colors in the sunlight,
that a few weeks ago it was a groveling
worm, an emblem of destruction, a
caterpillar. How wondrous the change;
how beauteous the transformation.
How typical of the spirit of man, who,
fettered to the earth in the flesh shall
one day emerge from the chrysalis of
death and wing its flight to the bowers
of Eden.

Bounding through the highest tree-
tops in fearless leaps, light and grace-
ful in form, with bright black eyes,
and nimbleness in every movement, the
squirrel enlivens the scene, who, after
scrutinizing round some moss-grown
branch for the disturber of his haunts,
hies away from our gaze with a defiant
chattering that seems to say—‘‘ catch
me if you can ”—to his nest in some
hollow limb, where his booty of acorns,
chestnuts or beechnuts is stored up for
winter use; and we think, when fol-
lowing his nimble movements, how
some of our own species might relieve

THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 59

our charitable societies of many of their
cares if they would only take this provi-
dent little fellow as an example. But
the lengthening shadows warn us to re-
trace our steps ere the dark pall of
night settles over mountain, valley,
tree and stream. The fogs are rising
in the meadows, a thin white light of
vapor marks with well-defined outline
the course of some stream flowing
through them. Long before we reach
home the curtain is raised that con-
cealed the celestial host ; those fires
that glow forever and yet are not
quenched. There they move as they
moved and shone when “‘ the morning
stars sang together and the sons of God
shouted for joy.” It was the same
blue-spangled dome on high, above old
Rome, when she rioted in all her mag-
nificence and luxury. The ‘‘ shepherds
who watched their flocks by night ;”
the Magi, whose knowledge of the
heavenly host was more enlarged than
any others of their time, were warned
to study that living page for a light to
guide them to the expected Messiah.
The Arab, as he traveled the bound-
less fields of sand, with his trusty
camel—the ‘‘ship of the desert—” trust-
ed of old to those burning orbs, for
they alone were his chart and his com-
pass. Beyond the grasp of poor, frail
man, they light him from the cradle to
the sepulchre. Their beams are shed
upon his monument, until that, too, is
crumbled away, and no token remains
to point the spot where his ashes lie.
Could a voice be heard from their blue
home, doubtless it would speak of a
race that has passed from this conti-
nent long ere the canvas of Columbus
was furled upon these shores—a race
that preceded the Indian; a people
whose remains are yet among us, but
whose history lies deep in oblivion.

All on earth has changed; but the
glorious heavens yet remain un-
changed ; sun, moon, planet and satel-
lite, stars and contellations, galaxy and
nebule, still bear witness to the Power,
the Wisdom, and the Love, which
placed them of old, and still sustains
them where they are. _

And now, our ramble over, we feel
we have associated ourselves more
closely with nature and her Mighty
Master—God. The materials with
which that Eternal Power writes His
name may vary, but the style of the
handwriting is the same. And whether
in illuminated characters He paints it in
the field, or in the starry alphabet bids
it flame forth from the face of the
firmanent ; whether He works in the
curious mosaic of a shell, or inscribes
it in Hebrew letters on tables of stone ;
devotion recognizes its Heavenly
Father’s hand, and admires with rever-
ence His matchless autograph.

In conclusion, let me impress upon
the minds of all how everything in na-
ture daily speaks to us in the plainest
language, points out to us in its every
phase something yet to come—a some-
thing unknown, a mighty hereafter.
As the swallows homeward fly, their
young brood raised, their summer work
accomplished, instinct points out to
them an unknown land to which to
betake themselves from the chills and
storms and tempests of winter. Some-
thing, we know not what, tells them
this is not their rest. As the leaves
fall off, withered and sere, having done
their share in Nature’s mighty labora-
tory, the tree lies dormant for a time,
but only to gain strength to burst forth
in fresh beauty at a future time. As
the seed is committed to the ground, a
dry, shriveled object, to all appear-
ance destitute of life, its future form

60 THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896.

as the plant is provided for by all
bounteous Nature’s hand; as the sun
goes down behind the mountains, or is
shrouded behind a cloud, its light is
hidden but for atime to burst forth
again resplendent.

As the river flows, traveling on-
wards to mix its waters in the un-
known depths of the ocean, leaving as
it were forever the hills from whence
it sprung, it is but to assume the form
of vapor to replenish those springs. As
the reed bird builds its nest, a home
for its little ones yet unborn, an un-
known sweet voice of kindness bids it,
she knows not why, thus look to the
future. Yes, the river is rushing for-
ward, the clouds are hurrying onward,
the winds are sweeping past, because
here is not their rest. Ask the river,
ask the clouds, ask the winds where
they go. Another land! Ask the
great sun as he descends out of sight
where he goes. Another land! And
when the appointed time shall come
man also must go. Where? ‘To that
other land to which these voices of na-
ture have all along directed him—into
the presence of nature’s God.

