The New York herald., 1921-11-20


r TERE we are in the Office of Miss Ida
Fl NJ Mellen, secretary and scientific
assistant of the Aquarium She is
one Of the most interesting conversationalists
we have ever met. If her talk on fish isn't
Interesting, we'd like to know what Is. She
is telling us, among other things, that for
the first time in ten years, the Aquarium has
a triple-tail, flasher fish. Miss Mellen,
who has sense of humor, is saying, "And
how this flasher loves to pose! He seems
to realize that he is the only one of his
species that we have and he is forever posing
where every one can see him. don't think
he'll be really satisfied until he is photo
graphed. Let me show him to you" With
which we leave with Miss Mellen for peep
at the flasher.
Ha! here he is. And beauty too.
And now" continues Miss Mellen, "I1l
show you an even more important acquisi-
ton 1t was brought in by a sea captain
the other day. 1t is perhaps the rarest
exhibit we have"
Hooray She is going to show us
whale. What but a whale could be the
"rarest exhibit?"
Here it s," says Miss Melen pointing to
a little glass bowl that a whale could never
squeeze into. 1T is what is known as
thread fish. 1t is even rarer than the
flasher"
Another disappointment.
Oh well, we might as we'll look at the
thread fish. He is all huddled up In heap
and looks like anything at all. TITS hard to
tell what he is in that position observes
Miss Mellen, It'll give him gentle poke"
And she does, using a little stick. Where
upon Mr.. Thread Fish comes to life. some
Of the folks here" continues Miss Mellen,
SAY its features resemble those Of kitten.
It's expression seems more like that of
rhinoceros to me-" And strange to say, the
little six inch fish has that very expression,
which, however, is nothing for a fish to brag
about. We hope the thread fish will remem-
Der this
Miss Merfen is telling us with pride-and
don't blame her-that the attendance at
the Aquarium is about 5000 day, ar prac-
tically what 1t was before the war. She is
also telling us of some OF the amusing things
that happen in the aquarium every day. But
we could tell better story than any she has
told us. Ours has TO do with near-sighted
reporter who in a two-hour hunt couldn't
find the largest critters on the premises, the
whales. Who ever heard of such n thing
Shall we tell her the story? We lack the
courage. We shall hare to find these whales.
That is all there's to IT.
Well. here we go again. Once more we are
inspecting the fish. Here is the chdetodip
terHs tabor, better known as the spade fish.
It looks to us as II II gets its name because
it is in the habit of shovellng in its food.
How comfortable those crocodiles look
splashing around in that pool belowl We
are tempted to jump In and have a swim
ourself. But that would be against the law.
There Is a sign reading. VISITORS ARE
FORBIDDEN TO FEED THE ANIMALS"
II a crocodile ate us we might be arrested.
We are all a-tremble. We are approach
ing the only pool we have not visited Are
the whales there? Here's hopingi
GOSH Only turtles! No, we are mis-
taken-they are .eretmochelys I'm ibricatd.
But they look like turtles. Better biologists
than we would be fooled.
Then there are no whales here? Gone is
our fondest dream Disappointed and dis
illusioned, we are perhaps the unhappiest
man In the world We don't believe any
thing any more. We don't believe there are
any whales. We don't believe there's a
Santa Claus. We don't believe
Gosh, this is interesting! An exhibit with
out Latin namel A humble frog-and all
by himself. Don't you feel lonesome here
froggie? II prefer this to the Latin Quar-
ter" he replies.
still, If you don't like the Latins. froggie,
you'1l find plenty Of fins on the premises.