UC-NRLF
B 3 3bl 133
PRIVATE LIBRARY
OF
CHARLES A. KOFOID
No.* A? Cost..T.*
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
FLEET OF MEDUSAE.
(See page 161.)
THE
OC BAN WORLD:
KF.ING A DESCRIPTION OK
The Sea and some of its Inhabitants.
1 ROM IMF. FKFNCll OF
LOUIS F I G U I E R
Xl'.ir RDITIOX. RRl'ISRD /,'!'
E. PERCEVAL WRIGHT, M.D., F.L.S.,
Professor of Botany in the University of Dublin.
WITH 435 ILLUSTRATIONS.
CASSELL, FETTER, GALPIN & Co,
LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK.
[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]
U\by
aw
PREFACE.
A NEW edition of this work having been called for, I
was requested to revise it and see it through the press.
The attempt to render scientific subjects popular and
attractive to the general reader has always appeared to me
a most laudable one. It has always received the support of
our most original workers and deepest thinkers ; and yet, so
far as the English language is concerned, the attempt to make
zoological science familiar to the ordinary reader has, in my
opinion, most generally been a failure. Such essays as the
" Studies of Animal Life," by G. H. Lewes, were indeed full
of promise ; but such served scarcely more than to introduce
the reader to the very threshold of the science, though they
at the same time showed what thoroughly good work could
be done in this direction by our British scientific men.
In the meanwhile, a series of most attractive works on
biological science, and beautifully illustrated, was being pub-
lished in France, some written or edited by names well
known in the fields of scientific research, others — as those by
M. Figuier— by men eloquent after the fashion of their
countrymen, but much wanting in that exact knowledge of
the sciences about which they wrote, and which would
have enabled them to avoid falling into many and grievous
errors.
IV PREFACE.
With the faint hope that I would have no difficulty in
simply retaining the text that helps to explain the in general
excellent woodcuts that illustrate the present volume, I
undertook to revise it. Those familiar with the subject will
perhaps appreciate the statement that, as it proved, it would
have been an easier and certainly a more pleasant task to
have re-written the work. Those who will compare the
present edition with that of 1869, will see that the alterations
in this one have been very numerous and important, several
chapters being nearly re-written ; that all the dogmatic asser-
tions, so striking in the edition of 1869, have been toned down
in conformity with that modesty that should characterise the
searchers after truth ; and that the more rampant twigs of
French eloquence have been pruned in conformity with our
quieter if not better taste. Would that I could add that they
will also find all errors corrected, but of the contrary I am
painfully aware. At the same time, I believe the candid
critic will see that if in this matter I have not done all I
should, I have at least, under all the circumstances, done all
I could.
I am indebted to my friend, G. J. Stoney, M.A., F.R.S.,
for the short account of the cause of the tides, to be found
on pages 32 to 35. Perhaps never before has the subject
been treated in a more popular and yet scientific a way.
E. P. W.
n .
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE OCEAN
Depth of the Sea
Colour of the Sea
Phosphorescence .
Saltness of the Sea
CHAPTER II.
CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN
Trade Winds
Gulf Stream
Tides
The Arctic Regions
The Antarctic Regions
CHAPTER III.
LIFE IN THE OCEAN
CHAPTER IV.
PROTOZOA . . .
Sponges
Rhizopods . .
Infusoria
CHAPTER V.
CCELENTERATA
CHAPTER VI.
HYDROZOA
Hydridie
Corynidae . . .
Sertulariadae . .
Calycophoridas . .
Physophoridse
Medusidae .
CHAPTER VII.
PAGE
1
ACTINOZOA; ZOANTHARIA
PAGR
171
3
Antipathidae
172
10
ii
Madreporidae
Coral Islands
173
190
i^
20^
*o
CHAPTER VI 11.
•WJ
25
ACTINOZOA ; ALCYONARJA
218
26
28
Tubiporidae . . .
Gorgonidae ....
218
220
32
Isidinae ....
224
40
Corallinse ....
225
46
Coral Fishing
236
Pennatulidae
240
Alcyonidae ....
244
55
ACTINOZOA; CTENOPHORA
248
CHAPTER IX.
62
ECHINODERMATA . .
253
6s
Crinoi'dese ....
263
**3
76
Asteriadae ....
269
/y
88
Ophiuridae .
269
Echinidae ....
275
Holothuroideae .
286
MOLLUSCA. GENERAL REMARKS
300
107
CHAPTER X.
MOLLUSCOlDA ....
302
1 1 o
Polyzoa ....
302
113
Tunicata ....
308
122
124
CHAPTER XI.
126
MOLLUSCA PROPER .
3i6
128
ACEPHALA ....
317
I56
Siphonida ....
32i
VI
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
ACEPHALA . . .
Asiphonida . . . .
Mussel Fisheries . . .
Pearl Oyster Fisheries .
Oyster Fisheries and Parks
CHAPTER XIII.
BRACHIOPODA .
CHAPTER XIV.
CEPHALA .
Three classes of Cephala
i. GASTEROPODA
Order I. Nucleo-branchiata
,, 2. Opistho-branchiata 410
CHAPTER XV.
Order 3. Pulmonifera .
CHAPTER XVI.
Order 4. Prosobranchiata
CHAPTER XVII.
ii. PTEROPODS
CHAPTER XVIII.
PAGE
354
in. CEPHALOPODA .
PAGB
• 470
354
Order I. Tetrabranchiata
• 470
356
,, 2. Dibranchiata
• 473
366
Distribution of Mollusca
. 498
385
CHAPTER XIX.
CRUSTACEA
. 50}
. 407
Orders of Crustacea
. 510
CHAPTER XX.
. 409
FISHES ....
. 527
. 409
. 409
i 410
Leptocardia .
Cyclostomata . .
Selachia
• 533
• 533
. 535
a 4IQ
Ganoidea .
• 552
CHAPTER XXI.
. 414
TELEOSTEA, OR BONY FISHES
• 558
Plectognatha . .
• 558
. 428
Lophobranchia .
Pharyngognatha .
. 562
• 565
Physostomata
• 570
Anacanthina '• »dA
. 604
. 466
Acanthopterygea .
. 621
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
FLEET OF MEDUSA Frontispiece
I. SPONGE FISHING ON THE COAST OF SYRIA . . To face 70
II. GALEOLARIA AURANTIACA ..... ,, 128
III. AGALMA RUBRA ,, 135
IV. CORAL ISLAND IN THE POMOTOUAN ARCHIPELAGO ,, 192
V. SEA ANEMONES (I.) ,,211
VI. SEA ANEMONES (II.) ,,212
VII. CORAL FISHING OFF THE COAST OF SICILY . . ,, 239
VIII. SEA-URCHINS ,,275
IX. FISHING FOR HOLOTHURIA ..... ,, 290
X. SYNAPTA DUVERNEA ,, 296
XI. TEMPLE OF SERAPIS. ...... ,, 331
XII. SOLENID^E (Razor-fish] , ,,334
XIII. VENUS AND CYTHEREA ,, 341
XIV. TRIDACNA GIGANTEA ,, 344
XV. ANODONTA ,, 348
XVI. DREDGING FOR OYSTERS ,, 38$
XVII. OYSTER PARKS ON LAKE FUSARO .... ,,388
XVIII. PECTID^E ,401
XIX. SPONDYLUS ,,405
XX. VOLUTA ,,449
XXI. CONUS .,450
XXII. CAPTURE OF A GIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISH ... ,, 489
XXIII. SHARK FISHING .- ,, 546
XXIV. STURGEON FISHING ON THE VOLGA ... ,, 554
XXV. FISHING FOR ELECTRICAL EELS .... ,, 572
XXVI. THE HERRING FISHERY ,, 592
XXVII. GREENLANDERS FISHING FOR HOLIBUT . . . ,, 613
XXVIII. A ROMAN FEAST .... . ,,624
XXIX. FISHING FOR TUNNY IN PROVENCE ... „ 633
XXX. FISHING FOR MACKEREL OFF THE CORNWALL COAST „ 636
THE OCEAN WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
THE OCEAN.
''Apiorov nev uScop — "The best of all things is water." — PlNDAR.
IT is estimated that the sea covers nearly two-thirds of the surface of
the earth. The calculation, as given by astronomers, is as follows :
The surface of the earth is^3 1,625, ^25iV square miles, that portion
occupied by the waters being about 23,814,121 square miles, and
that consisting of continents, peninsulas, and islands, being 7,811,504
miles ; whence it follows that the surface covered with water is to
dry land as 3-8 is to i'2. The waters thus cover a little more than
seven-tenths of the whole surface. " On the surface of the globe,"
Michelet remarks, " water is the rule, dry land the exception."
Nevertheless, the immensity and depth of the seas are aids rather
than obstacles to the intercourse and commerce of nations ; the
maritime routes are now traversed by ships and steamers conveying
cargoes and passengers equal in extent and in point of numbers to
the land routes. One of the features most characteristic of the ocean
is its continuity ; for, with the exception of inland seas, such as the
Caspian, the Dead Sea, and some others, the ocean is one and
indivisible — "it embraces the whole earth with an uninterrupted
wave."
Ilept ira&av 0' fl\iffffo/ut.fvovs
AESCHYLUS in Prome'heus Vmcfus.
The mean depth of the sea is not very exactly ascertained, but
certain phenomena observed in the movement of tides are supposed
to be incapable of explanation without admitting a mean depth of
2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
3,500 fathoms. It is true that a great number of deep-sea soundings
fall short of that limit ; but, on the other hand, many others reach
7,000 or 8,000. Admitting that 3,000 fathoms represent the mean
depth of the ocean, Sir John Herschel finds that the volume of its
waters would exceed 3,279,000,000 cubic yards.
This vaiit volume of water is divided by geographers into five
great oceans : the Arctic, the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Antarctic
Oceans.
The Arctic Ocean extends from the Pole to the Polar Circle ; it
is situated between Asia, Europe, and America.
The Atlantic Ocean commences at the Polar Circle, and reaches
Cape Horn. It is situated between America, Europe, and Africa, in
length of about 9,000 miles, with a mean breadth of 2,700, covering
a surface of about 25,000,000 square miles, placed between the Old
World and the New. Beyond the Cape of Storms, as Cape Horn may
be truly called, it is only separated by an imaginary line from the vast
seas of the south, in which the waves, which are the principal source
of tides, have their birth. Here, according to Maury, the young tidal
wave, rising in the circumpolar seas of the south, and obedient to the
sun and moon, rolls on to the Atlantic, and in twelve hours after passing
the parallel of Cape Horn is found pouring its flood into the Bay of
Fundy, whence it is projected in great waves across the Atlantic and
round the globe, sweeping along its shores and penetrating its gulfs
and estuaries, rising and falling in the open sea two or three feet, but
along the shore having a range of ten or twelve feet ; sometimes, as
at Fundy on the American coast, at Brest on the French coast, and
Milford Haven and the mouth of the Severn in the Bristol Channel,
rising and falling thirty or forty feet, " impetuously rushing against
the shores, but gently stopping at a given line, and flowing back to
its place when the word goes forth, ' Thus far shalt thou go and no
farther.' That which no human power could repel returns at its
appointed time so regularly and surely, that the hour of its approach
and the measure of its mass may be predicted with unerring certainty
centuries beforehand."
The Indian Ocean is bounded on the north by Asia, on the west
by Africa, on the east by the peninsula of Molucca, the Sunda Isles,
and Australia.
The Pacific, or Great Ocean, stretches from north to south, trom
the Arctic to the Antarctic Circle ; being bounded on one side by
Asia, the island of Sunda, and Australia, on the other by the west
coast of America. This ocean contrasts in a striking manner with
the Atlantic : the one has its greatest length from north to south, the
THE SEA. 3
other from east to west ; the currents of the Pacific are broad and
slow, those of the other narrow and rapid ; the waves of this are low,
those of the other very high. If we represent the volume of water
which falls into the Pacific by one, that received by the Atlantic will
be represented by the figure five. The Pacific is the calmest of seas,
and the Atlantic Ocean is the most stormy.
The Antarctic Ocean extends from the Antarctic Polar Circle to
the South Pole.
It is remarkable that one half of the globe should be entirely
covered with water, whilst the other contains less of water than dry
land ; moreover, the distribution of land and water— if, in considering
the extent of the oceanic basins, we compare the hemispheres
separated by the Equator and the northern and southern halves of
the globe — is found to be very unequal.
Oceans communicate with continents and islands by coasts, which
are said to be scarped when a rocky coast makes a steep and sudden
descent to the sea, as, for example, in Brittany, Norway, and the
west coast of the British Islands. In this kind of coast certain rocky
indentations encircle it, sometimes above, sometimes under water,
forming a labyrinth of islands, as at the Land's End, Cornwall, where
the Scilly Islands form a compact group of from 100 to 200 rocky
islets, rising out of a deep sea. The coast is said to be flat when it
consists of soft argillaceous soil descending to the shore with a gentle
slope. Of this description of coast there are two — namely, sandy
beaches, and hillocks or dunes.
What is the average depth of the sea ? It is difficult to give an
exact answer to this question, because of the great difficulty met with
in taking soundings, caused chiefly by the deviations of submarine
currents. No reliable soundings have yet been made in water over
five miles in depth.
Laplace found, on astronomical consideration, that the mean
depth of the ocean could not be more than 10,000 feet. Alexander
von Humboldt adopts the same figures. Dr. Young attributes to
the Atlantic a mean depth of 1,000 yards, and to the Pacific, 4,000.
Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, has laid down a formula, that waves
of a given breadth will travel with certain velocities at a given depth,
from which it is estimated that the average depth of the North
Pacific, between Japan and California, is 2,149 fathoms, or two miles
and a half. But these estimates fall far short of the soundings
reported by navigators, in which, however, as we shall see, there are
important and only recently-discovered elements of error. Du
4 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Thouars, during his scientific voyage in the frigate Venus, took some
very remarkable soundings in the Southern Pacific Ocean : one,
without finding bottom at 2,411 fathoms ; another, in the equinoctial
region, indicated bottom at 3,790.
In his last expedition in search of a north-west passage, Captain
Ross found soundings at 5,000 fathoms. Lieutenant Walsh, of the
American Navy, reports a cast of the deep-sea lead, not far from
the American coast, at 34,000 feet without bottom. Lieutenant
Berryman reported another unsuccessful attempt to fathom mid ocean
with a line 39,000 feet in length. Captain Denman, of H. M.S. Herald,
reported bottom in the South Atlantic at the depth of 46,000 feet ;
and Lieutenant J. P. Parker, of the United States frigate Congress, on
attempting soundings near the same region, let go his plummet, after
it had run out a line 50,000 feet long, as if the bottom had not been
reached. We have the authority of Lieutenant Maury for saying,
however, that " there are no such depths as these." The under-
currents of the deep sea have power to take the line out long after
the plummet has ceased to sink, and it was before this fact was
discovered that these great soundings were reported. It has also
been discovered that the line, once dragged down into the depths of
the ocean, runs out unceasingly. This difficulty was finally overcome
by the ingenuity of Midshipman Brooke. Under the judicious
patronage of the Secretary to the United States Navy, Mr. Brooke
invented the simple and ingenious apparatus (Fig. i), by which
sound ngs are now made, in a manner which not only establishes the
depth, but brings up specimens of the bottom. The sounding line
in this apparatus is attached to a weighty rod of iron, the lower
extremity of which contains a hollow cup for the reception of tallow
or some other soft substance. This rod is passed through a hole in
a thirty-two pound spherical shot, being supported in its position by
slings A, which are hooked on to the line by the swivels a. When
the rod strikes the bottom, the tension on the line ceases, the swivels
are reversed, the slings B are thrown out of the hooks, the ball falls
to the ground, and the rod, released from its weight, is easily drawn
up, bringing with it portions of the bottom attached to the greasy
substance in the cup. By means of this apparatus, specimens of the
bottom have been brought up from the depth of four miles.
The greatest depth at which the bottom has been reached
with this plummet is in the North Atlantic between the parallels
of 35° and 40° north, and immediately south of the great bank
of rocks off Newfoundland. This does not appear to be more
than 20,000 feet deep. " The basin of the Atlantic," says Maury,
DEPTH OF THE OCEAN. 5
'•according to the deep-sea soundings in the accompanying dia-
gram, is a long trough separating the Old World from the New,
and extending, probably, from pole to pole. In breadth it contrasts
strongly with the Pacific Ocean. From the top of Chimborazo to
Fig. i —Brooke's Sounding Apparatus
the bottom of the Atlantic, at the deepest place yet reached by the
plummet in that ocean, the distance in a vertical line is nine miles."
" Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to expose
to view this great sea gash which separates continents, and extends
from the Arctic to the Antarctic Seas, it would present a scene the
most rugged, grand, and imposing ; the very ribs of the solid earth
6 TUB OCEAN WORLD.
with the foundations of the sea would be brought to light, and we
should have presented to us in one view, in the empty cradle of the
ocean, ' a thousand fearful wrecks/ with the array of * dead men's
skulls, great anchors, heaps of pearls,, and inestimable stones,' which,
in the poet's eye, lie scattered on the bottom of the sea, making it
hideous with the sight of ugly death."
The depth of the Mediterranean is comparatively inconsiderable.
Between Gibraltar and Ceuta, Captain Smith estimates the depth at
Fig 2 —Chart of the Atlantic Ocean.
about 5,700 feet, and from 1,000 to 3,000 in the narrower parts of
the straits. Near Nice Saussure found bottom at 3,250. It is said
that the bottom is shallower in the Adriatic, and does not exceed
140 feet between the coast of Dalmatia and the mouths of the Po.
The Baltic Sea is remarkable for its shallow waters, its maximum
depth rarely exceeding 600 feet.
It thus appears thaUthe sea has similar inequalities to those
observed on land ; it has its mountains, valleys, hills, and plains.
The deep-sea sounding apparatus of Lieutenant Brooke has
already- furnished -some very remarkable results. Aided by it.
DEPTH OF THE OCEAN. J
Dr. Maury has constructed his fine orographic map of the basin of
the Atlantic. Dr. Maury has also published many charts, giving the
depths of the ocean, the substance of which is given in the accom-
panying map, which represents the configuration of the Atlantic up
to the tenth degree of south latitude, not in figures, as in Dr. Maury's
charts, but in tints ; diagonal lines from right to left, representing the
shores of both hemispheres, indicate a depth of less than 1,000
K. thorns ; from left to right indicate bottom at 1,000 to 2,000 ; hori-
zontal lines, 2,000 to 3,000 fathoms ; cross lines show an average
depth of 3,000 to 4,000 fathoms ; finally, the perpendicular lines in-
dicate a depth of 4,000 fathoms and upwards. Solid black indicates
continents and islands ; waving lines, surrounding both continents at
a short distance from the shore, indicate the sands which surround
the coast line at a little distance from the shore.
The question may be asked, what useful purpose is served by
taking soundings at great depths? To this we may quote the
answer of Franklin to a question of similar tendency, addressed to
aeronauts — "What purpose is served by the birth of a child?"
Every fact in physics is interesting in itself; it forms a rallying point,
round which, sooner or later, others will meet, in order to establish
some useful truth ; and the importance of making and recording
deep-sea soundings is established by the successful immersion of the
transatlantic telegraph.
At the bottom of the Atlantic there exists a remarkable plateau,
extending from Cape Race in Newfoundland, to Cape Clear in
Ireland, a distance of over 2,000 miles, with a breadth of 470 miles ;
its mean depth along the whole route is estimated at two miles and a
half. It is upon this telegraphic plateau, as it has been called, that
the attempt was made to lay down the cable in 1858, and it is
on it that the enterprise was so successfully completed during the
year 1866. The surface of the plateau had been previously explored
by means of Brooke's apparatus, and the bottom was found to be
composed chiefly of microscopic calcareous shells {Foraminifera\
and a few siliceous shells (Diatomacecz). These delicate and fragile
shells, which seemed to strew the bottom of the sea in beds of great
thickness, were brought up by the sounding-rod in a state of perfect
preservation, which proves that the water is remarkably quiet in
these depths — an inference which is fully borne out by the condition
in which the cable of 1858 was found, when picked up in 1866.
The first exploration of this plateau was undertaken by the
American brig Dolphin, which took 100 soundings 100 miles from
8
THE OCEAN WORLD.
the coast of Scotland, afterwards taking the direction of
the Azores, to the north of which bottom was found,
consisting of chalk and yellow sand, at 9,600 feet. To
the south of Newfoundland the depth was found to
be 16,500 feet. In 1856, Lieutenant Berry man, of the
American steamer Arctic, completed a line of soundings
from St. John, Newfoundland, to Valentia, off the Irish
coast; and in 1857, Lieutenant Dayman, of the English
steamship Cyclops, repeated the same operation : this last
line of soundings, the result of which is represented in
the accompanying section, differed slightly from that
followed by Lieutenant Berry man. In the Gulf of
Mexico the depth does not seem to exceed 7,000 feet.
The Arctic Ocean has, probably, no great depth.
Hence, salt water, following the general law of con-
tracting as it cools, until it freezes, no ice can be formed
on its surface till the temperature has fallen through its
entire depth nearly to freezing point, when the entire
mass is consolidated into pack-ice. According to Baron
Wrangel, the bottom of the glacial sea, on the north
coast of Siberia, forms a gentle slope, and, at the distance
of 200 miles from the shore, it is still only from ninety to
100 feet. Nevertheless, in Baffin's Bay, Dr. Kane made
soundings at 11,600 feet.
The inequalities of the basin of the Pacific Ocean
are, comparatively, unknown to us. The greatest depth
observed by Lieutenant Brooke in the great ocean is
2,700 fathoms, which he found in 59° north latitude and
1 66° east longitude. Applying the theory of waves to
the billows propelled from the coast of Japan to Cali-
fornia, during the earthquake of the 23rd of December,
1854, Professor Bache calculated that the mean depth of
this part of the Pacific is 14,400 feet. In the Pacific
Ocean, latitude 60° south and 160° east longitude, he
found soundings at 14,600 feet — about two miles and a
half. Another cast of the lead in the Indian Ocean was
made in 7,040 fathoms, but without bringing up any soil
from the bottom. Among the fragments brought up from
the bottom of the Coral Sea, a remarkable absence of
calcareous shells was noted, whilst the siliceous frag-
ments of sponges were found in great quantities. Other
soundings made in the Pacific, at a depth of tour or five
DEPTH ~OF THE OCEAN. 9
miles, were, examined by Ehrenberg, who found 135 different forms
of Infusoria represented, and among them twenty-two species new to
him. These Protozoa draw from the sea the mineral matter with
which it is charged— that is, the lime or the silica, which form their
shell. These shells accumulate after the death of the animal, and
form the bottom of the ocean. The animals construct their habitations
near the surface ; when they die, they fall into the depths of the ocean,
where they accumulate in myriads, forming mountains and plains in
mid ocean. In this manner, we may remark en passant, many of
the existing continents probably had their birth in geological times'.
The horizontal beds of marine deposits, which are called sedimentary
rocks, and especially the cretaceous rocks and calcareous beds of the
Jurassic and Tertiary periods, all result from such remains.*
The sea level is, in general, the same everywhere. It represents
the spherical form of our planet, and is the basis for calculating all
terrestrial heights ; but many gulfs and inland seas open on the east
are supposed to be exceptions to this rule : the accumulation of
waters, pressed into these receptacles by the general movement of
the sea from east to west, it is alleged, may pile up the waters, in
some cases to a greater height than the general level.
It had long been admitted, on the faith of inexact observation,
that the level of the Red Sea was higher than that of the Mediter-
ranean. It has also been said that the level of the Pacific Ocean at
Panama is higher by about forty inches than the mean level of the
Atlantic at Chagres, and that, at the moment of high water, this
difference is increased to about thirteen feet, while at low it is over
six feet in the opposite direction. This has been proved, so far as
direct evidence goes, to be an error in so far as regards the difference
in level of the Red Sea and Mediterranean ; and the opening of the
Suez Canal has now furnished convincing proofs of it. Recent
soundings show that the mean level of the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans are identical.
It has been calculated that all the waters of the several seas
gathered together would form a sphere of fifty or sixty leagues m
diameter, and, supposing the surface of the globe perfectly level,
that these waters would submerge it to the depth of more than 600
feet Again, admitting the mean depth of the sea to be 13,000 feet,
its estimated contents ought to be nearly 2,250,000,000 of cubic
miles of water ; and, if the sea could be imagined to be dried up, all
# * " World Before the Deluge," 2nd edition.
B
IO THE OCEAN WORLD.
the rivers of the earth would require to pour their waters into it for
40,000 years, in order to fill the vast basins anew.
If we could imagine the entire globe to be divided into 1,786
parts by weight, we should find approximately, according to Sir John
Herschel, that the total weight of the oceanic waters is equivalent to
one of these parts.
The specific density of sea water is a little above that of fresh
water, the proportion being as 1,000 to 1,027. The Dead Sea,
which receives no fresh water so as to enable it to maintain itself at
the same level as other seas, acquires a higher degree of saltness
each year: its present density is equal to 1,028.
The colour of the sea is continually varying, and is chiefly caused
by filtration of the solar rays. According to the testimony of the
majority of observers, the ocean, seen by reflection, presents a fine
azure blue or ultramarine (cceruleum mare). When the air is pure
and the surface calm, this tint softens insensibly, until it is lost and
blended with the blue of the heavens. Near the shore it becomes
more of a green or glaucous tint, and more or less brilliant, according
to circumstances. There are some days when the ocean assumes a
livid aspect, and others when it becomes a very pure green ; at other
times, the green is sombre and sad. When the sea is agitated, the
green takes a brownish hue. At sunset the surface of the sea is
illumined with tints of every hue of purple and emerald. Placed in
a vase, sea water appears perfectly transparent and colourless.
According to Scoresby, the Polar seas are of brilliant ultramarine
blue. Castaz says of the Mediterranean, that it is celestial blue, and
Tuckey describes the equinoctial Atlantic as being of a vivid blue.
Many local causes influence the colours of marine waters, and
give them certain decided and constant shades. A bottom of white
sand will communicate a greyish or apple-green colour to the water,
if not very deep ; when the sand is yellow, the green appears more
sombre; the presence of rocks is often announced by the deep
colour which the sea takes in their vicinity. In the Bay of Loango
the waters appear of a deep red, because the bottom is there naturally
red. It appears white in the Gulf of Guinea, yellow on the coast of
Japan, green to the west of the Canaries, and black round the
Maldive group of islands. The Mediterranean, towards the Grecian
Archipelago, sometimes becomes more or less red. The White and
Black Seas appear to be named after the ice of the one and the
tempests to which the other is subject
PHOSPHORESCENCE. OF THE SEA. -tf
At other times coloured animal or vegetable bodies give to the
water a particular tint. The Red Sea owes its colour to a minute
microscopic algae (Trichodesmium erythr, the
larger animalcule on which they have established themselves.
The Infusoria may be divided into two groups — the Flagelliferous
Infusoria, those, namely, which are provided with flagella, and the
Ciliate Infusoria, namely, those provided with vibratile cilia. The
greater number of the Infusoria belong to the first group, which
comprehends many families ; our space limits us to the mention here
of a few typical forms only in each group, selecting those which
9 THE OCEAN WORLD,
appear the most interesting, from their size, structure, rarity, or
abundance.
Included among these, but, according to Cohn, apparently be-
longing to the vegetable kingdom, we find the family of Vibrionida,
so named from their darting or quivering motion, including the
eel-like microscopic animalcules which occur in stale paste, vinegar,
&c., with some others, which are parasitic on living vegetables,
such as Vibrio tritid, which infests the grains of wheat, producing
me destructive disease called corn-cockle or purples. They are fili-
form, extremely slender, without appreciable organisation or apparent
organs of locomotion. They are among the first organisms which
show themselves in any infusion of organic matter. By using micro-
scopes of the highest magnifying power, they present the appear-
ance of very thin short lines, either straight or sinuous, the thickest
of them not exceeding the thousandth part of the fraction of an
inch. They are contractile, and propagate by spontaneous fission,
often imperfect in character, and hence giving rise to chains of
greater or less length. Among them some resemble right lines, more
or less distinctly articulated, and endowed with a very slow move-
ment, these are Bacteria ; others are flexuous and undulating, and
more or less lively ; these are true Vibi'ios ; others have the body
fashioned in the form of a corkscrew, turning unceasingly upon them-
selves with great rapidity, these are the Spirilla, having an oblong
fusiform or filiform body, which undulates or turns spirally upon
itself.
The Bacterium termo (Fig. 29) is one of the smallest of these
organisms, and is, according to Cohn, the motile phase of an alga.
It is found, at the end of a short time, in all vegetable or animal
infusions exposed to the air. It shows itself in infinite numbers,
forming perfect swarms, which disappear as other species multiply in
the liquid, to which it serves for nourishment. When the infusion
becomes too foetid for these new species to live in it, in consequence
of fermentation or putrefaction, the Bacterium termo reappears. This
species was one of the first observed ; Leuwenhoek found it in the
white matter which is called teeth tartar, and which is met with
In the teeth and gums. It is also found in the fluids of various
animals which have been affected by disease.
The Wand-like Vibrio (Fig. 30) has the body transparent,
filiform, and long articulations, often appearing as if broken at each
connection. It moves very slowly in the water. Leuwenhoek
observed this second species joined to the first in the teeth tartar,
and also in a great number of organic infusions.
INFUSORIA. 99
" There is no microscopic object," says Dujardin, " which excites
the admiration of the observer more vividly than the twisting
Spirillum" (Fig. 31). He was struck with surprise when he first con-
templated this little creature, which, under very high magnifying
. \\ ff
^\\'.* \ / ,
• V." I <*
v~"~
» f
Fig. 29. The same, Fig. 30. Fig. 31,
Bacterium termo magnified Vibrio (Muller), Spirillum (Ehr.),
(Muller), magnified 1,600 times. magnified 300 times. magnified 300 times.
600 times.
powers only presents the appearance of a thin black line, fashioned
like a corkscrew, which every instant turns upon itself with mar-
vellous velocity, so that the eye can scarcely follow it.
The Volvocinecz were also at one time included among the flagel-
Figs. 32 and 33. — Volvox globator (Muller), magnified 700 times.
late Infusoria, but now are more generally believed to. belong to the
vegetable kingdom, they are met with in fresh water full of Confervse
and other aquatic plants. The Volvocinea> are of a green or yellowish
brown colour, with 300 spore-like bodies regularly disseminated in the
thickness and near the surface of a gelatinous hollow globe. In this
state, from five to eight smaller globules, with the same organisation,
appear destined to undergo the same changes when they are released
IOO THE OCEAN WORLD.
by the rupture of the globule. These are each furnished with one or
two flagelliform filaments, which, by their agitation, determine the
movement by rotation of the mass.
The common Volvox, V. globator (Figs. 32 and 33), is found in
great abundance, during summer and even in the depth of winter, in
lakes and ponds of fresh water. It consists of green or brownish-yellow
globules about the thirtieth part of an inch, formed of monadiform
beings scattered round a gelatinous and diaphanous spherical disc,
each furnished with a flagelliform filament and with a reddish in-
terior point, which Ehrenberg took for an eye. Leuwenhoek first
observed this Volvox in marshy waters. This eminent naturalist has
left .a very interesting account of his observations on these micro-
scopic creatures, displaying an amount of patience and address which
cannot be too much admired ; his observations were made with a
simple lens, which he constructed himself. In one hand he held his
instrument — which was very coarse if we compare it to the more
perfect and infinitely more powerful instruments now in use — whilst,
in the other hand, he carried to it the glass tube full of water which
contained the objects under observation. " The microscopes of
Leuwenhoek," says Dujardin, " were bi-convex lenses of the very
smallest size, mounted in a silver frame-work. He made a collection
of twenty-six, which he bequeathed to the Royal Society of London.
These instruments, subject to all the inconveniences of a maximum of
spherical aberration and a total want of stability, were only fit for
use in the hands of Leuwenhoek himself, who had acquired, by his
labours of twenty years, habits of observation which compensated, in
great part, for the want of perfection in his instruments." We now
come to those forms considered as belonging to the
FLAGELLATE INFUSORIA.
The Monads are infusorial animalcules which make an early
appearance in vegetable infusions. They constitute a family that are
destitute of any tegumentary covering. The substance of their
bodies can shorten itself, or draw itself out more or less ; their whip-
like filaments serve as organs of locomotion. Their organisation is
extremely simple ; their whip-like filaments are so fine as to be
scarcely perceptible, their length is sometimes double and even
quadruple the length of the animal itself.
The Lens Monad (Fig. 34) is a species which is frequently met
with in vegetable and animal infusions. The older microscopists had
it indicated under the form of a globule, moving in a slow and
INFUSORIA.
IOI
vacillating manner. The globule is formed of a homogeneous trans-
parent substance, which throws out obliquely a whip-like filament,
three, four, or even five times the length of the body of
the Monad.
The genus Cercomonas of Dujardin has its body pyri-
form, having in front a vibratile filament, very long, very
flexible, and easily agitated. Behind the body there is a
thicker straight filament attaching itself sometimes to
neighbouring corpuscles, round which, in this case, the
Cercomonad oscillates like the ball of a pendulum round
its stem.
The Euglencea are infusoria usually of a green or red
colour. Their form is very variable. They are oblong
or fusiform in shape, swelling at the middle during loco-
motion, and contracted or bowl-shaped in repose, or after death.
They are furnished with the usual whip-shaped filament, which issues
from an opening in front, and pos-
sess one or many reddish points
irregularly placed anteriorly.
Euglena viridis (Fig. 35 ) is the
most common species, and among
the most widely diffused of all the
Infusoria. It is this animalcule
which is often met covering stag-
nant pools with a floating surface
of green, and which forms on the
surface of marshy waters the shin-
ing pellicle so strongly coloured,
which, collected upon paper, so
long preserves its brilliant tint.
The Euglena sanguined, at first
green, becomes subsequently of
a blood colour. It has often
been met with by microscopists.
Ehrenberg, who first described
it, attributes to its great abun-
dance the red colour of some
stagnant waters. Its presence
may perhaps explain the pre-
tended miracle of water changing
into blood, which was frequently
invoked by the Egyptian priests. Eugiena viridis (Ehlg), Magnified 3So times.
s
IO2
THE OCEAN WORLD.
CILIATE INFUSORIA.
Let us now take a glance at some of the more remarkable species
of Ciliate Infusoria. The bodies of these creatures are all more or
less translucent. Many of them have not consistence enough to
reach a state of opacity. Their bodies are more or less globular or
ovoid, sometimes fashioned like a shuttle, sometimes swollen in the
middle like an ampulla, sometimes they are bell-shaped, and again
they are often found flattened into a discoid shape.
Cothurnia pyxidiformis (Udekem).
Fig. 37.
Paramecium bursaria (Pritchard).
The Paramecians have a soft flexible body, usually of oblong form,
and more or less depressed. They are provided with a loose reticu-
lated covering, through which issue numerous vibratile cilia, arranged
in a regular series (Fig. 37). They were known to the older naturalists ;
and it is in this group that organisation is carried to the highest per-
fection it attains among the Infusoria. The Paramecium possess,
besides their reticulated and contractile tegument, cilia disposed in
such a manner as to serve at once for locomotion, and for prehension
that is, for the seizing of food. They are furnished with a mouth, at
the bottom of which lies a cavity, formed after the manner of a cul-
de-sac, in which lies enclosed the substances which the Paramecium
have swallowed along with the water.
INFUSORIA. IO3
The Paramecians are propagated by spontaneous division, as
already described. They abound, as we have said, in semi-stagnant
water, or in pure water which is occupied by aquatic plants, some-
times in such prodigious quantities that they become troublesome.
They may occur also in flower vases where the water is not frequently
renewed.
The species of this genus have an oblong compressed body, with
an oblique longitudinal fold, directed towards the mouth, which is
lateral. They are sufficiently large to be observed with a common
lens, or eye-glass. Paramecium aurelia is common in ditches, or
ponds, and moats, with aquatic plants.
Humboldt's assertion is fully verified in the case of the Infusorian
under consideration, which is often found with its parasites (vide
Fig 28). These are small creatures, cylindrical in form, and provided
with suckers. Swimming vigorously in the water, they devote them-
selves to chasing the Paramecium. When they have overtaken the
fugitive, they throw themselves upon it, and establish themselves
there. They soon multiply in the interior of its body, and their
progeny suck and devour the unfortunate animalcule, which thus
serves them at once for dwelling-house and larder.
Another of the parasites which prey upon the Paramecium, in
place of pursuing it, remains perfectly quiet until one of these
approach, when it throws itself upon its victim, and is carried along
with it. It buries itself in the body of the Paramecium, and, in a
short time, multiplies to such a degree, that sometimes fifty of them
are found on a single individual.
The species of the genus Nassula have the body entirely covered
with cilia ; they are ovoid or oblong in form, contractile, their mouth
is placed laterally, and provided with a circlet of teeth in the form of
a wheel (nassa), this circlet dilating and contracting according to the
size of the prey which it would swallow. They will either advance to
seize the prey, which the movement of the vibratile cilia have failed
to draw within the vortex of their mouth, or, as in the case of the
Paramecium, they are sometimes obliged to seek for their prey.
These curious Infusoria live in fresh water, feeding on the debris of
aquatic plants, from which they draw their chief nourishment. Their
colour is white or greenish, sometimes a brownish green, variegated
with violet vesicles.
The genus Bursaria contains animals with an oval or oblong con-
tractile body, provided also with vibratile cilia on the surface, having
also a large mouth, surrounded with cilia, forming a sort of micro-
scopic moustache, spirally arranged.
104
THE OCEAtf WORLD.
Among the forms closely related to this group may be noted the
Kondylostoma patens (Fig. 38), remarkable for its size and voracity.
It sometimes attains to thesize of the twelfth of an inch, and abounds
on every shore from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, living among
algae. Another Bursarian, a species called Lumbrici, lives between
Fig. 38.— Kondylostoma patens (Duj.)i magnified 350 times. Fig. 39.— Stentor Mueller! (Ehr).
the intestines and the external muscular coat of the earth-worm,
Lumbricus terrestris.
To the group of Vorticellina belongs the genus Stentor, some
species of which are quite perceptible to the naked eye.
The Stentors are inhabitants of fresh, tranquil water, not subject
to agitation, and covered with water plants. They are nearly all
coloured green, blackish, or blue; their bodies are covered with
cilia. They are eminently contractile, and very variable in form.
Their body is without a stalk, but they can attach themselves
temporarily by means of the posterior extremity of their body ; they
INFUSORIA. 105
can assume a trumpet-like form, the bell of which is closed by a
convex membrane, the edge being furnished with a row of very strong
obliquely-placed cilia, ranged in a spiral, meeting at the mouth, which
is placed near this edge. When they swim freely, their body admits
of very considerable modifications of form. The Stentor Muelleri
(Fig. 39) is to be found in ponds everywhere, often freely swimming
in vast multitudes, or, again, attached in dense patches to some
aquatic plant.
Some of the animals which belong to the Vorticdlina are fixed
during one part of their existence, and become free in another stage.
So long as they are fixed, they resemble, in their expanded state,
a bell or funnel, with the edges reversed and ciliate. When they
become free, they lose their crown of cilia, take a cylindrical form,
more or less ovoid and elongated, and move themselves by means of
a new row of a posterior circlet of cilia, which is temporarily
developed. " There is no animal," says Dujardin, "which excites
our admiration in a higher degree than a vorticellate Infusorian, by
its crown of cilia, and by the vortex which it produces ; by its ever-
varying form ; above all, by its pedicle, which is susceptible of rapid
spiral contraction, drawing the body backward, and again extending
it." This pedicle is remarkably contractile, drawing itself into a close
coil with extraordinary rapidity, and again uncoiling itself with equal
quickness. It is a hollow tube, containing a thread or band within
it, to which its great contractile power is due. The genus Cothurnia
belongs also to this group (Fig. 36).
We cannot conclude our brief history of these curiously-organised
beings without again recording the doubt which still exists in the
minds of our most eminent naturalists, whether some of them are,
as we have before mentioned, animal or vegetable in their origin.
The Desmidece, long classed among animals, are now generally
recognised as plants ; so also the group of the Diatoniacea. The
Monads and Volvocinea are still subjects of discussion, the evidence
apparently inclining in favour of those who argue for their vegetable
nature. Messrs. Busk, Williamson, and Cohn, have published, in
the Microscopical Transactions, minute details of the evolutions of
these curiously-organised Volvocinea, which seem to prove their
vegetable nature. On the other hand, it is somewhat difficult to
imagine so accurate an observer as Agassiz writing so positively
as he does on a doubtful subject, unless he had a very firm con-
viction as to the truth of his observations. Remarking on a former
paper, in which he had shown that the embryo hatched from
the egg of a Planarian was a true polygastric animalcule of the
IO6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
genus Paramecium, he adds, that in former writers a link was wanting,
viz., tracing the young actually hatched from the egg of a Planarian.
" This deficiency," he says, " I can now fill. It is another Infusorium,
a genuine Opalina. With such facts before us, there is no longer any
doubt left respecting the character of all these Polygastria; they
are the earliest larval condition of worms.*'
T07
CHAPTER V.
CCELENTERATA.
'•" Happy is he, who, satisfied with his humble fortune, lives contentedly in the
obscure state where God has placed him." — RACINE.
ENTERING on the sub-class of the Ccelenterata, we leave the domain
of the infinitely small to enter on the examination of somewhat
larger beings. In comparison with the Infusoria, the Ccelenterata,
which are sometimes of large size, are very important beings.
Science lately has made great advances towards giving us an exact
knowledge of the history of these singular animals. Many scientific
prejudices have been dissipated, many errors have been corrected,.
The Ccelenterata, as they are defined in the actual state of Science,
correspond not only with the Polypes, properly so called, of Cuvier
and De Blainville, but also with the Acalephse of the same authors.
We now know that certain of the Ccelenterata give origin to Medusae ;
and that the great majority of the organisms described as such are
in reality the detached reproductive bodies of certain Ccelenterates.
Thus regarded, the Ccelenterates comprehend a great variety of
animals, the bodies of which are generally of a soft or gelatinous sub-
stance. The alimentary canal freely communicates with the general
cavity of the animal's body ; there is no distinct blood system ; a
nervous system is absent in most ; and peculiarly-constituted urticating
organs are almost invariably present. They are invested with a skin
or integument, which sometimes secretes peculiar calcareous bodies,
and even a. portion of the deepest-lying tissues may be invaded by
a calcareous deposit, the mass of which belongs sometimes to an
individual ; sometimes it is common to many, constituting what Dr.
Johnston calls the Polypidom, of which Professor Grant says, " there is
but one life and one plan of development in the whole mass, and this
depends, not on the polyps, but on the general fleshy substance of
the body :"* " the ramifications of the polypidom," says Dr. Johnston,
"are often disposed in a variety of elegant plant-like forms. The
* "Outlines of Comparative Anatomy."
IO8 THE OCEAN WORLD.
stem and branches are alike in texture : slender, horny, fistular,
and almost always jointed at short and regular intervals, the joint
being a mere break: in the continuity of the sheath, without any
character of a proper hinge, and formed by regular periodical inter-
ruptions in the growth of the polypidoms. Along the sides of these,
or at their extremities, we find the denticles or cup-like cells of the
polyps arranged in a determinate order, either sessile or elevated on
a stalk." Near the base of each of these there is a partition or
diaphragm, on which the body of the polyps rests, with a plain or
tubulous perforation in the centre, through which the connection
between the individual polyps and the common medullary substance
is retained. Besides the polyps, there are found at certain seasons
a number of reproductive bodies, called gonophores, readily distin-
guished from the polyps by their size, and the irregularity of their
distribution, which are destined to contain and mature the ovules.
With these animals the digestive tube is very simple, and presents
only one distinct orifice ; the same opening serving at once for
receiving the food and the expulsion of the residuum of digestion,
as will be so easily seen in the common sea anemone.
In nearly all the Coelenterata the sexes are separate ; the genera-
tion is sometimes sexual ; but these beings multiply also by what
zoologists call gemmation, or budding. Some are provided with
supposed organs of sense ; many of the swimming forms having eye-
like marginal bodies — a progress in organisation as compared with
the animals which have hitherto engaged our attention. Vibratile
cilia often cover the entire surface of the Polyps, and their tegumen-
tary system is richly supplied with thread cells.
These general remarks may appear obscure and insufficient to
the large number of our readers. They are necessarily so ; they are
at best but generalities upon an interesting group of animals. We
quit them, trusting to make the special study of the several classes
we. shall have to describe more interesting.
The sub-kingdom Ccelenterata naturally divides itself into two
groups — that of the Hydrozoa, and that of the Actinozoa. The
pretty fresh-water Hydra will serve as an example of the first, and
the common sea anemone of the second group. The essential
difference between the two is, that in the former the stomachal
cavity is not separated from the general cavity of the body, and the
reproductive buds are external; while in the latter the stomachal
cavity is let down, as it 'were, as a partially-closed sac, into the
general cavity of the body ; and the reproductive buds make their
appearance between the walls of the general cavity and the alimentary
CCELENTERATA.
or stomachal sac, and consequently internally. But in both there is
a free communication between these two cavities — a communication
obvious in the Hydrozoa. and which may be often verified in the
case of the sea anemones, by the young anemones making their ap-
pearance at the mouth of the parent anemone, having first escaped
from the general cavity out into the alimentary cavity of its body.
The Hydrozoa contains no less than seven orders, which will be
referred to in our next chapter (VI). The Actinozoa contain three
recent orders : the Zoantharia (Chapter VII), the Alcyonaria, and
the Ctenophora (Chapter
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CHAPTER VI.
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HYDROZOA.
" In nova fert animus mutatis dicere formas corpora." — OVID, Met.
THE class Hydrozoa includes the Acalephae (from o«a\^*rj, a nettle, so
called from the stinging properties which many of them possess), as
well as a great number of radiate animals, of which the Medusae are
the type. Many of them are remarkable as floating and swimming in
the sea by means of the contraction and dilatation of their bodies,
their substance being gelatinous, without apparent fibres; many of
them, again, are attached and are only locomotive in their young state.
The great order of the Medusidse is characterised by having a disc,
more or less convex above, resembling a mushroom or expanded
umbrella, the edges of the umbrella, as well as the mouth and
suckers, being more or less prolonged into pedicles, which take their
place in the middle of the lower surface ; they are furnished with
tentacula, varying in form and size, which have given rise to many
subdivisions, with which we need not concern ourselves.
The substance of the disc presents a uniform cellular appearance
internally, but the cellular substance being very soft, no trace of
fibre is observable. Taken from the sea, and laid upon a stone, a
Medusa weighing fifty ounces will rapidly diminish to five or six
grains, sinking into a sort of deliquescence, from which Spalanzani
concluded that the sea-water penetrated the organic texture of its
substance, and constituted the principal volume of the animal. Those
which have cilia round their margins have also cellular bands running
along their bases, and most of the projectile and extensile tentacula
and filaments have sacs and canals containing fluids at their roots.
The indications of nerves or nervous system are too slight to be
received as evidence, although Dr. Grant observed some structures
which he thought could only belong to a nervous system, and
Ehrenberg thought he observed eyes in Medusa aurita, as well as a
nervous circle formed of four ganglion-like masses disposed round the
HYDROZOA. I 1 1
mouth. But most naturalists seem to be of opinion that touch is the
only sense of which any conclusive proof can be advanced.
Here we behold a class of bell-shaped semi-transparent organisms,
which float gracefully in the sea — a great family of soft, wandering
animals, constituted in a most extraordinary manner. They look like
floating umbrellas, or, better still, floating mushrooms, the footstalk
replaced by an equally central body, but divided into divergent
lobes at once sinuous, twisted, and fringed, so that one is at first
tempted to take them for a species of root. The edges of the umbrella
or mushroom are entire or dentate, sometimes elegantly scolloped,
often ciliate, or provided with long filiform appendages which float
vertically in the water.
Sometimes the animal is transparent, and limpid as crystal ; some-
times it presents a slightly opaline appearance, now of a tender blue,
or of a delicate rose colour ; at other times it reflects the most brilliant
and vivid tints.
In certain species the central parts only are coloured, showing
brilliant reds and yellows, blues or violets, the rest being colourless.
In others the central mass seems clothed in a thin iridescent or
diaphanous veil, like the light evanescent soap-bubble, or the trans-
parent glass shade which covers a group of artificial flowers.
The Medusae are animals without much consistence, containing
much water, so that we can scarcely comprehend how they resist the
agitation of the waves and the force of the currents ; the waves,
however, float without hurting them, the tempest scatters without
killing them. When the sea retires, or they are withdrawn from their
native waters, their substance dissolves, the animal is decomposed,
they are reduced to nothing ; if the sun is strong, this disorganisation
occurs in the twinkling of an eye, so to speak.
When the Medusae travel their convex part is always kept in
advance and slightly oblique. If they are touched while swimming,
even lightly, they contract their tentacula, fold up their umbrella,
and sink into the sea. Like Ehrenberg, M. Kolliker thought he dis-
covered visual and auditory organs in an Oceania, and Gegenbauer
thought he detected them in other genera, such as Rhizostoma and
Pelagia. The eyes are said to consist of certain small, hemispherical,
cellulose, coloured masses, in which are sunk small crystalline
globules, the free parts of which are perfectly naked. The supposed
auditory apparatus is seated close to these organs ; they are small
vesicles, filled with liquid ; the eyes having neither pupil nor cornea.
But it is in their reproduction that these evanescent beings present
the most marvellous phenomena. At one period of the year the
112 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Medusae are charged with numbers of very minute eggs, of the most
lively colours, which are suspended in large festoons from their
floating bodies. In some cases these eggs develop themselves while
still attached to their bodies, and are only detached at maturity. In
some cases the larval forms produced bear no resemblance to the
parent ; they are elongated and vermiform, broad at their extremity,
with vibrating cilia, scarcely perceptible, by which they execute the
most lively motions. At the end of a certain time they are
transformed into polyps, and furnished with eight tentacula. This
preparatory sort of animal seems to possess the faculty of reproduction
by means of certain buds or tubercles which develop themselves on
the surface of the body, so that a single zooid form originates a
numerous colony. The Hydra tuba is subjected to a transformation
still more remarkable ; its structure becomes complex, its body
articulate, and it seems to be composed of a dozen discs piled one
upon the other, like the jars of a voltaic pile ; the upper disc is
convex, and is separated from the colony after a convulsive effort ;
it becomes free, and an excessively small, star-like Medusa is the
result ; every disc, that is, every zooid form, is isolated one after the
other in the same manner.
Thus some of these forms propagate their kind according to the
usual laws, like producing like ; but others bring forth young which
have no resemblance to the parent at all ; others are produced by
budding, or fission, from individuals like themselves. These can also
acquire sexual distinctions ; but before this change takes place, the
creature, which was simple, is transformed into a composite animal,
and it is from its disaggregation that individuals having sexual organs
are produced, the process being that which has been called alternate
generation. It goes on in a perfectly regular manner, although it
is a fact that the young never resemble their mothers, but their
grandmothers.
This great class of the Hydrozoa is divided, by Professor Greene,
into seven orders : — Hydrides, where the polyps are locomotive and
consisting of such forms as Hydra viridis, Fig. 4. Corynida, where
the forms are attached and the ectodermic layer is generally firm ;
Tubularia indivisa is a well-known species. Sertulariadcz, where the
animal is plant-like and much branched, and where the ectodermic
layer forms cups in which the polyps dwell ; as an example, Sertu-
laria cupressina may be mentioned. Calycophoridce, consisting of free
oceanic forms with nectocalyces, see Pray a diphyes, Fig. 42. Physo-
phoridce, also with free forms, but they are provided with a float or
pneumatophore, in addition to nectocalyces (see PLATE III., p. 134,
HYDRIDE. \ I 3
Figs. 43, 46, 49, 50, 51. Medusida, where there is but a single
polyp, and it is free and oceanic (Figs. 52, 53). And lastly, Lucer-
narida, which are easily distinguished from the previous order by
their umbrella (see Figs. 54, 55, 56, 57, 58).
HYDRIDE.
The order Hydrides, comprehends but the single genus Hydra, of
which many species are known, whose habits and metamorphoses it
will be our object to particularise. The best known of these so-
called species are H. vulgar is, H. viridis, H. fusca, and H. rubra ;
these differ for the most part from each other in size, colour, the
form of the body, or in the relative proportions of the polypite and
tentacles.
In this order the polyps are attached by a base which can be
detached during locomotion. The integument does not secrete any
horny or calcareous covering, but is easily resolved into two
portions — an outer called the ectodermic layer, and an inner called
the enodermic layer.
Hydra vulgaris (Fig. 40) inhabits stagnant ponds and slowly-running
waters. It is of an orange-brown or red colour, the intensity of the
colour depending on the nature of its food, becoming almost blood-
red when fed on the small crimson worms and larva to be found in
such places. M. Laurent even succeeded in colouring them blue,
red, and white, by means of indigo, carmine, and chalk, without any
real penetration of the tissue, the buds from them acquiring the same
colour as the parent, while the colour of the ovum retains its natural
tint, even when the mother Hydra has been fed with coloured
substances during the progress of this mode of reproduction. The
tentacula, usually seven or eight in number, never exceed the length
of the body, tapering insensibly to a point.
Hydra riridis, another fresh-water polyp, being more immediately
within the sphere of our observation, naturally presents itself to our
notice. It is common in ponds and still waters. It was noticed by
Pallas, who was of opinion that its young were produced from every
part of its body. De Blainville, on the contrary, was of opinion that
the young were always produced from the same place ; namely, at
the junction of that part which is hollow and that which is not.
Van der Hoven, late Professor of Natural History at Leyden,
agrees with Pallas, and Dr. Johnstan's opinion is the same. The
green Hydra is common all over Europe, inhabiting brooks filled
with herbage — attaching itself particularly to the duckweed of
H4
THE OCEAN WORLD.
stagnant ponds, and more especially to the under surface of the
leaf. The animal is composed of a small greenish tubular sac,
closed at one of its extremities, open at the other, and bearing
round this opening from six to ten tentacles, very slender, some-
times not exceeding a line in breadth. The tubulous sac is the
Fig. 40. — Hydra vulgaris. i. Hydra with ovum and young, unhatched. 2 Hydra of natural size
attached to a piece of floating wood. 3. Egg ready to burst its covering;.
body of the animal (Fig. 41), the opening is at once its mouth and
the entrance to the digestive canal ; the appendages, the tentacula
or arms.
The Hydras have no lungs, no liver, no intestines, no nervous
system, no heart. They have no organ of the senses, except those
which mav exist in their mouth and skin. The arms or tentacles are
HYDKfD.
hollow internally, and communicate with the stomach. They are
provided with vibratile cilia, and are furnished with a great number
of papillae disposed spirally, and containing in their interior a number
of capsules provided each with thread cells. These threads, which
are of extreme tenacity, are thrown out when the animal is irritated
Fig. 41. — Hydra viridis (Trembley). i. Hydra magnified, bearing an embryo ready to detach
itself. 2. Animal, natural size.
by contact with any strange body. We may see these filaments
wrapping themselves round their prey, sometimes even penetrating
its substance, and effectually subduing the enemy. The green
Hydra has thus a very simple organisation. Nevertheless, it would
be a mistake to say the animal was imperfect, for it possesses every-
thing necessary for its nourishment and for the propagation of its
species.
Il6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
There are learned men who have composed hundreds of volumes,
who have published whole libraries — naturalists and physicists who
have written more than Voltaire ever penned, but whose names are
almost forgotten. On the other hand, there are some who have left
only two or three monographs, and yet their names will live for ever.
Of this number is A. Trembley. This writer published in 1744 a
" Memoir on the Fresh-water Polyp." In this little work he recorded
his observations on some of these animals of the smallest dimensions.
He limited himself even to two sets of experiments \ he turned the
fresh-water polyp outside in, and he multiplied it by cutting it up.
These experiments upon this little creature, which few persons had
seen, have sufficed to secure immortality to his name. Trembley was
tutor to the two sons of Count de Bentinck. He made his observa-
tions at the country-house of the Dutch nobleman, and he had, as he
assures us, " frequent occasion to satisfy himself, in the case of his
two pupils, that we can even in infancy taste the pleasures derivable
from the studies of Nature !" Let us earnestly hope that this
thought, uttered by a celebrated naturalist, who spoke only what
he knew himself, may remain engraved on the minds of our younger
readers.
Trembley established by his observations, a thousand times repeated,
that Hydra viridis can be turned outside in as completely as a glove
may be, without injury to the animal, which a day or two after this
evolution resumes its ordinary functions. Such is the vitality of these
little beings, that what was once the outer surface soon fulfils all the
functions of a stomach, digesting its food, while the intestinal tube,
expanding its exterior, performs all the functions of an outer surface,
it absorbs and respires. But we shall leave Trembley to relate his very
remarkable experiments.
" I attempted," he says, " for the first time to turn these polyps
inside out in the month of July, 1741, but unsuccessfully. I was
more successful the following year, having found an expedient which
was of easy execution. I began by giving a worm to the polyp,
and put it, when the stomach was well filled, into a little water
which filled the hollow of my left hand. I pressed it afterwards with
a gentle pinch towards the posterior extremities. In this manner I
pressed the worm which was in the stomach against the mouth of
the polyp, forcing it to open — continuing the pinching pressure until
the worm was partly pressed out of the mouth. When the polyp was
in this state I conducted it gently out of the water, without damaging
it, and placed it upon the edge of my hand, which was simply mois-
tened in order that the polyp should not stick to it. I forced it to
HYDRID&. II/
contract itself more and more, and, in doing so, assisted in enlarging
the mouth and stomach. I now took in my right hand a thick and
pointless boar's bristle, which I held as a lancet is held in bleeding.
I approached its thicker end to the posterior extremity of the polyp,
which I pressed until it entered the stomach, which it does the more
easily since it is empty at this place and much enlarged. I continued
to advance the bristle, and, in proportion as it advanced, the polyp
became more and more inverted. When it came to the worm, by
which the mouth is kept open on one side, and the posterior part of
the polyp is passed through the mouth, the creature is thus turned
completely inside out j the exterior superficies of the polyp has
become the interior."
The poor animal would be justified in feeling some surprise at its
new situation — disagreeably surprised, we may add, for it makes every
imaginable effort to recover its natural position, and it always succeeds
in the end : the glove is restored to its proper form. " 1 have seen
polyps," says Trembley, " which have recovered their natural exterior
in less than an hour." But this would not have served the purpose
of our experimenter. He wished to know if the polyps thus turned
outside in could live in this state ; he had consequently to prevent it
from righting itself, for which purpose a needle was run through the
body near the mouth — in other words, he impaled the creature by the
neck.
" It is nothing for a polyp only to be spitted," says Trembley. It
is in fact a very small thing, as we shall see, for thus reversed and
spitted they live and multiply as if nothing had happened.
" I have seen a polyp/' says this ingenious experimenter, " turned
inside out, which has eaten a small worm two days after the operation.
I have fed one in that state for more than two years, and it has multi-
plied in that condition.
" Having experimented successfully myself, I was desirous of
having the testimony of others capable of forming opinions on the
subject. M. Allamand was persuaded to put his hand to the
work, which he did with the same success I had met with. He
has done more, having succeeded in permanently turning speci-
mens which had been previously turned, and which continued to
live in their re-inveited state; he has seen them eat soon after
both operations ; finally, he has turned one for the third time,
which lived some days, but perished without having eaten any-
thing, although it did not appear that its death was the result of the
operation."
We have said that the Hydra viridis has neither brain, nervous
US THE OCEAN WORLD.
system, heart, muscular rings, lungs, nor liver ; the organs of the
senses — namely, those of sight, hearing, and of smell — have also
been denied them. Nevertheless, they act as if they possessed all
these senses. O Nature ! how hidden are thy secrets, and how the
pride of man is humbled by the mysteries which surround thee — by
the spectacles which strike his eye, and which he attempts in vain
to explain !
Trembley states that the fresh-water polyps, having no muscular
system, can neither extend nor contract themselves, nor can they
progress. If touched, or if the water in which they are immersed is
suddenly agitated, they are certainly observed to contract more or
less forcibly, and even to inflect themselves in all directions ; and by
this power of extension, of contraction, and inflection, they contrive
to move from place to place ; but these movements are singularly
slow, the utmost space they have been observed to traverse being
about eight inches in the twenty-four hours.
Painfully conscious of his powers of progression, however, he
has found means of remedying it, and the freshwater snail is
his steed ; he creeps upon the shell of a Planorbis, or a Limneus,
and by means of this improvised mount he will make more
way in a few minutes than he would in a whole day by his own
unassisted efforts.
Hydra viridis, although destitute of organs of sight, is neverthe-
less sensible of light ; if the vase containing them is placed partly in
shade and par'ly in the sun, they direct themselves immediately
towards the light ; they appreciate sounds ; they attach themselves to
aquatic plants and other floating bodies. Without eyes, without
brain, and without nerves, these animals lie in wait for thfir prey,
recognise, seize, and devour it. They make no blunder, and only
attack where they are pretty sure of success. They know how
to flee from danger ; they evade obstacles, and fight with or fly
before their enemies. There are, then, some powers of reflec-
tion, deliberation, and premeditated action in these insignificant
creatures ; their history, in short, is calculated to fill the mind with
astonishment.
Trembley insists much upon the address which the Hydra employs
to secure its prey : by the aid of its long arms, small animals, which
serve to nourish it, are seized, for it is carnivorous, and even passably
voracious. Worms, small insects, and larva of dipterous insects are
its habitual prey. When a worm or water flea in passing its tentacles
happens to touch them, the polyp, taking the hint, seizes upon the
wanderer, twining its flexible arms round it, and, directing it rapidly
HYDR/DsE. 1 19
towards its mouth, swallows it. Trembley amused himself by feeding
the Hydra, while he observed the manner in which it devoured its
prey.
"When its arms were extended, I have put into the water a
woodlouse or a small worm. As soon as the woodlouse feels itself
a prisoner it struggles violently, swimming about, and drawing the
arm which holds it from side to side ; but, however delicate it may
appear, the arm of the polyp is capable of considerable resistance ; it
is now gradually drawn in, and other arms come to its assistance,
while the polyp itself approaches its prey ; presently the woodlouse
finds itself engaged with all the arms, which, by curving and con-
tracting, gradually but inevitably approach the mouth, in which it is
soon engulfed."
Fre'dol also notices a singular fact. " The small worms, even
when swallowed by the polyp," he says, " frequently try to escape ;
but the ravisher retains them by plunging one of its arms into
the digestive cavity! What an admirable contrivance, by which the
worms are digested while the arm is respected ! "
The food of the fresh-water Hydra influences the colour of their
bodies in consequence of the thinness and transparency of their
tissues ; so that the reddish matter of the woodlouse renders them
red, while other food renders them black or green, according to its
prevailing cololur.
The multiplication of these creatures takes place in three different
ways : —
1. By eggs.
2. By buds, after the manner of vegetables.
3. By separation, in which an individual may be cut into two
or many segments, each reproducing an individual.
We shall only say a few words on the first mode of reproduction.
At certain seasons of the year ova are found to develop themselves
in the substance of the lower part of the Hydra's body. These subse-
quently separate from the body, and appear to be capable of inde-
pendent movements ; but whether these be caused by cilia or not
is not quite determined. After a time the sac of the ovum becomes
ruptured, and the young Hydra bursts its way out.
Trembley has studied with great care the mode of reproduction
by budding — a process which seems to prevail in the summer months.
The buds which are to form the young polyp appear on the surface
of the body as little spherical excrescences terminating in a point.
A few steps further towards maturity, and they assume a conical, and
finally a cylindrical form. The arms now begin to push out at the
I2O THE OCEAN WORLD.
anterior extremity of the young animal ; the posterior extremity by
which it is attached to the mother contracting by degrees, until it
appears only to touch her at one point. Finally, the separation is
effected, the parent and the young acting in concert to produce the
entrance of this interesting young polyp into the world. Each of
them take with their head and arms a strong point of support upon
some neighbouring body ; and a small effort suffices to procure the
separation; sometimes the parent charges herself with the effort,
sometimes the young, and often both.
When the young polyp is separated from the parent, it swims
about, and executes all the movements peculiar to adult animals.
The entrance into life and maturity takes place with these beings at
one and the same moment. Infancy and youth are suppressed in
this little world.
In the course of his experiments Trembley found the following
remarkable fact.
Upon a young polyp still attached to its parent he observed
a new polyp or polypule, and upon this unborn creature was
another individual. Thus, three generations were appended to the
parent, who carried at once her child, her grandchild, and great-
grandchild.
" In observing the young polyps still attached to their parent,"
says Trembley, " I have seen one which had itself a little one which
was just issuing from its body; that is to say, it was a mother while
yet attached to its own parent. I had in a short time many young
polyps attached to their parents which had already had three or four
little ones, of which some were even perfectly formed. They fished
for woodlice like others, and they ate them. Nor is this all. I have
seen a mother-polyp which had carried its third generation. From
the little one which he had produced issued another little one, and
from this a third/'
Charles Bennet, a naturalist of Geneva, says, wittily, that a polyp
thus charged with all its descendants constitutes a living genealogical
tree.
We have just spoken of turning polyps inside out ! If one 01
these creatures is thus operated upon while it bears its young on the
surface of its body, such of them as are sufficiently advanced continue
to increase ; although they find themselves in this sudden manner
imprisoned in an internal cavity, and they re-issue subsequently by
the mouth. Those less advanced at the moment of reversal issue
by little and little from the maternal sac, and complete their career
of development on the newly-made exterior.
HYDRID&. 121
The third and most extraordinary mode of reproduction in the
polyps has been discovered by Trembley in the case of the green
Hydra. So surprised was this naturalist at the strange anomalies
which surround these creatures, that he began to have doubts, and
gravely to ask the question, is this polyp an animal? or, is it a
plant ?
In order to escape from this state of indecision, it occurred to
him to cut a Hydra into pieces. Concluding that plants alone could
reproduce themselves by slips, he waited the result of the experiment
for the conclusion he sought. On the 25th of November, 1740, he
cut a polyp into sections. " I put," he tells us, " the two parts into
a flat glass, which contained water four or five lines in depth, and
in such a manner that each portion of the polyp could be easily
observed through a strong magnifying glass. It will suffice to say
that I had cut the polyp transversely, and a little nearer to the
anterior. On the morning of the day after having cut the polyp, it
seemed to me that on the edges of the second part, which had
neither head nor arms, three small points were issuing from these
edges. This surprised me extremely, and I waited with impatience
for the moment when I could clearly ascertain what they were.
Next day they were sufficiently developed to leave no doubt on my
mind that they were true arms. The following day two new arms
made their appearance, and, some days after, a third appeared, and
I could now trace no difference between the first and second half of
the polyp which I had cut."
This is assuredly one of the most startling facts belonging to
natural history. Divide a fresh-water polyp into five or six parts,
and at the end of a few days all the separate parts will be organised,
developed, and form so many new beings, resembling the primitive
individual. Let us add, that the polyp which should thus have lost
five-sixths of its body, the mutilated father of all this generation,
remains complete in itself; in the interval, it has recuperated itself
and recovered all its primitive substance.
After this, if a Hydra vulgaris wishes to procure for itself the
blessings of a family, it has only one thing to do : cut off an arm ;
if it desire two descendants, let it cut the arm in two parts ; if three,
let it divide it into three ; and so on ad infinitum. " Divide one of
the animals," says Trembley, " and each section will soon form a new
individual in all respects like the creature divided." " A whole host of
polyps hewn into pieces," says Fre'dol, "will be far from being
annihilated." " On the contrary," we may say, in our turn, " its
youth will be renewed, and multiplied in proportion to the number of
122 THE OCEAN WORLD.
pieces into which it has been divided." "The same polyp," says
Trembley, " may be successively inverted, cut in sections, and turned
back again, without being, seriously injured."
If a green Hydra is cut into two pieces, and the stomach is
cut off in the operation, the voracious creature will, nevertheless,
continue to eat the prey which presents itself. It gorges itself with
the food, without troubling itself with the loss which it has sustained ;
but the food no longer nourishes it, for it merely enters by one
opening, passes through the intestinal canal, and escapes by the
other. It realises Harleville's pleasantry of M. de Crac's horse, in
the piece of that name, which eats unceasingly, but never gets any
fatter.
All these instances of mutilation, resulting in an increase of life, are
very strange. The naturalists to whom they were first revealed could
scarcely believe their own eyes. Reaumur, who repeated many of
Trembley's experiments, writes as follows : " I confess that when I saw
for the first time two polyps forming by little and little from that
which I had cut in two, I could scarcely believe my eyes ; and it is a
fact that, after hundreds of experiments, I never could quite reconcile
myself to the sight."
In short, we know nothing analogous to it in the animal kingdom.
About the same period Charles Bennet writes : " We can only judge
of things by comparison, and have taken our ideas of animal life from
the larger animals ; and an animal which we cut and turn inside out,
which we cut again, and it still bears itself well, gives one a singular
shock. How many facts are ignored, which will come one day to
derange our ideas of subjects which we think we understand ! At
present we just know enough to be aware that we should be surprised
at nothing."
Notwithstanding the philosophic serenity which Bennet recom-
mends, the fact of new individuals resulting from dividing these
fresh- water polyps was always a subject of profound astonishment,
and of never-ending meditation.
CORYNID^E.
We have already said that recent researches have led to a separa-
tion of this class of animals from the Sertularidae, and to their being
formed into an order by themselves. Of these creatures we formerly
only knew one of the forms, namely, the polyp form ; or, rather, the
first stage of it. During their earliest days they possess a polyp, fur-
nished with tentacles, and a bell-shaped body. During their medusoid
CORYN1D&. 123
age, they present a central stomach, with four canals in the form of a
cross, and four to eight tentacles with cirri. The Corynidce compre-
hends many genera ; among others the genera Coryne, Hydr actinia^
Tubularia, and Cordylophora^ in studying which Van Beneden of
Louvain discovered most interesting facts connected with the subject
of alternate generation.
The Hydrozoa forming the Corynidse have the power of secreting
a hollow tube of a horny nature, in which the fleshy body can move
up and down, expanding its tentacles over the top. Others of them
give forth buds, each of which takes the form of a polyp, and these,
being permanent, give it a shrub-like or branched appearance ; it is
now a compound polyp. The tube is branched, but the orifices from
which the polyps expand never dilate into cups or cells. The Tubu-
laria are plant-like and horny, rooted by fibres, tubular, and filled
with a semi-fluid organic pulp ; polyps naked and fleshy, protruding
from the extremity of every branchlet of the tube, and armed with
one or two circles of smooth filiform tentacles ; the reproductive
bodies germinating from the base of the tentacles ; embryo medusi-
form. "Some modern authors," says Fredol, "assure us that the
tree-like form of these polyps is a degraded and transitory form of
the Medusae. The Medusa originates the polyp, the polyp becomes a
Medusa." Eudendrium rameum so perfectly resembles an old tree in
miniature, deprived of its leaves, that it is difficult to believe it is
not of a vegetable origin ; it is like a vigorous tree in miniature, in
full flower, rising from the summit of a brown-spotted stem, with
many branches and tufted shoots, terminating in so many hydra-like
polyps of a beautiful yellow or brilliant red. E. ramosum, of a
brownish colour and horny substance, rising six inches, is rooted by
tortuous, wrinkled fibres, with flexible, smooth, and thread-like shoots,
branching into a doubly pinnate form. In Tubularia indivisa the
tubes are clustering ; its numerous stems are horny, yellow, and from
six to twelve inches in height, about a line in diameter, and marked
with unequal knots from space to space, like the stalk of the oat-straw
with the joints cut off. Their lower extremity is tortuous, attaching
themselves readily to shells and stones in deep water, flourishing in
deep muddy bottoms, and upright as a flower, fixed by the tapering
root-like terminations of their horny tube : a flowering animal, having,
however, neither flower nor branch. At the summit of each stem a
double scarlet corolla is developed of from five to thirty-five petals,
in rows, the external one spreading, those in the interior rising in
a tuft ; a little below, the ovarium appears, drooping, when ripe,
like a bunch of orange-coloured grapes. After a time the petals
124 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of the corolla fade, fall, and die, and a bud replaces them, which
produces a new polyp \ and so on. This succession determines
the length of the stem. Each apparent flower throws out a small
tube, which terminates it, and each addition adds one joint more
to the axis, which it increases in length.
SERTULARIAD.ratile cilia ; their movement is excessively
slow ; then, from the spheroid form which they take at first, they get
elongated, and take a cylindrical form, all the body inclining slightly
sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. The vibratile cilia
fading afterwards, the embryo attaches itself to some solid body, a
tubercle is formed, and the base extends itself as a disc. At the
same time that the first rudiments of the polyp appear, the disc-like
tubercle throws out on its flanks a sort of bud, and a second polyp
soon shows itself; its surface is hardened; the polyp appears in its
turn, and the same process of generation is repeated ; a colony of
Sertulariada is thus established at the summit of a discoid projection.
At the end of fifteen days the colony, which has been forming under
our eyes, consists of two polyps and a bud, which already indicates a
third polyp. The sea-cypress, as this species is called, is robust,
with longish branches decidedly fan-shaped, the pinnae being closer
and nearly parallel to each other. The cells form two rows, nearly
opposite, smooth and pellucid. The branches in some .specimens
are gracefully arched, bending as it were under the load of pregnant
ovaries which they carry, arranged in close-set rows along the upper
126 THE OCEAN WORLD.
side of the pinnae. They are found in deep water all around
our coasts. The cells, which are the abode of the polyps are not
always alike in their distribution. Sometimes they are ranged on
two sides, sometimes on one only. Sometimes they are grouped
like the small tubes of an organ, at other times they assume a spiral
form round the stem, or they form here and there horizontal rings
round it."
The Campanularinse differ considerably from the above, and
form a second family of this order, the ends of their branches, whence
the polyps issue, being enlarged into a bell-like shape, whence their
name. Laomedea dichotoma is at once the most delicate and most
elegant of the species. It presents a brownish stem, thin as a thread
of silk, but strong and elastic. The polyps are numerous : upon a
tree eight or nine inches high there may be as many hundreds.
Campamilaria volubilis is a minute microscopical species, living
parasitically on corallines, seaweed, and shelled animals. The stem
is a fine corneous tube, which creeps and twists itself upon its support,
throwing out at alternate intervals a long slender stalk, twisted through-
out or only partially, which supports a bell-shaped cup of perfect trans-
parency, and prettily serrated round the brim. Dr. Johnston found
the antennae of a crab so profusely infested with them as to resemble
hairy brushes. It is furnished, according to Hassall, with a delicate
joint or hinge at the base of each little cup — a contrivance designed,
it is imagined, to enable the frail zoophyte the better to elude the
rude contact of the element in which it lives, by allowing it to bend to
a force which it cannot resist.
The Campanularinse increase by budding, the buds being found in
much the same manner as in the Hydra. They form at first but a
simple excrescence, which, in due time, takes the form of the branch
from which it proceeds. These buds have their origin at certain
distances, and form a new series of polyps.
CALYCOPHORIDjE.
This order consists of free oceanic forms, provided with swimming
bells or nectocalyces.
In the family of Diphydse but two natatory vesicles are connected
with the stem, as in Pray a diphyes, Fig. 42. This species is widely
diffused in the sea which bathes the Nicean coast, but it is very
difficult to procure perfect specimens of it. M. Vogt found fragments
more than three feet long which swam en the surface, and was in its
state of contraction not more than a finger's length. This species
CA L YCOPHORID&. 12?
has been met with at Porta della Praya and at San Yago, one of the
Cape de Verde islands.
The colony of Praya diphyes presents two great locomotive bell-
shaped masses, between which the common stem is suspended.
This cylindrical stem, which is thin and transparent, carries on it at
Fig. 42. — Praya diphyes (Blainville;.
intervals certain groups very exactly circumscribed and individualised.
Each of these groups consists of a nursing polyp, having its fishing-
line with a special floating air bladder, a reproductive bud male or
female, and a protecting bract enveloping the whole.
128 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Another species having a great resemblance to the Praya is
Galeolaria aurantiaca, or orange Galeolaria, which is represented
on the opposite plate (PLATE II.), borrowed from the fine
" Memoir of the Inferior Animals of the Mediterranean/' by Carl
Vogt. Here we find only two great floating bladders placed at each
extremity of a common stem, and serving the purpose of a locomo-
tive apparatus to the whole colony. This stem carries in like
manner polyps placed at regular intervals forming isolated groups,
provided each with its protecting bracts. But there is no special
swimming apparatus for each of these groups. Moreover, each
colony is either male or female.
PHYSOPHORIDJE.
These inhabitants of the deep are graceful in form, and are
distinguished by their delicate tissues and brilliant colours. Essentially
swimmers, supported by one or many vessels filled with air — having
also, as in the previous Order, mostly true-swimming-bladders, more
or less numerous, and of variable form — they float upon the waves,
remaining on the surface whatever may be the state of the sea.
They are natural skiffs, and almost incapable of immersion. The
Physophoridse form several families, the principal of which are the
Apokmiana (Fig. 43), the Stephanomina (PLATE III., p. 134), Physo-
phorince(F\g. 46), Physalmce (Fig. 49), and Velettince (Figs. 50, 51).
The Apokmina contains but a single genus, Apokmia. The pretty
A. contorta of Milne-Edwards (Fig. 43), inhabits the Mediterranean,
and particularly the coast of Nice. This elegant species is often met
with in the Gulf of Villafranca, near Nice, and has been figured and
described by Milne-Edwards, Charles Vogt, and also by M. de Quatre-
fages, who asks the reader " to figure to himself an axis of flexible
crystals, sometimes more than a metre (forty inches) in length, all
round which are attached, by means of long peduncles or footstalks
equally transparent, some hundreds of bodies, sometimes elongated,
sometimes flat, and formed like the bud of a flower. If we add to
this garland of pearls of a vivid red colour an infinity of fine filaments,
varying in thickness, and giving life and motion to all these parts, we
have even now only a very slight and imperfect idea of this marvellous
organism." The swimming-bells in Apokmia contorta consist of a
mass having the form of an elongated egg cut in the middle. They
are arranged in a vertical series of twelves, and the axis which
supports them is terminated by the aerial vesicle or float. This
axis is always arranged in a spiral form, even in its greatest expansion,
IT. — Galeolaria aurantiaca (Vogt).
PHYSOPHOR1D&. 1 3 1
it is of a fine rose tint, and flattened into the form of a ribbon ; it is
marked in all its length with asperities or hollow dimples, in which
the nlamental appendages originate.
plg 43 — Apolemia contorta, one-third natural size (Milne-Edwards)
The nursing polyps have been called proloscidiferous organs by
M Milne-Edwards, who has studied them carefully. They are
rendered conspicuous at a glance by the bright-red colour of their
digestive cavity and their extreme disability. At the base of their
sterns the very delicate filaments called fishing-lines are attached
132
THE OCEAN WORLD.
which are furnished with a multitude of stinging tendrils of a reddish
colour. These tendrils slightly resemble those met with in Agalma,
and the sabre-like weapons are not wanting.
Between the nursing polyps are placed in pairs the reproductive
Fig. 44.— Apolemia contorta,
magnified 12 times.