>

FISH PARASITES.
BY A. W. ROBERTS.

The leeches which commonly swim
free in the water, and only occasionally
attach themselves to the bodies of ver-
tebrate animals to drink themselves
full, have their nearest relations in
those which attach themselves to the
exterior of fishes and crustaceans. While,
however, the free swimming leeches
have ringed bodies, the parasitic leeches
of fish and crabs have soft and smooth
bodies, especially in the Malactobdelles.
In other words, there are leeches which

occasionally prey upon warm-blooded
animals, and are hardly to be called
parasites. Others are to be found only
on the skin of cold-blooded vertebrates,
and, finally, those of thoroughly para-
sitic character, which adhere to crabs
and soft-skinned animals. The Pon-
tobdella muricata is most commonly
known as the skate sucker from the
fact that it is most frequently found
adhering to the different families of
the skate or ray family of fishes. This
genus of marine leeches can be gen-
erally distinguished by the numerous
tubercles on the rings of the body,
which produce a very curious effect.
The prevailing color of the skate sucker
is a greenish gray.

These marine leeches are provided
with a large and powerful sucking disk,
by which they can maintain themselves
in a horizontal or perpendicular posi-
tion ; but their most common position,
when at rest and attached to inanimate
objects, is a spiral, the head being in
the centre.

On my return to the aquarium one of
the large fresh water tanks, which had
been neglected for several months, had
become so infested with a small variety
of parasitical leech that it was with
difficulty the glass front could be kept
clear of them. Even the extreme tops
of the aquatic plants growing in the
tank swarmed with thousands of them
constantly extending themselves in
their endeavors to catch on (they not
being free swimmers) to the tails and
fins of the lake dog fish, or the large
specimen of fresh water eels contained
in the tank. The eels instinctively
avoided resting on the floor of the tank
or coming in contact with the plants or
rock-work sides of the tank, but re-
mained suspended night and day in the
open clear mid-water. Still, with all

THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 61

the precautions taken by the eels,
many of them became fringed with
hundreds of the leeches. I have seen
the eels repeatedly loop themselves so
as to bring the head and _ tail together,
in which position they would strip off
the leeches with their teeth ; and in so
doing they often bit or tore off small
pieces of their flesh and fins, so that in
course of time (when the wounds did
not heal rapidly) they became badly
covered with fungus. What with the
leeches and fungus the eels had become
floating skeletons. To save the few re-
maining I placed them in the ‘hospital
tank” for treatment. ‘The course of
treatment was to rapidly pass them
through a bath of warm and very salt
water (a nearly saturated solution.)
This salt bath 1 never knew to fail in
destroying leeches and fungus, if the
fish so treated were not too far gone.

The bottom of the ‘‘ hospital tank ”
contained a heavy flooring of Coney
Island sand,* in which the eels imbed-
ded themselves as if only too glad to
take a rest after their long suspension.
At night they were fed to repletion on
raw beef. Under this treatment they
soon became ‘‘solid”’ and happy.

The tank out of which the eels were
taken was then cleared of all the fish
remaining, after which a half barrel of
quicklime was cast into it, and in one
hour’s time the lime had done its work,
everything living was burnt up, the
tank was then drawn off, scrubbed,
and washed out, and a heavy bottom
of fine sand introduced.

One of the most beautiful tanks I
ever had, and of which I was very
proud, contained some twenty-five
weakfish, thirty kingfish, twenty striped
bass, two pilotfish, and several bluefish.

* Mine white sand.—EbD.

They were all in perfect health, high
color, and feeding well. In one night
all the kingfish died ; the next day the
weakfish departed, then the pilots and
the blues.

I had nothing in the way of an ex-
planation, as I had never in all my long
experience known of fish dying in this
unaccountable manner. I examined
the dead fish carefully ; both externally
and internally they appeared to be in
perfect health ; their gills seemed to be
unusually healthy for fish kept so long
in confinement.

Next to this tank was a tank of
plump and healthy blackfish, who were
fed as blackfish were never fed before ;
and these, too, died in the same unac-
countable manner a short time after
the other fish.

Next to the blackfish was a tank con--
taining over one hundred spotted cod-
lings, and who were so fat that they sel--
dom swam for more than five minutes
at a time without resting half an hour
to take breath.

A day or two after the death of the
weakfish, kingfish, and blackfish, the
codlings began to go. Every few min-
utes through the day my assistant was
scooping out dead fish. Still I could
not detect the cause, but I came to the
conclusion that when blackfish and cod-
lings (the toughest of all aquarium fish):
die, the reason ought to be discovered.

