THE SPIRIT OF GRANDEUR OF THE WESTERN PLAINS BROUGHT TO THE SPACIOUS AVENUES OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

Four American bison of heroic size were modeled and cast in bronze by A. Phimister Proctor in 1915 for the terminals of the Q Street Bridge, Washington. In these Mr. Proctor does not let what is natural in form and pose be overruled by the principles of conventionalism in art. It is easy to understand that in the case of animal forms used as a motive in architecture even the lines of nature may be drawn away from their realistic course for the sake of harmony with the whole, but such deviation from the naturalistic could never be valid in an isolated statue

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Bengal tiger on the Sixteenth Street Bridge, Washington (see front view of the same figure, page 470).-This great cat, ten feet long in the bronze, by Proctor, 1911, has been given a pose characteristically feline, and the anatomical detail, where indicated, is perfect, giving a result altogether pleasing both to the zoologist and the artist

The Sixteenth Street Bridge is an object of admiration in the eyes of all visitors to Washington, and the bronze tigers of heroic size lend an appreciable dignity and elegance to the highway. It is suggested that at the entrances of the National Zoological Park the addition of life-size statues of American big game, especially of elk and moose, would fill a great present need

ZOOLOGICAL STATUARY AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

though evidence of an ease in forgetting our country's great among the warriors she has produced in her history and civilization.

Apart from their glorifying representatives of the mammalian fauna of certain parts of India, the four bronze Bengal tigers on the Sixteenth Street Bridge, crossing Piney Branch, are superb pieces of work. The pose, which is the same in each animal, is full of dignity, natural, and with a certain subtle meaning that is not only characteristically feline, but especially appropriate for pieces of this character, occupying, as they do, a prominent position in one of the best known avenues of a modern city. Washington is to be congratulated upon this achievement; and Proctor's great, tigerine cats will be objects of admiration for all who view them in the ages to come.

does not allow the just principles of conventionalism in sculpture and modeling to overrule what we recognize to be natural. His conception of how the American buffalo should be represented for the purpose for which he employed it, most emphatically stands for this. These four splendid bisons are sculptured or cast so close to nature that their grandeur and naturalness impress all beholders favorably. Their very presence at the entrances to the above-named bridge at once stamps the latter as one of a series of famous spans in the history of American enterprises of that character. And it is to be fervently hoped when Washington comes to repeat such work in other parts of the city, that each achievement will bear the stamp of a similar knowledge of requirements; that it will prove to be an exposition of all that constitutes a correct conception of zoological and anatomical facts as we know them, and that this knowledge will be employed, in any particular instance, to perpetuate the normal and the real in such of our big mammals as we may select for the purpose, especially as these creatures are being as rapidly exterminated upon this continent as they are in the wilds of other parts of the world.

Proctor was also given the opportunity to model and erect four bronze American bisons at the terminals of the Q Street Bridge (crossing Rock Creek in line of Q Street, between Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth streets) a work which was finished July 22, 1915, or four years after his bronze tigers were completed.

It will be at once observed that in his idealization of animal poses, Mr. Proctor

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Few instances of fish or reptiles in statuary can be found. There are hawksbill turtles and frogs on the base, at the feet of Neptune, in the famous Hinton Perry fountain of the Congressional Library, Washington. As shown in the photograph a very young specimen of the hawksbill must have been used as model, indicated by the great length and slenderness of the foreflippers

ANIMAL POPULATION FOUND ON MUD BOTTOM OF ONEIDA LAKE

A biological survey of Oneida Lake, New York, illustrates the relation of physical environment to plant and animal life. Six general types of lake bottom could be definitely distinguished: bowlder, gravel, sand, sandy clay, clay, and mud. These different soils support varied types of vegetation, which in turn serve as food for different animal groups, which in their turn serve as food for various species of fish. Although the invertebrates and plants of the lake are not directly of economic interest to man, they are, in their capacity of food supply for the edible fish, of great and hitherto largely unrecognized importance.

In the above photograph are assembled the invertebrate animals collected on 768 square inches of mud bottom under eleven feet of water. The animal life here is principally molluscan, snails and finger-nail clams. Caddis fly cases, mostly empty, a few midge larvæ (Chironomus) and a dragon fly larva (Tetragoneuria) are also present. [The last-named, unfortunately for the attractiveness of its portrait, has lost four of its legs]

Studies in Aquiculture or Fresh-water Farming

By FRANK COLLINS BAKER

Curator, Museum of Natural History, University of Illinois