The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-26

! be needed and that is what l want this
! permanent fund of 100000 for.
I'VE must get these men from the
! best of similar institutions in the
/ United States and Europe. To get their
! services we must be able TO show them
/ that we have the means to pay them.
! | was told in Naples that we need have
no fear regarding the students, we can
get all we can accommodate, they will
come from all parts of the world and
take tables and pursue their studies.
By a table mean a room fitted up with
number of glass tanks, shelves for
! library and with other accessories.
| Here one may study sea life and have
greater privacy than could be had in
his own home; visitors are never ad-
mitted to these tables The glass jars
or tanks contain number of one spe-
cies each. There will be the Crustace-
ans, the Mollusks and the Radiates,
| for instance. A student may want to
study crab life from the very begin
ming to the end, and he can do it here
to his hearts content and without in
| reference. 1 had to smile in Naples
when the head of the greatest aquari-
um in the world conducted me through
his apologies for intruding upon the
gentlemen who occupied the tables
apologized not only for taking me into
the rooms, but for going in himself.
The aquarium here, when established,
will be conducted on the same plan as
that in Naples, or the one at Woods
Holl, in Massachusetts. Where neces-
sary, improvements on them will be
made.
Another item of expense will be the
library devoted to books on marine
life. l have already started a nucleus,
for when away l secured some valu-
able works. Another thing purchased
and which with the books l bought
will be used in the Bishop Museum un-
til the aquarium is ready, is a mag
nif1cent microscope, the best that could
be obtained in all Europe, and. one
which was exhibited at Berlin. With
it can make a cholera bacillus appear
as big as an eel"
"About the tanks, Professor, will you
have them in position where the fish
may be observed by the public?"
eyes," he replied. But really 1 do
not care-a snap for the exhibition part
of it. Naturally the public will wish to
visit the aquarium, and arrangements
will be made for the people. There will
be enormous tanks that will contain
hundreds of different species of sea
life. Of course care would have to be
exercised in the selection of the Spe-
cies; we would not want to put into
tank one of a species that would eat
the others up before morning. There
is an endless variety of life in the Pa
cific, and our aim would be to secure
a number of specimens of each species.
We would not confine ourselves to
those found only around the Islands,
our search would extend all over the
Pacific. To accommodate them there
must be numberless tanks, even though
there might be two hundred different
species in one tank. In crabs alone
there are hundreds of varieties. And
in the waters around Fiji there is a
crab with a body not larger than your
hat, and legs six feet long. We may
never get a live one, but we will most
surely have one of the shells.
t"To keep these tanks in order and
have the water always at the proper
degree of temperature and clean, will
require the greatest care. Fresh water
must be constantly pumped in, and the
fish watched, so that if one should die
it will not be allowed to remain in the
tank long enough to poison the others.
There will be much of interest to pro-
fessors and students as well as to the
general public, and they will have op-
portunities for viewing what they
could not under ordinary, and l may
say natural, conditions 1t would be
interesting, for instance, to see a crab
shed its shell and take on new coat,
and still greater to watch the growth
of coral. These things will be possible
once the aquarium is esta blished as
provisions will be made for keeping
some of the tanks supplied with them"
Prof. Brigham is already at work on
the plans for the great undertaking,
and they will be completed by him from
ideas obtained during his visit abroad.
Besides the designs for the various
buildings, there will be the piping and
arrangements for more than a thou
sand water taps to be used in the large
exhibition tanks as we'll as the smaller
ones in the students rooms.
There are many things to be con-
sidered,'' said the professor, "and I
want the details perfect 1 do not think
| overlooked any of them, even to the
accommodations of the faculty, in my
conversation with Mr. Bishop. In Eu-
rope the men rent a house and employ
a cook and divide the expense pro rata
In the design for the building l includ-
ed a space for sleeping and dining
rooms for the professors, but Mr.. Bish-
CD objects to keeping a boarding house.
He may think of better plan, and it
will be carried out, but l am sure it
will not do for the people connected
with the aquarium to live in town and
go out to Waikiki to give instruction.
''While away l found some valuable
relics of Cook and Vancouver in the
museums, valuable because they are
without duplicates. Some of them are
in Berlin London and Berne and quite