the  melanoblast  of  the  mouse  and  human  melanoma” (Grand et al., 1941). The fish melanoma had established its credentials. In 1937 Professor Reed, who had been Gordon’s spon- sor for more than 12 years, died. Latent opposition to Gor- don’s  project  now  manifested  itself.  Not  only  was  Myron forced  to  relocate  his  laboratory,  he  also  lost  his  financial support  from  the  Heckscher  Foundation  at  Cornell.  Gor- don, perhaps introduced by Professor G.M. Smith of Yale, then turned to Dr. Charles M. Breder, Jr., the director of the New York Aquarium. Breder had his own ideas of what a public aquarium should do. It should not be only a place to exhibit aquatic life and perhaps provide some education to the public, it should also carry on its own unique research. At the Aquarium scientists were already experimenting with electric  eels,  and  the  research  on  Xiphophorus  melanoma seemed unique and important. Gordon was invited in. In  1938  the  New  York  Aquarium  was  located  at  the Battery in Castle Clinton, at the southern tip of Manhattan. The building had been constructed in 1807 as a fort in New York  Harbor,  known  as  the  South-west  Battery.  Fourteen years  later,  after  the  fort  became  obsolete,  it  was  ceded  to New York City and given a new name: Castle Clinton. It was connected  to  Manhattan  by  a  bridge  and  later  by  landfill and remodeled to serve as a place of entertainment until the mid century. Between 1855 and 1890 New York City served as  the  main  landing  place  for  immigrants,  and  a  total  of 7,690,606 passed through the building. After 6 years of ex- tensive renovation, Castle Clinton reopened in 1896 as the New York Aquarium. Gordon built his new laboratory with several hundred aquaria on the second floor above the larger exhibit tanks of the exhibition hall (Figure 3). He had also become a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and secured a generous grant. The 101 platyfish he collected in 1932 were not  sufficient.  A  new  trip  to  Mexico  was  in  the  planning stage, one that he had been thinking about since 1932 (Gor- don,  1940).  He  hoped  to  stay  at  Papaloapan  for  several weeks to study the fate of platyfish populations as the dry season progressed and the lagoons shrank in size and small arroyos  dried  out.  In  the  meantime  platyfish  had  been found  at  several  places  in  the  Rio  Usumacinta  system  in Guatemala, indicating that X. maculatus might have a wide distribution. He had also heard about lakes in Chiapas near the  border  with  Guatemala,  and  that  was  where  he  was going to search for platyfish. He still thought that platyfish preferred quiet waters, notwithstanding that he had caught none  in  the  lagoons  near  Papaloapan.  He  must  check  out the lakes! In January 1939, Gordon drove south again, with Mr. J.W.  Atz  of  the  Aquarium.  The  car  was  again  placed  in storage in Veracruz, and they rode the train across the Isth- mus of Tehuantepec to Arriaga near the Pacific coast. This was a daylong ride. From there they took a bus through the hot canyons and bone-dry mountains to Tuxtla Gutierrez, capital of the state of Chiapas, where they stayed overnight. The  next  day  they  continued  by  bus  the  slow  agonizing crawl up the Sierra. The landscape certainly changed. They were  now  on  the  lush  Atlantic  versant  of  the  mountains. The  temperature  dropped  not  only  because  the  road  kept climbing, but also because of the cloud cover and frequent fog. There were still magnificent forests covering the moun- tains. Upon their arrival at San Cristobal, well over 2000 m above sea level, they must have realized that their quest for platyfish  had  turned  into  a  wild  goose  chase.  They  never made it to the lakes. The following morning, with the help of a local guide, they found a stream and seined it, but they collected only Profundulus. The area was too high for poe- ciliid fishes. There are no records of how Gordon had learned about the lakes, and obviously he knew few details. The only lakes of  any  size  in  this  region  are  the  Lagunas  de  Montebello, now in a national park, a little bit more than 125 km beyond San  Cristobal,  and  at  much  lower  altitude.  The  lakes  are within  the  range  of X.  alvarezi. Was  it  really  such  an  out- rageous idea to look for platies near San Cristobal? Taken out of context, it was a failure because none were brought back.  But,  in  retrospect,  I  think  Gordon  was  right  to  go there. He was interested in platyfish distribution. They had Figure  3.  Dr.  Gordon  and  his  laboratory  setup  above  the  main exhibition  tanks  in  the  old  New  York  Aquarium  at  the  Battery, Manhattan, 1939. The  Xiphophorus  Problem S11 Next >>