stages in their manufacture into the finished products of art or industry.
The fisheries section is rich in well-displayed exhibits of most of devices known to man from the earliest times to the present, for the winning from the sea its rich booty; examples of gear and tackle, photographs, transparencies and oil paintings of their use, models showing boats and fishery gear in action, and the homes of fisher folk.
The wonderfully rich and exceedingly varied exhibits of this museum, centered as they are around the idea of the utilization of the sea, that least-known and last-to-be-conquered part of the globe, give even to the museum-weary traveler a new and inspiring conception of the magnitude and diversity of the resources of the sea and the complexity and attractiveness of the national, commercial, industrial and scientific problems connected therewith.
That the museum has accomplished its purpose in stimulating popular interest and enthusiasm in marine matters is attested not only by recent German political history but also by the 100,000 persons who thronged its rooms in the first year it was opened to the public and in the interested groups of visitors who still frequent its halls. The exhibits are free to the public, special days are reserved for classes, photographing and sketching are encouraged, and popular lectures are given on subjects allied to the purposes of the museum, for which a very extensive collection of lantern slides has been made.
The publications of the museum include, in addition to the illustrated guides, a popular series of "Meereskunde, Sammlung volkstümlicher Vorträge zum Verstandnis der nationalen Bedeutung von Meer und Seewesen," twelve parts yearly from 1897 and a more formally scientific series "Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Meereskunde und des Geographischen Instituts an der Universität Berlin."
