The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-09-08
FISH FILMS MAKE
HIT IN Los ANGELES
Bonine's Aquarium Pictures Ex-
hibited by Professor Bryan
and Given Write-Up.

visitor of rather more than ordi-
nary note, even where distinguished
visitors are nearly as common as Or
! binary citizens, is William Alanson
Bryan, who is the guest Of relatives in
| Whittier, and going to various points
of scientific interest in and around Los
Angeles, says the Times of that city.
Mr.. Bryan is president of the Pacific
Scientific Institution, with headquar
tiers in Honolulu. In addition to this,
he Is an expert 'Ologist or something
like a dozen different counts; in which
capacity he is on familiar terms with
pretty much everything that flies,
swims, walks or wriggles in, over or
around the Paclfc-or has done SO
within the past million years or some
such matter. He calls them by their
first names-beyond which scientific
familiarity cannot go. He is professor
Of ORTHODOXY in the College of Hawaii.
The institution of which Mr.. Bryan
recently became the chief director is
modelled somewhat upon the lines of
the Smithsonian Institution in Washing
ton, and its scope is scarcely less linn
tied. The special field of the body has
hitherto been mostly confined to a more
or less exhaustive study of the 'ologies
aforementioned, as applied to the in
Vulnerable scientifically, at least
little known islands of the Pacific.
In extension of these researches 1t is
proposed to secure cooperation with
governments, colleges, learned societies
and individuals whose scientific inter
ests and activities touch upon those
of the institution. 1t is in furtherance
of this intention that leave of absence
has been granted Mr.. Bryan, who acts
here and elsewhere as their representa-
tive.
He will leave today for the East,
where, through the medium OF lectures
based upon the past work of the lnstl-
tuition. he expects to call the attention
of eastern scientists to the mutual ad-
vantages to result from collaboration
along their special lines.
One point of considerable originality
in connection with these lectures is the
fact that he will illustrate them with
motion pictures. The geological part
of his dispositions only does not lend
itself to this method of exposition, in
asmuch as the motions to be detected
in a trilOblte, say, or a crlnold that
has been dead since washday In the |
late Upper Silurian Period, are practi-
cally negligible.
The fnny tribes. however, that are
still able to wiggh around under the |
incubus of their ny-jointed scientific |
names, have been the special prey of |
his winking camera. In making these |
films, of which he now has severaII
miles, Mr.. Bryan admits that he has
had recourse to fraud and deception.
In fact, he rather glories in being the
inventor of the neat little fake where
by big tropical fish are seen to he
swimming lightly around at the bottom
of the sea- surrounded. apparently, by
acres and acres OF submarine plants.
spOnges. sea anemone and everything
else that a weII-regulated ocean uses
for a carpet.
Aquatic motion pictures-or attempts
at them-have been MADE through the
bottoms of gIass-keeled boats before,
but, 50 far as he knows. Mr.. Bryan IS
the first to make them in an ordinary
back yard. He built him an enormous
tank of glass, whose bottom he covered
with shells. sea weed, sand and so on
This. filled with water borrowed from
the seashore. he used as a cage for all
the tropical varieties of fish of his ac-
200. To produce
the effect of unlimited space beyond,
he hired a cunning perspective artist
and paid him by the hour to paint
background to stand up behind the
tank The illusion is practically per
fect-unless the carping observer hap
pens to notice that there are more
kinds of fish in the immediate fore
ground than were actually seen together
before. A patched place in one film
the point at which huge
coral fish interrupted the proceedings
by poking his inquisitive snub nose
through the side Of the tank to see
what the camera was doing.
Another group of films which are out
of the ordinary are those taken of
Kilauea in eruption-the biggest active
volcano in the world. TO secure that !
part Of them which was made at close I