Fig. 45. — Apolemia contorta,
reproductive pair, magnified 12 times.
individuals, having the form of an elongated tube very dilatable, and
closed at the free end. They have then, no mouth ! Milne-Edwards
calls these "vesicular appendages," and M. Kolliker calls them
tentacles. The buds arranged at the base of each prolific individual
vary;, but, according to M. Vogt, they are always there in pairs — a
male and female at the base of each stem. Figs. 44 and 45
III. -Agalma rub^a, three-fifths natural size*
PH YSOPHORID&. 135
represent the colony we have endeavoured to describe, 44 being
the nursing individual of Apolemia contorta magnified twelve times,
45 representing the reproductive pair under the same magnifying
power.
The Stephanomincz contain several genera, among these the
genus Agalma; and there is no animal form more graceful than Agalma
r ubra, which is reproduced in PLATE III., from Vogt's Memoir. This
beautiful creature is common in the Mediterranean, on the coast near
Nice, from November till the month of May. Towards the middle
of December Vogt found nearly fifty individuals, in the space of an
hour, opposite to the port of Nice, all following the same current —
a prodigious quantity of Salpae, Medusae, and small pteropodean
molluscs accompanying them.
" I know nothing more graceful," says Vogt, " than this Agalma, as
it floats along near the surface of the waters, its long, transparent,
garland-like lines extended, and their limits distinctly indicated by
bundles of a brilliant vermilion red, while the rest of the body is
concealed by its very transparency ; the entire organism always swims
in a slightly oblique position near the surface, but is capable of steer-
ing itself in any direction with great rapidity. I have had in my
possession some of these garlands more than three feet in length, in
which the series of swimming bladders measured more than four
inches, so that in the great vase in which I kept them the column
of swimming bladders touched the bottom, while the aerial vesicle
floated on the surface. Immediately after its capture the columns
contracted themselves to such a point that they were scarcely per-
ceptible, but when left to repose in a spacious vase, all its shrunken
appendages deployed themselves round the vase in the most graceful
manner imaginable, the column of swimming-bladders remaining im-
movable in their vertical position, the float at the surface, while the
different appendages soon began to play. The polyps, planted at
intervals along the common trunk, of rose-colour, began to agitate
themselves in all directions, taking a thousand odd forms ; the repro-
ductive individuals, like the tentacles, were contracting and twisting
about like so many worms ; the tentacles were stirred, the ovarian
clusters began to dilate and contract, the spasmodic swimming-
bladders agitated the waters with their umbrellas, like the Medusae ;
but what most excited my curiosity, was the continuous action of the
fishing-lines, which continued to unroll and contract in a most surpris-
ing manner, re-tiring altogether sometimes with the utmost precipitation.
All who have witnessed these living colonies, withdraw themselves
reluctantly from the strange spectacle, where each polyp seems to
THE OCEAN WORLD.
play the part of the fisherman who throws his line, furnished with
baited hooks, withdrawing it when he feels a nibble, and throwing
again when he discovers his disappointment. These efforts con-
tinued in full vigour for two or three days, and I have succeeded
sometimes in feeding them with the small crustaceans which swarm
on our coasts."
Of the personnel of these colonies a few words will not be mis-
placed. The common axis of the Agalma is a hollow muscular tube,
the length of which may be three feet, and its breadth an eighth or
tenth of an inch ; it is traversed by a double current of a granular
fluid ; at its summit is the aerial vesicle ; beneath are the swimming-
bladders. These are disposed along the trunk in a double series,
attaining sometimes the number of sixty ; their structure is analogous
to the same organs in Physophora.
In examining the posterior portion of the trunk, traversing polyps
are observed at intervals, whose base is surrounded by a cluster of
reddish grains, each of which is armed with a //>#, and, with its
surrounding filament, terminating in a tendril of a red vermilion
colour, which is a perfect arsenal of offensive and defensive arms.
There we find "sabres " of divers sizes, and poniards of various forms,
the whole constituting a truly formidable stinging apparatus.
Those warlike engines, those arms of attack and defence with
which man surrounds himself, Nature has freely bestowed on these
little creatures with which the ocean swarms in some places. It
might be said that, after having created these graceful creatures to
ornament and decorate the depths of the ocean, the Creator was so
pleased with his work that he furnished them with arms for their
protection and defence against all attacks from without.
The family Physophorinoe. includes several genera. Fig. 46 is a
representation of Physophora hydrostatica^ after M. Vogt's Memoir.
We see that the animal is composed of a slender vertical axis,
terminating in an aerial vesicle or float, carrying laterally certain
vesicles, known as swimming-bladders, which terminate in a bundle
of whitish slender threads.
The aerial vesicle is brilliant and silvery, punctured with red
spots. The swimming-bladders are encased in transparent and
somewhat cartilaginous capsules, which are continued into the
common median trunk, the latter being rose-coloured, hollow, and
very contractile ; in short, it presents very delicate muscular fibres,
which expand themselves on the external surface of each capsule,
and is closed on all sides.
The swimming-bladders are of a glass-like transparency, and of a
PHYSOPHORIDJE.
137
Fig. 46. - -Physophora hydrostatica Forskal).
138 THE OCEAN WORLD.
firm, compact tissue. They are attached obliquely and alternately
upon a common axis, presenting an exterior curvature, a round
opening, furnished with a fine, muscular, and very contractile limb,
and arranged like the iris of the eye. Their power of resistance is
increased by certain horny hollow threads, which are in direct com-
munication with the cavity of the vertical axis, and have their origin
in a common circular canal.
" The animal," says Vogt, " is enabled to guide itself in any
direction by means of the swimming apparatus or air-bags. These,
on opening, are filled with water, which is again ejected in the
contractile movement, for their movements may be compared to that
of the umbrella of the Medusae. It is the violent expulsion of this
liquid which enables the animal to advance diagonally through the
water, a kind of motion which is the consequence of its organisation ;
for where both rows of air-bags are working in the direction of the
axis of the stem, the organism will incline to the side which works
most, but always in such a manner that the aerial vesicle will be
borne forward."
In its lower parts the stem expands, becomes flat, and winds itself
in a spiral. It is hollow, and encloses a transparent viscous liquid,
in which very small granules are observed, which appear to be the
result of digestion. To this are attached three different sorts of
appendages. We shall first address ourselves to the tentacles.
These form a crown or bundle of vermiform appendages, of a
reddish colour, over an inch in length, and which are kept continually
in motion : these are formed of a glass-like cartilaginous substance ;
they are conical tubes, closed on all parts except at the point where
the tentacle is attached to the disc. Their cavity is filled with the
granulous liquid already mentioned. On the under surface of the
disc, and to the inside of these tentacles the polyps and fishing-lines
are attached.
The anterior part of the polyp is formed of a glass-like substance,
which changes its form in the most varied and surprising manner. It
bears a roundish mouth at its summit. In its posterior part the
polyp presents a straight hollow stem, of reddish colour ; but near to
this red stem we find a thick tuft of cylindrical appendages, from the
middle of which spring the extensible and contractile filament which
Vogt calls the fishing-lines (fil pecheur), and of which he has given
the following very strange account : —
" Each of these appendages consists of an assemblage of cylindrical
tubes somewhat resembling and analogousto the filament of aConferva.
All these tubes are traversed by a continuous canal, which originates
PHYSOPHORfD^E.
in the internal cavity of the stem of the polyp. Each fragment of
the line is capable of a prodigious extent of elongation and contrac-
tion : but where completely drawn back the pieces fold themselves up
somewhat in the manner of a pocket foot-rule. It is to the combined
effect of contraction and the unfolding of the pieces that these lines
owe the marvellous changes of length which they present." In
Fig. 47. —P. hydrostatica, with a portion of the disc, three polyps, and reproductive clusters
attached.
Fig. 47 are represented the polyps and fishing-lines of P. hydrostatica,
with a portion of the disc and two pairs of reproductive clusters.
In this figure it will be observed that each fragment or joint has
implanted, near the articulation, a secondary line, which bears the
stinging organ. Each of these filaments consists of three parts — a
straight stem, muscular, contractile, and hollow, the cavity of which
communicates with that of the trunk which carries it ; a middle part,
a sort of tube containing, in a considerable internal cavity, a trans-
parent liquid ; finally, an inflated stinging organ, which terminates
the apparatus. This last is egg-shaped, and consists internally of a
hyaline substance of cartilaginous consistence, in the interior of which
I4O THE OCEAN WORLD.
we find a great cavity, which opens from within, near the base of the
capsule ; to the inside of this cavity a second muscular sac is atttached
all round the opening of the capsule, in such a manner that the
opening leads directly into the cavity of the sac. This cavity conceals
in its interior a long filament usually rolled up in a spiral, as illus-
trated in Fig. 48, where the two urticating capsules of the stinging
apparatus of Physophora hydrostatica are represented, one of them
being a section, magnified by twelve diameters. This spirally
rolled-up filament consists of a large quantity of very small, hard,
sabre-shaped, corpuscular bodies, supported the one against the other,
and having their points turned inwards. These objects Vogt terms
"urticant sabres;" the extremity of the filament consists of curved
corpuscles, larger, of a brownish yellow, very strong, and with a
double point. M. Vogt had also opportunities of observing the
action of these stinging capsules. He has seen them burst naturally,
and he has also obtained artificially the same result. In the former
case the filament issues from the opening left at the base of the
capsule with a sort of explosion. " The use/' he says, " of the fishing-
lines becomes evident when we see a Physophora in repose in a vase
large enough for its full development ; then it takes a vertical position ;
the lines elongate themselves more and more, by unfolding one by
one the secondary lines with stinging capsules, and the Physophora
now resembles a flower posed upon a tuft of roots, with extremely
long and delicate rootlets reaching to the bottom of the vase. But in
the case of the Physophora the living roots are in continual motion.
Each line is elongated, foreshortened, and contracted in a thousand
ways. The least movement of the water causes the stinging capsules
to be suddenly drawn up, the lines hauled in most rapidly being those
near the crown of tentacles. This continuous play of the lines has
no other object than to attract the prey destined to feed the polyp,
and we cannot find any better comparison for them than the fishing-
lines to which they have been compared. The moment that some
small microscopical medusae, larva, or crustacean, come within the
sphere of those redoubted lines, it is at once surrounded, seized, and
led with irresistible force towards the mouth of this polyp by a gentle
and gradual contraction of the line ; the stinging organs, complicated
as we have seen them to be in the Physophora, thus serve the same
purpose as the stinging organs disposed on the arms of the Hydra,
or on the external surface of the tentacles and prolific polyps of the
Velella.
Let us finally note among the Physalina — a family it will be
recollected of Physophoridce. — a form which has attracted great
PHYSOPHORID&.
attention, and has been described under many names. Sailors call
it the sea-bladder, from its resemblance to that organ ; it is also
known as the Portuguese man-of-war, from its fancied resemblance to
a small ship as it floats along under its tiny sail. Naturalists aftei
Eschscholtz call it Physalia irtriailus, from the Greek word, $VH YSOPHORID&. 1 5 5
longest, and also with small cilia, each terminating in a globule,
which sometimes contains air; the interior tentacles are shorter,
simple, and fleshy. In the centre of these tentacula is the mouth,
in form of a small proboscis, leading to a simple stomach surrounded
by a somewhat glandular substance. The editors of the last edition
of the " Regne Animal " only mention one species, P. gigantea, a
native of the Mediterranean and other warm seas, of a beautiful
blue colour. Lamarck gives four species. De Blainville and others
Fig. 51.— Porpita pacifica (Lesson).
consider, with Cuvier, that they are only varieties which Eschscholtz
reunites under one species. In Fig. 5 1 we have represented P. pacifica
(Lesson), the disc of which is twelve lines in diameter, without com-
prehending the tentacles. This disc is finely radiated on the under
surface with a brilliant argentine nacre. The membranous fold
which surrounds it is cut into, leaving light and perfectly straight
festoons. It is of a clear celestial blue colour, and very transparent.
The tentacles are much compressed, very thin and cylindrical, of a
light blue, and the glands are of an indigo blue colour. All the re-
productive individuals, which are placed in the lower part of the
body, are of a perfect hyaline white.
THE OCEAN WORLD.
This beautiful Porpita was discovered by Lesson on the Peruvian
coast, where it occurred in swarms closely packed on the surface of
the sea. " Its manner of life," says Lesson, " is perfectly analogous
to that of the Velella. Their locomotion on the sea is purely
passive, at least in appearance. Their disc laid flat on the surface
upon the water-line, leaves them to float freely and in a horizontal
direction, the irritable arms hanging all round them."
MEDUSID^.
We here include in this family also the family Lucernariada.
The true Medusidse were termed by E. Forbes, Gymnophthalmia, and
the term Steganophthalmia was applied to a large section of the Lucer-
nariadce. In the first division, according to Professor J. R. Greene,
the umbrella-shaped organ is to be regarded as a nectocalyx, the size
and shape of which, in relation to the polypite with which it is con-
nected may also vary very considerably. The veil which surrounds
the open margin of the nectosac appears never to be absent. Four
longitudinal canals are sometimes present. From the margin depend
tentacles, and around the margin are found the vesicles or pigment
spots, which are supposed to be eye-spots, and being covered by
a prolongation of the nectocalyx. In some genera the tentacles are
stiff, and not contractile, as is common in most of the genera. The
reproductive organs are of the simplest kind. At a time when the
free gonophores of the Hydrozoa had not been perfectly studied, it
was the custom to regard these bodies as quite independent organisms,
and they were arranged under genera and species. At last the
singular resemblance borne by such forms to the Medusidce attracted
attention, and it was soon found that many of the Mednsidtz were not
true individual organisms, but merely the reproductive buds of various
Hydrozoa, and the conclusion was too hastily come to that the whole
group of Medusidae ought to be abolished. The researches of J. and
F. Miiller, Gegenbaur, and the lamented Claparade, have indicated
the probable existence of a group of medusid forms, which appear to
be the immediate results of true generative acts, and not of gemma-
tion or fission. It appears safer, in the present state of our knowledge,
to conclude — i. That several of the organisms formerly described as
Medusidae are the free gonophores of other orders of Hydrozoa. 2.
That the homology of these free gonophores with these simple
expansions of the body-wall which in Hydra and some other genera
are known to be reproductive organs by their contents alone, is proved
alike by the existence of numerous transitional forms, and an appeal
MEDUSIDM. 157
to the phenomena of their development. 3. That many otner so-called
Medusidce. may from analogy be regarded, as in like manner, medusi-
form gonophores. 4. But that there may exist, nevertheless, a group
of medusid forms, which may give rise, by true reproduction, to
organisms directly resembling their parents, and therefore worthy of
being placed in a separate order, under the name of Medusidce.
According to Gegenbaur, the following families would belong to this
Fig. 52. — yEquorea violacea, natural s-ze (Milne-Edwards).
order: — OceanidcR, Thaumantidce, ^Eguoridece (Fig. 52), Eucopidce,
Trachynemidce, Geryonidce, /Eginidce.
In the second division, these included under the family Lucer-
nariadcz, the body is more or less cup-shaped, and frequently
about an inch in height, terminating proximally in a stalk of variable
length, and furnished with a free umbrella, which differs from a necto-
calyx, with which it is often confounded, by the absence of a veil, in
its mode of development, and in the nature of its canal system, having
never less than eight radiating canals, and in the nature of its marginal
bodies. If we regard this second division as an order, we may
arrange it under two principal sections. In the first, including the
genera Pelagia and Lucernaria^ the primary result of the generative
158 THE OCEAN WORLD.
act is the immediate production of an organism which itself is fertile.
In the second, including Rhizostoma, the result is a fixed and sexless
Lucernaroid, which by fission gives rise to zooid forms of dispropor-
tionate size, in which the reproductive organs are developed. In the
first division one family has the umbrella permanently free ; in the
other it is furnished with an organ of attachment. Three families of
this Lucernariadae have been defined : — i. Lucernaridtz. 2. Pelagida.
3. Rhizostomidce.
If we walk along the sea shore, after the reflux of the tide, we
may often see, lying immovable upon the sands, gelatinous disc-like
masses of a greenish colour and repulsive appearance, from which
the eye and the steps instinctively turn aside. These beings, whose
blubber-like appearance inspires only feelings of disgust when seen
lying grey and dead on the shore, are, however, when seen floating
on the bosom of the ocean, one of its most graceful ornaments.
These are Medusae. When seen suspended in the middle of the
waves, like a piece of gauze or an azure bell, terminating in delicate
silvery garlands, we cannot but admire their iridescent colours, or
deny that these objects, so forbidding in-some of their aspects, rank,
in their natural localities, among the most elegant productions of
Nature. We could not better commence our studies of these
children of the sea than by quoting a passage from the poet
Michelet : — "Among the rugged rocks and lagunes, where the
retiring sea has left many little animals which were too sluggish or
too weak to follow it, some shells will be left there to themselves
and suffered to become quite dry. In the midst of them, without
shell and without shelter, extended at our feet, lies the animal which
we call by the very inappropriate name of the Medusa. Why was
this name, of terrible associations, given to a creature so charming ?
Often have I had my attention arrested by these castaways which we
see so often on the shore. They are small, about the size of my
hand, but singularly pretty, of soft light shades, of an opal white,
where it lost itself as in a cloud of tentacles ; a crown of tender lilies
— the wind had overturned it ; its crown of lilac hair floated about,
and the delicate umbel, that is, its proper body, was beneath ; it had
touched the rock — dashed against it ; it was wounded, torn in its
fine locks, which are also its organs of respiration, absorption, and
even of love The delicious creature, with its visible
innocence, and the iridescence of its soft colours, was left like a
gliding, trembling jelly. I paused beside it, nevertheless : I glided
my hand under it, raised the motionless body cautiously, and
restored it to its natural position for swimming. Putting it into the
MEDUS1D&. 159
neighbouring water, it sank to the bottom, giving no sign of life. I
pursued my walk along the shore, but at the end of ten minutes I
returned to my Medusa. It was undulating under the wind ; it had
really moved itself, and was swimming about with singular grace, its
hair flying round it as it swam ; gently it retired from the rock, not
quickly, but still it went, and I soon saw it a long way off."
Of all the forms which live in the ocean there are none more
numerous in species or more singular in their structure, more odd
in their form, or more remarkable in their mode of reproduction,
than those to which Linnaeus gave the name of Medusa, from the
mythical chief of the Gorgons.
The seas of every latitude of the globe furnish various tribes of
these singular beings. They live in the icy waters which bathe
Spitzbergen, Greenland, and Iceland ; they multiply under the fires
of the Equator, and the frozen regions of the South nourish
numerous species. They are, of all animals, those which present the
least solid substance. Their bodies are little else than water, which
is scarcely retained by an imperceptible organic network ; their
bodies are a transparent jelly, almost without consistence. " It is a
true sea-water jelly," says Re'aumur, writing in 1701 of a Medusa,
" having little colour or consistence. If we take a morsel in our
hands, the natural heat is sufficient to dissolve it into water."
Spallanzani could only obtain five or six grains from the pellicle
of a Medusa weighing fifty ounces. From certain specimens weighing
from ten to twelve pounds, only six to seven pennyweights could be
obtained of solid matter, according to Fre'dol. " Mr. Telfair saw an
enormous Medusa (?) which had been abandoned on the beach at
Bombay ; three days after, the animal began to putrefy. To satisfy
his curiosity, he got the neighbouring boatmen to keep an eye upon
it, in order to gather the bones and cartilages belonging to the great
creature, if by chance it had any ; but its decomposition was so rapid
and complete that it left no remains, although it required nine months
to dissipate it entirely."
"Floating on the bosom of the waters/' says Fredol, "the
Medusa resembles a bell, an umbrella, or, better still, a floating
mushroom, the stalk of which has been here separated into lobes
more or less divergent, sinuous, twisted, shrivelled, fringed, the edges
of the cap being delicately cut, and provided with long thread-like
appendages, which descend vertically into the water like the drooping
branches of the weeping willow."
The gelatinous substance of which the body of the Medusa is
formed is sometimes as colourless and limpid as crystal ; sometimes
160 THE OCEAN WORLD.
it is opaline, and occasionally it is of a bright blue or pale rose
colour. In certain species the central parts are of a lively red, blue,
or violet colour, while the rest of the body is of a diaphanous hue.
This diaphanous tissue, often decked in the finest tints, is so fragile,
that when abandoned by the wave on the beach, it melts and disap-
pears without leaving a trace of its having existed, so to speak.
F'g. 53. — Aurelia aurita (Lamarck). Cynea aurita (Cuvier). One-third natural size.
Nevertheless, these fragile creatures, these living soap-bubbles,
make long voyages on the surface of the sea. Whilst the sun's rays
suffice to dissipate and even annihilate their vaporous substance
when cast on some inhospitable beach, they abandon themselves
without fear during their entire life to the agitated waves. The
whales which haunt round the Hebrides are chiefly nourished by
Medusoe which have been transported by the waves in innumerable
MF.DVSIDjE. I<5l
rwarms from the coast of the Atlantic to the region of whales. " The
locomotion of the Medusae, which is very slow," says De Blainville,
"and denotes a very feeble muscular energy, appears, on the other
hand, to be unceasing. Since their specific gravity considerably
exceeds the water in which they are immersed, these creatures, which
are so soft that they probably could not repose on solid ground,
require to keep themselves constantly moving in order to sustain
themselves in the fluid which they inhabit. They require also to
maintain a continual state of expansion and contraction, of systole
and diastole. Spallanzani, who observed their movements with great
care, says that those of locomotion are executed by the edges of the
disc approaching so near to each other that the diameter is
diminished in a very sensible degree ; by this movement a certain
quantity of water contained in the body is ejected with more or less
force, by which the body is projected in the inverse direction.
Renovated by the cessation of force in its first state of expansion, it
contracts itself again, and makes another movement in advance. If
the body is perpendicular to the horizon, these successive movements
of contraction and dilatation cause it to ascend ; if it is more or less
oblique, it advances more or less horizontally. In order to descend,
it is only necessary for the animal to cease its movements ; its
specific gravity secures its descent."
It is, then, by a series of contractions and dilatations of their bodies
that the Medusae make their long voyages on the surface of the
waters. This double movement of their light skeleton had already
!>een remarked by the ancients, who compared it to the action of
tespiration in the human chest. From this notion the ancients
railed them Sea Lit tigs.
The Medusae usually inhabit the deep seas. They are rarely
solitary, but seem to wander about in considerable battalions in the
latitudes to which they belong. During their journey they proceed
forward, with a course slightly oblique to the convex part of their
body. IJ an obstacle arrests them, if an enemy touches them, the
umbrella contracts, and is diminished in volume, the tentacles are
folded up, and the timid animal descends into the depths of the
ocean.
We have said that the Medusae constitute in the Arctic seas one
of the principal supports of the whale. Their innumerable masses
sometimes cover many square leagues in extent. They show them-
selves and disappear by turns in the same region, at determinate
epochs — alternations which depend, no doubt, on the ruling of the
winds and currents which carry or lead them. " The barks which
THE OCEAN WORLD.
navigate Lake Thau meet," says Fredol, "at certain periods of the
year with numerous colonies of a species about the size of a small
melon, nearly transparent, whitish like water when it is mixed with
Fig. 54.— Chrysaora Gaudichaudi.
an extract of aniseed. One would be tempted to take these animals
at first for a collection of floating muslin bonnets/'
The Medusae are furnished with a mouth placed habitually in the
middle of a nectocalyx or of an umbrella. This mouth is rarely
unoccupied. Small molluscs, young crustaceans, and annelids, form
their ordinary food. In spite of their soft substance, they are most
MEDUSIDM. 163
voracious, and snap up their prey all at one mouthful, without
dividing it. If their prey resists and disputes with it, the Medusa
which has seized it holds it fast, and remains motionless, and, without
a single movement, waits till fatigue has exhausted and killed its
victim, when it can swallow it in all security.
In respect to size, the Medusae vary immensely. Some are very
small, while others attain more than a yard in diameter. Many
species are phosphorescent during the night.
Most Medusidse produce an acute pain when they touch the
human body. The painful sensation produced by this contact is so
general in this group of animals, that it has determined their desig-
nation. Until very recently all the animals of the group have been,
after Cuvier, designated under the name of Acalephae, or sea nettles,
in order to remind us that the sensation produced is analogous to
that occasioned by contact with the stinging leaves of the nettle.
According to Dicquemare, who made experiments on himself in
this matter, the sensation produced is very like that occasioned by a
nettle, but it is more violent, and endures for half an hour. " In the
last moments," says the abbe, "the sensation is such as would be
produced by reiterated but very weak prickings. A considerable
pain pervaded all the parts which had been touched, accompanied
by pustules of a reddish colour with a whitish point."
Their organisation is much more complicated than early observers
were disposed to think it. During many ages naturalists were
inclined to imagine, with Reaumur, that the Medusee were mere
masses of organised jelly, or, as it were, of gelatinised water. But
when Courtant Dumeril tried the experiment of injecting milk into
their cavities, and saw the liquid penetrating into true vessels, he
began to comprehend that these very enigmatical beings were worthy
of further study ; and the study of subsequent naturalists, such as
Cuvier, De Blainville, Ehrenberg, Brandt, Eschscholtz, Sars, Milne-
Edwards, Forbes, Gosse, and other recent naturalists, have demon-
strated what richness of structure is concealed under the gelatiniform
and simple structure to be met with in the Medusas ; at the same
time they have revealed to us most mysterious and incredible facts
in connection with their metamorphoses. Among the Medusae
proper, that is the Gymnophthalmata, we find the genus ^Equorea. &.
violacea is figured on page 157 (Fig. 52). Of the genera belonging
to the Steganophthalmata among the most common are Pelagia and
Chrysaora. In the former genus we find P. noctiluca. In the latter,
C. Gaudichaudi (Fig. 54), the disc is hemispherical, festooned with
numerous tentacles, attached to a sac-like stomach, opening by a
164
THE OCEAN WORLD.
single orifice in the centre of the peduncle, with four long, fur-
belowed, unfringed arms. Gaudichauds Chrysaora is found round
.the Falkland Islands. The disc forms a regular half-sphere, very
Fig. 55- — Rhizostoma Cuvierii.
smooth, and perfectly concave, forming a sort of canopy in the
shape of a vault. The circle which surrounds it is divided into
sections by means of vertical lines, regularly divided, of a reddish-
brown colour, which form an edging to the umbrella-like disc.
Twelve broad regular festoons form this edging. From the summit
of these lobes issue twelve bundles of very long, simple, thread-
MEDUSfD^E. 165
like tentacles, of a bright red. The peduncle is broad and flat,
perforated in the middle, to which are attached four broad foliaceous
arms. Cyanea aurita is figured on page 160.
Fig. 56. — Rhizostbma Aldrovandi.
In the genus Rhizostoma the disc is hemispherically festooned,
depressed, without marginal tentacles, peduncle divided into four
pairs of arms, forked, and divided almost indefinitely, each having at
their base two toothed auricles. Such is Rhizostoma Cuvierii of Pe'ron
(Flg- 55). tne disc of which is of a bluish-white, like the arms, and of
a rich violet over its circumference. This beautiful form is found
160
THE OCEAN WORLD.
plentifully in the Atlantic, living in flocks, and attains a great size. It
is common in the month of June on the shores near Saint Malo ;
in August on the English coast ; and along the strand of every port
in the Channel they are to be seen in the month of October in
thousands, where they lie high and dry upon the shore, on which
they have been thrown by the force of the winds.
Fig. 57. — Cassiopea andromeda ^Tilesius).
R. Aldrovandi (Fig. 56) is also common, and is to be met with,
all the year round in calm weather. It is an animal much dreaded
by bathers. It possesses a stinging apparatus, which produces an
effect similar to the stinging-nettle when applied to the skin. If the
animal touches the fisherman at the moment of being drawn from the
water, it is apt to inflame the part that it touches and raise it into
pustules.
MEDUSID.f..
T67
Fig- 58. — Cephea cyclophora.
1 68 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Cassiopea and Ccphea are two other genera belonging to the
same group. In Cassiopea andromeda (Fig. 57), the disc is hemi-
spherical, but much depressed, without marginal tentacles or peduncle,
but with a central disc, with four to eight half-moon-shaped orifices
at the side, and throwing off eight to ten branching arms, fringed
with retractile sucking discs. Cephea cydophora, Peron (Fig. 58), is
another very remarkable form of these strangely-constituted organisms.
Having presented to the reader these few characteristic types
of Medusidae, we proceed to offer some general remarks upon the
organisation and functions of these strange creatures. We have, in
short, selected these types because they have been special objects of
anatomical and physiological study to some of our best naturalists.
The Medusae have no other means of breathing but through the
skin. We remark all over the body of these creatures certain
prolongations of the tegumentary system, disposed perhaps so as to
favour the exercise of the breathing function. Certain marginal
fringes of extended surface, as well as the tentacles, may be the
special seats of this function. The organs of digestion also present
arrangements peculiar to themselves ; the mouth is placed on the
lower part of the body, and is pierced at the extremity of a trumpet-
like tube, hanging sometimes like the tongue of a bell. The walls
of the stomach, again, are furnished with a multitude of appendages,
which have their origin in the cavity of the organ, and which are
very elastic. The stomach, furnished with vibratile cilia, appears to
secrete a juice whose function is to decompose the food and render
indigestible.
A very distinct circulation exists in the Medusae. The periphery
part of the stomach suffers the nourishing liquid which has been elabo-
rated in the digestive cavity to pass ; this fluid then circulates through
numerous canals, the existence of which have been clearly traced.
It is also a singular fact, that organs of sense seem to have been
discovered in these Medusae, which early observers believed to Ix
altogether destitute of organisation. " During my sojourn on the
banks of the Red Sea," says Ehrenberg, in his Memoir on the Medusa
aurita, "although I had many times examined the brownish bodies
upon the edge of the disc of the Medusae, it is only in the past
month that I have recognised their true nature and function. Each
of these bodies consists of a little yellow tubercle, oval or cylindrical,
fixed upon a thin peduncle. The peduncle is attached to a vesicle,
in which the microscope reveals a glandular body, yellow when the
light traverses it, but white when the light is only reflected on it.
From this body issue two branches, which proceed towards the
MEDUSID&. 169
peduncle or base of the brown body up to the head. I have found
that each of these small brown bodies presents a very distinct red
point placed on the dorsal face of the yellow head ; and when I
compare this with my other observations of similar red points in
other animals, I find that they greatly resemble the eyes of the Rotifera
and Entomostraca. The bifurcating body placed at the base of the
brown spot appears to be a nervous ganglion, and its branches may
be regarded as optic nerves. Each pedunculated eye presents upon
its lower face a small yellow sac, in which are found, in greater or
smaller numbers, small crystalline bodies clear as water." The
presence of a red pigment in very fine grains is an argument in favour
of the existence of visual organs in these creatures, for the small
crystals disseminated in the interior of the organ would no doubt
perform the part of refracting light which is produced by the
crystalline lens in the eyes of vertebrated animals. Moreover, it is
found that there are marginal corpuscles analogous to these brown
spots in other species 01 Medusae. They are of a palish yellow, or
quite colourless, and enclose sometimes a single, sometimes many
calcareous corpuscles. When they are colourless, some naturalists
have rather taken them for organs of hearing reduced to their most
simple expression.
The Medusae are not, according to Agassiz, absolutely destitute
of nervous system. We have seen that they may have ganglions,
and probably optic nerves. Ehrenberg also states that these have
ganglions at their base, which furnish them with nervous filaments.
Without entering further into the details of their delicate and
complicated structure, we shall pause briefly on their mode of repro-
duction. We shall find here physiological phenomena so remarkable
as to appear incredible, had not the researches of modern naturalists
placed the facts beyond all doubt. "Which of us," says M. de
Quatrefages, "would not proclaim the prodigy, if he saw a reptile
issue from an egg laid in his court-yard, which afterwards gave birth
to an indefinite number of fishes and birds ? Well, the generation
of the Medusae is at least as marvellous as the fact which we have
imagined." Let us note, for example, what takes place with the
Rose Aurelia, a beautiful Medusa, of a pale rose colour, with nearly
hemispherical disc, from four to five inches in diameter, whose edge
is furnished with short russet-brown tentacles ; taking for our guide
the eloquent and learned author of " Metamorphoses in Man and the
Lower Animals," M. de Quatrefages.
The Medusa designated under the name of Rose Aurelia lays
eggs which are characterised by the existence of three concentric
I/O THE OCEAN WORLD.
spheres. These eggs are transformed into oval larvse, covered with
vibratile cilia, having a slight depression in front. They swim about
for a short time with great activity, much like some of the Infusoria,
which they strikingly resemble in other respects.
At the end of forty-eight hours their movements decrease. Aided
by the depression already noted, the larval form attaches itself to
some solid body, fixing itself to it at this stage by the presence of a
thick mucous matter. A change of form soon takes place : it becomes
elongated; its pedicle is contracted, and its free extremity swells into
a club-like shape. An opening soon presents itself in the centre of
this extremity, through which an internal cavity appears. Four little
protuberances have now appeared on the edge, which are in time
elongated in the manner of arms. Others soon follow : these are the
tentacles of a polyp : the young infusorian has become a polyp !
The polyp increases by buds and shoots, just like a strawberry
plant, which throws out its slender stems in all directions, covering
all the neighbouring ground.
The young Medusa lives some time under this form. Then one
of the polyps becomes ^ enlarged and its form cylindrical. This
cylinder is divided into 'from ten to fourteen superimposed rings.
These rings, at first smooth, form themselves into festoons, and
separate into bifurcated thongs ; the intermediate lines become
channeled. The animal now resembles a pile of plates, cut round
the edges. In a short time each ring is slightly raised at the free
edge of its fringe : this then becomes contractile. The rings are
individualised. Finally, these disc-shaped creatures isolate them-
selves. When detached, they begin to swim : from that time they
have only to perfect and modify their form. From being flat, they
become concave on the one side and convex on the other. The
digestive cavity- -the gastro-vascular canals — become more decided ;
the mouth opens on the concave surface; the tentacles are elongated;
the floating marginal cirri become more and more numerous ; and
now, after all these metamorphoses, the Medusa appears ; it perfectly
resembles, not the parent form, but that from which its parent
form originally sprung.
CHAPTER VII.
ZOANTHARIA.
" I saw the living pile ascend
The mausoleum of its architects,
Still dying upwards as their labour closed :
Slime the material, but the slime was turned
To adamant by their petrific touch."
MONTGOMERY'S Pelican Island.
THE creatures which constitute the class Zoantharia are quite great
personages. Some of them are eighteen or twenty inches long ; at
the same time, others scarcely exceed the eighth part of an inch in
length. They live in all seas, and seem to Jmve existed through many
ages of the earth's history ; they appear at an early geological period,
and they have performed an important part in its formation.
The name of Zoantharia was first given to the class by Dr. J. E.
Gray ; but here we give it a somewhat wider signification, embracing
under it the madrepores and starred stones of Lesueur, who was
reminded of a field enamelled with small flowers when he saw the
little polyps of Porites astroides in full blow. " But it is only/' says
Johnston, " when they lie with their upper disc expanded, and their
tentacula displayed, that they solicit comparison with the hosts of
Flora ; for, when contracted, the polyps of the madrepores conceal
themselves in their calcareous cups, and the actinia hide their beauty,
assuming the shape of an obtuse cone or hemisphere of a fleshy con-
sistence, or elongating themselves into a sort of flabby cylinder that
indicates a state of relaxation and indolent repose."
These zoantharia are flesh- eaters, and consume quantities truly
prodigious of animals such as crustaceans, worms, and small fishes.
They are all marine, nearly all attached to the same spot for life, and
they live in colonies. Some few are isolated and live by themselves,
either free or attached to the soil. They differ altogether from the
animals belonging to the Alcyonaria by the number and peculiar form
of their tentacula. These appendages in the Zoantharia never present
the bipinnate arrangement which is observable in the Alcyonaria.
172 THE OCEAN WORLD.
They are habitually simple, and, if they present ramifications, these
are only exceptional. In nearly every instance, the tentacles exist to
the number of twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, and even larger numbers,
and they form a sort of concentric crown to the animal.
Zoanthus thalassanthos (Lesson), which has given its name to the
group, consists of large turf-like tufts of coral attached to a rock.
Its polyps are packed close together, and their expanded flower-like
heads have a curious resemblance to a mass of flowers in full bloom.
They are borne on bending root-like stems of pure white, interlacing
one with the other, surmounted by a fusiform or spindle-shaped body,
pediculate and swelling towards the middle, but truncate at the
summit, of a reddish-brown colour, marked with longitudinal stripes
more highly coloured ; its consistence is firm and parchment-like.
From the body issues a tube, narrow, muscular, contractile, and red
in colour, terminating at the summit in eight elongated arms or
tentacula, of a pure yellow, traversed by a nervure of the same colour.
The edges of these arms are fringed with fine pinnae, parallel to each
other, of a bright maroon colour, and resembling the barbs of a
feather. According to Lesson, the arms of this Zoanthus are kept
unceasingly in motion, thus producing in the water small oscillating
currents, in the course of which the animalcules on which the polyps
feed are precipitated into the stream leading to their mouths.
The tendency to produce a calcareous or horny polypidom is a
property almost universal with animals of this class. Zoologists are
agreed in dividing them in'.o three very distinct orders — namely, the
ANTIPATHID^E, consisting of the genera Antipathcs, Cirripathes, and
Leipathes, in which the polypidom is of a horny consistence ; the
MADREPORID^, in which the polypidom is calcareous and stony;
finally, the ACTINID^E, which produce no true polypidom.
ANTIPATHID^E.
We need not dwell upon this group, which is comparatively unin-
teresting. They somewhat correspond with the family of Gorgonida
among the Alcyonaria, which they resemble in having the central axes
branching after the manner of a shrub ; but the polyps have the
mouth surrounded with a crown of six simple tentacula. The axis
is of a harder and denser tissue than that of the Gorgoriidae, and
presents on its surface small spiniform projections. The polypiferous
crust, with which they are covered, is in general very arenaceous,
and is so easily detached, that it is rare to see in collections anything
but the denuded skeleton of the colony. In Antipathes arbor ea, the
MADREPORES. 1 7 3
polypidom is fragile and brittle ; when dry, the branches, always
slender and delicate, resemble the barbs of a feather. The colour is
of a deep black, or rather bistre and terra de sienna tint. Under a
powerful lens," the extremities of the branches appear to be covered
with small spines, and the stem is formed of oval and irregular con-
centric layers, which are so many zones of growth. Its consistence
is solid, so that it can be worked up and converted into chaplets for
pearls and other bijouterie : it is known in commerce as black coral.
MADREPORID^E.
The Madrepores are better known than their congeners. They
are sometimes designated corals, but it must be recollected that the
precious coral forms no part of this group.
The Madrepores are remarkable for the calcareous secretion which
always surrounds their tissue, and determines the formation of their
polypidom. They are in other respects easily recognised by the star-
like structure of their polypidom, in which may always be distinguished
a visceral chamber, the circumference of which is furnished with
perpendicular laminae or partitions, which are always directed towards
the axis of the body. When sufficiently developed they constitute,
by their assemblage, a star-like body formed of a great number ot
rays. The polypidom is always calcareous. The consolidation of
the envelope of each polyp produces at first a kind of sheath, to
which Milne-Edwards has given the name of " the wall." The partitions
which proceed from the interior towards the axis of the visceral
chamber occupy the subtentacular cells ; the terminal and open
portion designated the calyx is in organic continuity with the polyp,
which has retired thither more or less completely, as into a cell.
Milne-Edwards remarks that the polypidom of the Madreporida
present in their structure five principal modifications, due in part to
the fundamental number of which the chambered cells are the mul-
tiple, and in part to the mode of division of the visceral chamber, and
finally to the manner in which its tissue is constituted M. Edwards
avails himself of this peculiarity of structure in order to divide the Madre-
pores into five sections — namely, Madrepores apores, Madrepores per-
fores, Madrepores tabules, Madrepores tubules, and Madrepores rugueux.
In the group of APOROUS MADREPORES, the polypidom is per-
haps the most highly organised. We find there a well-developed
and very perfect wall, and a well-developed visceral apparatus. The
calyx is symmetrically rayed ; the number of rays in the earlier stages
being six, which soon afterwards reaches from twelve to twenty-
174 THE OCEAN WORLD.
four. The cells between the chambers are sometimes open in all
their depth, sometimes more or less shut up by transverse plates ;
these, being independent of each other, are never reunited in the
breadth of the visceral cavity, so that they constitute discoid plates
such as we find in the tabular and rugose Madrepores. The animals
belonging to this group, which may be characterised as stelliform or
star-like, are very abundant in every sea, and in several geological
formations. They constitute many genera, among which may be
noted the Milleporina of Ehrenberg, the polypidom of which Dr.
Johnston describes as " calcareous, fixed, plant-like, branching or
lobed, with cells scattered over the whole surface, distinct, sunk in
little fosses, obscurely stellate, the lamellae narrow and almost
obsolete."* In Turbinolia, the animal is simple, conical, striped,
furrowed externally with larger and smaller ribs, the mouth sur-
rounded by numerous tentacula, and solidified by a calcareous
polypidom, which is free, conical, and also furrowed externally ;
attenuated at the base, but enlarged at the summit, and termina-
ting in a shallow radiated lamellar cup or cell. Several specimens of
T. milletiana have been dredged off the coast of Cornwall, and the
west coasts of Scotland and Ireland.
T. milletiana is described as being coral-white, wedge-shaped, some-
what compressed, with interspaces or ribs equidistant, smooth, and
glossy. Above, the ribs turn over the edge, and are continued into the
centre of the enlarged cup, forming its lamellae. " That the zoophyte
must have lived for some time after having become a movable thing, is
proved," says Dr. Johnston, " by the ribs being continued beyond or
round the point of attachment/' The specimen here described was
dredged alive ; and Prof. Forbes says of it that " it is a most interest-
ing and beautiful species, the more so as it is certainly identical with
Defrance's Turbinolia milletiana^ found in both the crag formations."
In the sub-family of the Zoanthidae, the polypes occur in clusters,
and are multipled by buds, rising from a common creeping, root-like,
fleshy base ; they thus present a sort of coriaceous polypidom, as in
Zoanthus (Fig. 59). In the British Channel the species which Dr.
Johnston has named Z. Couchii, after Mr. Couch, jun., is found along
the Cornish coast, on flat slates and rocks, in deep water, and from
one to ten leagues from the shore. It is very small, resembling
both in shape and size a split pea. When living, its surface is plain
but glandular, becoming corrugated when preserved. When semi-
expanded, which is its favourite state, it elevates itself to twice its
Johnston's "Zoophytes," vol. i.t p. 194
MADREPORES.
1 75
ordinary height, becoming contracted about the middle, like an hour-
glass. When the creature is fully expanded, the tentacula become
distended and elongated to about the length of the transverse
diameter of the body ; and they are generally darker at their ex-
tremities than towards the base. The present species possesses a
power of considerably altering its shape ; sometimes the mouth is
depressed, and at others it is elevated into an obtuse cone. " This is
one of the most inactive of its order," says Mr. A. Couch ; " for,
whether in a state of contraction or expansion, it will remain so for
Fig. 59. — Zoanthus socialis
), magnified.
many days without apparent change. In its expanded state a touch
will make it contract, and it will commonly remain so for many
days." The trailing connecting-band is flat, thin, narrow, glandular,
and of the same texture as the polyp, sometimes enlarging into
small papillary eminences, which, as they become enlarged, become
developed into polyps.
The genus Caryophillia (Lamarck), from /captW, a nut, and $\>\\ov, a
leaf, has the polypidom permanently fixed, simple, striated longitudi-
nally, and the summit hollowed into a lamellated star-like cup ; the
animal, actinia-like, is provided with a simple or double crown of ten-
tacula, projecting from the surface of star-like, cylindrical, cone-shaped
THE OCEAN WORLD.
cells. In C. cyathus, Lamarck (Fig. 60), which inhabits the Mediter-
ranean, and is common on some parts of the English and Irish coast,
the polyps are of a whitish colour, the tentacula streaked with grey.
The polypidom is erect and upright, sometimes cylindrical, and
generally so firmly attached to the rock as to seem a part of it. The
lamellae are of three kinds : one row large and prominent, between
every pair of which there are three, sometimes five, smaller ones, the
centre one being divided into two portions forming an inner series.
The lamellae are slightly arched entire and striated on the sides,
Fig. 60. — Caryophillia cyathus (Lamarck).
whence the margin appears somewhat crenulated. "It is found,' J
says Mr. Couch, " of all sizes, from a mere speck to an inch in height.
In a very young state, it is sometimes found parasitical on Alcyoniuni
digitatum, on shells, and on stalks of sea-weeds ; but as these
substances are very perishable, and offer no solid foundation, large
specimens are never found on them. In its young state the animal
has but little of a calcareous skeleton, and measures about the
fifteenth of an inch in diameter and about the thirtieth of an inch in
height. In the earliest state in which I have seen the calcareous
polypidom, there were four small rays, which were free or uncon-
nected down to the base ; in others I have noticed six primary rays-
MADREPORES.
177
but in every case they were unconnected with each other. Other
rays soon make their appearance between those first formed ; they
are mere calcareous specks at first, but afterwards increase in size.
The first union of rays is observed as a small calcareous rim at the
base of the polyp, which afterwards increases in height and diameter
with the age of the animal."
The animals of this interesting polypidom are vividly described
by Dr. Coldstream, in a communication to Dr. Johnston, as he
observed them at Torquay : —
" When the soft parts are fully expanded," he says, " the appear-
Fig. 61. — Flabellum pavonium (Lesson).
i. Seen from the side. 2. Upper surface, with its plates and median furrow.
3. Animal, with tentacles expanded.
ance of the whole animal closely resembles an actinia. When shrunk,
they are almost entirely hid amongst the radiating plates. They are
found pendent," he adds, " from large boulders of sandstone, just at
low-water mark. Sometimes they are dredged from the middle of
the bay. Their colour varies considerably. I have seen the soft
parts white, yellowish, orange-brown, reddish, and of a fine apple-
green. The tentacula are usually paler."
Species of this genus are sometimes dredged from great depths ;
Professor Travers dredged one in eighty fathoms, and Dr. Johnston
remarks that the existence of an animal so vividly coloured at so
great a depth is worthy of remark. " When taken/' says the pro-
fessor, " the animal was scarcely visible, being contracted ; when
expanded, the disk was conspicuously marked by two dentated
I/O THE OCEAN WORLD.
circles of bright apple-green, the one marginal and outside the
tentacula, the other at some distance from the transverse and linear
mouth. In the dark, the animal gave out a few dull flashes of
phosphorescent light."
As belonging to this family, we present illustrations of Flabdlum
pavonium, Lesson (Fig. 61).
Fig. 62. — Oculina virginea (Lamarck).
Of the genus Oculina, the animal is unknown, but it is contained
in regular round radiated cells, more or less prominent, and scattered
on the surface of a solid, compact, fixed tree-like coral. The indi-
viduals dispose themselves in ascending spiral lines, and appear to
be regularly dispersed on the surface of the several branches. The
typical species, O. virginea (Fig. 62), formerly known as the White
MADREPORES.
179
Fig. 63.— Stylaster flabellifonnis (Lamarck).
180 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Coral, although it differs widely in structure from the precious Coral,
is found in the Mediterranean and also in the tropical seas. In
2, Fig. 62, we see a portion of a branch magnified, so that the reader
may be able to appreciate the form of the polyp cells.
The species formerly referred to in this genus as Oculina flabelli-
formis, now bearing the name of Stylaster flabelliformis, which is
represented in Fig. 63, will give an excellent idea of these arborescent
madrepores. The polypidom is in the form of a fan, with many very
unequal branches ; the larger branches are smooth, the middle-sized
are covered with small points. This fine madrepore is found in the
Fig. 64.— Astreopora punctifera (Lamarck).
seas which surround the Isle of Bourbon and the Mauritius, fine
examples of which are to be seen in almost all large public museums.
How diversified are the forms of aquatic life ! " Nature revels in
these diversities," to paraphrase the saying of one of the ancient
kinjjs of France. Here are animals, the skeletons of which might
have been designed by a geometrician. They are called Star Corals
(Astrea). Their resemblance to a perfectly regular star was too
striking to escape the observation of the naturalist ; but the organisa-
tion of these creatures of the ocean is far from being rigorously
regular, for Nature rarely employs perfectly straight lines, giving an
evident preference to circles and waving lines.
The Astreidcz form an immense section of the aporous Madre-
MADREPORES.
181
pores ; they are inhabitants of the tropical and semi-tropical portions
of the great oceans, where they are found in a grea t variety of forms,
which has led to its subdivision into two great divisions consisting of
very many genera by Messrs. Milne-Edwards and J. Haime. The
animals are short, more or less cylindrical, with a rounded mouth
Fig 65.— Meandrina cerebriformis (Lamarck,.
placed in the centre of a disc, covered with a few rather short ten-
tacula; they form by their union a variously-shaped coral, which
often encrusts other bodies.
The genus Meandrina differs from that of Astrea in having the
surface hollowed out into shallow sinuous elongated cells, furnished
on each side of the mesial line with crenulated lamellae, the columella
is but little developed ; the polypidom, which, like all the group, is
1 82 THE OCEAN WORLD.
calcareous, being fixed, simple, conical when young, and globular
when old. The animals have lateral series of short tentacula around
a distinct mouth ; they are contained in shallow cells, meeting at the
base, and forming by their union long and tortuous sulci. Meandrina
(Diploria) cerebnformis (Fig. 65), so called from its resemblance to
the convolutions of the brain, is a native of the American Seas.
Fig. 66. — Fungia echinata (Milne-Edwards).
The genus Fungia, so called by Lamarck from the resemblance
of the species to the vegetable Fungi, presents forms too remarkable
in their appearance to be passed over in silence. All the species of
this genus occur in a living state. Nevertheless some species of
closely-allied genera are very numerous in the Cretaceous period.
The genus, as we have already said, takes its name from its
supposed resemblance to a Mushroom. " But," says Peyssonnel,
" there is this difference between terrestrial and marine mushrooms —
MADREPORES 183
that the former have leaflets below, and those of the ocean have them
above (Fig. 66). These leaflets are only expansions of the Madre-
pores. Now, although I have not actually examined these stony
Mushrooms of the sea, I have no reason to doubt but that they are
true genera or species of Madrepores, containing, like others, the
animals which form them. In my travels in Egypt, in 1714 and
Fig. 67.— Fungia patella (Lamarck).
1715,1 never heard it said that the Nile could produce them." In
this last remark, Peyssonnel makes allusion to the opinion enter-
tained by many ancient authors, that the Fungia were productions of
the Nile.
The animal is depressed and oval, with mouth superior and
transverse, in a large disc, which is covered by many thick cirrhiform
tentacula ; the polypidom is rendered solid internally by a calcareous
1 84 THE OCEAN WORLD.
deposit which has the appearance of a star of radiating acutely-
pointed lamellae above, and simple rays, full of wrinkles, beneath.
There are several species, mostly natives of the Pacific and Indian
Oceans and Red Sea, which De Blainville arranges in three groups,
according as they are simple and circular, simple and compressed,
or complex and oblong. In Fungia echinata, represented in Fig. 66,
we have a species which inhabits the Indian and Chinese Seas. It
belongs to the last group, being oblong in form, convex above, and
concave below. The hollow, from which the lamellae or chamber-
walls proceed, are of considerable length ; the toothed partitions are
very irregular, thin and prickly, resting upon their lower edge, leaving
the concave portion of the field free to a crop of excrescences,
resembling the roof of a grotto studded with small stalactites.
The appearances presented by the soft parts of the polyps have
been described by many travellers. The upper portion of the body
of the animal, corresponding to the lamelliform part of the polypidom,
is furnished with scattered tentacula, very long in some species, and
remarkably short in others, these tentacula appear to terminate in a
small sucker. In order to complete our description of these curious
madrepores, we may refer to Fungia patella, represented in Fig 67.
This remarkable species inhabits the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean,
and is here represented with its polyps.
De Blainville gave the name of MADREPOR^EA to the second
group of the stony Zoantharia, and they correspond to the Madrepores
per/ores of Milne-Edwards. The skeletons of this section are generally
arborescent, with small, partially lamelliform cells, which are con-
stantly porous in the interstices of the walls of the cells, this being
their most important characteristic. Thus, the polyps present no side
plates, the visceral chamber being open from the base to the summit,
and is neither filled with dissepiments nor with plates.
The history of these inhabitants of the deep is extremely obscure,
the most beautiful of the species are intertropical, and consequently
were for a long time beyond the reach of discriminating observers
during the life of the animal. Solander proposed to divide the group
according to certain characteristics in the growth of the coral, and
De Blainville has re-arranged the groups formed by Lamarck,
Lamouroux, and Goldfuss, with special reference to the structure of
the soft parts of the animals figured by Lesueur, Quoy, Gaimard, and
others, who have observed them in a recent state.
The perforated Zoantharta form two very natural families : the
Madreporina and the Poritince. The first have the solid parts of the
MADREPORES.
185
polyps simple or complex, with well-developed lamellar portions, the
central column spongious, walls granular, semi-ribbed, and perforated ;
the second have a reticulated sclerenchyma, septa more or less dis-
tinct, the visceral chambers containing sometimes small rudimentary
plates.
Fig. 68. — Dendrophyllia ramea, half natural size De Blainville).
We shall describe three genera, the two first of which belong to
the Madreporince., and the last to the family of the Poritida.
Dendrophyllia ramea, represented in Figs. 68, 69, and 70, is an elegant
madrepore of the Mediterranean. Its polypidom presents a very
large stem with short ascending branches ; it often attains to about
1 86
THE OCEAN WORLD.
two feet in height. The polyps are provided with a great number of
tentacula, in the centre of which the mouth is placed ; they are
deeply buried in the cells. Peyssonnel, who had seen the polyps
forming one of such a colony, says : "I may observe that the ex-
tremities or summits of the branching madrepore, the species in
question, which in the Provencal we call ' sea-fennel,' is soft and
tender, filled with a glutinous and transparent mucous substance,
similar to that which the snail leaves on its path. These extremities
Fig 69.— Dendrophyllia ramea (De Blainvil
Natural size, with polypi.
Fig. 70.— A part magnified.
are of a fine yellow colour, five or six lines in diameter ; soft, and
more than a finger's breadth in length. I have seen the animal
nestling in them ; it seemed to be a species of cuttle-fish or sea-nettle.
The body of this sea-nettle must have filled the centre ; the head
being in the middle, surrounded by many feet or claws, like those of
the cuttle-fish. The flesh of this animal is very delicate, and is easily
reduced to the form of a paste, melting almost under the touch/'
The madrepores abound in all intertropical seas, taking a con-
siderable part in the formation of the reefs which form the coral and
madreporic islands so conspicuous in the three oceans. The tree-
like Dendrophyllia (D. ramea, Figs. 68, 69, and 70). have cells of con-
MADREPORES.
I87
siderable depth, radiating into numerous lamellae, forming a widely-
branching arborescent coral, externally striated, internally furrowed,
and truncate at the extremities. The animals are actiniform, furnished
with numerous pinnate tentacula, in the centre of which is the polygonal
— Madrepora plantaginea (Lamarck),
mouth. In Lobophyllia, the tentacula are cylindrical, the cells
conical, sometimes elongated and sinuous, with a sub-circular opening
terminating the few branches of the polyp, which is fixed, turbinate,
and striated. The Plantain Madrepore, Madrepora plantaginea
(Lamarck), is an interesting species, the polyps presenting them-
selves, as in Fig. 71, in tufts, with slender and prolific branches.
188
THE OCEAN WORLD.
In Madrepora palmata, vulgarly named Neptune's Car, we have
a large and beautiful species, whose expanding branches are flat,
round at the base, and formed into lobes, whose length is often as
much as three feet high, with a breadth of twenty inches, and a
Fig. 72. — Porites furcata (Lamarck), natural size.
thicknes.j of two to two and a half : this fine madrepore is found ir.
the Caribbean Sea and among the Antilles.
Here also comes A streopora punciifera, Fig. 64, p. 180.
The genus Porites belong to the second family Poritinse of the
perforated madrepores, the polypidom is entirely formed by a reticu-
lated sclerenchyma, the animal is somewhat pitcher-shaped, with
twelve short tentacula ; the cells are unequally polygonal, imperfectly
MADREPORES.
189
defined, slightly radiating by thread-like pointed rays, with papilla
placed at intervals. The polypidom is polymorphous or many-formed
composed of a reticulated and porous tissue, the individuals forming
it being always completely united together. Externally it presents
. 7j. — Millepora alcicornis (Linn.), one-fourth natural size
the figure of an irregular trellis-work, more or less loosely connected
in its meshes. As a type of this organisation, we give a figure of the
Forked Porites (P. furcata, Fig. 7 2), of the natural size. The branches
are generally dichotomous, that is, rising in pairs obtusely lobed. In
some of the species the rays are more fully marked, and resemble a
bed of miniature anemones thickly crowded together, as in Goniopora
columna, from the Fiji Islands, in which the polyps have a central
mouth, round which the twelve short tentacula radiate ; the coral is
THE OCEAN WORLD.
stony, fixed, branched, or lobed, having a free surface covered with a
great number of regular stars.
In the TABULATE MADREPORES, the polypidom is essentially
composed of a highly-developed mural system. The visceral cham-
bers are divided into a series of stages or stories, by perfect diaphragms
or plates placed transversely, the plates depending from the walls and
forming perfect horizontal divisions, extending from one wall of the
general cavity to the other. In order that the reader may form some
idea of the Tabulate Madrepores, one of the commonest forms is
here (Fig. 73) represented. The millepores were first separated from
the madrepores by Linnaeus, along with a great number of species
distinguished by the minuteness of their pores or polypiferous cells.
Millepora moniliformis is a species which attaches itself to the
branches of some of the Gorgonid3e, forming there a series of little
rounded or lateral lobes. The animal is unknown, the cells are very
small, unequal, completely immersed, obsoletely radiate and scattered ;
the polypidom is fixed, cellular within, finely porous and reticulated
externally, extending into a palmated form.
Of the TUBULOUS MADREPORES, which consist almost entirely of
fossil species chiefly belonging to the Silurian formation, we shall only
note Aulopora repens as one of the best known species.
The RUGOSE MADREPORES. — Among these a highly developed
sclerodermic skeleton occurs, each corallite being very distinct, and
presenting, in many cases, both septa and tabulae. Most Rugosa
belong to the large family Cyathophyllidae ; and all of them are wholly
extinct, extending from the Silurian to the Cretaceous period.
CORAL ISLANDS.
There is no spectacle in Nature more extraordinary or more
worthy of our admiration than that now under consideration. These
corals, whose history we have investigated — beings gifted with a half-
latent life only — these animals so small and so fragile — labour silently
\nd incessantly in the bosom of the ocean, and, as they exist in
innumerable aggregated masses, their cells and solid axes produce in
the end enormous stony masses. These calcareous deposits increase
and multiply with such incalculable rapidity, that they not only cover
the submarine rocks as with a carpet, but they finish by forming reefs,
and even entire islands, which rise above the surface of the ocean
in a manner remarkable at once for their form and the regularity with
which they repeat themselves.
In noting the Indian and Pacific Oceans, navigators had long been
CORAL ISLANDS. IQI
struck with the appearance of certain islands, which presented a con-
formation altogether singular. In 1601, Pyrard de Laval, speaking
of the Malouine (now the Falkland) Islands, said: — "They are
divided into thirteen provinces, named atollons, which is so far a natural
division in that place, that each atollon is separated from the other, and
contains a great number of smaller islands. It is a marvel to see
each of these atollons surrounded on all sides by a great bank of stone —
walls such as no human hands could build on the space of earth
allotted to them. These atollons are almost round, or rather oval, being
each about thirty leagues in circumference, some a little less, others
a little more, and all ranging from north to south, without any one
touching the other. There is between them sea channels, one broad,
the other narrow. Being in the middle of an atollon, you see all around
you this great stone bank, which surrounds and protects the island
from the waves ; but it is a formidable attempt, even for the boldest,
to approach the bank and watch the waves as they roll in and break
with fury upon the shore."
Since the publication of Laval's description, many circular isles, or
groups of islands, analogous to these atollons, since called atolls, have
been discovered in the Pacific Ocean and other seas. The naturalist
Forster, who accompanied Cook in his voyage round the world, first
made known the more remarkable characteristics of these wonderful
formations. He perfectly comprehended their origin, which he was
the first to attribute to the development of calcareous zoantharian
polyps.
After Forster, many other naturalists — Lamouroux, Chamisso,
Quoy, Gaimard, Ehrenberg, Ellis, Darwin, and Dana — have furnished
science with many precious memoirs on the natural history of coral
islands and coral reefs. We can only glance at a few of the more
remarkable facts connected with these interesting formations.
The atolls present three unfailing and constant peculiarities.
Sometimes they constitue a great circular chain, the centre of which
is occupied by a deep basin, in direct communication with the ex-
terior sea, through one or many breaches of great depth. These are
the atolls i described more than two centuries ago by Pyrard de Laval ;
sometimes they surround, but at some distance, a small island, in
such a manner as to constitute a sort of skeleton or girdle of reefs ;
finally they may form the immediate edging or border of an island or
continent. In this last case they are called fringing reefs. At the
distance of a few hundred yards only from the edge of some of these
reefs, the sea is 01 such a depth that the sounding-lead has failed to
reach the bottom.
I Q2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
In order to give an idea of the general form of these atolls,
although they are rarely so regular, the reader is referred to PLATE IV.,
which represents one of these islands of the Pomotouan Archipelago,
in the Indian Ocean. It represents the island of Clermont-Tonnerre,
figured by Captain Wilkes in the American Exploring Expedition.
The exterior girdle of rocks here surrounds a basin nearly circular.
Such is the general form — the typical form, so to speak — of the coral
islands, of which this is a fair representation.
The animals which form these immense accumulations belong to
diverse groups, and nowhere have the results of observations made
upon these atolls been more minutely described than in Mr. Darwin's
remarks on the grand Cocos Island situated to the south of Sumatra,
in the Indian Ocean.
No writer, it seems to us, has reasoned on these atolls more com-
prehensively than the author of the " Origin of Species." " The
earlier voyagers," he says, "fancied that the coral-building animals
instinctively built up their great corals to afford themselves protection
in the inner parts ; but so far is this from the truth, that those massive
kinds, to whose growth on the exposed outer shores the very exist-
ence of the reef depends, cannot live within the lagoon, where other
delicately-branching kinds flourish. Moreover, in this view, many
species of distinct genera and families are supposed to combine for
one end ; and of such a combination not a single instance can be
found in the whole of Nature. The theory that has been most
generally received is, that atolls are based on submarine craters, but
when the form and size of some of them are considered, this idea
loses its plausible chiracter. Thus, the Suadiva atoll is forty-four
geographical miles in diameter in one line by thirty- four in another ;
Rimsky is fifty four by twenty miles across ; Bow atoll is thirty miles
long, and, on an average, six miles broad. This theory, moreover,
is totally inapplicable to the Northern Maldivian atolls in the Indian
Ocean, one of which is eighty-eight miles in length, and between ten
and twenty in breadth. "
The various theories which had been propounded failing to
explain the existence of the coral islands, Mr. Darwin was led to
re-consider the whole subject. Numerous soundings taken all round
the Cocos atoll showed that at ten fathoms the prepared tallow in the
hollow of the sounding rod came up perfectly clean, and marked
with the impression of living polyps. As the depth increased, these
impressions became less numerous, but adhering particles of sand
succeeded, until it was evident that the bottom consisted of smooth
sand. From these observations, it was obvious to him that the
CORAL ISLANDS. 1 95
utmost depth at which the coral polyps can construct reefs is between
twenty and thirty fathoms. Now, there are enormous areas in the
Indian Ocean in which every island is a coral formation raised to the
height to which the waves can throw up fragments and the winds pile
up sand ; and the only theory which seems to account for all the cir-
cumstances embraced, is that of the subsidence of vast regions in this
ocean. " As mountain after mountain and island after island slowly
sunk beneath the water/' he says, " fresh bases would be successively
afforded for the growth of the corals. I venture to defy any one to
explain in any other manner how it is possible that numerous islands
should be distributed throughout vast areas, all the islands being low,
all built of coral absolutely requiring a foundation within a limited
depth below the surface."
The Forties, according to Mr. Darwin, form the most elevated
deposits of those which are situated nearer the level of the water :
Millepora complanata also enters into the formation of the upper
banks. Various other branched corals present themselves in great
numbers in the cavities left by the Porites and Millepora crossing
each other. It is difficult to identify living species when they live in
the deeper parts, but, according to Darwin, the lower parts of the reefs
are occupied by polyps of the same species as in the upper parts ; at
the depth of eighteen fathoms and upwards, the bottom consists
alternately of sand and corals. The total breadth of the circular reef
or ring which constitutes the atoll of the Keeling or Cocos Island
varies from 200 to 500 yards in breadth. Some little parasitic isles
form themselves upon the reefs, at 200 or 300 yards from their
exterior edge, by the accumulation of the fragments thrown up here
during great storms. They rise from two to three yards above the
sea -level, and consist of dead shells, corals, and sea urchins, the
whole consolidated into hard and solid rock.
The description of the Island of Cocos or Keeling is as follows : —
" The ring-formed reef of the lagoon island is surmounted, in the
greater part of its length, by linear islets. On the northern, or lee-
ward side, there is an opening through which vessels can pass to the
anchorage within. On entering, the scene was very curious, and
rather pretty ; its beauty, however, entirely depended on the brilliancy
of the surrounding colours. The shallow, clear, and still water of the
lagoon resting in its greater part on white sand, is, when illumined
by a vertical sun, of the most vivid green. This brilliant expanse,
several miles in width, is on all sides divided, either by a line of
snow-white breakers irom the dark heaving waters of the ocean, or
from the blue vault of heaven by the strips of land crowned by the
IO6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
level tops of the cocoa-nut tree. As a white cloud here and there
affords a pleasing contrast to the azure sky, so in the lagoon, bands
of living coral darken the emerald-green water.
" The next morning I went ashore on Direction Island. The
strip of dry land is only a few hundred yards in width ; on the lagoon
side there was a white calcareous beach, the radiation from which,
under this sultry climate, was very oppressive. On the outer coast, a
solid broad flat of coral rock served to break the violence of the open
sea. Excepting near the lagoon, where there is some sand, the land
is entirely composed of rounded fragments of coral. In such a loose,
dry, stony soil, the climate of the intertropical regions alone could
produce so vigorous a vegetation. On some of the smaller islets
nothing could be more elegant than the manner in which the young and
full-grown cocoa-nut trees, without destroying each other's symmetry,
were mingled into one wood. A beach of glittering white sand formed
a border to those fairy spots.
"The natural history of these islands, from its very paucity,
possesses peculiar interest. The cocoa-nut tree, at the first glance,
seems to compose the whole wood ; there are, however, five or six
other trees. One of these grows to a very large size, but, from the
extreme softness of its wood, it is useless ; another sort affords ex-
cellent timber for ship-building. Besides the trees, the number of
plants is exceedingly limited, and consist of insignificant weeds. In
my collection, which includes, I believe, nearly the perfect Flora,
there are twenty species, without reckoning a moss, lichen, and
fungus. To this number two trees must be added, one of which was
not in flower, and the other I only heard of. The latter is a solitary
tree of its kind, and grows near the beach, where, without doubt, the
one seed was thrown up by the waves.
" The next day I employed myself in examining the very interesting
yet simple structure and origin of these islands. The water being
unusually smooth, I waded over the flat of dead rock as far as the
living mounds of coral, on which the swell of the open sea breaks.
In some of the gulleys and hollows there were beautiful green and
other coloured fishes, and the forms and tints of many of the zoophytes
were admirable. It is excusable to grow enthusiastic over the infinite
number of organic beings with which the sea of the Tropics, so prodigal
of life, teems ; yet I must confess, I think those naturalists who have
described in well-known words the submarine grottoes decked with a
thousand beauties, have indulged in rather exuberant language.
" I accompanied Captain Fitzroy to an island at the head of the
lagoon ; the channel was exceedingly intricate, winding through fields
CORAL ISLANDS. 1 97
of delicately-branched corals. At the head of the lagoon we crossed a
narrow islet, and found a great surf breaking on the windward coast.
I can hardly explain the reason, but there is, to my mind, much
grandeur in the view of the outer shores of these lagoon islands.
There is a simplicity in the barrier-like beach, the margin of green
bushes and tall cocoa-nuts, the solid flat of dead coral-rock, strewed
here and there with great loose fragments, and the line of furious
breakers, all rounding away towards either hand. The ocean, throw-
ing its waters over the broad reef, appears an invincible, all-powerful
enemy ; yet we see it resisted and even conquered by means which at
first seem most weak and insufficient. It is not that the ocean spares
the rock of coral ; the great fragments scattered over the reef, and
heaped on the beach whence the tall cocoa-nut trees spring, plainly
bespeak the unrelenting power of the waves. Nor are any periods of
repose granted ; the long swell caused by the gentle but steady action
of the trade-winds, always blowing in one direction over a wide area,
causes breakers almost equalling in force those during a gale of wind
in the temperate regions, and which never cease to rage. It is im-
possible to behold these waves without feeling a conviction that an
island, though built of the hardest rocks — let it be porphyry, granite,
or quartz — would ultimately yield and be demolished by such an
irresistible power. Yet these low, insignificant coral islets stand, and
are victorious ; for here another power, as an antagonist, takes part
in the contest. The organic forces separate the atoms of carbonate
of lime, one by one, from the foaming breakers, and unite them into
a symmetrical structure. Let the hurricane tear up its thousand huge
fragments, yet what will that tell against the accumulated labour of
myriads of architects at work night and day, month after month ?
Thus do we see the soft and gelatinous body of a polyp, through the
agency of the vital laws, conquering the great mechanical power of
the waves of an ocean which neither the art of man nor the inanimate
^ orks of Nature could successfully resist."
We have said that these coral formations are of three forms, to
which the names of atolls ', barrier reefs, and fringing reefs, have been
applied. We have spoken of atolls ; we shall now say a few words
on barrier and fringing reefs.
The barrier reefs are formations which surround the ordinary
islands, or stretch along their banks. They have the form and
general structure of atolls. Like atolls, the barrier reefs appear
placed on the edge of a marine precipice. They rise on the edge of
a plateau which looks down on a bottomless sea. On the coast of
198 THE OCEAN WORLD.
New Caledonia, only two lengths of his ship from the reef, Captain
Kent found no bottom in 150 fathoms. This was verified at Gambier
Island in the Pacific Ocean, in Qualem Island, and at many others.
According to Mr. Darwin, the barrier reef situated on the western
coast of New Caledonia is 400 miles long ; that along the eastern
coast of Australia extends almost without interruption for 1,000
miles, ranging from twenty or thirty to fifty or sixty miles from
the coast. As to the elevation of the islands thus surrounded
with reefs, it varies considerably. The Isle of Tahiti rises 6,800
feet above the level of the sea ; the Isle of Maurua to 600 ; Aituaki
to 300 ; and Manonai to about fifty feet only.
Around the Isle of Gambier the reef has a thickness of 1,060 feet,
at Tahiti of 230. Round the Fiji Islands it is from 2,000 to 3,000.
The fringing reefs immediately surrounding the island, or a
portion of it, might be confounded with the barrier reefs we have
been describing, if they only differed in their smaller breadth ; but the
circumstance that they abut immediately on the coast in place of
being separated by a channel or lagoon more or less deep and con-
tinuous, proves that they are in direct communication with the slope
of the submarine soil, and permits of their being distinguished from the
barrier reefs. The dangerous breakers which surround the Mauritius
are a striking example of the fringing reef. This island is almost
entirely surrounded by a barrier of these rocks, the breadth of which
varies from 150 to 330 feet ; their rugged and abrupt surface is worn
almost smooth, and is rarely uncovered at low water. Analogous
reefs surround the Isle of Bourbon ; all round this island the
polyps construct on the volcanic bottom of the sea detached masses,
which rise from a fathom to a fathom and a half above the water.
Coral coasting reefs present themselves also on the eastern coast
of Africa and of Brazil. In the Red Sea, reefs of corals exist which may
be ranked among the coasting reefs, in consequence of the limited
breadth of the gulf. Ehrenberg and Hemprich examined 150
stations in the Red Sea, all of which had outlying fringing reefs of
this description.
It may be asked, With what rapidity are these coral banks
formed, so as to become atolls and fringing reefs ? To answer this
question even approximately is very difficult. On the coast of the
Mauritius, according to M. d'Archiac,* one of the learned professors
* " Cours de Paleontologie Stratigraphique."
CORAL ISLANDS. 1 99
of the Jardin des Plantes, the edge of the reef is produced by
Madrepora corymbosa, M. pocillifera, and two species of Astrea,
which pursue their operations at the depth of from eight to fifteen
fathoms. At the base is a bank of Seriatopora, from fifteen to twenty
fathoms in height. At the bottom, the sand is covered with Seriatopora.
At twenty fathoms we also meet with fragments of Madrepora. Be-
tween twenty and forty fathoms the bottom is sandy, and the sounding-
rod brings up great fragments ol Caryophyllia. According to MM.
Quoy and Gaimard, the species ot Astrea, which, as these naturalists
consider, constitute the greater part of the reefs, cannot live beyond
four or five fathoms deep. Millepora alticornis extends from the
surface to the depth of twelve fathoms ; the Madrepores and Seriato-
pores down to twenty fathoms. Considerable masses of Meandrina
have been observed at sixteen fathoms ; and a Caryophyllia has been
brought up from eighty fathoms in thirty-three degrees south latitude.
Among the polyps which do not form solid reefs, Mr. Darwin
mentions Gorgonia at 160, Corallines at zoo, Millepora at from thirty
to forty-five, Sertularians at forty, and Tubulipora at ninety-five
fathoms.
According to Dana, none of the species of the genera which form
reefs — namely, Madrepora, Millepora, Forties, Astrea, and Meandrii.a —
can live at a greater depth than eighteen fathoms. It is only near
the surface of the water that the zoantharia which produce polypidoms
and form coral banks put forth their powers ; the points most exposed
to the beating of the waves is that which is most favourable to their
growth ; it is there that the finest specimens of the genera Astrea^
Forties, and Millepora most abound.
The proportionate increase of the structures, according to Mr.
Darwin, depends at once upon the species which construct the reef-
and upon various accessory circumstances. The ordinary rate of in-
crease of the madrepores, according to Dana, is about an inch and a
half annually ; and, as their branches are much scattered, this will not
exceed half an inch in thickness of the whole surface covered by the
madrepore. Again, in consequence of their porosity, this quantity
will be reduced to three-eighths of an inch of compact matter. The
sands, too, filling up the destroyed part of the polyp are washed out
by the currents in the great depths where there are no living corals,
and the surface occupied by them is reduced to a sixth of the whole
coralline region, which reduces the preceding three-eighths to one
sixth. The shells and other organic debris will probably represent a
fourth of the total produce in relation to corals. In this manner,
taking everything into account, the mean increase of a reef cannot
20O THE OCEAN WORLD.
exceed the eighth of an inch annually. According to this calculation,
some reefs which are not less than 2,000 feet thick would require
for their formation 192,000 years.
It is necessary, however, to add that in favourable circumstances
the increase of the masses of coral may be much more rapid. Mr.
Darwin speaks of a ship which, having been wrecked in the Persian
Gulf, was found, after being submerged only twenty months, to be
covered with a bed of coral two feet in thickness ; he also mentions
experiments made by Mr. Allen on the coast of Madagascar, which
tend to prove that in the space of six months certain corals increased
nearly three feet.
We proceed to the theoretic explanation of these curious organic
formations.
Naturalists and navigators have been much divided in opinion as to
the true origin of these coral islands. Most of them have admitted that
these enormous banks are composed of the calcareous remains and
earthy detritus of the madrepores and corals, which, developing them-
selves in their midst, or upon the bed of the ocean, multiplying and
superposing themselves, age after age, and generation after generation,
have finally concluded by forming deposits of this immense extent.
The growth of the vast madreporic mass would be finally arrested by
the want of water when its summit approached the level of the sea.
It is thus that Forster, Pe'ron, Flinders, and Chamisso, have explained
the formation of the atolls and fringing reefs. This opinion has also
found a supporter in our times in the French Admiral Du Petit
Thouars. But he objects, with reason, that the corals cannot live at
the prodigious depth of sea at which the base of these islets lie. It
has therefore been found necessary to seek for another cause to satisfy
the diverse conditions of the phenomena, and explain, at the same
time, the strange circular arrangement of these islands, which is almost
constant, and which it is essential to keep in view.
Sir Charles Lyell was of opinion that the base of an atoll was
always the crater of an ancient submarine volcano, which, when
crowned with corals and madrepores, would naturally reproduce this
circular wall-like shape formed of heaped-up corals.
This theory supposes the existence of volcanic craters in the
neighbourhood of all the coral islands. It is quite certain that these
islands are often found not far from extinct volcanoes; and Sir Charles
Lyell has published a very curious map in connection with the sub-
ject; nevertheless, the coincidence does not always exist. We have
already remarked on the theory by which Mr. Darwin seeks to explain
CORAL ISLANDS. 2OI
the complicated conditions of the phenomena. The explanation
proposed accounts for the known facts, as well as the present appear-
ance of the madreporic islands. The circular atolls and fringing reefs
which are disposed as a sort of girdle, are principally formed of species
of the genera Forties, Milltpora, Astrea, zoantharia which cannot
exist at any great depth in the ocean, but which swarm on the rocks-
at some few fathoms only below the limits of the tide. These animals,
by means of their accumulated debris, soon form a sort of coating
round the island, which constitutes the littoral reefs ; this marginal
shoulder, a-ccording to Mr. Darwin, is the first stage in the existence
of a coral island. At this point the author introduces a geological
cause, namely, a great subsiding movement of the soil, in which the
madreporic colony is sunk under the water. It is evident that after
submersion the coral will only continue to develop itself on the upper
surface, and within the limits which its nature prescribes. The madre-
pores exhibiting their greatest vitality at the points most exposed to
the fury of the waves, it will be near the outer edge of the reef that
their development will be most rapid. If the subsidence of the island
thus surrounded should still continue, as mountain after mountain
and island after island slowly sink beneath the water, fresh bases would-
be successively afforded for the growth of the corals, and the outer
edge elevated by their continual labour, thus transforming the space
into a sort of circular lagune. The coral deposits would thus form an
isolated girdle, and the lagune, which occupies the centre, would
become deeper and deeper in proportion to the lowering of the soil.
This is the second stage of the coral isle.
The existence of the atolls are thus subordinated to two principal
conditions — the progressive subsidence of the shore washed by the
sea, and the existence of coral formed of a hard stony substance, the
growth and multiplication of which was extremely rapid.
It follows from this that coral isles cannot exist in all seas ; that
they can only have their birth in the torrid zone, or at least near the
tropics, for it is only in these regions where the warmth exists, so
necessary to their development, that the madrepores show themselves
in greatest abundance.
