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THE ROSCOFF ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY.

The celebrated Roscoff zoological station was founded in 1872, and has therefore been in existence for thirteen years; but it may be said that it has changed appearance thirteen times.  Those who, for the last six or seven years, have gone thither to work with diligence find at every recurring season some improvement or new progress.

A rented house, a small shed in a yard, little or no apparatus, and four work rooms—­such was the debut of the station; and modest it was, as may be seen.  Later on, the introduction of a temporary aquarium, which, without being ornamental, was not lacking in convenience, sufficed for making some fine discoveries regarding numerous animals.

A small boat served for supplying necessaries to the few workers who were then visiting Roscoff; but as the number of these kept gradually increasing, it became necessary to think of enlarging the station, and the purchase of a piece of property was decided upon.  Since then, Mr. Lacaze Duthiers has done nothing but develop and transform this first acquisition.  A large house, which was fitted up in 1879, formed the new laboratory.  This was built in a large garden situated nearly at the edge of the sea.  We say nearly, as the garden in fact was separated from the sea by a small road.  The plan in Fig. 1 shows that this road makes an angle; but formerly it was straight, and passed over the terrace which now borders upon the fish pond.  How many measures, voyages, and endless discussions, and how much paper and ink, it has taken to get this road ceded to the laboratory!  Finally, after months of contest, victory rewarded Mr. Duthiers’s tenacity, and he was then able to begin the construction of a pond and aquarium.  All this was not done at once.

[Illustration:  FIG. 1.—­PLAN OF THE ROSCOFF LABORATORY.]

Another capital improvement was made in 1882.  The public school adjoining the establishment was ceded to it, the separating walls fell, the school became a laboratory, the class rooms were replaced by halls for research, and now no trace of the former separation can be seen—­so uniform a whole does the laboratory form.  No one knows what patience it required to form, piecemeal as it were, so vast an establishment, and one whose every part so completely harmonizes.

During the same year a park, one acre in area, was laid out on the beach opposite the laboratory.  This is daily covered by the sea, and forms a preserve in which animals multiply, and which, during the inclement season, when distant excursions are impossible, permits of satisfying the demands that come from every quarter.  All, however, is not finished.  Last year a small piece of land was purchased for the installation of hydraulic apparatus for filling the aquarium.  This acquisition was likewise indispensable, in order to prevent buildings from being erected upon the land and shutting off the light from the work rooms opposite.  Alas, here we find our enemy again—­the little road!  Negotiations have been going on for eighteen months with the common council, and, what is worse, with the army engineers, concerning the cession of this wretched footpath.