Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/38

26 which is first entered, however, might best be described as a circular, dome-roofed hall, whose rocky walls are broken by pools and basins to harbor turtles and crocodiles. Here in the middle stands the huge aviary, well stocked with bright-colored birds, and adjoining are the cages of the orang and chimpanzee—non-aquatic attractions, for which, strangely enough, the aquarium has always been noted. From this hall a long, dark gallery, whose walls are pitted with aquaria, leads to a second grotto, domed above, pitlike below, down which the visitor passes to a lower series of corridors which twist and turn, descend and rise, but continue to exhibit aquaria on every side till the exit is reached. Thus have been passed the geological and basalt grottoes and the beaver pool, near which a small descending rill has been made of service for hatching fish eggs. One of the curious features of the aquarium is the idea of distance which impresses the visitor as he wanders on and on; and it is even difficult to convince him that the corridors, grottoes, and twisting passageways can be contained within so small a surface area as that of the residence-looking building he has seen at the corner of the street; and he can not fail to wonder at the ingenuity of the architect, not merely in this regard, but in the arrangement of vistas which occur on every hand, and in the deftness with which the working-day side of the aquarium has been concealed.

Such in brief is the general visitor's idea of the Berlin Aquarium; to the adept its internal organization seems even more ingenious and interesting when it comes to be examined. The tanks are cared for by means of a labyrinth of concealed passageways; the storage reservoir is hidden away below the concrete floor of the lowest gallery, and most remarkable of all is the use of an artificial mixture as an economical substitute for sea water. As long used by Dr. Hermes, the present director, this mixture has been found of great practical value, and it certainly enables many fishes to live in spite of the adverse conditions of their confinement for months and even for years. The variety of living forms which one sees in the various tanks is a striking feature of the aquarium, and one is strongly impressed with the range in marine fauna which is thus kept in a district remote from the sea. The arrangement of the aquaria, it may be further added, is often regional; there will thus be grouped in one tank the forms of the North Sea, in another those of the Mediterranean, in a third those of the Baltic.

—A brief description of the Brighton Aquarium must not be omitted, finally, from the present discussion; it is certainly the most typical, if not the largest, of the newer aquariums of Europe. From the architectural standpoint, moreover, its interior must unquestionably be given a foremost rank. Brighton