The great field of coral formations, in short, is found in the warm
parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is from these oceans,
as from common centres, round which are ranged the series of coral
isles and islets, that it will be useful, in concluding this chapter, to
trace their geographical distribution. We borrow the materials for
this from Milne-Edwards's table of their distribution in the principal
seas of the world.
2O2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
It is, as we have said, only in the warm parts of the Indian and
Pacific Oceans that the great mass of these islands are found. They
give birth towards the south to the group of atolls known as the archi-
pelago of the Bashee Islands, the extreme limit of the region being
the Isle of Ducie. A multitude of other islands of the same nature are
sparsely scattered over the sea, up to the east coast of Australia. There
are enormous areas here, in which every single island is of coral forma-
tion, and is raised to the height at which the waves can throw up
fragments. The Radack group is a quadrilateral, 400 miles long by
240 broad. Between this group and the Low Archipelago itself, 840
miles by 420, there are groups and single islands covering a linear
space of more than 4,000 miles. To the north of the Equator, the
archipelago of the Caroline Islands constitutes a very considerable
group of coral islands, comprehending upwards of 1,000, extending in
a broad belt over nearly 40° of longitude. On the other hand, all
along the coast of the American continent, round the Galapagos and
the Isle of Paques, we find no trace of them. The reason assigned
is, that in these regions a great current of cold water, flowing from
the Antarctic Pole, so much lowers the temperature of the sea, that
the corals can no longer exist.
We still meet with atolls in the Chinese Seas, and coral barrier
reefs are abundant round the Marianne and Philippine Islands. These
marginal reefs form also an immense tract, from the Isle of Timor,
along the south coast of Sumatra, up to the Island of Nicobar, in the
Bay of Bengal.
To the west of the Indian Peninsula, the Maldive and Laccadive
Islands form the extremity of another group of atolls, and important
madreporic reefs, which extend towards the south, by the Maldives
and the Chagos Islands ; they consist of low coral formations, densely
clothed with cocoa-nut trees. The Maldives, the most southerly
cluster, include upwards of 1,000 islands and reefs; the Laccadives,
seventeen in number, are of similar origin. The Saya de Malha
Bank, towards the south-east, constitutes a further group of madreporic
islets. Finally, the coast of the Mauritius, of Madagascar, of the
Seychelles, and even the African continent, from the northern extremity
of the Mozambique Channel to the bottom of the Red Sea, are
studded with numerous reefs of the same nature. They fail, however,
almost completely, along the coast of the Asiatic continent, where,
among others, the waters of the Euphrates, the Indus, and the Ganges,
enter the sea. The western coast of Africa, and the east coast of the
American continent, are almost entirely destitute of great madreporic
reefs, but they abound in the Caribbean Seas. In the Gulf of Mexico.
SEA ANEMONES. 2O3
where the vast freshwater current of the Mississippi debouches into
the seay they are unknown. It is principally on the north coast and
upon the eastern flanks of the chain of West Indian Islands that the
coral reefs show themselves in these regions.
THE ACTINID/E.
Here we leave the group of polyps which form united families.
The Sea Anemones, of which the genus Actinia is the type, consist of
Zoantharia, which produce no true polypidom, that is to say, of
polyps whose integument remains always soft, and in whose interior
no calcareous plates are produced. This order is usually divided
into two groups — that in which the base is adherent at pleasure, as in
Actinia, and that in which the base is not adherent, as in llyanthus.
The modern aquarium enables the spectator to witness many
wonderful sights. Adherent against the transparent crystal walls
of the basin, he observes living creatures of the most brilliant shades
of colour, and more resembling flowers than animals. Supported
by a base and cylindrical stem, he sees them terminate like the
corolla of a flower, as in the petals of the anemone : these are the
animals we call Sea Anemones — curious creatures, which, as all per-
sons familiar with the sea-shore may have observed, are at one time
seen suspended from the rocks, and again buried at the bottom of
the sea. These charming and timid creatures are also called Actinia^
as indicating their disposition to form rays or stars, from the Greek
awriy, a ray.
The body of these animals is cylindrical in form, terminating
Deneath in a muscular disc, which is generally large and distinct,
enabling them to cling vigorously to foreign bodies. It terminates
above in an upper disc, bearing many rows of tentacles, which differ
from each other only in their size. These tentacles are sometimes
decorated with brilliant colours, forming a species of collar, consisting
of contractile and often retractile tubes, pierced at their points with
an orifice, whence issue jets of water, which are ejected at the will of
the animal. Arranged in circles, they are distributed with perfect
regularity round a central mouth. These are their arms.
The mouth of the Sea Anemone opens among the tentacles.
Oval in form, it communicates by means of a short tube with a
stomach, broad and short, which descends vertically, and abuts by a
large opening on the visceral cavity, the interior of which is divided
into little chambers. These chambers are not all of the same dimen-
sions j in parting from the cylindrical walls of the body, they advance,
2O4 THE OCEAN WORLD.
the one increasing, the others getting smaller, in the direction of the
centre. Moreover, they have many kinds of cells, which dispose
themselves in their different relations with great regularity — their
tentacula, which correspond with them, being arranged in circles
radiating more or less from the centre.
The stomach of the sea anemones fulfils a multitude of functions.
At first, it is the digestive organ, and is unceasingly moistened by
the water which it passes through it, takes what nourishment is in it,
and ejects. The general cavity of the body corresponds with the
visceral cavity, but is separated from it by a thin partition, and in the
general cavity, which is divided into compartments by perpendicular
partitions of membrane, the reproductive organs, the eggs, and the
young, are lodged, and are all connected with the tentacles or arms.
In the month of September the eggs are fecundated, and the larva
or embryos developed. As Fredol says in " La Monde de la Mer,"
" These animals bear their young, not upon their arms, but in their
arms. The larva generally pass from the tentacula (i.e., from the
general cavity) into the stomach, and are afterwards ejected from the
mouth along with the rejecta of their food, a most singular fact — the
mouth serving the purposes of accouchement — a fact which it would
be difficult to believe on other than the most positive evidence."
" The Daisy-like Anemone (Sagartia bellis, Gosse), in the Zoo-
logical Gardens of Paris," says Fredol, " frequently throws up young
ones, which are dispersed, and attach themselves to various parts of
the aquarium, and finally become miniature anemones exactly like the
parent. An actinia which had taken a very copious repast ejected a
portion of it about twenty-four hours later, and in the middle of the
ejected food were found thirty-eight young individuals." According
to Dalyell, an accouchement is here a fit of indigestion.
The lower class of animals have, in fact, as the general basis of
their organisation, a sac with a single opening, which is applied, as
we have seen, to a great variety of uses. It receives and rejects; it
swallows and it vomits. The vomiting becomes necessary and habi-
tual— the normal condition, in short, of the animal — and is perhaps
a source of pleasure to it, for it is not a malady, but a function.
The sea anemones are also developed in another manner. On
the edge of their base certain bud-like excrescences may often be
observed. These buds are by-and-by transformed into embryos,
\vhich detach themselves from the parent form, and soon become
individuals in all respects resembling it. This mode of reproduction
greatly resembles some of the vegetative processes. Another and very
singular mode of reproduction has been noted by Mr. Hogg in the
SEA ANEMONES. 2O$
case of Actinia ceilkt. Wishing to detach this anemone from the
aquarium, this gentleman used every effort to effect his purpose ; but
only succeeded, after violent exertions, in tearing the lower part of
the animal. Six portions remained attached to the glass walls of the
aquarium. At the end of eight days, attempts were again made to
detach these fragments ; but it was observed, with much surprise,
that they shrank from the touch, and contracted themselves. Each
of them soon became crowned with a little row of tentacula, and
finally each fragment became a new anemone. Every part of these
strange creatures thus becomes a separate being when detached,
while the mutilated parent continues to live as if nothing had
happened. It has long been known that the sea anemones may be
cut limb from limb, mutilated, divided, and subdivided. One part
of the body cut off is quickly replaced. Cut off the tentacles of an
actinia, and they are replaced in a short time, and the experiment
may be repeated indefinitely. The experiments made by M.
Trembley of Geneva upon the fresh-water hydra were repeated by
the Abbe Dicquemare on the sea anemones. He mutilated and
tormented them in a hundred ways. The parts cut off continued to
live, and the mutilated creature had the power of reproducing the
parts of which it had been deprived. To those who accused the
abbe of cruelty in thus torturing the poor creatures, he replied that,
so far from being a cause of suffering to them, " he had increased
their term of life, and renewed their youth."
The Actiniada vary in their habitat from pools near low-water
mark to eighteen or twenty fathoms water, whence they have been
dredged up. " They adhere," says Dr. Johnston, " to rocks, shells,
and other extraneous bodies by means of a glutinous secretion from
their enlarged base, but they can leave their hold and remove to
another station whensoever it pleases them, either by gliding along
with a slow and almost imperceptible movement (half an inch in five
minutes), as is their usual method, or by reversing the body and
using the tentacula for the purpose of feet, as Reaumur asserts, and
as I have once witnessed ; or, lastly, inflating the body with water,
so as to render it more buoyant, they detach themselves, and are
driven to a distance by the random motion of the waves. They feed
on shrimps, small crabs, whelks, and on very many species of shelled
mollusca, and probably on all animals brought within their reach
whose strength or agility is insufficient to extricate them from the
grasp of their numerous tentacula ; for as these organs can be turned
about in any direction, and greatly lengthened, they are capable of
being applied to every point, and adhere by suction with considerable
206 THR OCEAN WORLD.
tenacity, throwing out (according to Gaertner) of their whole surface
a number of extremely minute suckers, which, sticking fast to the
small protuberances of the skin, produce the sensation of roughness,
which is so far from being painful that it even cannot be called
disagreeable.
The size of the prey is frequently in unseemly disproportion to
the preyer, being often equal in bulk to itself. I had once brought
me a specimen of Actinia crassicornis, that might have been originally
two inches in diameter, which had somehow contrived to swallow a
valve of Pecten maximus of the size of an ordinary saucer. The shell,
fixed within the stomach, was so placed as to divide it completely
into two halves, so that the body, stretched tensely over, had become
thin and flattened like a pancake. All communication between the
inferior portion of the stomach and the mouth was of course pre-
vented ; yet, instead of emaciating and dying of atrophy, the animal
had availed itself of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward
accident to increase its enjoyment and its chance of double fare. A
new mouth, furnished with two rows of numerous tentacula, was
opened up on what had been the base, and led to the under stomach ;
the individual had indeed become a sort of Siamese Twin, but with
greater intimacy and extent in its unions !"
The sea anemones pass nearly all their life fixed to some rock, to
which they seem to take root. There they live a sort of unconscious
and obtuse existence, gifted with an instinct so obscure that they are
not even conscious of the prey in their vicinity until it is actually in
contact, when it seizes it in its mouth and swallows it. Nevertheless,
though habitually adherent, they can move, gliding and creeping
slowly by successive contractile and relaxing movements of the body,
extending one edge of their base and relaxing the opposite one.
At the approach of cold weather the Actinia are said to descend
into the deepest water, where they find a more agreeable tem-
perature.
We have said that the sea anemones are scarcely possessed of
vital instinct ; but they are capable of certain voluntary movements.
Under the influence of light, they expand their tentacles as the daisy
displays its florets. If the animal is touched, or the water is agitated
in its neighbourhood, the tentacles close immediately. These
tentacles appear occasionally to serve the purpose of offensive arms.
The hand of the man who has touched them becomes red and
inflamed. M. Hollard has seen small mackerel, two to three inches
long, perish when touched by the tentacles of the Green Actinia
(Corynactis viridis, Allman). This is a charming little animal.
SEA ANEMONES. 2QJ
" The brilliancy of its colours and the great elegance of its tentacular
crown when fully expanded," says Professor Allman, "render it
eminently attractive ; hundreds may often be seen in a single pool, and
few sights will be remembered with greater pleasure by the naturalist
than that presented by these little zoophytes, as they expand their
green and rosy crowns amid the algae, millepores, and plumy corals,
co-tenants of their rock-covered vase !"
The toxicological properties of the Actinia have been attributed to
certain special cells full of liquid ; but M. Hollard believes that these
effects are neither constant enough nor sufficiently general to con-
stitute the chief function of these organs, which are found in all the
species and over their whole surface, external and internal. Though
quite incapable of discerning their prey at a distance, the sea ane-
mone seizes it with avidity when it comes to offer itself up a victim.
If some adventurous little worm, or some young and sluggish crus-
tacean, happens to ruffle the expanded involucrum of an actinia in
its lazy progress through the water, the animal strikes it at once with
its tentacles, and instinctively sweeps it into its open mouth. This
habit may be observed in any aquarium, and is a favourite spectacle
at the " Jardin d'Acclimatation '; of Paris, at noon on Sundays and
Wednesdays, when the aquatic animals are fed. Small morsels of
food are thrown into the water. Prawns, shrimps, and other crus-
taceans and zoophytes inhabiting this medium, chase the morsels as
they sink to the bottom of the basin ; but it is otherwise with the
Actinia ; the morsels glide downward within the twentieth part of an
inch of their crown without their presence being suspected. It requires
the aid of a directing wand, directed by the hand of the keeper, to
guide the food right down on the animal. Then its arms or tentacles
seize upon the prey, and its repast commences forthwith.
The Actinia are at once gluttonous and voracious. They seize
their food with the help of their tentacula, and engulf in their
stomach, as we have seen, substances of a volume and consistence
which contrast strangely with their dimensions and softness. In less
than an hour, M. Hollard observed that one of these creatures voided
the shell of a mussel, and disposed of a crab all to its hardest parts ;
nor was it slow to reject these hard parts, by turning its stomach
inside out, as one might turn out one's pocket, in order to empty it
of its contents. We have seen in Dr. Johnston's account of A. cras-
sicornis, that when threatened with death by hunger, from having
swallowed a shell which separated it into two halves, at the end of
eleven days it had opened a new mouth, provided with separate rows
of tentacula. The accident which, in ordinary animals, would have
2O8 THE OCEAN WORLD.
left it to perish of hunger, became, in the sea anemone, the source of
redoubled gastronomical enjoyment
"The anemones," Fre'dol tells us, "are voracious, and full of
energy ; nothing escapes their gluttony ; every creature which
approaches them is seized, engulfed, and devoured. Nevertheless,
with all the power of their mouth, their insatiable stomachs cannot
retain the prey they have swallowed. In certain circumstances it
contrives to escape, in others it is adroitly snatched away by some
neighbouring marauder more cunning and more active than the
anemone.
" It is sometimes observed in aquariums that a shrimp, which has
seen the prey devoured from a distance, will throw itself upon the
ravisher, and audaciously wrest the prey from him and devour it
before his eyes, to his great disappointment. Even when the savoury
morsel has been swallowed, the shrimp, by great exertions, succeeds
in extracting it from the anemone's stomach. Seating itself upon the
extended disc of the anemone, with its small feet it prevents the
approach of the tentacles, at the same time that it inserts its claws
into the digestive cavity and seizes the food. In vain the anemone
tries to contract its gills and close its mouth. Sometimes the conflict
between the sedentary zoophyte and the vagrant crustacean becomes
serious. When the former is strong and robust, the aggression is
repelled, and the shrimp runs the risk of supplementing the repast
of the anemone."
If the actinias are voracious, they can also support a prolonged
period of fasting. They have been known to live two and even
three years without having received any nourishment."*
Although the sea anemone is said to be delicate eating, man
derives very little benefit from them in that respect. In Provence,
Italy, and Greece, the Green Actinia is in great repute ; and Dicque-
mare speaks of A. crassicornis as delicate food. " Of all the kinds of
sea anemones, I would prefer this for the table ; being boiled some
time in sea water, they acquire a firm and palatable consistence, and
may then be eaten with any kind of sauce. They are of an inviting
appearance, of a light shivering texture, and of a soft white and
reddish hue. Their smell is not unlike that of a warm crab or
lobster." Dr. Johnston admits the tempting description, and does
not doubt their being not less a luxury than the sea urchins of the
Greeks, or the snails of the Roman epicures, but he was not induced
* " On en a vu vivre deux et meme trois ans, sans recevoir de nourriture. "—
Vie des Animaux, p. 117.
SEA ANEMONES. 211
to test its truth. Rondeletius tells us, navlng, as Dr. Johnston thinks,
A. crassicornis in view, that it brings a good price at Bordeaux.
Actinia dianthus also is good to eat, quoth Dicquemare, and Plaucus
directs the cook to dress it after the manner of dressing oysters, with
which it is frequently eaten. Actinia coriacea is found in the market
at Rochefort during the months of January, February, and March.
Its flesh is said to be both delicate and savoury.
With these general considerations, we proceed to note some of
the more remarkable genera and species of these interesting creatures.
Among these, the species represented in PLATE V. are the ones
usually seen collected in such aquariums as those of the Zoological
Gardens of London and Dublin and the Garden of Acclimatisation
of Paris.
The first section of the group of Actiniadce, in which the base is
adherent at pleasure, includes, according to Mr. Gosse, those anemones
in which the tentacles are compound. To this section belongs,
among others, the genus Metridium. A second section contains
those where the tentacles are simple. Here we find the pretty
Corynactis viridis.
C. viridis has very numerous tentacula, sometimes as many as
100, exceeding in length the breadth of the body, of a fine
brownish or olive green, and rose-coloured at the extremity. The
trunk is of a greyish green or brown ; the disc is brown with
greenish rays. This species is plentiful in the Mediterranean and on
the south-east coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. When attached
to the vertical sides of a rock, a little below the surface of the water,
in which position it is often seen, the tentacles hang suspended, as if
the animal had no power to display them in their radiate form ; but
when fixed horizontally in a calm sea, they are spread out in all
directions, and are kept in a state of continual agitation ; its long,
handsome tentacula, fully expanded, float and balance themselves in
the water in spite of the action of the waves, presenting a most
interesting spectacle as it displays its beauties a few feet below the
surface of the water.
Actinoloba dianthus (Ellis) is represented in PLATE VI., Fig. i ; its
body is smooth and cylindrical ; the disc marked in the centre with
clavate radiating bands ; tentacula numerous, irregular, the outer
small, and forming round the margin a thick filamentous fringe.
This species attaches itself to rocks and shells in deep water, or
within low-water mark, to which it permanently attaches itself, and
can scarcely be removed without organic injury to the base. When
contracted, the body presents a thick, short, sub-cylindrical form,
212 THE OCEAN WORLD.
about three inches long, and one and a half in diameter, and about
five inches when fully expanded ; the skin is smooth, of a uniform
olive, whitish, cream, or flesh colour. The centre of the disc is
ornamented with a circle of white bands, radiating from the mouth,
the lamellae running across the circumference being perceptible
through the transparent skin. From the narrow colourless inter-
spaces between the lamellae the tentacula originate. " They are
placed," says Dr. Johnston, " between the mouth and the margin,
which is encircled by a dense fringe of incontestable beauty, com-
posed of innumerable short tentacula or filaments, forming a thick,
furry border." In PLATE V., Figs. 9, 10, we have probably
Anthea cereus (Ellis), the body of which is a light chestnut colour,
smooth, sulcated lengthwise, with tentacula rising from the disc
to the number, in aged animals, of 200. Sagartia viduata, Gosse
(PLATE VI., Fig. 4), has the body adherent, cylindrical, destitute of
warts, emitting capsuliferous filaments from pores ; nettling-threads
short, densely armed with a brush of hairs ; tentacles above 200
arranged in five rows. A. picta, which Professor Edward Forbes
changed to Adamsia palliata, is described by Mr. Adams, who
first discovered it, "as longitudinally sulcated, having the edges
of the base crenated ; the lower part an obscure red, and the
upper part transparent white, marked with fine purple spots ; the
outer circumference of the aperture has a narrow stripe of pink.
When expanded, the superior division of the body seems formed of
membrane. From perforated warts placed without order on the
outer coat, issued white filamentous substances variously twisted
together. I have observed," he adds, " similar bodies ejected from
the mouths of all the species of this genus which have fallen within
my notice." This species is generally found adherent to the mouth
of turbinate shells of Gasteropods, which it sometimes invests with a
horny membrane.
Actinia mesembryanthemum (Johnston). This species is extremely
common on rocks between the tide marks all round the coasts of
Great Britain and Ireland, as well as those of France. It attaches
itself chiefly to rocks beaten by the waves and exposed to view at
the time of low water. The body is from two to three inches in
height, and from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter ; hemi
spherical when contracted, it resembles a bell perforated at the
summit, dilated into a cylinder. When fully extended the tentacula
are nearly equal to the height of the body, of a uniform liver colour,
or olive green, and sometimes streaked with blue, having a greenish
line either continuous or in spots, the base generally of a greenish
SEA ANEMONES. 21 5
colour encircled with an azure blue line, often streaked with red.
The tentacula are terminated by a small pore. Its colour is variable,
but generally it is of a violet-red. Sometimes it presents round
spots of a fine green ; at other times it is only of a greenish hue ;
the edge of the feet have a narrow border of red, with green and
blue beneath.
The verrucous or warty section of the Actiniada have the lateral
walls of the column covered with warts. To this section belong the
Dahlia Wartlet, Tealia crassicornis (Johnston), with its many varieties.
Hollard describes them as frequently buried in the sands on the
shore ; while Mr. Cocks describes them " as attaching themselves to
Fig. 74. — Edwardsia calimorpha (Gosse).
shells and stones in deep water, or attached on the littoral to the
sides of rocks, in crevices, or on the face of clean stones in sheltered
places." The body is variegated, green, and red ; the tentacles thick,
short, and greyish, with broad roseate bands.
Coming now to the section where the base is not adherent, we
find anemones with the base small, and terminating in a rounded
point, and the body much elongated, as in Edwardsia calimorpha
(Fig. 74), in which the body is non-adherent, somewhat worm-like,
having the mouth and tentacula seated on a retractile column, the
lower extremity inflated, membranous, and retractile.
Milne-Edwards also forms a special group of the genus Phyllactis.
In this group the polyps are simple, fleshy, and present at once
simple and composite tentacula. Such is Phy llactis pratexta (Fig. 75),
which is found in the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro. The anemone
2l6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
fixes itself upon the rocks on the sea-shore, and covers itself with
sand. Its trunk, of cylindrical form, is of a flesh-colour, with vertical
lines, having red points. The interior tentacles form two simple
elongated rows ; the exterior tentacles are spatulate and lobed, not
very unlike the leaves of the oak.
Fig- 75- — Phyllactis prsetexta Dana), natural size.
The sub-family Thalassianthinse is distinguished from the pre-
ceding by having all its tentacula short, pinnate, and branching, or
papilliferous. One species only is known, Thalas slant hits asfer, of a
slate colour, which inhabits the Red Sea.
The sub-family Minyadinae seem to represent among the
Zoantharia the Pennatula among the Alcyonaria. In the case of
these animals, the base of the body, in place of extending itself in a
SEA ANEMONES.
217
disc-like form, in order to grapple with the rock and other projections
at the bottom of the sea, turns itself inwards, forming a sort of purse,
which seems to imprison the air. From this results a sort of hydro-
static apparatus, aided by which the animals can float in the water
and transport themselves from one place to another. The Blue
Minyad (Minyas cyanea. Fig. 76) will serve as a type of this family;
Fig. 76. — Blue Minyad, Minyas cyanea (Cuvierl, natural size.
its globose, melon-like form is of azure blue, studded with white
wart-like excrescences ; it is flattened at its two extremities in its state
of contraction, and it has three rows of tentacula, which are short,
cylindrical, and white. The internal organs are of a delicate rose
colour. Cuvier placed this species among the Echinodermata, but
the observations of Lesueur and Quoy, who were acquainted with the
living animal, at once showed that its true place was among the free-
swimming Actiniadae. Many of the species, which are usually fixed,
are still capable of swimming and of inflating their suctorial discs \
therefore it is by no means as yet quite certain that the free habit of
Minyas cyanea is constant.
CHAPTER VIII.
ALCYONARIA.
"As for your pretty little seed-cups, or vases, they are a sweet confirmation of
the pleasure Nature seems to take in superadding elegance of form to most of her
works. How poor and bungling are all the imitations of art ! When I have the
pleasure of seeing you next, we. shall sit down — nay, kneel down — and admire
these things." — HOGARTH TO ELLIS.
THE Alcyonaria are so designated from their principal type, that of
Alcyonium. The species are all marine. The Alcyonaria may be
defined as Actinozoa in which each polype is furnished with eight
pinnately fringed tentacles. The chambers into which the body is
divided are some multiple of four. The corallum is often dense,
sometimes consisting, however, of calcareous spicules, and unlike
that in the Zoantharia, never showing traces of septa. We shall see,
farther on, that among the Gorgonidae the coral ceases to be spongy
and cellular ; that its axis assumes a horny consistence, which be-
comes often even stony; but. the external barky layer, which is
the special lodging of the polyps, always remains soft on the surface.
We shall have a general idea of the organisation, habit, and mode of
multiplication among the Alcyonaria when we come to treat of the
precious coral and its strange history. The class Alcyonaria may be
divided into many orders. We shall consider — I. The Tubiporidcc.
II. The Gorgonidcs. III. The Pennatulida. IV. The Alcyonida.
I. THE TUBIPORID/K
form a group consisting of several species, which live in the bosom
of tropical seas, in which the Coral Islands form so prominent a
a feature. The group is exclusively formed of the curious genus
Tubipora.
The Tubipora is a calcareous coral, formed by a combination of
distinct, regularly-arranged tubes, connected together at regular dis
tances by lamellar expansions of the same material. The aggregate
formation resulting from this combination of tubes constitutes a
variously- shaped mass, which often attains a very considerable size.
TUBIPORID&.
In Fig. 77 we have a representation of the animal of Tubipora musica
and its red corallum, which is sometimes designated by the common
name of Organ Pipe Coral. In the engraving, i is the calcareous
corallum, reduced to half its size ; 2, is a portion about the natural
size ; 3, magnified, and containing the polyp which occupies the
summit of the tube-t and which forms this curious coral ; 4, is the
Fig. 77. — Tubipora musica (Linn.), half the natural size.
polyp magnified ; 5, the crown of delicately-fringed tentacula of an
individual polyp.
Zoologists of the last century confounded all the species of this
genus inhabiting the tropical seas, making only one species, that to
which Linnagus gave the name of Tubipora musica. But it is now
known that there are several species of Tubipora, readily distinguishable
in a fresh condition, among other things by a difference in the colour
22O
THE OCEAN WORLD.
of the polyps. The tissue of these singular beings is of an intensely
red colour. The disposition of their tubes in the style of organ pipes
has always attracted the attention of the curious inquirer into the
secrets of Nature.
Fig. 78. — The Sea Fan, Gorgonia flabellum (Linn).
II. GORGONIDJE.
Milne-Edwards divides this order into three natural groups :—
I. The Gorgonince. II. The IsidincE. III. The Corallince.
The Gorgonincz are composed of two substances : the one external,
sometimes gelatinous ; sometimes, on the contrary, cretaceous, fleshy,
and more or less tenacious. Animated with life, this membrane is
irritable, and encloses the polyp ; it becomes friable, and often peels
off like bark in drying. The second substance, internal and central,
GORGON 1H/E. 22 1
sustains the first, and is called the axis. This axis presents a horny
appearance, and was formerly believed to possess chemical characters
analogous to the horns and hoofs of some of the vertebrated animals.
It has recently been asserted that the tissues of these corals consist
Fig. 79. — Fan Gorgon, magnified.
essentially of a particular substance which resembles horn, but which
is called Corneine. A little carbonate of lime is sometimes found
united with this substance, but never in a sufficient quantity to give
it a stony consistence. The outer covering develops itself in con-
centric layers, between the portion of the axis previously formed and
the internal surface of the basic covering.
22?.
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Fig. 80. — Gorgonia verticellata (Pallas).
The mode of growth in this axis presents great variations. Some-
times it remains simple and rises like a slender rod, sometimes it has
GORGON IN &.
223
numerous branches. It is arborescent when the branches and their
accompaniments take different directions so as to constitute tufts.
It is panicled when they arrange themselves on both sides of the stem
or principal branches, after the manner of the barbs of a feather. It
is flabelliform when the branches rise irregularly under the same
plane; reticulated, when branches are so
disposed as to be attached to each other
by net-work in place of remaining free.
The Gorgonince are found in every sea,
and always at considerable depths. They
are larger and more numerous between
the tropics than in cold or even tem-
perate climates. Some of them scarcely
attain the twelfth of an inch in height,
while others rise to the height of several
feet.
Formed in the bosom of the ocean, it
is only necessary to behold these singular
creations in order to admire the brilliant
colours which decorate their semi-mem-
branaceous branches. The brilliancy of
their colours is singularly diminished, has
almost entirely disappeared indeed, when
they make their appearance in the cases
of our natural history collections.
The Fan Gorgon (Gorgonia flabellum\
from the Antilles (Fig. 78), is a species
which often attains the height of eighteen
or twenty inches, and nearly as much in
breadth. The network of its interstices,
with its unequal and serried meshes, resembling fine lace, have led to
its designation of Sea Fan. Its colour is yellow or reddish. In
Fig. 79 we have a small portion of the Sea Fan magnified to twice its
natural size, showing the curious details of its organisation.
The Whorl ed Gorgon (G. verticeilatd), which is found in the
Mediterranean, is yellowish in colour, and also of elegant form. This
species is represented in Fig. 80 ; while Fig. 8 1 represents a small
branch magnified four times, in order to give an exact idea of its
form.
The Gorgons are not known to be useful either in the arts or in
medicine ; but they are deeply interesting as objects of study to the
zoologist,
Fig. 81.
Gorgonia verticellata (Pallas),
magnified four times.
224
THE OCEAN WORLD,
ISIDIN/E.
The Isidina constitute an intermediate group between the Gor-
gonince and Corallines. Their polypidom is arborescent, but ks axis is
Fig. 82. — Isis hippuris.
formed of articulations alternately calcareous and horny. The prin-
cipal genus is that called fsis, which is met with in the Indian Ocean,
on some parts of the American coast, and in the Pacific Ocean.
IS1DIN&. 225
The inhabitants of the Molucca Islands use it medicinally as a remedy
in certain diseases ; but as they use it for the most opposite maladies,
it may be doubted if it be really efficacious in any medicinal point of
view.
The Isis hippuris of Lamarck has a coral with numerous slender
branches, furnished with cylindrical knots at. intervals, contracted
towards the middle, finely striated, and rose-coloured ; it is represented
in Fig. 82, and has a singular resemblance to the Common Mare's
Tail (Hippuris vulgar is).
Several other species belonging to this family are known. The
same family includes the genera of Melithea and Mopsea; which, how-
ever, our limits forbid us to describe.
CORALLINE.
The group of Corallinse consists of but a single genus, Corallium
having a common axis, inarticulate, solid, and calcareous, the typical
species of which furnishes a substance so hard, brilliant, and richly
coloured, that it is much sought after as an object of adornment.
This interesting Alcyonarian and its corallum require to be described
in some detail.
From very early times this coral has been adopted as an object
of ornament. From the highest antiquity, also, efforts were made to
ascertain its true origin, and to assign to it its place in the scale of
Nature. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny considered that the
coral was a plant. Tournefort, in 1700, reproduced the same idea.
Reaumur slightly modified this opinion of the ancients, and declared
his opinion that the coral was the stony product of certain marine
plants. Science was in this state, when a naturalist, who has acquired
a great name, the Count de Marsigli, made a discovery which threw
quite a new light on the true origin of this product. He announced
that he had discovered the flowers of the coral. He represented these
flowers in his fine work, " La Physique de la Mer," which includes
many interesting details respecting this curious product of the ocean.
How could it be longer doubted that the coral was a plant, since he
had seen its expanded flowers ?
No one doubted it; and Reaumur proclaimed everywhere the dis-
covery of the happy Academician.
Unhappily, a discordant note soon mingled in this concert; it
even emanated from a pupil of Marsigli.
Jean Andre de Peyssonnel was born at Marseilles in 1694. He
was a student of medicine and natural history at Paris when the
OCEAN woxtb.
Academic des Sciences charged him with the task of studying the
coral in a living state. Peyssonnel began his observations in the
neighbourhood of Marseilles in 1 723, and continued to pursue it on the
North African coast, where he had been sent on a mission by the
Government. Aided by a long series of observations, as exact as
they were delicate, Peyssonnel demonstrated that the supposed
flowers which the Count de Marsigli thought he had discovered in
the coral, were nothing else but true animals, and showed that the
coral was neither plant nor the product of a plant, but a being with
life, which he placed in the first " rung " of the zoological ladder.
" I put the flower of the coral/' says Peyssonnel, " in vases full of
sea-water, and I saw that what had been taken for a flower of this
pretended plant was, in truth, only an animal, like a little sea-nettle, or
polyp. I had the pleasure of seeing the feet of the creature move about,
and having put the vase full of water, which contained the coral, in a
gentle heat over the fire, all the small animals seemed to expand.
The polyp extended his feet, and showed what M. de Marsigli and I
had taken for the petals of a flower. The calyx of this pretended
flower, in short, was the animal, which advanced and issued out of
its cell."
The observations of Peyssonnel were calculated to put altogether
aside the theories which had till then attracted universal admiration ;
but they were coldly received by the naturalists who were his con-
temporaries. Re'aumur distinguished himself greatly in his opposition
to the young innovator. He wrote to Peyssonnel in an ironical tone.
" I think," he says, " as you do, that no one has hitherto been dis-
posed to regard the coral as the work of an animal. We cannot deny
that this idea is both new and singular ; but the coral, as it appears
to me, never could have been constructed by sea-nettles or polyps, if
we may judge from the manner in which you make them labour."
What appeared impossible to Reaumur was, however, a fact,
which Peyssonnel now demonstrated to hundreds by his experiments
at Marseilles. Nevertheless, even Bernard de Jussieu did not find
the reasons he urged strong enough to induce him to abandon the
opinions he had formed as to their vegetable origin. Afflicted and
disgusted at the indifferent success with which his labours were
received, Peyssonnel abandoned his investigations. He even aban-
doned science and society, and sought an obscure retirement in the
Antilles as a naval surgeon ; and his manuscripts, which he left in
France, have never been printed. These manuscripts, written in
1744, are preserved in the library of the Museum of Natural History
at Paris. It should be added, in order to complete this recital, that
CORALLINE. 227
Reaumur and Bernard de Jussieu finally recognised the value of the
discoveries and the validity of the reasoning of the naturalist of
Marseilles. When these illustrious savants became acquainted with
the experiments of Trembley upon the fresh-water Hydra ; when
they had themselves repeated them ; when they had made similar
observations on the sea anemone and alcyonium ; when they finally
discovered that on other so-called marine plants animals were found
similar to the hydra, so admirably described by Trembley ; they no
longer hesitated to render full justice to the views of their former
adversary.
While Peyssonnel still lived forgotten at the Antilles, his scientific
labours were crowned with triumph at Paris ; but it was a sterile
triumph for him. Reaumur first gave to the animals which construct
the coral the name of Polyps, and Coral to the product itself, which
he at once recognised as the architectural product of the polyps. In
other words, Re'aumur introduced to the world of Science the very
views which he had keenly contested with their author, and gave them
a nomenclature that still endures. But from that time the animal
nature of the precious coral has never been doubted.
Without pausing to note the various authors who have given their
attention to the structure of this fine natural production, we shall at
once direct ours to the organisation of the animals and the construction
of the coral, as described by M. Duthiers.
M. Lacaze-Duthiers, one of the Professors at the Jardin des
Plantes, of Paris, published in 1864 a remarkable monograph, entitled
" L'Histoire Naturelle du Corail." This learned naturalist was charged
by the French Government, in 1860, with a mission having for its
object the study of the coral from its natural history point of view.
His observations upon it are numerous and precise, and worthy of
the successor of Peyssonnel.
A branch of living coral, if we may use the term, is an aggrega-
tion of animals derived from a first being by budding. They are
united among themselves by a common tissue, each seeming to enjoy
a life of its own, though participating in a common object. The
branch owes its origin to an egg, which produces a young animal,
which attaches itself soon after its birth, and from this is derived the
new beings which, by their united labours, produce the branch of
coral or polypidom.
This branch is composed of two distinct parts : the one central,
of a hard, brittle, and stony nature, the well-known coral of com-
merce ; the other external, like the bark of a tree, soft and fleshy,
and easily impressed with the nail. This is essentially the layer of
228
THE OCEAN WORLD.
the living colony. The first is called the polypidom, the second is
the colony of polyps. Into this (Fig. 83) the polyps contract them-
selves when the water is withdrawn from the colony. It is covered
with salient protuberances, much wrinkled and furrowed ; these are
the retracted polyps.
Each protuberance represents a polyp, and exhibits on its summit
eight creases, radiating round a central pore, which presents a star-
like appearance. This pore as it opens gives to the polyps the
Fig. 83.
Red Coral Polyps, retracted
(Lacaze-Duthiers).
Fig. 84.
Three Polyps of Red Coral
(Lacaze-Duthiers).
opportunity of coming out. Its edge presents a reddish calyx, like
the rest of the bark, the festooned throat of which presents eight
dentations.
The polyp itself (Fig. 84) is formed of a whitish membranous
tube, nearly cylindrical, having an upper disc, surrounded by its
eight tentacula, bearing many delicate pinnae spreading out laterally.
This assemblage of tentacula almost resembles the corolla of some
flowers ; its form is constantly changing, but it always presents a very
pretty appearance. Fig. 85 (which is borrowed from M. Lacaze-
Duthiers) represents another partially expanded polyp.
CORALLINE.
229
The arms of the polyps are at times subject to violent agitation :
the tentacula become much excited. If this excitement continues,
the tentacula can be seen to fold and roll themselves up, as shown
in Fig. 86. If we look at the expanded disc, we see that the eight
tentacula are attached to the body, around a space nearly circular,
in the middle of which rises a small protuberance, the summit of
which is occupied by a small slit forming two rounded lips. rm"'~ :~
This is
Fig. 85.
Coral Polyp (Lacaze-Duthiers).
Fig. 86.
Another form of Coral Polyp (Lacaze-Duthiers).
the mouth of the polyp, the form each assumes is very variable, but
it is well represented in Fig. 86, where the mouth is well seen.
A cylindrical tube connected with the mouth represents the
oesophagus or gullet ; but all other portions of the digestive canal
are very rudimentary. The oesophagus connects the general cavity
of the body with the exterior world, and looks as if it were suspended
in the middle of the body by certain folds, which issue with perfect
symmetry from eight points of its circumference. The folds which
thus fix the oesophagus form a series of cells, above each of which it
attaches itself, and supports an arm or tentaculum.
23O THE OCEAN WORLD.
Let us pause an instant over the soft and fleshy bark in which
the polyps are immersed. Let us see also what are the mutual
relations which exist between the several inhabitants of one of these
colonies, how they are attached to one another, and what is their
connection with the polypidom.
The thick fleshy body, soft and easily impressed with the finger,
is the living part which produces the coral ; it extends itself so as
exactly to cover the whole polypidom. If it perishes at any one
point, that part of the axis which corresponds with the point no
longer shows any increase. An intimate relation, therefore, exists
between the bark and the polypidom. If the bark is examined more
closely, three principal elements are recognised — a common general
tissue, some spicula, and certain vessels. The general tissue is
transparent, glossy, cellular, and contractile.
The spicules are very small calcareous bodies, more or less
elongated, covered with knotted protuberances
bristling with spines, and of a more or less
regular determinate form (Fig. 87). They refract
the light very vividly, and their colour is that of
the coral, but much less vivid, in consequence
of their want of thickness. They are uniformly
Fig. 87.-Corai Spicules Distributed throughout the bark, and give to the
(Lacaze-Duthiers). coral the fine colour which generally characterises
it when in a living state.
The vessels constitute a network, which extends and repeats
itself in the thickest of the bark. These vessels are of two kinds
(Fig. 88) ; the one, comparatively very large, is imbedded in the
axis, and disposed in parallel layers; the others are regular and much
smaller. They form a network of unequal meshes, which occupies
the whole thickness of the external crust. This network has direct
and important connection with the polyps on the one hand, and with
the central substance which forms the axis on the other. It com-
municates directly with the general cavity of the body of the animal,
by every channel which approaches it, while the two ranges of net-
work approach each other by a greater number of anastomosing
processes. Such is the vascular arrangement of the coral.
The circulation of alimentary fluids in the coral is accomplished
by means of vessels near to the axis, without, however, directly
anastomosing with the cavities containing the polyps which live in
the polypidom ; they only communicate with these cavities by very
delicate intermediary canals. The alimentary fluids they receive
from the secondary system of network, which brings them into direct
CORALLINE.
231
communication with the polyps. The alimentary fluids elaborated
by the polyps pass into the branches of the secondary and irregular
network system, in order to reach the great parallel tubes which
extend from one extremity of the organism to the other, serving the
same purpose to the whole community.
Fig. 88 — Circulating Apparatus for the nutritive fluids in the Coral (Lacaze-Duthiers).
When the extremity of a branch of living coral is torn or broken,
a white liquid immediately flows from the wound, which mingles
with water, a*nd presents all the appearance of milk. This is the
fluid aliment which has escaped from the vessel containing it, charged
with the debris of the organism.
What occurs when the bud produces new polyps? It is> only
232
THE OCEAN WORLD.
well-developed polyps, and particularly those with branching extre-
mities, in which this phenomenon is produced. The new beings
resemble little white points pierced with a central orifice. Aided by
the microscope, we discover that this white point is starred with
radiating white lines, the edge of the orifice bearing eight distinctiy-
to-be-traced indentations. All these organs are enlarged step by
step until the young animal has attained the shrub-like or branched
aspect which belongs to the compound polypidom. The tube is
branching, and the orifices from which the polyps expand become
dilated into cup-like cells.
The coral of commerce, so beautiful and so appreciated by lovers
of bijouterie, is the polypidom.
It is cylindrical, much channeled
on the surface, the lines usually
parallel to the axis of the cylinder,
the depressions sometimes corres-
ponding to the body of the animal.
If the transverse section of a poly-
pidom be examined, it is found to
be regularly festooned on its cir-
cumference. Towards its centre
certain sinuosities appear, some-
times crossing, sometimes trigonal,
sometimes in irregular lines, and
in the remaining mass are reddish
folds alternating with brighter
spaces which radiate from the
centre towards the circumference
(Fig. 89). In the section of a very
red coral, it will be observed that the colour is not equally distributed,
but is separated into zones more or less deep in colour, containing
very thin preparations which crack, not irregularly, but parallel to
the edge of the plate, and in such a manner as to reproduce the
festoons on the circumference. From this it may be deduced that
the stem increases by concentric layers being deposited, which
mould themselves one upon the other. In the mass of coral
certain small bodies (spicules) occur, with irregular asperities, much
redder than the tissue into which they are plunged. These are much
more numerous in the red than in the light band, and they necessarily
give more colour to the general tint.
To the mode of reproduction in the coral polyps, so well described
by Lacaze-Duthiers, we can only devote a few lines. Sometimes,
Fig. 89.— Section of a Branch of Coral.
(Lacaze-Duthiers.)
CORALLINE. 233
according to this able observer, the polyps of the same colony are all
either male or female, and the branch is unisexual; in others there
are both male and female, when the branch is bisexual. Finally, but
very rarely, polyps are found uniting both sexes.
The coral is viviparous ; that is to say, its eggs become embryos
inside the polyp. The larva remain a certain time in the general
Fig. qo.— Birth of the Coral Larva, (Lacazc-Duthiers.
cavity of the polyp, where they can be seen through its transparent
body, as exhibited in Fig. 90. Aided by the magnifying powers of
the microscope, coral larvae may even be examined through the trans-
parent membranous envelope. From this position they escape from
the mouth of the mother in the manner represented in the upper
branch. The larva then resembles a little white grub or worm, more
or less elongated. The larva is, however, still egg-shaped or ovoid ;
moreover, it is sunk in a hollow cavity, and covered with cilia, by the
i*
234
THE OCEAN WORLD.
aid of which it can swim. Sometimes one of its extremities becomes
enlarged, the other remaining slender and pointed. Upon this an
opening is formed communicating with the interior cavity : this is
the mouth. The larva swim backwards ; that is to say, with the
mouth behind.
It is only at a certain period after birth that the coral polyp fixes
itself and commences its metamorphoses, which consist essentially
in a change of form and proportions. The buccal extremity is
diminished, and tapers off, whilst the base swells, and is enlarged — it
becomes discoid ; the posterior surface of this disc is a plane, the
Fig. 91. — Very young Polpys, attached to a Fig. 92. — A young Coral Polyp fixed upon a Rock.
Bryozoon. (Lacaze-Duthiers.)
front representing the mouth, at the bottom of a depression edged
with a great cushion. Eight protuberances or swellings now appear,
corresponding to the chambers which divide the interior of the disc ;
the larva has taken its radiate form. Finally, the protuberances
become elongated and transformed into tentacula. In Fig. 91 a
young coral polyp is represented fixed upon a bryo'zoon. It forms a
small disc, the fortieth part of an inch in diameter, and having its
spicula already coloured red. Fig. 92 shows the successive forms of
the young polyps in the progressive phases of their development —
being a young coral polyp fixed upon a rock still contracted. Fig. 93
is a similar coral polyp attached to a rock and expanding its tentacula.
Fig. 94 represents a small pointed rock covered with polyps and
polypidoms of the natural size and of different shapes, but all young,
and indicating the definite form of development which the collective
beings are to assume.
CORALLINES.
235
The simple isolated state of the animal, whose phases of develop-
ment we have indicated, does not last long. It possesses the property
of producing new beings, as we have already said, by budding. But
Fig- 93- — Young Coral Polyp attached to a Rock, Fig. 94. — A Rock covered with young Polyp
and expanded. (Lacaze-Duthiers.) and Polypidom. (Lacaze-Duthiers.)
Fig. 95.— Corpuscles from which originate
the Polypidom.
Fig. 96.— First form of the Polypidom.
(Lacaze-Duthiers.)
how is the polypidom formed ? If we take a very young branch, we
find in the centre of the thickness of the crust a nucleus or stony
substance resembling an agglomeration of spicula. When they are
sufficient in number and size, these nuclei form a kind of stony plate,
236 THE OCEAN WORLD.
which is imbedded in the thickness of the tissues of the animal.
These lamince, at first quite flat, assume in the course of their develop-
ment a horse-shoe shape. Figs. 95 and 96 will give the reader some
idea of the form in which the young present themselves. Fig. 95
represents the corpuscles in which the polypidom has its origin ;
Fig. 96, the rudimentary form of the coral polypidom.
Our present information does not enable us to say what time is
necessary for the coral to acquire the various proportions in which it
presents itself to the coral fisher.
Passing to the coral fishing, it may be said to be quite special,
presenting no analogy with any other fishing in the European seas, if
we except the sponge fisheries. The fishing stations which occur are
found on the Italian coast and the coast of Barbary; in short, in most
parts of the Mediterranean basin. In all these regions, on abrupt
rocky beds, certain aquatic forests occur, composed entirely of the
red coral, the most brilliant and the most celebrated of all the corals,
Cor alium decus liquidi ! During many ages, as we have seen, the
coral was supposed to be a plant. The ancient Greeks called it the
daughter of the sea (Kopd\\iov Kop-n a\6s), which the Latins translated
into coralium or corallium. It is now agreed among naturalists that
the coral is constructed by a family of polyps living together, and
composing a polypidom. It abounds in the Mediterranean and the
Red Sea, where it is found at various depths, but rarely less than five
fathoms, or more than 100. Each polypidom resembles, as we have
seen, a pretty red leafless under-shrub, bearing delicate little star-like
radiating white flowers. The axes of this little tree are the parts
common to the association, the flowrets are the polyps. These axes
present a soft reticulated crust, or bark, full of little cavities, which
are the cells of the polyps, and they are permeated by a milky juice.
Beneath the crust is the coral, properly so called, which equals marble
in hardness, and is remarkable for its striped surface, its bright red
colour, and the fine polish of which it is susceptible. The ancients
believed that it was soft in the water, and only took its consistence
when exposed to the air : —
" Sic et coralium, quo primum contigit auras
Tempore, durescit." — OVID.
The fishing is chiefly conducted by sailors from Genoa, Leghorn,
and Naples, and it is so fatiguing that it is a common saying in Italy
that a sailor obliged to go to the coral fishery should be a thief or an
VII.— Coral Fishing off the Coast of Sicily.
CORALLINE. 239
assassin. The saying is a gratuitous insult to the sailor, but conveys
a good idea enough of the occupation.
The barks sent to the fishing range from six to fifteen tons ; they
are strong, and well adapted for the labour; their rig is a great
lateen sail, and a jib or staysail. The stern is reserved for the
capstan, the fishers, and the crew. The fore part of the vessel is
reserved for the requirements of the padrone or master.
The lines, wood, and irons employed in the coral fisheries are
called the engine: it consists of a cross of wood formed of two bars,
strongly lashed or bolted together at their centre ; below this a great
stone is attached, which bears the lines, arranged in the form of a
sac. These lines have great meshes, loosely knotted together, re-
sembling the well-known swab.
The apparatus carries thirty of these sacs, which are intended to
grapple all they come in contact with at the bottom of the sea. They
a;e spread out in all directions by the movement of the boat. The
coral is known to attach itself to the summit of a rock and to develop
itself, forming banks there, and it is to these rocks that the swab
attaches itself so as to tear up the precious harvest. Experience,
which in time becomes almost intuitive, guides the Italian fisher in
discovering the coral banks. The craft employed in the great fishery
have a " padrone/' or captain, the bark having a crew of eight or ten
sailors, and in the season it is continued night and day. The whole
apparatus, and mode of using it, is shown in PLATE VII.
When the padrone thinks that he has reached a coral bank, he
throws his engine overboard. As soon as the apparatus is fairly at
the bottom the speed of the vessel is slacked, the capstan is manned
by six or eight men, while the others guide the helm and trim the
sails. Two forces are thus brought to act upon the lines, the hori-
zontal action of the vessel and the vertical action of the capstan. In
consequence of the many inequalities of the rocky bottom, the engine
advances by jerks, the vessel yielding more or less, according to the
concussion caused by the action of the capstan or sail. The engine
seizes upon the rugged rocks at the bottom, and raises them to let
them fall again. In this manner the swab, floating about, penetrates
beneath the rocks where the coral is found, and is hooked on to it.
To fix the lines upon the coral and bring them home, is a work of
very great labour. The engine long resists the most energetic and
repeated efforts of the crew, who, exposed half naked to the burning
sun of the Mediterranean, work the capstan to which the cable and
engine are attached, while the padrone urges and excites them to
increased exertion ; the sailors meanwhile trim the sails and sing
24° THE OCEAN WORLD.
v> ith a slow and monotonous tone a song, the words of which impro-
vise in a sort of psalmody the names of the saints most revered
among the seafaring Italian population.
The lines are finally brought home, tearing or breaking blocks of
rock, sometimes of enormous size, which are brought on board. The
cross is now placed on the side of the vessel, the lines are arranged
on the deck, and the crew occupy themselves in gathering the results
of their labour. The coral is gathered together, the branches of the
precious alcyonarian are cleansed, and divested of the shells and
other parasitic products which accompany them ; finally, the produce
is carried to and sold in the ports of Messina, Naples, Genoa, or
Leghorn, where the workers in jewellery purchase them. Behold,
fair reader, with what hard labour, fatigue, and peril, the elegant
bijouterie with which you are decked is torn from the deepest bed of
the ocean !
III. THE PENNATULID^:, OR SEA-PENS.
This curious family received from Cuvier the name of Swimming
Polyps, and from Lamarck that of Floating Polyps. The name of
Pennatula, by which they are now generally known, is taken from
their resemblance to a quill, penna. In the words of Lamarck, " It
seems as if Nature, in forming this composite animal, had wished to
copy the external form of a bird's feather." Our fishermen call it
the cocKs comb, which is not inapt, but less expressive of its peculiari-
ties. One of these Sea-pens is described as being " from two to four
inches in length, of a uniform purplish-red colour, except at the tip
or base of the stalk, where it is pale orange-yellow; the skin is
thickish, very tough, and of a curious structure, being composed of
minute crystalline cylinders, densely arranged in straight lines, and
held together by a tenacious glutinous matter, the cylinders being
about six inches in diameter, in length straight and even, or sometimes
slightly curved, and of a red colour, which communicates itself to the
zoophyte/' (Johnston.) The animals by which it is formed consti-
tute colonies, which, however, are only attached to the rocks by the
enlarged basis of their stem ; they appear to live generally at the
bottom of the sea, their root, if we can use the term, buried in the
sands or mud, their polypiferous portion sallying into the water.
The agitation of the waves and the fishermen's nets often displace
these curious creatures, and then they float away at various depths
up to the bosom of the ocean.
The stalk of their polypidom is hollow in the centre, having a
long slender bone-like substance, which is white, smooth, and square.
PENNATULID&. 241
but tapering at each extremity to a fine point. The polyps, which
are fleshy and white, are provided with eight long retractile tentacula,
beautifully ciliated on their inner edge with two series of short
processes strengthened with crystalline spicula. The mouth in the
centre of the tentacula is somewhat angular, bounded by a white
band, a process from which seems to encircle the base of each
tentaculum, which thus seems to issue from an aperture. The ova
lie between the membranes of the pinnae ; they are globular, of a
yellowish colour, and by a little pressure can be made to pass through
the mouth. The polyps are distributed with more or less regularity
in such a manner that one of the extremities of the common axis is
always naked : this part has been compared to the tubulous part of a
feather. The stem, common to the colony, is a solid central axis,
more or less developed, which is covered with a fleshy fibrous
substance, susceptible of dilatation and contraction.
The Pennatulidce comprehend, according to Dr. Johnston, three
genera ; namely, those with the polyps or bipinnate wings, having
Polypidoms plumose, in .... Pennatula.
Polypidoms virgate, or wand-shaped . . Virgularia.
Polypi, unilateral and sessile . . . . ) T>
Polycom, linear-elongate . . .] Pavonana'
In the genus Pennatula^ the polyps are disposed in transverse
rows upon the outer and inner edge, in a series of prolongations in
the form of a feather. These winged species of polypidom are
somewhat scythe-shaped, well-developed, and furnished with a great
quantity of pointed spiculae, which are constituted of bundles at the
base of the calyx of each polyp. The space between the two rows of
appendages is sometimes scaly, sometimes granulous. Of the Penna-
tula, at least five species are known, and all of them appear to be
endowed with phosphorescent properties. We may note among these
species Pennatula spinosa (Fig. 97), which inhabits the Mediterranean,
and take? its name from its colour ; Pennatula phosphorea, which
abound in most European seas, being found in great plenty, clinging
to the fishermen's lines round our own northern shores, more
especially when they are baited with mussels.
P. phosphorea is of a reddish purple, the base of the smooth stalk
pale ; the raches roughened with close-set papillae, and furrowed
down the middle ; pinnae close ; polyp cilia uniserial, tubular, with
spinous apertures. (Sibbald).
Bohadsch says the Pennatula swim by means of their pinnas,
which they use as fishes do their fins. Ellis says, " It is an animal
242
THE OCEAN WORLD.
that swims about in the sea, many of them having a muscular motion
as they swim along ;" these motions being effected, as he tells us in
another place, by means of the pinnules or feather-like fins, " evi-
dently designed by Nature to move the animal backward or forward
in the sea." Cuvier tells us they have
the power of moving by the contraction
of the fleshy part of the polypidom,
and also by the combined action of
its polpys. Dr. Grant says, " A more
singular and beautiful spectacle could
scarcely be conceived than that of a
deep purple P. phosphorea with all its
delicate transparent polypi expanded,
and emitting their usual brilliant phos-
phorescent light, sailing through the
still and dark abyss, by the regular and
synchronous pulsations of the minute
fringed arms of the whole polypi;"
while Linnaeus tells us that " the phos-
phorescent sea-pens which cover the
bottom of the ocean cast so strong a
light, that it is easy to count the fishes
and worms of various kinds which sport
among them."
Lamarck, Schweigger, and other
naturalists, however, reasoning from
what is known of other such animals,
deny them the existence of this loco-
motive power ; " and there is little
doubt," says Dr. Johnston, " that these
authors are right, for, when placed in
a basin of sea-water, the Pennatula are
never observed to change their position ;
Fig. 97.— Sea-pen, Pennatnia *j>inola. they remain in the same spot, and lie
(Edes-) with the same side up or down, just as
they have been placed. They inflate
the body until it becomes to a considerable degree transparent, and
only streaked with intercepted lines of red, which distend at one
place and contract at another ; they spread out the pinnae, and the
polyps expand their tentacula, but they never attempt to swim, or
perform any process of locomotion."
Mr. Darwin's description of a kind of Sea-pen, Virgularia Fata-
PENNATULID^E. 243
gonia, throws some curious light on the habits of these creatures.
" This zoophyte consists of a thin, straight, fleshy stem, with alternate
rows of polypi on each side, and surrounding an elastic stony axis,
varying in length from eight inches to two feet. The stem at one
extremity is truncate, but at the other is terminated by a vermiform
fleshy appendage. The stony axis, which gives strength to the stem,
may be traced at the extremity into a mere vessel filled with granular
matter. At low water, hundreds of these zoophytes might be seen
projecting like stubble, with the truncate end upwards, a few inches
above the surface of the muddy sand. When touched or pulled,
they suddenly drew themseves in with force, so as nearly, or quite, to
disappear. By this action, the highly elastic axis must be bent at the
lower extremity, where it is naturally slightly curved ; and I imagine
it is by this elasticity alone that the zoophyte is enabled to rise again
through the mud. Each polyp, though closely united to its brethren,
has a distinct mouth, body, and tentacula. Of these polyps, in a
large specimen there must be many thousands, yet we see that they
act by one movement. They have also one central axis connected
with a system of obscure circulation, and the ova are produced in an
organ distinct from the separate individuals. For/' adds Mr. Darwin,
in a note, " the cavities leading from the fleshy compartments of the
extremity were filled with 'a yellow pulpy matter which, under a
microscope, consisted of rounded semi-transparent grains aggregated
together into particles of various sizes. All such particles, as well as
separate grains, possessed the power of rapid motion, generally
revolving round different axes, but sometimes progressive."
Virgularia mirabilis is common in the east and north coasts of
Scotland ; it is found in the North Sea, and as far north as Norway.
In Zetland it is known as the sea-rush. It is abundant in Belfast
Lough, but, from its brittle nature, perfect specimens are difficult to
obtain.
The genus Virgularia differs from that of Pennaiula chiefly in the
development of the axis of the colony and the shortness of the
pinnae, which carry the polyps ; and also in this, that no spicula enter
into the composition of its softer parts.
" V. mirabilis seems," says Sowerby, " to represent a quill stripped
of its feathers. The base looks like a pen in this as in other species,
swelling a little way from the end, and then tapering. The upper
part is thicker, with alternate semicircular pectinated swellings,
larger towards the middle, tapering upwards, and terminating in a
thin bony substance, which passes through the whole extent, and is
from six to ten inches in length."
244 THE OCEAN WORLD.
In a communication to Dr. Johnston, from Mr. R. Patterson of
Belfast, commenting on Miiller's figure of Virgularia, he tells us that
in the longest specimen he had, no two plumes were precisely alike ;
so unlike, indeed, that the artist copying one, could not for a moment
hesitate — after raising her eyes from her paper to look at the animal —
as to which she was copying.
Its short waving and deeply dentated lobes are of a brilliant
yellow. The polyps, which appear upon the lobes, are whitish,
transparent, and form a fringe of small diaphanous white stars
(Figs. 98 and 99).
V. mirabilis is undoubtedly one of the finest polypidoms found in
the ocean. Two series of half-moon shaped wings, obliquely hori-
zontal, are placed symmetrically round an upright axis. They
embrace the stem somewhat in the manner termed petiolate by
botanists, clasping it alternately; or, shall we say, like two broad
ribbons rolled round a stem in an inverse direction, in such a manner
as to produce the effect of two opposing flights of stairs. These
wings are waving, vandyked, and fringed on their outer edge, and of
a brilliant yellow ; the toothing of the fringe being the lodging-place
of the pretty little polyps, which display occasionally their gaping
mouths and expanded tentacles. The polyps are white and semi-
transparent. When they display their rays, the margin of each wing
presents an edging of silvery stars. We may figure to ourselves a
slender wand-like and much-elongated polypidom, carrying only a
non-contractile polyp on one side, which would give us an idea of
the genus Pavonaria, of which we know only one species, which is
from the Mediterranean.
The Umbcllularia grenlandica has a very long stem (Fig. 100)
which is terminated at the summit only by a cluster of polyps. It
has been found in the Greenland and other northern seas.
The Veretillum cynomorium which inhabits the Mediterranean
(Fig. 101), has a simple cylindrical body, without branchiae, and a
rudimentary polypidom, furnished with very large polyps of a
whitish colour.
IV.— THE ALCYONID^E.
The animals which compose this group have the fleshy polypidom
always adherent, without axis or solid interior stem. Tney are
divided into four families or tribes. One of these, the Cornnlaridce.
are polyps either living in isolation, or gathered together in small
numbers on the surface of a common membraniform expansion. The
Cornularia cornucopia is found on the coast of Naples, C. crassa on
Fig. 99. — Branch ot
Virgularia (enlarged).
Fig. 98. — Loose-winged
Virgularia, Virgularia
rnirabilis (Lamarck).
Fig. 101. — Veretillum
cynomorium
(Lamarck).
Fig. ioo. — Umbellularia
grenlandica
(Lamarck).
246 THE OCEAN WORLD.
the Algerian coast. Other genera make their appearance on thk
coast of Scotland, of Norway, in the Red Sea ; and in the Indian
Ocean they appear in great numbers.
In the Alcyonidce, properly so called, the polypidom is very thick,
of a semi-cartilaginous consistence, granular, and rough to the touch.
The genus Alcyonium is numerous in species which are widely
dispersed. A. digitatum is very common on our shores; and on
many parts of the coast scarcely a stone or shell is dredged up from
deep water which does not serve as a support to some one or more
species of Alcyonium. It is known by various popular names by our
sea-side population, such as cows1 paps, from its resemblance to the
teats of the cow ; dead maris fingers, from the occasional resemblance
of its finger-like lobes to a man's fingers.
The outer skin of the polypidom is tough and coriaceous, studded
all over with star-like figures, which on examination are found to be
divided into eight rays, indicating the number of the polyps enclosed
in its semi-transparent membrane. Each polyp is dotted over with
minute calcareous bodies, and marked with eight longitudinal lines
or septa, stretching between the membrane and the central stomach,
which divide the intermediate space into an equal number of com-
partments. These lines not only extend to the base of the tentacula,
but run across the oral disc, and terminate in a central mouth. The
tentacula are short, obtuse, ciliated on the margins, and strengthened
at their roots by numerous calcareous spicula. The polyp cells are
oval, placed just under the investing membrane, and are the termi-
nating points of certain long canals which traverse the whole polypi-
dom. The polyps, which are distributed over the whole surface, can
withdraw into the cavities ; they are, besides, of extreme sensibility,
the least shock impresses itself on the tentacula, the impulse of a
wave even producing contraction, in response the animal imme-
diately retires to hide itself in the cell.
We find, as we have said, on the coast, in the Channel, and in
the North Sea, Alcyonium digitatum, the mass of which is of a reddish
white, ferruginous, or orange colour. A. stellatum, found on the
shores of the Mediterranean, is expanded in its upper part, narrow
towards its base, very rough on the surface, and rose-coloured;
A. palmatum is cylindrical, branching at the summit, of a deep red,
except at the base, where it is yellow — this is met with in the
Mediterranean.
We may note as a type altogether different from any yet touched
upon the genus Nephthya, in which the polypidom is a coriaceous
tissue bristling with spicula over its whole surface. In N. Chabrolii^
ALCYONIDAl. 247
the poiypidom is squat, with thick spreading arms covered with
lobiliform branches, the tubercular polypidoms of which are columnar
and obtuse, the spicula green, and the tentacula of the polyps
yellow.
" On a cursory view," says Dr. Johnston, " the poiypidom of the
three families embraced appear very dissimilar, and accordingly, by
many recent authors, they have been scattered over the class, and
placed widely asunder. The affinity between them, however, is
generally acknowledged, and had been distinctly perceived by some
of the earliest zoophytologists. Thus Bohadsch found so much in
common in the typical Pennatula and a species of Alcyonium, that
he has not hesitated to describe them as members of the same genus;
and, although the more systematic character of Pallas prevented
him from falling into this error, if error it can be called, he did not
the less recognise the relationship between the genera or families*
Pallas also tells us that his Verretillum cynomormm differs from the
Alcyonium only in this, that the former is a movable and the latter a
fixed poiypidom ; and he saw with equal clearness the connection
which exists between these genera and the shrub-like Gorgonia. Of
the Virgularia mirabilis, he had doubts whether it was not rather a
species of Gorgonia, until he perceived that the stem was attenuated
at each end, and free ; and of the Sea-pens generally, Ellis remarks
that they are * a genus of zoophytes not far removed from the
Gorgonia, on account of their polyp mouths, as well as having a bone
in the inside and flesh without.' * On the other hand, the Gorgonia
seem,' says Pallas, ' with the exception of their horny skeleton, to be
nearly similar in structure to the genus Alcyonium ; but as there are
species of Gorgonia which are suberose internally, and almost of a
uniform medullary consistence, even this mark of distinction fails to
separate the tribes, and we have little left to guide us in arranging
these esculent species excepting their external habits.'"
" With most corallines," says Fredol, " the elementary individual,
in spite of the adhesion established among them, possesses a vital
energy all its own ; it is in some respects quite independent. They
have each its own particular will, which it is difficult to mistake for
a common will; but it is not thus with the Pennatula. Their
association consists of a non-adherent polyp, which moves —
obscurely, it is true — but still it moves. To what does this lead ?
To this : that the parts which they possess in common, in place of
being horny or calcareous — that is, completely inert — are fleshy,
with contractile powers ; that is to say, animated. Consequently,
the polyp of the Pennatula are less independent of each other than
248 THE OCEAN WORLD.
the coral polyp, which have a central, perhaps a sensible organ,
common to all, which binds them to each other, giving a certain
unity to their acts. The Gorgonian polyps have no will ; the Pen-
natula have."
CTENOPHORA.
We have now reached the class of polyps which Cuvier designates
Hydrostatic Acalephce, and which De Blainville calls the Ciliobranchiata.
The body of these polyps presents marginal fringes furnished with
vibratile cilia, which are swimming organs. Moreover, as these
vibratile fringes are inserted directly over the principal canal, in
which the nourishing fluid circulates, they ought necessarily to help
in the act of respiration, by determining the renewal of the water in
contact with the corresponding portion of the tegumentary mem-
brane.
The class may be divided into five families, namely, Callymmida,
Ccstidce, Callianiridce, Plenrobrachiada, and Beroidce.
The creatures belonging to these families swarm in the deep
sea; they often appear quite suddenly, and in vast numbers, in
certain localities.
Bcroe Forskalii (Fig. 102), has been studied with great care by
M. Milne-Edwards. The species inhabits the Gulf of Naples, and
the sea almost everywhere ; the sailors of Provence call them Sea-
cucumbers. The body (Fig. 102), cylindrical in form, is of a pale
rose colour, thickly studded with small reddish spots, so numerous
as to appear entirely punctured with them. It presents eight blue
sides, with very fine vibratile cilia, which by their reflection produce
all the colours of the rainbow. The substance of the body is
gelatinous, its appearance glass-like ; its form varies according as
the animal is in motion or repose. Sometimes it swells up like a
ball ; sometimes it reverses itself, so as to resemble a bell ; at others
it is elongated and cylindrical ; at its lower extremity it presents a
large mouth ; at its upper extremity is found a small nipple, having
at its base a spherical point of a reddish colour, enclosing many
crystalloid corpuscles, which rest upon a sort of nervous ganglion,
whose physiological function is not very well determined. A vast
stomach, considering its size, occupies the whole interior of the body
of the Beroe : the circulation is also much developed in this creature.
The circulating apparatus contains a moving fluid charged with a
multitude of circular, colourless globules, which flows from a vascular
ring round the mouth towards the summit of the body ; in the
interior are eight superficial canals, which flow under the ciliated
CTENOPHORA. 249
sides, and re-descend by two much deeper canals ; the Beroes have
no heart. Beroe ovata is a beautiful species, seldom exceeding two
inches
verse diameter
Lit* jLJCf UC t/C/trfrW- 1*3 d L/V^dU.tllLH O U/V^^lVOj i»WAU\SAA» WAV^X* w*_***.»^ *- •
and a half in length and one and a half in its larger trans-
liameter ; it is described by Browne, in his " Jamaica," as " of
Fig. 102. — Beroe Forskalii (Edwards).
an oval form, obtusely octangular, hollow, open at the larger
extremity, transparent, and of a firm gelatinous consistence ; it
contracts and widens with great facility, but is always open and
expanded when it swims or moves. The longitudinal radii are
strongest in the crown or smallest extremity, where they rise from a
250 THE OCEAN WORLD.
very beautiful oblong star, and diminish gradually from thence to
the margin, each being furnished with a single series of short, slender,
delicate appendages, or limbs (cilia), that move with great celerity in
all directions, as the creature pleases to direct its flexions, and in a
regular accelerated succession from the top to the margin. It is
impossible to express the liveliness of the motions of those delicate
organs, or the beautiful variety of colour which rise from them as
they play to and fro in the rays of the sun ; nor is it easy to express
the speed and regularity with which the motions succeed each other
from one end of the rays to the other." " The grace and beauty
which the entire apparatus presents in the living animal," says
Gosse, " or the marvellous ease and rapidity with which it can be
alternately contracted, extended, and bent at an infinite variety of
angles, no verbal description can sufficiently treat. Fortunately the
creature is so common in summer and autumn on all our coasts,
that few who use the surface-net can possibly miss its capture. It is
worthy of a poet's description, which it has received : —
' When first extracted from her native brine,
Behold a round, small mass of gelatine,
Or frozen dewdrop, void of life and limb ;
But round the crystal goblet let her swim
'Midst her own elements ; and lo ! a sphere
Banded from pole to pole ; as diamond clear,
Shaped as bard's fancy shapes the small balloon,
To bear some sylph or fay beyond the moon.
From all her bands see lurid fringes play,
That glance and sparkle in the solar ray
With iridescent hues. Now round and round
She whirls and twirls ; now mounts, then sinks profound."*
DRUMMOND.
The species of Pleurobrachia (Flem.) are globulous or egg-shaped,
furnished with eight rows of cilia, corresponding with as many
sections more or less distinct, and terminated by two long filiform
tentacles, issuing from the base of the zoophyte and fringed on the
sides. "It is," says Gosse, "a globe of pure colourless jelly, about
as big as a small marble, often with a wart-like swelling at one of its
poles, where the mouth is placed. At the other end there are
minute orifices, and between the two passes the stomach, which is
flat or wider in one diameter than the other." Pleurobrachia pileus.
found abundantly in the spring on all our coasts, is so transparent
that it is scarcely visible in the water, where it seems like living.
moving crystal. PI. densa, which abounds in the Mediterranean, is
of a crystalline white,, with rows of reddish cirrhi,, terminating in two
CTFNOPHORA.
251
tentacles, much longer and coloured red ; it is about the size of a
hazel-nut, and phosphorescent. Within the clear substance of the
Pleurobrachia, on each side of the stomach, there is a capacious
cavity, which communicates with the surface, and within each cavity
is fixed the tentacle, of great length, and very slender, which the
Fig. 103. — Cestum veneris (Lesueur).
animal can at pleasure shoot out of the orifice and suffer to trail
through the water, shortening, lengthening, twisting, twining, or con-
tracting it into a tiny ball at will, or withdrawing it into its cavity,
short filaments being given off at intervals over the whole length of
this attenuated thread-like apparatus, each of which can also be
lengthened or shortened, and coiled individually. These proceed
only from one side of the thread-like tentacle, although, at a casual
252 THE OCEAN WORLD.
glance, they seem to proceed now from one side, now from the
other.
The family Callianirida forms a sort of connecting link between
the Pleurobrachiada and the Cestidce. Their bodies are smooth and
regular, vertically-elongated, compressed on one side and as if
lobated on the other ; in substance they are gelatinous, hyaline, and
tubular, obtuse at both extremities, with buccal openings between
the prolongations of the sides, and two pairs of conical appendages
resembling wings, capable of expansion, on the edges of which two
rows of vibratory cilia are ranged. A great transversal opening
presents itself at one of the extremities, a small one at the other.
The animal is furnished with two branching tentacles, but without
cilia.
In the family Cestida we have the genus Cestum. C. veneris, or
Venus's Girdle, as it is vulgarly called, has a long, gelatinous, ribbon-
like body, fine, regular, and very short, but much extended on each
side, while the edges are furnished with a double row of cilia ; the
lower surface is also furnished with cilia, but much smaller in size
and number. On the middle of the lower edge is the mouth,
opening into a large stomach. This alimentary canal runs across the
middle of its length, and from it extends, as in the Medusse, a series
of gastric canals, which carry the nutriment into all parts of the body.
There are many species of Cestum ; among them the best known is
C. veneris (Fig. 103), which is found in the Mediterranean, parti-
cularly in the sea which bathes the coast of Naples and Nice, where
the fishermen call it the sabre de mer — sea-sabre. This curious
creature unwinds itself on the bosom of the waters, like a scarf of
iridescent shades. It is the scarf of Venus traversing the waves,
under the fiery rays of the sun, which has coloured it with a thousand
reflections of silver and azure blue.
In the last family, Callymmida, the body is furnished with a pair
of antero-posterior oral lobes and other smaller lateral appendages.
The tentacles are various, and turned towards the mouth.
253
CHAPTER IX.
ECHINODERMATA.
" Ultra magis pisces et Echinos sequora celent." — HOR. Ep.
IN their " Natural History of the Echinodermata," Messrs. Hupe"
and Dujardin divide this vast natural group into five orders or families,
namely: i, Crinoidetz, stone lilies, calcareous, stem composed of
movable pieces ; 2, Astero'idece, which includes the true star-fishes ;
3, Ophiurid&Zy having the disc much depressed, the rays simple,
sometimes much divided ; 4, Echinida, comprehending the animals
known as sea-eggs, or sea-urchins, distinguished by their rounded
form and absence of arms ; 5, Holothuroide which signifies urchin. When, however, one sees the
body of one of these animals thrown on the sea-shore, it is difficult,
276 THE OCEAN WORLD.
at first, to find a reason for this designation. The corona or body of
the sea-urchin is furnished with different kinds of spines. It forms a
shell, nearly spherical, empty in the interior, its surface presenting
reliefs remarkable for their regularity. In order to see the urchin
with its spines it is necessary to seize it as it lives, in the water at the
bottom of the sea, where it rolls and moves its little prickly mass ; it is
then only that the real urchin — the prickly sea-urchin — is to be seen,
bristling with prickles, and strongly resembling, to compare the physical
with the mental, those amiable mortals whose character is so well
depicted in the saying, " Whom they rub they prick/'
In his book on " The Sea," Michelet puts the following conver-
sation into the mouth of a sea-urchin : —
" I am born without ambition/' says the modest Echinoderm ; "I
ask for none of the brilliant gifts possessed by those gentlemen the
molluscs. I would neither make mother-of-pearl nor pearls ; I have
no wish for brilliant colours, a luxury which would point me out; still
less do I desire the grace of your giddy Medusas, the waving charm of
whose flaming locks attracts observation and exposes one to shipwreck.
Oh, mother ! I wish for one thing only : to be — to be without these
exterior and compromising appendages ; to be thickset, strong, and
round, for that is the shape in which I should be the least exposed ;
in short, to be a centralised being. I have very little instinct for
travel. To roll sometimes from the surface to the bottom of the sea is
enough of travel for me. Glued firmly to my rock, I could there
solve the problem, the solution of which your future favourite, man,
seeks for in vain — that of safety. To strictly exclude enemies and
admit all friends, especially water, air, and light, would, I know, cost
me some labour and constant effort. Covered with movable spines,
enemies will avoid me. Now, bristling like a bear, they call me an
urchin."
Let us now look a little more closely at the general structure of the
sea-urchin — in zoological language, Echinus.
The body of the sea-urchin is globular in form, slightly egg-shaped,
or of a disc slightly swollen. It consists essentially of an exterior
shell, or solid corona covered with spines, and invested in a delicate
membrane furnished with vibratile cilia. This corona is formed of an
assemblage of contiguous polygonal plates, adhering together by their
edges. Their arrangement is such that the test or shell may be
divided into vertical zones, each springing from a central point on
the summit, and terminating at a point of the spheroid diametrically
opposite — namely, the circumference of the buccal orifice. These
vertical zones are of two kinds, some larger and others straighter,
ECHINID&. 277
each zone consisting of a double row of plates, the first charged with
movable spines, the second pierced with holes disposed in regular
longitudinal series, from which emerge the ambulacral feet, which, as
we shall see presently, serve as organs of locomotion to the animal.
When armed with these bristling spines, the sea-urchins resemble the
hedge-hogs; but when the spines are rubbed off, they look very much
like a melon or an egg, to which their shape and calcareous nature
have sometimes led to their being compared by the vulgar as well as
by the learned. We shall give a tolerably exact idea of the two
different aspects which the corona of the urchin presents when the
spines are still on and when they have been removed, by reference to
Fig. 112. — Acrocladia mamillata. Sea Urchin, without spines, natural size.
Fig. in (Acrocladia mamillata), which represents the animal bristling
with spines, and Fig. 112, in which the same species is represented
after death, when these weapons of defence have been rubbed off —
and how complicated these organs of defence must be ! It has been
calculated that more than ten thousand pieces, each admirably arranged
and united, enter into the composition of the shell of the sea-urchin.
To abbreviate slightly Gosse's description of that wonderful piece of
mechanism, the sea-urchin : " A globular hollow box has to be made,
of some three inches in diameter, the walls of which shall be scarcely
thicker than a wafer, formed of unyielding limestone, yet fitted to hold
the soft tender parts of an animal which quite fills the cavity at all ages.
But in infancy the animal is not so big as a pea, and it has to attain
its adult dimensions. The box is never to be cast off or renewed ; the
same box must hold the infant and the veteran urchin. The limestone
can only increase in size by being deposited. Now the vascular tissues
278 THE OCEAN WORLD.
are within, and the particles they deposit must be on the interior walls.
To thicken the walls from within leaves less room in the cavity ; but
what is wanted is more room, ever more and more. The growing
animal feels its tissues swelling day by day, by the assimilation of
food. Its cry is, * Give me space ! a larger house, or I die !' How
is this problem solved? Ah ! there is no difficulty. The inexhaustible
wisdom of the Creator has a beautiful contrivance for the emergency.
The box is not made in one piece, nor in ten, nor a hundred. Six
hundred distinct pieces go to make up the hollow case, all accurately
fitted together, so that the perfect symmetry of the outline remains
unbroken; and yet, thin as their substance is, they retain their relative
positions with unchanging exactness, and the slight brittle box retains
all requisite strength and firmness, for each of these pieces is enveloped
by a layer of living flesh ; a vascular tissue passes up between the
joints, where one meets another, and spreads itself over the whole
exterior surface." This being so, the glands of the investing tissue
secrete lime from the sea water, and deposit it after a determinate
and orderly pattern on every part of the surface. Thus the inner
face, the outer face, and each side and angle of the polyhedron, grow
together, and the form characteristic of the individual is maintained
with immutable mathematical precision.
