Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-01-18
THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM.

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rssMahlstick," in Louisville Courier-Journal. ]
Have Just returned from a visit to the
Aquarium, and in fancy from the bot
tom of the sea. The New York Aqua
rum occupies the site corner of Thirty
fifth and Broadway, vice the Colosseum,
gone to Philadelphia. 1t is a building
about 80 feet by 100, of n floor. On
each side are two apartments or cor
ridors, divided from the center by rus
tic arches of tangled and much snarled
wood. Along the sides of the walls are
long glass tanks with subdivisions,
which shut off the various families and
sea monsters from the evils of COM
munism. Not far from the entrance,
on the right, is a stone tank for seals,
and near the center is a large circular
tank for the whale. Near the end OPP
posite the entrance is tank occupied
by a sea lien, and about twelve feet
above that is a rustic bridge reached by
a staircase from either end. Behind
this tank is s. Black Crook grotto with
no gilding-in the rough-and near this
is the land and water domain of the
baby hippopotamus, who, by the way,
looks like Ben. Butler. All the subdi-
visions of the glass tanks have a bed of
white pebbles and shells three or four
inches thick, and up through this ascend
constantly large bubbles of water, a
very hiccough of a fountain. The first
compartment is filed with
live sponge. Unlike the hu-
man sponge, this vegetable animal
has no expression sufficient for Fowler
to base a chronological opinion upon.
They have lots of form, however, and
are fruitful in philosophical suggestions.
While gazing at this extremely low form
of life, one is inclined to the opinion
that an essay by a sponge would be
monotonous. In this line of tanks one
Of the most amusing sights was that
furnished by the hermit crab. Every
one has seen the conch-shel in most of
its varieties. Some of them are beauti-
full in color. The best place to study
them is at the theater when the "Naiad
Queen'' is produced. There the stu
dent of science will find them thrown
about on the stage in reckless %profusion,
and painted in surprising colors on the
flats and wings. 1t is an animal that
defies govt, through having bat one
bone. A large number of these conch-
shells were moving about onthe pebbly
pavement, and with claws the color Off
shrimp. The head looked like that of
the devils darning-needle, so called in
the vulgate. These were hermit crabs,
who, having no toughness of shell, bor-
row the cOnch-shells and 90 about with
them on their backs in a manner that is
ludicrously absurd. Lazily floating in
the water were some very beautiful sill
yer fish, with what looked like Hebrew
inscriptions in large letters on their side.
One or two hard-shell crabs occupied
these premises. One of them,a hardened
sinner and q most detestable old gour-
mand, particularly attracted my aUten-
ton. He had the air of an old man
seated at q dinner-table, with a prodig-
ious mouth and an exhaustless appetite.
He was banqueting on a spiky-looking
black bunch, which resembled a minia-
ture model of a porcupine. This old
glutton picked out bits and put them in
his head with one claw, precisely after
the action of a greedy boy picking
plums out of a pudding and slowing
them away in his mouth. Once he
stopped and picked his teeth, and then
he was a clown e~ndeavoring to extract
a plug of stringy beef from a hollow
tooth. 1t was the most ridiculous par
ody on humanity. The number and
variety of fish in this place are surpris-
ing. At one tank / stopped to look at
a model of beauty called a skate. This
creature, extremely fiat and thin, pre-
sented a front view of great breadth of
waist, a hideous mouth with thick lips,
eyes with nc speculation, and seemed
to be standing on the extreme tip of a
tail like a monkeys. AS | paused here
he assembled vertically, waving two
short arms. He stopped for a moment,
raised both arms in a prayerful atti-
tude, and then solemnly descended
to the bottom, his tail bending
up behind him like an article
with a solitary hinge. 1t repeated
the performance three times, and it sug-
gested in it's monotonous gravity and
serious aspect an extremely tipsy
deacon, speechless from liquor, but able
still to 90 through the motions. There
are fresh-water fish and saltwater fish,
among the latter a specimen of a fam
lily l was once intimate with, through a
frying-pan acquaintance and a bowling
acquaintance in the water. They are
found in the Bay of Campeachy, and
die like the dolphin, of many-changing
colors. I don'5 know the family name
of this in: eresting party. The horse
shoe fish is not proud OF its beauty, I'M
less it be inordinately vain. 1t is a
horses hoof, thin to translueency, with
a tail attached. 1t has works on the
under side, which suggest the POSSIBLE
ity of its having started into existence
as a watch. 1t is a very common fish
all along the American coast, and evil
IDENTIFY an accident. Another interest
ing object was a long trough full of in
FAINT salmon, born November 4. There
were several million to all appearances,
and had reached the respectable size of
an inch in length. Something that
looked like a Chinese puzzle was a
layer OF eggs Or spawn, white and hex
agonal in shape. The sea lion is a fine
specimen and is a musical critic. A band
OF twelve musicians up in a rustic bower
hTrSt info Il1tah yo,,ofn' Tho cno