All of these fish, from their first ill-
ness, had been fed on the very choicest.
of marine diet—soft crabs, shrimp, hard
and soft clams, and even oysters and
scallops. The codlings would churn
the surface of the water when fed on
soft crab, so keen were their appetites,
and yet a minute after they would re-
tire to the bottom of the tank, straighten
out and die. I watched the codlings
with painful anxiety, for I began to-

62 THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896.

fear that an epidemic was spreading
through the entire range of tanks, and
that in a few days all the fish would be
lost. I had noticed that when a cod-
ling began to die it lost its rich colors
and took on a sickly brownish white
color, and that its death ended in a
quivering and spasmodic action, after
which it would straighten out and be-
come rigid. ‘These are the exact symp-
toms of smothering. Yet, how could
these fish die of suffocation when I was
pouring oxygen into the water so rapidly
that the water was of a milky color, and
everything was silvery with globules of
air ?

Again I determined to make another
examination, this time under a micro-
scope, and placing a minute portion of
a gill of one of the dead codlings under
the glass, I was astonished to find it
literally packed solid with very minute
marine leeches, every one of which
was gorged with blood taken from the
gills of the fish. Here was the secret ;
these thousands of minute parasites
had so packed the delicate breathing
apparatus of the fish that they had died
for want of oxygen, in other words,
had smothered.

Evidently these parasites were fast
spreading from tank to tank ; the only
way to stop this was to lock up the
water in the affected tanks, and thus
stop the spreading of the parasites
through the entire circuit of tanks and
into the storage reservoirs. The few
codlings that still remained alive were
treated the same as the eels, and with
like good results. The locked up water
was filtered through a large filter, con-
sisting of blankets, sponge, animal
charcoal, and fine sand, after which it
was allowed to pass into the reservoirs.
I afterwards discovered that these para-
sites had been introduced into the
tank through the medium of twenty-

five small Eastern lobsters that, in all
probability, through long confinement
in ‘cars”* and smack wells,+ had
become infested with parasites. All
these lobsters died shortly after being
introduced in the tank.

soe

THE RHUBARB.
(Rheum.)

To most people rhubarb is only known
in the form of long, sappy stems as
sold by our gardeners or grocers to be
used in our kitchens. Only few peo-
ple know that several species of this
important plant are, when properly
cultivated, objects of great beauty.
Especially when rhubarb is grown as a
single specimen in good deep soil, on an
open grass plot, the enormous leaves and
the symmetrical habit of this plant are
very decorative. The writer has seen
single specimens of this plant on pri-
vate grounds and in royal and public
parks in middle Europe that measured
ten feet across, with flower stalks ten
to twelve feet high.

The rhubarb, botanically known as
Rheum, is a native of the far East.
Rheum Emodi is to-day found in a
wild state inthe Himalaya mountains,
at a height of 9,000 to 16,000 feet
above sea level. The great medicinal
properties, chiefly contained in the root,
caused its extensive cultivation. Asa
matter of course the most profitable
culture is carried on in or near its native
home, the climate and properties of the
soil being most favorable.

Ten to twelve years are required to
grow the root to perfection. It is then
as thick as a man’s arm. These are

* Perforated wooden boxes kept floating in
water in which professional fishermen keep
their fish or crabs until wanted to fill orders.
—EbD.

+ Apartments filled with water aboard of
fishing vessels.— Ep.

THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 63

dug up in the late summer when the
plant has gone to rest, split lengthwise,
cut into small pieces, strung on strings
and dried quickly in the open air and
by artificial heat, the product being
known as Chinese or India rhubarb
( Radix rhei chinensis v. indict ).

In China, along the borders of Russia,
is found the R. palmatum. This is ex-
tensively cultivated in China and Tar-
tary ; it is brought into commerce by
way of Russia and known as R. 7. rosiet
v. moscoviticl. R. rhaponticum is a
native of Siberia and extensively culti-
vated there, yielding the drug known
as Radix rhapontici, much used in
veterinary surgery.

In Persia and Syria RP. rides is native.
It has been cultivated there for many
centuries, for the medicinal properties
found in the sap of the leaf stems,
which is made into the delicious Roob-
Ribes and Syrupus petiolum Rhei of
commerce.

Many botanical travelers have de-
voted much of their time, while travel-
ing in Asia, to the study of the culti-
vation of this important plant. In
many localities of Europe Rheum is
now cultivated with more or less suc-
cess ; in some parts for the purpose of
obtaining the high-priced roots of this
plant, while in other sections it is
extensively grown for the purpose of
manufacturing wine and champagne
out of the juice of the leaf stems.

The various varieties now cultivated
by our gardeners for kitchen and
decorative purposes are products of
hybridization.

The rhubarb (2hewm) is grown from
seed. It requires a light, rich soil,
about two and a half to three feet
deep, with perfect drainage. With a
little protection it is perfectly hardy in
our climate.