The dimensions and shape of the spines are very variable. In
certain Echinidae they are three or four times the diameter of the
body. In the common sea-urchin, properly so called, they are only
three-fourths or four-fifths that diameter. They sometimes resemble
short bristles. These defensive weapons have tubercles for supports,
which are arranged on the surface of the animal with perfect regularity.
At the base they present a small head separated by compression.
This head is hollow on its lower face, presenting a cavity adapted to
a tubercle of the shell. Each of the spines, notwithstanding its
extreme minuteness, is put in action by a muscular apparatus.
In the spines and ambulacral feet we see the external organs of
the Echinidae. The former are instruments of defence ; the latter,
strange as it may appear, serve them to walk with. When it is
considered that each of these spines is put in motion by several
.muscles, it is impossible to repress our wonder and surprise at the
prodigious number of organs brought into action in the sea-urchin.
More than 1,200 spines have been counted upon the shell of Echinus
esculentus, a representation of which is given in Fig. 113. If we add
to this first supply of spines other smaller and in some sort accessary
spines, we shall arrive at a total of 3,000 prickles. Each sea-urchin
thus bears as many weapons as ten squadrons of lancers. When it
ECHIN1D&.
279
is considered, further, that in each series of ambulacral feet there
exist not less than 100, you will have a total of 4,000 visible
appendages upon the body of an animal of very small dimensions.
If it is considered, finally, that no shell exists more admirably sym-
metrical, elegant, or more highly ornamental than the corona of the
Fig. 113. — Echinus esculentus'( Lamarck), natural size.
sea-urchin, it will readily be admitted that Nature has been most
prodigal in her gifts to one of the humblest beings in creation — a
creature which passes its existence in crawling in obscurity at the
bottom of the sea. What elegance of form, eternally hidden from
the eyes of man, sleeps under the heavy mass of water ; and yet
man imagines that everything in Nature has been created for his use
and for his glory !
28O THE OCEAN WORLD.
M. Hup£ records a somewhat curious observation in connection
with the spines which serve as a means of defence to the Echinidae.
He found a small mollusc, of the genus Stilifera, which had sought
shelter in Loxoddaris imperials, a sea-urchin, native of Australia ; in
a word, the interior of one of these prickles had been hollowed and
enlarged so as to serve as a retreat for this improvised guest.
What unexpected facts does the study of animals present ! Nature
has bestowed a protecting armour upon one little being ; another
still smaller animal discovers this, and places itself for shelter under
the protection of one of these levelled bayonets !
Now let us see by what organic mechanism the sea-urchin con-
trives to transport itself and walk. The ambulacral feet are hollow
internally, and, as we have said, are provided with small muscles.
By the influx of liquid which they enclose they become inflated
throughout all their length, in such a manner that they can attach
themselves to any solid body, at the will of the animal, by means of
their terminal suckers. Fredol, in " Le Monde de la Mer," thus
explains the sea-urchin's mode of progression. " Let us imagine,"
he says, " one of these creatures to be at rest ; all its spines are
immovable, and all its feet repose within the shell ; some of these
involuntarily are protruded ; they extend themselves and feel the
ground all round them : others follow, but the animal is firmly fixed.
If it wishes for change of place, the anterior feet contract themselves,
whilst the hinder ones loosen their hold, and the shell is carried
forward. The sea-urchin can thus advance with ease, and even
rapidity. During his progression the suckers are only slightly aided
by the spines. It can travel either on its back 01 stomach. What-
ever their posture, they have always a certain number of feet, which
carry them, and suckers, with which they attach themselves. In
certain circumstances the animal walks by turning upon itself, like a
wheel in motion."
Nothing is more curious than to see a sea-urchin walk upon
smooth sand. But for its colour, it might be mistaken for a chest-
nut with its bristling envelope, the spines serving as feet to put
the little round prickly mass in motion. They have even been
observed to make very considerable progress under these circum-
stances.
One of the most singular organs of the sea-urchin is its mouth.
It is most curious. Placed underneath the body it occupies the
centre of a soft space invested with a thick resisting membrane : it
opens and shuts incessantly, showing five sharp teeth (Fig. 114^
projecting from the surface, the edges meeting at a point, as repre-
ECHINIDM.
28l
sented here, supported and protected by a very complicated frame-
work, which has received the name of Aristotle's Lantern (Fig. 115).
Fig. 114 represents Echimis lividus,
with all its spines removed ; the
other shows the masticatory organs,
that is to say, Aristotle's Lantern.
To give the reader another idea of
the buccal organ in the sea-urchins
let him glance at a flattened form
from the southern seas, Clypeaster
rosaceus, represented in Figs. 116 and
117, an outline of the entire animal.
The shape of Clypeaster rosaceus
is oval, straighter in front, and thick
and rounded at the edges. It is
more common and more largely dis- .
tributed than perhaps any other allied species, and it is supplied
with four or six rows of ambulacral feet.
It is not easy to understand why the dental framework of the
Fig. 114.— Buccal armature of Echinus
lividus.
Fig. 115. — Masticating apparatus of Echinus lividus.
sea-urchin has been called Aristotle's Lantern, for this formidable
apparatus resembles the front view of a battery of cannon more than
a lantern. It consists of a series of pieces designated by the names
of compass, scythe, pyramid, and plumula, which it would serve no
useful purpose to describe in detail here.
We have said that the mouth of the sea-urchin is quite out of
282
THE OCEAN WORLD.
proportion to its size, and the teeth are of proportionate dimensions.
As these project from a very formidable mouth, one can easily be
assured of the sharpness of their extremities by intruding his fingers
into them. In fact, it is necessary that these organs should be
singularly powerful, because, as we shall see farther on, the sea-urchin
possibly makes incisions in the solid rock with them, and hollows out
shelter for himself. The strong and sharp teeth grow at the base in
Fig. 116. — Clypeaster rosaceus (Lamarck).
proportion as they are used at the points, as is the case with some of
the rodent mammals. By this means they are always sharp and in
good condition. Five groups of powerful muscles are used to work
these terrible grinders.
To this formidable mouth is attached an oesophagus or gullet, and
an intestine which extends along the interior walls of the corona,
describing the circumference of its principal contour.
The food of the Echinidae is still imperfectly known ; nevertheless^
ECHINIDJZ. 283
from the presence of shells, fragments of corals, crustaceans, and
even other Echinodermata in their intestinal tube, it is to be inferred
that a certain number of them at least are carnivores, or flesh-eaters,
while others are supposed on the same evidence to be vegetarians.
The organs of respiration of the Echinidae appear to be certain
flattened vesicles in the form of very delicate laminae, which adhere
to the internal surface of the walls of the body, and float freely in the
Fig. 117.— Skeleton and Masticating Apparatus of Clypeaster rosaceus.
liquid with which the visceral cavity is filled. These organs, known
as the internal branchia, are in communication with the central canal
and ambulacral tubes. The heart is spindle-shaped, tapering above,
swelling out below. There are two distinct vascular systems, one
intestinal, the other cutaneous.
The nervous system consists of a ring, which surrounds the gullet,
and is placed at a short distance from the mouth. In this ring the
nervous trunks have their origin. In reference to the senses, we may
observe that that of touch is highly developed. Certain forms called
284 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Pedicellaria, which surround the mouth, and are fashioned like
nippers, are also to be met with. They appear to be altogether
destitute of organs of sight. It has sometimes been argued that
five red points at the summit of the dorsal surface are eyes ; but
this opinion has not been maintained, nor has any crystalline lens
been found in these spots to 'justify it. Captain de Conde states
that he examined a sea-urchin with long spines in a pool of water,
which he tried to catch, when he saw it direct itself towards his
hand, all its spines being erect. Surprised at this manoeuvre, he
tried to seize it from another quarter ; its spines were instantly
directed to the other side. " I have thought from that time that the
urchin saw me, and prepared to resist my attack. In order, however,
to satisfy myself whether or not the movement in the water caused by
my approach might have produced the effect described, I repeated
the experiment with greater caution. But the creature always directed
its spines in the direction of the object which threatened it, whether
it was in the water or out of it." He satisfied himself that these
animals certainly could see, and that their spines served them as a
means of defence.
These wonderful spines, this calcareous envelope, this armour so
marvellously studded, with which Nature has so bountifully provided
the Echinidae, appear to have been insufficient, inasmuch as these
very spines, in order to secure the safety of the animal, are gifted with
the power of hollowing a dwelling for themselves out of solid rocks of
the hardest material, such as granite and sandstone. They fix them-
selves to its surface by means of their tentacles ; they make an incision
by means of their strong teeth, removing the debris with their spines
as fast as it is produced. When the hole is large enough, they
entrench themselves in it, with their spines like threatening pikes
levelled to protect them from all external assaults. To M. Caillaud,
the conservator of the Museum of Nantes, we are indebted for an
excellent account of the manner in which this buccal apparatus is
made to operate. "The Lantern of Aristotle," says this author,
" forms the mandibulary apparatus ; the teeth are five in number,
and they may as well receive the denomination of a series of saws and
picks as of teeth, for they are surprisingly adapted to the excavation
of holes in the hardest rock. These five picks are about the eighth
of an inch long, and they serve the sea-urchin at once as masticators
and excavating implements. In opening the jaws, these five teeth
strike the stone forcibly rather" than scrape it." This property of
hollowing their dwelling out of the solid rock appears, however, to
belong to only a small number of the Echinidae ; most of them are
ECHINIDJE. 285
content to "hide themselves under the stones, while the species
having the spines slender and the shell very thin bury themselves in
the sand, with which they cover themselves entirely, leaving only a
small hole to breathe through. The species of the genus Spatangus,
which is furnished with short thick-set spines on the under side of
its body, which spread out at their extremities like the channel of
a spoon, proceeds with its mining operations as follows, according
to Mr. Jonathan Franklin : — " Figure to yourself, reader, the animal
on the sea-shore. He commences his operations by turning the
lower spines in such a manner as to form a hollow in the sand-
bank, in which he sinks by his own weight; but as he sinks, a
great number of the spines are brought into action, throwing up the
sand with increased activity, while the sand thrown up, returning
again, soon covers the body of the worker, and it has soon buried
itself beneath the surface. In this situation the long hair-like spines
situated upon the back begin to play their part ; they prevent the
sand from entirely covering the animal, by forming a little round hole,
through which water is introduced to the mouth and respiratory
organs." The hiding-place of the sea-urchin is, however, easily
detected in the sand by the hole thus arranged for the respiration
of the animal, and the fishermen think they can predict storms
according to the depth of the hole.
The Echinidse are reproduced by eggs, which are red and of
almost microscopical dimensions. As it issues from the egg the larval
form has the appearance of a very minute Infusorium. It is not at
once converted into the perfect animal, but undergoes a certain
metamorphosis, analogous to that of the caterpillar into the butterfly.
But, as we have already stated in treating of the Asteridae, it produces,
at a certain stage, by some sort of internal process of germination, a
sea-urchin, which, being at first only an organ of the larval form, begins
to live an independent life when the nursing larval form has destroyed
itself. The manner in which the sea-urchin unfolds itself at the
expense of the larval form is quite analogous to that which is pre-
sented in the case of the Asterias, it is another case of alternate
generation, of which our space does not permit us to give even a
general outline.
Sea-urchins are found in every sea ; they dwell in sandy bottoms,
and sometimes upon rocky ground. They are caught with wooden
pincers when in shallow water j when found at the water's edge they
may be taken by a gloved hand.
The sea-urchin, like the crab, which it also resembles in taste,
becomes red when boiled ; only certain species are comestible,
286 THE OCEAN WORLD.
however. In Corsica and Algeria the melon-shaped urchin (Echinus
meld} is much esteemed. In Naples and in the French ports of the
Channel the Echinus lividus is eaten. In Provence the common sea-
urchin (Echinus esculentus and Echinus granulosus) are the favourites.
Sea-urchins are also eaten raw, like oysters. They are cut in four
parts, and the flesh taken out with a spoon ; they are sometimes, but
more rarely, dressed by boiling, and eaten from the shell like an egg,
using long sippets of bread, hence the name of sea-eggs, which they
bear in many countries.
Sea-eggs were a choice dish upon the tables of the Greeks and
Romans ; they were then served up with vinegar or hydromel, with
the addition of mint or parsley. When Lentulus feasted the priest of
Mars — the Flamen Martialis — this formed the first dish at supper.
Sea-eggs also appeared at the marriage feast of the goddess Hebe.
"Afterwards," says the poet, "came crabs and sea-urchins, which do
not swim in the sea, but content themselves by travelling on the
sandy shore/' For my own part, I have only once partaken of sea-
urchin, and it appeared to me to be food fit for the gods ; but perhaps
the circumstances sufficiently explain this dash of culinary enthusiasm.
The Reserve Restaurant at Marseilles has not always been the vast
stone edifice we now behold, backed majestically by the mountain,
and fronting the sea on the promenade of the Corniche du Prado ; in
1845 it rose Quite at the entrance of the port, a small glass cage,
suspended as it were by a magic thread between the heavens and the
sea. From this aerial dwelling, overhanging with unheard-of audacity
the waters which surrounded it on all sides, we gazed on the most
wonderful prospect in the world, and reposed ourselves, while enjoying
this intoxicating scene, during which the ships were continually enter-
ing the port, passing under our very feet. It was in this enchanted
palace that sea-urchins were served up, supported by the traditional
bouillabaise.
As I have said, it appeared to me delicious. Was it the Provengal
dish, the savoury bouillabaise, which contributed to my appreciation
of the humble sea-urchin of the Mediterranean? Was not the
marvellous view which I enjoyed from the heights of my empyreum
of glass the indirect cause of it ? This is a tender and charming
problem which I love to leave floating in the clouds, half evanescent,
of my youthful recollections.
HOLOTHUROIDE^E.
The ignorant, like you and I, call the Holothurias Sea-cucumbers,
and perhaps, for two reasons, they are not far wrong; The term
HOLOTHVROIDR&.
" sea-cucumber" expresses with wonderful exactness the shape of the
animal, and its habitation, the sea ; and, again, it would puzzle the
most learned to explain the word Holothuria. The body of this
strange creature presents the form of an elongated and worm-like
cylinder ; its dimensions are so variable that, while some species are
only an inch or two in length, others attain thirty and even forty
inches. In general, the skin of the Holothuria is thick and leathery ;
it is provided with muscles, and is armed occasionally with small
projecting hooks or anchors, which enable the creature to hang for a
few seconds on to foreign bodies. From this coriaceous envelope
issue ambulacral feet analogous to those described in the sea-urchins
and sea-stars.
When we open a Holothuria we find nearly the whole internal
cavity occupied with little white tubes. We know that the fabulous
cucumber spoken of in the " Arabian Nights " was stuffed with pearls
by the talking-bird. With our poor animal this, alas ! is not so.
These are no pearls, but simple prosaic caecal tubes. The mouth
opens at the extremity of the body ; it forms a sort of funnel, and is
surrounded like a crown, with an elegant circle of tentacula. In the
living animal, when it feels itself in security, these tentacles expand
themselves like the corolla of a flower. When the fisherman seizes a
Holothuria in the water this crown of tentacles ceases to appear, for
the animal has the power of withdrawing it quite suddenly, and now
it resembles nothing so much as a common leech. If, however, it is
preserved in fresh sea-water, and left in peace — if we treat it, in short,
with the regard due to its elegant crown of tentacles — this elegant
ornament will be expanded in all its glory. Immediately below the
mouth is a muscular pharynx, which is contained in a long intestine,
with many convolutions, which terminate in the posterior part of the
body in an orifice whence is thrown from time to time a little jet of
water. The terminal portion of the intestinal canal in these animals
is enlarged, introducing us to a system of numerous tubes which
branch oft" into the visceral cavity, receiving the water from without
while breathing by its posterior extremity ; the animal can at will
fill this reservoir or eject the water, and it is by these alternate
movements of inspiration and its reverse that it renews the oxygen
necessary for respiration. The circulation appears to form a com-
plete circle, there being no heart or central organ ; but a ring round
the gullet, from which issue five principal nervous chords, represents
the nervous system.
The Holothuria are of separate sexes, and they differ from the sea-
urchins and star-fishes in this : that the ova are developed in many
288
THE OCEAN WORLD.
cases directly into forms like those from which they sprung. The
bodies of certain species are lubricated by an acrid and corrosive
fluid : thus H. Oceania, ' described by Lesson, which is about forty
Fig. 118. — Holothuria lutea (Quoy and Galmard).
inches in length, secretes at the surface of its body an irritating fluid,
which produces an intolerable itching in the finger which touches it.
Nor can the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands look at it without
loathing. Fig. 118 represents H. lutea, or the Stichopus luteus of
Brandt, who describes as its distinctive character three rows of am-
bulacra! feet on the ventral surface,
HOL O THUROIDEM. 2 89
We have spoken of the strange suicidal tendency of the sea-stars :
the Holothuria exhibit the same phenomena, but, having no brittle
envelope like the sea-stars, it cannot break itself into bits in the
presence of its disconcerted enemy ; but kills itself in this manner :
having some cause of grief and trouble — such, for instance, as the
attack of an enemy or the pursuit of some fisherman — by a sudden
and unexpected movement it ejects its teeth, its stomach, its digestive
apparatus, and reduces itself to a simple empty membranous sac,
with an unfurnished mouth ; and, as a singular fact, this empty sac
still shrinks and contracts in the hand which grasps it. It must be
admitted that this is a strange mode of evading its enemies : the
soldier rarely throws his arms away in the moment of danger ! But
the Holothuria possesses a wonderful recuperative power also ; and it
is probably quite conscious, when it thus empties itself to disappoint
its pursuer, that it can promptly replace the organs which it has
voluntarily parted with.
Dr. Johnston relates that he had forgotten for some days to supply
a Holothuria with a change of water. The creature, in consequence,
ejected its tentacles, its buccal apparatus, digestive tubes, and a
portion of its ovaries. Still it was not dead, but was sensible to the
least movement, and lived to reproduce all its organs anew.
The habits of these animals are but little known. They inhabit
the seas, and are spread over every latitude. Their very limited
movements consist in a kind of reptation or crawling motion,
produced by the undulations of their bodies or by the contractions of
their feet. Some few species, however, can glide along very swiftly
and gracefully. Holothuria are generally found in the act of creeping
upon stones or on portions of submarine rock, but always in sheltered
places, for they appear to dread the full blaze of light. They some-
times find themseves caught by fishermen in their nets. If held in
the hand they contract, their bodies become hard and rigid, and the
sea- water with which they are filled is ejected with force. We need
not add that fishermen reject with disdain the Holothuria taken in
their nets ; the sea-cucumber has never been thought worthy of a place
on our tables. " Truth is on this side, error on that/' is a maxim as
true in morals as in cookery. The sea-cucumber, which Europeans
disdain, is a favourite dish among the Chinese. The fishery, pre-
paration of, and transport of these animals to market, plays an
important part in the commerce and industry of the East. One
rather large species, the Holothuria tubulosa, in which, by-the-bye, a
singular parasite fish (Fierasfer Fontanesit) lives, is common in the
Mediterranean. This species is eatable, and much relished a.t
2QO THE OCEAN WORLD.
Naples. In the Ladrone Islands Holothuria guamcnsis is preferred.
But nowhere is the Holothuria esteemed of such importance as in
the Malayan and Chinese seas. In those countries, and on most of
•the shores of the Indian Ocean, the Holothuria edulis, vulgarly called
trepang, is eaten with delight. Thousands of junks are annually
equipped for the trepang fisheries. The Malay fishermen carry to
this fishery a degree of patience and dexterity truly remarkable.
Lying down in the fore part of their vessels, and holding in their
hands a long bamboo terminating in a sharp hook, their eyes,
accustomed to this fishing, frequently discover the animal at a
distance of not less than thirty yards, as it creeps along the surface
of the submarine rocks or corals. The fisher darts his harpoon at
this distance, and seldom misses his prey. When the water is shallow,
that is to say, not more than four or five fathoms deep, divers are
;sent down to obtain these culinary monsters, wrho seize them in their
hands, and in this manner can take five or six at a time. To prepare
•the fish and preserve them for transport to the markets, the Malay
and Chinese fishermen boil them in water, and flatten them with
stones. They are then spread out on bamboo mats to dry ; first in
the sun, and then by smoking them. Thus prepared, they are
enclosed in sacks, and shipped to the Chinese ports, where they are
particularly esteemed. This fishery takes place in the months of
April and May. (PLATE IX. )
In his voyage to the South Pole, Captain Dumont d'Urville, in
traversing the Chinese seas, had an opportunity of assisting at this
fishery, which he has described very graphically. We quote the
passage in which the French navigator relates what he witnessed at
this curious scene. " While the ships were lying quietly at anchor,
we saw," he says, " entering the bay, four Malay proas, bearing
Dutch colours, which dropped their anchors about a cable's length
from Observatory Islet. The padrones or captains of these vessels
soon presented their salutations, and informed me that they had started
from Macassar at the end of October, with the western monsoon,
and that they came to fish for Holothuria (trepang) along the coasts
of New Holland, from Melville Island to the Gulf of Carpentaria,
where the east wind met them, and assisted their return, when they
revisited all the points of the coast, anchoring in every bay where
they hoped to find fish. We were in the first days of April ; the east
monsoon was definitely established ; the Malay fishermen were
returning in their circuit, and in passing, they came to exercise their
industry in Raffles Bay. An hour after their arrival they were all at
work, and the shed for the preparation of their fish was established
HOLOTHURO1DE&. 2Q3
within our view. The roadstead had no longer the aspect of a vast
solitude : wreaths of smoke crowned the summit of Observatory
Island, where, as if by enchantment, several large sheds had sprung
up, while numerous vessels, supplied with divers, were proceeding to
fish for Holothuria, which were passed immediately to the furnaces
erected for curing them. In the course of my voyage I had often
remarked little walls constructed of dry stones, consisting of several
half-circles joined one to the other. I had often, but vainly, tried to
discover the use of these little structures : I was now enlightened.
The Malays arrived. Their boats were scarcely anchored when
several large boilers, in the shape of a half-sphere, the diameter of
which might be about forty inches, were placed upon the stone walls
of which I have spoken, and now served as improvised furnaces.
Near to them are sheds composed of four strong posts driven into
the ground, supporting roofing covered with hurdles, on which it is
probably intended to dry the Holothuria. During their sojourn in
this bay, the fishermen, having fine weather, made no use of these
sheds, having probably only prepared them as a precaution.
" A crowd of men actively employed in building their sheds gave
an unaccustomed appearance to the bay, which could not fail to
attract the savage inhabitants of the mainland. Very soon, indeed,
we could see them hastening from all sides, and nearly all reached the
little island, either by swimming or wading through the sheet of
shallow water which separates it from the mainland. I only saw one
pirogue, made of the bark of a tree badly put together, which gave a
passage to three of these visitors. When night arrived, the Malays
had finished all their preparations ; some of them remained to
guard what they had left on shore, all the others returned to their
boats.
" In the interval, a boat from the Astrolabe being wanted to carry
some visitors from the island, I profited by the occasion to visit one
of the proas, accompanied by M. Roquemauel. We were received
with much politeness, and even cordiality, by the captain or padrone
of the boats. He showed us over his little ship. The keel appeared
to us sufficiently solid ; even the lines did not want elegance ; but
great disorder seemed to reign in the stowage department. From a
kind of bridge, formed by hurdles of bamboos and junk, we saw the
cabin, which looked like a poultry-house ; bags of rice, packets, and
boxes were huddled together. Below was the store of water, of cured
trepang, and the sailors; berths. Each boat was furnished with two
rudders, one at each end, which lifted itself when the boat touched
the bottom. The craft was furnished with two masts, without shrouds,
294 THE OCEAN WORLD.
which could be lowered on to the bridge at will by means of a hinge ;
they carry the ordinary sail ; the anchors are of wood, for iron is
rarely used by the Malays ; their cables are made of ratan fibre ; the
crew of each bark consists of about thirty-seven, each shore-boat
having a crew of six men. At the moment of our visit they were
all occupied in fishing operations, some of them being anchored very
near to us. Seven or eight of their number, nearly naked, were
diving for trepang ; the padrone alone was unoccupied. An ardent
sun darted its rays upon their heads without appearing to incommode
them, an exposure which no European could hold up under. It was
near mid-day, and the moment, as our Malay captain assured us, most
favourable for the fishing. In fact, we saw that each diver returned
to the surface with at least one animal, and sometimes two, in his
hands. It appears that the higher the sun is above the horizon, the
more easily is the creature distinguished at the bottom. The divers
were so rapid in their movements, that they scarcely touched the
boat, into which they threw the animals, before they dived again.
When the boat was filled with them, it proceeded to the shore, and
its place was supplied by an empty one. I followed one of these, to
witness the process of curing which they adopted.
" The Holothuria of Raffles Bay is from five to six inches long;
and about two in diameter ; it is a gross fleshy mass, somewhat
cylindrical in form, but no external organ is visible. The mollusc
glues itself to the rocks at the bottom of the sea, and, as it can only
move very slowly, the Malay divers seize it readily. The greatest
merit of a fisherman is to have a practised eye, to distinguish the
animal at the bottom, and to dive directly to the spot where it lies.
To preserve them, the fishermen throw them, while still living, into a
cauldron of boiling sea water, where they are stirred about by means
of a long pole, which is supported upon another pole fixed in the
earth, but having a forked end, which acts as a lever. In this process
the trepang gives up all the water it contains, and is withdrawn at the
end of two minutes. A man armed with a large knife now extracts
the entrails, and it is thrown into a second cauldron, having only a
small quantity of water, seasoned with mimosa bark. The object of
this second operation is to smoke the animal, in order to preserve it
the better, for the bark is consumed in the process. The trepang is
now placed upon hurdles and dried in the sun. When sufficiently
dried, it is stowed away in the hold of the proa.
" It was about two o'clock in the afternoon when the divers ceased
their labours and came ashore. My tent was soon surrounded. I
recognised the captain of the proa among those who had previously
HOLOTHUR01DE.X. 2$$
visited me. He approached and examined all the instruments used
in the observatory with great attention, seeking to discover their use.
I showed him a gun with percussion cap, which astonished him
greatly, especially when I pointed out to him its great superiority
over the flint-lock. He assured me that these arms were still un-
known in the Celebes, his country ; but he failed to convince me of
that. He questioned me as to the places we had visited, and where
we were going. I endeavoured to sketch a map of New Holland,
New Zealand, and New Guinea upon a leaf. He then took my
pencil, and added to it the Indian Archipelago, the coasts of China
and Japan, and the Philippine Islands. Surprised in my turn, I
asked him if he had visited all these places. He replied in the
negative, but added that he knew their position perfectly, and could
easily take his vessel to any of them. Finally, the interview termi-
nated by his asking for a glass of arrack. I do not know if this
intelligent Malay professed the Mahometan religion, but I do know
that he drank half a bottle of wine and a quarter of a pint of arrack
without being at all the worse for it. He then offered me some pre-
pared trepang, inviting me to taste it, which I did ; to me it appeared
to resemble the lobster in taste. My men liked it, and thankfully
accepted the captain's offer ; for my part, I felt an utter repugnance
even to taste it.
"According to the account I had from the Malay captain, the
price of trepang in the Chinese markets was fifteen rupees (about thirty
shillings) the pekoul, or a hundred and twenty-five pounds. He esti-
mated his cargo to be worth about a hundred and twenty pounds.
The fishing had occupied him and his crew three months. From the
earliest times this commerce has belonged exclusively to the Malay
fishermen, and it will always be difficult for Europeans to compete
with them. The Malay vessels are equipped on the most economical
principle, and the men are wanting neither in sobriety, intelligence,
or activity.
It was nearly four o'clock when the Malays finished their operations.
In less than half an hour they had embarked their cargo ; the tents
were struck, and, together with the boilers, carried back to the boats,
which were already preparing to set sail. At eight o'clock in the
evening they hoisted sail and left the bay."
Some idea may be formed of the extent and importance of the
Holothuria fishing by the number of ships which it attracts in this part
of the East. Captain King assures us that 200 vessels annually
leave Madagascar to fish for the sea slug, as it is sometimes called.
Captain Flinders, being on the coast of Australia, learnt that a fleet
296 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of sixty vessels, having a hundred men on board, had left Madagascar
two months previously in the same pursuit.
Among the Holothuria, one particular genus, Synapta, is distin-
guished from others of the family by the absence of the ambulacral
feet, and by the fact of its uniting both sexes in one individual.
Synapta Duvernaa is represented in PLATE X. M. Quatrefages, who
discovered it in the Channel, gives the following description of it in
his work, " Les Souvenirs d'un Naturaliste." " Imagine," he says, " a
cylinder of rose-coloured crystal, as much as eighteen inches long and
more than an inch in diameter, traversed in all its length by five
narrow ribbons of white silk, and its head surmounted by a living
flower, whose twelve tentacles of purest white fall behind in a graceful
curve. In the centre of these tissues, which rival in their delicacy
the most refined products of the loom, imagine an intestine of the
thinnest gauze gorged from one end to the other with coarse grains of
granite, the rugged points and sharp edges of which are perfectly
perceptible to the naked eye.
" But what most struck me at first in this animal was, that it seemed
literally to have no other nourishment than the coarse sand by which
it was surrounded. And then, when, armed with scalpel and micro-
scope, I ascertained something of its organisation, what unheard-of
marvels were revealed ! In this body, the walls of which scarcely
reach the sixteenth part of an inch in thickness, I could distinguish
seven distinct layers of tissue, with a skin, muscles, and membranes.
Upon the petaloid tentacles I could trace terminal suckers, which
enabled the Synapta to crawl up the 'side of a most highly polished
vase. In short, this creature, denuded to all appearance of every
means of attack or defence, showed itself to be protected by a species
of mosaic, formed of small calcareous shield-like defences, bristling
with double hooks, the points of which, dentated like the arrows of
the Caribbeans, had taken hold of my hands."
If one of these Synapta is preseived alive in sea-water for a short
time, and subjected to a forced fast, a very strange phenomenon will
be observed. The animal, being unable to feed itself, successively
detaches various parts of its own body, which it amputates spon-
taneously. A great compression or ring is first formed, and then the
separation of the condemned part takes place quite suddenly. " It
would appear," says M. Quatrefages, " that the animal, feeling that it
had not sufficient food to support its whole body, was able successively
to abridge its dimensions, by suppressing the parts which it would be
most difficult to support, jus* as we should dismiss the most useless
mouths from a besieged city."
ffOLOTHUROIDE&. 2Q9
This singular mode of meeting a famine is employed by the
Synapta up to the last moment. After a few days, in fact, all that
remains of the animal is a round ball, surmounted by its tentacles.
In order to preserve life in the head, the animal has sacrificed all
the other parts of its body.
In order to find natural novelties, to find unforeseen subjects
of study and reflection, it is not necessary to run over the world or
travel great distances. It is only necessary to visit the banks of the
nearest river, or descend to the sea-shore, and let the sea reveal a
fragment of the marvels which it conceals in its bosom.
300
MOLLUSCA.
THE class Mollusca — pulpy animals — forms a grand division which
naturalists have been pleased to make in the animal kingdom, it
comes immediately below the Vertebrata and above the Annulosa,
which again stand above the Ccelenterata, which includes the polyps,
sea-anemones, hydras, and corals, which last, as we have seen, are
more highly organised than the Protozoa.
The Mollusca may be divided into two groups, the Mollusca
proper and the Molluscoida. The Mollusca proper, as represented
Fig. 119.— P. C. Mollusca.
in Fig. 119, present the following parts, and are supposed to be
bilaterally symmetrical : H, is the haemal parts, in which the heart is
situated, commonly called the dorsal part, although the word is used
in a different sense in different divisions of the animal kingdom. In
the same manner the opposite region (N) is not termed the ventral,
but the neural region, in philosophical anatomy. It is the region in
which the great centres of the nervous system are placed. One
termination (a) is the anterior or oral region ; the other end (/;), the
posterior or anal region ; between these extremities the intestines take
a straight course. The neural surface is that upon which the majority
of molluscs move, and by which they are supported, and it is com-
monly modified to subserve these purposes by the formation of a
MOLLUSCA. 3OI
muscular expansion or disc, called the foot. Three regions, in many
genera very distinctly divided from one another, may be distinguished
in this foot : an anterior, the Propodium (p p); a middle, the Meso-
podium (m s) • and a posterior, the Metapodium (m /). In addition
to these, the upper part of the foot, or middle portion of the body,
may be prolonged into a muscular enlargement on each side, just
below the junction of the haemal with the neural region, this forms
the Epipodium (ep). The mass of the body between the foot proper
and the part of the abdomen which bears the epipodium may be
termed the mid-body, or Mesosoma. On the upper part of the sides
of the head are two pairs of organs, namely, the eyes and the tentacles.
In the haemal region the integument may be modified and raised up
into a fold at the edges, either in front or behind the anus. When so
modified, it is called a mantle, Pallium. In front of the anus, again,
the branchics (t) project as processes of the haemal region. Among
the internal organs, the heart (u v) lies in front of the branchiae in the
haemal regions, the nervous ganglia (x y z), of which there are three
principal pairs, being arranged around the alimentary canal, which
they encircle.
Such is the general type of the class Mollusca, of which, however,
the variations are innumerable. They are all soft-skinned animals,
tvithout either articulated exterior or annulose external skeleton. Their
Vervous system, being without cerebro-spinal axis, is entirely composed
of ganglions, which are all reunited in the oesophagus, without consti-
tuting in any case a lengthened median chain. Their digestive system
is complete — that is, it is provided with two apertures; their principal
organs are symmetrical and according to a plan, usually curving, by
which their bodies are divided into two parts.
The first series or subdivision, to which Milne-Edwards has given
the name of MoUuscoida> includes under that term the Polyzoa and
the Tunicata.
302
CHAPTER X.
MOLLUSCO1DA. — POLYZOA.
THE Bryozoa, or Polyzoa — as British naturalists for good reasons
prefer to call them — form the boundary-line which divides the humble
mollusc from the humbler zoophytes. In consequence of this inter-
mediate organisation, these creatures were long considered as polyps;
but De Blainville, Milne-Edwards, Ehrenberg, and Vaughan Thomp-
son, almost simultaneously began to separate them from the molluscs,
and form them into a separate group. Subsequent naturalists, while
considering the Molluscoida as truly and wholly molluscous, admit
that the distinction proposed by Milne-Edwards, is most important,
and should be retained as a primary subdivision, confining it to those
molluscs which have the neural region comparatively little developed,
and the nervous system reduced to a single or at most a pair of
ganglia, and the mouth surrounded by a more or less perfect circle of
tentacles, an arrangement which would also place the Brachiopoda in
the group Mollusco'ida.
Marine plants are sometimes observed to be quite covered with
velvety parasites, which might at a first glance be mistaken for a sea
moss. This, however, is simply an aggregation of Polyzoa, each of
which has its separate cell, which is placed quite contiguous to its
neighbour.
These little creatures are thus entirely distinct. Each cell is
formed by the integument, which has been encrusted by calcareous
salts, or other organic matter, hardened after the manner of a horn.
This kind of covering protects the animal from the attacks of its
enemies. This mode of retreat at the bottom of a protecting shell is
very frequently adopted in the whole series of molluscs. The oyster
shuts itself up by closing its valves, and the snail retires into its shell.
This assemblage of small cells presented by the Polyzoa has long
been mistaken in some forms at least for Zoantharian corals.
Each animal has its own opening, and is furnished with a dentate,
spinous enclosure, or protected by an operculum or lid ; they present
themselves under every variety of form, sometimes as an assemblage
POLYZOA. 303
of branching tubes, occasionally a rounded mass of spongy appear-
ance, and now as a flat lamelliform inarticulated expansion of cells.
With some of the marine species the shell of the mussel is covered as
with a fine lace.
It is a remarkable fact that these cells are not always inert. They
seem to enjoy some little power of motion. It is well known that
the leaves and branches of the sensitive plant (Mimosa) contract
and expand under the touch of the finger ; the same phenomenon,
according to Mr. Rymer Jones, takes place on touching the cells of
certain species of Polyzoa. The moment they are touched they
quickly incline themselves ; and the movement is immediately com-
municated from one to the other, until all the cells of the community
are in motion.
Returning to the organisation of the little creature which occupies
the cell, it is found that the upper and retractile portion, which is of
extreme delicacy, terminates anteriorly in a circle of long tentacles,
in the centre of which is the mouth. These tentacles are fringed
laterally by a series of vibratile cilia. " When the animal displays
itself," says Fredol, "this circle of microscopic threads of extreme
tenuity first show themselves rising from the summit of the cell ; this
is followed by the upper part of its body, which is more or less
flexible ; the tentacles follow between the threads, pushing them on
one side."
These tentacles are furnished on the back with appendages like
very fine hairs, attached to them nearly at right angles, in addition
to the delicate cilia already spoken of, which play a very important
part in the arrangements of most microscopic animals. At the
moment when the tentacles appear outside the cell, the body of the
animalcule, which has the power of expanding or contracting itself, is
gradually unrolled. It soon spreads out its pretty little arms, the
appendages and cilia beginning their rapid vibrations, until the eye,
deceived by the rapidity and regularity of their movements, is
dazzled, and the beholder begins to think that he sees rosy drops of
dew waving to and fro, twisting and untwisting themselves. The
corpuscles which float round the animal are violently agitated, as if
they were under the influence of some strong breeze. Unhappy,
indeed, is the fate of the unfortunate Infusorium which chance leads
at this moment into the fatal circle.
Darwin, who examined some of these creatures very minutely,
tells us that " several genera (Flustra, Eschara, Cellaria, Cresia, and
others) agree in having singular movable organs attached to their cells.
The organs in the greater number of cases very closely resemble
304 THE OCEAN WORLD.
the head of a vulture ; but the lower mandible can be opened
much wider than a real bird's beak. The head itself possesses con-
siderable powers of movement, by means of a short neck. In one
polyzoon the head itself was fixed, but the lower jaw free ; in another
it was replaced by a triangular hood, with a beautifully-fitted trap-door,
which evidently answered to the lower mandible. In the greater
number of species each cell was provided with one head, but in others
each cell had two.
)o .-"The young cells at the end of the branches of these polyzoa
contain quite immature forms, yet the vulture heads attached to
them, though small, are in every respect perfect. When the animal
was removed by a needle from any of the cells, these organs did not
appear to be in the least affected. When one of the vulture-like
heads was cut off from a cell, the lower mandible retained its power
of opening and closing. Perhaps the most singular part of their
structure is, that when there are more than two rows of cells on a
branch, the central cells were furnished with these appendages of
only one-fourth the size of the outside ones. Their movements
varied according to the species ; but in some I never saw the least
motion, while others, with the lower mandible generally wide open,
oscillated backwards and forwards at the rate of about five seconds
each turn ; others moved rapidly and by starts. When touched with
a needle, the beak generally seized the point so firmly that the whole
branch might be shaken."
Moreover, in fy-esia, Darwin observed that each cell was furnished
with a long-toothed bristle, which had the power of moving very
quickly ; each bristle and each vulture-like head moving quite inde-
pendently of ea'ch other ; sometimes all on one side, sometimes those
on one branch only moving simultaneously, sometimes one after the
other. In these actions we apparently behold as perfect a trans-
mission of will in the polyzoon, though composed of thousands of
distinct animals, as in any individual animal. " What can be more
remarkable," he adds, " than to see a plant-like body producing an
egg, capable of swimming about and choosing a proper place to
adhere to, where it sprouts out into branches, each crowded with
innumerable distinct animals, often of complicated organisation —
the branches, moreover, sometimes possessing organs capable of
movement independent of the animals I"
The prey which is drawn into the vortex by the tentacles and their
cilia enters into the mouth, to which is attached a pharynx, oesophagus,
stomach, and intestines. In the haemal region, not far from the mouth,
there is a special opening for the intestine.
POLYZOA. 3O5
Respiration is provided for in the Polyzoa by the ciliated append-
ages which surround the mouth ; they are at once tentacula and
branchiae. The animal presents no other trace of organs of the
special senses. A small ganglion and a few threads constitute all of
the nervous system which can be traced ; neither heart nor blood-
vessels have been found.
The egg, in the case of the Polyzoa, gives birth to a young animal
covered with cilia on its surface ; it swims about freely until it has
chosen a convenient place in which it can establish the new colony
which it is to originate. At first, the number of the colony is only
increased by budding, but in a short time the individual polyps
produce eggs.
From these remarks it will be seen that the animals of the Polyzoa
are more complex in their form and functions than those of the
Ccelenterata, and the further study of their anatomy confirms this
conclusion. In their case the digestive organs are no longer a
simple sac with a single orifice ; there is a mouth, a pharynx, a gullet,
a gizzard, a membranous stomach and intestines, with a special
opening for these latter. We have descriptions of some species in
which the gizzard seems to be provided with a certain number of
interior teeth, forming a wonderful pavement — a living mill for the
purpose of grinding the food before it enters into the second stomach.
The organisation of this small creature reveals to our eyes a wonderful
amount of combination — of admirable art immeasurably surpassing
all that the most perfect human industry and human genius could
accomplish.
After this general view of the organisation of the group, we shall
proceed to introduce the reader to some of the more characteristic
species.
Under the leaves of water-lilies (Nymphea\ pond-weed (Potamo-
geton), or upon floating fragments of submerged wood, are generally to
be found certain Polyzoa, animals described by Trembley under the
name si plumed polyps. These will probably belong to the genus
Plumatella (Fig. 120). These little diaphanous creatures constitute
colonies which under the microscope resemble small branching
shrubs ; they consist of small slender tubes fastened one to the other,
and having from forty to sixty retractile tentacula, which expand like
the petals of a flower ; they are furnished with vibratile cilia, the move-
ments of which serve the purpose of leading food into the mouth.
Another genus, which is found in ponds in France, and which is
also found in fresh water in Britain, is the Crist at ella of Cuvier.
" Perfect specimens of C. muccdo occur from six lines to twenty-four
306
THE OCEAN WORLD.
in length by two or three in breadth," says Sir J. G. Dalyel, "of a
flattened figure, fine translucent green colour, and fleshy consistence.
Some of the shorter tend to an elliptical form, but those of larger
dimensions are linear, with parallel sides and curved extremities.
The middle of the upper and the whole of the under surface are
smooth, the former somewhat convex, occasioned by a border of
seventy or eighty, even up to 350 individual polypi, dispersed
Fig. 120. — Plumatella cristallina,
magnified (after Allman).
Fig. 121. — Cristatella mucedo (Cuvier)
(after Allman).
in a triple row, their number depending entirely on the size
of the specimen. Each of these numerous polypi, though an
integral portion of the common mass, is a distinct animal, endowed
with separate action and sensation. The body rising about a line
above a tubular fleshy stem, is crowned by a head, which may be
circumscribed by a structure of a horse-shoe shape, and bordered by
a hundred tentacula. Towards one side, the mouth, of singular
mechanism, seems to have projecting lips, and to open as a valve,
which folds up within, conveying the particles which are absorbed to
the wide orifice of the intestinal organ, which descends, forming a
POLYZOA. 307
convolution below ; and returns again, terminating in an excretory
orifice under the base of the tentacula."
The inhabitants of the colony are thus united in great numbers
under one common envelope ; a peculiar downy appearance is pro-
duced by the collection of tentacula belonging to this curious colony.
The filamentous looking mass is the translucent row of cells in which
fjUJ '.>vno^:n
Fig. 122. — Flustra foliacea (Linnaeus).
the polyps are lodged, and to which they retreat when disturbed.
These cells are sometimes free in part, sometimes completely rooted
to the stems of aquatic plants. The tentacles are of a fine transparent
glass colour, the body being of a brown colour. Fig. 121 represents
Cristatella mucedo, which is not uncommon both in this country and
in France.
Most naturalists have now agreed to place among the Polyzoa
308 THE OCEAN WORLD.
all the species of Flustra, of Eschara, and other now well-known
genera.
All the species of the genus Flustra are marine, whose integument
in hardening forms a thin shell of a horny appearance ; their little
cells, more or less horny, are often grouped symmetrically, somewhat
like the cells in a bee-hive. Sometimes they form a crust which
covers algae and other marine bodies ; sometimes they form ribbon-
like stems. In some species the cells are only found on one side ; in
others they occupy both. Their orifices are extremely small, and are
often defended by spines quite microscopic (F. foliacea, Fig. 122).
Their tentacles, like other Polyzoa, are covered with cilia, always
vibratile, disposed in a straight line, which in their movements pro-
duce the effect which a row of animated pearls might be supposed to
produce if rolled upwards from the base to the summit of the organ.
Some species of the genus Eschara form quite shrub-like masses,
calcareous in structure, the polyp cell being imbedded in the mass.
Some of them may be very easily, by superficial observers, mistaken
for species of the Zoantharian genus Millepora, but the structure of
the animal is quite enough to distinguish them. E. cervicornis is
common around the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. As it is
with the corals, so it is here ; each eats for the benefit of itself and
for the community — labour and nutrition for the community, labour
and food for itself.
MOLLUSCOIDA — TUNICATA.
On seeing one of the Tunicata for the first time, a stranger to
zoology would scarcely take them for animals at all. Almost always
attached to submarine rocks, these beings have the form of a simple
sac. Their skin, gelatinous, or horny, is at times covered over with
marine plants and polyps. They have neither arms, nor feet, nor
head; but then they have a mouth, placed at the entrance of a
digestive tube, and, in connection with the latter, a special opening
intended for the excreta. The mouth is at the bottom of a great cavity,
the walls of which are covered with blood-vessels ; for this cavity is
the seat of respiration, and is covered with vibratile cilia. Thus the
same canal serves first for respiration, and then, as an entrance to the
cavity for digestion, anotner instance of the economy of Nature.
Another remarkable fact in connection with their circulation is found :
their heart is the centre of a well -developed vascular system, but
unlike what is usually found in animals, the blood which traverses it
takes such a course that, in the space of a few minutes, the auricle
and ventricle of the heart become changed into ventricle and auricle
TUNICA TA.
309
respectively, at the same time the arteries are changed into veins and
the veins into arteries, and this in consequence of the current which
traverses these canals changing its direction after certain contractions
of the heart.
Simple as is their organisation, the Tunicata have a nervous system.
It is a single ganglion, connected with divers small threaids. The
organs of sensation present themselves in a very rudimentary fashion,
Fig. 123. — Ascidia microcosmus (Cuvier).
for after very minute search, eyes have been found. The Tunicates
are propagated by budding, and also from eggs. The young are
subject to some very curious metamorphoses, some particulars of
which will be given farther on.
Some species of the Tunicates are free, some are united to others
in a manner more or less intimate. Hence their division into the
three groups of simple, social, and compound Tunicates.
The genus Ascidia is one of the best known among the simple
Tunicates. The term is derived from the Greek word ao-/a5iW,
leather bottle, and it has, as indicated by the name, the shape of a
bottle or purse. The analogy becomes more evident when it is con-
sidered that these creatures are habitually filled with water, which
can be expelled by very slight pressure.
Simple Tunicates attach themselves, each individual singly, to
THE OCEAN WORLD.
rocks and other marine bodies, and generally at a fixed depth. Asddia
microcosmus, a Mediterranean species, represented in Fig. 123, may
be given as an example of this division of Tunicates. The name of
microcosmus, or the little world, is probably given to the species from
its being inhabited by quite
an animated colony of algae
and corals, which dwell
upon its surface, and give
it a very peculiar, but not
very attractive, appearance.
The flavour of these mollus-
coids is very strong, which
does not, however, hinder
the poorer dwellers on the
sea-shore from eating them.
Phalhisia is another genus
of the group. Phalhisia
grossularia is of a reddish
colour, and about the size
of a currant-berry : it usually
lodges itself in the oysters
of certain localities. At
Ostend another species,
Phallusia ampulloides, is
found in prodigious quan-
tities in the oyster parks,
and is parasitic on living
lobsters.
Social Tunicates em-
brace such forms as are
connected together by a
common stoloniferous pro-
longation, but remain free
and unconnected in all
other respects. Asddia
pedunculata (Fig. 124) may
be given as an example.
Fig. 124. — Ascidia pedunculata (Milne-Edwards).
The Composite Tunicates are still more intimately associated
together ; a great number of these little beings living together in a
single mass. Such are the many species of such genera as Botryllus
and Pyrosoma.
Botryllus is a genus perhaps the most interesting of all those under
TUN I CAT A. 31 f
consideration. Only imagine from ten to twenty individuals, oval in
form, more or less flattened, adhering by their dorsal surface to some
submarine body, and connected together by their sides, so as to be
shaped into the form of a star. "When we excite one of the rays,"
says Fredol, " a single mollusc contracts itself; when we touch the
centre, they all seem to contract themselves (Cuvier). The buccal
orifices are at the circumference of the star, but the intestinal ter-
minations abut upon a common cavity, which occupies the centre of
the star. Here we behold certain animals which eat separately, but
which fulfil together as a community very singular functions — a kind
of union and communism of which the moral world presents no
prototype. With our molluscs we have a score of individuals united.
We may consider the entire star as one single animal with many
mouths. But, then, we have with it a luxury of organs for the
function of intelligence which seeks and chooses, and parsimony of
the organ of stupidity, which neither seeks nor chooses."
While the species of the genus Botryllus are fixed and adherent,
those of the genus Pyrosoma, on the contrary, are oceanic. The animal
colony which constitutes it floats and balances itself upon the waters,
being capable of fully contracting and dilating itself.
The name Pyrosoma has been given to these animals in con-
sequence of their brilliant phosphorescent properties. According to
the observations of Pe'ron and Lesueur, nothing can exceed the
brilliant and dazzling light emitted in the bosom of the ocean by these
animals. From the manner in which the colonists dispose themselves,
they form occasionally long trains of fire ; but it is a singular fact that
this phosphorescence presents the same curious characteristics that
are seen in the play of colours caused by the rapid movements of the
cilia of the Beroe ; namely, that the colours vary instantaneously,
passing with wonderful rapidity from the most intense red to yellow,
from golden colour to orange, to green, or to azure blue. Von
Humboldt saw a flock of these brilliant living colonies floating by the
side of his ship, and projecting circles of light having a radius of not
less than twenty inches in diameter. He could see by this light the
fishes which followed the ship's track, during many nights, at the
depth of from two to three fathoms.
Bibra, a Brazilian navigator, having caught six Pyrosoma, employed
them to light up his cabin. The light produced by these little
creatures was so bright, that he could read to one of his friends the
description he had written of these his living torches.
Several species of Pyrosoma are known ; P. elegans, about two
or three inches in length, inhabits the Mediterranean ; P. giganteum
312 THE OCEAN WORLD.
is also found in the same sea. It is a long bluish cylinder shape
bristling with bracts, at the base of each of which is the abode of a
polyp, a citizen of this moving republic, which is attached to its
colleagues by means of its gelatinous envelope, an alliance imposed
by inexorable Nature.
Another species, P. atlanticum, was discovered by Peron and
Lesueur in the equatorial seas.
These curious Tunicates grow in such a manner as to constitute a
long fine cylindrical tube, closed at one end and open at the other. By
the contraction and dilatation of the mass of beings, this great cylinder
swims slowly through the open sea, lighting up the ocean with its
phosphorescent light, shining through the water like a glowing fire.
Mr. Bennett thus describes the phenomenon presented by these
creatures. " On the 8th of June, being then in lat. 30° S. and 27°
5' W. long., having fine weather and a fresh south-easterly trade-wind,
and the thermometer ranging from 78° to 84°, late at night the mate
of the watch called me to witness a very unusual appearance in the
water. This was a broad and extensive sheet of phosphorescence
extending from east to west as far as the eye could reach. I
immediately cast the towing net over the stern of the ship, which
soon cleaved through the brilliant mass, the disturbance causing
strong flashes of light to be emitted, and the shoal, judging from the
time the vessel took in passing through the mass, may have been a
mile in breadth. On taking in the towing-net, it was found half filled
with Pyrosoma atlanticum, which shone with a beautiful pale greenish
light. After the mass had been passed through by the ship, the
light was still seen astern, until it had became invisible in the
distance, and the ocean became hidden in the darkness as before
this took place.
" The second occasion of my meeting these creatures was in a
high latitude, and during the winter season. It was on the iQth of
August, the weather dark and gloomy, with light breezes from north-
north-east, in lat. 40° 30' S., and 138° 3' E. long., at the western en-
trance to Bass's Straits, and about eight o'clock P.M., when the ship's
wake was perceived to be luminous, while scintillations of the same
light were abundant all round. To ascertain the cause, I threw the
towing-net overboard, and in twenty minutes succeeded in capturing
several Pyrosoma, which gave out their usual pale green light ; and
it was, no doubt, detached groups of these animals which were the
occasion of the light in question. The beautiful light given out by
these molluscans soon ceased to be seen ; but by moving them about
it could be reproduced for some length of time after. The luminosity
TUNICA TA.
313
of the water gradually decreasecFduring^the night, and towards morn-
ing was no longer seen."
Salpa (Fig. 125) forms another most interesting genus of
Tunicata ; it contains forms presenting the appearance of long
transparent masses of the most delicate tissue, composed of rows of
individuals placed side by side, and grafted, as it were, transversely —
ribbons, in which each animal is grafted end on end to its sister —
double parallel chains of social creatures, sometimes alternate, some-
times opposite \ living chaplets, of which each pearl is an individual.
Each individual presents an oblong diaphanous or prismatic body,
more or less symmetrical, and often furnished in front, rarely behind,
with tentaculiform appendages. So great is their transparency, that
Fig. 125. — Salpa maxima, magnified (Forsk.).
the various organs may be observed through the skin as they perform
their several functions.
Momus, an ancient philosopher, thought it a subject of regret that
Nature had not thought of piercing the body with an opening suffi-
ciently large for each one to see what was passing in the interior.
The creature which now occupies our attention would surely have
satisfied the demands of the philosopher — its body is, metaphorically
speaking, a house of glass.
In order to move itself about the Salpa introduces water into its
body through a posterior opening, furnished with a valve, which it
expels by an anterior outlet situated near the mouth. It is thus
pushed backwards, and swims, as it were, by recoil. Moreover, it
swims with its ventral surface upwards. All the zooid forms of a
chain of Salpa act in concert ; they contract and dilate simultaneously ;
they advance as a single individual. They often float on the surface
3r4 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of the sea with the undulations of a serpent, so that among sailors
they have gained the appellation of sea-serpents. These long living
trains abound in the Mediterranean, principally towards the African
coast and in the equatorial seas, and they are often met with on the
south-western shores of Ireland. They are inhabitants of the open
sea, and live immersed at considerable depths ; but when the nights
are calm they show themselves on the surface. As they spread
126. - Phosphorescent chain of Salpas on the surface of the sea.
themselves abroad, and set aglow their strong phosphorescent light
they resemble long ribbons of fire, unrolling their long waving lines
in spite of the waves, as in Fig. 126. What wonders they see who
go down into the great deep ! What sights are reserved for the
navigator who traverses the semi-tropical seas during the silence of
night !
When a chain of Salpa is drawn from the water, the zooid forms
separate, and they can no longer be made to adhere. The social
bond has been dissolved.
Salpae are sometimes met with, isolated and solitary, whose
exterior conformation differs much from that which is proper to the
TUN 1C AT A. 315
connected Salpa ; so different, indeed, that it might well appear to
belong to another type. Chamisso, Krohn, and Milne-Edwards have
ascertained that the Salpa undergoes what is called an alternation of
generation, the young creature being unlike its immediate parent.
One of these generations is represented by the solitary individuals,
the other by the aggregation of individuals. Each solitary Salpa
engenders a new form, which is the chained form; whereas each
constituted member of the chain engenders a solitary Salpa.
Thus a Salpa is not organised like its mother or daughter, but
rather like its sister, its grandmother, or granddaughter — another
example of alternate generation, which has already been discussed in
treating of some of the Hydrozoa.
These marine creatures, which pass their lives in a forced com-
munity— animals which eat, sleep, or rest always in company — who
abandon themselves together to the soft caresses of the waves — these
colonies, or rather republics of animals, leading constantly the same
monotonous existence — reveal to us very strange things : an identical
community of sentiments in a crowd of beings riveted by the same
chain, a chain at once physical and intellectual
CHAPTER XL
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA.
"Sigillatim mortales, cunctum perpetui." — APULEIUS.
THE Mollusca proper were divided by Cuvier into five great sub-
classes : — i. Lamellibranchiata, or Acephalous Mollusca, often called
Conchifera. 2. Brachiopoda. 3. Gasteropoda. 4. Pteropoda
5. Cephalopoda.
The name Mollusca indicates the characters of this class which
most struck the ancients : they are soft — in Latin, mollis : their flesh
is cold, humid, and viscous. In consequence of their very softness,
they are generally furnished with an apparatus of defence, or protec-
tion, in the shape of a calcareous covering, called a shell. According
to the species this test may represent a coat of mail, a buckler, or a
tower. The mollusc is thus armed and defended against all attacks
from without, nearly after the manner of a knight of the middle ages ;
only the knight was not quite shut up in his armour, while the mollusc
is attached to it by indissoluble organic bonds. " Such a life and
such a habitation!" says Michelet. "In no other creature is there
the same identity between the inhabitant and the nest. Drawn from
its own substance, the edifice is the continuation of its fleshy mantle.
It follows its form and tints. The architect has communicated its
own substance to the edifice."
The shell of the Mollusca has been variously accounted 'or by
naturalists. " We might regard the shell as the bone of the i nimal
which occupies it," says a celebrated French naturalist ; and then he
gives expression to a very different view. " We may say as a general
thesis that testaceous molluscs are animals with whom ossification is
thrown out on the external surface in place of the interior, as in the
mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes. In the case of the superior
animals the bones lie in the depths of the body; in the shelled
Mollusca the bones are placed on the superficies. It is the same
system reversed."
Other zoologists reject as altogether untenable both these com-
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
parisons. "The shell which serves as a dwelling and a shelter
cannot," say these authors, " be considered as a skeleton, because
it does not assume the external form of the animal ; because it does
not attach itself to the organs of locomotion ; and, finally, because
it is the product of secretion, which increases in proportion to the
development of the body itself." The last two reasons appear to us
to be the most acceptable.
However that may be, from the immense variety of form and
size, from the beauty and brilliancy of their colours, the shells of the
molluscs are among the most attractive objects of natural history.
Nor is it from their beauty alone that a fine collection of shells
becomes interesting : a living creature has inhabited the shell, a
creature which in its organisation and its life, above all, by its habits,
excites in a high degree our interest, curiosity, and admiration. It
has been said that the shell " is like a medal struck by the hand of
Nature to commemorate climates." In short, the waters of different
regions of the globe, whether fresh or salt, are characterised by the
presence of particular shells ; moreover, the comparison of living
shells with those which lie in a fossilised state buried in the depths
of the soil is a most important element of our knowledge touching the
origin of the different beds out of which our globe is constituted.
Thus, we must not shut our eyes to these beings, in appearance
so miserable and obscure, if we would possess a general knowledge
of the animal kingdom. The Creator has endowed them with many
wonderful gifts to embellish their lives, and who would dare to
disregard them ? Who could examine and compare their structure
without being charmed with the study ? Man, who descends into
the depths of the earth in search of the precious metals — who dives
into the deep in pursuit of the treasures it conceals — who stoops his
head over works of art — would surely not refuse to bend himself for
a moment to the sand of the sea, to gather in his hand, to bring
nearer to his eyes these marvellous works of the Divine Creator to
be found thereon !
ACEPHALA.
We have seen that the Mollusca proper have been divided by
Cuvier into five sub-classes — the first of these is called Acephala.
The Acephalous or Headless Molluscs are so called from the
Greek &, privative, and Kffya^, head. They have no head ; the body
is surrounded by the folds of the mantle ; the shell consists of two
valves. Such is a summary description of all the Acephalous
Molluscs. They are sometimes partially naked, but are for the most
THE OCEAN WORLD.
part enclosed in a shell, whence they are known as Testaceous
Molluscs. They are called bivalves, because their shell consists of
two halves, or valves united by a hinge. They are sheltered in this
double shell as a book is in its cover.
Although they have no head, they can feed themselves, and they
reproduce their kind. They have friendships and enmities, perhaps
even passions — probably these are not very lively, for most of them
scarcely ever change their place, or even make the least movement ;
many of them remain fixed to the rock on which they were hatched,
and tumultuous sensations are not quite compatible with immobility.
The bivalves * are found in every sea. The shells of the bivalve
are ovoid, globulous, trigonal, heart-shaped, elongated like a pea-pod,
or flat like the leaves of a tree. In some one valve is flat, the other
round and swelling in the centre. The shell is thus an outer
envelope, consisting of two pieces, more or less corresponding to
each other in size and shape (of which the oyster is an example),
formed of carbonate of lime deposited in membranous cells in its
outer layers, the inner layers being composed of thin coatings of
lime deposited in the outer surface of the mantle. The valves are
united to the animal by the insertion into them of certain muscles,
and the mantle-lobes stretch over to the edges of the valves. The
ligament which unites the two valves consists of a dense elastic
substance, somewhat resembling india-rubber ; the hinge is formed
of teeth in one valve and cavities in the other into which these
teeth fit. The ligament acts in opposition to certain contractile
muscles within, which draw the valves together, and is placed either
within or without the hinge, or partly both. On separating the
valves, the two folds of the mantle present themselves as thin
delicate lamellae or leaves furnished at the margin with sensitive
tentacles and other organs of sense, and with glands sometimes
highly coloured. The use of these organs is thus described by
Mr. Rymer Jones : —
" When the animal is engaged in increasing the dimensions of its
abode, the margin of the mantle is protruded and firmly adherent
all round to the circumference of the valve with which it corresponds.
Thus circumstanced, it secretes calcareous matter and deposits it
upon the extreme edge of the shell, when the secretion hardens and
becomes converted into a layer of solid testaceous substance. At
intervals this process is repeated, and every newly-formed layer
* The term bivalve, as constituting a class, must be taken in a limited sense,
for several genera, as Pholas for example, have al^o accessory valves.
. BIVALVE MOLLUSCA. 319
enlarges the diameter of the valve. The concentric strata thus
deposited remain distinguishable externally, and thus the lines of
growth marking the progressive increase of size may easily be traced."
"While the margin of the mantle is thus the sole agent in
enlarging the circumference of the shell," the author continues
farther on, " its growth in thickness is accomplished by a secretion
of a kind of calcareous varnish derived from the external surface of
the mantle generally, which, being deposited layer by layer over the
whole interior of the previously existing shell, progressively adds to
its weight and solidity. There is, however, a remarkable difference
in character between the material secreted by the marginal fringe
and that furnished by the general surface of the mantle membrane.
The former we have found more or less covered by glands appointed
for the purpose, situated in the circumference of the mantle ; but as
these glands do not exist elsewhere, no colouring matter is ever
mixed with the layers that increase the thickness of the shell, so that
the latter always remain of a delicate whitish hue, and form the well-
known iridescent material usually distinguished by the name of
nacre or mother-of-pearl."*
The process by which shells attain their beautiful markings is
thus described by Mr. Rymer Jones : — " The external surface is
exclusively deposited by the margin of the mantle, which contains
in its substance certain coloured spots, which are found to be of a
glandular character, and to owe their peculiar character to a pigment
they secrete, which is mixed with the calcareous matter ; coloured
lines are therefore found on the exterior of the shell wherever these
glandular organs exist. Where the deposition of colour is kept up
throughout the process of enlargement, the lines are unbroken and
perfect ; but where the coloured matter is furnished only at intervals,
spots and patches of irregular form and increasing in size with the
enlargement of the mantle are the consequence."
Many bivalves move about and change from place to place by
means of an extensible fleshy organ called, from some of its functions,
a foot ; but in fact, it has less resemblance to a foot than to a large
tongue. It is a muscular mass, capable of being pushed out from
between the mantle lobes and the valves, and varies much in form ;
it resembles in turn a hatchet, a ventilator, a pole, an awl, a finger,
and a sort of whip. This foot is simple, forked, or fringed. In
some species the tissues of the foot are spongy, and capable ol
receiving considerable quantities of water. When the organ swells.
* "(General Outline of the Animal Kingdom,'' p. 385.
320 THE OCEAN WORLD.
it is elongated and stiff; on the other hand, by suddenly expelling
all the water, it gets small and pliable, and can now return to its
shell. This organ is represented in Fig. 127 (Donax truuculus,
Linn.), in which it is singularly well developed. This bivalve is
found on the sea-shore in shallow water ; it buries itself almost per-
pendicularly in the sands. They are so abundant on the French
side of the Channel and on the shores of the Mediterranean, that
they form a considerable portion of the people's food. These bivalves
have the singular power of leaping to a considerable height and
then throwing themselves to a distance of ten or twelve inches — a
spectacle which may be witnessed any day at low water. When
abandoned by the retreating tide, they try to regain the sea. If
seized by the hand, in order to drag them out of the sand, aided by
their compressed, branched, and angular feet, they give to their shell
Fig. 127.— Donax trunculus (Linnseus).
the sudden and energetic movement under which the bounding action
takes place. The shell of the genus Donax is slightly triangular and
compressed ; its length exceeds its height ; it is regular, univalve,
unequally lateral, and its hinge bears three or four teeth on each
valve. The action of these feet is very simple, and is compared by
Reaumur to that of a man placed on his belly, who, stretching out
one hand, seizes upon some fixed object, and draws himself towards
it. There is just this difference, that the movement of the member
in the mollusc is altogether contractile.
Authors have described more than 4,000 species of bivalve mol-
luscs, so that our space only permits us to describe a few families, or
rather types of families.
The arrangement of bivalves now most generally adopted in
England is that of the late Mr. Woodward, as developed in the last
edition of his manual of the mollusca ; it is greatly based on that
of Lamarck. We have adopted his arrangement altered from a
descending to an ascending scale of organisation.
The Lamellebranchiata, so called from the leaf-like form assumed
BIVALVE A10LLUSCA. $21
by the branchiae, is divisible into two sections, the Siphonida, from
the animals having respiratory siphons, and the Asiphonida, which are
destitute of them.
The genus Mya may be taken as a type of the first, and the oyster
of the second. The division Siphonida is divided into two sub-
sections, those without and those with a pallial line sinuated. The
first family of this latter section is the Pholadidae, which includes the
genera Teredo, Xylopagha, and Pholas, animals which possess extra-
ordinary powers of boring, not merely through sand, but through the
hardest rocks.
The genus Teredo consists of marine animals having a special and
irresistible inclination for submerged wood ; for while wood exposed
to the air becomes a prey to terrestrial animals, so submerged wood
is subject to invasion by aquatic animals, of which the Teredo is by
far the most formidable. The Teredo in the bosom of the ocean
perforates the hardest timbers, whatever be their hardness. The
galleries bored by these imperceptible miners riddle the whole interior
of a piece of wood, destroying it entirely, without the slightest external
indication of its ravages. The galleries sometimes follow the grain of
the wood, sometimes they cut it at right angles ; the miners, in fact,
change their route the moment they meet in their way either the
furrows hollowed out by one of their congeners, or some ancient and
abandoned gallery. By a strange kind of instinct, however multiplied
may be their furrows or tubes in the same piece of wood, they never
mingle — there is never any communication between them. The wood
is thus attacked at a thousand diverse points, until it is invaded, and
its entire substance destroyed. It is by secret ravages of this kind
that the piles and other submarine constructions upon which bridges
are built are often riddled and perforated. They appear to all out-
ward examination as solid and perfect as at the moment they were
first driven ; but they yield to the least effort, bringing ruin and
destruction on the edifices they support. Ships have been thus
silently and secretly mined, until the planks crumbled into dust under
the feet of the sailors. Others have gone down with their crews,
their destruction being entirely caused by the ravages of these relent-
less enemies, which are terrible from their unapproachable littleness.
M. Quatrefages, who has minutely studied the organisation and
habits of the Teredos in the Port of St. Sebastian, reports the following
fact, which will give the reader some idea of the rapidity with which
these dangerous molluscs pursue their ravages : —
" A boat, which served as a passage-boat between two villages on
the coast, went down in consequence of an accident at the commence-
L
322
THE OCEAN WORLD.
ment of spring. Four months after some fishermen, hoping to turn her
materials to advantage, raised the boat. But in that short space of
time the Teredos had committed such ravages that the planks and
timbers were riddled and worm-eaten so as to be totally useless."
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, half the coast of
Holland was threatened with annihilation because the piles which
support its dikes and sea-walls were attacked by a
species of Teredo ; and it proved no contemptible
foe. Many hundreds of thousands of pounds were
expended in order to avert the threatened danger.
Fortunately, a closer attention to the habits of the
molluscs has brought a remedy to a most formidable
evil ; the mollusc has an inveterate antipathy to iron
rust, and timber impregnated by the oxide of iron is
safe from its ravages. The taste of the Teredo being
known, it is only necessary, in order to avoid this
dangerous mollusc, to sink the timber which is to be
submerged in a tank of prepared oxide of iron —
clothed, in short, in a thick cuirass of that antipathy
of the Teredo, iron rust. Ships' timbers are also
covered with the same protecting coating ; but the
copper in which ships' bottoms are usually sheathed
serves the same purpose.
The singular Acephalous Mollusc, known to natu-
ralists as the Teredo navalis, and popularly as the Ship
Worm, has the appearance of a long worm without
articulations. Between the valves of a little shell, with
which it is provided anteriorly, may be seen a sort
of smooth rim, which surrounds a swelling projecting
pad or cushion. This cushion is the only part of the
body of the animal which can be regarded as a foot.
Starting from this point, all the body of the Teredo
is enveloped by the shell and mantle, the latter of
which forms a sort of sheath communicating by two siphons with
the exterior (Fig. 128).
The mantle adheres to the circumference of the shell. The tissue
of the mantle is of a greyish tint, very light, and transparent enough,
especially in the young, to permit of the mass of the liver, the ovary,
the branchiae, and the heart being distinguished in the interior, even
to counting the pulsations of the latter. The siphons are extensile, and
attached the one to the other for about two-thirds of their length.
It is by these tubes that the aerated water enters which feeds the
Fig. 128.
feredo navalis
(Linnaeus).
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 323
animal and enables it to breathe. It is discharged by the second
tube, when deprived of its oxygen and no longer respirable, carrying
with it also the useless products of digestion. This movement is
continuous ; but from time to time the animal shuts at once the
orifices of both tubes, and slightly contracts itself.
The shell, seen on the side, presents an irregularly triangular
form ; it is nearly as broad as it is long ; its two valves are solidly
attached the one to the other above and below by the mantle, in
such a manner as only to permit of very slight movements. It is
coloured in yellow and brown lines ; sometimes it is quite plain. On
the upper edge of the anterior portion of the body of the animal is
the mouth, a sort of funnel, flat and slightly bell-shaped, furnished
with four labial palpi, a stomach without any peculiar feature, and a
well-developed intestine.
The heart consists of two auricles and a ventricle, which beat at
very irregular intervals, four or five in the minute. The blood is
colourless, transparent, and charged with small irregular corpuscles.
The act of breathing is accomplished in the branchiae, or gills.
Nevertheless, the one half of the blood returns to the heart without
passing through these branchiae.
The nervous system is well developed, and consists of nervous
filaments, and of ganglions, which are distributed to the mantle, the
branchiae, the foot, and the siphon tubes.
The adult animal is surrounded by a sort of sheath, consisting of
a solid shelly coat, which has sometimes been described, erroneously,
as forming part of the animal. The Teredo, shut up in this tube, is
limited in its movements ; when observed in a vase, its motions are
slow and deliberate — movements of extension and contraction, by
the aid of which it contrives with difficulty to exchange its place ;
but nothing indicates a true creeping movement In a state of
nature, according to M. Quatrefages, the body of the animal is-
stretched out to three times its length without diminishing in any
respect its proportional thickness ; the afflux of water penetrating
under the mantle, and of the blood which accumulates in the interior
vessels, sufficiently accounting for a phenomenon which at the first
glance is very singular.
The Teredo lays a spherical greenish-yellow egg. Shortly after
fecundation, these eggs are hatched. At first naked and motionless,
these larvae are soon covered with vibratile cilia, when they begin to~
move, at first by a revolving pirouette, afterwards swimming about
freely in the water. When one of these larvae has found a piece of
submerged wood, without which it probably could not live, the1
THE OCEAN WORLD.
curious spectacle is observed of a being which fabricates, step by
step and as it requires them, the organs necessary for the performance
of its functions. It begins by creeping along the surface of the wood
by means of the very long tubes with which it is furnished. Then it is
observed from time to time to open and shut the valves of the little
embryo shell which partly envelopes it. As soon as it has found a
part of the wood sufficiently soft and porous for its purpose, it pauses,
attacks the ligneous substance, and soon produces a little depression
or opening, which will be the entrance to the future tunnel.
Once fairly lodged in this little opening, the young Teredo is
rapidly developed ; it covers itself with a coating of mucous matter,
which, condensing by degrees, assumes a brownish tint, forming a
solid covering, with two small holes for the passage of the siphon
tubes. At the end of three days this covering has become quite
solid ; it is the commencement of the calcareous tube, in which the
animal is to attain its full size. When secured beneath this opaque
screen, the little miner is no longer exposed to observation ; but
if his cell is opened at the end of a few days, it is found that it has
secreted a shell, larger and more solid than the original one ; and
this is the shell of the adult animal.
The young Teredo, which feeds on the raspings of the wood,
increases rapidly; it passes first from a spheroid form to an elongated
shape, and when its body can no longer be contained in the shell, it
projects beyond the edge, and would find itself naked were it not
protected by its membranous sheath, which adheres to the walls of the
ligneous channel, now the dwelling-place of the animal.
The process by which a creature soft and naked like the Teredo
should break into a solid piece of the hardest wood so quickly, and
destroy it with so much facility, was long a mystery. Until very
recently, the shell was looked on as the implement of perforation.
But in that case the shell should preserve certain traces of its action
upon surfaces so resistant as oak and fir ; but the shell, on the con-
trary, is in such cases perfect, with no signs of friction. On the other
hand, the muscular apparatus of the Teredo is not well calculated to
put the shell into rotatory action, were the process a boring one. It
does not seem therefore possible to attribute these perforations to a
simple physical action.
Some naturalists have suggested, in explanation of this phenomenon,
that the animal is furnished with the means of secreting a liquid
capable of dissolving the woody fibre. This has been met by the
statement that, in whatever way the wood is attacked, whether the
gallery is excavated with or across the fibre of the wood, the groove
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 325
is as exactly and neatly cut as if it had been perforated by the
sharpest tool, and that a corroding dissolvent could not act with this
regularity, but would attack the harder and more tender parts un-
equally. This objection, which M. Quatrefages opposes to the idea
of a chemical solvent, appears to us to admit of no reply. But,
Fig. 129. — Pholas dactylus having hollowed out a shelter in a block of gneiss
while opposing unassailable reasons against the two theories, M.
Quatrefages does not leave us without a reasonable explanation of a
very puzzling phenomenon. " Let us not forget," he says, " that
the interior of the gallery is constantly saturated with water ; conse-
quently all the points of the walls which are not protected by the
tube are subjected to constant maceration. In this state a mechanical
action, even though inconsiderable, would suffice to clear away the bed
of fibre thus softened, and, if this action is in any degree continuous.
326
THE OCEAN WORLD.
it suffices to explain the excavation of the galleries, however extensive
their ramifications. ^ Again, the upper cutaneous folds, especially the
cephalic hood, having the power of expanding at will by an afflux of
blood, being covered with a thick coriaceous epidermis, and moved
by four strong muscles, seems to me very capable of performing the
operation. It appears very probable that it is this hood which is
charged with the removal of the woody fibre, rendering it incapable
of resistance by previous maceration, which may also be assisted by
some secretion from the animal." That the fleshy parts of the mollusc,
acting upon the surface, softened
by long maceration in water, is
the true boring implement em-
ployed by the Teredo, is, pro-
bably, the only explanation the
case admits of ; at all events, in
the present state of our know-
ledge, the explanation of this
naturalist is the most reasonable
which can be given.
The engraving (Fig. 129) re-
presents Pholas dactylus, which
has hollowed itself a home out of
a block of gneiss. This dwelling
is a cell just deep enough to con-
tain the animal and its shell
(Fig. 130). To excavate its cell
at the bottom of one of these
gloomy retreats seems to be all
that the animal lives for. To
ascend to the summit or sink to
the bottom of their narrow house
makes up all the accidents of existence to these strange creatures :
the hole they dig is at once their dwelling and their grave ; which
fact is attested both by the rocks of the past and the present.
In its structure the shell of this genus differs notably from other
Acephalous Molluscs, which led Linnaeus to place it in a section
which he made of multivalve shells. Between the two ordinary
valves, in short, this shell presents certain accessory pieces, smaller
than the true valves, and placed near the hinge, as represented in
Pholas dactyhis (Fig. 129), pieces which would not be there without
a purpose.
The shell is equivalve, gaping on each side, swelling below, very
Fig. 130. — Pholas dactylus (Linnaeus).
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 327
thin, transparent, and white. The animal has a thick, white,
elongated, fleshy body ; its mouth opening anteriorly, throws out a
long tube traversed by two canals or siphons, through one of which
the water necessary for the respiration of the animal is absorbed, and
ejected through the other. Through another opening in the mantle
a very thick and short foot is protruded.
In three ways also has this creature's method of boring been ac-
counted for — the mechanical, the chemical, and the electrical; the first
being the one generally held. In this case it is supposed that the animal
uses its foot as a boring tool. The second presumes on the Pholas
secreting an acid which corrodes the rock ; the third that it possesses
Fig. 131. — Pholas crispata (Linnaeus).
a galvanic battery with similar powers. It is not impossible but that
all these three theories may have a measure of truth. That the foot
of the borer is used is clear. The luminosity which is so characteristic
of the animal is in favour of an electric current, which is almost
always accompanied by chemical decomposition, which would set
free the hydrochloric acid of the sea water. The small size of the
entrance to the chambers of the Pholas is accounted for by the
increase of its size during its residence there. De Blainville thought
that a simple movement of the shell incessantly repeated would suffice
to pierce the stone, macerated by the sea water which passed through
the breathing apparatus.
Mr. Robertson, of Brighton, exhibited the living Pholas in the act
of boring through masses of chalk, and thinks the process entirely
328
THE OCEAN WORLD.
effected by the simple mechanical action of the " hydraulic apparatus,
rasp, and syringe."
" If you examine the living molluscs," says Gosse, " you will see
that the fore part of the shell, where the foot protrudes, is set with
stony points arranged in transverse and longitudinal rows, the former
being the result of elevated ridges, radiating from the hinge, the latter
that of the edges of successive growths of the shell. These points
have the most accurate resemblance to those set on a steel rasp in a
blacksmith's shop. The animal," Gosse adds, " turns in its burrow
from side to side when at work, adhering to the interior by the foot,
and therefore only partially rotating to and fro. The substance is
Fig. 132. — Pholus papyracea (Solander).
