Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-06-15
BEHIND THE SCENES
AT THE N. Y. AQUARIUM
Little Sea Horses That Delighted
Thousands Are Dead. hut New
Wonders Succeed Them.
ny MADGE ARTHUR.

NEW YORK. Juno l4.-whcn next
you visit the New York AQUARIUM
formerly Castle Garden" where immi-
grants used to be landed. and where
the immortal Jennie Lind once sang
YOU need no, expend az much sympathy
upon tho captive nah as perhaps YOU
ala on "a former viait. The quarters
assigned to each OF the many varieties
appear TO the eyes OF visitors.
You saze through plate glass into
various tanks that limo the big circu.
lar building on two floors. and II APP
pears AZ though their inhabitants had
barely room TO turn around in; each
tank, seemingly. has width. from
in shape 10 resomble wash boiler.
In reality these tanks extend for a
distance OF twolro feet back from their
glass fronts. but their greater part is
In shadow. and did tho silly fish that
dwell in them desire TO cludo public
scrutiny, they could easily do so. OF
course. they have no such desire. and
arc ever crowdinr ono another at the
front of the tanks. 10 get good look
at VS. poor human fish. I, is because
of the fact they would all become blind
were it not for these shgdowy recesscs
into which they may retire. that the
whole OF each tank is not illumined
and made visible to visitors.
At former Wait TO tho aquarium
the world-tho dear little sea horses.
swimming about with arched necks.
most captiratcd me. Alas! they are
az dead and others have not yet been
TO take their places. AS substitute.
the newly arrived sharksuckcrs may
not be without interest.
cit is only rs ] write the name OF
this strange Ash that the pertinency
or it's association with thought Of
horses dawns upon me, but as the ocean
suggestion can be dismissed.)
There is nothing OF snortive nature
about the sharksucker. He suggests
Law Of mechanics rather than the
that. through suction. perfectly
smooth piece of dampened leather can
he made to adhere TO, and support, tho
weight Of heavy stone This extra.
ordinary fish has on lis under side, and,
therefore. carries about with IT, per-
rect substitute for the manufactured
or leather suction disk. 1t resembles
and has the strip Of a professional
ONCE holder.
In appearance the Stakeholder is like
in the aquarium is but about eighteen
Inches long, It sometimes, | am told.
grows to length OF three feet. Being
D;s rse r,ge yell a6,e TO SWIM; /, prefers
aquatic creatures. The swift moving
shark is its favorite automobile, al
though it is not avcrse even to 80 slow
a mode OF travel as that represented
by a turtles salt.
He's a canny creature" said the su-
pcrintendent of the aquarium. as from
behind the scenes. 7 eazed down into
one OF the tanks and saw the serpent
like fsh glide out from the Swallowed
part of the pool and auddcnly glue IT.
self 20 the plate glass in front. "Hc
fastens himself 10 a shark Or other
large FISH in search Of food. and CON
tents himself with the crumbs they
scatter while dcvourins their catch let
ting go his hold just long enough to
pick up the floating PARTICLES OF food.
and then rcattaching himself to the
hunter.
But" continued this well-known au-
thority on the habits OF FISH, "he isn't
az cannS Is some OF the turtle II shers
in tropical waters for if they catch a
sharksucker in their nets. as they
sometimes do. they tie a string just
above the fork OF his tail and release