Uncle George’s tank was very simple. It was made up of several large glass bells, such as the gardener uses for covering tender plants.
Uncle George’s Aquarium.
Each glass bell had a nob on the end of it. Uncle George got a large block of wood for each bell-jar. This block he hollowed out with a chisel.
He next bored a large hole in the centre of the hollow to hold the nob. Then he cut a piece of thick green cloth into a round shape, with a hole in its centre.
This piece of cloth was placed over the hollowed out part of the block, and the bell-jar, turned upside down, was placed in the block so that the glass nob fitted into the hole.
Uncle George fitted up four of these tanks and filled them with fresh water. The frog spawn was put into the first vessel. The next was for the newts. The third one held the caddis worms and some other curious creatures that had been found in the ditch.
In the fourth vessel were half a dozen pretty little fishes called stickle-backs, which the boys had caught in the brook.
Some water weeds and a few water snails or whelks were put into each vessel, except that with the frog spawn in it.
Every other morning Uncle George changed the water by means of a tube which he called a siphon.