Fig. 133.— Pholas melanoura (Sowerby).
abraded in the form of a fine powder, which is gradually ejected from
the mouth of the hole by contraction of the efferent siphon."
The Pholads are met with on every sea-shore, and are plentiful
in the Channel ; on the French coast they are called Dails, and
sought for for their fine flavour. As examples of the genus, we may
quote Pholas dactylus (Fig. 130) ; Pholas Candida, found in the
Channel and in the Atlantic Ocean, which lives buried in the mud
or in decayed wood; Pholas crispata (Fig. 131), also found in the
Channel; Pholas papyracea (Fig. 132); and Pholas melanoura
(Fig. 133).
The bodies of many genera of Mollusca have the property of
shining in the dark, but none emit a light more brilliant than that of
the Pholads. Those who eat the Pholads in an uncooked state
(which is by no means rare, for the flavour of the mollusc does not
BIVALl'E MOLLUSC A. 331
require the aid of cooking to render it palatable) would appear in the
dark as if they had swallowed phosphorus ; and the fisherman who,
in a spirit of economy, supped on this mollusc in the dark, would
give to his little ones the spectacle of a fire-eater on a small scale.
The perforations produced in stone by the Pholads have become
important evidence in a geological point of view. In many countries
there are evident signs of a considerable past sinking and then up-
heaval of the earth. But in no place is the evidence of this clearer
than in a monument of high antiquity on the Pozzuolan coast, known
as the Temple of Serapis (PLATE XL).
In speaking of the culture of oysters by the Romans we shall have
occasion to mention the disappearance of the Lucrine Lake, and its
replacement by an enormous mountain, the Monte Nuovo. Now,
Pozzuolo is situated at the foot of Monte Nuovo. We need not add
that the whole neighbourhood is volcanic. Pozzuolo touches on the
Solfaterra, on the Lake Avernus, and is not far from Vesuvius ; and in
the bay is the monument of other days, erroneously called the Temple
of Serapis. In reality it was most probably a thermal establishment,
established for its mineral waters, although the world has now agreed
to call it a temple.
However that may be, the building has been nearly levelled by the
hand of Time, aided by the hand of man; and the ruins now consist of
three magnificent marble columns of about forty feet high. But the
curious and important fact is, that these three columns, at about ten
feet above the surface, are riddled with holes, and full of cavities bored
deeply into the marble, and these borings occupy the space of about
three feet on each column. The cause of these perforations is no longer
doubtful. In some of the cavities the shell of the operator is still
found, and it seems settled among naturalists that it belongs to a
species of Pholas, although M. Pouchet, a naturalist of Rouen, denies
this. "As far," he says, "as I have been able to judge from the
fragment which I extracted from this temple, which is destitute of
the hinge, it is infinitely more probable that this mollusc is a species
of the genus Coralliophaga" In spite, however, of M. Pouchet's
scepticism, the mass of evidence is opposed to his theory.
There are two modes of explaining the fact to which we have called
attention. To enable the stone-boring molluscs, which live only in
the sea, to excavate this marble, the temple and columns must have
been buried several fathoms deep in sea-water. It is only in these
conditions that the borers could have made burrows into, and laboured
at their ease, in the marble columns.
But since the same traces of perforation are now visible ten feet
332 THti OCEAN WORLD.
above the surface, it follows that, after being long immersed under
water, the columns have been elevated to their present position. The
temple has been restored to its primitive elevation,
carrying with it, engraved in the marble, ineffaceable
proofs of its immersion. Sir Charles Lyell has
devoted a long chapter to the successive sinking
and elevation of this temple, where the fact is most
conclusively proved.
The second family of the Gastrochaenidae is a
somewhat heterogeneous one, as it contains the
genera Saxicava and Aspergillum. We have only
space for a short account of the latter genus. A.
vaginiferum has received the strange name of the
Watering-Pot, and is represented in Fig. 134. It
inhabits a calcareous tube, thick, solid, of consider-
able length, and nearly cylindrical, presenting at
one extremity an opening fringed with one or many
foliaceous folds in the form of frills, and at the
other extremity a convex disc, pierced with holes
like a watering-pot, whence its name. The animal
is attached by certain muscles to the interior of the
tube. Chenu, to whom we are indebted for our
information respecting this curious mollusc, tells
us " that the animal which inhabits this curious
shell was first described by Russell, whose account
of it is deficient in the anatomical details, which
might explain the utility of the holes in the disc
of the central fissure, and of the spiriform tubes
found there." We suppose that this arrangement
is necessary in order to facilitate respiration ; and
M. de Blainville thinks the small tubes are intended
for the passage of the muscles which are necessary
to fix the animal to the body on which it is to live,
and in such a manner as to admit of its movements
Fig. i34.— Aspergillum round a fixed point.
The animal which inhabits the Aspergillum is
elongated, contractile, and only occupies the upper
part of the tube, but it can stretch itself out sufficiently for all its wants.
Shells of this genus are rare, although a great number of species are
known. They are found in the Red Sea, and in the seas of Australia
and Java. The shells are generally of a white or yellowish tint ; some
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 333
have the tube covered with a glutinated sand, mixed with small frag-
ments of shells of diverse colours. We know nothing of their habits,
and their singular forms have left naturalists in doubt as to the place
which should be assigned to them. It is only after having recognised
the existence of two valves, which were detected with great difficulty just
under the disc, and forming part of the sheath in which the animal is
encased, that it has been decided to range them with the Gastrochce-
nidse, and with the shells presenting an arrangement analogous and
equally singular. These molluscs are, as M. Chenu says, little known,
rare, and hence much sought for by collectors. They are exclusively
exotic, the most common species being from Java. It is imported
into Europe by the Dutch. A third family, the Anatinidse, includes
such genera as Myochama, Pandora, Lyonsia, Myacites, Pholadomya,
Thracia, and Ariatina, genera which were more important in the
former than in the present seas ; some, in fact, being wholly extinct,
or represented, as in Pholadomya, by but one living species. A fourth
family, the Myacidae, including Glycimeris, which is found only in
America; Panopsea, now for the most part extinct, Thetis, Nesera,
Corbula, and Mya.
A fifth family, Solenidae, contains the Solens, which under the
name of "razor-fish" are so abundant on the sandy shores of all parts
of the globe. These molluscs live with their shells buried vertically
in the sand, a short distance from the shore ; the hole which they
have hollowed, and which they never quit, sometimes attains as much
as two yards in depth ; by means of their foot, which is large, conical,
swollen in the middle, and pointed at its extremity, they raise them-
selves with great agility to the entrance of their burrow. They
bury themselves rapidly, and disappear on the slightest approach of
danger.
When the sea retires, the presence of the Solen is indicated by a
small orifice in the sand, whence escape at intervals bubbles of air.
In order to attract them to the surface, the fishermen throw into the
hole a pinch of salt ; immediately the sand becomes stirred, and the
animal presents itself just above the point of its shell. It must be
seized at once, for it disappears again very quickly, and no renewed
efforts will bring it to the surface a second time. Its retreat is
commonly cut short by a knife being passed below it ; for it burrows
into the ground with such velocity that it is difficult to capture it with
the hands alone.
This shell has by some been compared to a knife-handle; by
others to a razor, which has become its popular name. It is a thin,
transparent, long, and slender equivalved bivalve, with parallel edges,
334 THE OCEAN WORLD.
gaping and truncated at both extremities. The tints are rose-coloured,
bluish-grey, and violet; the valves are generally covered with an
epidermis of a greenish brown.
The animal which lives in this elegant dwelling has the form of
an elongated cylinder. Its mantle is closed in its whole length, and
only open at the ends at one side for the passage of the food to the
mouth, and at the other for the passage of a tube formed of the two
siphons united together. This curious shell, various species of which
are presented in PLATE XII., is known as razor-fish, sabre-fish, and
other names, which in some respects indicate the peculiar form and
appearance of the shell.
The Tellinidae, the sixth family in our table, is very important, as
including a vast number of genera and species, of which, as types, we
Fig. 135. — Donax rugosus (Linnaeus,). Fig. 136. — Donax denticulatus.
will particularise Tellina and Donax; but Galatea, Mesodesma,
Semele, Sanguinolaria, Psammobia, and Capsula, are also important
genera.
Along the shores of the Channel and in the Mediterranean there
are few bivalves more abundant than the several species of the genus
Donax. They live near the shore in shallow water, burying them-
selves perpendicularly in the sand. They have the very singular
habit, considering their apparent helplessness, of being able to leap
to a certain height and then project themselves ten or twelve inches.
This may often be witnessed in the case of individuals left by the
retreating tide. If seized by the hand, and attempts are made to
disengage them from the sand, they continue to impress on their
shell a sudden and energetic movement, aided by the elasticity of
their foot, which is at once decisive and angular.
The shell of the genus Donax is nearly triangular in shape, com-
pressed, longer than broad, regular, e'quivalve, not equilateral ; the
hinge with three or four teeth on each valve.
The animal is slightly compressed, and more or less triangular.
IV. Solen ensis major. (Lamarck.)
V. Solen ambiguus. (Lamarck.)
VI. Solen leguracn.
XII. Kazor-lish (Solcnictcr').
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
337
Its mantle, which forms two symmetrical lobes enveloping the body,
is open pretty nearly in all its extent, but it is united posteriorly, and
terminates in two siphons, or nearly equal tubes, as in Fig. 127,
Fig. 137.— Tellina radiata (Linnaeus).
p. 320. One of these tubes serves the purpose of respiration: it is
the respiratory siphon. The other, serving the purpose of ejecting
the products of digestion and the used-up water, is termed the ex-
current siphon. The tentacles of the respiratory siphon seem to be
Fig. 138. — Tellina virgata (Linnaeus).
Fig. 139. — Tellina sulphurea (Lamarck).
possessed of exquisite sensibility. When touched, the animal draws
in its siphon, and only puts it forth anew when the danger has passed.
The species of Donax are very numerous, especially in the Asiatic and
American seas. Among the European species we may mention
Donax rugosus (Fig. 135) and Donax denticnlatus (Fig. 136).
338
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Next to Donax comes the genus Tellina, which includes many
species of both small and large shells, all remarkable for their beauty
of form, and for their brilliant and varied colours. One of these,
called the rising sun (Tellina radiata\ is represented in Fig. 137.
Fig. 140. — Tellina donacina (Linnaeus).
The Tellinas are found in every sea ; the French coast furnishes
many species : such as Tellina virgata (Fig. 138) and Tellina sulphured
(Lamarck), Fig. 139. In Fig. 140 Tellina donacina is represented
with its two tubes or siphons.
The seventh family, or Mactridae, includes Lutraria and Mactra.
Fig. 141. — Venus verrucosa (Linnaeus).
They are widely distributed genera, and there are several British
species of both.
The eighth family, Veneridae, includes Venus, Cytherea, Meroe,
and Artemis \ beautiful genera, and as such called by Linnaeus and
his followers after heroines of Greek mythology; Petricola, Venerupis,
VI.— Cytherea petechialis (Lamarck).
XIII.— Venus and Cytherea.
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 341
Tapes, Lucinopsis, and Trigona, also belong to the family. These
inhabit every sea ; they are found in every region of the globe, more
than 150 species being known. In most the shell is elliptic in form,
the valves either smooth, warted, striated, spiny, or lamellous, some
like those of Cardium and Donax. . Like these, too, they bury them-
selves in the sand.
Among the vast number of species, many of them are extremely
rare, and much sought after by collectors in consequence of their great
beauty. In the principal ports of France, Venus verrucosa (Fig. 141),
and another species known in the south of France under the name of
Clovisse, are eaten there like oysters. Prepared with fine herbs, the
Clovisse, we have M. Figuier's authority for saying, is not to be
Fig. 142.— Cytherea geographica (Chemnitz).
despised. "We may be believed also," he says, "if we add that
nothing is more delicious than to eat the living Clovisse torn from the
rock of the Phara of Lake Thau, when the Mediterranean sun of a
day in winter is shining down upon us, the heart rejoicing in man-
hood's strength." In PLATE XIII. some of the principal species
are represented, along with some of the more remarkable species of
Cytherea. In Fig. 142 we have the elegantly-pencilled shell of Cytherea
geographica, together with the animal, both drawn from Nature.
The sub-section we shill now treat of is without the pallial line
sinuated. The Cyprinidae form the ninth family of our arrangement,
and contain the genera Cardita, Cypricardia, Isocardia, Crassatella,
Astarte, Circe, and Cyprina, which contain among them some hundred
species.
The Cycladidse are our tenth family, and include Cyrenoides,
Cyrena, Pisidium, and Cyclas.
The Lucinidae is the eleventh family, containing Galeomma,
Lepton, Montacuta, Kellia, Diplodonta, Corbis, and Lucina.
342
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The twelfth family, Cardiadae, contains the familiar cockles,
belonging to the genus Cardium, which is derived from KapSlo, a
heart, which they are supposed to resemble in form : they are amongst
the most widely-distributed of shells. The shell is convex, as we see
in C. hians (Fig. 143), somewhat heart-shaped, equivalved, the edge's
dentate or corrugated, the hinge furnished with four teeth upon each
valve. The accessary ornamentation varies with the species, some
being smooth, as in Cardium groenlandicum, Chemnitz (Fig. 144) ;
others, and by far the greater number, are furnished with regular ripples,
Fig. 143. — Cardium hians (Brocchi).
Fig. 144. — Cardium groenlandicum (Chemnitz).
generally obtuse, sometimes in ridges diverging from the point and
armed with straight or curved spines, arranged in the oddest manner,
as in Cardium aculeatum (Fig. 145).
In the genus Cardium, as well as Donax, Tellina, and Venus, the
respiratory organs are somewhat modified, so as to adapt them to the
habits of the animal. All these molluscs live buried in the sand, and
the two siphonal tubes, issuing from the interior of their bodies to
bring the atmospheric air into communication with their respiratory
organs, are usually very short.
In C. hians (Fig. 143) the mantle has a large opening in front,
fringed anteriorly with papillae in the form of tentacula; the in-
habitant of the shell has a very large foot; its mouth is transverse and
funnel-shaped, and furnished with labial appendages. One of the
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 343
peculiarities in the organisation of these molluscs is in direct con-
nection with their mode of life. For those molluscs, which most
commonly live on the sea-shore, and bury themselves in the sand to
the depth of four or five inches, are enabled to breathe, to draw
water for their nourishment, and also to throw off the products of
digestion, by having the mantle prolonged, as we have seen, into two
tubes, the orifices of which reach to the surface of the mud. By means
of their foot, which is an extremely curious organ of locomotion, the
Cockles can at will issue from their holes and re-enter them. The
fishermen of the shore easily recognise the presence of these animals
by the little jets of water which they throw up through the sands.
Fig. 145. — Cardium aculeatum (Linnaeus). Fig. 146. — Cardium edulis (Linnaeus).
These molluscs are found in every sea on the globe, and under
all latitudes. Many of them belong to our own and the French
coasts, where they are eagerly sought for by collectors, as well as for
food. The flesh of the animal, however, is somewhat leathery, and
little esteemed. The species most common on the littoral of the
Atlantic is Cardium edulis (Fig. 146), its white or fawn-coloured shell
being hollowed out into six-and-twenty furrows, forming so many
corrugated ripples on its side. It is considered good for food.
The common cockle frequents sandy bays, near low water. It
is sometimes met with in brackish water, as at the mouth of the
Thames.
Cardium costatum (Fig. 147) is an exotic species which inhabits
the coast of Guinea and the Senegal, the shell of which, white and
fragile, is much sought after by collectors.
344
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The thirteenth family of our list, Tridacnidse, contains the genus
Tridacna, with only eight species, but it contains the largest of all
bivalve shells. The historian of the wars of Alexander the Great
speaks of oysters inhabiting the Indian Ocean which were more than
a foot long ; these were probably Tridacna, the shells of which were
most likely to be seen by the Macedonian conquerors. The valves
of Tridacna gigas are sometimes found a yard and a half in length,
and weighing 500 pounds. Magnificent examples may be seen
in the church of Saint Sulpice, Paris, where they hold the holy
water. These beautiful shells were the gift of the Venetian Republic
to Francis I. Under Louis XIV., the cure Languet had them
Fig. 147. — Cardium costatum (Linnaeus).
presented to the church of Saint Sulpice, where they are used as
basins for holy water. Another pair are exhibited in the church of
Saint Eulala, at Montpelier, but much smaller in size. The shells of
Tridacna gigas are formed, as represented in PLATE XIV,, of three
acute angles, festooned on their edges by broad sides bristling with
deep white scales. The hinges have two teeth; the ligament is
elongated and external.
The animal of Tridacna is remarkable for its fine colours.
Tridacna serrifera is of a beautiful blue round the edges of the mantle,
rayed through a shade of very pale blue ; more in the interior of the
mantle is a row of small ocelli of a yellowish green ; the centre is a
bright violet, with brownish longitudinal punctured lines. "We have
at this moment before our eyes," say the travellers Quoy and
Gaimard, " one of the most charming spectacles that can be seen,
XIV.— Tridacna gigantea.— Holy Water Basin in the Church of Saint Suljw'ce at Pari?
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
347
48. — Tridacna squamosa (Lamarck).
when at a little depth beneath the surface a number of these animals
display the brilliant velvety colours and varying shades of their
submarine parterres. As we can only perceive the gaping opening of
the valves, we may imagine to ourselves what is its entire aspect.''
The mantle of the animal is closed and ample ; its edges are swollen,
and reunited in nearly its whole circumference in such a manner as
to leave only three very
small openings — two in the
upper part ; the one serves
the purpose of discharging
the products of digestion,
the other gives entrance
and exit to the water ne-
cessary for respiratory pur-
poses. The third opening
is in the lower part of the
body, and free ; it leaves an
opening for the passage of
the foot, which is enormous,
and is surrounded with an
ample tuft of byssoidal
fibres.
Aided by this silky tuft,
the animal attaches itself to
the rocks, and suspends its
weighty shell from them.
If it is intended to remove
those attached to the sides
of the rock, it is necessary
to cut the cords of the ten-
donous byssus by which it
is held suspended with a
hatchet.
All the species are in-
habitants of the tropical seas. The Tridacna gigas is a native of
the Indian Ocean. The flesh, though leathery and by no means of
an agreeable flavour, is a great resource to the poor Indians. The
accompanying representations of Tridacna squamosa (Figs. 148 and
149) will convey a general idea of the genus.
The fourteenth family, Hippuritidae, is entirely fossil; but the
fifteenth, Chamidae, of which the best example is the typical genus
Chama, is widely distributed in tropical seas.
Fig. 149. — Tridacna squamosa, on the inside (Lamarck)
34-8 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The very numerous division of shells called Asiphonida possesses
animals without respiratory siphons. To it belong the shells we shall
now describe. The sixteenth family, Unionidse, contains the genera
Iridina, Anodon, and Unio.
The pond mussels, Anodonta, are found in lakes, rivers, and seas of
North America, Europe, and Siberia. Their shells are rounded or
oval, generally very thin, regular, and equi valve, not gaping, the
hinges without teeth, whence their name, from the Greek, oi/oSoVros,
without teeth. These shells are nacred inside, and generally smooth.
Fig. 150. — Unio littoralis (Cuvier).
The Anodonta cygnea (Fig. III., PLATE XV.) is broad, deep, and
light ; it is sometimes employed for skimming the cream off milk.
The genus is divided into many groups, the principal forms of which
are represented in PLATE XV.
The genus Unio (river mussel) has a wider distribution than
Anodonta, and is found in the muddy bottoms of rivers in all the
great continents. The animal resembles that of Anodonta, but the
shell presents a toothed hinge. The lower face of the valve is nacre-
ous, but shaded with purplish violet, and iridescent; the anterior
face is of a green colour, which varies from a light to a blackish
green.
Among the species found in European rivers may be noted the
11. — Anodonta ensiformis (Spix).
I. — Anodonta angulata (Leal.
III. — Anodonta cygnea (Linn.).
IV. — Anodonta magnifica (Lea).
V.— Anodonta anserina (Spix).
VI. — Anodonta latomarginata (Lea).
XV.— Anodonta.
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 351
Rhine mussel, a large species, the nacre of which is employed for
ornamental purposes. Unio littoralis (Cuvier), is represented in Fig.
150, and Unio pictorum, Fig, 151. The flesh of the river mussels
is leathery, of an insipid taste, and scarcely eatable : the finest
species are found in the great American lakes and rivers.
Fresh-water mussels, as we have seen, produce pearls of moderate
value. Linnaeus, who was aware of the origin of the Pintadine pearls,
and of pearls in general, was also aware of the possibility of producing
them artificially from various molluscs. He suggested bringing
Fig. 151. — Unio pictorum (Linnaeus).
together a number of mussels, piercing holes in their, shells with
an auger in order to produce a wound, and afterwards leave them
for five or six years, to give the pearl time to form. The Swedish
Government consented to try the experiment, and long did so in
secret • pearls were produced, but they were of no value, and the
enterprise was abandoned as unsuccessful.
Scottish pearls were much celebrated in the middle ages ; and
between the years 1761 and 1784 pearls to the value of ;£ 10,000
were sent to London from the rivers Tay and Isla ; " and the trade
carried on in the corresponding years in the present century," says
Mr. Bertram, " is far more than double that amount." The pearl,
352 THE OCEAN WORLD.
according to Mr. Bertram, is found in a variety of the mussel, which
is characterised by the valves being united by a broad hinge, and
having a strong fibrous byssus, with which it attaches itself to other
shells, to rocks, and other solid substances. "The pearl fisheries of
Scotland," he adds, "may become a source of wealth to the people
living on the large rivers, if prudently conducted." Mr. linger, a
dealer in gems in Edinburgh, having discerned the capabilities of the
Scotch pearl as a gem of value, has established a scale of prices which
he gives for them, according to their size and quality ; and it is now
a fact that the beautiful pearls of our Scottish streams are admired
F'}g. 152.— Pectunculus aureflua Fig. 153.— Pectunculus Delessertii
(Reeve). (Reeve).
beyond the Orient pearl. Empresses and queens, and royal and noble
ladies, have made large purchases of these gems; and Mr. Unger
estimates the sum paid to pearl-finders in the summer of 1864 at
;£i 0,000. The localities successfully fished have been the classic
Doon, the Forth, the Tay, the Don, the Spey, the Isla, and most of
the Highland rivers of note. Scottish pearls are much whiter in
colour than Oriental. What tint they have is bluish, while those of
the East are yellowish. Pink pearls are produced by several exotic
species of Unio.
The seventeenth family is that of the Trigoniadae, with the genus
Trigonia, of which so many species occurred in the Jurassic period
in the strata of Europe, but of which two or f.hree alone are now
left alive in the seas of Australia.
The eighteenth family, the Arcadae, affords between 200 and 300
species of the genera of Leda, Nucula, Pectunculus, and Area. Of
these we shall only at present instance Pectunculus.
BI VALVh MOLL USCA. 353
Species of the genus Pectunculus are abundant on the shores of
the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast. If we take up at
hazard a handful of shells on any part of the French coast, one-third
will consist of Pectunculus. They are found mixed with species of
the genera Cardium, Venus, Solen, and Pccten. Their round and
robust frame attracts much attention. They form the first of those
charming infantile collections which are gathered at our mother's
feet.
The animal which inhabits this pretty shell is moulded on its
Fig. 154. —Pectunculus pectemformis Fig. 155.— Pectunculus scnptus
(Lamarck). (Born).
curvature; like the shell, it is round and squat; it is furnished with a
mouth, large, and thick for its size, and with branchiae. When the
animal is taken alive, it sometimes exudes a thick mucous liquid
over the shell, which has disgusted many a young collector with his
capture.
Among numerous species of Pectunculus we note as worthy of
representation : P. aureflua, Reeve (Fig. 152) ; P. Delessertii, Reeve
(Fig- I53)'f -P- pectemformis, Lamarck (Fig. 154); and P. tcriptus,
Born (Fig. 155),
3S4
CHAPTER XII.
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA— (continued}.
MYTILID^E — THE MUSSEL FAMILY.
" Ecce inter virides jactatur mytilus d%p&,"—Attthologia.
WE now come to consider the nineteenth family, that of Mytilidae,
which includes the genera called Mytilus, Modiola, Lithodomus, and
Dreissena.
The well-known shell of the mussel (Mytilus edulis, Fig. 156) is
Fig. 156. — Mytilus edulis (Linnaeus).
longitudinal, equivalve, and regular, pointed at the base, with
capacity to attach itself by a byssus ; the hinge has no teeth, but a
deep furrow, in which the ligament is located. In the genus Mytilus
the byssus is strong and coarse, and the palpi are long. In Modiola
it is ample, but fine, and the palpi are triangular. In both these
genera the foot is elongated and grooved, its retractile muscles
numerous. In Lithodomus the byssus is rudimentary. In Dreisscjia
the shell is like that met with in the genus Mytilus^ but without its
pearly lining.
The animal of Mytilus edulis, as described by M. Chenu, is
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 355
elongate, oval, the lobes of the mantle simple or fringed, divided at
the edge into two leaves, the interior being very short, bearing
fringes of very minute and constantly moving cilia ; the exterior gill
is united to the shell very near the edge. The opening by which
water and food are introduced supplies the branchiae at the same
time. The stomach consists of a white membrane, thin, opaline,
and presenting itself in longitudinal folds ; the liver is granular, com-
posed of greenish grains more or less deep, contained in the meshes
of a whitish tissue forming a thickish bed, which surrounds the
stomach, the intestines taking the direction of the median and dorsal
line, and beneath the heart are received and terminate in a small
appendage, floating in the cavity of the mantle near the hinge. The
foot is, perhaps, the remarkable organ of the mussel — it is small,
semi-lunar when not in motion, but capable of great elongation,
resembling thus a sort of conical tongue having a longitudinal furrow
on its side. It is put in motion by several pairs of muscles, all of
which penetrate and are interlaced with the tissue ; behind it is the
silky byssus. The mouth is large, and furnished with two pairs of
soft palpi, which are pointed and fixed by their summit. At the base
of the foot is a gland which furnishes a viscous secretion; this
viscous liquid is organised and moulded in the groove of the foot,
and forms a thread, which originates the byssus; this latter is a
bundle of viscid hairs, or threads, which holds on to its shell.
The byssus plays an important part in the organisation of the
mussel. While the oyster remains entirely riveted to its rock, until
torn from it by violence, the mussel moves about, and in this motion
the byssus is an active agent. The mussel attaches its byssus to
some fixed object, and drawing upon it, as upon a line, the shell is
displaced. The house is drawn onwards ; the animal is in motion.
It takes no great strides, but a fraction of an inch satisfies its desires ;
it is, however, an advance upon the oyster, and a lesson in mechanics.
The mussel stretches out its foot, and, at the point chosen, it fixes
on a thread of the byssus ; then, withdrawing the foot suddenly, and
hauling in the thread, the animal and shell are moved forward.
Every time it repeats this motion it seems to attach an additional
thread, so that at the end of the four-and-twenty hours it has used
many inches in length of cordage. In the byssus of some mussels
we find as many as 150 of these small threads, with which the animal
anchors itself most securely to the rock. Aided by this cordage, the
mussel suspends itself to vertical rocks, holding on a little above the
surface of the water, so that the shell is smooth and polished as
compared with the coarse and rugged shell of the oyster.
356
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The mussels, like the oysters, are gregarious, and widely diffused
over all European seas. They abound on both sides the Channel,
their lower price having procured for them the name of " the poor
man's oyster;" but it is infinitely less digestible and savoury than its
congener.
Many of our readers may think that mussels are found on the
shore in a state of nature, of good size, well flavoured, and fit for the
table. Nothing of the kind ! Detached from the rocks and cliffs of
Q x
Fig. 157. — Byssus, mantle, and oviduct of Mytilus.
A, right lobe of the mantle.; D, rectum ; G, branchiae ; H, foot ; j, posterior muscle ; L, superior
tube j o, heart ; P, ventricle ; Q, auricle ; x, pericardium ; b, tentacles ; d, byssus ; e, gland of
the byssus ; g, retractile muscle of the foot ; h, valves of the mantle ; i, oviduct ; /, orifice of the
excretory organ ; k, internal ditto.
the sea, where it has been growing in a natural state, it is lean, small,
acrid, and unwholesome food ; and it is only when human industry
intervenes to ameliorate this child of Nature that it becomes palatable
and wholesome food. In order to trace the ameliorative process by
which the leathery flesh of the mussel is rendered tender, fat, and
even savoury, we must conduct the reader back into the middle ages.
Some time in 1236 a barque, freighted with sheep and manned
by three Irishmen, struck upon the rocks in the creek of Aiguillon,
a few miles distant from Rochelle. The neighbouring fishermen
who came to the relief of the crew succeeded with great difficulty in
saving the life of the master, a man named Walton. Exiled upon
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 357
the lonely shore of the Aunis, with a few sheep saved from shipwreck,
Walton at first supported himself by hunting sea-fowl, which fre-
quented the shore and neighbouring marshes in vast flocks. He
was a skilful fowler, and invented or adapted a peculiar kind of net,
which he called the night net. This consisted of a net some 300 or
400 yards in length by three in breadth, which he placed horizontally,
like a screen, along the quiet waters of the bay, retaining it in its
position by means of posts driven into the muddy bottom. In the
obscurity of the night the wild fowl, in floating along the surface of
the waters, would come in contact with the net, and get themselves
entangled in its meshes.
But the Bay of Aiguillon was only a vast lake of mud, in which
boats moved with difficulty ; and Walton, having arranged his bird-
net, began to consider what kind of boat would enable him most
conveniently to navigate the sea of mud. The flat-bottomed, square-
sided boat, known in our rivers as a punt, and on the Norman coast
as an aeon, was the result. Walton's boat had a wooden frame some
three yards long and one in breadth and depth, the fore part of
which sloped down into the water, in the form of a prow, at a slight
angle. In propelling the boat the rower, who occupied the stern of
the punt, knelt on his right knee (as represented in Fig. 158),
inclining forward, with one hand on each edge, and the left leg out-
side the boat. A vigorous push with the left foot gave the frail boat
an impulse, under which it rapidly traversed the bay from one point
to the other.
The mussels swarmed in the little bay; and Walton soon
remarked that they attached themselves by preference to that part of
the post a little above the mud, and that those so placed soon
became fatter, as well as more agreeable to the taste, than those
buried in the mud. He saw in this peculiarity the elements of a
sort of mussel culture which might become a new branch of industry.
"The practices he introduced/' says M. Coste, "were so happily
adapted to the requirements of the new industry, that, after six
centuries, they are still the rules by which the rich patrimony he
created for a numerous population is governed. He seems to have
applied himself to the enterprise, conscious not only of the service
he was rendering to his contemporaries, but desirous that their
descendants should remember him, for in every instance he has
given to the apparatus which he invented the form of his initial letter
W. After due consideration, Walton began to carry out his design.
He planted a long range of piles along the low marshy shore, each
pair forming a letter V, the front of the letter being towards the sea,
358
THE OCEAN WORLD.
and each limb diverging at an angle of 45°. These posts were
driven about a yard asunder ; they were about twelve feet long, six
feet being above water, and interlaced with branches wattled together,
so as to form continuous hurdles, each about 200 yards long, which
are called bouchots. By the assistance of this apparatus, which
intercepted spat which would otherwise have been swept away to sea
Fig. 158.— Punt or Pirogue of the Marsh.
by the tide, Walton formed a magnificent collection of musseb ; but
he did not abandon his isolated piles. These, being without
fascines or branches, and always submerged, arrested the spat at
the moment of emission."
The advantages of this system of culture adopted by the Irish
exile were so obvious, that his neighbours along the shore were not
slow to imitate his example. In a short time the whole bay was
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
359
covered with similiar bouchots. At the present time these lines of
hurdles form a perfect forest in the little creek. About 230,000 piles
support 125,000 fascines, which, according to M. Coste, "bend all
the year under a harvest which a squadron of ships of the line would
fail to float." There are about 500 of these bouchots in the bay,
each from 200 to 250 yards in length and six feet high.
The isolated piles are without palisades, and are uncovered only
at spring tides. In the months of February and March the spat
collected on them scarcely equals in size a grain of linseed ; by the
Fig. 159.— Isolated Piles covered with the Spawn of Mussels.
month of May it will be about the size of a split pea ; in July, a
small haricot bean : this is the moment for its transplantation. In
this month the bouchotiers — as the men occupied in this culture are
called — launch their punts, and proceed to the part of the bay where
these piles are driven. They detach with a hook the agglomerated
masses of young mussels, which they gather in baskets, and carry
them to their bouchots. These bouchots, that is to say, the piles
covered with fascines and branches, .are of four different heights,
forming, so to speak, four stages, according to the age and growth of
the mussel. Each stage receives the mollusc suitable to it. In the
first stage of its existence the mussel cannot endure exposure to the
360
THE OCEAN WORLD.
air, and remains constantly under water, except at the period of
spring tides. These are gathered in sacks made of old matting, or
suspended in interstices of the basket-work. " These immense
palisades," says M. Coste, " become covered with black clusters of
mussels developed between the meshes of their tissues." At this
time the second rows are cleared away to make room for younger
generations ; the mussels, which no longer dread the air, are trans-
ported to the more advanced bouchots, which remain above water in
all tides, where they stay till they are fit for market, which usually
Fig. 160. — Piles, with Basket-work, covered with Mussels in a fit state to be gathered i»i.
happens after ten or twelve months of culture on the more advanced
bouchots.
But, in order to prepare for this consummation, they are subjected
to a second and even a third remove. There is no longer any
danger in subjecting them to the air for many hours. From this
they pass to a fourth stage, termed Amont (Fig. 160). From this
stage the full-grown mussel is removed. Under this system of culture
the reproduction, nursing, collecting, and preparing for market, are
made simultaneously. From July to January the mussel trade is in
full operation, and the flesh in perfection. From February to April
is the close season ; their flesh is then poor and leathery. It is also
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 361
remarked that those which inhabit the upper rows of the wicker-work
are of a mellower flavour than those on the lower ranks, and that the
intermediate rows are an improvement on those which are buried in
the mud, although even these are preferable to mussels gathered on
the sea- shore in a state of nature.
M. Coste gives a graphic description of the manner in which this
industry is carried on. " Having supplied the neighbouring villages,"
he says, " for the purpose of supplying the more distant cities, the
bouchotiers land their punts, filled with mussels, which their wives
carry into grottoes hollowed out of the cliffs, where they clean and
pack them in hampers, baskets, and panniers, for conveyance by
carts or pack-horses. They depart on their respective journeys at
night, so as to reach their markets at La Rochelle, Rochefort,
Surgeres, Saint-Jean-d'Angely, Angouleme, Niort, Poitiers, Tours,
Angers, and Saumur, at an early hour. A hundred and forty horses
and ninety carts make upwards of 33,000 journeys annually to
these cities. Besides this, forty or fifty boats come from Bordeaux,
the isles of Re and Oleron, and from the sands of Olonne,
making an aggregate of 750 voyages per annum, distributing the
harvest of the little bay at places where horses could not serve
the purpose.
" A bouchot, well furnished, supplies annually, according to the
length of its wings, from 400 to 500 charges. The charge is 150
kilogrammes (over 300 pounds), and sells for five francs ; a single
bouchot thus carries a harvest equal in weight to 130,000 to 140,000
pounds, equal in value to ^100 ; the whole bay probably yielding a
gross revenue of ,£480,000. This figure, and the abundant harvest
which produces it, gives only a slight idea of the elementary resources
of the sea-shore ; and every part of the coast, properly adapted for
the purpose, could be turned to equal advantage. In the meantime,
the Bay of Aiguillon remains a monument of what one man may
accomplish."
While commending the mussel as an important article of food, we
must not conceal the fact that it has produced in certain persons
very grave effects, showing that for them its flesh has the effects of
poison. The symptoms, commonly observed two or three hours
after the repast, are weakness or torpor, constriction of the throat and
swelling of the head, accompanied by great thirst, nausea, frequent
vomitings, and eruption of the skin and severe itching.
The cause of these attacks is not very well ascertained ; they have
in turn been ascribed to the presence of the coppery pyrites in the
neighbourhood of the mussel ; to certain small crabs which lodge
362 THE OCEAN WORLD.
themselves as parasites in the shell of the mussel ; to the spawn of
star-fishes or medusae that the mussel may have swallowed. But,
probably, the true cause of this kind of poisoning resides in the pre-
disposition of individuals. The remedy is very simple : an emetic,
accompanied by drinking plentifully of slightly acidulated beverages.
We have now come to the twentieth family, the Aviculidse, which
contains Avicula, Malleus, Meleagrina, Perna, and Pinna. The shells
of the sub-genus Malleus (hammer-headed oysters) have a rough re-
semblance to the implement from which they derive their name. The
Fig. i6i.-MalleusvulgariS (Lamarck).
valves are nearly equal, blackish, and somewhat wrinkled on the
exterior, often brilliantly nacred in the interior. They are enlarged
to the right and left of the hinge, forming prolongations on each
side, which give them the fancied resemblance of a hammer-head
(Malleus vulgaris, Fig. i6i>. At the same time they grow in a
direction opposite to the hinge, which gives an appearance something
approaching the handle of the implement.
This is the first feature which a glance at Malleus alba (Fig. 162)
conveys. The hinge is without teeth, having instead a deep conical
fossette or dimple, for the reception of a very strong ligament, which
acts upon the valves. The animal is contained in the interior
BT VALVE MOLLUSC A.
363
of the shell, its mantle fringed by very small tentacular appendages.
Only six actually living species of the genera are known, which are
inhabitants of the Indian Ocean, of the Australian seas, and the
Pacific Ocean.
The beautiful diaphanous nacre which embellishes the interior of
so many ornamental cabinets is principally produced by the animal
inhabiting the Mdeagrina margaritifera, a bivalve, sometimes
alleus alba (Lamarck)
:
Figt 162.—]
3fU '
.
designated the Pintadine, or mother-of-pearl shell. Phis bivalve
moors itself to the bottom of the sea by a strong byssus of a
brownish colour. The valves of the shells are irregularly rounded
in their young days ; they are externally lightly foliated, and orna-
mented with bands of green and white, which spring from the summit
in rays, and afterwards break off into two or three slightly scattered
branches. In old age they become rugged and blackish. The shell
is in its perfection when about eight or ten years old, their size being
then about six inches in diameter, with a thickness of about an inch
and a quarter.
364 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Nacre is the hard and brilliant substance with which the valves of
certain shells are lined in the interior. This substance is white,
silky, slightly azure, and more or less iridescent. Most of the bivalves
are supplied with nacre ; some of them even yield it of a blue, or
blue and violet colour. The iridescent Haliotis iris, for instance, has
a nacre of an emerald-greenish blue, changing colour with reflections
of a purple violet. Turbo argyrostomus (Linnaeus) presents a mouth
of bright silvery hue, while Turbo chrysostomus appears in all the
glory of gold ; but the Pintadine yields the purest white nacre, as
well as the most uniform, and especially the thickest. This product
Outside of the shell. Inside of the shell.
Fig. 163.— Meleagrina margaritifera (Linnaeus).
owes its brilliant and delicate appearance to the play of light on
it in its highly-polished state. For practical purposes the nacre
is separated from the shell with an instrument ; sometimes all the
exterior part of the shell being dissolved away from the precious
substance, leaving only the naked bed of nacre.
The pearl oyster (Meleagrina margaritifera\ is the most interesting
of all the nacre-bearing shells ; the exterior as well as the interior of
the shell is represented in Fig. 163. The interior of the shell affords
the most exquisite pearls ; the Esterhazy collection of jewels contains
many magnificent specimens. This shell is nearly round, and
greenish in colour on the outside ; it furnishes at once the finest
pearls, under favourable circumstances, and the nacre so useful in
many industrial arts. Fine pearls and nacre have, in short, the same
origin. The nacre invests the whole interior of the shell of Melea-
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
365
grina margaritifera; being the same secretion which in the pearl has
assumed the globular form : in one state it is deposited as nacre on
the walls of the bivalve, in the other as a pearl in the fleshy interior
of the animal. This nacre is therefore at once a calcareous and a
horny substance, which the animal secretes, and which it attaches to
the interior walls of the shell during the several periods of its develop-
ment. Pearls are formed of the same substance, only in place of
being deposited upon the valves in beds, the material is condensed
and agglomerated in small spheroids, which develop themselves
either on the surface of the valves or in the fleshy part of the mollusc.
. .
Fig. 164. — Meleagnna margaritifera (Lmnseus).
Between nacre and pearls, therefore, there is only the difference of
the form of deposition. Fig. 164 represents the pearl oyster with
calcareous concretions in various states of progress.
The finest pearls — solidified drops of dew, as the Orientals term
them in the language of poetry — are secretions of nacrous material
supposed to be spread over foreign bodies which have accidentally
got beneath the mantle of the mollusc. The matter, in place of
being spread over the surface of the valves in their beds, is condensed
either on the centre of the valves or in the interior of the organ, and
forms a more or less rounded body. The pearls, when deposited on
the valves, are generally adherent ; those which originate in the body
of the animal are always free. Generally we find some small foreign
body in their centre which has served as a nucleus to the concretion,
the body being perhaps a sterile egg of the mollusc, the egg of a fish,
366 THE OCEAN WORLD.
a grain of sand even, round which has been deposited in concentric
layers the beautiful and much-prized gem.
The Chinese, and other Eastern nations, are said to turn this fact
in the natural history of this bivalve to practical use in making pearls
and cameos. By introducing into the mantle of the mollusc, or into
the interior of its body, a round grain of sand, glass, or metal, they
induce a deposit which in time yields a pearl, in the one case free,
and in the other adhering to the shell. In some cases pearls are said
to be produced in whole chaplets by the insertion of grains of quartz
connected by a string into the mantle of a species of Meleagrina ; in
other cases, a dozen enamelled figures of Buddha seated have been
produced by inserting small plates of embossed metal in the valves of
the same species.
The pearls are very small at first ; they increase by annual layers
deposited on the original nucleus, their brilliancy and shade of colour
varying with that of the nacre from which they are produced. Some-
times they are diaphanous, silky, lustrous, and more or less iridescent ;
occasionally they turn out dull, obscure, and even smoky.
The pearl oyster is met with in very different latitudes ; they are
found in the Persian Gulf, on the Arabian coast, and in Japan, in the
American seas, and on the shores of California, and in the islands of
the South Sea ; but the most important fisheries are found in the Bay
of Bengal, Ceylon, and other parts of the Indian Ocean. The Ceylon
fisheries are under Government inspection, and each year, before the
fisheries commence, an official inspection of the coast takes place.
Sometimes the fishing is undertaken on account of the State, at
other times it is let to parties of speculators. In 1804 the pearl
fishery was granted to a capitalist for ^120,000 ; but, to avoid im-
poverishing all the beds at once, the same part of the gulf is not
fished every year.
The great fishery for mother-of-pearl Pintadines (Meleagrina mar-
garitiferd] takes place in the Gulf of Manaar, a large bay to the north-
east of the island : it commences in the month of February or March, .
and continues thirty days, taken collectively, and occupies 250 boats,
which come from different parts of the coast ; they reach the ground
at daybreak, the time being indicated by a signal gun. Each boat's
crew consists of twenty hands, and a negro. The rowers are ten in
.number. The divers divide themselves into two groups of five men
each, who labour and rest alternately ; they descend from forty to
fifty feet, seventy being the very utmost they can accomplish, and
eighty seconds the longest period the best divers can remain under
dal ark) \ 2 r, j=<;
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 367
water, the ordinary period being only thirty seconds. In order to
accelerate their descent, a large stone is attached to a rope. Accord^
ing to travellers the oars are used to rig out a stage, across which
planks are laid over both sides of the boat ; to this stage the diving-
stone is suspended. This stone is in the form of a pyramid, weigh-
ing about fifty-six pounds ; the cord which sustains it sometimes
carries in its lower part a sort of stirrup to receive the foot of the
diver. At the moment of his descent he places his right foot in this
stirrup, or, where there is no such provision, he rests it on the stone
with the cord between his toes. In his left foot he holds the net
which is to receive the bivalves ; then, seizing with his right hand a
signal-cord conveniently arranged for this purpose, and pressing his
nostrils with the left hand, he dives, holding himself vertically, and
balancing himself over his foot.
Each diver is naked, except for a band of calico which surrounds
his loins. Having reached the bottom, he withdraws his foot from
the stone, which ascends immediately to the stage. The diver throws
himself on his face, and begins to gather all the pintadines within his
reach, placing them in his net. When he wishes to ascend he pulls
the signal cord, and is drawn up with all possible expedition.
A good diver seldom remains more than thirty seconds under
water at one time ; but he repeats the operation three or four, and,
in favourable circumstances, even fifteen or twenty times. The
labour is extremely severe. On returning to the boat they sometimes
discharge water tinged with blood by the mouth, nose, and ears.
They are also exposed to great danger from sharks, which lie in wait
for and frequently devour the unhappy divers.
They continue to fish till mid-day, when a second gun gives the
signal to cease. The proprietors wait on shore for their boats, in
order to superintend their discharge, which must take place before
night sets in, in order to prevent concealment and robbery.
In past times the Ceylon fisheries were very valuable. In 1797
they are said to have produced ^144,000, and in 1798 as much as
^192,000. In 1802 the fisheries were farmed for ^120,000; but for
many years the banks have been less productive, and are now said
to yield only the sum of ^20,000 per annum.
The natives of the Bay of Bengal, those of the Chinese coast, of
Japan, and the Indian Archipelago, all devote themselves to the
pearl fishery, the produce being estimated to realise at least ,£800,000.
Fisheries analogous to those of Ceylon take place on the Persian
coast, on the Arabian Gulf,, along the coast of Muscat, and in the
Red Sea..
368 THE OCEAN WORLD.
In these latter countries the pearl fishing does not commence till
the months of July and August, the sea being at that time calmer than
in other months of the year. Arrived on their fishing-ground, the
fishermen range their barques at a proper distance from each other,
and cast anchor in water from eight to nine fathoms deep. The
process is pursued here in a very simple manner. When about to
descend the divers pass a cord, the extremity of which communicates
with a bell placed in the barque, under the armpits ; they put cotton
in their ears, and press the nostrils together with a piece of wood or
horn ; they close their mouths hermetically, attach a heavy stone to
their feet, and at once sink to the bottom of the sea, where they
gather indiscriminately all shells within their reach, which they throw
into a bag suspended round their haunches. When they require to
breathe they sound the bell, and immediately they are assisted in
their ascent.
On the oyster-banks off the Isle of Bahrein the pearl fishery pro-
duces about ^240,000 ; and if we add to this the addition furnished
by the other fisheries of the neighbourhood, the sum total yielded by
the Arabian coast would probably not fall short of ^350,000.
In South America similar fisheries exist. Before the Mexican
conquest the pearl fisheries were located between Acapulco and the
Gulf of Tehuantepec ; subsequently they were established round the
Islands of Cubagua, Margarita, and Panama. The results became so
full of promise that populous cities were not slow to raise themselves
round these several places.
Under the reign of Charles V., America sent to Spain pearls
valued at ^160,000; in the present day they are estimated to be
worth ;£6o,ooo. In the places mentioned, the divers descend into
the sea quite naked ; they remain there from twenty-five to thirty
seconds, during which space they can only secure three or four
pintadines. They dive in this way a dozen times in succession,
which gives an average of between thirty and forty bivalves to each
diver.
The shells are carried on shore, and piled up on mats of Espartero
grass. The mollusc dies, and soon becomes decomposed; it requires
ten days to be thoroughly disorganised. When in a thoroughly
decayed state, they are thrown into reservoirs of sea water, when they
are opened, washed, and handed over to the dealers. The valves
furnish nacre, and the pearls are found in the soft decayed substance
of the mollusc.
The valves are cleansed,, and piled up in tuns or casks; by taking
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 369
off their external surface plates of nacre are obtained more or less
thick, according to the age of the mollusc.
Nacres of three kinds are distinguishable in commerce : silver
lipped, bastard white, and bastard black. The first are sold in cases
of 250 to 280 pounds; they are brought from the Indies, from China,
and Peru. The ships of various nations import these shells as
ballast. The second is delivered in casks of 250 pounds weight ; it
is a yellowish white, and sometimes greenish ; sometimes red, blue,
and green.
Pearls form by far the most important product of the animal.
When they are adherent to the valves they are detached with pincers;
but, as a rule, they are found in the soft tissues of the animal. In
this case the substance -is boiled, and afterwards sifted, in order to
obtain the most minute of the pearls ; for those of considerable size
are sometimes overlooked in the first operation. Months after the
mollusc is putrefied miserable Indians may be observed busying
themselves with the corrupt mass, in search of small pearls which
may have been overlooked by the workmen.
The pearls adherent to the valve are more or less irregular in their
shape ; they are sold by weight Those found in the body of the
animal, and isolated, are called virgin pearls, or paragons. They are
globular, ovoid, or pyriform, and are sold by the individual pearl. In
cleaning them, they are gathered together in a heap in a bag, and
worked with powdered nacre, in order to render them perfectly pure
in colour and round in shape, and give them a polish ; finally, they are
passed through a series of copper sieves, in order to size them. These
sieves, to the number of twelve, are made so as to be inserted one
within the other, each being pierced with holes, which determine the
size of the pearl, and the commercial number which is to distinguish it.
Thus, the sieve No. 20 is pierced with twenty holes, No. 50 with fifty
holes, and so on up to No. r,ooo, which is pierced with that number ot
holes. The pearls which are retained in Nos. 20 to 80, said to be mill,
are pearls of the first order. Those which pass and are retained be-
tween Nos. 100 to 800 are vivadoe, or pearls of the second order; and
those which pass through all the others and are retained in No. 1,000
belong to the class tool, or seed pearls, and are of the third order.
They are afterwards threaded ; the small and medium-sized pearls
on white or blue silk, arranged in rows, and tied with ribbon into a
".op-knot of blue or red silk, in which condition they are exposed for
sale in rows, assorted according to their colours and quality. The
small or seed pearls are sold by measure or weight
37° THE OCEAN WORLD.
In America the bivalve is opened with a knife, like the common
edible oyster, and the pearl is obtained by breaking up the mollusc
between the finger and thumb, without waiting for its decomposition ;
nor is it boiled. This is a much longer and less certain process than
that pursued in the East ; but the pearls are preserved in greater
freshness by the process — for the nacre of the dead shells is less
brilliant than that of those which have been suddenly killed and at
once separated from the soft parts.
Some few pearls have become historical for their size and beauty.
A pearl from Panama, in the form of a pear, arid about the size of a
pigeon's egg, was presented in 1579 to Philip II., King of Spain, it
was valued at ,£4,000. A lady of Madrid possessed an American
pearl in 1605 valued at 31,000 ducats.
Pope Leo X. purchased a pearl of a Venetian jeweller for
^14,000. Another was presented to the Sultan Soliman the Great by
the Venetian Republic valued at £16,000. Julius Caesar, who was a
great admirer of pearls, presented one to Servilia which was valued at
a million of sesterces, about £48,000 of our money.
There is no data for the volume or value of the two famous pearls
of Cleopatra: one of these, which the queen is said to have capriciously
dissolved in vinegar and drank — Heavens preserve us from such a
draught ! — is said by some authors to have been worth £60,000; the
other was divided into two parts, ana suspended one half from each
ear of the Capitoline Venus. Another pearl was purchased at Califa by
the traveller Tavernier, and is said to have been sold by him to the
Shah of Persia for the enormous price of £180,000.
A prince of Muscat possessed a pearl so valuable— not on
account of its size, for it was only twelve carats, but because it was
so clear and transparent that daylight was seen through it — that he
refused £4,000 for it.
In the Zozema Museum at Moscow there is a pearl, called the
" Pilgrim," which is quite diaphanous ; it is globular in form, and
weighs nearly twenty-four carats. It is said that the pearl in the
crown of Rudolph II. weighed thirty carats, and was as large as a
pear. This size, besides being indefinite, is more than doubtful.
The Shahs of Persia actually possess a string of pearls, each indi-
vidual of which is nearly the size of a hazel nut : the value of this
string of jewels is inestimable.
At the Paris Exposition of 1855, her Majesty the Queen exhibited
some magnificent pearls ; and on the same occasion the Emperor of
the French exhibited a collection of 408 pearls* each weighing ovei
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
371
nine pennyweights, all of perfect form and of the finest water. The
Romans were passionately fond of pearls, and they have transmitted
their taste to the Eastern nations, who attach notions of great
grandeur and wealth to the possessor of large and brilliant pearls.
The genus Pinna was so called by Linnaeus, from one of the species
which was so designated from the resemblance of its byssus to the
aigrette or plumelet which the Roman soldiers attached to the helmet.
French naturalists name \hvn\jambonneaiix, from their singular resem-
Fig. 165. — Pinna rudis (Linnaeus),
Fig. 166.— Pinna nigrina (Lamarck).
blance to a dried ham (Figs. 165 and 166), their brown, smoky colour
not a little aiding the resemblance. The shell is fibrous, horny, veiy
thin and fragile, compressed, regular, and equivalve, triangularly
pointed in front, round or truncated behind. The hinge is linear,
straight, and without teeth ; the ligament, in great part internal,
occupies more than half the anterior portion of the dorsal edge of the
shell, forming a straight elongated fossette.
The animal is thick, elongated, with mantle open behind, presenting
a conical furrowed foot, bearing a considerable byssus.
The species of the genus Pinna are found in almost every sea, and
at various depths ; they are constantly attached by their byssus, and
3/2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
in a vertical position, the larger side of their shell being uppermost.
They are found on sandy bottoms in considerable numbers. The
byssus has in all ages fixed the attention of the Mediterranean fisher-
men upon these curious shells. With its tuft of fine silky hairs, six or
seven inches in length, of a fine reddish-brown hue, articles of luxury
are formed, which are often mentioned by the Latin writers. The
threads of the byssus, which are remarkable for their unalterable
colour, were formed by both Greeks and Romans into a fabric to
-urJc:'jI
Fig. 167. — Pinna nobilis, with its byssus (Linnseus). Fig. 168. — Pinna hullata (Swainson).
•wofo'.) Ysfoni* jf^oifflferft ,ftldi bnn jjdi' .a^i'l) ru.ur! Jx»hb c oj oaniiM
which there is nothing analogous in the world. The Maltese and
Neapolitans still fashion soft tissues from it, but the stuffs so
manufactured are mere objects of curiosity.
Some thirty species are described as living in the several seas.
Pinna nobilis (Fig. 167), the byssus of which was employed in the
ancient Neapolitan industry, inhabits the shores of the Mediter-
ranean. Pinna bullata, Swainson (Fig. 168), is also a well-known
species.
Our twenty-first family, Ostreidse, contains the genera Lima,
Spondylus, Pecton, Anomia, and the all-important genus Ostrea*
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 373
The common oyster, Ostrea edulis, is found in many seas. It is
unequally valved, modified in shape by the form of the submarine
body to which it happens to be attached. The lower or adherent
valve is concave, always the largest ; the upper one is thin, usually
flat; the shell is lamellar, rough externally, and seems to be com-
posed of broken layers, adhering slightly to each other, as if the
successive layers had been built up from within, and each succeeding
one was an enlargement upon its predecessor. The hinge which
unites the valves is an elastic toothless ligament, placed behind the
centre, which opens the valves.
The interior surface of the valves is smooth and white, diapha-
nous or pearly towards the centre, but near the back an oval or
rounded impression may be observed, to which a thick and whitish
fleshy muscle is attached. This is the central muscle which draws
the valves together, hermetically closing them upon the animal. This
muscle is cut through in the process of opening the oyster.
The animal has no power of locomotion ; its foot is very small,
and often wanting, no siphon, but lies with its mouth open, and
firmly attached to its shell. The shell itself is always adherent, as
if soldered to the rock or other submarine body, the point of
adherence being near the summit of the lower valve.
Let us suppose the oyster opened by the cutting through of the
ligament of the central muscle and of the adductor muscles. When
displayed before our eyes, we see in the bottom of the shell a flattened
shapeless animal, semi-transparent, greyish, and somewhat oval-shaped.
The gastronomist, who seldom sees beyond his nose, thinks that, in
spite of its culinary merits, the oyster belongs to the lowest rank of
animal existence ; but he deceives himself, and does not know how
complex and delicate is the organisation of the humble bivalve. The
animal is enveloped in a sort of smooth, thin, contractile tissue called
the mantle, which folds round it, presenting two lobes, separated on
the greatest part of its circumference, and forming a sort of hood,
the summit of which abuts upon the hinge of the bivalve. The edges
of this mantle are fringed with very small cilia, which the creature can
extend and draw back at pleasure, and which seem to be gifted with
a certain amount of sensibility. It is this mantle which secretes and
deposits the calcareous matter which forms the shell, each plate of
which is an enlargement on the preceding one, until it constitutes a
pyramid of thin convex lamellae.
At the point where the lobes of the mantle meet, near the summit
of the valve, is the mouth of the animal, with its thin membranous
lips. This organ is large and dilatable, and is accompanied by four
374 THE OCEAN W'ORLD
flat triangular lips, by means of which the animal introduces its food
into the stomachal cavity.
A very short gullet is attached to the mouth, which leads to a
pear-shaped stomach. After this stomach comes a slender sinuous
intestine, which, leading obliquely towards the interior, descends a
little, then re-ascends, passes behind the stomachal cavity, nearly on
a level with the mouth, crossing its first path in order to reach the
posterior face of the adductor muscle, in the centre of which it
terminates with a free opening. The stomach and intestines are
surrounded on all sides by the liver, which alone constitutes a notable
portion of the total mass of the organs. This liver is of a blackish
colour, pervaded with a deep yellow liquid, which is the bile. Thus,
the stomach and intestines of the oyster are surrounded by the liver ;
the mouth is connected with the stomach, and the intestinal canal
has an opening of its own.
The heart of the oyster is placed under the liver, and is sur-
rounded closely by the terminal part of the intestines. It is com-
posed, like the same organ in the superior animals, of two distinct
cavities, an auricle and ventricle. From the ventricle issues a vessel,
which is divided into three distinct canals. One of these carries the
blood towards the mouth and labial tentacles : another carries it
towards the liver ; the last distributes the nourishing fluid to the rest
of the body. The blood of the oyster is limpid and colourless ; it
passes successively from the auricle of the heart, where it is vivified,
into the ventricle, and from this last cavity into the great vessel of
which we spoke, which distributes it throughout the interior of the
animal.
The oyster thus possesses a true circulation ; not that double
system which characterises the mammals, and which includes arterial
and pulmonary action, but a simple circulation, as it exists in fishes
and many other animals. It breathes also under the water, after the
manner of fishes, being, like the fish, provided with organs called
gills or branchice, whose function is to separate the oxygen dissolved
in the water from its other ingredients ; these branchiae, which are
placed between the mantle folds, consist of a double series of very
delicate canals, placed close together, not unlike the teeth of a fine
comb.
Having no head, the oyster can have no brain ; the nerves
originate near the mouth, where a great ganglion is visible, whence
issues a pair of nerves which distribute themselves in the regions of
the stomach and liver, terminating in a second ganglion, situated
behind the liver. The first nervous branch distributes its sensibility
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 375
to the mouth and tentacles ; the second, to the respiratory branchiae.
With organs of the senses oysters are unprovided. Condemned
to a sedentary life, riveted to a rock where they have been rooted,
as it were, in their infancy, they neither see nor hear ; touch appears
to be their only sense, and that is placed in the labial tentacles of
the mouth.
The mode of reproduction in these creatures is very peculiar.
The oyster unites in itself the functions of both sexes. In the same
organ are found the eggs — called spat — and the mobile corpuscles
intended to fertilise them.
The eggs are yellowish in colour, and exist in prodigious numbers
in each individual. We are assured that an oyster may carry as many
as two millions of eggs ! Nature always makes ample provision for
the preservation of species ; but in spite of the most ample provision
here displayed, man, in his reckless and wasteful gluttony, has all
but defeated Nature. A tyro can compute how many individuals a
bank of oysters reckoned at 20,000 would produce, at the rate
of 2,000,000 — or 800,000, as other authorities assert — from each one
annually, and it will amount to an incredible number — in fact, each
would multiply itself by millions in three years ; and yet, thanks to
our improvident management, oysters get scarcer every year.
The spawning season is usually from the month of June to the
end of September : during this season the oysters deposit their eggs
in the folds of their mantle. During the period of incubation the
eggs remain surrounded by mucous matter, which is necessary to
their development, the whole having the appearance of a thick cream
— this milky appearance being due to the accumulated mass of ova
surrounded by the mucus : this mass undergoes various changes ot
colour while losing its fluidity, becoming successively yellowish,
greyish, brown, and violet, a condition which indicates the near
termination of the embryo state, for the oysters do not, like many other
inhabitants of the sea, eject their ova; they incubate them in the
folds of their mantle, and only discharge them when they can live
without maternal protection. Nothing- is more curious to witness
than a bank of oysters at the spawning season. Every adult in-
dividual of which it is composed throws out its phalanx of progeny.
A living dust is seen to exhale from the oyster bank, troubling the
water and giving it a thick cloudy appearance, which disseminates
itself little by little in the liquid, until it dissipates and loses itself far
from its focus of production. The spat is soon scattered far and wide
by the waves ; and unless the young oyster finds some solid body to
it can attach itself, it falls an inevitable victim to the larger
3/6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
animals which prey upon it. In this its infant state, when it has just
left the protection of the parent shell, the microscope reveals the
young bivalve as having a perfect shell, and having an apparatus which
is also for the time a swimming pad, ready to adhere to the first solid
body which the current drives it against. This pad or cushion
(which is represented in Fig. 169) is furnished with vibratile cilia,
disposed round the young shell. Aided by the powerful adductor
muscles, with which it is also provided, this cushion is projected
through the water at the will of the young inhabitant, which has every
facility for the purpose : it is even said to swim about near the
mother, before final dismissal from the maternal protection, seeking
shelter at the least alarm between the valves of the parent shell. The
Fig. 169.— Young Oysters furnished with locomotive organs.
pad disappears after the young oyster has finally attached itself to a
permanent bed of its own.
Before this period of its life arrives, however, many are the
dangers to which it is exposed : its enemies are numerous ; they lie
in ambush for it in every cranny ! It has to guard itself against
eddies and currents, which would drive it out to sea, and mud banks,
in which it would be smothered. Crustaceans, worms, and coelente-
rates, with other equally voracious marine inhabitants, prey upon it.
Last, but not least, come the terrible and multiplied engines of the
eager fisherman — and we can readily comprehend why it is that the
oyster should be provided with such accumulated masses of ova.
If the young bivalve is fortunate enough to escape all the snares
and dangers we have enumerated, it grows rapidly. It is quite
microscopic at the period of its discharge from the parent shell ; at
one month it is of the size of a large pea, at the end of six months it
u about three-quarters of an inch, a year after its birth an inch and a
half to two inches, and finally, at the end of three years it has become
BIVALVE MOLLVSCA.
377
Fig. 170.— Groups of Oysters of different ages attached to a block of wood.
merchandise ; that is to say, it is in a state to be sent to the parks
for preservation and feeding. In Fig. 171 we see a group of oysters,*
* We give this illustration as representing the comparative size of the oysters
at different ages ; but it is necessary to state that the specimens were artificially
3/S THE OCEAN WORLD.
of various ages, attached to a piece of wood : A being oysters of
twelve to fifteen months, B five or six months, c three to four months,
o one to two months, and E oysters twenty days after birth.
The species of oysters usually eaten are the common oyster
(Ostrea edulis. Linn.) of our own coasts and the opposite shore, and
the horsefoot oyster (O. hippopus. Linn.) On the Mediterranean
coast are the rose-coloured oyster (O. rosacea, Favanue), and the
milky oyster (O. lacteola, Moquin-Tandon), besides the small and
little-known crested oyster (O. cristata, Born), and the folded oyster
(O. plicata, Chemnitz). On the Corsican coast is the oyster called
foliate (O. lamellosa^ Brocchi).
There are two principal varieties of the common oyster dredged
on the French coast, which differ in size and delicacy of flavour.
These are the Cancale and Ostend oyster. When the first has been
fed for some time in the oyster park, and has assumed its greenish
hue, it is designated the Marenna oyster, from " the park " so named
in the Bay of Seudre. Of this green colour we shall speak else
where.
Who believed Uncle Jack when he told us in our youth of oysters
growing on trees, and oysters so large that they required to be
carved like a round of beef — of oysters on the Coromandel coast as
large as soup-plates ? Nevertheless Uncle Jack's stories were true :
there are oysters which require carving, and oysters have been
plucked off trees. In some parts of America they grow very large.
Virginia possesses nearly 2,000,000 acres of oyster-beds. The sea-
board of Georgia is famed for its immense supplies ; the whole coast
of Long Island, extending to 115 miles, is occupied with them, and
all over the States evidence is to be seen of the estimate in which the
favoured bivalve is held by the American people.
Natural oyster-beds are found in bays, estuaries, and other
sheltered sinuosities of the coast, with shelving and not too rocky
bottoms, such places being, according to the natural law of produc-
tion, favourable for the increase of the colony. Such banks abound
in every sea. In France the oyster-beds of Rochelle, of Rochefort,
the Isles of Re' and Oleron, the Bay of St. Brieuc, of Cancale, and
Granville, are famous for the quality of their produce.
On the Danish coast there are from forty to fifty oyster-banks,
situated on the west coast of Schleswig ; the best bed lying between
the small isles of Sylt, Amron, Fohr, Pelworm, and Nordstrand. At
attached to the block by means of glue for exhibition. Oysters always attach
themselves by the back of the rounded shell near to the hinge, as stated at p. 373.
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 379
the point of Jutland, and opposite Shagen, beds less productive are
found.
The great oyster-beds of England extend from Gravesend, in the
estuary of the Thames and Medway, along the Kentish coast on the
one hand, and the estuary of the Colne and other rivers on the
Essex coast. The Frith of Forth is also famous for its oyster-beds,
extending from Prestonpans far up the estuary of the river \ but,
curiously enough, all these great banks, without exception, have been
impoverished, and all but exhausted, by improvident dredging, in
spite of the " close season " which has always existed.*
" He was a bold man who first ate an oyster," has been said
before. The name of the courageous individual has not been
recorded, but Mr. Bertram, in his " Harvest of the Sea," tells us a
legend concerning him : — " Once upon a time " — it must have been a
long time ago — "a man of melancholy mood was walking by the
shores of a picturesque estuary, listening to the monotonous murmur
of the sad sea-waves, when he espied a very old and ugly oyster-shell
all coated over with parasites and sea-weeds. It was so unpre-
possessing that he kicked it with his foot, and the animal, astonished
at receiving such rude treatment on its own domain, gaped wide
with indignation, preparatory to closing its valves still more tightly.
Seeing the beautiful cream-coloured layers that shone within the
shelly covering, and fancying that the interior of the shell itself must
be beautiful, he lifted up the aged ' native ' for further examination,
inserting his finger and thumb within the valves. The irate mollusc,
thinking, no doubt, that this was meant as a further insult, snapped
its pearly doors down upon his fingers, causing him considerable
pain. After releasing his wounded digits, our inquisitive gentleman
very naturally put it in his mouth. ' Delightful ! " exclaimed he,
opening wide his eyes \ ' what is this ? ' and again he sucked his
finger. Then the great truth flashed upon him that he had found
out a new delight — had, in fact, achieved the most important dis
covery ever made. He proceeded at once to realise the thought.
With a stone he opened the oyster's stronghold, and gingerly tried
a piece of the mollusc itself. ' Delicious ! ' he exclaimed ; and there
and then, with no other condiment than its own juice, with no
accompaniment of foaming brown stout or pale Chablis to wash it
* The cause of the present scarcity of oysters is a much- vexed question.
Mr. Frank Buckland, a most excellent authority on oyster and fish culture
attributes it to sudden changes of temperature at the critical period when th
spat is newly formed, rather than to over-dredging.
380 THE OCEAN WORLD.
down, no newly-cut, well-buttered brown bread, did that solitary
anonymous man inaugurate the first oyster banquet."
Another story makes the act of eating the first oyster a punish-
ment The poetaster also had his views on the subject : —
"The man had sure a palate covered o'er
With brass, or steel, that on the rocky shore
First broke the oozy oyster's pearly coat,
And risked the living morsel down his throat."
And ever since men have gone on eating oysters. Emperors and
poets, princes and priests, pontiffs and statesmen, orators and
painters, have feasted on the favoured bivalve.
Man has made use of the oyster from the most remote antiquity.
Among the debris of festivals which precede by ages the epoch of
written history, oyster-shells are found. On the " midden heaps " of
northern Europe they are often discovered, mingling with other
rubbish and with stone implements, evidently the refuse of very
ancient feasts. We have all read of the classic feasts of the Romans,
which began with oysters brought from fabulous distances. Vitellius
ate oysters all day long, and the idea prevailed that he could eat
a thousand. Calisthenes, the philosopher, was a passionate oyster
eater ; so was Caligula \ Seneca the wise could eat his hundred ;
and the great Cicero did not despise the savoury bivalve. Lucullus
had sea-water brought to his villa from the shores of Campania, in
which he bred them in great abundance for the use of his guests.
To another Roman, Sergius Grata, we owe the original idea of the
oyster-park. He invented the oyster-pond, in which he bred oysters,
not for his own table, but for profit.
Among modern celebrities whose love of oysters is recorded, we
may mention Louis XL, who feasted the learned doctors of the
Sorbonne once a year on oysters. Another Louis invested his cook
with an order of nobility, in reward for his skill in cooking them.
Cervantes loved oysters, although he satirised oyster-dealers. Marshal
Turgot used to eat a hundred or two just to whet his appetite.
Rousseau, Helvetius, Diderot, the Abbe Raynal, and Voltaire, are
recorded lovers of oysters. Danton, Robespierre, and other of the
revolutionists, frequented the oyster salons of Paris. Cambaceres
was famous for his oyster feasts ; and it is recorded of the great
Napoleon that he always partook of the bivalve on the eve of his
great battles, when they could be procured.
In short, it has been demonstrated as a gastronomic truth that
there is no feast worthy of a connoisseur where oysters do not come
io the front. It is their office to open the way by that gentle excite-
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. ' 381
ment which prepares the stomach for its proper function, digestion j
in a word, the oyster is the key of that paradise called appetite.
" There is no alimentary substance, not even excepting bread, which
does not produce indigestion under given circumstances," says
Reveille-Parise, " but oysters never." This is an homage which is
due to them : " We may eat them to-day, to-morrow, eat them always,
and in profusion, without fear of indigestion." Dr. Gastaldi could
swallow, we are assured, his forty dozen with impunity — quite a bank
must he have eaten ! He was unfortunately struck with apoplexy at
table before a pate defoie gras.
Montaigne quaintly says, to be subject to colic, or deny oneself
oysters, presents two evils to choose from, since one must choose
between the two, and hazard something for his pleasure.
England has always been famous for its oysters, and its pearls are said
to have been the chief incentive to Caesar's invasion. It is not, there-
fore, to be supposed that British magnates could be indifferent to the
" native." But the bivalve has perhaps been more celebrated, in prose
and verse, north of the Tweed than south, where silent enjoyment is
more relished than noisy demonstration. Dugald Stewart, Hume,
Cullen, and other Scotch philosophers of the last centuries, had their
"oyster ploys" as an accompaniment to their "high jinks," in the
quaint and dingy taverns of the old town of Edinburgh ; and what the
bivalve has been to modern celebrities let the " Noctes Ambrosianse "
tell.
The oyster may thus be said to be the palm and glory of the table.
It is considered the very perfection of digestive aliment. From Stock-
holm to Naples, from London to St. Petersburg, it is always in re-
quest. At St. Petersburg they cost a paper rouble (nearly one
shilling), and at Stockholm fivepence each. For the last year or
two the English oyster eater has had to pay from two shillings to half-
a-crown a dozen for choice natives.
For his daily nourishment a man of middle size requires a
quantity of food equal to twelve ounces of dry nitrogenised substance.
According to this calculation, it would be necessary to swallow sixteen
dozen of oysters to make up the necessary quantity. The small pro-
portion of nutritive matter explains the extreme digestibility of the
oyster. It also explains the immense consumption of them attributed
to the Emperor Vitellius. Without this being so Vitellius, all emperor
and master of the world as he was, never could have absorbed twelve
hundred oysters by way of whetting his appetite.
The gourmets were long of opinion that the quadrangular-shaped
muscle or cushion in the oyster was the most savoury and exciting
382 THE OCEAN VSORLD.
part. Certain distinguished amateur performers adopted and pro-
claimed the principle of dividing transversely the body of the mollusc,
and eating the cushion only. Natural history explains this gastro-
nomical discovery. It recognises the fact that the bile secreted by
the liver is contained in this substance, that it accelerates while it
exhausts the qualitative surface of the tongue and palate, aiding also
the functions of the stomach.
We have described the organisation of the oyster, and we have
said something of the enjoyment it confers. Did it ever occur to the
various societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals to con-
sider whether the oyster might not be a very proper object of their
care ? Let us see if we can make out a case for them.
We commence operations upon them by dragging them violently
from their own element. We place them out afterwards in water-
parks, more or less briny and unsuitable, filled with villanous green
matter, which presently pervades their breathing apparatus, impreg-
nating, obstructing, and colouring it ; the oyster swells, fattens, and
soon attains that state of obesity which verges on sickness.
When the poor creature has attained its livid green colour, it
is fished up a second time. Alas ! it is now doomed neither to
return to the sea, to the park, nor to its native rock. It has water
at its disposal only in the very small quantity which it can retain
between its two valves, a quantity scarcely sufficient to keep away
asphyxia. It is shut up in an obscure narrow basket— an ignoble
prison-house, without door or window. It seems to be forgotten that
they are animals : they are piled upon the pavement like inert mer-
chandise. The basket is carried by railway; the animal, shaken out of
existence almost, is at last landed at the door of some oyster-shop ; and
this is the critical moment for the poor bivalve ! It is scarcely thrown
into a tub with water enough to remind it of its former luxurious
life, when it is again seized by the pitiless master of its fate. With a
great knife he brutally opens the shell, cuts through the muscle by
which it adheres to the valve, and violently detaches it, after breaking
the hinges. It is now laid out on a plate, exposed to every current
of air, and in this state of suffering it is carried to the table. There
the pitiless gourmet powders it over with the most pungent pepper,
squeezes over the wounded and still bleeding body the abomination
of its race in the shape of citric acid or vinegar, and then, alas ! with
a silver knife which cannot cut, he wounds and bruises it a second
time ; or, worse still, he saws and tears and rends it from its remaining
shell ; he seizes it with a three-pronged fork, which is driven through
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 385
liver and stomach, and throws it into his mouth, where the teeth cut,
crush, and grind it, and, while still living and palpitating, red aced to
an inanimate mass, these organs fast triturate it, while our gourmet is
drinking its blood, its fat, and its bile.
We have said that oysters have no head, no arms — that they are
without eyes (although that is disputed), without ears, aiH without
nose ; that they do not stir — that they never cry !
Agreed, perfectly agreed ; but all these negatives do not prevent
its being sensible to pain. Two eminent Germans, Herren Brandt
and Ratzeburg, have proved that they possess a well-developed
nervous system; and if they possess sensation they must suffer.
" Can an animal with nerves be impassible?" asks Voltaire. " Can
we suppose any such impossible contradiction in Nature ?"
There is consolation, however, for all concerned. Let the
humanitarian fishermen, oyster-dredgers, merchants, and consumers,
console themselves with the vast difference between the helpless
imperfect mollusc and the higher classes of animals. In the case of
the former we swallow the animal, scarcely thinking of its animal
nature. It is the denizen of another element, lives in a medium in
which we cannot exist, presents itself in a form, so to speak, degraded
— an obscure vitality, motions undecided, and habits scarcely dis-
cernible. We may therefore see the oyster mutilated, mutilate them
oneself, grind them, and swallow them, without emotion or remorse.
A learned naturalist dwelling on the sea-shore possessed himself
one day of a dozen oysters. He wished to study their organisation ;
he turned them, and turned them again, examined their several parts
inside and out. He made drawings of and described them, and,
having satisfied himself that he had exhausted his scientific skill in
observing them, he swallowed them ; the interesting bivalves had lost
nothing of their excellence, and the examination did not prejudice
their flavour.
Oyster fishing is pursued in a very different manner in different
countries. Round Minorca, divers, with hammers attached to the
right hand, descend to the depth of a dozen fathoms, and bring up in
their left hand as many of the bivalves as they can carry, two fisher-
men, usually associating for the purpose, diving alternately until the
boat is filled. On the English and French coasts the dredge is
employed, as represented in PLATE XVI. This operation is also
necessary to keep down the marine vegetation, which would stifle the
oysters ; the engine is of iron, and is very heavy. It is thrown over-
board, and descends to the bottom of the sea, which it ploughs and
N
3 86 THE OCEAN WORLD.
scrapes up, detaching the oysters, and throwing Jhem into a net
attached to the dredge. In this process oysters, large and small, are
torn from their native bed, some going into the net, but a larger
number are buried in the mud. It would be difficult to imagine a
more destructive process ; and when the habits of the oyster are
considered, it is evidently one admirably contrived to destroy the
race.
In France oyster dredging is conducted by fleets of thirty or
forty boats, each carrying four or five men. At a fixed hour, and
under the surveillance of a coast-guard in a pinnace bearing the
national flag, the flotilla commences the fishing. In the estuary of
the Thames the practice is much the same, although no official
surveillance is observed. Each bark is provided with four or five
dredges, each resembling in shape a common clasp purse. These
dredges are formed of network, with a strong iron frame, as repre-
sented in Fig. 171, the iron frame serving the double purpose of
acting as a scraper, and keeping the mouth open, while giving it a
proper pressure as it travels over the oyster-beds. When the boat is
over the oyster scarp, the dredge is let down, and no more attractive
sight exists than that presented by the well-appointed Whitstable
boats on one side of the estuary, or the Colne boats on the other,
as they wear and tack over the oyster-beds, bearing up from time to
time to haul in the dredge, and empty its contents into the hold.
The tension of the rope is the signal for hauling in, and very hetero-
geneous are the contents of the dredge — sea-weeds, star-fishes,
lobsters, crabs, actinia, and stones. In this manner the common
oyster-beds on both sides of the Channel were ploughed up by the
oyster dredger pretty much as the ploughman on shore turns up a
field. The consequence was that, twenty years ago, the French
beds were totally exhausted, and France had to look to foreign
countries for its oysters. Oyster-farms which had employed 1,400
men and 200 boats were reduced to employing 200 men and twenty
boats. Similar results from over-dredging would have followed, no
doubt, on this side the Channel had the mollusc not been protected
by the companies and private proprietors who held the oyster-beds
in the large estuaries. This state of things in France led to some
important discoveries in the science of oyster culture, which have
produced important changes there.
