PUBLIC MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY.

The Society has held three public meetings under its own auspices during the past year and has participated in many others.

On July 13, 1907, a public meeting was held at the Stony Point Reservation as noted on page 20.

On Thursday evening, November 14, 1907, by the courtesy of the New York Historical Society, a public meeting was held in the beautiful new building of the New York Historical Society on Central Park West, between Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh streets, New York City, in commemoration of the birth of Robert Fulton, November 14, 1765, and the centenary of the successful inauguration of steam navigation by him in 1807. Dr. George Frederick Kunz, President of this Society, presided. The other speakers were Mr. Samuel Verplanck Hoffman, President of the New York Historical Society; Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, President of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission; Capt. George A. White, Assistant General Manager of the Hudson River Day Line; Mrs. Robert Abbe, President of the City History Club; Prof. Frederick R. Hutton, Sc. D., President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; and Mr. Edward Hagaman Hall, the Secretary of this Society. Extracts from the addresses will be found at page 249. The guests of honor of the occasion were Mr. Robert Fulton Crary, Jr., of New York, and the Misses Alice and Amy Crary of Matteawan, N. Y., great-grandchildren of Robert Fulton. The Society also prepared a brief sketch of Fulton's career which, through the co-operation of Dr. Wm. H. Maxwell, City Superintendent of Schools, was sent to the teachers. throughout the city with instructions to hold special exercises on the same day.

On Tuesday evening, January 7, 1908, a public meeting was

held by the courtesy of the National Arts Club in its gallery at No. 15 Gramercy Park, New York City, at which addresses were delivered by Col. Henry W. Sackett, on the Philipse Manor House at Yonkers, and Mr. Herbert L. Bridgman, on "Hudson-Fulton: The Men and the River." Both addresses were illustrated with stereopticon views.

BICENTENNIAL OF BIRTH OF LINNAEUS.

On Friday, May 23, 1907, the Society participated in the celebration in New York City of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Swedish naturalist, Carl von Linnè, better known as Carolus Linnaeus, under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences. The leading features of the celebration were the dedication of a tablet on the Pelham Parkway bridge across the Bronx river, characteristic exhibitions in the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Zoological Garden, the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Aquarium, and literary exercises in the Brooklyn Institute.

The tablet on the Pelham Parkway bridge reads as follows:

"Linnaeus, botanist and zoologist. Born, Rashult, Sweden, May 23, 1707. Died, Hammarby, Sweden, February 18, 1778. This bridge was dedicated by the New York Academy of Sciences, May 23, 1907.”

Addresses were delivered by Dr. Nathaniel L. Britton, President of the Academy of Sciences; Hon. Joseph I. Berry, Park Commissioner for the Borough of the Bronx; Dr. George F. Kunz, President of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society; and Mr. Emil Johnson, President of the United Swedish Societies. The address of the President of this Society will be found at page 271.

In the masonry of the bridge back of the tablet were deposited various contemporary mementoes, including copies of the ad

dresses delivered, and the key to the receptacle was officially committed to Dr. Samuel V. Hoffman, President of the New York Historical Society, and his successors in office with a view to the opening of the receptacle 100 years later.

CENTENNIAL OF THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM OR WEST BATTERY.

As stated under the preceding head, one feature of the Linnaeus bi-centenary was an exhibition at the New York Aquarium. On the evening of the anniversary, the New York Zoological Society gave a reception in the Aquarium building in commemoration also of the centennial of the building. About 450 persons were in attendance, the invited guests being received by officers of the Zoological Society and the Academy of Sciences headed by the Director of the Aquarium. The building was specially decorated and illuminated for the occasion and visitors enjoyed the first view of the collection by electric light. This was the first opening of the Aquarium at night, the second being on the 29th of August, 1907, when 250 members of the Seventh International Zoological Congress were given a special reception.

The Aquarium building, which is situated in Battery Park at the southern extremity of Manhattan Island, has an interesting history. It was originally built as a fortification for the defense of the city. The date of the actual commencement of the work is not now known, as many of the letters and reports of the period of construction are missing from the War Department. That it was planned in 1807 appears from the instructions of the Secretary of War to Lieut.-Col. Jonathan Williams, dated July 21, 1807 (58510-515), a copy of which was supplied to the Director of the Aquarium by the present Secretary of War, as follows:

"A foundation should be made around the Bastion of the Old Battery, where the flagstaff is placed, extending forty or fifty

feet from the present, and upon this foundation a Battery should be constructed in such manner, that the gun upon the right will take the North river, while that upon the left will range along the Courtine of the old Battery."

Colonel Williams, in a letter to the Secretary of War, dated August 28, 1807, replied: "I find that I must go at least two hundred feet out from the Battery to have any command of the North river."

The deed from the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the city of New York to the United States, conveying water lot, etc., is dated November 17, 1807.

The records do not show just when construction was begun, but the building was evidently not completed until three or four years later. At the time of its construction, it stood about 300 feet from the shore. The intervening space has since been filled in. It was in use in 1812 and was variously known as the West Battery and Southwest Battery. After the War of 1812, it was called Castle Clinton. It had a battery of thirty guns, the embrasures for which still remain in the outer wall, which is nine feet thick. The old ammunition rooms are surrounded with walls of masonry fifteen feet thick. In 1823 the building was ceded by Congress to the city of New York and used as a place of amusement called Castle Garden, which-had a seating capacity of 6,000. General Lafayette was received here in 1824; President Jackson in 1832; President Tyler in 1843; Louis Kossuth in 1851. Professor Morse, inventor of the telegraph, demonstrated here in 1835 the practicability of controlling the electric current. Jenny Lind began singing here in 1850, under the management of P. T. Barnum. Among other notables received here were President Van Buren and the Prince of Wales. The building was used as a landing place for immigrants from 1855 to 1890, during which period 7,690,606 immigrants passed through its doors. It was opened as an aqua

rium by the city on December 10, 1896, and on November 1, 1902, its management was transferred from the Department of Parks to the New York Zoological Society, a private scientific association with a membership of 1,644.*

The Aquarium is the largest in the world and contains a greater number of species and of specimens than any other aquarium. It has seven large floor pools, ninety-four large wall tanks and thirty smaller tanks. There are also twenty-six reserve tanks containing specimens not on exhibition. The building is circular in form, with a diameter of 205 feet. The largest pool is thirty-seven feet in diameter and seven feet deep. It is equipped for heating sea water for tropical fishes in winter and has a refrigerating plant for cooling fresh water in summer. An air compressor furnishes extra aëration to all tanks when necessary. Flowing fresh water is supplied from the city water system, while the pumps circulate about 300,000 gallons of salt water daily. The pumps run day and night and the engine-room men work in eight-hour watches. Brackish water for the large floor pools is pumped from the bay through a well under the building. The salt-water wall tanks, now being supplied from the bay, will soon be supplied from a reservoir holding 100,000 gallons of pure stored sea water. This water, to be brought in by steamer, will be used as a "closed circulation," the water being pumped through the exhibition tanks and falling thence, through sand filters, back to the reservoir. The supply pipes to all tanks are of vulcanized rubber. The drainage pipes from the salt-water tanks to the reservoir are iron pipes, lead lined. As an Aquarium the attendance for the ten years ending December 31, 1906, amounted to 17,103,328, an average of 4,685 visitors a day. The attendance for the year 1906 was 2,106,569, an aver

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age of 5,771 a day.

* For further historical reference, see the Eighth Annual Report of the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society.