On St. Mary, the largest of the Scilly
Islands, nearly one million (900,000) Nar-
cissus bulbs were planted this season,
while in Holland only about one-tenth of
this number were planted this year.

DamacGk TO TREES BY Enectric WIRES.
—While we have had no eases of dam-
aged trees by wires running through
the tops, we have had repeated instances
of large trees being killed by the wire
to hold the pole in place being attached
to them. Every instance of fastening
such wires to trees has resulted in the
loss of the tree sooner or later, unless the
wire is removed. The loss is gradual,
taking several years. Leakage of under-
ground gas pipes is very destructive to
shade trees. I have often seen discussed
the question of the effect of electric light
on vegetation. There is an electric light
on the street at one corner of my nursery,
and I have never been able to detect the
slightest difference in growth of leaf or
wood of plants or trees within the radius of
the light or beyond it.—L. B. Ricr, Mich.,
in Am. Gardening.

The oldest bouquet of flowers in the
world is no doubt the one now on exhi-
bition in the Egyptian museum, at Cairo
(Keypt). This was found, together with a
piece of floral wreathing and a mummy, in
an ancient grave. Although these flowers
had been placed there more than 3,000
years ago, the natural colors of some of
them partly remain. A species of erica
(heather), poppy, chrysanthemums, willow,
pomegranate and dielytra can be plainly
distinguished among these ancient floral
ornaments.

EE Wet entre Pea eee

Aquatic Microscopy for Beginners, by Dr.
Alfred C. Stokes. $1.50 prepaid by mail.
E. F. Bigelow, publisher, Portland, Conn.
A very interesting book, well illustrated ; it
should be in the hands of every aquarist.

64 THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896.

For the small sum of one dollar in ad-
vance, which pays for a year’s subscription
to THE AQvuaRiuM, you are entitled to ask
information on any point regarding the
aquarium or the window garden. We offer
no other premium to our subscribers than
that of putting over 25 years of practical ex-
perience in these branches at their disposal.
Ask as many questions as you please, but
please, to enclose postage for reply. All
questions are answered by mail, and we
publish only such in these columns as are
of general interest.

Dr., Columbus, Ohio.—You cannot de-
velop ‘several hundred” young goldfish
in an aquarium of twenty gallons capacity
in the house even if the location of same,
an eastern exposure, is very favorable for
the development of suitable natural fish
food. A tank of such size cannot feed
more than about twenty-five young gold-
fish. A better way of raising baby gold-
fish for one’s aquarium is by using a wood-
en tub. A whisky or wine barrel sawed in
two supplies two such tubs of convenient
sizes. Such a tub, after it has been thor-
oughly soaked with water, is placed in a
sunny place in the yard or garden and
fitted up with sand, pebbles, and aquatic
plants like a regular self-sustaining aqua-
rium, with the exception that no tadpoles
are put in, as these would devour the
young goldfish, The young fry when
about three days from the eggs are placed
in this aquarium. The sun acting upon
the water, and the mosquitoes which de-
posit their eggs in it, will supply a large
amount of suitable food for the young fish.
You need notfear that any of the mosquito
larvee will develop into mosquitoes and mo-
lest the neighborhood as long as you have
live fish in the tub, as these will devour the
larvee as fast as they appear.

Just what number of young fish such
a tub will support cannot be stated
with a certainty, as this depends on how
sheltered the tub is placed, and in what
climate this interesting work is un-
dertaken. The smaller the number of
the young fish the more rapid will be
their growth. When the fish have at-
tained the size of a cucumber seed arti-
ficial feeding should be begun. For this
we use our I X L fishfood, powdered, be-
ginning with very small portions once in
the morning, gradually increasing the sup-
ply and the frequency, until they are fed
about every two hours each day. When
young fish are raised in an aquarium tank
near the window in the house the treat-
ment is the same. By the middle of Sep-
tember the fish will measure about three-
quarters to one and a half inch in length,
and they may be safely removed to the
collection in the parlor aquarium.

L. H. C., O.—Yes, lizards would be use-
ful to keep the aphis from the lotus, but.
you would not be able to keep these ani-
mals at your lily-pond ; they would soon
find a bush or tree which they would like
better and leave the pond. The green
lizard is not poisonous, in fact none are.
They will try to bite you when you first
catch them in the open air, but as soon as
they learn to know that they are not
harmed they rather enjoy being handled
by man.

The best and easiest way to keep aphis
from aquatic plants is with the aid of
water spiders and water measurers (Hy-
drometra) ; the latter a lively creature,.
with a slender body like that of a mos-
quito, but much larger, is found on any
creek or pond near the shore, as is also the
water spider. If you will place about four
or six of these on your pond they will soon
clean your collection.

Frog and toad tadpoles are the best
agents to keep the green vegetable growth
that enoys your lilies, down. If you keep
goldfish in your pond these will also con-
sume a considerable part of it.

ei ee

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