The name of Sergius Grata has already been mentioned as a culti-
vator of oysters. He lived in the fifth century before our era, and
according to Pliny he first attempted parking oysters at Baia in the
time of the. orator Lucius Crassus. He was the first to recognise the
BI VA L VF. MOLL US CA .
superior flavour of the oysters of the Lucrin Lake, the Avernus of the
poets, probably for trade reasons of his own, for then, as now, Reveille-
Parise remarks, writing on the subject, " tradesmen speculated on the
weaknesses of human gourmandism." But Sergius really created a
new industry, which is still practised in thousands of places much as
he left it. As a proof of the perfection to which Sergius had brought
oyster culture, his contemporaries said of him, in allusion to the
hanging banks which he invented, that if he had been prevented from
Fig, 171. — Dredge employed in Oyster fisheries.
raising oysters in the Lucrin Lake, " he would have made them grow
on the house-tops." The traveller who visits this celebrated lake
finds now only a miry puddle. The precious oysters placed there by
Catiline's grandfather are replaced by a host of miserable eels, which
leap in the mud ; vile mountains of ashes, coal, and pumice-stone,
which were thrown up in one night like a mushroom, having reduced
the once celebrated lake into the state described.
Rondeletius also speaks of a fisherman who understood the art of
oyster culture.
The Neapolitan Lake Fusaro — the terrible Acheron of the poets —
is a great oyster-park, in which Art is made effectually to aid Nature
in the multiplication of its products. This famous oyster-bank, which
THE OCEAN WORLD.
is represented in PLATE XViL, lies in the neighbourhood of Baia and
Cumae. It forms one of the most interesting spots in that beautiful
bay. In the month of February, 1865, M. Figuier tells us he traversed
its celebrated coast, seated himself on the banks of the historical lake,
and tasted the produce of this curious manufacture of living beings,'
whose origin dates from the Roman period.
Lake Fusaro was in ancient times a place of evil report : Virgil
immortalised it as the mythological Acheron ; but its landscape had
Fig. 172. — Artificial Oyster-bank in Lake Fusaro.
nothing of the sadness and desolation which accords with the sojourn
of the dead. It is a salt pond, shaded with a girdle of magnificent
trees. It is about a league in circumference, and about a fathom in
depth at its deepest part ; its bottom is muddy and black, like the rest
of this volcanic region.
It will be understood, from what has been said, that the chief
obstacle to the reproduction of oysters is the absence of any solid body
to which the young spawn can attach itself, and the means of shelter
from animals which prey upon them. The fishermen living on the
shores of Lake Fusaro have long realised this, and provided against
it by warehousing, as it were, in the lake near the sea, the oysters
ready to discharge their spawn, while retaining the young generations
Bl VAL VE MOLL USCA.
39 *
captive in the protected basins, where they are sheltered from various
causes of destruction to which oysters are exposed in the open sea.
Upon the bottom of the lake, and all around it, the proprietors of
Fusaro have here and there constructed hillocks, with stones heaped
up, and artificial rocks, raised sufficiently to shelter the depots from
mud and slime. Upon these rocks they deposit the young oysters
gathered in the Gulf of Tarentum. Each of these rock-works is sur-
rounded by a girdle of piles, driven close to each other, and raised a
Fig. 173. — Pillars with cords attached in Lake Fusaro.
little above the surface of the water, as represented in Fig. 172.
Other piles are distributed in long lines, and bound to each other by
a cord, from which are suspended fagots of young wood. In the
spawning season the oysters which have been deposited on the arti-
ficial rocks discharge the myriads of young fry which have been
nurtured in the folds of their mantles. The fagots suspended from
the piles arrest the fry before they are driven away by the waves.
By these precautions the proprietors of Fusaro have provided for the
preservation of the young fry, besides removing many of the natural
enemies of the young oyster.
In other places the piles are distributed in long lines and bound
together by strong cords, from which fagots of brushwood are sus-
pended, on which the young spawn lay hold, as in Fig. 173.
392 THE OCEAN WORLD.
By means of these arrangements the pregnant oyster deposits its
very numerous progeny in quiet repose ; the young fry are inter-
cepted by the fagots and hurdles suspended between the piles, where
the young oysters develop themselves under the favourable conditions
of repose, temperature, and light. When the fishing season arrives,
the piles and fagots which surround the beds are removed, and the
oysters are gathered suitable for market. The oysters thus selected
for sale are packed loosely in osier baskets, and sunk, while waiting
for purchasers, into a reserve or park. This park is established on
the shores of the lake. It is constructed of piles, which support a
gangway, provided with hooks, from which the baskets, filled with
living oysters, are suspended, ready for sale.
Some twenty years ago the oyster-beds of France had become
totally exhausted under the open system of dredging ; and circum-
stances having brought the protective system pursued at Fusaro
under the notice of M. Coste — a learned academician, to whom
France is indebted for restoring to it its oysters — he reported to the
Emperor in 1858 that at Rochelle, Marennes, Rochefort, at the Isles
of Re and Oleron, where there had been formerly twenty-three oyster-
beds, there were now only five, and these in danger of being destroyed
by the increase of mussels ; that at the Bay of St. Brieuc, so naturally
suited for oyster culture, the beds were reduced to three ; that even
on the classic oyster grounds of Cancale and Granville, it was only by
the most careful administration that their destruction was prevented,
while the increasing numbers of consumers threatened altogether to
destroy an industry essentially necessary for the support of a maritime
population.
The impulse given by this report has been productive of the most
satisfactory results in France. All along the coast the maritime
populations are now actively engaged in oyster culture. Oyster
parks, in imitation of those at Fusaro, have sprung up. In his
appeal to the Emperor, M. Coste suggested that the State, through
the Administration of Marine, and by means of the vessels at its
command, should take steps for sowing the whole French coast in
such a manner as to re-establish the oyster-banks now in ruins,
extend those which were prosperous, and create others anew where-
ever the nature of the bottom would permit. The first serious
attempt to carry out the views of the distinguished academician
was made in the Bay of St. Brieuc. In the month of April in the
same year in which his report was received operations commenced
by planting 3,000,000 mother-oysters which had been dredged in
the common ground ; brood from the oyster grounds at Cancale and
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 393
Trequiers were distributed in ten longitudinal lines on tiles, frag-
ments of pottery, and valves of shells. At the end of eight months
the progress of the beds was tested, and the dredge in a few
minutes brought up 2,000 oysters fit for the table, while two
fascines drawn up at random contained nearly 20,000, from one to
two inches in diameter. Two of these fascines exposed to public
view at Beni and Patrieux excited the astonishment of the maritime
population.
This result encouraged M. Coste to pursue his experiments upon
a greater scale; and he now proposed to bring the whole littoral under
a regulated system of oyster culture. In the roads of Toulon and in
Lake Thau, which touches this port, the same system was put in force
by the Administration of Marine as had already been done in the Bay
of Arcachon and in the Isle of Re. In these localities oyster culture
assumed gigantic proportions. Associations were formed for the
purpose of prosecuting them, and forming oyster-parks.
These exertions roused the curiosity of foreign nations. Van
Beneden, the distinguished Professor of Natural History at Louvain,
and M. Eschrecht of Copenhagen, visited France, to study the
arrangements for oyster culture. M. Coste demonstrated that parks
could be established on all places visited by the tide; and, under his
advice, the Bay of Arcachon is now transformed into a vast field of
production, which increases every day, giving the happiest presages
of an abundant harvest. Already 1,200 capitalists, associated
with a similar number of fishermen, have caused a surface of 988
acres, which is exposed at low water, to be planted with oysters. In
this bay the State has organised two model farms for experimental
purposes, in which tiles, fascines, and valves of shells are laid down,
with other appliances, to which the young oysters may attach them-
selves. These expedients have been so successful, that the park,
which has cost about ^"114, is now estimated to be worth about
,£8,000 in money, with a total of 5,000,000 oysters, large and small.
The Isle of Re, which was originally surrounded by a muddy bottom
ill adapted for oyster culture, has been totally changed, so that in two
years four leagues of foreshore have been turned into a rich and
profitable oyster-bed; 1,200 parks are in full activity, and 2,000
others are in course of construction, the whole forming a complete
girdle round the island.
Every one has heard of the green oysters of Marennes, the
preservation, amelioration, and ripening of these oysters, so to speak,
representing a very considerable branch of industry in France. In
order to give the reader some idea of its importance, we shall give
N*
394 THE OCEAN WORLD.
here a brief summary of M. Coste's voyage of exploration on the
French littoral.
The parks at Marennes, in which the oysters are placed in order
to acquire the green colour which characterises them, are basins
stretching along both banks of the Seudre for many leagues. They
are locally known as claires, and differ from the oyster-parks of other
countries in this particular — that, while the ordinary parks are so
arranged as to be submerged at every return of the tide, the basins of
Marennes are so arranged that they can only be submerged at spring
tides ; that is, at the new and full moon, when the waters rise beyond
the ordinary level.
The basins or claires occupy from 250 to 300 square yards of
superficies ; two sluices permit of the entrance and withdrawal of water
at will, so as to maintain it at the level most convenient to the
industrial wants of the place, or to empty it altogether when it is
necessary to cleanse the basin, pave the bottom, and furnish it with
a fresh supply of oysters.
When these necessary works are completed, advantage is taken of
the first spring tide to fill the basin. When the tide begins to ebb,
the sluices are closed, so as to retain sufficient water in the basins ;
and while thus shut up, salt held in solution is deposited.
When the basin has been filled with sea-water for the necessary
time, and the bottom is sufficiently impregnated with salt, it is
emptied and left to dry ; and now, the soil being prepared, it only
remains to furnish it with oysters of a mellow and ripe age, in order
to give them their green hue. Towards the month of September, at
low water, the whole sea-side population of Marennes go to gather
oysters on the pavement left uncovered by the ebbing tide, or by
using a dredger in the deeper parts of the claires where the water still
remains. A temporary magazine for the reception of the oysters thus
gathered is erected on the banks, which the water revisits twice a day.
The young are reserved for cultivation on the parks or claires ; the
fullest are sold for consumption in the neighbourhood ; but the
quantity of oysters raised at Marennes is insufficient to supply the
demand. About a third of the provision intended for the claires
comes from the coast of Brittany, of Normandy, and La Vendee.
" These foreign oysters," says M. Coste, " never attain the fine flavour
of those bred in the locality. It is necessary to keep them for a long
time in the claires before they are sufficiently ameliorated, and, even
when they become green, they retain traces of their primitive nature,
remaining hard, in spite of the new qualities imparted to them by
cultivation ; a certain bitterness remains, which is easily distinguished
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 395
by the true amateur ; it is the same with indigenous adult oysters.
When they are taken at this stage of their existence the colouring does
not succeed with them ; — it is only, so to speak, the false brand used
to give a speculative value to the merchandise. It is not enough
that the mollusc should have a fine flavour ; it must have the peculiar
taste. It is not enough that it has the green hue ; it is necessary
that these qualities should pervade it from the earliest age, and that
the culture of the claires should continue to the end." It is thus
necessary that the oysters for the claires of Marennes should be
selected when from twelve to eighteen months old, that the shells
should be well-formed and free from all foreign bodies adhering to
the surface. Being thus carefully picked out, the oysters are dis-
tributed over the bottom of the claires with a shovel, and afterwards
so arranged by the hand that they may not touch each other when
they increase in size ; that they do not embarrass each other by the
movements of their valves ; and that nothing should interfere with
the regularity of their forms. The young colony reposes under a
sheet of water from twelve to eighteen inches deep, which is, as we
have said, only renewed at spring tides, which reach the level. Nor
are the oysters abandoned to themselves in these privileged beds
while they are growing and ripening. They are objects of continual
care and of special manipulation. The spring tides visit the claires
charged with mud, which, if deposited in the motionless basins,
would act as a poison to the young mollusc ; hence the necessity of
transporting them from one claire charged with mud into others free
from such accumulations \ and this is a process in constant operation,
until the animals are finally gathered for consumption, Oysters
deposited in the claires aged eighteen months should remain two
years before they are ready for use ; but three and even four years
are required to give them the full degree of perfection which
characterises the best products of the Marennes oyster-parks.
Oysters placed in the reservoirs in an adult state become green, it
is true, in a very few days, but they never attain the exquisite flavour
of those which have been bred in the parks, and have undergone the
costly manipulation described from their earliest years.
The question arises, What is the colouring principle which is here
in operation ? The green colour is not general ; it is shown princi-
pally on the branchiae, upon the labial tentacles and intestinal canal ;
it is often rather undecided; and the colouring matter appears to
differ chemically from all other known pigments of green colour.
Must it be attributed to the soil of the claire ? This is its most
probable origin. But many naturalists insist that the colouring matter
THE OCEAN WORLD.
proceeds from a green-coloured infusorial animalcule. Others have
hazarded the opinion that it is a disease of the liver in our unfortunate
bivalve which produces the colour. Bile secreted in excess by a
diseased liver would give a green hue to the parenchyma of the
respiratory organs of an animal rendered sick by the exceptional
treatment to which it has been subjected. Of these three opinions,
says M. Figuier, the first, as we have said, presents the greatest
appearance of probability.
•
The system of oyster farms, which has worked admirably for tne
companies themselves, has proved of doubtful utility, so far as the
oyster-eating public is concerned, as the following sketch of the
Whitstable oyster farms will show. The oyster farm at Whitstable is
co-operative in the best sense of the term, and has been in operation
for many years. The company possesses large oyster grounds, and
n fine fleet of boats kept for the purpose of dredging and planting the
beds; it is established under the Joint-Stock Companies Act, but
there is no other way of entrance into it but by birth, as none of the
free dredgermen of the town can hold shares. When a man dies his
interest in the company dies with him, but his widow, if he leaves
one, obtains a pension. The affairs of the company are managed
by twelve directors, who are called " the jury."
"The layings at Whitstable," to summarise Mr. Bertram, "occupy
about a mile and a half square ; and the oyster-beds have been so
prosperous as to have, obtained the name of the ' happy fishing
grounds/ Whitstable lies in a sandy bay, formed by a small branch
of the Medway, which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the main-
land. Throughout this bay, from the town of Whitstable at its
eastern extremity to the old town of Faversham, which lies several
miles inland, the whole of the estuary is occupied by oyster farms,
on which the maritime population, to the extent of 3,000 people
and upwards, is occupied ; the sum paid for labour by the various
companies being set down at ^160,000 per annum, besides the
employment given at Whitstable in building and repairing boats,
dredges, and other requisites for the oyster-fishing. The business of
the various companies is to feed oysters for the London and other
markets, to protect the spawn or floatsome, as the dredgers call it,
which is emitted on their own beds, and to furnish, by purchase or
otherwise, the new brood necessary to supply the beds which have
been taken up for consumption."
We have hinted above that in oyster, as in other fisheries, a
wasteful spirit of extravagance has hitherto prevailed. It appears,
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A 397
however, that no rule can be laid down even as to the particular yeai
in which the oysters will spawn, much less where it will be carried to ;
for, although the artificial contrivances adopted by Sergius Grata for
saving the spawn are perfectly well known to the parties interested
here, they have not hitherto been imitated ; the practice of the com-
panies and private owners of oyster- layers being to purchase their young
brood from the dredgers and others who fish along the public foreshore
and open grounds on the Kent and Essex coasts, and even as far
north as- the Frith of Forth. The little Bay of Pont, for instance, on
the Essex coast, which is an open piece of water sixteen miles long
and three broad, free to all, and which formerly yielded considerable
supplies to Billingsgate, now gives employment to 150 boats, each
with crews of three or four men, who are wholly employed in obtain-
ing young brood — that is, oysters from eighteen months to two years
old — which they sell to the oyster farmers. The result is, that the
oyster farms have become a vast monopoly. By tacit consent they
agree to supply the market at some J£8 sterling per bushel ; they
pay the dredger one-fourth of that sum ; and as the common fishing
grounds are thus rendered mere nurseries of young brood, the
lover of the bivalve must reconcile himself to pay a monopoly price
for the precious morsel.
The system pursued at Whitstable, and other oyster-parks in the
estuary of the Thames and Medway, is most efficient. The oysters
reared in them, called " native," in contradistinction to those called
" commons,'' which are bred in their natural beds, are justly considered
to be very 'superior in flavour, although they are a mixed breed, being
brought from every quarter to augment the stock.
The Thames, or "native "system, is as follows : — Every year each
layer is gone over and examined by means of a dredge, successive
portions being done day by day, till it may be said that each individual
oyster has been examined ; the young brood is detached from its bed,
the double oysters are separated, and all kinds of enemies killed.
During three days in each week dredging is pursued for " planting ; "
that is, for transference from one bed to another more suitable for
their growth or fattening, and for the removal of the dead or sickly
oysters and of mussels. On the other three days dredging for
market takes place, when the more mature beds are dredged, and as
many oysters are lifted as are required. Not only is this constant
dredging of the beds themselves necessary, but the public beds im-
mediately outside require the same care to keep them in a fit state,
and free from enemies.
The same story of over-fishing and improvidence extends round
THE OCEAN WORLD.
our whole coast. The far-famed Pandores obtained at Prestonpans,
near Edinburgh, once so cheap, are becoming scarce and dear. The
brood is caught and barreled for export to Holland and other places,
especially the Thames oyster farms. English buyers pick the grown
oysters for Manchester and other large provincial markets ; and the
Corporation of Edinburgh, the Duke of Buccleuch, and other
proprietors of the foreshore, have just interfered in time to prevent
the total destruction of the trade, when the wild song of the
Cockenzie dredgerman might have been left to charm some future
antiquary, as it is now said to charm the oyster into the dredge with
its refrain : —
" The herring it loves the merry moonlight,
The mackerel it loves the wind ;
But the oyster it loves the dredger's song,
For it comes of a gentle kind."
jrii *vi srtT .aiofiru :(i-oiib* pdj ibm'//
The Scallop-shell (Pecten varius] is round, nearly equal-sided,
resting on the right valve, which is more convex, and marked with
radiating ribs. Linnaeus made the mistake of confounding with the
Ostrca a great number of shells, which, by their channeled edges and
surfaces, strongly reminded one of the arrangements of the teeth of
a comb, whence their name of Pecten. They were well known to
naturalists long before the time of Linnaeus, under the name of
Pilgrims' shells, a name which came into use from the practice which
prevailed among pilgrims in the middle ages— we know not why — of
ornamenting their habits and hats with the valves of some of the
species.
The shell of the species of Pecten is in general nearly circular,
more or less elongated, and terminated towards the summit in a
straight line, forming a sort of triangular appendage called the ear, to
which the hinges are attached. The valves are very regular, but
with no resemblance to each other. In some species, the shell of
which is closely shut, the lower valve is more or less convex than the
upper one. In others, both valves are convex. The hinge is without
teeth, and the ligament, which is intended to close the shell, is in-
serted into a triangular depression or dimple. The retractile muscles
are unequal, and nearly central. The valves are not nacred inside,
and are formed on their exterior surface of numerous fluted channels,
which spring from a lobe more or less pointed at the summit,
diverging towards the circumference. The edges are sometimes
smooth, as in the Watered Pecten (P. pseudamussium, Fig. 174), but
more frequently they are formed in strips or scales, as in the Smooth-
shelled Pecten (P. glaber, Fig. 175). Upon the whole, however,, the
II. -Pecten purpuratus (Lamarck.)
VT — Pecten islandicus (Chemnitz. )
XVTU.-Pectinida.
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 4OI
Pectens are very variable, but always elegant in form ; the colours are
frequently lively and brilliant. In PLATE XVIII. some of the most
striking forms are represented, as in Fig. L, the Ducal Mantle {Pecten
pallium], an inhabitant of the Indian Ocean, remarkable for its
elegant form, its twelve radiating stripes, diverging towards the cir-
cumference, the horizontal furrows of its salient scales, and the
striking distribution of its white spots upon a bed of red and brown
marble ; Fig. II., the Purple Pecten ; Fig. III., the Coral Pecten ;
Fig. IV., the Tiger Pecten; Fig. V., the Foliaceous Pecten; and
Fig. VI., the Northern Pecten.
The animal which inhabits the shells belonging to this genus has
&kl$
Fig. 174.— Pecten pseudamussium (Chenu). Fig. 175.— Pecten glaber (Linnaeus.)
the general form of the oyster, differing however from it in a remark-
able manner. The edges of the mantle are furnished with multiplied
fringes of simple tentacles, between which we find other tentacular
appendages a little thicker, each terminating in a sort of small pearl,
vividly coloured, which has been taken for an eye, and to which is
attached a nervous thread. Another difference is that the branchiae, in
place of being connected to each other and the mantle lobes forming
as in Ostrea a complete branchial chamber, here are crescent-shaped,
and are quite unconnected posteriorly, and have excurrent canals.
The mouth is provided with foliaceous lips, and a foot is present,
somewhat finger-like, grooved, and byssiferous when young.
While the oyster shell is completely fixed to its bed, the Pecten is.
on the contrary, perfectly free, and shifts from place to place, moving
in the water even with a certain amount of agility ; by smartly closing
4O2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
its half-opened valves and forcibly expelling the water, it moves back-
ward by a sort of recoil ; this action, repeated many times, compels the
animal to move almost in spite of itself, and enables it to avoid
danger, or directs its steps towards the spot it wishes to reach.
The Pectens, of which 176 species are described, are inhabitants
of every known sea. Twenty species belong to Europe, among
which we may mention P. opercularis, represented in Fig. 176; P.
glaber(V\g. 175), and P. mvea. Fig. 177 represents the White-mantled
if ffl O)
Fig. 176.— Pecten opercularis (Linnaeus).
Pecten (P. plica, Linn.) of the Indian Ocean, and Fig. 178, the Con-
centric Pecten (P. japonicd) of the Japan seas.
Among the Ostreadse the shells of several species of the genus
Spondylns are distinguished for their variety of form and the brilliant
colours with which they are decorated. This makes them much
sought after by amateur collectors, and procures for them a high
price. The shell of Spondylus is solid and thick, with unequal
adherent valves, nearly always bristling with spines, forming a very
peculiar kind of ornamentation to the valves ; the hinges have two
very strong teeth. The animals which inhabit this shell resemble
the oyster in many respects, but they still more closely resemble the
Pectens. The edges of the mantle are provided with two rows of
tentacles, the exterior row being, many of them, furnished at their
extremities with coloured tubercles. As examples, we note several
III. — Sponclylus radians (Lamarck.)
II.— Spondylus imperialis (Chemn.).
V. — Spondylus crassisquama (Lamarck.)
VL— Spondylus gsederopus (Linn.).
XIX.— Spondylus.
BIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 405
species of these bivalves for representation. Spondylus regius
(Fig. L, PLATE XIX.) is, perhaps, the most remarkable for its immense
spines. Spondylus radians, Lamarck (Fig. III.), is noted for its
elegant form. Spondylus avicularis (Fig. IV.) shows remarkable
inequality in the valves. Spondylus iinperialis, Chenu (Fig. II.), has
long projecting spines, like feet; and the Scaly Spondylus (S. crassis-
qiiama, Fig. V.) is covered with scales arranged like so many roofing-
tiles.
Like Ostrea, the genus Spondylus is frequently found firmly rooted
Fig. 177. — Pecten plica (Linnaeus). Fig. 178. — Pecten japonica (Gmellin).
to rocks and other submarine bodies, and, often er still, heaped one
upon the other, like herrings in their barrel.
These animals belong essentially to the seas of warm countries.
We find them, however, occupying considerable space in the
Mediterranean, where the S. gcederopus (Fig. VI.) abounds.
But the most remarkable species of all is assuredly Spondylus
regius (Fig. L, PLATE XIX.) This species is a native of the Indian
Ocean, and at one time there scarcely existed three fragments of
this rare shell in the museums of Europe. M. Chenu relates in one
of his books an anecdote which would prove — if any proof were
necessary — how far the desire of a collector to obtain possession of
some rare and costly specimen will carry him in order to attain his
object. "M. R ," says M. Chenu, "was Professor of Botany to
the Faculty of Paris, and was, as sometimes happens, more learned
than rich ; he wished, on the invitation of a stranger, to purchase
one of these shells at a very high price, which might be from 3,000
4O6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
to 6,000 francs ; the bargain was made, and the price agreed upon ;
it was only necessary to pay. The money in the Professor's hands
made only a small part of the sum the merchant was to receive for
his shell, and he would not part with it without payment. M. R ,
now consulting his desire to possess the shell more than his weak
resources, made up secretly a parcel of his scanty plate, and went out
to sell it. Without consulting his wife, he replaced his silver plate
by articles of tin, and ran to the merchant to secure his coveted
Spondylus, which he believed to be S. regius.
" The hour of dinner arrived, and we may imagine the astonish-
ment of Madame R , who could not comprehend the strange
metamorphosis of her plate. She delivered herself of a thousand
painful conjectures on the subject. M. R , on his part, returned
home happy with his shell, which he had committed to the safe
custody of a box placed in his coat pocket. But, as he approached
the house, he paused, and began for the first time to think of the
reception he might meet with. The reproaches which awaited him,
however, were compensated when he thought of the treasure he
carried home. Finally, he reached home, and Madame R 's
wrath was worthy of the occasion ; the poor man was overwhelmed
with the grief he had caused his wife ; his courage altogether forsook
him. He forgot his shell, and, in his trepidation, seated himself on
a chair without the necessary adjustment of his garment. He was
only reminded of his treasure by hearing the crushing sound of the
breaking box which contained it. Fortunately, the evil was not very
great — two spines only of the shell were broken ; but the good man's
grief made so great an impression on Madame R , that she no
longer thought of her own loss, but directed all her efforts to console
the simple-minded philosopher."
The variation in the number and direction of the spines is a
striking feature in Spondylus. When the whole lower surface adheres
to branches of coral — a very frequent occurrence — they are confined to
the upper valve ; but when a part only of the valve is so adherent,
the whole surface becomes covered.
407
CHAPTER XIII.
BRACHIOPODA.
WHILE it is out of the province of this work to enter into any lengthy
arguments as to the position of this class ; while we treat of them
here immediately after the Conchifera, it is not in ignorance that they
would be more justly placed among the Molluscoida, probably very
near to the Tunicata. They differ from ordinary bivalves in being
always equal sided, but never quite equi-valved. Their valves are
respectively dorsal and ventral. The ventral valve is usually largest,
and has often a prominent beak, by which it is attached, or through
which the organ of adhesion passes. The dorsal valve is always the
smaller, and is free and imperforate. The valves are articulated by
two curved teeth, which are so complete that the valves cannot be
separated without injury. A few genera have no hinge. In Crania
and Discina the lower valve is flat ; the upper like a limpet ; while
the valves of Lingula are nearly equal, and have been compared to a
duck's bill. In the Conchifera the sliding of the valves is well
guarded against by means of hinges with teeth and sockets ; but in
the Brachiopods the same end is apparently attained by means of
muscles. The blood system is not very complex, and does not differ
very greatly from the same system in the Tunicates. The Brachio-
pods are all natives of the sea; but little is known as to their
development. Of all mollusca they enjoy the greatest range, both of
climate, of depth, and time. A large number of the genera contain
only extinct forms ; indeed of the 1,842* species formerly known, a
few types of but a small number of genera only are left, numbering
in all 1 02. The Terebratulidae are best represented. There were
once 300 or 400 species of this family ; there are now not more than
sixty-seven in the seas of the world. The difference between the
past and the present is especially striking, when we compare the
recent and fossil species of Europe. Among no other class of shell?
* " Woodward's Manual," p. 135.
408 THE OCEAN WORLD.
has there been such a wholesale extinction of species. The great
family of Spiriferidse is wholly extinct, and of 400 species belonging
to the family of the Rhynconellidse only four are now living. Species
of the curious genera Crania, Discina, and Lingula are still living;
and are mostly found in the seas of the southern hemisphere.
The Brachiopoda contain the following families : —
I. Lingulidcz, containing Lingula and other genera.
II. Disdnida, containing Siphonotreta and Discina.
III. Cramadce, containing Crania.
IV. Produt&foy containing Chonetes and Productus.
V. Orthtdce, containing Calceola, Davidsonia, Strophomena, and
Orthis.
VI. Rhyncondlidtot containing Atrypa, Pentamerus, and Rhyn-
conella.
VII. Spiriferidcz, containing Uncites, Retzia, Athyris, and Spiri-
fera.
VIII. TerebratulidcE, containing Thecidium, Ar-iope, Tcrcbratello,
and Terebratula.
313V/ O'l^flT
n/)fl) aiora Joe
Ho g
409
CHAPTER XIV.
CEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA.
GASTEROPODA.
WE take leave of our little friends the Headless Mollusca or
Acephala, and direct our attention to those molluscs to which Nature
has been more generous, and which are furnished with a head. This
head, however, is still carried humbly ; it is not yet os sublime dedit;
it is drawn along an inch or so from the ground, and in no respect
resembles the proud and magnificent organ which crowns and adorns
the body of the greater and more perfectly organised animals.
The organisation of the Cephalous Mollusca present three prin-
cipal types, which has led to their being divided into three classes,
after their more salient characteristics of form and locomotive appa-
ratus ; namely, Gasteropoda, Pteropoda, and Cephalopoda.
In the class Gasteropoda (from yaa-r^p, belly, irovs, gen. -iroSbs, foot),
locomotion is effected by means of a flattened muscular disk, placed
under the belly of the animal, by the aid of which it creeps. The
Snail (Helix), the Slug (Limax), and the Cowrie (Cyprea), are types
of this class.
In the Pteropoda (from irrepbv, wing, and TTOUS, foot}, locomotion is
effected by appendages in the form of wings, or membranous swim-
ming fins, placed on each side of the neck. The Hyalea and Clio
are types of this class.
In the Cephalopoda (from Ke
called at Montpellier the Little Hermit, because it buries itself so
deeply in its shell. Helix aspersa (Figs. 192, 193, 194) is thought to
be more tender and delicate. In Provence a species is called
tapada^ that is, " closed," from the cretaceous deposit with which it
closes its shell.
In the north of France and round Paris Helix pomatia is the
THE OCEAN WORLD.
favourite culinary snail (Fig. 195). This is the species which is
used as a speaking sign-board over the doors of the wine-shops and
Fig. 193. — Helix aspersa (Miiller).
Fig. 194. — Helix aspersa
(Var. Scalaris).
small restaurants in the neighbourhood of the Halles, at Paris. Its
shell is globose and tun-shaped, very solid, marked with irregular
Fig. 195 — Helix pomatia (Linnaeus).
transverse stripes of a brownish rust colour, with bands, often nearly
effaced, of a deeper tint, and of the same colour. The animal is
large, of a yellowish greyv and covered with elongated irregular
tubercles.
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
425
Besides Helix pomatia, according to Moquin-Tandon, they eat in
the north of France Helix sylvatica and H. nemoralis ; at Montpellier,
as we have already said, H. aspersa and H. rhodostoma ; at Avignon,
also, these, along with H, vermicuiata, are favourites. In Provencev
Fig. 106. — Helix Mackenzii
(Adams).
Fig. 197. — Helix undulata
(Ferussac).
Fig. 198. — Helix translucida
(Linnaeus).
Helexpisana, with H. aspersa and melastoma, are preferred, At Boni-
facio, Helix aspersa, H. vermiculata, and, more rarely, H. rhodostoma ;
and in other localities the smaller species and young individuals of
the larger kinds are employed for feeding poultry.
Figs. 199 and 200 — Helix Waltoni (Reeve).
Certain species are also employed for feeding ducks. Thus, in
the neighbourhood of Montpellier, ducks are fed upon Helix variabilis
and H. rhodostoma. Some fishes, especially the young salmon, are
very partial to the flesh of snails.
This important genus is very numerous in species, which are
distributed in groups according to the form of the shell; that is.
426
THE OCEAN WORLD,
whether it be globulous, as in Fig. 196, tun-bottomed, as in Fig. 197,
plain or biform, as in Fig. 198, or truncated, as in Figs. 199 and 200'.
These figures will give the reader some idea of the multiplied and
elegant forms which the shells of the genus Helix sometimes assume.
Fig. 201. — Helix citrina (Linnseus).
Fig. 202. — Helix Stuartia (Sowerby).
In connection with the genus Helix we shall note some kindred
genera which our space only permits us to name. Such is the genus
Buliimis,\he European species of which are numerous; some of them
Figs. 203 and 204.— Bnlimus sultanus (Lamarck).
very small, others of medium size ; of these Buliimis sultanns (Figs.
203 and 204). In Figs. 205 and 206, the Berry Pupa (Pupa uva), as
an example of another genus, is represented.
Yet another typical form may be noted, which is found abund-
antly amid the grass and in shrubs near brooks round Paris and
elsewhere. It is Sucdw*" -fwJris, presenting a small, thin, diaphanous
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
427
shell of a pale amber yellow, marked with close and very fine longi-
tudinal stripes (Fig. 207). The Achatina zebra of Chemnitz is a great
Figs. 205 and 206. — Pupa uva.
snail, which devours shrubs and trees in Madagascar (Fig. 208).
Finally, Vitrina^ the shell of which is very small and very thin in
Fig. 207. — Succinea putris Fia;. 208. — Achatina zebra Fig. 209. — Vitrina fasciata
(Linnaeus,. (Chemnitz). (Ed. and Soul).
some species — so small, indeed, in Vitrina fasciata (Fig, 209), that
the animal cannot fully enter the shell — occupies a point of transition
between Helix and Limax.
428
CHAPTER XVI.
PROSOBRANCHIATE GASTEROPODS.
IN the Prosobranchiate division of the Gasteropods the branchiae or
gills are composed of numerous leaflets cut like the teeth of a comb,
and attached, by one or many lines, to the upper part of the respiratory
cavity. They constitute the most numerous order of Cephalous
Molluscs, comprehending nearly all the univalve spiral shells, and
many others which are simply conical. They inhabit the sea, rivers,
and lakes, and are of all sizes. The most remarkable genera which
we shall describe belong to the family Trochdida and Buccinoida.
This, the fourth order of Gasteropods, Prosobranchiata, includes
the Pectinibranchiata and three other orders of Cuvier ; in it the sexes
are distinct, the branchiae pectinated or plume-like, situated (proson) in
advance of the heart, and the mantle forms a vaulted chamber over
the back of the head. It is divided into two sections and twenty-one '
families. The first section, Holostomata, contains the sea-snails, where
the margin of the aperture of the shell is entire. The muzzle is short,
non-retractile, and they are mostly phytophagous. The second section
contains the carnivorous Gasteropods. The aperture of the shell is
notched or produced in front ; animals with a retractile proboscis.
Unlike the first section, the species are all marine.
The first family is that of the Chitonida. The Chitons are very
singular creatures, destitute of eyes and of tentacles ; they bear upon
their back in place of a shell a cuirass composed of imbricated and
movable scales. They have the power of elongating and contracting
themselves like the snails. They roll themselves up into a ball like
the woodlouse. They adhere with great force to the rocks, preferring
those places most exposed to the beating waves. Chiton magnificus
(Fig. 210) is widely distributed.
The second family, Dentaliada, supplies the curious genus
Dtntalium, or tooth shell.
The Patellida, or Limpets, constitute the third and a very
numerous family, distinguished at once by the form and structure of
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 429
the animal and by that of the shell. Linnaeus called it Patella, *.&,
a deep dish or knee-cap.
The shells of the Patellidae are univalve, oval, or circular, non-
spiral, but terminating in an elliptic cone, concave and simple beneath,
non-pierced at the summit, entire and inclined anteriorly. They are
smooth, or ornamented on the sides with ridges radiating from the
summit, and often cov ered with scales ; the edges are frequently
dentate. The colours are very varied. The interior is very smooth,
and remarkable for the brilliancy and lustre of its tints.
The head of the animal is furnished with two pointed tentacles or
horns, having an eye at the external base of
each. The body is oval and nearly circular,
conical, or depressed. The foot is in the form
of a thick fleshy disc. Certain lamellar branchiae
are arranged in series all round the body.
The limpets dwell upon the sea-shore, in
the parts alternately covered and uncovered by
the waves. They are almost always attached
to rocks, or other submerged bodies, to which
they adhere with great tenacity. If the com-
mon limpet (Patella milgatd) is alarmed before
any attempt is made to dislodge it, no human
force, pulling in a direct line, can remove it, and
it can sustain without being crushed a weight of Chiton'Smagnificus
many pounds. It holds on by the great quantity (Deshayes).
of vertical fibres in its foot, which in raising
the median part forms in the centre a sort of sucker. It is the
celebrated experiment of the Magdeburg cups which these little
molluscs realise by their vital action.
These animals bury themselves in the chalky rocks to the depth
of two or three lines ; when they are dispersed, they are observed
constantly to return to the same place. Their movements are,
besides, extremely slow, the advance of the limpet being only
perceived by watching the slow upheaval of the shell above the
plane of its position. It is supposed, from the mouth being armed
on its upper edge with a large semi-lunar, horny, cutting tooth, and
in its lower part from having a tongue furnished with horny hooks,
and from their inhabiting in great numbers places covered with
marine plants, that their food is chiefly vegetable.
The poorer inhabitants of the coast eat limpets when they have
nothing else, but their flesh is singularly coriaceous and indigestible.
They are found in every sea; but are, however, found to be
430
THE OCEAN WORLD.
larger as well as more numerous and much richer in colour in
equatorial seas, and especially in the southern hemisphere, than in
European seas. They attain, in fact, their maximum of develop-
Fig. 2ii. — Patella cserulea (Lamarck).
Fig. 212. — Patella umbelia (Gmel.)
ment there ; for in the Straits of Magellan species are found as large
as a slop-basin, which the natives use for culinary purposes.
The common limpet is thick, solid, oval, and nearly circular,
generally conical, and covered with a great number of very fine
Fig. 213.- Patella granatina (LinnEeus).
Fig. 214. — Patella barbata (Lamarck).
stripes. Its colour is of a greenish grey, uniform above, and of a
greenish yellow inside. It is abundant in the Channel and on
Atlantic coasts.
The blue limpet, Patella ccerulea (Fig. 211), from St. Helena,
nas an oval shell,, broadest behind, moderately thick, depressed,
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
431
flattened, covered with angular wrinkles, and dentate on the edge.
It is of a spotted green outside and of a fine glossy blue within.
Other very elegant species are Patella umbella (Fig. 212), from
the African coast ; Patella granatina (Fig. 213), the ruby-eyed
limpet from the Antilles; Patella barbata, the bearded limpet
Figs. 215 and 216. — Patella longicosta (Lamarck).
(Fig. 214); and the long spined Limpet, Patella longicosta (Figs.
215 and 216).
The fourth family, Calyptr&idce, of which the genera Pileopsis and
Calyptrcea may serve as a type, was classed by the older conchologists
with Patellidce. Pileopsis hungariciis, the Hungarian bonnet shell, is
rather abundant on some parts of the British coast.
The fifth family, Fissurellidce, contains the
genera Parmophorus, the duck's-bill limpet of
Australia, and Fissurella, the key-hole limpet,
which is remarkable for the opening of the
apex of the shell.
The sixth family, Haliotidce, contains Ian
thina, Stissurella, and Haliotis.
The attention of naturalists has long been
directed to a curious mollusc known under
the name of lanthina communis (Fig. 217);
its body is globular, and it presents an opening in front without con-
tracting itself in order to form the head, which is long and trumpet-
shaped, terminating in a large buccal opening, furnished with horny
plates, and covered with little hooks ; and two conical tentacles,
slightly contracted, but very distinct, each bearing at their external
base a long peduncle. The foot is short, oval, divided into two
parts : the anterior, concave and cup-shaped ; the posterior, flat and
Fig. 217.
lanthina communis
(Lamarck).
432 THE OCEAN WORLD,
fleshy. It is this foot, which bears a vesiculous mass like foam,
which gives its peculiar character to the pretty mollusc. The mass
consists of a great number of small eggs, which help to keep
the animal on the surface of the water. The shell is light, trans-
parent, violet-coloured, and very much resembles the shell of the
Helix. The lanthina inhabit the deep sea, and often form bands
of very great extent. Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard have seen legions
of lanthina driven by the current. They have sailed during many
days through these wandering tribes of molluscs, which would be the
sport of every gale if they could not, by drawing their heads within
their shells and contracting themselves, diminish their volume
and increase their weight at will, so as to sink quietly to the
bottom of the water till the tempest was over. The lanthina
communis possesses a liquid of a dark violet colour, which is believed
by many naturalists to have been one of the purple dyes known to
the ancients, if not the purple of Tyre : it is very common in the
Mediterranean, and in all the oceans.
Haliotis tuberculata, the ear-shell, is remarkable for its brilliant
colours, and for a line of singular perforations in many of the species.
The seventh family, Turbimd(z> contains Trochus, Turbo, Rotella,
Monodonta, and Delphinula.
The species o. the genus Trochus are found in all seas, and near
to the shore in the clefts of rocks, especially in places where sea-
weeds grow luxuriantly. Some of these thick, cone-shaped shells
are extremely beautiful, being richly nacred inside, and often re-
markable for the beauty and diversity of colour they exhibit.
Generally smooth, the principal spiral is, nevertheless, sometimes
edged with a series of regular spines. The form is conical, the spiral
more or less raised, broad and angular at the base ; the opening
entire, depressed transversely, and the edge disunited in the upper
part.
The animal which inhabits this shell is also spiral ; its head is
furnished with two conical tentacles, having at their base eyes borne
on a peduncle ; its foot is short, round at its two extremities, edged
or fringed round its circumference, and furnished with a horny
operculum, circular and regularly spiral.
The family consists of many genera or sub-genera. Among the
species of Trochus, properly so called, we may notice Trochus
niloticus (Fig. 218), T. virgatus (Fig. 219), T. inermis (Fig. 220), and
T. Cookii (Fig. 221), T. imbricatus (Fig. 222).
The species of the genus Ttirbo are very generally diffused, being
found on every shore, where they cling to rocks beaten by the waves.
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 433
About fifty species are known, some of them large shells, others very
Fig. 218. — Trochus niloticus (Linnseus).
Fig. 219.— Trochus virgatus (GmeL
Fig. 220.— Trochus inermis (Gmcl.) Fig. 221.— Trochus Cookii (Chemnitz).
Fig. 222. — Trochus imbricatus (Gmel.) Fig. 223. — Phorus conchyliophorus (Boifu).
small. Turbo margaritaceus (Fig. 224) is a large, thick, and weighty
shell, round-bellied, and deeply furrowed ; in colour it is yellow, or
434
THE OCEAN WORLD.
rust-coloured, marked by square brown spots. Turbo argyrostomus ^
the Silver-mouthed Turbo (Fig. 225), is still larger, with protecting
spines on the top of its larger spiral. Turbo marmoratus (Linnaeus),
Fig. 224.— Turbo margaritacei
(Linnaeus).
Fig. 225.— Turbo argyrostomus (Linnaeus).
Fig. 226. — Turbo marmoratus (Linnaeus).
Fig. 227.—Turbo undulatus (Chemnitz).
the Marbled Turbo (Fig. 226), is the largest shell in the group. It is
marbled green, white, and brown, outside, and superbly nacred within.
The Gold-mouthed Turbo is so named from its nacre being of a rich
golden yellow. The Wavy Turbo (T. undulatiis, Fig. 227), commonly
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
435
known as the Australian Serpent's Skin. The shell is white, orna-
mented with longitudinal waving flexible lines of spots of green, or
greenish-violet. Turbo imperialis (Fig. 228), from the Chinese seas,
is green without, and brilliantly nacred within ; it is commonly known
as the paroquet shell.
The genus Turbo is found in the North seas, in the Channel, and
on the Atlantic coast. The animal is eaten in nearly all the seaports
of the Channel.
Rotella Zealandica, from the Indian Ocean, whose shell, represented
Fig. 229.
Rotella Zealandica,
Fig. 228.— Turbo imperialis (Gmel.).
Fig. 230. — Monodonta australis
(Lamarck).
in Fig. 229, presents the most lively colours, forms one of a genus
by no means numerous in species. This New Zealand species has
the spiral turns of its shell sculptured in descending furrows, and
studded with imbricated scales, which form a projecting edging
round its margin, and give it a radiating form. This species is
of a violet brown above and white below.
Near to the genera Trochus and Turbo in this system comes the
genus Monodonta.
The Monodonta are elegantly-marked shells, belonging to the seas
of warm countries. M. Australis (Fig. 230) is a native of the
Australian seas. M. labia (Fig. 231) is a small brown shell, with
436
THE OCEAN WORLD.
white spots, which is very common on the shores of the Medi-
terranean.
The eighth family is Neritidcz, of which we may give as typical
genera, Neritina, Navicella, and Nerita. The species of Ncrita are
numerous and pretty, and are mostly marine.
Fig. 231.— Monodonta labia (Lamarck).
Fig. 232. — Delphinula sphserula (Kiener).
The ninth family, Turbinida, has among its more important genera
those of Turbo, Phasianella, Trochus, Delphinula, and Imperator. Of
Delphinula only about seventy living species are known. They are
Fig. 233. — Imperator stella (Lamarck).
Fig. 234. — Trochus stellaris (Gmel).
mostly natives of the Indian Ocean, and are remarkable for their
numerous spines and the asperity of their shells (Fig. 232). Of the
genus Imperator we may instance the Spurred Trochus, Imperator
stella, which is studded with radiating spines (Fig. 233), Imperator
stellaris (Fig. 234), they are natives of the Australian seas, and
Imperator imperialis, commonly called the Royal Spur.
Our tenth family, Littorinida, contains the genera Solarium,
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
437
Littorina, periwinkles, and P fronts, as an example of this latter genus,
we have P. Conchyliophorus (Fig. 223, page 443).
The Staircase-shell (Solarium perspectivum\ is recognised by its
deep umbilicus, wide and funnel-shaped, in the interior of which may
be seen the little crenated teeth which follow the edge of every turn
of the spiral up to the top. In most collections of these pretty shells
we find this Staircase-shell (Solarium perspectivum'} of Lamarck, from
the Indian Ocean (Figs. 235, 236), the diameter of which is sometimes
two inches and a half. The Australian Sun-dial (S. variegatum,
Linnaeus, Fig. 237) is another species frequently seen in collections ;
it is as much variegated above as below, of a white and rusty brown
Fig. 236. — Solarium pcrsfcctivum.
Fig. 235.— Solarium perspectivum.
Fig. 237.— Solarium vanegatum.
Another species, the minute, trellised Sun-dial, which is only ten
lines in diameter, comes from the coast of Tranquebar.
The eleventh family, Turritellidce, has, as typical genera, Vermetus,
Scalaria, and Turritella, which last is a genus with a great number
of species, many of which are found in every sea. All these shells,
as their name indicates, represent a winding pyramid, terminating in
a sharp point, some of them having fluted spirals, others rounded,
angular, or flat, and some of them elegantly pencilled. Figs. 238 to
242 represent some of the species of the genus.
The twelfth family, Melaniada, contains the fresh-water genera,
Paludomus and Melania.
The thirteenth family, Cerithiada, contains the genera Potamides,
Aporrhais, and Cerithium.
The species of the genus Cerithium are marine, and are chiefly
found in muddy bottoms, and more frequently at the mouths of rivers.
438
THE OCEAN WORLD.
but rarely beyond the point to which the tide reaches. The genus is
numerous in species, of which we figure Cerithium fasciatum (Fig. 243)
and Cerithium aluco (Fig. 244). The Giant Cerithium, Cerithium
giganteum (Fig. 245), is the living analogue of a magnificent fossil
species belonging to the Tertiary formation. The single known
example of this species belongs to the Delessert Museum at Paris.
A manuscript note by Lamarck, attached to this specimen, relates
Fig. 238.— Turrhella Fig. 239. -Turri- Fig. 240.— Turritella Fig. 241.— Turri- Fig: 242.— Turri-
replicata (Linnssus). tella angulata sanguinea (Reeve), tella goniostoma. tella terebellata
(Sowerby). (Lamarck).
that this shell was first brought to Dunkirk in 1 8 1 o by an Englishman,
one of the crew of an English ship ; he had drawn it up from the
bottom of the sea with the sounding-lead from a bed of rocks off
the coast of Australia.
The fourteenth family, Pyramidellidce, contains the genera Eulima,
Stylifer, Chemnitzia, and Pyramidella.
The fifteenth family, Naticida, contains Velutina, Sigaretus,
Lamellaria, and Natica ; species of this last being found in most
seas.
The second section of the Prosobranchiata is termed SIPHONO-
STOMATA, and is characterised by the shell being spiral and usually
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
439
imperforate, the animal of which has sometimes a horny operculum,
and is furnished with a retractile proboscis ; the margin of the mantle
Fig. 243. — Cerithium
fasciatum (13 rug.).
Fig. 244 — Cerithium
aluco.
Fig. 245. — Cerithium giganteum
(Lamarck).
is prolonged into a siphon. The species are all marine, and are
carnivorous.
The first family is the Cyprcsidce, containing the well-known genera,
Cyprcza and Ovulum.
440
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The Cowries ( Cyprcea), have brilliant, smooth, and polished, oval-
shaped, or oblong convex shells, with edges rolling inwards, and longi-
tudinal openings, narrow, arched, dentate on both edges, and notched
at the extremities. The spiral, placed quite posteriorly, is very
small, and often hidden by a calcareous bed of a vitreous appearance.
It is now known that the form and colouring of the shells vary
very considerably, according to the age of the animal ; so much so,
indeed, that the same species examined at various stages of its growth
Fig. 246.— Cypraea Scottii
(Broderip).
Fig. 247. — Cypraea Scottii
(Broderip).
Youn
Fig. 248.— Cyprsea
(Broderip).
would almost seem to belong to species and even to genera essentially
different
The young cowries are thin, conical, elongated, with a conspicuous
spiral and large openings. The right edge soon becomes thicker,
and folds itself inwardly ; the opening is narrowed ; finally, the
spire is unfolded in successive folds from the right edge, and by
successive deposits of the vitreous matter we have spoken of the
opening is gradually contracted, its extremities hollowed out, its edges
disconnected, and the shell, until now only shaded in pale tints,
assumes its most brilliant colours, which are disposed in bands or
spots, as exhibited in Figs. 246 and 247, which are the adult shells,
and Fig. 248, which is the young shell, of Cyprcea Scottii.
The animal which inhabits this shell is elongated, and is provided
VNJVA L VE MOL L USCA.
441
with a well-developed mantle, furnished on the inside with a band of
tentacular filaments ; it is able to fold itself over its shell in such a
Figs. 250 and 251. — Cyprsea histno
Fig. 252. — Cyprsea tigrls (Linn.).
Figs. 253 and 254.— Cyprsea argus (Linn.).
manner as to envelop it all round. The head is provided with two
very long conical 'tentacles, each having a very large eye. The foot
is oval, elongate, and without operculum, and is well represented in
442
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Cyprcea tigris (Fig. 255). The cowries are found at a little distance
from the shore, generally in clefts of the rocky bottoms ; but some-
times they bury themselves in the sand. They are timid, shun the
light, and only leave their retreats to creep about in search of food,
Fig. 255.— Cyprsea tigris (Linnaeus).
Fig. 256. — Cyprsea cocci-
nella (Lamarck).
which appears to be exclusively animal. These magnificent molluscs
are natives of every sea. One small species lives in the British
Channel ; another and much larger species is found in the Adriatic ;
but the Indian Ocean is the home of the largest and finest species
of these shells.
As objects of curiosity and ornament these shells have been much
Figs. 257 and 258. — Cypraea undata (Lamarck).
Figs. 259 and 260. — Cypraea zigzag
(Linnaeus).
in request in all ages. The inhabitants of the Asiatic coast make
bracelets, collars, amulets, and head-dresses of them, and use them
to ornament boxes and harness. In New Zealand and the Fijis the
chiefs carry a rare and choice species (Cyprcea auran/mm), suspended
from the neck, as a badge of their rank or sign of distinction. The
species are, indeed, extremely numerous, and we can only find room
for very brief descriptions of a few of the best known among them..
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
443
The Waving and Zigzag Corvries (C. zigzag and C. undata, are
beautifully ornamented with waving and broken lines, as we see them
in Figs. 257 to 260.
The Orange Cowrie (C. aurantiuvi), of which we have spoken
Figs. 261 and 262.
Cyprsea inoneta (Linnaeus).
Fig. 263. — Cyprsea Madagascariensis (Gmel.).
li and 2.)
Fig. 264. — Cyprse
capensis Gray).
Figs. 265 and 266. — Cyprsea testudinaria (Linnaeus).
above, is nearly globular, of a uniform orange colour above, and white
below ; the teeth of the opening are of a bright orange. The shell is
rare, and much sought after.
The Money Cowrie, Cyprcea moneta (Figs. 261 and 262), is a
444
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Figs. 267 and 268.
Cyprsea nucleus (Linnaeus).
little oval shell, depressed, flat below, with very thick edges and
slightly waving. It is of a uniform yellowish-white colour, sometimes
citron-yellow above and white below. There are usually twelve teeth
in the outer lip of the adult shell. It comes from the Indian Ocean,
the Maldivian Isles, and the Atlantic Ocean.
This shell, so common in collections,
is gathered by the women on the shore of
the Maldivian Isles, three days after the
full moons and before the new moons ; it
is afterwards transported to Bengal, to
India, and Africa, where it is used by the
negroes and other natives as money.
The Madagascar Cowrie, Cyprcea Ma-
dagascariensis (Fig. 263), and the Granular
Cowrie, Cyprcca nucleus (Figs. 267 and
268), are beautifully marked species,
having the general appearance of being
mammillated all over.
The species most abundant in the
British seas is the little Cyprcea (Trivia)
europaa, already mentioned ; it is very
small, oval, tun-bellied, the opening dilated
in front with smooth transverse stripes of
greyish, tawny, or rose-colour, with or
without spots.
Cypraa mappa (Fig. 249) is oval-
shaped, swelling below its sides, well-
rounded, ornamented with small white
spots below, with a dorsal branching line
above ; the interior is violet colour, with
thirty-six teeth on one side, and forty-two
on the other. It is met with in the Indian
Ocean.
The Harlequin Cowrie, Cypraa histrio
(Figs. 250 and 25 1), from the coast of Mada-
gascar, is ornamented with white spots very
closely arranged, and much circumscribed
above, with black spots upon the sides. The under side is violet.
A very fine species, which is very common in collections, is found
in the Indian Ocean, from Madagascar to the Moluccas — the Tiger
Cowrie, Cyprcea tigris, already figured with the animal. The shell
(Fig. 252) is large, oval, tun-bellied, thick, and convex, of a bluish
Fig. 269.
Cypraea pantherina (Sol.).
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
445
white, ornamented with numerous broad, black, round spots, much
scattered, and a straight dorsal line, brown above, and very white
Fig. 270. — Natural size of Ovulum oviformis (Lamarck).
below. It has generally twenty- three teeth on each edge, quite white.
Somewhat resembling the Tiger Cowrie is the Cyprcea pantherina
(Fig. 269), which is perhaps a variety of the same species. Another
remarkable species is Cyprce argus, as represented in
Figs. 253 and 254.
The genus Ovulum, so called from their egg-shaped
form, occupy a place next to the Cowries in some
systems. The shell is highly polished, white or rose-
coloured, oblong or oval, convex, attenuate, and acu-
minate at the extremities without apparent spire, the
edges milled within the long, narrow, and curved open-
ing, with teeth upon the left edge, and with a few
ripples on the right edge. The species of Ovulum are (Lamarck),
inhabitants of the Indian Ocean and Chinese Seas.
Some few species, however, belong to the Mediterranean and the
Black Sea. The three species represented in Figs. 270, 271, and
272, present very singular contrasts of form and size.
The second family, Volutidce, contains the genera Cymba, Mar-
ginella, Mitra, and Valuta.
The Mitres are so called from their resemblance to the bishop's
446
THE OCEAN WORLD.
mitre. They are chiefly natives of warm climates, such as the Indian
Ocean, the Australian Seas, and the Moluccas. The shells of the
Fig. 272.- Ovulnm volva (Linnaeus).
Mitres are long, slender, and spiral, the spire ending in a point at the
summit : the opening is small, narrow, and triangular, and notched
in front. The animal has a very
long proboscis ; it emits a purple
liquid, having a nauseous odour
when irritated. The eyes are
placed on the tentacles or at their
base. Mitra episcopalis (Fig. 273),
from the Indian Ocean, is white,
ornamented with square spots of a
fine red, and capable of high polish.
Mitra papalis (Fig. 274) has
dentiform folds round the open-
ing, which also crown each turn of
the spiral ; the spots are smaller,
and much more numerous and
varied in form than those of
M. episcopalis.
In the genus Valuta the shell
is oval, more or less tun-bellied
— the spire is short, slightly mam-
millate, the opening large, the
edges notched, without channel ;
the columellar edge is lightly ex-
, Fig. 273.
Mitra episcopahs
(Lamarck).
Fig. 274
Mitra papalis
(Lamarck).
cavated and arranged in oblique
folds. The right edge is arched,
thick, or cutting, according to the
species.
The animal has a large head, provided with two tentacles. The
mouth terminates in a thick trunk furnished with hooked teeth. The
foot is very large, furrowed in front, and projecting from all parts of
III.— Voluta Delessertii (Petit). IV.— Voluta musica (Linn.). V.— Voluta imperials (Lamarck).
VI.— Voluta scapha (Gmcl.).
VII.— Voluta vexillum (Chem.).
XX.-Voluta.
UNIVALVE MOLLUSCA. 449
the shell, but without operculum. The Volutes live on the sands
near the shore ; sometimes they are found high and dry, left by the
retreating tide. Their shells, of various forms, are ornamented with
the most lively colours, the surface covered with irregular lines,
the tint of which is generally in strong contrast with that of the
ground.
Among the more remarkable species illustrated in PLATE XX.,
we may note: Fig. I., Voluta undulata; Fig. II., Voluta cymbium ;
Fig. III., Voluta Delessertii ; Fig. IV., Voluta musica ; Fig. V., Voluta
imperialis ; Fig. VI. , Voluta scapha; and Fig. VII., Voluta vexillum.
The third family, Conidce, contains Pleurotoma and Conus.
The genus Conns is especially rich in species, as well as numerous
in individuals. The shells are much sought after by collectors, many
being rare, and so command high prices. Those belonging to
this group present a very remarkable uniformity of shape, at the
same time that the colours are very fine, and much varied in design.
The shell is thick, solid, inversely conical, wreathing spirally from the
base to the apex, the spire being generally short, the last turn con-
stituting alone the greater part of the surface of the shell. The
opening extends nearly along its whole length, occupying all the
height of the last whorl. It is always narrow, its edges quite parallel ;
the columella presents neither fold nor curvature ; the right edge is
plain, sharp, and thin, detached from the front of the last spiral by a
sloping hollow, more or less deep.
The animal creeps upon a foot, elongated, narrow, truncate in
front, furnished behind with a horny rudimentary operculum, altogether
insufficient to cover the opening. The head, which is large, is
elongated into a little snout, or muzzle, at the base of which rises on
either side a conical tentacle, having an exterior eye upon its anterior
extremity. At the extremity of the muzzle is the mouth, which is
armed within with numerous horny teeth in pairs, elongate or hastate.
A cylindrical syphon, reversing itself in the shell, serves the purpose
of carrying water to the branchiae or gills. The shells inhabit the
seas of warm countries, especially those lying between the Tropics,
where they affect sandy coasts, with a depth of ten to twelve fathoms
of water.
Among the species bearing a spiral crown, we may mention the
rare Conns cedo-mtlli, of which several varieties are known, which come
from the South American Seas and the Antilles.
Conus hebraica, from the shores of Asia, Africa, aud America, is a
common species. It is white with black spots, which are nearly
square, arranged in transverse bands.
P
45 O THE OCEAN WORLD.
In PLATE XXI. we have represented some interesting species.
Conus imperialis (Fig. I.) is a fine species, of white colour, with bands
of a greenish yellow or tawny colour, ornamented with transverse, cord-
like, articulated lines of white and brown. One of the largest species
is Conus geographus (Fig. II.), which sometimes attains the length of
six or seven inches ; it is shaded white and brown.
Among the non-crowned species, we have represented in Fig. III.
Conus tessdlatus, common in the Indian Ocean. Its anterior part is
violet in the interior. The spots with which it is surrounded are of
a fine red or scarlet, or, in short, a red lead colour upon a white
ground.
Conus ammira/is, of which three varieties, Figs. IV., V., and VI..
are natives of the seas which bathe the Moluccas ; they are beautifully
marked varieties, of a brownish citron colour, marked with white
spots nearly triangular, with tawny bands painted in very fine tracery.
This species has been, and is still, much sought after by collectors,
and presents many varieties besides those represented.
Among the shells, which seem almost ready to become cylindrical,
may be noted Conus nobilis (Fig. VII.), a rare shell of yellowish colour
approaching citron, ornamented with white spots. The golden drop,
Conus textile (Fig. VIII.), is yellow in colour, ornamented with
waving longitudinal lines of brown, and white corded spots edged
with tawny colour. The glory of the sea, Conus gloria maris (Fig.
IX.), is white in colour, banded with orange, and reticulated with
numerous triangular white spots edged with brown. This is a native
of the East Indies, and one of the most beautiful shells of the whole
group.
The fourth family, Biicanida, contains numerous genera, as
examples of which we may instance Oliva, Harpa, Cassis, Purpura,
JVassa, Terebra, Eburna, and Bucdnum.
The genus Oliva is so named from its resemblance in form to the
olive. Its nearly cylindrical shell is slightly spiral, polished, and
brilliant, as in the Cowries; its opening is still long and narrow, strongly
notched in front, its edge columellar, swollen anteriorly into a kind of
cushion, and striped obliquely in all its length.
These Molluscs belong to the seas of warm countries, where they
frequent the sandy bottoms and clear waters. They creep about
with much agility, reversing themselves quickly when they have been
overturned ; they live upon other animals, and are flesh-eaters. They
are, in fact, taken at the Isle of Tranu by using flesh as bait. The
colours of the shell are very varied, and sometimes fantastically
streaked. Oliva erythrostoma (Fig. 275) is ornamented externally
I.— Conns impsrialis (Linn ). II.— Conus geographus
(Linn.).
IV., V.— Conus ammiralis (Linn.).
III.— Conus tescellatus
(Born.).
VI. — Conus ammiralis
(Linn.).
VII. — Conus nobilis (Linn.). IX. — Conus gloria maris (Chemn.). VTTT. — Conus textile (Linn.).
XXI.-Conus.
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
453
with flexual lines of a yellowish brown, with two brown bands,
combined with the fine yellowish tint of gold colour within. Oliva
porphyria, from the Brazil coast (Fig. 276), presents lines of a reddish
brown, regularly interlaced with spotted large brown marks, upon a
flesh-coloured ground. Oliva irisans (Fig. 277) is painted in zigzag
lines, close and brown, edged with orange-yellow, and with two zones
of darker brown, and reticulated. Oliva Peruviana (Fig. 278) is
furrowed with regularly spaced bands.
In the genus Cassis the shell is oval, convex, and the spire is
Fig. 275. ^ Fig. 276.
Oliva erythrostoma Oliva porphyria
(Lamarck). (Linnseus).
Fig. .277-
Oliva msant
(Lamarck).
Fig. 278.
Oliva Peruviana
(Lamarck).
not of considerable height. The longitudinal opening is narrow,
terminating in front in a short channel, which becomes suddenly
erect towards the back of the shell, as in Cassis glauca (Fig. 279), a
fine shell from the Moluccas. The columella is folded or toothed
transversely, as in Cassis rufa, Fig. 280 ; the right edge thick,
furnished with a sort of pad externally, and dentate within. This
shell is from the Indian Ocean, and is of a fine purple colour, varied
with black above ; the edges of the opening being of a coral red
colour, the teeth alone being white.
The head of the animal is large and thick, furnished with two
conical elongated tentacles, at the base of which are the eyes. The
mantle is ranged outside the shell, falling back upon the edges of the
opening, and terminating at its anterior extremity in a long cylindrical
channel, cloven in front, and passing by a hollow at the base into the
454
THE OCEAN WORLD.
branchial cavity. The foot is large, and furnished with a horny
operculum.
These animals keep near the shore, in shallow water. They walk
Fig. 279. — Cassis glauca
(Linnaeus).
Fig. 280. — Cassis rufa Fig. 281. — Cassis canaliculate
(Linnseus). (Brugieres).
Figs. 282 and 283.— Cassis Madagascariensis (Lamarck).
slowly, and often sink themselves into the sand, where they prey
upon small bivalves. There are not very many species ; but sped*
mens from the Indian Ocean are often large and beautifully marked.
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 45$
The shells of the less marked species are frequently used in India as
lime for making mortar, under the name of Chunam.
Our space only permits us to mention, among the more curious
species, Cassis canaliculata (Fig. 281), two varieties of 'Cassis Mada-
gascariensis (Figs. 282 and 283), and the curious Cassis Zebra
(Lam.), or Zebra-marked Casque (Fig. 284).
The Purpuras have a classical name and history, having furnished
the Greeks and Romans with the brilliant purple colouring matter
which was reserved for the mantles of patricians and princes. The
genus Purpura is characterised as possessing an oval shell, thick
pointed, with short conical spiral, as in Furpura lapillus (Fig. 285).
In some it is tubercular or angular, the last turn of the spiral being
larger than all the others put together. The opening is dilated, ter-
minating at its lower extremity in an oblique notch. The columellar
edge is smooth, often terminating in a point ; the right edge often
digitate, thick internally, and folded or rippled.
The animal presents a large head, furnished with two swollen
conical tentacles, close together, and bearing an eye towards the
middle of their external side. Its toot is large, bilobate in front,
with a semicircular horny operculum.
The species of Purpura inhabit the clefts of rocks in marine
regions covered with algae. On occasions they bury themselves in
the sand. They creep about by the help of their foot in pursuit of
bivalves. They are found in all seas ; but the larger species and
greatest numbers come from warm regions, more especially from the
West Indian and Australian seas.
The Purpura of the ancients was not, as is generally thought, a
vermilion red, but rather a very deep violet,- which at a later period
came to have various shades of red. The secret of its preparation
was only known to the Phoenicians, that being most esteemed which
came from Tyre. Sir William Wilde has discovered on the eastern
shores of the Mediterranean, near the ruins of Tyre, a certain number
of circular excavations in the solid rock. In these excavations he
found a great number of broken shells of Murex trunciilus. He
thinks it probable that they had been bruised in great masses by
the Tyrian workmen, for the manufacture of the purple dye. Many
shells of the same species are found actually living on the same coast
at the present time.
Aristotle, in his writings, dwells upon their purple dye- He says
that this dye is taken from two flesh-eating molluscs inhabiting the
sea which washes the Phoenician coast. According to the description
given by the celebrated Greek philosopher, one of these animals had
456
THE OCEAN WORLD.
a very large shell, consisting of seven turns of the spire, studded with
spines, and terminating in a strong beak ; the other had a shell much
smaller. Aristotle named the last animal Buccinum. It is thought
that the last" species is to be recognised in the Purpura lapillus
(Fig. 285), which abounds in the Channel. Reaumur and Duhamel
obtained, in fact, a purple colour from this species, which they applied
to some stuffs, and found that it resisted the strongest lye. The
genus Murex is supposed by some to have contained the species
indicated by Aristotle.
Up to the present time, the production of the Tyrian purple remains
Fig. 284.— Cassis zebra (Lamarck). Fig. 285. — Purpura lapillus. Fig. 286. —Purpura patula.
a mystery. It was long thought this fine dye was furnished by the
stomach and liver ; but M. Lacaze-Duthiers has demonstrated
that the organ which secretes it is found on the lower surface
of the mantle, between the intestines and the respiratory organs,
where it forms a sort of fascia, or small band. The colouring matter,
as it is extracted from the animal, is yellowish ; exposed to the light,
it becomes golden yellow, then green, taking finally a fine violet tint.
While these transformations are in progress a peculiarly pungent
odour is disengaged, which strongly reminds one of that of assafcetida.
That portion of the matter which has not passed into the violet tint
is soluble in water ; when it has taken that tint it becomes insoluble.
The appearance of the colour seems provoked rather by the in-
fluence of the sun's rays than by the action of the air, The matter
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
457
attains its final colour, in short, in proportion to the power of
the sun's rays.
It is a question how far the colour evolved under the solar rays
remains indelible. It is known that the contrary is the case with the
colouring matter of the cochineal insect, which changes very quickly
when exposed to the sun. It is probable that it was the remarkable
resistance which this purple opposed to the rays of the sun which re-
commended it to the ancients. The patricians of Rome, and the rich
citizens of Greece and Asia Minor, loved to watch the magical reflec-
tions of the sun on the glorious colour which ornamented their man ties.
Fig. 287. — Purpura consul.
Fig. 288.— Buccinum
senticoFum ( Linnaeus).
Fig. 289. — Buccinum undatum
(Linnaeus).
But to return to our humble shells. Purpura lapillus (Fig. 285)
is a thick shell, oval, acute, with conical spire, generally of a faded or
yellowish white, zoned with brown, and more or less spotted.
Purpura patula (Fig. 286) is very common in the Philippines,
and is one of the handsomest species ; its geographical distribution
has been a subject of much inquiry.
Purpura consul (¥\g. 287) is one of the large shells of this genus,
and of a fine salmon colour, with brown bands and a corona of
spines.
The genus Buccinum resembles that of Purpura in many respects.
Its shell is oval or conical, much notched in front. The species
inhabit every sea, especially those of Europe. The animal has a
458
THE OCEAN WORLD,
small flat head, furnished with lateral tentacles or horns, bearing the
eyes upon an external swelling, situated near their central length.
We need only refer to Fig. 288, Buccinum senticosum, and Bucdnum
undatum, the well-known whelk of our markets (Fig. 289), for their
general form.
The genus Harpa contains shells from the Indian Ocean, richly
enamelled within, and ornamented externally with slightly oblique
longitudinal stripes in gay colours, with finely-sculptured forms in the
intervals ; spire very small, and opening large. Among the more
Fig. 290. — Harpa ventricosa (Lamarck).
Fig. 291. — Harpa imperialis (Lamarck).
attractive species are Harpa ventricosa (Fig. 290), Harpa imperialis
(Fig. 291), and Harpa articular is (Fig. 292).
The fifth family, Muricidce, contains Fnsus, Pyrula, Triton, and
Murex.
The genus Murex, or Rock Shells, include a large number of
species, all remarkable for their bright colours and somewhat fantas-
tical and varied forms. They are found in all seas, but become
larger and more branching in the seas of warm regions. The shell
is oval, or rather oblong, the spire more or less elevated, its surface
generally covered with rows of spines, or tubercular ramifications.
The opening, which is oval, is prolonged in a straight canal, often of
very considerable length, as in Murex haustellnin (Fig. 293) \ the
external edge is often smooth or rippled, the columellar edge some-
times callous.
UNIVALVE MOLLUSCA.
459
The head of the animal is furnished with two horns or tentacles,
with ocelli upon their external side, the mouth elongated in the form
of a proboscis. The foot is large and round, and furnished with a
horny operculum.
Among the species with long slender tube, covered with spines,
one of the most notable is Murex tenuispina (Fig. 294), which is a
native of the Indian Ocean and the Moluccas.
Fig. 292. — Harpa articularis Fig. 293. — Murex haustellum Fig. 294. — Murex tenuispiua
(Lamarck). (Linnaeus). (Lamarck).
Among the strong-tubed species with long canal and no spines, from
the same regions, is Murex haustellum (Fig. 293).
Among the short-tubed species, furnished with foliaceous and
jagged fringes, is Murex scorpio (Fig. 295).
One more typical species may be noted, namely, Murex erinaceus
(Fig. 296), which is found on all the coasts of Europe, and especially
in the British Channel. Other species worthy of notice are found in
the Mediterranean and Adriatic, some of them, according to Cuvier
and de Blainville, species which furnished the true Tyrian purple of
the ancients \ but our space prevents us from dwelling on them.
460
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Fig. 295. — Murex scorpi
(Linnaeus).
Fig. 296. — Murex erinaceus
(Linnaeus).
Fig. 297* — Triton variegatum Fig. 298. — Triton lotorium Fig. 299. — Triton anus
(Lamarck). (Linnaeus). (Lamarck).
The genus Triton is ranged beside the genus Murex in this
system. The shell is irregularly covered with scattered swelling
excrescences, not, as in Murex^ in longitudinal rows, but scattered
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A. 46 1
all over the surface. About 100 species of Triton are known. They
inhabit many seas, but more especially those of warm countries.
Triton variegatnm, commonly called the Marine Trumpet (Fig. 297),
Fig. 300. — Fusus proboscidiferus
• Lamarck).
301.— Fusus pagodus
(Lesson).
Fig. 302. — Fusus colus.
is a very large shell, which even attains a length of sixteen inches ;
it is enamelled with great elegance in white, red, and tawny brown.
It comes from the Indian Ocean, where the shells are very common.
Triton lotorium (Fig. 298) is of a reddish brown externally and white
within. The Triton amis (Fig. 299) is of a whitish colour, spotted
with red.
462 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The genus Fusus (or spindle- shells) is distinguished by the
elegance of its form rather than by the brilliancy of its colours. The
species are spindle-shaped, spire many-whorled, canal long, operculum
egg-shaped. Among the more remarkable species may be noted
Fusus proboscidiferus (Fig. 300), Fusus pagodus (Fig. 301), and
Fusus colus (Fig. 302).
The sixth family is Strombidce, of which we give as typical genera
Rostellaria, Pteroceras, and Strombus. Strombus is a marine genus,
belonging to equatorial seas, of whose habits and manners very little
is known. It is probable that the species are long lived, for their
shells, when found perfect, have acquired a very considerable thick-
Fig. 303. — Strombus gigas (Linnaeus), with the animal.
ness and weight They are even found encrusted in the interior with
numerous layers of soft earthy sediment, and covered externally with
small corals and other marine productions. Strombus gigas is repre-
sented in Figs. 303 and 304.
Some species of Strombus attain great size, and are placed as orna-
ments in halls and dining-rooms. In some of them the opening is
brilliantly shaded, and those are chiefly sought after to decorate
grottoes in gardens, or for collections of shells, where, from their size,
they necessarily occupy a prominent place.
These shells are rather ventricose, terminating at their base by a
short canal, notched or truncated ; the right edge gets dilated with
age ; simple on one wing, lobed or cuneated in the upper part, and
presenting in its lower part a groove or cavity separated from the
canal or from the notch at the base. But these shells are not merely
UNI'/ALVE MOLLUSC A.
463
ornamental, for some of the streets of Vera Cruz are said to be
paved with Strombus gigas.
The animal which inhabits this shell presents a distinct head, pro-
vided with a trunk or snout, and with two tentacles or horns, each
bearing a large and vividly-coloured eye. The foot is compressed and
divided into two portions, the posterior one, which is the longest, bear-
ing a horny operculum. In the eagle-winged Strombus, represented
in Figs. 303 and 304, these several peculiarities are well developed.
This shell is large, turbinate, distended in the middle, with an acutely-
Fig. 304. — Shell of Strombus gigns.
Fig. 305. — Strombus gallus (Linn.).
pointed spire studded with conical tubercles, the right edge very
broad, rounded off belo\v. The opening is of a vivid rose purple
fading into white. It is a native of the Antilles.
Strombus gallus, or the Angel-winged (Fig. 297), is veined with
stripes of white and red, and comes from the coasts of Asia and
America. Strombus luhuanus (Fig. 306) is fawn-coloured, marked
with white, externally the right edge is red and striped, inside the
columella is shaded purple and black.
Strombus cancdlatiis, the trellised Strombus (Fig. 307), is small
in size, and white in colour. Strombus ther sites is also represented
in Fig. 308.
The genus Pteroceras, from irrfpbv, wing, and icepas, horn, in many
respects resembles the genus Strombus. The species are distinguished
464
THE OCEAN WORLD.
3o6.— Strombus luhuanus Fig. 307.— Strombus can- FK
(Linnaeus). cellatus (Lamarck).
— Strombus thersites (Gray),
Fig. 309. — Pteroceras srnrpin
(Linnaeus).
310. — Pteroceras millepeda
(Linnaeus).
irom those of Strombus chiefly in this, that the right edge develops
: with age into long and slender digital spines more or less
numerous, the numbers of which vary according to the species. The
UNIVALVE MOLLUSC A.
465
species of Pterocera are found in the seas of both hemispheres, their
vulgar denomination being sea-spider or scorpion shells. A glance at
the illustrations (Fig. 309, Pteroceras scorpio ; Fig. 310, P. willepeda ;
Fig. 311, P. chiragra; and Fig. 312, P. lambis)w\\\ satisfy the reader
as to the general correctness of this designation.
Fig. 311. — Pteroceras chiragra 'Linnaeus).
Fig. 312.— Pteroceras lambis (Linnaeus).
The genus Pteroceras, whose remarkable form is so well calculated
to excite our admiration, has yet another attraction : the colouring of
the shells exhibits many shades, which are particularly varied towards
the opening, where it is generally distinguished by great freshness
and brilliancy, which, added to its other characters, render it among
the most interesting of all the Gasteropods.
466
CHAPTER XVTI.
PTEROPODS.
"Natura non facit saltus." —
THE position of the Pteropoda is somewhat unsatisfactory Theii
organisation in some respects places them below the level of the
Gasteropods ; yet the general feeling amongst naturalists has been
to assign them a place between the Gasteropods and the most highly
organised of the molluscs, the Cephalopods. The number of genera
and species is very much less than that of the other great classes
of molluscs.
The principal characteristic of the Pteropoda is a membranous
expansion situated on the right and left side of their head, from
which they take their name of Pteropoda, from -m-e^v, wing, and vovs,
gen. iroSbs, foot, winged feet.
The wings or flappers with which they are provided enable them
to pass rapidly through the water, reminding us strongly of the
movements of a butterfly, or other winged insect, and like them,
their motions are long continued. They advance in this manner in
a given direction, while the body or the shell remains in an oblique
or vertical position.
These little molluscs may be seen to ascend to the surface very
suddenly, turn themselves in a determinate space, or rather swim,
without appearing to change their place, while sustaining themselves
at the same height. If anything alarms them they fold up their
flappers, and descend to such a depth in their watery world as will
give them the security they seek. They thus pass their lives in the
open sea far from any other shelter, except that yielded by the gulf
weed and other algae. In appearance and habits, these small and
sometimes microscopic creatures resemble the fry of some other
forms of mollusca. They literally swarm both in tropical and
arctic seas ; and are sometimes so numerous as to colour the ocean
for leagues. They are the principal food of whales and sea-birds in
high latitudes, rarely approaching the coast. Only one or two
PTEROPODS. 467
species have been accidentally taken on our shores, and those
evidently driven thither by currents into which they have been en-
tangled, or by tempests which have stirred the waters with a
power beyond theirs. Dr. Leach states that in 1811, during a tour
to the Orkneys, he observed on the rocks of the Isle of Staffa
several mutilated specimens of Clio borealis. Some days after,
having borrowed a large shrimp-net, and rowing along the coast of
Mull, when the sea, which had previously been extremely stormy,
had become calm, he succeeded in catching one alive, which is now
in the British Museum.
"In structure," Mr. Huxley tells us, "the Pteropods are most
nearly related to the marine univalves, but much inferior to them.
Their numerous ganglia are concentrated into a mass below the
oesophagus ; they have auditory vesicles containing otolithes, and
are sensible of light and heat, and probably of odours, although at
most they possess very imperfect eyes and tentacles. The true foot
is small or obsolete; in Cleodora (Fig. 317) it is combined with the
fins; but in Clio it is sufficiently distinct, and consists of two
elements ; in Spirialis the posterior portion of the foot supports an
operculum. The fins are developed from the sides of the mouth or
neck, and are the equivalents of the side-lappets (epipodia) of the
sea-snails. The mouth of Pneumodermon is furnished with two
tentacles supporting miniature suckers; these organs have been
compared to the dorsal arms of the cuttle-fishes ; but it is doubtful
whether their nature is the same. A more certain point of resem-
blance is the ventral flexure of the alimentary canal, which terminates
on the under surface near the right side of the neck. The Pteropods
have a muscular gizzard armed with gastric teeth, a liver, a pyloric
caecum, and a contractile renal organ opening into the cavity of the
mantle. The heart consists of an auricle and a ventricle, and is
essentially opisthobranchiatic, although sometimes affected by the
general flexure of the body. The venous system is extremely in-
complete. The respiratory organ, which is little more than a ciliated
surface, is either situated at the extremity of the body, and unpro-
tected by a mantle, or included in a branchial chamber with an
opening in front. The shell when present is symmetrical, glassy,
and translucent, consisting of a dorsal and a ventral plate united,
with an anterior opening for the head, lateral slits for long filiform
processes of the mantle, and terminated behind in one or three points;
in other cases it is conical or spirally-coiled, or closed by a spiral
operculum. The sexes are united, and the orifices are situated on
the right side of the neck. According to Vogt, the embryo Pteropod
468 THE OCEAN WORLD.
has deciduous vela like the sea-snails, before the proper locomotive
organs are developed."
The Pteropods seem to be eminently sociable and gregarious,
swarming together in great numbers ; they present some analogical
resemblances to the Cephalopoda ; but permanently they represent
the larval stage of the sea-snails. De Blainville divides the group
into two sections, Thecosomata and Gymnosomata, the first including
the Hyaleidce, and Limacinida ; the second contains .one family, the
CliidcB. Of these three principal families of Pteropods, the first,
the Cliidcz, contains Cymodocea, Pelagia, Pneumodermon, and Clio ;
the second, Limacinidce, contains Macgillivrayia, Cheletropis, Spirialis,
and Limacina ; the third, Hyaleidce, contains Tiedemannia, Cymbulia,
Figs. 313 and 314. — Hyalea giboosa (Rang.). Figs. 315 and 316. — Hyalea longirostris (Lesueur).
Eurybia, Theca, Cleodora, and Hyalea. The Hyaleidse have small
horny shells, very thin and transparent, globular, or elongated, open
anteriorly, cloven on the sides, and truncate at the posterior ex-
tremity. Their globular body is formed of two parts, the one
including the head, bearing two very strong tentacles, and two large
fins or flappers in the form of wings, springing from each side of the
mouth.
These molluscs are small, and generally of a yellowish-blue or
violet colour. They are inhabitants of the deep sea, and rarely
seen out of what sailors call "blue water." They plough the waves
with great rapidity by the aid of their powerful fins. Certain winds
throw them sometimes in great numbers on the shores of the
Mediterranean. These little creatures, so inoffensive, and living
together in vast numbers, seem to be an easy and ready-prepared
prey, which the great marine animals may swallow by thousands.
Twenty species of Hyalea are described as actually living in the
Atlantic and Australian seas. Of these Hyalea gibbosa (Figs. 313.
314) and Hyalea longirostris (Figs. 315, 316) are here represented.
PTEROPODS.
469
The great flappers of Hyalea tridentata are yellow, marked at
their base with a fine violet spot. Its shell, plain above, convex
beneath, is cloven on the side. The superior part is longer than the
inferior, and the transverse line which unites them is furnished with
three teeth. This shell is yellow, and nearly translucent. When
Fig. 317-
Cleodora lanceolata (Lesueur).
Fig. 318.
Cleodora compressa (Eydoux
and Souleyet).
Fig. 319.
Cleodora cuspidata (Rocc.).
the animal swims, two expansions of its mantle issue from the
lateral clefts in the shell.
Cleodora lanceolata is a delicate and graceful creature ; its body,
of gelatinous appearance, has a distinct head, with its fins near the
neck, notched in the form of a heart (Fig. 317); its posterior part:
is globulous, transparent, and luminous even in the dark. The
animal which inhabits it sometimes shines through the shell like a
light placed inside a lantern. This shell is triangular, as in Cleodora
cuspidata (Fig. 319), thin, vitreous, and fragile, terminating in a long
spine at the base. The shell in Cleodora compressa (Fig. 318) is
elongated and very elegant in shape.
470
CHAPTER XVIII.
MOLLUSCA CEPHALOPODA.
" Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens." — VIRGIL,
THE highest class of the Mollusca is the Cephalopoda, which has
been divided by Professor Owen into two orders, Tetrabranchiata, or
animals having four branchiae, and the Dibranchiata, having two
iranchiae. The first order, Tetrabranchiata, contains the family
Ammonitida, with the fossil genera Goniatites and Ammonites; the
family Orthoceritida, the fossil genera Gomphoceras and Orthoceras ;
and the family Nattttiida, with the genus Nautilus.
The name Cephalopoda, as already stated, is taken from the
position of their feet, or more properly their arms, which are inserted
in the anterior part of the head : in Greek KC^AT?, head, iro£s-7ro56s,
foot.
The Cephalopodous Molluscs are indeed highly organised for
Molluscs, for they possess in a high degree the sense of sight,
hearing, and touch. They appear with the earlier animals which
present themselves on the earth, and they are numerous even now,
although they are far from playing the important part that was
assigned to them in the early ages of organic life upon our planet.
The Ammonites and Belemnites existed by thousands among the
beings which peopled the seas during the Secondary epoch in the
history of the globe.
TETRABRANCHIATA.
In this order the animal is creeping, protected with an external
shell ; the head is retractile within the mantle ; the eyes are peduncu-
lated ; the mandibles are calcareous ; there are very numerous arms.
The shell is external, camerated, and provided with a siphuncle, or
membranous tube (Nautilus), with a thin nacreous investment. In
many fossil forms it consists of a number of funnel-shaped or bead-
like tubes. This order differs from that of the Dibranchiata chiufly
in their more numerous arms, which are quite tentaculiferous, in
CEPHALOPODS.
the branchiae or gills being four, in having no suckers, and in having
an external shell. The number of living species is extremely small —
for this group of animals belongs peculiarly to the earlier ages of our
globe — is gradually becoming extinct, and presents in our days only
some species very rare and few, especially when we compare them
with the prodigious numbers of these beings which animated the seas
of the ancient world. In fact, the only living genus of the order is
that of Nautilus, the external shell of which has a singular resem-
blance in form to the internal shell of the genus Argonauta.
In Nautilus the shell has a regularly convoluted form, the last
whorl being equal to all the others. It is divided internally into
320. Nautilus pompilius (Linnaeus),
showing the interior of the lower cell, to which the animal is fixed.
numerous cells, formed by transverse partitions, concave in front and
perforated towards the centre, and forming a kind of funnel, which
gives passage to a respiratory syphon.
In the last partition of the shell (Fig. 320) is the animal, covered
by its mantle, which lines .the walls of the partitions. When it
contracts itself it is protected by a sort of triangular and fleshy hood.
Numerous tentacles, which are retractile, within sheaths, or " digita-
tions," corresponding to the eight ordinary arms of a cuttle-fish, and
some of them furnished with numerous lamellae, surround the head,
which is, besides, scarcely distinguished from the body. The head
bears two great projecting eyes, each planted upon a peduncle. '
Like Sepia and Octopus, the mouth of the Nautilus is armed with
mandibles, fashioned somewhat like the parrot's beak. The branchiae,
as we have seen, are four in number ; the circulatory system ^consists
THE OCEAN WORLD.
of a heart, with a ventricle and auricle. The shell is secreted by the
outer edge of the mantle, while its posterior extremity fashions the
walls of the partitions, which indicate the successive growth of the
individual.
Fig. 321 represents the shell of Nautilus, with the animal re-
moved ; the last partition is seen empty, and with the perforations
through which the siphuncle passes.
The genus Nautilus inhabits the Indian Ocean and the sea round
the Molucca Islands. In swimming, the head and tentacles are
projected from out of the shell. In walking on rocks, they drag
themselves along the ground, the body upwards, the head and
Fig. 321. — Nautilus pornpilius (Linnaeus),
showing the lower cell and the partition giving passage to the siphon.
tentacles beneath. They betake themselves frequently to miry
cavities frequented by fish. It is a much more common occurrence
to find the empty than inhabited shells of the Nautilus at sea.
This probably arises from its exposure to the attacks of crustaceans
and other marine animals, which seems to be proved by the mangled
appearance of the edges of the empty shells thus met with.
The Pearly Nautilus, Nautilus pompilius (Fig. 322), is said to be
so common on the Nicobar coast that the inhabitants salt and dry
its flesh, and store it as provisions. Its shell attains about eight
inches in its greatest height. This shell is said to be still used by the
Hindoo priest, as the conch with which they summon their devotees
to worship. It is nearly round, smooth, transversely blazed in its
posterior part, and entirely white anteriorly. A very fine nacre is
yielded by this mollusc, which is much used in ornamental cabinet-
work. The Orientals make drinking-cups, on which they engrave
CEPHALOPODS. 473
designs and figures, which form graceful objects. Similar vases were
formerly shaped in Europe, which found their way into great houses.
In our days they are generally consigned to cabinets of curiosities
and the shops of dealers in articles of vertu.
DlBRANCHIATA.
Owen's second order, Dibranchiata, contains six families : The
first is Spirulida, containing the curious genus Spirula, that little
gem amongst oceanic shells. The second family is Sepiadce, con-
taining the genus Sepia. The third is Belemnitidce, with the genera
Fig. 322. — Shell of Nautilus pompilius (Linnaeus).
Bdcmnites, and Bekmnoteiithis. The fourth, Teuthidia, with Loligo,
Scpiola, Ommastrephes, and others. The fifth, Octopoda, with Octopus
and Eledone. And the sixth, Argonautida^ with the genus Argo-
nauta. The order is most conveniently divided into two sections :
the first, those Dibranchiates with eight arms — Octopoda, including
the last two families ; the second, those with ten arms — Decapoda.
including the first four families.
To this group belong the Cuttle-fish, Squids, and Argonauts,
among existing species, and the Belemnites among the fossil species.
Some of these creatures are large, and essentially flesh-eaters, or
carnivorous; and, if we may believe all that has been written respecting
them, very formidable ones. Listen to Michelet, while he wonderfully
paints the humour of these inhabitants of the deep : — " The Medusse
and Molluscs," says this popular author, "are generally innocent
474 THE OCEAN WORLD.
creatures, and I have lived with them in a world of gentle peace.
Few flesh-eaters among them ; those even which are so, only kill to
satisfy their wants, living for the most part on life just commenced —
on gelatinous animals which can scarcely be called organic. From
this world grief was absent. No cruelty and no passion. Their
little souls, if mild, were not without their ray of aspiration towards
the light, and towards what comes to us from heaven, and towards
that love, revelling in that changing flame which at night is the
light of the deep. It is now, however, necessary to describe a much
graver world : a world of rapine and of murder ; from the very
beginning, from the first appearance of life, violent death appeared ;
sudden refinement, useful but cruel purification of all which has
languished, or which may linger or languish, of the slow and feeble
creation whose fecundity had encumbered the globe.
" In the more ancient formations of the old world we find two
murderers — a nipper and a sucker. The first is revealed to us by
the imprint of the trilobite, an order now lost, the most destructive of
extinct beings. The second subsists in one gigantic fragment, a beak
nearly two feet in length, which was that of a great sucker or cuttle-
fish (Sepia). If we may judge from such a beak, this monster — if the
other parts of the body were in proportion — must have been enormous ;
its ventose, invincible arms, of perhaps twenty or thirty feet, like those
of some monstrous spider. In making war on the molluscs he remains
mollusc also ; that is to say, always an embryo. He presents the
strange, almost ridiculous, if it was not also terrible, appearance of
an embryo going to war ; of a foetus furious and cruel, soft and trans-
parent, but tenacious, breathing with a murderous breath, for it is not
for food alone that it makes war : it has the wish to destroy. Satiated,
and even bursting, it still destroys. Without defensive armour, under
its threatening murmurs there is no peace ; its safety is to attack. It
regards all creatures as a possible enemy. It throws about its long
arms, or rather thongs, armed with suckers, at random." Such is the
somewhat exaggerated picture which the eloquent historian and poet
draws of the Molluscous Cephalopod, and perhaps it must be
admitted that there is some little basis of truth in this, though there
is scarcely any in the more recent one which has been painted by
the more imaginative Victor Hugo, in his eloquent book, entitled
4< Les Travailleurs de la Mer." Where, however, there is so much
of the fictitious, it will be our earnest endeavour to eliminate
facts only.
These formidable and curious Cephalopods, the MaAa«ta of Aris-
totle, Mollia of Pliny, and Cephalophora of De Blaiuville, have the
CEPHALOPODS. 4/5
mantle, according to Cuvier, united beneath the body, thus forming
a muscular sac which envelopes the whole viscera. The body is soft
and fleshy, varying much in form, being sub-spherical, sub-elliptical,
and cylindrical, the sides of the mantle in many species extending into
fleshy fins. The head protrudes from the muscular sac, and is dis-
tinct from the body ; it is gifted with all the usual organs of sense, the
eyes in particular, which are either pedunculate or sessile, being large
and well developed. The mouth is anterior and terminal, armed
with a pair of horny or calcareous mandibles, which bear a strong
resemblance to the bill of a parrot, acting transversely, one upon the
other. Its position is the bottom of a sub-conical cavity, forming
the base of numerous fleshy tentacular appendages which surround it,
and which are termed arms by some writers. These appendages in
the great majority of living species are provided with suckers,
acetabula (cupping-glass-like appendages), by means of which the
animal moves at the bottom of the sea, head downwards, or attaches
itself to its prey. These suckers are armed or unarmed with a long,
sharp, horny claw. In the unarmed acetabula, the mechanism for
adhesion is well described by Dr. Roget. " The circumference
of the disc," says this writer, " is raised by a soft and turned margin ;
a series of long slender folds of membrane covering corresponding
fascicula of muscular fibre converge from the circumference towards
the centre of the sucker, at a short distance from which they leave a
circular aperture ; this opens into a cavity which widens as it descends,
and contains a cone of soft substance rising from the bottom of the
cavity, like the piston of a syringe. When the sucker is applied to
the surface for the purpose of adhesion, the piston, having previously
been raised so as to fill the cavity, is retracted, and a vacuum pro-
duced, which may be still further increased by the retraction of the
plicated portion of the disc." Here we have an excellent description
of the apparatus for holding on. When the animal is disposed to let
go his hold, according to Professor Owen, " the muscular arrange-
ment enables it to push forward the piston, and thus in a moment
destroy the vacuum which retraction had produced."
In the case of the Cephalopods, with the arms and tentacles
armed, as Onychotenthis, Professor Owen remarks, " that there are
circumstances in which even the remarkable apparatus described by
Dr. Roget would be insufficient to fulfil the offices in the economy of
Nature for which the Cephalopod was created, and that in species
which have to contend with the agile mucous fishes more p>ower-
ful organs of prehension are superadded to the suckers, so that in the
armed Calamary the base of the piston is, he remarks, enclosed in a
4/6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
horny hoop, the outer and anterior margin of which is developed intc
a series of sharp curved teeth, which can be firmly pressed into the
flesh of a struggling prey by the contraction of the surrounding trans-
verse fibres, and can be withdrawn by the action of the retracting
fibres of the piston. " Let the reader," the Professor adds, " picture
to himself the projecting weapon of the horny hoop developed into a
long, curved, sharp-pointed claw, and these weapons clustered at the
expanded terminations of the tentacles, and arranged in a double
alternate series along the internal surface of the eight muscular feet,
and he will have some idea of the formidable nature of the carnivorous
cephalopod." The Professor notices another structure which adds
greatly to the prehensile powers of theuncinated Cephalopods. " At
the extremities of the long tentacles a cluster of small, simple, unarmed
suckers may be observed at the base of the expanded part. When
these latter suckers are applied to one another, the tentacles are
firmly locked together at that part, and the united strength of both
the elongated peduncles can be applied to drag towards the mouth
any resisting object which has been grappled by the terminal hooks.
There is no mechanical contrivance which surpasses this structure ;
art has remotely imitated it in the fabrication of the obstetrical
forceps, in which either blade can be used separately, or, by the
interlocking of a temporary blade, be made to act in combination." *
If we study the general aspect of the animal more closely, we find
that the arms — which serve at once as organs of locomotion for
swimming, for creeping, and as prehensile organs for seizing and
retaining its prey — are conical, very long, and all of the same form.
Each of them has towards its axis a longitudinal canal, which encloses
a great nerve, and is also surrounded with muscular fibres, arranged
in rays. The suckers, already described, occupy all the internal
surface of the eight tentacular arms, which are arranged in two rows,
having the form very nearly of a semi-spherical capsule. Of these
suckers, each arm of the cuttle-fish carries about 240, the total
number being nearly 1,000. The mouth we have already described,
in Dr. Roget's words : " The teeth move vertically, much as the
cutting edge of the two blades of a pair of scissors move upon each
other, tearing the prey by the assistance of their hooked terminations."
The tongue is covered on its upper part by a thick horny surface,
bristling in the centre with a series of recurved teeth, while its edge
is armed with three other erect teeth, which are slender and hooked.
The oesophagus is long and slender. At the abdomen the gullet
* " Cyclopaedia of Anatomy."
CEPHALOPODS. 477
expands into a sort of pouch, to which succeeds a gizzard, with
strong fleshy walls ; and, finally, a very short intestine, which directs
itself forward, terminating on the median line of the body.
Towards the anterior parts is the branchial cavity, of which a few
words must be said. It occupies the free space comprised between
the exterior surface of the abdomen and the internal face of the
mantle ; and here the respiratory organs, namely, the branchice, are
lodged. Here, also, are the reproductive and excretory organs.
The branchiae, which in all the families of this order are two in
number, are voluminous, but short, tufted, and leaf-like. The
branchial cavity can dilate and contract itself alternately. It com-
municates externally by two openings : the one, fashioned into a
cleft, receives, while the other, which is prolonged into a funnel,
serves to eject, the water, and thereby becomes a powerful organ of
locomotion. The inspiration of the animal is thus made by a cleft
in the mantle, and expiration is effected by the funnel : the renewal
of the respirable liquid acts as a sort of sucking and forcing pump,
at the surface of the lamelliform branchiae.
The cuttle-fish would be at no loss to reply to the question of the
Don Diego of Corneille —
" Rodrique, as-tu du cceur?"
for they have three hearts. Besides the ordinary systemic heart, the
circulation is aided by two additional ones placed at the end of the
branchiae. With each beat of the pulse the venous blood is brought
from all parts of the body, and propelled through each gill or
branchiae. Vivified by respiration in the internal tissue of the
branchiae, it is carried by the veins into the third (systemic) heart,
situated upon the median line of the body ; and now the regenerated
fluid is again distributed throughout the rest of the economy.
Not to oppress the reader with anatomical details, we shall just
remark that the gaze of the cuttle-fish is decided and threatening. Its
projecting eyes and golden-coloured iris are said to have something of
fascination in them. The animal seems able even to economise the
power of its glance, being able to cover its eyes from time to time by
contracting the skin which surrounds them, and bringing the two
translucent eyelids with which it is furnished together.
The cuttle-fishes are essentially aquatic and marine animals. We
find them in every sea in all parts of the world ; but they are most
formidable in warm countries. They have a great predilection for
the shore. During their youth they associate in flocks ; but with age
they fly from association, and retire into the clefts and hollows of the
47 8 THE OCEAN WORLD.
rocks. The old cuttle-fish is only found in rugged and rocky places,
bristling with naked, pointed rocks, which have been worn by the
waves, but generally in places only a few feet below the level of low
water. " How often," says d'Orbigny, " have we not observed the
cuttle-fish in his favourite retirement ! There, \\ ith one of his arms
clasped to the walls of its dwelling, it extends the other towards the
animals which pass at its gate, embraces them, and by its power
renders useless all their efforts to disengage themselves."
If we observe a cuttle-fish when it is what may be called walking,
either on land or at the bottom of the sea, it will be seen to walk on
one side, its head downwards, its mouth touching the ground, the
arms extending and grappling some supporting object, and drawing
the body forward ; at the same time the arms at the opposite side are
contracted and folded up, so as to assist by a contrary movement.
On shore the movement of these animals is very slow. On the other
hand, they swim very rapidly, assisted by all their arms, and aided by
the water ejected from the funnel, their movement being most
frequently backwards, the body first, the six superior arms placed
horizontally, the two others brought together above : the first help to
sustain them in their horizontal position, the last to guide them, in-
clining to the right or left as the animal changes its direction.
The cuttle-fishes feed on crustaceans, fishes, and also on shelled
molluscs — every kind of animal, in fact, which comes within their
reach ; so that it is readily taken by means of the flesh of fish or
crustaceans in which a strong hook is concealed. They live for five
or six years, and lay eggs, which are large, and generally found in
clusters ; fishermen know them under the name si sea-grapes.
Like some of the lower animals, they possess the property of re-
integration, being able to reproduce any arm that may be destroyed.
There is another singular peculiarity which the cuttle-fish may be
said to share with man. Under the influence of strong emotion the
human face becomes pale, or blushes, and in some individuals it is
said to become blue. This has always been supposed to be an
attribute of humanity; but the cuttle-fish shares it with our race.
Yielding to the impressions of the moment, the cuttle-fish suddenly
changes colour, and, passing through various tints, it only resumes
its familiar one when the cause of the change has disappeared. They
are, in fact, gifted with great sensibility, which reacts immediately
upon their tissues, these being extremely elastic and delicate. Sudden
changes of colour are produced — changes which far exceed the same
phenomena in man. Under the influence of passion or emotion,
man is born to blush, but under no sort of excitement does he cover
CEPHALOPODS. 479
himself with pustules ; this the cuttle-fish does : it not only changes
colour, but it covers itself with little warts. " Observe a cuttle in a
pool of water," says d'Orbigny, "as it walks round its retreat — it is
smooth, and of a very pale colour. Attempt to seize it, and it quickly
assumes a deeper tint, and its body becomes covered on the instant
\vith warts and excrescences, which remain there until its confidence
is entirely restored."
The following fact is abbreviated from the " Natural History and
Fishery of the Sperm Whale/' Mr. Beale had been searching for
shells among the rocks in Bonin Island, and was much astonished to
see at his feet a most extraordinary-looking animal, crawling back
towards the surf which it had just left. It was creeping on its eight
legs, which, from their soft and flexible nature, bent considerably
under the weight of its body, so that it was just lifted by an effort
above the rocks. It appeared much alarmed, and made every
attempt to escape. Mr. Beale endeavoured to stop it by putting his
foot on one of its tentacles, but it liberated itself several times in spite
of all his efforts. He then laid hold of one of the tentacles with his
hand, and held it firmly, and the limb appeared as if it would be torn
asunder in the struggle. To terminate the contest, he gave it a
powerful jerk ; it resisted the effort successfully, but the moment after
the enraged animal lifted a head with large projecting eyes, and
loosing its hold of the rocks, suddenly sprang upon Mr. Beale's arm,
which had been previously bared to the shoulder, and clung to it
with its suckers, while it endeavoured to get the beak, which he could
now see between the tentacles, in a position to bite him. Mr. Beale
describes its cold slimy grasp as extremely sickening, and he loudly
called to his friend, who was also searching for shells, to come to
his assistance. They hastened to the boat, and he was released by
killing his tormentor with a boat-knife, when the arms were disen-
gaged bit by bit. Mr. Beale states that this Cephalopod must have
measured across its expanded arms about four feet, while its body
was not bigger than a large hand clenched. It was the species called
the rock-squid by whalers.
The Spirulida. — This family contains but a single genus, Spirula,
and but one or two perfect specimens of the perfect animal of S.peronii
have been found. The shell is very common, and is found scattered
by thousands on the shores of New Zealand. The shell is entirely
nacreous-discoidal ; the whorls are separate, and the last chamber is
not larger in proportion than the rest.
The Sepiadce have eight arms rising from the crown of the head,
armed with four rows of suckers, two long slender arms with broadly-
THE OCEAN WORLD.
expanding ends, and stalked suckers (Fig. 323) ; eyes moving in their
sockets, and in Sepia the body is broadly ovate.
The body of the cuttle-fish (Sepia, Fig. 324), is a very singular
structure, somewhat reminding us of certain species of polyps. We
find a body or abdominal mass, separated by compression from the
head, which is sufficiently marked. The body is covered by the
mantle, which has the form of a sac opened only in front by a trans-
verse cleft. The head has a projecting and well-developed eye on
Fig. 323-
Sepia tuberculosa (Lamarck),
arm of.
Fig. 324.
Sepia officinalis (Linnaeus.)
Fig. 325.
Internal shell of Sepii
officinalis.
each side ; it is crowned by a sort of fleshy receptacle, which is
surrounded by four or five pairs of tentacles. At the bottom of this
receptacle is the mouth ; and from the anterior opening in the
mantle the funnel issues, which is wide at its base.
The body is also bordered on all its length on both sides with a
wing or narrow fin ; it is broader than it is long, with two large eyes,
covered by an expansion of the skin, which becomes transparent over
a surface equal to the diameter of the iris, and furnished with inferior
contractile eyelids.
The skin of the cuttle-fish contains in one vast hollow, occupying
all the extent of the back, a great calcareous shell, the form and
CEPHALOPODS. 481
structure of which is quite characteristic of this genus. It is known
as the cuttle-bone (Fig. 325). This bone is used for many purposes ;
among others, it is used in a powdered state as a dentifrice. It is
sometimes suspended in the cage with captive birds, that they may
whet their beaks on it, and collect phosphate of lime for the forma-
tion and repair of their bones. The shell is oval or oblong, some-
times provided with a slightly salient point. The upper part is
surrounded with a horny or cretaceous margin, and it presents in the
centre a combination of open cells.
Some of the Cephalopods secrete a blackish, inky fluid, the uses
of which, in the economy of the animals, is imperfectly known.
The cuttles have considerable quantities of this liquor, which is con-
tained in a sort of sac or ink-bag, placed low down in the abdomen.
When the animal is pursued or threatened with danger it discharges
a jet of the fluid, which renders the water thick and muddy, and
permits it to escape in the obscurity from its pursuers. It appears
that the cuttle-fish avails itself of this stratagem when left accidentally
ashore. It is related of an English officer, that, having dressed for
dinner, and having some time to spare, he proceeded along the shore
on his favourite search for objects of natural history. He reached a
hollow rock in which a cuttle-fish had established its quarters ; he
soon detected the animal, which looked at him for some time with
its great prominent eyes ; and for a little they watched each other
with fixed attention. This mute contemplation came to a sudden
and unexpected termination by the discharge of a voluminous jet of
inky fluid, that covered the officer, which was the more unfortunate,
since he was in his summer dress of white trousers.
The ink of the cuttle-fish is a favourite pigment, used in water-
colour painting under the name of sepia. It is truly indestructible ;
and the hard and black substance found in the sac of fossil species o
cuttle-fish when diluted with water produces a brilliant sepia. This
property of the inky fluid was well known to the Romans, who used
it in making ink. It was long supposed to be the chief ingredient
in Indian ink ; but a recent traveller, Mr. Siebold, who has visite.l
the manufactory, and investigated the subject, has revealed the true
process by which Indian ink is prepared.
The species of the genus Septa affect the sea-shore ; they are
along-shore molluscs. The flattened form of their bodies is favourable
to a coasting life, by permitting them to rest easily on the bottom.
Still they do not remain all the year round upon the coast. The
cold in temperate regions, and the extreme heat in warm regions, lead
them to withdraw from the shore, to which they only return in the
482 , THE OCEAN WORLD.
spring. They are rarely seen in the Channel in winter ; but with the
vernal sun they appear in large shoals. What is the mechanism by
which these animals are moved ? When the cuttle-fish wishes to
swim rapidly and backwards, it advances in the water by means of
the funnel which ejects the ambient liquid. When they wish to
approach a prey slowly in order to seize it, they swim by the aid of
their fins and arms.
The sepiae are flesh-eaters, and tolerably voracious. They feed
upon fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans. They are also true aquatic
brigands, who kill, not to feed themselves, but for the sake of killing ;
and Nature, by a just equilibrium, applies to them the lex talionis.
They fall victims, in their turn, to the vengeful jaws of the porpoises
and dolphins. Such is the terrible law of Nature : some must die
that others may live. Michelet gives us a glimpse of the manner
in which the dolphins dispose of the cuttle-fish in his " Livre de
la Mer." " These lords of the ocean/' he says, " are so delicate
in their tastes that they eat only the head and arms, which are
both tender and easy of digestion. They reject the hard parts, and
especially the after-part of the body. The coast at Royan, for
example, is covered with thousands of these mutilated cuttle-fish.
The porpoises take most incredible bounds, at first to frighten them,
and afterwards to run them down ; in short, after their feast they
give themselves up to gymnastics."
In the spring the sepiae deposit their eggs, but without abandon-
ing them. On the contrary, they exhibit a truly maternal care,
taking much trouble to attach them to some submarine body, in
which position the temperature of the water serves to hatch the eggs.
Sepia offitinaliS) for example, chooses, at the moment of laying, a
stem of Fucus, or of Gorgonia, or some other solid submarine body
not less in diameter than the little finger, and there it firmly
attaches its eggs, which are pear-shaped, that is, pointed at one
extremity, while a long laniere of a gelatinous nature, flat and black
in appearance, with which they are provided, surrounds the solid
body like a ring. Each female lays and attaches in this manner
from twenty to thirty eggs, which are clustered together somewhat
like a bunch of fine black grapes (Fig. 326). About a month after
this the eggs are hatched.
The colours of Sepia ojficinalis vary considerably ; but in general
it may be remarked that the males are ornamented with deeper
colours than the females. Transverse bands 01 a blackish brown
furrow their backs, and seem to take from their breadth. Outside
of these bands are small spots of a vivid white ; very near the edge
CEPHALOPODS. 483
there is a white border, accompanied inside with a second edging of
a beautiful violet. The median and anterior parts of the body are
spotted here and there ; beneath, a whitish tint with reddish speckles
prevails.
The sepias are found on every shore, and wherever they are found
they are eaten, for their flesh is savoury. They are usually fried or
boiled. They form an excellent bait for large ground-fish, such as
dog-fish, rays, and congers, which are fond of their flesh.
Thirty species are known, and they are chiefly characterised by
the arrangement and form of the suckers of the arms. Sepia officinalis
is common on the shores of the ocean from Sweden to the Canaries,
in all parts of the Mediterranean, and on our own British shores.
Fig. 326. — Sepia officinalis (Linnseus).
The third family, Bekmnitidce, contains the genera Belemnoteuthis
and Belemnites, and other genera of less importance ; they are all
now extinct, although once numerous as to species.
The fourth family, Teuthidce, contains Loligopsis, Cranchia^
Sepiola, Onychotenthis, Loligo, and others.
The Calamaries or Squids were described by Aristotle under the
name of Feints, and by Pliny under that of Loligo, which is still
retained as the name of one genus. Their popular name of Calmai
(calamar in old French) is taken from their resemblance to certain
species of ink-holders. Oppian, who endowed the Argonaut with
wings, believed that the calmar also could take to the air, in order to
avoid his enemies. Nevertheless, he was much puzzled how to give
the form and functions of a bird to a fish. Themistocles, by way of
insult to the Eretrians, likened them to calmars, saying they had
swords and no hearts. Athenaeus, a Greek physician before Galen,
dwelt upon the nourishing properties of the flesh of the calmar.
484
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The calmars, common enough in temperate regions, abound in
the seas of the torrid zone ; they are gregarious, and live in nume-
rous shoals, these flocks taking every year the same direction, their
emigration proceeding from temperate to warm regions — nearly the
same course as that followed by the herrings and pilchards.
The calmars, like the cuttles, propel themselves backwards through
the water with great velocity, driving back the water by means of
their funnel, moving with such vigour and promptitude that they have
been known to throw themselves out of the water, falling on the shore
Fig. 327. — Loligo vulgaris, with its pen,
or internal bone (Lamarck).
Fig. 328.— Loligo Gahi
(d'Orbigny).
or on the deck of a vessel. They only appear momentarily on the
shore, and only sojourn there to deposit their eggs, which are gela-
tinous in substance, about the level of the lowest tides. The body
in the calmars is longer than in the cuttle-fish, cylindrical in shape,
and terminating in a point, having two lateral fins, which occupy the
lower half or one-third of its body.
In the common calmar, Loligo vulgaris (Fig. 327), and the Loligo
Gahi (Fig. 328), we have two extreme forms represented, both taken
from the magnificent work of MM. d'Orbigny and Ferussac, on the
Cephalopodes acetabulifores. These molluscs are whitish-blue and
transparent, covered with spots of bright red. The pen is lanceolate —
that of the male elongated and somewhat resembling a feather, that
of the female much broader and more obtuse. Their head is short,
CEPHALOPODS. 485
furnished with two large projecting eyes ; the mouth is surrounded with
ten arms, provided with suckers, two of these arms being much longer
than the others, and with peduncles or foot-stalks to the suckers.
The internal pen of the calmar difters much from that of the
cuttles ; it is thin, horny, transparent, and somewhat resembling a
feather, from a portion of which the barbs have been removed. Their
food consists chiefly of small fishes and molluscs, though with the
greater fishes and cetaceae they carry on constant war. They are
caught and used for various purposes ; along the coast they are eaten \
the fishermen use them as bait, especially in fishing for cod.
Dr. Grant describes the body of Sepiola vulgaris, found on our
coast, as measuring about two inches in length, and as much in
breadth, while the head measures half an inch in length, and, from the
magnitude of the eyes, is equal in breadth with the body. In Ony-
choteuthis, distinguished for its uncinated suckers, the eyes are of the
size of those of a man. In Cook's first voyages, the naturalists to the
expedition, Banks and Solander, to quote Professor Owen's account,
" found the dead carcase of a gigantic species of this kind floating in
the sea between Cape Horn and the Polynesian Islands, in 30° 44'
S. lat, and 1 10° 10' W. long. It was surrounded by sea birds, which
were feeding on its remains. From the parts of this specimen which
are still preserved in the Hunterian Museum, and which have always
strongly excited the attention of naturalists, it must have measured at
least six feet from the end of the tail to the end of the tentacles."
It is no easy task to separate the real from the fabulous history of
the Cephalopods. Aristotle and Pliny have alike assisted, by their
marvellous relations, to throw that halo of wonder round it which the
light of modern science has not altogether dispelled. Pliny the Ancient
relates the history of an enormous cuttle-fish which haunted the coast
of Spain, and destroyed the fishing-grounds. He adds that this
gigantic creature was finally taken, that its body weighed yoolbs.,
and that its arms were ten yards in length. Its head came by right
to Lucullus, to whose gastronomical privileges be all honour. It was
so large, says Pliny, that it filled fifteen amphorae, and weighed yoolbs.
also.
Some naturalists of the Renaissance, such as Olaiis Magnus and
Denis de Montfort, gave credit — which they are scarcely justified in
doing — to the assertions of certain writers of the north of Europe, who
believed seriously in the existence of a sea-monster oi prodigious size
which haunted the northern seas. This monster has received the
name of the Kraken. The Kraken was long the terror of these seas ;
it arrested ships in spite of the action of the wind, sails.and oars,
486 THE OCEAN WORLD.
often causing them to founder at sea, while the cause of shipwreck
remained unsuspected. Denis de Montfort gives a description and
representation of this Kraken, which he calls the Colossal Poulpe, in
which the creature is made to embrace a three-masted ship in its vast
arms. Delighted with the success which his representation met with,
Denis laughed at the credulity of his contemporaries. "If my
Kraken takes with them," he said, " I shall make it extend its arms
to both shores of the Straits of Gibraltar." To another learned friend
he said, " If my entangled ship is accepted, I shall make my Poulpe
overthrow a whole fleet/'
Among those who admitted the facetious history of the Kraken
without a smile, there was at least one holy bishop, who was, more-
over, something of a naturalist. Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen,
hi Norway, in one of his books assures us that a whole regiment of
soldiers could easily manoeuvre on the back of the Kraken, which he
compares to a floating island. " Similior insulse quam bestiae," wrote
the good Bishop of Bergen.
In the first edition of his " System of Nature," Linnaeus himself
admits the existence of this colossus of the seas, which he calls Sepia
microcosmos. In subsequent editions, however, he erased the Kraken
from his catalogue.
The statements of Pliny respecting the Colossal Poulpe, like those
of Montfort about the Kraken, are evidently fabulous. It is, how-
ever, an undisputed fact that there exists in the Mediterranean and
other seas cuttle-fish of considerable size. A calmar has been caught
in our own time, near Nice, which weighed upwards of thirty pounds.
In the same neighbourhood some fishermen caught, twenty years ago,
an individual of the same genus nearly six feet long, which is preserved
in the Museum of Natural History at Montpellier. Peron, the
naturalist, met in the Australian seas a cuttle-fish nearly eight feet long.
The travellers Quoy and Gaimard picked up in the Atlantic Ocean,
near the equator, the skeleton of a monstrous mollusc, which, accord-
ing to their calculations, must have weighed 200 pounds. M. Rang
met in the middle of the ocean a mollusc with short arms and
of a reddish colour, the body of which, according to this naturalist,
was as large as a tun cask. One of the mandibles of this creature
still preserved in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, is larger
than a hand.
In 1853 a gigantic Cephalopod was stranded on the coast of Jut-
land. The body of this monster, which was dismembered by the
fishermen, furnished many wheelbarrow loads, its pharynx, or back-
part of the mouth, alone being as large as the head of an infant.
XXII.— Gigantic Cuttle-fish caught by the French Corvette Alecton, near Tenerifle.
CEPHALOPODS. 489
Dr. Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, who published a description of this
creature under the name of Architeuthis dux, shows a portion of the
arnt of another Cephalopod, which is as large as the thigh-bone of a
man. But an apparently well- authenticated fact connected with these
gigantic Cephalopods is related by Lieutenant Bayer, of the French
corvette Alecton, and M. Sabin Berthelot, French Consul at the
Canary Islands, by whom the report is made to the Academic des
Sciences.
The steam-corvette Alecton wa? between Teneriffe and Madeira
when she feL in with a gigantic calamar, not less — according to the
account — than fifteen metres (fifty feet) long, without reckoning its
eight formidable arms, covered with suckers, and about twenty feet
in circumference at its largest part, the head terminating in many
arms of enormous size, the other extremity terminating in two fleshy
lobes or fins of great size, the weight of the whole being estimated at
4,000 Ibs. ; the flesh was soft, glutinous, and of reddish -brick colour .
The commandant, wishing in the interests of science to secure the
monster, actually engaged it in battle. Numerous shots were aimed
at it, but the balls traversed its flaccid and glutinous mass without
causing it any vital injury. But after one of these attacks the waves
were observed to be covered with foam and blood, and, singulai
thing, a strong odour of musk was inhaled by the spectators. This
musk odour we have already noticed as being peculiar to many of
the Cephalopods.
The musket-shots not having produced the desired results,
harpoons were employed, but they took no hold on the soft impal-
pable flesh of the marine monster. When it escaped from the harpoon
it dived under the ship, and came up again at the other side. They
succeeded at last in getting the harpoon to bite, and in passing a
bowling hitch round the posterior part of the animal. But when they
attempted to hoist it out of the water the rope penetrated deeply into
the flesh, and separated it into two parts, the head with the arms and
tentacles dropping into the sea and making off, while the fins and
posterior parts were brought on board : they weighed about forty
pounds.
The crew were eager to pursue, and would have launched a boat,
but the commander refused, fearing that the animal might capsize it
The object was not, in his opinion, one in which he could risk the
lives of his crew. PLATE XXII. is copied from M. Berthelot's
coloured representation of this scene. " It is probable," M. Moquin-
Tandon remarks, commenting on M. Berthelot's recital, "that this
colossal mollusc was sick or exhausted by some recent struggle with
Q*
490
THE OCEAN WORLD.
some other monster of the deep, which would account for its having
quitted its native rocks in the depths of the ocean. Otherwise it
would have been more active in its movements, or it would have
obscured the waves with the inky liquid which all the Cephalopods
have at command. Judging from its size, it would carry at least a
barrel of this black liquid, if it had not been exhausted in some recent
struggle."
" Is this mollusc a calmar?" asks the same writer. " If we might
judge from the figure drawn
by one of the officers of the
Alecton during the struggle,
and communicated by M.
Berthelot, the animal had
terminal fins, like the cal-
mars ; but it had eight equal
arms, like the cuttle-fish.
Now the calmars have ten,
two of them being very ]ong.
Was this some intermediate
species between the two ?
Or must we admit, with MM.
Crosse and Fisher, that the
animal had lost its more for-
midable tentacles in some
recent combat?"'"
We now leave the section
of the Decapoda, and com-
mence the examination of
the last two families of the Dibranchiate Cephalopods, which belong
to the Odopoda.
The fifth family, Octopodidce, contains Eledone, Octopus, Pinnoc-
topus, Cirroteuthis,Philonexis, and Sccerugus, and contains Cephalopods
having eight long arms, united at the base by a web ; the suckers in
two rows, which are sessile ; the eyes fixed ; shell, two short styles
enclosed in the mantle; the body united to the head by a broad
neck-band ; no side fins. The body is oval, warty, and without fins
in Octopus (Fig. 329). We have figured, as other species of the genus,
O. macropus (Fig. 330), O. brevipes (Fig. 331), and O. horridus
(Fig. 332); it is small and oblong, arms tapering and webbed, and
suckers in a single row, in Eledom.
Fig. 329.— Octopus vulgaris (Lamarck).
* The figure, Plate XXII., represents the animal with ten arms.
CEPHALOPODS.
491
The two best-known species of this genus inhabit the Mediter-
ranean. The one is Eledone moschatus, known in Italy under the
Fig. 330. — Octopus macropus (Risso).
Fig. 331.— Octopus brevipes
(d'Orbfcny).
name of Muscardino, from the strong odour of musk which it emits,
even after death and desiccation ; the other is Eledone cirrhosus, a
small species, bluish-grey on
the back, and whitish under
the belly.
The habits of Eledone mos-
chatus have been carefully
studied by M. Verany. The
able naturalist of Nice pre-
served many of these animals
during a month, in a great
aquarium, noting their habits.
When in a state of tranquillity,
the Eledone clung to the sides
of the glass tank in which it
was kept. Its head is then
inclined forwards, with the
body sac hanging behind ; the funnel, turned upwards, presents
the orifice between the arms. In this state the animal is yellowish
in colour, its eyes dilated, its inspirations regular. But if irritated,
33~- — Octopus horridus (d'Orbigny).
492 THE OCEAN WORLD.
a remarkable change takes place : its body assumes a fine maroon
colour, and it is covered with numerous tubercles ; the eye becomes
contracted, a column of water is forcibly ejected from the funnel
at the aggressor, and the respiration becomes precipitate, jerky,
and irregular. The creature would take a strong inspiration, and,
having collected its force, suddenly throw a jet of water to a distance
of more than three feet. This state of passion, which the slightest
touch is sufficient to produce, endures for half an hour or more.
When it ceases, the animal resumes its form and primitive colours ;
but the least shock impressed on the water is sufficient to give it a
deeper tint, which passes like a flash of lightning over the skin of
this singular proteus.
The Eledone sleeps by day as well as by night, attaching itself
during its steep to the walls of its prison, leaving its arms to float
around, the two inferior ones extending backwards, and the sac
inclining over them ; its eyes are then contracted, and in part
covered by the eyelids. Its respiration is regular and slow, and any
ejection of water very rare ; its colour is then of a livid grey, and
vinous red below, with whitish spots, while the brown spots have
now entirely disappeared. While still asleep, it is watchful and
attentive to all the dangers which could surprise it. The extremities
of the arms floating round its body are ready to announce the
approach or contact of any other object. Even the most delicate
touch is perceived immediately, and it shrinks from the hand which
seeks to approach it. Under every circumstance the Eledone exhales
a strong odour of musk, which it preserves long after death.
When the Eledone swims, which it rarely does unless pressed by
some urgent necessity, it carries the sac in advance, the arms floating
behind — the six upper ones being on a horizontal line, the two others
approaching each other below. Thus arranged, it presents, in conse-
quence of its flattened form, a very large resisting surface to the
water, its progress being due to the alternate dilatation and contrac-
tion of the body, which expels the water through the funnel, and by
reaction produces a rapid and jerking movement. Sometimes the
arms aid the movement; the eyes of the animal are then much
dilated, and its colour a clear livid yellow, finely shaded with red,
and covered with bright spots.
It is a singular fact that the creature notably changes colour
under any exertion, so that the animal at rest and in motion are two
different beings. When walking under water the funnel is directed
behind, its arms are spread out, the head is raised, and the body
slightly inclined forward ; its mantle is then of a pearly grey, and
CEPHALOPODS.
493
the spots take the tint of wine lees. When at rest the shades
disappear.
In Pinnoctopus cordiiformis, a member of this family, the body
is oblong, with lateral expansions, as represented in the accompanying
figure (Fig. 333).
In Cirrhotheutis the arms are completely united in their whole
extent by a thin membrane furnished with cirri, which alternate with
certain suckers arranged in one row. Only one species (C. Miilleri)
Fig. 333.— Pinnoctopus cordiiformis (Q. & G.). Fig. 334.— Cirrhotheutis Mulleri (Eschricht).
of this genera is known as an inhabitant of the northern seas, which
is represented in Fig. 334.
The sixth family, Argonautidce, contains only one genus,
Argpnautd.
Argonauta argus is the Paper Nautilus. Floating gracefully on
the surface of the sea, trimming its tiny sail to the breeze, just
sufficient to ruffle the surface of the waves, behold the exquisite living
shallop ! The elegant little bark which thus plays with the current is
no work of human hands, but a child of Nature : it is the Argonaut,
whose tribes, decked in a thousand brilliant shades of colour, are
wanderers of the night in innumerable swarms on the ocean's
surface !
The marine shell which Linnaeus called the Argonaut enjoyed
494 THE OCEAN WORLD.
great renown among the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was the
subject of graceful legends ; it had inspired great poets ; it occupied
the attention of Aristotle, who called it the Nautilus and Nauticos,
and of Pliny, who called it Pompylius. Few animals, indeed, have
been so celebrated, so anciently known. The Greek and Roman poets
saw in it an elegant model of the ship which the skill and audacity
of the man constructed who first braved the fury of the waves \ in the
words of the poet, " armour of triple oak and triple brass covered the
heart of him who first confided himself in a frail bark to the relentless
waves :w
" Illi robur et ses triplex
Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci
Commisit pelago ratem
Primus "
Horace, Car. I., iii. 9.
To meet the Pompylius was, according to the superstitious Roman,
a favourable presage. This little oceanic wanderer, in spite of the
capricious waves, was a tutelar divinity, who guarded the navigator
in his course, and assured him of a happy passage. Listen to the
immortal author of the first natural history of animals, the philo-
sophical Aristotle. " The Nautilus Polyp," says the learned historian,
" is of the nature of animals which pass for extraordinary, for it can
float on the sea ; it raises itself from the bottom of the water, the shell
being reversed and empty, but when it reaches the surface it readjusts
it. It has between the arms a species of tissue similar to that which
unites the toes of web-footed birds. When there is a little wind, it
employs this tissue as a sort of rudder, letting it fall into the water
with the arms on each side. On the approach of the least danger it
fills its shell with water, and sinks into the sea."
Pliny gives it the name of Pompylius, and, after the example of
Aristotle, explains how it navigates, by elevating its two first arms, a
membrane of extreme tenuity stretching between them, while it rows
with the others, using its median arm as a rudder. The Greek poet,
Oppian, who lived in the second century of our era, and to whom
we are indebted for poems on fishing (Helieutica) and the chase
(Cynegetica)) says of it : — " Hiding itself in a concave shell, the Pom-
pylius can walk on land, but can also rise to the surface of the water,
the back of its shell upwards, for fear that it should be filled. The
moment it is seen, it turns the shell, and navigates it like a skifull
seamen : in order to do this, it throws out two of its feet like antennae,
between which is a thin membrane, which is extended by the wind
like a sail, while two others, which touch the water, guide, as with a
CEPHALOPODS.
495
rudder, the house, the ship, and the animal. If danger approaches,
it folds up its antennae, its sail, and its rudder, and dives, its weight
being increased by the water which it causes to enter the shell. As
we see a man who is victor in the public games, his head circled by
a crown, while vast crowds press around, so the Pompylius have
always a crowd of ships following in their track, the crews of which
no longer dread to quit the land. O fish justly dear to navigators !
thy presence announces winds soft and friendly : thou bnngest the
calm, and thou art the sign of it ! "
Fig. 335. — Shell of Argonauta argo (Linnaeus).
Oppian carried his admiration a long way. That the Argonaut is
an animated skiff is agreed on all hands ; but, in making it almost a
bird — in according to it at once the faculty of gracefully navigating the
sea and floating in the atmosphere as an inhabitant of the regions of
air — he was passing even the limits permissible to poetic license.
But the properties of the Argonaut have not alone struck the ima-
gination of the Greeks and Romans ; they also attracted the attention
of the Chinese, who call it the boat-polyp. Rumphius informs us, that
in India the shell (Fig. 335) fetches a great price. Women consider
it a great, a magnificent ornament. In their solemn fetes, dancers
carry one of these shells in the right hand, holding it proudly above
496
THE OCEAN WORLD.
their heads. Nor did it require the dithyrambic praises with which
the ancients have surrounded it to recommend it to the admiration of
modern naturalists. Without exaggerating the graceful attributes
with which it is gifted, it is at once one of the most curious objects
in Nature.
Its body (Fig. 336) is ovoid in form, and it is furnished with eight
tentacles, covered with a double row of suckers. Of these tentacles,
six are narrow and slender, tapering to a fine point towards the ex-
tremity, while the remaining two spread out in the form of wings or
sails. These are all folded up
when in a state of repose. The
body itself is contained in a thin,
white, and fragile univalve shell,
which is oval, flattened on the
exterior, but rolled up in a spiral
in the interior, the last turn of the
shell being so large as to give
it something of the form of an
elegantly-shaped shallop. Sin-
gularly enough, the body of the
animal does not penetrate to the
bottom of the shell, nor is it at-
tached to it by any muscular
ligament; nor is the shell moulded
exactly upon it, as is the case with
most other mollusca.
What does all this imply ? Is
the Argonaut a parasite, a fraudu-
lent disinheritor, a vile assassin,
who, having surprised and killed
the legitimate proprietor of the shell, has installed itself in its place,
and in the proper house of its victim ? Such crimes are not without
example in the natural history of animals — witness the proceedings
of the curious hermit crab, whose proceedings we shall glance at in a
future chapter. The parasitic character of the Nautilus was long
believed in by naturalists ; but recent facts have corrected this opinion.
We have collected their shells, of all dimensions and of all ages,
inhabited always by the same animal, whose size is always propor-
tioned to the volume of the shell. More than that, it is now known
that in the egg of the Argonaut the rudiments of the shell exist.
M. Chenu tells us, that under the microscope Professor Duvernoy
discovered a distinct shell contained in the embryo. Sir Everard
Fig; 336. — The Argonauta argo (Linnseus).
CEPHALOPODS. 497
Home asserts the contrary ; and no opportunity presented itself for
the complete solution of the question, until Poli was placed by the
King of Naples in a position to solve it. The piscina of Portici was
placed at his disposal. He witnessed the curious mechanism by
which the egg is expelled from the egg cavity, and found in it the
rudiments of a shell, and satisfied himself, by following their develop-
ment day by day, that the shell existed in the embryo, and grew with
the animal. He satisfied himself also that the opinion enunciated by
Aristotle, that at no point did the animal adhere to the shell, was
perfectly true.
Finally, in the curious series of experiments carried on by
Madame Power, in the port of Messina, the fragments of the frail
bark of the mollusc, which were broken off in taking it, were restored
in a few days, having been reproduced. It is, therefore, now quite
demonstrated that the Argonaut, like other testaceous molluscs, itself
secretes and constructs its shell — its diaphanous skiff. The reader,
however, must not flatter himself that he can witness with his own
eyes from the shore, in our narrow channel, the charming picture of
the Argonaut painted by poets and natural historians : they never
come near the shore. They are timid and cautious creatures, dwelling
almost always in the open sea. They live in families, some hundreds
of miles from the shore ; and it is during the night, or at most in the
fading light of sunset, that they assemble together to pursue their
gambols on the surface of a tranquil sea.
However reluctant we may be to destroy the marvellous fictions
of ancients and moderns, we are compelled to declare that there is no
truth in the often-repeated statement that the Argonaut uses its pal-
mated arms as oars or sails. In order to swim on the surface, it comports
itself as all other Cephalopods do. It uses neither oars nor sails, and
the palmate arms only serve to envelop and retain its hold on its frail
shell. Its principal apparatus of progression is the funnel with which
it is furnished, in common with all Cephalopods, and which is very
long in the Argonaut. Aided by this apparatus, it ejects the water
after it has served the purpose of respiration, and, in doing so, pro-
jects itseli through the water. While it advances through the water
under this impulse, its pendent arms, elongated and united in bundles,
extend the whole length of the shell. Fig. 337 shows the position of
the difierent parts of the animal when it thus breasts the waves. These
arms are also powerful aids when the animal creeps on the ground at
the bottom of the sea.
When the animal is disturbed it retires completely into its shell.
From that moment, the equilibrium being changed, the shell is over-
498
THE OCEAN WORLD.
turned, and the animal is nearly invisible. If frightened, it entirely
submerges itself, and sinks to the bottom.
These little beings share with other Cephalopods the strange
Fig, 337. — Argonauta papyracea, as it swims by means of its locomotive tube.
faculty of changing colour under the influence of some vivid impres-
sion ; but their graceful and delicate organisation redeems them from
the charge we have brought against the cuttles. The Argonaut can
blush, turn pale, and show through its transparent shell its body
changing in sudden shades; but it
never exhibits those bristling, unplea-
sant tubercles, the inheritance of the
larger and coarser Cephalopods — the
tyrants of the sea.
The male Argonauts are very small,
often not a tenth part of the size of
the females, which alone possess the
shells.
The female Argonaut carries its
egg in the shell, and the little ones are
also hatched in this floating cradle.
Four or six species are at present known
— the species described by Aristotle and Pliny, and the more ancient
naturalists — namely, A. argo, or papyracea (Figs. 335 and 337), which
are inhabitants of the Mediterranean as well as the Indian Ocean
and the Antilles. Two others, A. Owenii, belonging exclusively to
the Indian Ocean, and A. hyans, which is met occasionally in the
Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Fig. 338. .
Argonauta papyracea in its shell.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOLLUSCA.
We have thought it better to treat this subject in a separate portion
of this chapter, for its vast and complicated nature renders it other-
wise difficult to handle, except in a space which would exceed the
limits of this work,
DISTRIBUTION OF MOLLUSC A. 499
The different genera of the Mollusca are peculiar to, or most fre-
quent in, certain localities, and even species and varieties are known
to have their peculiar limits. This fact pervades the entire range of
organic beings, from the lowest plants to man. The geographical dis-
tribution of The Mollusca is perhaps that best known to science. The
labours of Messrs. Louis Agassiz and R. M'Andrew, Dr. J. E. Gray,
Professor Edward Forbes, and others, have done much towards
giving us a clear idea of their distribution in space. Climate alone is
insufficient to account for the distribution of animals : some higher
cause rules here. But while we admit this, still we must acknow-
ledge that climate exerts considerable influence in modifying species.
The distribution of the Mollusca may be considered from three
points of view. First, as regards space; second, as regards depth;
and third, as regards time; the last belongs to geology.
We shall now survey the principal divisions of the ocean ; the
line of demarcation being drawn, not by latitude or longitude, but
by genera and species.
The Mollusca of the arctic seas are well known to show con-
siderable analogy with those of the later Tertiary periods of Europe.
Hence the great interest connected with their comparison, as it affords
— provided we are satisfied with this line of argument — a proof that
an arctic climate formerly existed in temperate regions. It is the
northern Drift of which we are speaking. Even when species are
found living in Britain identical with those of the arctic regions, still
there is often a difference in the form or size of British and arctic
specimens; certain species, such as Cyprina Islandica, being com-
paratively small in the south of Britain, larger in Shetland, and
attaining their greatest size in Iceland.
The countries included in the arctic molluscan province are
Lapland, Iceland, Greenland, the west coast of Davis' Straits, and
Behring's Straits. About 200 species are enumerated by the various
arctic voyagers, as found in these seas ; of these about one-half are
peculiar to them, and the other half are either found living in the
temperate regions of Europe, or in their so-called glacial strata.
The Boreal province includes the North Atlantic, from Nova
Scotia to Iceland, and from thence to Faroe, Shetland, and the
Norway coast.
The number of species is very large ; and more than one-half are
common both to Scandinavia and the North American coast, while a
great number also are found on the British coast.
The province called Celtic by Professor Edward Forbes embraces
the coasts of Britain, Sweden, and Denmark.
5OO THE OCEAN WORLD.
Our British Mollusca are about 700 in number; those bearing
shells are above 500. Of these about thirty are peculiar to Britain.
The shells of the Baltic are identical with those of this province.
The Lusitanian province stretches from Madeira and the Canaries
to the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and includes also the Mediter-
ranean. But, as one might expect, on close examination the Mollusca
in such a large area differ so widely that we are forced to admit the
existence of great subdivisions.
The number of species found on the coast of Madeira by
Mr. McAndrew was 156, of which forty-four per cent, were identical
with British species, and eighty-three per cent, were common to the
Canaries.
The shells of the Mediterranean are 600 in number ; but it is
probable that more extensive dredging will result in great accessions
being made to this list. Nine genera are peculiar to the Mediter-
ranean. A very small number of species only are identical with those
now found in the Red Sea or trie West Indies
In the character of its shells, the Black Sea resembles the
Mediterranean, but does not contain much more than a tenth of
the number of its species. The number of shells found on the
Spanish and Portuguese coasts is much smaller than one would
expect, and can only be attributed to the scanty explorations that
have been made. As we might expect, the number of species
identical with those of Northern Europe is much greater on the
Atlantic than on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.
The sea of Aral, and the Caspian, contain a few peculiar species ;
but they have been so little explored, that it is premature, we think,
to form them into a province. The proportion of salt contained in
these seas is much less than in the ocean.
The west of Africa affords a considerable number of fine shells ; the
species most numerous being those of Murex, Conus, and Clavatula.
The South African province contains 400 species • the character-
istic genera are Terebratella, Chiton, Patella, Trochus, Fissurella,
Cyprsea, and Conus. A large number of the species are not found
elsewhere.
The Indo-Pacific province stretches from Australia to Japan, the
greater part of the east coast of Africa, the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, the
Asiatic coast, and the islands of the Indian Archipelago.
The Molluscs of the Red Sea remind us of those of India; the per-
centage of those found also in the Mediterranean being but small.
The shells of the Persian Gulf are but little known ; one species, the
brindled cowry ( Cypraa princeps), has been sold for
DISTRIBUTION OF MOLLUSC A. 5OI
The seas of New Zealand and Australia have been formed into a
province. As might be anticipated, their mollusca have little in
common with those of the rest of the globe.
The Japonic province includes the coasts of Japan and the Corea.
The Aleutian province, the centre of which may be taken to be
the Aleutian Islands, shows great analogy with the Boreal province of
the west, a considerable number of the shells being identical — a fact
especially interesting when we consider that very few species are
found common to both the south-eastern and south-western coasts of
America.
The Californian province is very distinct from that of Panama ;
the genera most numerous found there are Chiton, Acmaea, Fissurella,
Trochus, and Purpura.
The marine shells of Panama are upwards of 1,300 ; the region
included stretches from the Gulf of California to Peru. For our
knowledge of this province we are much indebted to the researches
of Dr. P. P. Carpenter, who has catalogued 654 species, as found at
Mazatlan.
The Peruvian province contains a long list of species, and extends
from Callao to Valparaiso.
The Magellanic province includes the extreme south of America
and the Falkland Islands. Many genera, the species of which are
usually small, here reach an enormous size, and afford, in many cases,
the chief animal food consumed by the quadrupeds and human
population of that wild and desolate coast.
The Patagonian province extends from St. Catharina to Point
Melo on the east coast. The number of species found also in the
Falkland Islands is very small; but a large number are identical
with Brazilian species ; yet the majority are peculiar.
The Caribbean province extends from Brazil to the West Indies,
and includes also the northern coast of South America and the Gulf
of Mexico; a total of 1,500 species is enumerated by Professor Adams
as belonging to the province.
The Transatlantic province, or that on the coast of the United
States, does not afford a large number of species, only 230 being
known ; of these only fifteen are found in Europe.
The study of the terrestrial and fresh-water mollusca affords even
better grounds for their division into provinces ; but we shall not enter
into this subject here, as it belongs more especially to the Land World.
We shall now say a few words on the depth of the sea or ocean
in which Mollusca are found.
5O2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The observations of Milne-Edwards, Audouin, and Professor
Edward Forbes, have led to the division of the sea into four zones : —
The deep sea Coral zone, from fifty to 100 fathoms; the Coralline
zone from fifteen to fifty fathoms; the Laminarian zone, which
stretches from fifteen fathoms to low water ; and the Littoral zone,
between high and low water marks.
The great stronghold of Crania, Thetis, Nesera, Yoldia, Dentalium,
and Scissurella, is in the deep sea Coral zone ; while Buccinum, Fusus,
Pleurotoma, Natica, Aporrhais, Philine, and Velutina, which are
among the most ravenous and predatory of molluscs, are found in
the Coralline zone. They attack the bivalves, whose shells among
the relics of former seas, as in those of the present, show evidence
of assaults and murder.
The principal genera of the Laminarian zone are the different
genera of the Nudibranchiata, and such genera as Aplysia, Trochus,
Navicella, Rissoa, and Lacuna, which feed so much on the seaweed
of this region.
The Littoral zone, which, being accessible as the tide recedes, is
best known, affords Cardium, Mytilus, Tellina, Solen, Trochus,
Patella, Littorina, and Purpura ; or in plain English, cockles, mussels,
razor-fish, limpets, periwinkles, and tingles — species which are the
first to attract our attention, and which are so much used for food.
Nothing was known at the time of the translation of this work of
the discoveries since made by Sars, Wyville Thomson, Pourtales,
and others, as to what may now be well called the Deep Sea fauna
which live in depths of from 100 to 1,500 fathoms.
501
CHAPTER XIX.
THE CRUSTACEA.
" Multa taraen Izetus tristia pcmtus habet" — OVID.
WE divide the Arthropods into four classes, the Insecta, the Myria-
poda, the Arachnida, and the Crustacea, and it is this last which
must now engage our attention. It may, however, be proper to
remark that we pass over here the large section of the ANNULOSA —
animals, very many of which inhabit the sea ; indeed, the classes
Annelida and Gephyrea are almost exclusively marine.
The Crustacea is the lowest division of articulate animals ; they
possess feet ; they breathe by means of gills, and have no tracheae, or
air-passages, as in the Insecta. The name signifies a hard crust or
covering, with which the animals are protected. This consists of
layers of carbonate of lime with one of pigment, generally, but not
always, on the surface. The general outline of these animals is
peculiar ; unlike insects, they are not divisible into head, thorax, and
abdomen ; many species truly have no apparent head ; but a pair of
eyes point to the seat of intelligence. Most of these animals have two
compound eyes ; but a few, like some insects, have eyes both simple
and compound. The mouth is situated in the under part of the
anterior of the body : in some cases they have jaws, as in crabs ; in
other suckers only.
The Crustaceans have nearly all of them claws, formidably hooked
and toothed, which they employ as pincers, both in offensive and
defensive war. They have been compared to the heavily-armed
knights of the middle ages — at once audacious and cruel ; barbed in
steel from head to foot, with visor and corslet, arm-pieces and thigh-
pieces — scarcely anything, in fact, is wanting to complete the re-
semblance.
These marine marauders live on the sea-coast, among the rocks,
and near the shore. Some few of them frequent the deep waters,
others hide themselves in the sand or under stones, while the common
crab (Carcinus m or back ; the
lower arc is a counterpart of this, while the others form the two side
or epimeral pieces. The skin, therefore, performs the functions of a
skeleton, so that the Crustaceans — as was said by Geoffroy Saint
Hilaire — like the molluscs, live inside and not outside their bony
column. The analogue of the Crustacea amongst Vertebrata is to be
found amongst Sturgeons, whose hard outer immovable bony case
encloses a softer skeleton ; these latter agree, however, in all their
other characters with the higher divisions of the vertebrata, although
their internal skeleton does not possess the solidity of bone.
The Crustaceans vary greatly in colour ; some are of a dark iron
grey with a dash of steel-blue, like metal weapons forged for combat ;
a few of them are red, or reddish-brown; others are of an earthy
yellow or of a livid blue.
" The integument/' according to Milne-Edwards, " consists of a
corium, or true skin, and an epidermis, with pigmentary matter, which
colours the former. The corium is a thick, spongy, and vascular mem-
brane, connected with the serous substance which lines the parietal
walls of the cavities, as the serous membrane lines the internal
CRUSTACEA. 505
cavities among the vertebrata." The pigment is less a membrane than
an amorphous matter diffused through the outer layer of the superficial
membrane, which changes to red in the greater number of species on
being immersed in alcohol, ether, acids, or water at 212° Fahr.
The calcareous crust of the animal is thick, and in the dorsal region
capable of great resistance ; their arms and legs are also of remarkable
hardness ; but in the smaller species the shell is often thin, and of
that crystalline transparency which permits of the functions of diges-
tion and circulation being observed. Many species, which are quite
microscopic, contribute colour to the sea — red, purple, or scarlet —
such are Grimothea Duperreii, and G. gregaria.
Before the year 1823 it was not generally supposed that this class
of animals was subject to change of shape in its larval condition, and
during its progressive development ; but about this time a certain able
microscopist clearly demonstrated that a minute nondescript kind of
animal, called the Zoea Taurus, was nothing more nor less than the
young of a kind of Prawn that had just escaped from the egg. This
able microscopist, Mr. Vaughan Thomson, of Cork, by many suc-
cessive observations, and under the fire of much adverse criticism,
satisfactorily established the truth of a metamorphic change taking
place in many genera, and, in particular, in the common crab ( Cancer
mcenas); having succeeded in hatching the ova of this species, the
product of which proved to be a true Zoea. That there are variations
in this law of change has now been admitted, but that generally a meta-
morphosis exists analogous to that of insects in the various genera
of Crustacea with hardly an exception has been clearly established.
The recorded observations of the eminent naturalist we have men-
tioned, Mr. Vaughan Thomson, as well as those of Mr. Couch, of
Penzance, Professor Milne-Edwards — and particularly those of the
last mentioned, who is the author of perhaps the best general work
extant on the Crustacea — are referred to as treating in detail on this
interesting subject.
As an illustration of this metamorphosis, we give figures of the Zoea
Taurus in two states (Fig. 339), viz., a, in the first stage ; and second,
by as the animal appeared on the fourth day after the first micro-
scopical examination, and when it resolved itself into a kind of prawn.
These drawings appear in Mr. Bell's " History of British Stalk-eyed
Crustacea," and were taken by that gentleman from the work of a
Dutch naturalist named Slabber, who made the original observation
in the year 1768, and published the result in 1778, from which time
the subject had been allowed to iall asleep until revived by Mr.
Vaughan Thomson.
506
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Among the Crustacea which have no neck the head gradually
mingles with the thorax (Cephalothorax), but the abdomen remains
distinct; the middle of the body is compressed. Among some
Crustaceans there are neither thorax nor abdomen, nor head, but all
Fig. 339.— Zoea Taurus.
three form only one mass, often short and squat, as in Pisa tetraodon
(Fig. 340), the four-horned spider crab.
Many of these animals have the abdomen developed into a power-
ful tail, consisting of a certain number of altered segments, which it
uses in swimming to force it through the water.
The Crustaceans, so far as they are aquatic, respire by means of
branchicE, or gills. In the larger species these branchiae are in the
form of lamellae, which are traversed by two canals, one of which
CRUSTACEA. 507
leads the blood into the general body of the animals, the other directs
it towards the heart. These organs are enclosed in the Cephalothorax.
In some of the smaller species the branchiae often appear exteriorly,
hanging in the water like tassels. In some cases we find that the
Crustacea have no special organs of respiration.
Nearly all the Crustaceans are strong, hardy, and destructive,
forming a horde of nocturnal brigands — merciless marauders, who
recoil from no trap in which they can lie in wait for their prey.
Fig. 340. — Pisa tetraodon.
They fight ct foutrance not only with their enemies, but often among
themselves, either for a prey or for a female, sometimes for the sake
of the fight. They struggle fiercely and audaciously with their claws.
The carapace generally resists the most formidable blows ; but the
feet, the tail, and above all the antennae, suffer frightful mutilation.
Happily for the vanquished, the mutilated members sprout again
after a few weeks of repose. This is the reason for the many Crus-
taceans met with having the claws of very unequal size : the smaller
replace those lost in battle. Nature has willed that the Crustacean
should not long remain an invalid. They soon return cured of their
wounds. " We have seen lobsters," says Moquin-Tandon, " which
have in an unfortunate encounter lost a limb, sick and debilitated,
508 THE OCEAN WORLD.
reappear at the end of a few months with a perfect limb, vigorous,
and ready for service. O Nature, how thou fillest our souls with
astonishment and wonder !"
On the Spanish coast there is a species of crab known singularly
enough by the name of Boccaccio. It is caught for its claw, which is
considered excellent eating; this is taken off, and the mutilated
animal is thrown into the sea, to be re-taken at some future time
when the claw has reappeared.
Crustaceans are nearly all carnivorous, and eat eagerly all other
animals, whether living or dead, fresh or decomposed. Little think
they of the quality or condition of their food. It is amusing f>
witness the address and gravity with which the common crab, when
it has seized an unfortunate mussel, holds the valve open with one
claw, while with the other it rapidly detaches the animal, carrying each
morsel to its mouth, as one might do with the hand, until the shell
is entirely empty. The crab does not kill its prey directly, like the
lobster ; it swallows it, certainly, but with greater appreciation.
M. Charles Lespes surprised upon the shore at Royan a shoal
of crabs at their repast. This day they seemed to have dined in
common, and " God knows the enjoyment," as the good Fontaines
said. They were in rows, every head turned to the same side, and
nearly on end on their eight feet. They seized the small objects on
the shore, which they carried to their mouths, each hand in its turn in
regular order ; when the right hand reached the mouth the left was on
the ground. Only imagine a company of disciplined soldiers thus
messing together at the same table !
The Long-horned Corophius (Corophium longicorne), remarkable
for its long antennae, knows perfectly well how to cut the byssus by
which the mussels suspend themselves, in order that the bivalve may
fall on the weeds among them. Other Crustaceans are also great
oyster-eaters, and have the cunning or instinct to attack this mollusc
without exposing themselves to danger. When the bivalve half opens
its shell to enjoy the rays of the sun or take food, the evil-disposed
Crustacean is romantically said to slip a stone between the valves ;
this done, it devours the poor inhabitant of the shell at its leisure.
The Corophii, respecting whom this assertion is hazarded, are
extremely numerous on the shores of the Atlantic towards the end of
summer and autumn. They make constant war upon certain marine
worms. Off the coast of La Rochelle they may be seen in myriads
beating the muddy bottom with their long antennas in search of their
prey. Sometimes they meet a Nereid or Arenicola many times their
own size, when they unite in a body to attack it. In the oyster beds
CRUSTACEA. 509
of La Rochelle they are useful friends to the oyster by destroying
these enemies, although they do not hesitate to attack the mollusc
when it comes in their way. During the winter the mud of the
bouchots gets piled up in unequal heaps, and when the warm season
returns it has become hard and unfit for the cultivation of the
mollusc. It is necessary to level and dry these mud-heaps — a process
which would be both difficult and costly. Well, the Corophii charge
themselves with the task. They plough up annually many square
leagues covered with these heaps. They dilute the mud, which is
carried out by the ebbing tide, and the surface of the bay is left
smooth, as it was in the preceding autumn.
We have said that the Crustaceans do not even respect each other ;
the larger of the same species often devour the smaller. Rara con-
cordiafratrum ! Mr. Rymer Jones relates that he had on one occa-
sion introduced six crabs (Platycarcinus pagurus) of different sizes into
an aquarium. One of them, venturing towards the middle of the
reservoir, was immediately accosted by another a little larger, which
took it with its claws as it might have taken a biscuit, and set about
breaking its shell, and so found a way to its flesh. It dug its crooked
claws into it with voluptuous enjoyment, appearing to pay no attention
to the anger and jealousy of another of its companions, which was
still stronger and as cruel, and was advancing upon it. But, as
Horace says — and he was not the first to say it — " There is nothing
altogether happy" —
"Nihil est ab omni parte beatum."
Our ferocious Crustacean quietly continued its repast, when its com-
panion seized it exactly as it had seized its prey, broke and tore it in
the same fashion, penetrating to its middle, and tearing out its entrails
in the same savage manner. In the meantime the victim, singularly
enough, did not disturb itself for an instant, but continued to eat the
first crab bit by bit, until it was itself entirely torn to pieces by its
own executioner — a remarkable instance at once of insensibility to
pain and of cruel infliction under the lex talionis. To eat and to be
eaten seems to be one of the great laws of Nature.
Though essentially carnivorous, the Crustaceans sometimes feed
on vegetable food. Many even seem to prefer fruit to animal food.
Such is the robber-crab (Birgus latrd) of the Polynesian Isles, which
feeds almost exclusively on the cocoa-nut. This crab has one thick
and strong claw ; the others are comparatively slender and weak. At
first glance it seems impossible that it could penetrate a thick cocoa-
nut surrounded by a thick bed of fibre and protected by its strong
5IO THE OCEAN WORLD.
shell ; but M. Liesk has often seen the operation. The crab begins
by tearing off the fibre at the extremity where the fruit is, always
choosing the right hand. When this is removed, it strikes it with its
great claws until it has made an opening ; then, by the aid of its
slender claws, and by turning itself round, it extracts the whole
substance of the nut.
The Crustaceans have eyes of two kinds, simple and compound :
the first are sessile and immovable, and very convex • the others
are borne on short calcareous stems or peduncles, and are formed of
a number of small eyes symmetrically agglomerated together — the
reunion of all the microscopic cornea of a composite eye — resembling
in shape a cap formed of facets. It is said, for instance, that the eye
of the lobster consists of 2,500 of these little facets. The simple
eyes are short-sighted — the compound eyes are for more distant and
perfect sight. They appear to have a strong sense of smell Many
of them cannot swim, but walk with more or less facility at the
bottom of the water. It is said, for instance, that the cavalier of the
Syrian coast, Oxypoda cursor (Fabricius), is named from the rapidity
with which it traverses great distances.
The class Crustacea may be divided into seven orders :— i. The
Decapoda; 2. the Amphipoda; 3. the Isopoda; 4. the Xiphosura;
5. the Branchiopoda ; 6. the Entomostraca ; and 7. the Cirripedia.
The first of these orders is divided into three sub-orders : — Macrura,
containing the Lobsters, Shrimps, and other long- tailed decapod
Crustacea ; Anomoura, containing the Hermit or Soldier-crabs ; and
the Brachyura or short-tailed crabs, such as the common edible crab.
The second order contains the common Sand-hopper (Tatitrus locusta.)
Among the families of the third order we may mention that of the
Onisridce, to which the very common Wood-louse belongs. The
fourth order contains but a single genus, Limulus. One of the
most remarkable species of this genus is the L. Moluccanus, the
Molucca crab. It is distinguished by a long serrated spine or telson,
which looks most formidable. They are in great request in the
markets of Java. Linnaeus thought that the fossil trilobites were
closely allied to the Limulus. Latreille, on the contrary, classed
them near Chiton, a genus of Mollusca. The body of Limulus so
strikingly resembles that of many Trilobites, that the most common
observers may perceive an affinity. The fifth order contains some
very remarkable forms. We may specialise the genera Apus, Daphniat
and Cypris ; and here also very probably belongs that family of
extinct forms the Trilobites. The sixth order contains some non-
parasitic forms, as Cyclops; it embraces a very large number of forms
'CRUSTACEA. 511
found parasitic on fish, such as Argulus, Chvndr acanthus, Lernea,
and Penella. The seventh and last order contains the strange and
curious Acorn shells (Balanus), and Barnacles (Lepas), about which
so many romantic and untrue stories have been published in the
olden times.
To commence wjth the best known of these orders, the Decapoda,
we find it containing the crabs and lobsters ; these may be regarded
as the chiefs or lords of the Crustacea. The crabs have very large
claws, and often smooth backs ; the lobsters have also large claws
and the back sometimes covered with spines. Tiberius Caesar had
the face of a poor fisherman scratched by the rugged shell of a
craw-fish.
Both crabs and lobsters are amazingly fecund, and lay an im-
mense number of eggs, each female producing from 12,000 to 20,000
in the season. These eggs are, in the lobster, arranged in packets,
which are attached to the appendages of the lower surface of the tail,
to which they are connected by a viscous substance. The manner in
which the female lobster disposes of her burden is curious and
interesting. Whether she bends or stands erect she is able to hold it
concealed or exposed to the light at will. Sometimes, according to
Coste, the eggs are left immovable, or simply submerged ; at others
they are subjected to constant agitation by gently moving the false
feet which contain them to and fro. When first extruded from the
ovary the eggs are very small, but they seem to increase during the
time they are borne about under the tail, and before they are com-
mitted to the sand or water they have attained the size of small shot.
The evolution of the germ is in progress during six months. " As the
young lie enclosed within the membrane of the egg," says Couch, " the
claws are folded on each other, and the tail is flexed on them as far
as the margin of the shield. The dorsal spine is bent backwards, and
lies in contact with the dorsal shield, for the young when it escapes
from the egg is quite soft, but it rapidly hardens and solidifies by the
deposition of calcareous matter on what may be called its skin."
As soon as they are born the young Crustaceans withdraw from
the mother and ascend to the surface of the water in order to gain
the open sea. They swim in a circle ; but their pelagic life is not
of long duration ; they quit it after their fourth moult, which takes
place between the thirtieth and fortieth day, at which time they lose
the transitory organs of natation which they have hitherto possessed.
After this they are no longer able to maintain themselves on the
surface, but drop to the bottom. Henceforth they are condemned
to remain there, and such walking as they can exercise becomes their
512
THE OCEAN WORLD
Fig. 341. — Palinurus vulgaris. a, left outward foot-jaw.
habitual mode of progression. As they increase in size they gradually
approach the shore, which they had for the moment abandoned, and
return to the places inhabited by the parent Crustaceans.
CRUSTACEA.
513
The form of the larva differs so much from that of the adult,
that it would be difficult, except on the clearest evidence, to deter-
mine the species from which they proceed. Former naturalists
considered the embryo cray-fish {Palinurus) to belong to a distinct
genus, which they designated Phyllosoma. It is now known, how-
ever, that these Phyllosoma are but the young of the higher forms
of Crustacea undergoing metamorphosis. In the various forms of
Macrura the metamorphosis is less decided than in the Brachyura.
In the fresh-water cray-fish no marked metamorphosis whatever
Fig. 342. — Portunus vanegatus, male.
a, external antenna ; b, external foot-jaw ; c, tail or abdomen.
takes place. Dissatisfied with the uncertainty of former experiments,
Mr. Couch undertook a series of observations, which he has re-
corded in the proceedings of the Cornwall Polytechnic Society, in
which he established the fact that a metamorphosis takes place in
the following genera : Cancer, Xantho, Pilumnus, Cardnus, Portunus,
Maja, Galathea, Homarus, and Palinurus. " Metamorphosis has
been demonstrated," says Dr. Bell, " in no less than seventeen genera
of the Brachyurous sub-order of Decapoda, in all which it is most
decided and obvious ; in Leptopodia, Maja, Cancer, Portunus,
Pinnotheres, and Grapsus. In the Anomourous sub-order it is seen
in Pagurus, Porcellana, and Galathea ; and in the Macrourous sub-
order in Homarus, Palinurus, Palamon, and Crangon"
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The swimming of these larval creatures is produced by contrac-
tions and expansions of the tail, and by repeated beating motions of
the claws, the tail acting as a sort of vibratile oar, aided by which
Fig. 343.— Cory stes Cassivelaunus, male.
they maintain themselves in the water and facilitate their progress.
As the shell becomes more solid they get less active, and finally
return to the bottom to cast their shell and assume a new form.
According to the observations of M. Coste, the young lobster
casts its shell from eight -to ten times in the first year, from five to
CRUSTACEA.
515
seven in the second, three to four times the third, and two or three
times the fourth year. In the fifth year they attain the adult state.
Whence it follows, that the small lobsters served at our tables have
changed their calcareous vestment something like twenty-one times,
and are now clothed in their twenty-second habit.
The species of crabs are numerous, and they vary in size. The
Fig. 344 — Corystes Cassivelaunus, female.
long-clawed crab (Corystes Cassivelaunus] of Pennant and Leach
(Fig. 343) is remarkable for its long antennae, which considerably
exceed the body. The foot- jaws have their third joint longer than
the second, terminating in an obtuse point, with a notch on its
interior edge ; eyes wide apart, borne upon large peduncles, which
are short and nearly cylindrical ; anterior feet large, equal, twice the
length of the body, and nearly cylindrical in the males ; in the
females (Fig. 344) about the length of the body, and compressed;
especially towards the hand-claw. The other feet terminate in an
5l6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
elongated claw, which is straight-pointed and channeled longitudi-
nally : the carapace oblong-oval, terminating in a rostrum anteriorly
truncated and bordered posteriorly; the regions are but slightly
indicated, with the exception of the caudal region, the branchial or
thoracic regions being very much elongated.
Latreille gives the name of Corystes — which signifies a warrior
armed — to this genus of short-tailed Decapod Crustacean, from /cJpus,
a helmet. Pennant had already conferred the name of Cassivelaunus,
the chief of the ancient Britons, for the singular reason, according
to Gosse, that the carapace, which is marked by wrinkles, bears, in
old males especially, the strongest and most ludicrous resemblance
to the face of an ancient man, but surely Pennant's well-known sym-
pathy with his British ancestry certainly never led him to caricature the
grand old British warrior, as Mr. Gosse surmises. On the contrary,
he saw in this Crustacean a creature armed at all points, and he
named it after the hero of his imagination.
In this species the surface of the carapace is somewhat granulous,
.with two denticles between the eyes, and three sharp points directed
forward on each side. The male has only five abdominal segments,
but the vestiges of the separation of two others may be clearly re-
marked upon the outer mediate or third piece, which is the largest of
all. The length of the antennae is remarked on by Mr. Couch, in
his " Cornish Fauna." " These organs," he says, " are of some use
beyond their common office of feelers ; perhaps, as in some other
Crustaceans, they assist in the process of excavation ; and when
soiled by labour, I have seen the crab effect their cleaning by alter-
nately bending the joints of their stalks, which stand conveniently
angular for the purpose. Each of the long antennae is thus drawn
along the brush that fringes the internal face of the other, until both
are cleared of every particle that adhered to them." On the other
hand, Mr. Gosse suggests that the office of the antennae is to keep a
passage open for ejecting the deteriorated water after it has bathed
and aerated the gills. "I have observed/' he says, "that, when kept
in an aquarium, these crabs are fond of sitting bolt upright, the
antennae placed close together, and pointing straight upwards from
the head. This is doubtless the attitude in which the animal sits in
its burrow, for the tips of the antennae may often be seen just project-
ing from the sand. When the chosen seat has happened to be so
close to the glass side of the tank as to bring the antennae within the
range of a pocket lens, I have minutely investigated these organs
without disturbing the old warrior in his meditation. I saw on each
occasion that a strong current of water was continuously pouring up
CRUSTACEA. 5 1/
from the points of the antennae. Tracing this to its origin, it became
evident that it was produced by the rapid vibration of the foot-jaws
drawing in the surrounding water, and pouring it off upwards between
the united antenna, as through a tube. Then, on examining these
organs, I perceived that the form and arrangement of their bristles did
indeed constitute each antennae a semi-tube, so that when the pair
were brought face to face the tube was complete."
Among the numerous genera of Brachyurous Crustaceans, Grapsus
is distinguished by its less regularly quadrilateral form ; the body nearly
always compressed, and the sternal plastron but little or not at all
curved backwards ; the front strongly re-curved, or, rather, bent down-
wards ; the orbits oval-shaped and of moderate size ; the lateral edges
of the carapace slightly curving and trenchant ; the ocular pedicles
large, but short : their insertion beneath the front and the cornea
occupies one half of their length.
The Hermit or Soldier Crab (Pagurus Bernhardus, Fabricius, Fig.
337) is, perhaps, the oddest and most curious ot anomourous
Crustaceans. It differs from most other Crustaceans in this : that in
place of having the body protected by a calcareous armour, more or
less thick and solid, it has only a cuirass and head-piece to protect
the head and breast ; all the rest of the body is invested in a soft
yielding skin ; and this, the vulnerable part of the hermit crab, is the
delicate morsel devoured by the gourmet. Nor is our somewhat
soft-skinned Crustacean ignorant of the perfectly weak and defenceless
state of its posterior quarters. Prudence or instinct makes it seek the
shelter of some empty shell, of a shape and size corresponding to
what it needs. When it fails to find one empty, it does not hesitate
to attack some living mollusc, which it kills without pity or remorse,
and takes possession of its habitation without other form or process.
Once master of the shell (Fig. 345), it introduces itself, stern foremost,
and installs itself as in an entrenchment, where it is established so
firmly that it moves about with it more or less briskly, according to
its comparative size.
The Soldier Crabs belong to the Anomourous family of Crus-
taceans, of which there are several genera, and a considerable number
of species, the animal economy of which has been ably commented
upon by Mr. Broderip. " Their backs," he says, " are placed
towards the arch of the turbinated shell occupied by them, and their
well-armed nippers and first two pairs of succeeding feet generally
project beyond the mouth of it. The short feet rest upon the
polished surface of the columella, and the outer surface of their
termination, especially that of the first pair, is in some species
5i8
THE OCEAN WORLD.
most admirably rough-shod, to give * the soldier ' a firm footing when
he makes his sortie, or to add to the resistance of the crustaceous
holders at the end of his abdomen or tail when he is attacked, and
wishes to withdraw into his castle. On passing the finger down-
Fig. 345. — Pagurus Bernhardus. i, out of the shell ; b, in the shell ; a, right foot-ja\v.
wards over the terminations of these feet, they feel smooth ; but if
die finger be passed upwards, the roughness is instantly perceived.
The same sort of structure (it is as rough as a file) is to be seen in
the smaller caudal holders." In another species of Pagurus, from
the Mauritius, which was nearly a foot in length, he found a great
number of transverse rows, armed with acetabula, or suckers ; these,
CRUSTACEA. 519
which must very much assist the hold of this species of Fagurus,
were visible without the aid of a gkss.
During feeding-time the hermit crab throws out his head and feet,
ana especially his great claws, and feels his way with his two antennae,
which are long and slender. When he walks he hooks on with his
pincers to the nearest body, and draws his shell after him, as the
snail does his. But the undefended parts of the body always remain
under cover. At low water the hermit crabs spread themselves over
the rocky shore, and the spectator thinks he sees a great number of
shells which move in all directions, with movements different from
that which belong to their essentially slow and measured race. If
they are touched they stop suddenly, and it is soon discovered that
their shell is the dwelling of a crustacean, not a mollusc. The
animal lives alone in its little citadel, like the hermit in his cell or
the sentinel in his box. Hence the names of hermit and soldier.
When our crustacean outgrows its borrowed habitation, it sets
out in search of another shell a little larger and better suited for
its increased size.
The hermit often avails itself, as we have said, of empty shells
abandoned by their owners ; when the tide retires these seldom fail
them, and the hermit crab may be seen examining, turning, and re-
turning, and even trying its new domicile. It glides slowly along on
its abdomen, which is large and somewhat distorted, sometimes in
one shell, sometimes in another, looking defiantly all round it, and
returning very quickly to its ancient lodging if the new one does not
turn out to be perfectly comfortable, often trying a great number, as a
man might try many new suits of clothes before fitting himself. In its
successive removals the little sybarite chooses a hermitage more and
more spacious, according to its taste or caprice in colour or architec-
ture. The cunning little creature chooses its mansion, now grey or
yellow, now red or brown, globular or cylindrical, in the form of a
spiral or of a tun, toothed or crenulate, with trenchant edge or pointed
terminations ; but, as a rule, our crustacean Diogenes houses itself in
shells with spirals of considerable length, as in Cerithium, Bucdnum.
or Murex.
The hermit crab is very timid ; at the least noise it shrinks into
its shell, and squats itself down, without motion, drawing in its
smaller claws and closing the door with its large one, the latter being
often covered with hairs, tubercles, or with teeth. In short, our
prudent cenobite clings so closely to the bottom of its retreat, that
we might pull it to pieces without getting it out entire ; its tail is
transformed into a sort of sucker, by the aid of which it attaches
52O THE OCEAN WORLD,
itself firmly to the walls of its habitation. It is at once strong and
voracious, eating with much relish the dead fishes and fragments of
molluscs and annelids which come in its way. Nor does it hesitate
to attack and devour living animals. When introduced into an
aquarium, it has sometimes thrown it into the utmost disorder by its
insatiable rapacity. It has been possible sometimes to preserve
harmony among many individuals inhabiting the same reservoir ; but
this has been owing rather to the impossibility of their attacking
each other, in consequence of cunningly-devised barricades, than to
their mildness of character or love of their neighbour. These
animals, in short, are very quarrelsome. Two hermit crabs cannot
meet without showing hostility ; each extends his long pincers, and
seems to try to touch the other, much as a spider does when it seeks
to seize a fly on its most vulnerable side ; but each finding the other
armed in proof, and perfectly protected, though eager to fight, usually
adopt the better part of valour, and prudently withdraws. They
often have true passages of arms, nevertheless, in which claws are spread
out and displayed in the most threatening manner ; the two adversaries
tumbling head over heels, and rolling one upon the other, but they
get more frightened than hurt. Nevertheless, Mr. Gosse once wit-
nessed a struggle which had a more tragic end. A hermit crab met
a brother hermit pleasantly lodged in a shell much more spacious
than his own. He seized it by the head with its powerful claws, tore
it from its asylum with the speed of lightning, and took its place not
less promptly, leaving the dispossessed unfortunate struggling on the
sand in convulsions of agony. " Our battles," says Charles Bonnet,
" have rarely such important objects in view ; they fight each other
for a house."
A pretty little Actinia, the Cloak Anemone (Adamsia palliata,,
loves to live with the hermit, and exhibits sympathies almost in-
explicable. In the sea this anemone attaches itself almost always
to the shell which serves as the dwelling of the Crustacean ; and it
may be looked upon as certain that where the hermit is there will the
anemone be found. These two creatures seem to live in perfect and
intelligent harmony together, for Mr. Gosse's observations establish
the existence of a cordial and reciprocal affection between them.
This learned and intelligent observer describes the proceedings of a
hermit crab which required a new habitation ; he saw it detach, in
the most deliberate but effective manner, its dear companion, the
anemone, from the old shell, transport it with every care and pre-
caution, and place it comfortably upon the new shell, and then with
its large pincers give to its well-beloved many little taps, as if to fix
CRUSTACEA. 521
it there the more quickly. Another species of Hermit Crab makes a
companion of the wan tied anemone. " And we are assured," says
Moquin-Tandon, " that when the crab dies its inconsolable friend is
not long in succumbing also."
" Is there not here much more than what our modern phy-
siologists call automatic movements, the results of reflex sensorial
action?" says Gosse. "The more I study the lower animals, the
more firmly am I persuaded of the existence in them of psychical
faculties, such as consciousness, intelligence, skill, and choice ; and
that even in those forms in which as yet no nervous centres have
been detected."
As an article of food we think that the lobster far excels the
crab ; like the latter, they have an amazing fecundity, each female
producing from 12,000 to 20,000 eggs in a season ; and wisely is it so
arranged, otherwise the consumption would soon exhaust the supply.
In France the size of the marketable lobster is regulated by law,
and fixed at twenty centimetres (eight inches) in length ; all under
that size are contraband. Every year the inhabitants of Blainville
proceed to Chaussy to fish for lobsters. They are taken in baskets
in the form of a truncated cone, the mouth of which is so arranged
that the animal can enter, but cannot get out. The numbers caught
by each fisherman and his family in a season may be estimated at
1,000 or 1,200, which realise to the family 1,300 or 1,400 francs, the
season lasting about nine months.
Lobsters are collected all round our own coast for the London
market. On the Scottish shore they are collected and kept in per-
forated chests floating on the water, until they can be taken away
to market. From the Sutherland coast alone 6,000 to 8,000
lobsters are collected in a season. This process goes on all round the
coast, and as far as Norway, whence an enormous supply of the finest
lobsters are obtained, for which something like ,£20,000 per annum
is paid, all these contributions being conveyed to the Thames and
Mersey in welled vessels. But these old-fashioned systems are being
rapidly superseded by the construction of artificial storing ponds, or
basins. Of these ponds Mr. Richard Scovell has erected one at
Hamble, near Southampton, in which he can store with ease 50,000
lobsters, which will thus keep in good condition for six weeks.
Mr. Scovell's tank is supplied from the coasts of France, Scotland,
and Ireland, where fine lobsters abound. He employs three large
and well-appointed smacks, each of which can carry from 5,000 to
10,000. On the west coast of Ireland alone, it is said, io?ooo fine
lobsters a week might be taken,
R *
522 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The Lobster (Homarus vulgaris) is, indeed, found in great
abundance all round our coast ; frequenting the more rocky shores
and clear water, where it is of no great depth, about the time of
depositing its eggs. Various are the modes in which they are taken;
cone-shaped traps made of wicker-work, and baited with garbage, are
perhaps the most successful. These are sunk among the rocks, and
marked by buoys. Sometimes nets are sunk, baited by the same
material. In other places a wooden instrument, which acts like a
pair of tongs, is used for their capture.
Mr. Pennant, the naturalist, paid great attention to the lobsters,
and their habits are well described in a letter from Mr. Travis, of
Scarborough. "The larger ones," he says, "are in their best season
from the middle of October to the beginning of May. Many of the
smaller ones, and some few of the larger individuals, are good all the
summer. If they are four and a half inches long from the top of the
head to the end of the back shell, they are called sizable lobsters ;
if under four inches, they are esteemed half size, and two of them are
reckoned for one of size. Under four inches they are called pawks,
and these are the best summer lobsters. The pincers of one of the
lobster's large claws are furnished with knobs, while the other claw is
always serrated. With the former it keeps firm hold of the stalks of
submarine plants ; with the latter it cuts its food very dexterously.
The knobbed or thumb claw, as the fishermen call it, is sometimes
on the left, sometimes on the right side, and it is more dangerous to
seize it by the serrated claw than the other.
There is little doubt that up to a certain age the lobsters cast
their shell annually, but the mode in which it is performed is not
satisfactorily explained. It is supposed that the old shell is cast, and
that the animal retires to some lurking-place till the new covering
acquires consistence to contend with his armour-clad congeners.
Others contend that the process is one of absorption, otherwise, if
there were a period of moult, it would be shown by their shells. The
most probable conjecture is that the shell sloughs off piecemeal, as it
does in the cray-fish. The greatest mystery of all, perhaps, is the
process by which the lobster withdraws the fleshy part of its claws
from their calcareous covering. Fishermen say the lobster pines
before casting its shell, and thus gets thin, so as to permit of with-
drawing its members from it.
The female lobster does not seem to cast her shell the same year
in which she deposits her ova, or, as the fishermen say, "is in berry."
When the ova first appear under the tail, they are small and very
black, but before they are ready for deposition they are almost as
CRUSTACEA.
523
large as ripe elderberries, and of a dark-brown colour. There does
not seem to be any particular season for the laying of the eggs, as
Fig. 346. — Nephrops norvegicus.
females are found in berry at all seasons, but more .commonly in
winter. In this state they are found to be much exhausted, and by
no means fit for the table.
The generic name Astacus (Fabricius), is now confined to the
524
THE OCEAN WORLD.
crawfishes, which have a depressed rostrum, one tooth on each side,
and the last ring of the thorax movable. The lobsters (Homarus)
have the eyes spherical, the last ring of the thorax being soldered to
the penultimate one. The Norway Lobsters (Nephrops norvegicus,
Fig. 347. — Crangon vulgaris. a, Anterior foot or claw.
Fig. 346) have the eyes uniform, and the two last rings of the thorax
movable.
This last is one of the most beautiful of the larger Macrurans. Its
general tint is pale flesh colour, with darker shades in parts, its
pubescence light brown. This is generally considered a northern
species ; but Mr. Bell states that he has received specimens from the
Mediterranean. It is found plentifully on the coast of Norway, on
CRUSTACEA. 525
the Scottish coast, and off the Bay of Dublin. It is considered the
most delicate of all the Crustaceans.
Before concluding this chapter, we perhaps should not omit brief
notices of the common prawn (Palcemon strratus] and the shrimp
(Crangon vulgaris, Fig. 347) as types of the order Amphipoda. Species
of this order are found to inhabit all seas, and many of them perform
important functions as regards the sanitary state and economic con-
dition of the waters of the ocean. These small animals are the
scavengers of the sea — they pick up and devour all dead matter,
leaving (it may be) a clean skeleton, without a shred of fibre behind.
In this respect they resemble the ants on land, doing their work
always thoroughly and effectively. We need hardly mention, what
is so well known to every reader, that prawns and shrimps are
amongst the most esteemed delicacies at our table, and as articles of
food occupy no mean place on the fish-stall. It is hardly credible
what immense quantities arrive at Billingsgate alone and are daily
consumed jn London and the neighbourhood by all classes of the
community. The shrimp, which although the smaller crustacean, is
perhaps the finest flavoured of the two, is sold in r:
552 THE OCEAN WORLD.
fishes by the formidable weapon which it carries in its head. This
weapon is a prolongation of the muzzle, which, in place of being
rounded off or reduced to a point, forms a long, strong, straight
sword-like termination, flat on both sides, but on the two edges
it is furnished with numerous strong teeth of considerable length,
which are prolongations of the hard, bony substance which forms
the muzzle — forming, in short, a sword-blade deeply toothed on
each edge.
Thus armed, the saw-fish, as it is sometimes called, the length of
which is from twelve to fifteen feet, fearlessly attacks the most
formidable inhabitants of the sea. With its threatening weapon,
sometimes two yards in length, it dares to measure its strength even
with the whale. All fishermen who visit the northern seas assert
that the meeting of these ocean potentates is always followed by a
combat of the most singular kind, in which the activity of the sword-
fish is a match for the formidable strength of the whale. Occasionally
it dashes itself with such force against the side of a ship, that its
sword is broken in the timber. In the British Museum the blade of
a sword-fish may be seen which was thus implanted in the timber of
a ship.
IV. — GANOIDEA.
In this order the gills are free and pectinated, as in the ordinary
fishes. In the sturgeon the gill-openings present a single, very wide
orifice, with an operculum. They are fishes of great size, living in
the sea, but ascending the larger rivers in the spawning season. Our
space only permits us to notice the Sturgeon, which belongs to the
cartilaginous sub-order of the Ganoids ; a second sub- order contains
Ganoid fish with bony skeletons, such as the Bony Pike of the United
States (Lepidosteus osseus).
The Sturgeons (Acipenser] are among the largest fishes known.
Their muscles, however, are less firmly knit, their flesh more delicate,
and their muscular strength is less than one would think from their
great size ; their mouths, instead of being armed with so many rows
of teeth, are funnel-shaped and protrusible, and adapted for sucking
up particles of food ; they are not voracious, and their habits are not
at all ferocious.
The Sturgeons are sea-fishes, periodically ascending and so-
journing for a time in the larger rivers of Europe. They abound in
the Black Sea and Sea of Azof, but they are chiefly known as
frequenting the Volga and the Danube. The enormous consumption
of caviare in Russia leads to a deadly pursuit of the common sturgeon
FISHES.
553
in all the great European rivers, and this species is in a fair way of
disappearing altogether.
The Common Sturgeon. Acipenser sterio (Fig. 364), abounds in
the North Sea and the Mediterranean, and occasionally it appears in
the Thames, as well as here and there on the British coasts ; in the
Rhine, the Seine, the Loire, and the Gironde. It is usually from
six to seven feet long, but has been known to attain the length of
Fig. 364.— The Common Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio).
nine or ten feet. Its general colour is yellow, with a white belly. It
is rendered remarkable by the number and form of the osseous
plates or scales, which cover the body like so many bucklers. Upon
the back and belly are no less than twelve to fifteen of these rough
bony plates, relieved by projections, which are pointed in the young,
and are worn down with age. On each side is a row of thirty to
thirty-five of these triangular ganoid plates, separated from each other
by considerable intervals. The head is broad at the base, gradually
contracting towards the point, and terminating in a conical muzzle.
The mouth is large, and placed considerably behind the extremity of
554 THE OCEAN WORLD.
the muzzle; and its jaws, in place of teeth, are furnished with
cartilages. Between the mouth and the muzzle are a few slender
and very elastic barbules. It is pretended that these barbules attract
small fishes to the jaws of the animal, while it conceals itself among
the roots of aquatic plants.
In the sea the sturgeon feeds on herrings, mackerel, and other
fishes of moderate size. In the rivers it attacks the salmon, which
ascend them about the same time. Mingling with them, however,
it seems a giant. It deposits its eggs in great quantity. The roe of
the female fish, when cleaned, washed in vinegar, and dried, is sold as
caviare. Its flesh is delicate, and in countries where they are caught
in quantities, it is dried and preserved. The rivers which enter the
Black and Caspian Seas contain, besides the common sturgeon, many
other species of the same genus, the flesh of which is even more
delicate and recherche than the common sturgeon. Among the
ancients this fish was held in unusual esteem. In Rome, in the
time of the Emperors, we read of sturgeons borne in triumph to the
sound of instruments, and laid upon tables fastidiously covered and
decorated with flowers.
The Great Sturgeon (Acipenser /mso), which sometimes exceeds
1,000 Ibs. in weight, is only found in the rivers which flow into the
Caspian and Black Seas, such as the Volga, the Don, and the
Danube,
We are indebted to the Russian naturalist Pallas for the informa-
tion we possess respecting the mode of taking the sturgeon in the
Volga and other Asiatic rivers. Stakes are placed across the river,
leaving just sufficient space between each pile to permit the animal
to pass. Towards the centre this dike forms an angle opposed to
the current, and, consequently, opposed to the fish which ascend the
river towards the summit of this angle. At this point there is an
opening which leads into a kind of enclosure, consisting of fillets
towards the end of the winter and of osier hurdles during summer.
The fishermen establish themselves upon a sort of scaffold, placed
over the opening. When the fish are entangled in the reservoir, the
men upon the scaffold drop a gate, which prevents their return to the
sea. The movable bottom of the chamber is now raised, and the
fishes easily taken, as represented in PLATE XXIV.
The fishermen are informed during the day of the approach of the
sturgeons to the great enclosure by the movement they communicate
to cords suspended to small floating substances in the water. During
the night the sturgeons enter the enclosure, agitating by their move-
ments other cords arranged round the hurdles. The agitation
XXIV. — Sturgeon Fishing on the Volga.
•
FISHES. 557
communicated to the cord is sufficient to shut the gates behind ; they
are thus imprisoned by the dropping of the gate, which in falling
sounds a bell to wake the fisherman on the scaffold, should he be
asleep. The sturgeon fisheries of the Volga are most admirably
organised. Gmelin describes with some minuteness the sturgeon-
fishing during the winter, in the caverns and hollows of the river-
banks near Astrakhan, in the estuary of the Volga. A great number
of fishermen are assembled there with their boats. The flotilla
approaches the retreats to which the fishes have betaken themselves,
the nets are skilfully arranged all round them, and all at once the
whole mass of fishermen join in a great cry, at which the frightened
fishes rush from their concealment and throw themselves into the
nets spread for them.
The size of the fish, the nourishing properties of its flesh, its
healthy and agreeable taste, and the immense quantity of eggs
produced, have a wonderful power in exciting the commerce and
industry of the inhabitants of these countries.
In order to give some idea of the abundance of the eggs of the
sturgeon, it is stated that the weight of the roe in these fish will equal
nearly a third of the weight of the whole animal j in other words, the
roe would weigh nearly 800 Ibs. in a female whose weight was 2,800 Ibs.
It is with these eggs that caviare is prepared ; and the article is more
or less relished according to the state of the eggs. The display of
caviare, as exhibited at the Universal Exposition of Paris during the
year 1867 will remain in the memory of those who visited it
558
.
CHAPTER XXI.
V. — TELEOSTEA, OR BONY FISHES.
I n this large order are many of the fishes which are most familiar
. o us. It is characterised, as we have said elsewhere, as a group of
i nimals having a solid skeleton. It is divided into six sub-orders ;
these are: i. P lectognatha. 2. Lophobranchia. 3. P haryngognatha.
4. Physostomata. 5. Anacanthina. 6. Acanthopterygea. All these
orders contain more or less familiar forms ; the first, contains the great
jun-fish, the globe-fish, and coffin-fish ; the second, the pipe-fish and
sea-horses ; the third, the flying-fish and the wrasser ; the fourth, the
ils, herrings, salmon, carp, &c. ; the fifth, the cod tribe and the
lat-fish ; and the sixth, the mullets, tunnies, gobies, perch, stickle-
backs, and many others.
I. — PLECTOGNATHA.
From their organisation the fishes of this order seem to establish
the passage from the cartilaginous to the osseous fishes. Their skeleton
remains in a partly unossified condition. The bones of the head are,
however, perfectly solid. The cranial and maxillary bones are firmly
attached to the sides of the intermaxillary bones, and so form the
jaw ; the bones of the palate are united to the skull in such a manner
as to be motionless. The opercula and rays of the gills are hidden
under a thick skin, which leaves externally only small branchial slits.
These fishes have no true ventral fin, and the pectoral fins are small
and soft.
This sub-order comprehends two natural families, characterised
by the armature of their jaws. They are the Gymnodonta and the
Sclcrodermata.
In the family of Gymnodonta the jaws have no apparent teeth,
but they are covered with a plate of an ivory-like substance which
represents them. The Sun-fish, Orthagoriscus mola (Fig. 365),
belongs to this family.
The Sun-fish (Orthagoriscus mola), Fig. 365, greatly reduced in
FISHES.
559
Fig. 365. — Sun-fish (Orthagoriscus mola).
size, is easily distinguished from any species of the genus Tetrao-
don by its compressed spineless body ; being very round in its vertical
contour, it has been compared
to a disc, and more poetically
to the sun — whence its popular
name — to the great circular
surface of which the dazzling
silvery white disc bears some
resemblance. But it is espe-
cially during the night that it
justifies the name given to it
Then it shines brightly, from
its own phosphorescent light,
at a little distance beneath the
surface. On very dark nights
the sun-fish is sometimes seen
swimming in the soft light
which emanates from its body,
the rays rendered undulating by the rippling of the water which it
traverses, so as to resemble the trembling light of the sun half-veiled
in misty vapours. When many of these fishes rove about together,
mingling their silvery trains,
the scene suggests the idea of
dancing stars. The sun-fish is
common on the west coast of
Ireland, also in the Medi-
terranean, and it sometimes
reaches the markets of Paris.
It is from four to five feet in
length, and its weight is con-
siderable. Its flesh is fat and
viscous, and by no means
pleasant to eat.
The species of the genus
Tetraodon have a somewhat
large head and bony salient jaws, which are each divided in front by a
sort of vertical slit into two portions, which look like two teeth.
These four portions of bony jaw, which project beyond the lips, some-
what resemble the hard and dentate jaws of the turtle. Their anterior
part is sometimes prolonged, like the mandibles of the beak of the
parrot. They are perfectly adapted to crush the shells of the molluscs,
as well as the hard carapaces of the crustaceans, on which they feed.
Fig. 366.— The Globe-fish (Tetraodou).
560
THE OC£AJV WORLD.
The skin of these fishes bristles with small slightly-projecting spines,
the number of which compensate for their smallness, which repel
their enemies, and even wound the hand that would grasp them.
They enjoy, besides, a singular faculty : they can inflate the lower
portion of their body, and give it an extension so considerable that
it becomes like an inflated ball, in which the real shape of the animal
is lost. This result is obtained by the introduction of an immense
quantity of air into the stomach when it wishes to ascend to the
Fig. 367. — Diodon pilosus.
surface. The species of globe-fish are numerous (Fig. 366). One
is common in the Nile, where specimens are frequently left ashore
during the annual inundations.
The species of Diodon (Fig. 367) differ from the sun-fish in the form
of their bony jaws, each forming only one piece. They seem to have
two teeth, whence their name, from 8is, two, oSous, teeth. They differ
also in their spines, which are larger. The fishes belonging to the
genera Tetraodon and Diodon may be said to be the hedgehogs and
porcupines of the sea.
There are many species of this genus — Diodon piksus, represented
in Fig. 367, will give an idea of the others-
FISHES.
S6i
The Sclerodermata are distinguished by their conical or pyramidal
snout, terminating in a little mouth armed with true teeth ; the
skin is generally stiff and covered with hard scales. The File-fish,
Batistes, and the Trunk-fish (Ostrafion), are selected for notice. The
File or Rudder-fish (Fig. 368) has the body compressed ; the jaws are
furnished with eight teeth, arranged in a single row on each jaw, and
covered with true lips ; the eyes are nearly level with the skin ; the
mouth is small, and the body enveloped in very hard scales, which
Fig. 368.— The File-fish (Balistes) .
are connected in groups and distributed into compartments more or
less regular, and strongly connected by means of a thick skin. The
animal is thus protected by a sort of cuirass and casque very difficult
to penetrate.
With the exception of one species, the genus Balistes inhabits the
tropical seas. They are generally brilliantly coloured ; they herd
together in great numbers, and in their gambols produce curious com-
binations of brilliant colouring in the equatorial seas. Their flesh is
held in slight estimation, and at certain periods of the year is even
said to be dangerous.
The Trunk-fish, or Ostracion (Fig. 369), is without scales, but
covered with regular osseous plates, which are so jointed the one to
5 62
THE OCEAN WORLD.
the other that the body is, as it were, enclosed in a kind of box or
long coffer, which only leaves the external organs of locomotion
exposed, namely, the pectoral, dorsal, and caudal fins. In some the
body is triangular, in others quadrangular, with or without spines.
Fig. 369.— The Trunk-fish (Ostracion).
These singular fishes are generally of moderate size, and are found
only in the seas of warm climates.
II. — LOPHOBRANCHIA.
The Lophobranchiate sub- order comprehends but few genera which
are pretty numerous in species. Here the gills are formed of small
round tufts, and arranged in pairs along the branchial arches — a
structure quite peculiar, of which we have no examples in any other
fishes. These gills are enclosed under a large cover, or operculum,
attached on all sides by a membrane, which leaves only a small hole
for the escape of water which has served the purposes of respiration.
Of these little cuirassed fishes the two best-known genera are
Syngnathus and Hippocampus. The former, known as pipe-fishes,
present a very curious snake-like outline. Their bodies are long,
slender, and slightly tapering, covered with plates set lengthwise^
FISHES.
563
without ventral fins ; the skin forms under the belly near the base of
the tail, in some species, a pouch into which the eggs to be hatched
are placed, and which is afterwards a shelter for the young. Most of
the species are strangers to European seas, but some few are found
around our coasts. The Pipe-fish, S. acus (Fig. 370), has the head
small, the snout long, nearly cylindrical, slightly raised at the end,
and terminating in a very small mouth without teeth. The animal is
about twenty inches long ; its skin is of a yellowish colour varied
Fig. 370. — The Pipe-fish (Syngnathus acus).
with brown. It lives in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas,
where it is largely used by the fishermen in baiting their hooks.
The Sea Horse (Hippocampus brevirostris) is a small creature
about the size of the engraving (Fig. 371); its head has a singular
resemblance to that of the horse. The rings which form the integu-
ment of the body and tail have a close resemblance to the rings of
some caterpillars. This curious combination of forms originated the
name Hippocampus, from ftnros, horse, KO^TTOS, fish, adopted in very
ancient times to designate this creature. It is found in the Atlantic,
round the coast of Spain, the south of France, on the coast of
Britain, in the Mediterranean, and in the Indian Ocean. Mr. Lukis,
who observed two females in captivity, describes their habits as
564
THE OCEAN WORLD.
follows : — " When they swim," he says, " they preserve a vertical
position, but their tail seems on the alert to seize whatever it meets
with in the water, clasping the stem of the sea-weeds. Once fixed,
the animal seems to watch attentively all the surrounding objects,
and darts on any prey presenting itself with great dexterity. When
one of them approaches the other, they interlace their two tails, and
it is only after a struggle that they can separate again, attaching
Fig. 371.— The Sea-horse (Hippocampus brevirostris).
themselves by the lower part of the chin to some weed in order to
release themselves. They have recourse to the same manoeuvre
when they wish to raise the body, or when they wish to wind their
tail round some new object. Their two eyes seem to move indepen-
dently of each other, like those of the chameleon. The iris is bright
and edged with blue."
The sea-horses have the pectoral fins so formed as easily to
sustain the body in the water ; they are, in fact, winged fishes, and
probably originated the famous winged courser of mythology, after
which they are sometimes named. They rarely exceed four inches in
FISHES. 565
length ; the body is covered with triangular scales, commonly of a
bluish colour. They live on worms, fishes' eggs, and fragments of
organic substances which they find at the bottom of the sea.
III. — PHARYNGOGNATHA.
This order contains fishes in which the inferior pharyngeal bones
are so completely coalescent as to form a single bone, which is
usually armed with teeth. Professor Miiller divides this sub-order
into two groups, that in which the fins are partially spinous (Acanthop-
terygii), and that in which the fins are soft (Malacopterygit). Of this
latter group we have one interesting family, that of the Scomber-
esocida, to which the genus Exocatus belongs.
Flying is so much associated in our minds with the usual denizens
of the air, that the idea of flying-fishes seems to be a contradiction.
Nevertheless, some fishes possess that power, the fins being trans-
formed into wings, which they are enabled to raise for a few seconds.
These wings, however, are neither long nor powerful, for they rather
act the part of a parachute than wings. The distinguishing charac-
teristic of the Exoccetits, or flying-fish, is its pectoral fins, which are
nearly the length of the body, the head is flattened above and on the
sides, the lower part of the body furnished with a longitudinal series
of carinated scales on each side, the dorsal fin placed above the
anal, the eyes large, and the jaws furnished with small pointed teeth.
The flying-fishes (Fig. 372) in their own element are harassed by
attacks of'other inhabitants of the ocean, and when, under the excite-
ment of fear, they take to the air, they are equally exposed to the
attacks of aquatic birds, especially the various species of gulls. We
have said that in their leap from the water their fins sustain them
rather as parachutes than wings, with which they beat the air. Mr.
Bennett's description is pretty clear on this point. " I have never,"
he says, " been able to see any percussion of the pectoral fins during
flight ; and the greatest length of time I have seen this volatile fish
on the fly has been thirty seconds by the watch, and the longest
flight, mentioned by Captain Basil Hall, has been 200 yards, but he
thinks that subsequent observation has extended the space. The
usual height of their flight, as seen above the surface of the water, is
from two to three feet ; but I have known them come on board at the
height of fourteen feet and upwards ; and they have been well
ascertained to come into the chains of a line-of-battle ship, which is
considered to be upwards of twenty feet. But it must not be sup-
posed that they have the power of raising themselves into the air after
566
THE OCEAN WORLD.
having left their native element j for on watching them I have often
seen them fall much below the elevation at which they first rose from
the water ; nor have I ever in any instance seen them rise from the
height to which they first sprang, for I conceive the elevation they
take depends on the power of the first spring.
Fig. 372. — The Flying-fish (E. exiliens).
The most common species is E. vo/itans. Its brilliant colouring
would seem designed to point it out to its enemies, against whom it
is totally defenceless. A dazzling silvery splendour pervades its
surface. The summit of its head, its back, and its sides, are of azure
blue ; this blue becomes spotted upon the dorsal fin, the pectoral fin,
and the tail. This fish is the common prey of the sea-birds and
the more voracious fishes, such as the shark ; its enemies abound in
the air and water. If it succeeds in escaping the Charybdis of the
FISHES. 567
water, the chances are in favour of its meeting its fate in the Scylla of
the atmosphere; if it escapes the jaws of the shark, it will probably
fall to the share of the sea-gull. The dolphin is also a formidable
enemy to the much-persecuted flying-fish. Captain Basil Hall gives
a very animated description of their mode of attack.* He was in a
prize, a low Spanish schooner, rising not above two feet and half out
of the water. " Two or three dolphins had ranged past the ship in
all their beauty. The ship in her progress through the water had
put up a shoal of these little things (flying-fish), which took their
flight to windward. A large dolphin, which had been keeping com-
pany with us abreast of the weather gangway at the depth of two or
three fathoms, and, as usual, glistening most beautifully in the sun, no
sooner detected our poor dear friends take wing than he turned his
head towards them, darted to the surface, and leaped from the water
with a velocity little short, as it seemed to us, of a cannon-ball. But
though the impetus with which he shot himself into the air gave him
an initial velocity greatly exceeding that of the flying-fish, the start
which his fated prey had got enabled them to keep ahead of him
for a considerable time. The length of the dolphin's first spring
could not be less than ten yards, and after he fell we could see him
gliding like lightning through the water for a moment, when he again
rose, and shot upwards with considerably greater velocity than at
first, and of course to a still greater distance. In this manner
the merciless pursuer seemed to stride along the sea with fearful
rapidity, while his brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun quite
splendidly. As he fell headlong in the water at the end of each
leap, a series of circles were sent far over the surface, for the breeze —
just enough to keep the royals and topgallant studding-sails extended
— was hardly felt as yet below.
"The group of wretched flying-fishes, thus hotly pursued, at
length dropped into the sea ; but we were rejoiced to observe that
rjiey merely touched the top of the swell, and instantly set off again
in a fresh and even more vigorous flight. It was particularly in-
teresting to observe that the direction they took now was quite
different from the one in which they had set out, implying but too
obviously that they had detected their fierce enemy, who was follow-
ing them with giant steps along the waves, and was gaining rapidly
upon them. His pace, indeed, was two or three times as swift as
theirs, poor little things ! and the greedy dolphin was fully as quick-
sighted ; for whenever they varied their flight in the smallest degree,
*" Lieutenant and Commander." By Captain Basil Hall. Bell&Daldy, London.
5-68
THE OCEAN WORLD.
he lost not the tenth part of a second in shaping his course so as to
cut off the chase ; while they, in a manner really not unlike that of
*;he hare, doubled more than once upon their pursuer. But it was soon
plainly to be seen that the strength and confidence of the flying-fish
were fast ebbing ; their flights became shorter and shorter, and their
course more fluttering and uncertain, while the leaps of the dolphin
seemed to grow more vigorous at each bound. Eventually this
skilful sea-sportsman seemed to arrange his springs so as to fall just
Fig. 373. — Stomias boa.
under the very spot on which the exhausted flying-fish were about to
drop. This catastrophe took place at too great a distance for us to
see from the deck what happened ; but on our mounting high on the
rigging, we may be said to have been in at the death ; for then we
could discover that the unfortunate little creatures, one after another,
either popped right into the dolphin's jaws as they lighted on the
water, or were snapped up instantly after."
ESOCID^E. — This family contains the well-known fresh-water Pike
and also the marine genus Belone, to which the gar fish belongs,
and the strange genus Stomias. Here the body is much elongated,
the muzzle being very short, the mouth very deeply cleft, the opercula
reduced to small membranous lamina ; the intermaxillary palatine
FfSHES.
569
and maxillary bones are rather sparingly furnished with teeth, and
these are long and hooked. Similar teeth. are observable on the
tongue. The ventral fins are placed far back, and the dorsal fin is
placed opposite the anal fin, on the hinder extremity of the body.
Only two species of this genus are known: the one of the
F|g- 374.— --Adult Green and Red varieties of Labrus communis.
Mediterranean, Stomias boa (Fig. 378), the other of the Atlantic
Ocean. S. barbatus, so called from the long barbula on the chin.
Both species are black in colour, with numerous small silvery spots
on the abdomen. The body of S. boa is thin, compressed, covered
with little thin scales of blackish blue, much spotted on the back and
abdomen, a little brighter on the sides ; the head, in some respects,
recalling that of a serpent.
Of the former division we have the Labrida. This family contains
57O THE OCEAN WORLD.
the Wrasse (Labrtts), a genus of fishes decked in the most lively
colours; for the yellow, green, blue, and red, forming bands of
spots, give the body the appearance of being enriched with brilliant
metallic reflections.
We represent here, as a type of the genus, the adult Green and
Red Labrus (Fig. 374), varieties of the commonest species, called
the sea-parrot, the body being oblong, clothed with large scales ; a
dorsal fin, frequently with membranous appendages, thick fleshy lips,
and large conical teeth ; cheeks and gill-covers clothed with scales ;
gill-covers smooth at the edges ; three spines in the anal fin.
IV. — PHYSOSTOM ATA.
The principal character of the fishes of this order is that the rays
of the fins are soft, except sometimes the first ray of the dorsal or
pectoral. They inhabit either sea or fresh water, and include fishes
of the utmost importance as human food, such as the herring, the
cod, the salmon, carp, pike, and many others. Modern naturalists,
following Miiller, divide them into two sub-orders : — i. Apoda, with-
out ventral fins \ 2. Abdominalia, having ventral fins.
i. Apoda, — There are but three families in this sub-order, which
comprehends great numbers both of genera and species ; they are
anguilliform or snake-like, elongated in form, the skin thick and soft,
and have no ventral fins.
In the Gymnotidoe the dorsal fin is entirely wanting ; the body is
long, nearly cylindrical, and also serpent-like, the tail being long in
comparison to the other parts of the body ; beneath the tail is a long
anal fin, the tail is the only locomotive organ ; it is the nakedness of
the back which confers its designation of yv^s, naked, VWTOS, back.
The species of the genus Gymnotus are fresh-water fishes of South
America, where they attain a great size. There are several species,
but the most remarkable, from its singular physical properties, is the
Electrical Eel, Gymnotus electricus (Fig. 375 ). These properties
enable the Electrical Eel to arrest suddenly the pursuit of an enemy,
or the flight of its prey, to suspend on the instant every movement of
its victim, and subdue it by an invisible power. Even the fishermen
themselves are suddenly struck and rendered torpid at the moment of
seizing it, while nothing external betrays the mysterious power
possessed by the animal.
The electrical properties of the Gymnotus were reported for the
first time by Van Berkal. The astronomer Richer, who had been
sent to Cayenne in 1671 by the Academy of Sciences, of Paris, on
FISHES.
57*
the Geodesic Survey, first made known the singular properties of this
American fish. " I was much astonished/' says this author, " to see
a fish some three or four feet in length, and resembling an eel,
deprive of all sensation for a quarter of an hour the arm and neigh-
bouring parts which touched it. I was not only an- ocular witness of
the effect produced by its touch; but I have myself felt it, on
touching one of these fishes still living, though wounded by a hook,
by means of which some Indians had drawn it from the water. They
could not tell what it was called ; but they assured me that it struck
other fishes with its tail in order to stupefy them and devour them
Fig- 375 —The Electrical Eel (Gymnotus electricus).
afterwards, which is very probable, when we consider the effect of its
touch upon a man/'
The observations of Richer made little impression at the time on
the savants of Paris, and matters remained in this state for seventy
years, when the traveller Condamine spoke in his "Voyage en
Ame'rique " of a fish which produced the effects described by Richer.
In 1750 a physician named Ingram furnished some new views
respecting this fish, which he thought was surrounded by an electric
atmosphere. In 1755 the Dutch physician, Dr. Gramund, writes:
" The effect produced by this fish corresponds exactly with that
produced by the Leyden jar, with this difference, that we see no
luminous appearance on its body, however strong the blow it gives ;
for if the fish is large, those who touch it are struck down,, and feel
the blow on their whole body*"
572 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Many experiments followed these ; but we are indebted to
Alexander von Humboldt for the first precise account of this very
curious fish. This celebrated naturalist read to the Institute of France
an important memoir upon the electrical eel, from Bonpland's obser-
vations, the substance of which we shall give here.
In traversing the Lianas of the province of Caracas, in order to
embark at San Fernando de Apure on his voyage up the Orinoco,
M. Bonpland stopped at Calabozo. The object of this sojourn was
to investigate the history of the Gymnotus, great numbers of which
are found in the neighbourhood. After three days' residence in
Calabozo some Indians conducted him to the Cano de Bera, a muddy
and stagnant basin, but surrounded by rich vegetation, in which
Clusia rosea, Hymencea courbaril, some grand Indian figs, and some
magnificent flowering odoriferous Mimosas, were pre-eminent. He
was much surprised when informed that it would be necessary to take
thirty half-wild horses from the neighbouring savannahs in order to
fish for the Gymnotus.
The idea of this fishing, called in the language of the country
embarbascar con caballos (intoxicating by means of horses), is very
odd. The word barbasco indicates the roots of the Lacquinia, or any
other poisonous plant, by contact of which a body of water acquires
the property of killing, or at least of intoxicating or stupefying the
fishes ; these come to the surface when they have been poisoned in
this manner. The horses chasing them here and there in a marsh
has, it seems, the same effect upon the alarmed fishes. While our
hosts were explaining to us this strange mode of fishing, the troop of
horses and mules had arrived, and the Indians had made a sort of
circle, pressing the horses on all sides, and forcing them into the
marsh. The Indians, armed with long canes and harpoons, placed
themselves round the basin, some of them mounting the trees, the
branches of which hung over the water, and by their cries, and still more
by their canes, preventing the horses from landing again. The eels,
stunned by the noise, defended themselves by repeated discharges of
their batteries. For a long time it seemed as if they would be
victorious over the horses. Some of the mules especially, being
almost stifled by the frequency and force of the shocks, disappeared
under water, and some of the horses, in spite of the watchfulness of
the Indians, regained the bank, where, overcome by the shocks they
had undergone, they stretched themselves at their whole length. The
picture presented was now indescribable. Groups of Indians sur-
rounded the basin ; the horses with bristling manes, terror and grief
in their eyes, trying to escape from the storm which had surprised
FISHES. $75
them ; the eels, yellow and livid, looking like great aquatic serpents
swimming on the surface of the water, and chasing their enemies,
were objects at once appalling and picturesque. In less than five
minutes two horses were drowned. An eel, more than five feet long,
glided under one horse, and discharged its apparatus through its
whole extent, attacking at once the heart, the viscera, and the solar
plexus of the animal, probably benumbing and finally drowning it.
When the struggle had endured a quarter of an hour, the mules
and horses appeared less frightened, their manes become more erect,
their eyes expressed less terror, the eels shunned in place of attacking
them, at the same time approaching the bank, when they were easily
taken by throwing little harpoons at them attached to long cords, the
harpoon, sometimes hooking two at a time, being landed by means
of the long cord. They were drawn ashore without being able to
communicate any shock.
Having landed the eels, they were transported to little pools dug
in the soil, and filled with fresh water ; but such is the terror they
inspire, that none of the people of the country would release them
from the harpoon — a task which the travellers had to perform them-
selves, thereby receiving the first shock, which was not slight, the
most energetic surpassing in force that communicated by a Leyden
jar completely charged. The Gymnotus surpasses in size and strength
all the other electric fishes. Humboldt saw them five feet three
inches long. They vary in colour, according to age, and the nature
of the muddy water in which they live. Beneath, the head is of a
fine yellow colour mixed with red ; the mouth is large, and furnished
with small teeth arranged in many rows.
The Gymnotus makes its shock felt in any part of its body which
is touched, but the excitement is greater when touched under the
belly and near the pectoral fin. The Gymnotus gives the most
frightful shocks without the least muscular movement in the fins, in
the head, or any other part of the body. The shock, indeed, depends
upon the will of the animal, and in this respect differs from a Leyden
jar, which is discharged by communicating with two opposite poles.
It happens sometimes that a Gymnotus, seriously wounded, only gives
a very weak shock, but if, thinking it exhausted, it is touched fearlessly
and at once, its discharge is terrible. Indeed, the phenomenon de-
pends so much upon the will of the animal, that, according to Von
Humboldt, if it is touched by two metallic rods, the shock is com-
municated sometimes by one, sometimes by the other wand, though
their extremities are close together.
The experiments already related in connection with the torpedo
576 THE OCEAN WORLD.
have been repeated here. If we place ourselves upon isolated supports,
and take hold of a metallic rod, a shock is received; but no shock is
received, on the other hand, if the fish is touched with a glass rod,
or one covered with wax. Humboldt and Bonpland repeated this
experiment many times, with decisive results. The electric organ
has been carefully described by these observers. The organs extend
from under the tail, occupying nearly one-half of the thickness. It is
divided into four longitudinal bundles of muscles, the upper ones
large, the two smaller below, and against the base of the anal fin.
Each bundle consists of many parallel membranous plates, placed
closely together and very nearly horizontal. These plates abut in one
part on the skin, in another on the mean vertical plane of the fish.
They are united to each other by an infinity of smaller plates, placed
either vertically or transversely. The smaller prismatic and trans-
versal canals, intercepted by those two orders of plates, are filled with
gelatinous matter. All this organic apparatus receives many nerves,
and presents, in many respects, an arrangement nearly analogous to
that of the torpedoes.
Of the Muranidce, we find the Sea-Eel (Murtena helena}. It is a
serpent-like fish, of cylindrical form and delicate proportions, but
strong, flexible, and active, swimming in waving, undulating move-
ments in the water, just as a serpent creeps on dry land. The Sea-
Eels have no pectoral fin, the dorsal and anal fin are re-united in the
tail fin. A branchial opening is observable on each side of the body.
Murana helena (Fig. 376), which is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean,
has only a single row of teeth upon each jaw. It attains the length
of forty to fifty inches. It loves to bask in the hollows of rocks,
approaching the coast in spring-time. It feeds on crabs and small
fishes, seeking eagerly for polyps. The voracity of these fishes is
such, that when other food fails they begin to nibble at each other's
tails.
The sea-eels are caught with rod and line, or by lines and ground-
bait, but their instinct is such that they often escape. When they
have swallowed a hook they often cut the line with their teeth, or
they turn upon it and try, by winding it round some other object, to
strain or break it. When caught in a net, they quickly choose some
mesh through which their body can glide.
Those who have studied the classics will remember the passionate
love with which the Roman gourmet regarded these fishes. In the
days of the Empire enormous sums were expended in keeping up
the ponds which enclosed them, and the fish themselves were
multiplied to such an extent that Caesar, on the occasion of one of
FISHES.
577
his triumphs, distributed six thousand among his friends. Licinius
Crassus was celebrated among wealthy Romans for the splendour of
his eel-ponds. They obeyed his voice, he said, and when he called
them they darted towards him in order to be fed by his hands. The
same Licinius Crassus, and Quintus Hortensius, another wealthy
Roman patrician, wept the loss of their mursenas on one occasion,
when they all died in their ponds from some disease. This, however,
was only a matter of taste, passion, or fashion, sometimes, however,
accompanied by cruelty and gross corruption.
It was thought among the Romans that muraenas fed with human
Fig. 376. — The Sea-Eel (Muraena Helena).
flesh were the most delicately flavoured. A rich freedman, named
Pollion, who must not, however, be confounded with the orator of
the name, had the cruelty to order such of his slaves as he thought
deserving of death, and sometimes even those who had done nothing
to excite his anger, to be thrown to them. On one occasion, when
he entertained the Emperor Augustus, a poor slave who attended had
the misfortune to break a precious vase; Pollion immediately ordered
him to be thrown to the eels. But the indignant Emperor gave the
slave his freedom, and, in order to manifest his indignation with
Pollion, he ordered his attendants to break every vase of value which
the freedman had collected in his mansion.
In the present day sea-eels are little esteemed in a gastronomic point
of view. Nevertheless they are still sought for on the coast of Italy,
and the fishermen avoid with great care the bites of their sharp teeth.
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The Eels (Anguitta) have pectoral fins, under which are the gill-
openings on each side ; the dorsal and anal fins extending up to the
tail, mingling with this last, which terminates in a point at the ex-
tremity. The Eels (Anguilla) inhabit most European rivers, except
in the spawning season, when, according to some naturalists, they
betake themselves to the sea. During the greater part of their
existence, therefore, they have no connection with the ocean. The
Fig. 377. — The, Common Conger (Conger vulgaris).
Conger s, on the other hand, are fishes of great size, which inhabit the
seas of warm countries, as well as those of Northern Europe. The
type of this family is the Common Conger, Conger vulgaris (Fig. 377),
which differs from the true eels chiefly in the dorsal fins, which com-
mence very near to the pectorals ; and also in their upper jaw being
longer than their under one. They attain the thickness of a man's
leg, and are sometimes two yards in length. The conger-eel is fre-
quently found in salt marshes, but its flesh is held in little esteem.
2." Abdominalia. — The fishes belonging to this sub-order have
the ventral fins placed on the abdomen, and not attached to the
FISHES.
579
bones of the shoulder. It is much the more numerous and im-
portant of the order. It includes most of our fresh-water fishes, a
great number of marine species, and many like the salmon, which be-
take themselves to the rivers in the spawning season to deposit their
ova. We shall limit our remarks to the Salmonida, the Clupeadce,
and 'a few others.
Salmonidce. — The fishes of this family are graceful in shape, and
I'iy. 378. -Adult Salmon.
have the body clothed in scales ; they have two dorsals, the first
with soft rays, followed by a second, which is smaller, formed without
rays, and adipose — that is, formed simply of a skin filled with fatty
matter, unsupported by osseous rays. They inhabit the seas of
temperate and northern regions ; ascending the rivers at certain
seasons, and, in some instances, living exclusively in the great rivers
and watercourses. They are found even in the most elevated moun-
tain brooks. The grayling, trout, and the salmon, the type of the
family, belong to the group.
The genus Salmo includes three well-known species, namely, Salmo
THE OCEAN WORLD.
salar (the Salmon), S.fario (the Salmon trout), and S. trutta (the trout).
Of these, 6*. salar (Fig. 370) has the body long, the muzzle roundish,
Fig. 379. The Young Salmon.
but more so in the male than in the female, the upper jaw provided
with a fossette, into which the point of the lower jaw penetrates ; the
Fig. 380.— Salmon, or Parr, a year old.
back is a slaty blue, the sides and lower part of the body of a silvery
diaphanous white, with great black spots scattered round the upper
part of the head, round the upper edge of the eye, and over the oper-
FISHES. 581
culum or gill-cover. Some brownish irregular spots, variable both in
form and size, are sprinkled over the sides. In other respects the
colours are subject to variations according to circumstances. Before
assuming the characters here indicated, however, the salmon has
passed through three stages, each of which is marked by peculiarities
worthy of being noted. The young salmon (Fig. 379) is greyish and
striped with black. At the end of a year it has acquired a fine
metallic hue. " The other parts," according to Mr. Blanchard, " are
of a dazzling steel-blue ; eight or ten large spots of the same brilliant
blue cover it as with a silvery mantle on the sides j between these
spots a reddish, or, rather, brightish-rusty iron colour prevails ; a
black spot is usually observable in the middle of the operculum.
The belly is of a fine diaphanous blue in the parr" (Fig. 380).
Dr. Bertram gives a very clear and intelligible account of the early
life history of the salmon, which was at one time veiled in mystery.
" The spawn, deposited by the parent fish in October, November,
and December, lies in the river till about April or May, when it
quickens into lite. I have already described the changes apparent in
the salmon's egg, from the time of its fructification till the birth of
the fish. The infant fry are of course very helpless, and are seldom
seen during the first week or two of their existence, when they carry
about with them, as a provision for food, a portion of the yolk of the
egg from whence they were hatched. At that time the fish is about
half an inch in size, and presents such a singular appearance that no
person seeing it would ever believe that it would grow into a fine
grilse or salmon. After absorbing its umbilical bag, which it takes a
period of twenty to forty days to accomplish, the young salmon may
be seen about its birthplace, timid and weak, hiding about the stones,
and always apparently of the same colour as the surroundings of its
sheltering-place. The transverse bars of the parr, however, speedily
become apparent, and the fish begins to grow with considerable
rapidity, especially if it is to be a twelvemonth's smolt, and this is very
speedily seen at such a place as the Stormontfield ponds. The
young fish continue to grow for a little more than two years before
the whole number make the change from parr to smolt, and seek the
salt water. About fifty days is required for the animal to assume the
shape oi a perfect fish ; before that time it might be taken for any-
thing else than a young salmon. At the end of two years it has
changed into a smolt. Half the number of any one hatching begin to
change at a little over twelve months from the date of their coming to
life. And thus there is the extraordinary anomaly offish of the same
hatching being at one and the same time parr of half an ounce in
THE OCEAN WORLD.
weight, and grilse weighing four pounds. The smolts of the first
year return from the sea, while their brothers and sisters are timidly
disporting in the breeding shallows of the upper streams." A late
sea-going smolt explains the anomaly of a spring salmon.
It thus appears that, in this first stage, the young salmon (Fig. 380)
is called &parr; during the second it is a smolt, namely a parr plus
a jacket of silvery scales. While they continue in the state of parr
they lead a secluded life, totally unable to endure salt water, which
would kill them. When they have become smolts the fish betake
themselves in troops to the sea. The sea-feeding being favourable,
and the fish strong enough for the salt water, a rapid growth is the
consequence. After that they disappear, spreading themselves over
the wide world of the ocean. At the end of two months of a life
mysterious and so far unknown, these fishes reappear in the rivers,
returning to their native pools ; but how changed ! Quantum mutati !
The smolt, which has lived in he rivers two or three years, and only
attained the length of six 01 eight inches, returns at the end of two
months' sojourn in the sea, weighing three to four pounds, and, after
six months', ten or twelve pounds. It is now a grilse.
After depositing their eggs the grilse remain some time in the
fresh water, when they again go to the sea. This second sojourn, of
about two months, is sufficient to send it back weighing from six to
twelve pounds. It is now an adult salmon. Each new visit to the
sea brings the salmon back increased in size in proportion to the
duration of the voyage. In the month of March, 1845, the Duke of
Athole took a salmon in the Tay after it had deposited its eggs ; he
marked it by attaching a metal label to it. It weighed ten pounds.
The same individual, with its metal label, was again fished up after
five weeks and three days' absence. It now weighed twenty-one
pounds, having in the meantime travelled forty miles down the
river to the sea. This fish must, however, have made a long
sea run during these thirty-eight days and its seeking up the river
again.
In most circumstances, according to Mr. Blanchard, to whom we
are indebted for much information relative to the development and
migration of these fishes, salmon of various ages, which have never-
theless sojourned in the sea as grilse, adult salmon, and others inter-
mediate between them, whose first sojourn at sea has extended to
eight or ten months, ascend the rivers together in an order no less
varied, the older individuals heading the column, the youngest bring-
ing up the rear.
When the period for depositing their eggs approaches, a male and
FISHES.
583
female pair off, as it were ; seeming to choose, by a common accord,
a retired place in which to spawn. Here both male and female
employ themselves in hollowing out a nest in the sand some eight or
nine inches deep, wherein the female deposits her eggs, which the
male fertilises by shedding a milky fluid over them, sheltering the eggs
afterwards by a covering of sand.
The salmon only ascends the
rivers to spawn. They eagerly re-
turn afterwards to salt water.
When enjoying themselves in the
water they swim slowly, floating
near the surface ; but in pursuit of
any object, or if threatened with
danger, they dart out of the water
with extraordinary promptitude.
The tail is, in fact, a true oar
moved by powerful muscles. A
low waterfall is to the salmon no
serious obstacle when it is impelled
to ascend to its breeding-place ;
curving its vertebral column, it
forms itself into a sort of elastic
spring; the arc of which being
suddenly unbent, strikes the water
with great force with the tail, and
in the rebound it leaps to the
height of several yards, clearing
waterfalls of considerable height.
If it falls without accomplishing
its object, it repeats the manoeuvre
until it is at last successful. It is
Fig. 381.— Salmon Leap at Kilmorack.
especially when the leader of the band makes a successful leap that
the others, acquiring new spirit from its example, throw themselves
upwards until their emulation is rewarded by success.
Some of the British waterfalls are celebrated for their salmon
leaps. Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have each their celebrated leaps ;
in Pembrokeshire, Argyleshire, and at Ballyshannon in county
Donegal, and at Leixlip near Dublin. This latter cataract is about
twenty feet high, and the country people make a holiday in order to
see the salmon clear its height. These acrobat fishes frequently fall
before they finally succeed, and it is not unusual for the people to
place osier baskets to trap them in their fall. At the cataract of
5"84 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Kilmorack, in Inverness-shire (Fig. 381), the inhabitants living near
the river have a practice of fixing branches of trees on the edge of
the rocks. By means of these branches they contrive to catch the
fishes which have failed in their leap ; it is even asserted that sports-
men have been known to kill them on the wing, as it were, in their
leap. But the exploit attributed to Lord Lovat by Dr. Franklin is
perhaps the nearest approach to the fabulous which we have met
with. Having remarked that great numbers of salmon failed in their
efforts to surmount the Falls of Kilmorack, and that they generally
fell on the banks at the foot of the fall, Lord Lovat conceived the
idea ol placing a furnace and a frying-pan on a point of rock over-
hanging the river. After their unsuccessful effort some of the un-
happy salmon would fall accidentally into the frying-pan. The noble
lord could thus boast that the resources of his country were so
abundant, that on placing a furnace and frying-pan on the banks
of its rivers, the salmon would leap into it of their own accord,
without troubling the sportsmen to catch them. It is more pro-
bable, however, that Lord Lovat knew that the way to enjoy salmon
in perfection is to cook it when fresh from the water, and before
the richer parts of the fish have ceased to curd.
The principal salmon found in the market are from the Tweed,
Tay, North Esk, Spey, Skye, and Norwegian rivers, and above all
from the Severn and the rivers of Ireland, which latter are said to be
the best which come to market. None of these must be confounded
with the imported American variety — the origin of the prevalent cheap
London kipper — and the Cape, or red-mouthed variety. Cape and
Americans are at once distinguished by their flesh boiling a blanched
white. Tweed salmon are more varied ; and this river, famous in song,
is also noted for its production of the greatest proportion of bull-trout.
The Tay yields the largest grilse and salmon, but the Spey follows
fast in her wake ; Tay fish sometimes weigh sixty pounds. The
minor Scotch rivers produce smaller but superior fish. Skye and
West-coast grilse are short, thick, and small-headed, and proportion-
ally more abundant. Trout are numerous ; sea-bull, burn, or loch,
and the so-called herring-trout, are the varieties usually met with.
The whitling of the Tweed, grayling of Tay, and tinnock of North
and South Esk, are young sea and bull-trout, abounding in March
and April, when a sportsman will land fifty or sixty daily weighing
from four ounces to a pound each. Trout flesh varies in colour
from a clear white to a dark red ; the North Esk red trout is most
esteemed. The best run from a pound and a half to three pounds.
The burn-trout is always red, and has been killed as heavy as thirty
FISHES. 585
pounds. The herring-trout, never found in English rivers, and only
caught on our coast by herring-trawlers, is a special favourite : may
it not be the whitling of the French rivers ? In all other species
colour varies with locality, and cannot be accounted for.
We have seen how rapidly the young salmon increase in size in
the sea. During this stage of existence the salmon, being a carni-
vorous fish, rapidly develops itself from the grilse to the adult state.
From a careful analysis made by Dr. Wilson Johnston, of the Bengal
army, it appears that there is no recorded instance of healthy salmon
partaking of herring or sand-lances ; the tape-worm and other con-
ditions of perverted appetite were found in all. Tape-worm is most
common in the hybrid Norwegian, and perhaps explains the reason
why Clupeadse are sometimes found in their stomachs. Should the
fish not be charged with spawn, it will shortly return to sport among
the dancing waves ; but if matured for breeding, at which period
the female shows a dirty brown hue, and the male a black, they
mate, choose a spot for the salmon nest, and there deposit myriads
of ova. The longer a salmon continues in the river the duller
their colour becomes ; their flavour is greatly depreciated ; so that
Izaak Walton's statement, that "the further they get from the
sea they be both fatter and better," is dead against our daily
experience.
During the period of river residence salmon never feed. It avails
not to argue that fear acts as an emetic and empties the stomach ;
the incontestable fact remains that the entire gastro-intestinal tract
ab ore ad ano is in ninety-nine per cent, devoid of any trace of food.
Juvenile experience on the part of the fish, recurring as a phantasm,
causes them to snap at a shining artificial minnow or a gaudy fly, but
they never rise out of the water ; the bait must dip to them, and
when hooked they shake the intruder as a terrier does a rat. If salmon
never feed in fresh water, what is the rationale of their existing there ?
Well, the superabundant store of fat deposited in their areolar tissue
appears to furnish a material which is functionally homologous to
the fatty supply stored by the Asiatic and African doomba sheep,
which is drawn upon to sustain life-action, when neves, avalanches, or
a heavy snow-fall imprisons the crop of herbage. That continued
muscular exertion can be sustained without special fatigue on non-
nitrogenous diet, Fick and Wislicensus have proved by their recent
ascent of the Faulhorn : it is moreover notorious that the chamois
hunter and the Hindoo runner prefer fats and saccharoids. Is there
any show ot reason, then, why the salmon should not maintain its
fresh- water muscular tear and wear by a stock of non-nitrogenous fatty
T *
586 THE OCEAN WORLD.
material ? That such is the true philosophy of salmon river life is
borne out by the following facts : —
i st. So soon as the secretions of the milt and roe become
exhausted, the spent fish turn seaward to recruit.
2nd. The digestive secretions are not eliminated in the absence
of food ; the most recent experience of physiology finds its echo here.
Your boxer trains on meat or nitrogenous aliment, but enters the list
on hydro-carbons (fat, saccharines, and amylaceous substances). The
salmon get into condition by immediately appropriating plenty of
marine animals, enter their life-struggle of wintry months in river
waters with an incorporated stock of potential calorific aliment, con-
vertible, as occasion demands, into organic muscular mechanical effort.
The British rivers in which the salmon abound are, as we have
seen, the Severn, the Wye, the Tweed, the Tay, the Don, and the
Dee, with many of their .tributaries ; and in Ireland, the Shannon, the
Suir, the Boyne, and many others. Besides these, many of the
watercourses of lesser note adjoining the coast have been renowned
for their salmon fisheries. Some of the Scottish rivers, especially, are
famous for the size and quality as well as numbers of salmon. In
days not very distant from ours, farm servants made it a condition of
their hiring that salmon should not be .served to them more than
three days in the week. Those times are changed. In the districts
in which this condition was the most stringently insisted on, the
proprietors derive a princely revenue from this source alone. The
Tay fisheries yield a revenue of ^17,000 per annum. The Spey,
for its length the richest in Scotland, produces ,£12,000 per annum.
The river is only 120 miles from its source to the sea, and its
picturesque banks are celebrated in a local ballad, which says, not
very harmoniously, that
"Dipple, Dundurcus, Dandaleith, and Dulocq,
Are the bonniest haughs of the run of the Spey ;"
but there's " no standing water in the Spey." The river drains
1,300 miles of mountains, many of whose bases are more than
1,000 feet above the level of the sea. The Tweed, which has been
"poached" and plundered, by its proprietors using unfair implements,
until there was scarcely a fish in its upper waters, is slowly recovering
under legislative enactments, and its rental is now £7, 500 per annum.
Salmon abound in the Loire and its affluents, but are not so
plentiful in the Seine and Marne. They enter the Rhine and the
Elbe, and most of the great rivers of the north of Europe. In France
they were formerly found in the rivers of Brittany, and in the Gironde.
FISHES. 587
They are now very rare in those rivers. The coast of Picardy is
well furnished, but they are rare in upper and lower Normandy.
In Norway, especially in the district of Drontheim, the salmon
fishery is conducted on a large scale on the sea-shore as well as in
the interior waters. The Baltic is rich in salmon. Considerable
fisheries are carried on in the waters of the Gulfs of Finland and
Bothnia, as well as in the waters of Swedish Laponia. The takes
vary greatly; in 1860 being much above the average throughout
Great Britain; while in 1772 the fish were so scarce in the Tweed
that it was believed they had gone off the coast. They invariably
go to leeward with the wind, and have been caught 100 miles
off land. Salmon are in condition at various periods of the
year, apparently not depending on the latitude of the rivers. Thus,
the Tay is one of the earliest rivers, while the north and south
Esk are the latest, yet they debouch within a few miles of each
other. It. is the opinion of Mr. Joseph Johnston of Montrose
(whose acknowledged fifty years' practical experience carries weight
with it in all parliamentary committees on this question) that the
Stormontfield ponds, by artificially rearing the parr, render them
more helpless when they commence river life on their own account.
As a natural result, the death-ratio is enormously increased — cui bono f
especially when the parr have only the option of leaving, and are not
compelled to go out. We must, therefore, receive Dr. Bertram's
narrative, much as we respect his authority, with some reserve. The
young will not grow, nor will a parr ever become a grilse, unless
under given conditions ; it is therefore an easy matter to explain the
anomaly of a parr passing seaward becoming a four-pound grilse,
while its twin-brother remaining in the breeding-pond is conditionally
developed as only a half-ounce samlet, yet none the less a dwarfed
grilse — the possibility of growth existing all the while, although it
was not actively evoked by physical surroundings.
The modes of procedure in salmon fishery are very various.
Spearing with tridents, and liestering with a weighted hook by torch-
light— " burning the water," as the Scotch have it — as well as trammel,
wear, and cruive-wear fishing, are now prohibited. Legal fishing in
rivers is confined to row nets, and fly and bait rod fishing, fixtures
being illegal since 1810. Wear shot; a larger and heavier row-net
placed at the meeting of the waters ; stake, fly, and bag-nets are
used in the open sea. The latter is most in vogue, the former being
almost superseded by the fly. Fixtures on the sea coast were held
to be legal in Lord Kintore's case by the House ot Lords in 1828, and
continued so till the passing of the recent Act. By this Act all legal
$88 THE OCEAN WORLD.
modes of fishing are in action from the ist of February to the
1 4th of September, a period, however, now curtailed by twenty-
eight days — netting being illegal from Saturday to Monday in each
week. It remains to be seen whether the gourmet will enjoy his
salmon better after its Sabbath rest ; perhaps its ragout will then
haunt him as it did Talleyrand's abbe, who, instead of the mea culpa
of the Confiteor, iterated, " Ah ! le bon saumon ! ah ! le bon
saumon ! "
A bag-net is composed of three chambers : the first, which is the
widest, is at the entrance ; the next is the doubling, and is one inch
to the mesh narrower than the outer. The last is the fish court,
where the fish, by a simple and ingenious contrivance, are prevented
from finding the door by which they entered. It is partly floated
by corks and partly by an empty cask on the head or principal riding
rope. It is set in the sea by ropes attached to anchors, one anchor
rope to the head of the net and one on each wing at the entrance of
the bag. The bag-leader is a separate net held by a rope and anchor on
the land side, and is fastened to the bag-net. The principle of fishing
is this : the tide makes a curve on the leader of the bag, in this curve
the fish swim into the net. Bags are adapted for any kind of coast,
and six or seven are run out to sea end on. Fly nets are the same
as bags in principle, but slightly altered so as to adapt them for
being fixed to stakes driven into the sand instead of being moored
by rope and anchor ; they are always used where the tide ebbs.
Stake nets are expensive, and seldom used nowadays. When in
fishing trim they are, however, more deadly than fly nets : their
chambers are three times as large, but the principle of fishing in bag
and stake nets is identical, leaders being used in all. It is note-
worthy that trout are never caught in these leaders.
The Chipeada. — Of this family the herring is the useful and well-
known type, to which also the pilchard, the shad, and the anchovy
belong. The species of Clupea have the body longish and com-
pressed, especially at the belly, where it comes to an edge ; they are
clothed with large scales, forming towards the belly a saw-like edge,
which is very thin and easily removed. They have one dorsal fin
without spinous rays, and one ventral, both placed near the middle
of the body.
The Herring, Clupea harengus (Fig 382), is too well known to
require description ; its appearance is beautiful ; but we shall only
remark here that its back, which in the fish after death is of an indigo
bluish colour, is greenish during life ; the other parts vary consider-
ably in their colours and markings sometimes representing written
F/SHES.
589
characters, which ignorant fishermen have considered to be words of
mystery. In November, 1587, two herrings were taken on the coast
of Norway, on the bodies of which were markings resembling Gothic
printed characters. These herrings had the signal honour of being
presented to the King of Norway, Frederick II. This superstitious
prince turned pale at sight of this supposed prodigy. On the back of
these innocent inhabitants of the deep he saw certain cabalistic
characters, which he thought announced his death and that of his
Fig. 382. — The Herring (Clupea harengus).
queen. Learned men were consulted. Their science, as reported,
enabled them to read distinctly words expressing the sentiment,
" Very soon you will cease to fish herrings, as well as other people."
Other savants were assembled, who gave another explanation ; but in
1588 the king died, and the people were firmly convinced thai
the two herrings were celestial messengers charged to announce to
the Norwegian people the approaching end of the monarch.
This fish abounds throughout the entire Northern Ocean in
immense shoals, which are found in the bays of Greenland, Lapland,
and round the whole coast of the British Islands. Great shoals of
them occupy the gulfs of Sweden, of Norway, and of Denmark, the
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Baltic and the Zuyder Zee, the Channel, and the coast of France up
to the Loire, beyond which they never appear to be found. But
the finest herrings are said to be caught on Loch Fyne, on the west
coast of Scotland.
The herrings are gregarious fishes, and live in great shoals closely
packed together — shoals in which the herrings may be counted not by
hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands, in many a shore
and bay. It was the favourite theory, not very long ago, that
herrings emigrated to and from the arctic regions. It was asserted,
by the supporters of this theory, that in the inaccessible seas of high
northern latitudes herrings existed in overwhelming numbers, an
open sea within the arctic circle affording a safe and bounteous feed-
ing-ground. At the proper season vast bodies gathered themselves
together into one great army, which in numbers exceeding the powers
of imagination, departed for more southern regions. This great Heer,
or army, was subdivided, by some instinct, as they reached the
different shores, led, according to the ideas of fishermen, by herrings
of more than ordinary size and sagacity, one division taking the west
side of Britain, while another took the east side, the result being an
adequate and well-divided supply of herrings, which penetrated every
bay and arm of the sea round our coast, from Wick to Yarmouth.
Closer observation, however, shows that this theory has no existence
in fact. Lacepede denies that these periodical journeyings take place.
Valenciennes also rejects the idea. It is true that the herrings have
disappeared in certain neighbourhoods in which they were formerly
very plentiful ; but it is also certain that in many of the fishing
stations fish are taken all the year round. Moreover, the discovery
that the herring of America is probably a distinct species from that of
Europe (which, smoked, is known as the " Digby Chick ") is against
the theory. In short, there is a total absence of proof of their
pretended migrations to high northern latitudes ; and recent discoveries
all tend to show that the herring is native to the shores on which it is
taken.
" It has been demonstrated/' says Dr. Bertram, " that the herring
is really a native of our immediate seas, and can be caught all the
year round on the coast of the three kingdoms. The fishing begins
at the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, in the month of May, and
goes on as the year advances, till in July it is being prosecuted off
the coast of Caithness ; while in autumn and winter we find large
supplies of herrings at Yarmouth : there is a winter fishery in the
Firth of Forth. Moreover, this fish is found in the south long before
it ought to be there, according to the emigration theory. It has been
FISHRS. 591
deduced, from a consideration of the annual takes of many years,
that the herring exists in distinct races, which arrive at maturity
month after month. It is well known that the herrings taken at
Wick in July are quite different from those caught at Dunbar in
August and September ; indeed, I would go further, and say that
even at Wick each month has its changing shoal, and that as one
race appears for capture another disappears, having fulfilled its
mission. It is certain that the herrings of these different seasons
vary considerably in size and appearance ; localities are marked by
distinctive features. Thus, the well-known Loch Fyne herring is
essentially different from that of the Firth of Forth; and those
differ again, in many particulars, from those caught off Yarmouth.
In fact, the herring never ventures far from the shore where it is
taken ; and its condition, when it is caught, is just an index of the
feeding it has enjoyed in its particular locality. The superiority of
flavour of the herring taken in our great land-locked salt-water lochs
is undoubted. Whether or not resulting from the depth and body of
water, from more plentiful marine vegetation, or from the greater
variety of land food likely to be washed into these inland seas, has
not yet been determined, but it is certain that the herrings of our
western sea-lochs are infinitely superior to those captured in the more
open sea." " Moreover," he adds, " it is now known, from the
inquiries of the late Mr. Mitchell and other authorities on the
geographical distribution of the herring, that the fish has never
been noticed as being at all abundant in the arctic regions."
The herring feeds on small crustaceans, fishes just hatched, and
even on the fry of its own species. Its enemies are among the most
formidable inhabitants of the ocean ; the whales destroy them by
thousands, but man, above all, carries on a war which almost
threatens to be one of extermination. The herring-fishery has been
to certain nations the great cause of their prosperity. It was the
foundation of Dutch independence. Silk, manufacture, coffee, tea,
spices, which are productive of great commercial movements, address
themselves only to the wants of luxury or fashion ; the produce oi
the herring-fishery, on the contrary, is one of necessity to the people:
and Holland would have languished and quickly disappeared, with its
sinking territory, if the sea had not added to its commercial industry
this inexhaustible mine of wealth. That vast field it has worked with
persevering ardour. Struggling for an existence, it has conquered.
Every year numerous vessels leave the coast of Holland for this pre-
cious marine harvest. The herring fishery is, for the Dutch people,
the most important of maritime expeditions. It is with them known
59 '2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
as the "great fishery;" whaling is known as the "small fishery.'*
The great fishery is a golden mine to Holland. It is, besides, a very
ancient occupation with ourselves ; we find it flourishing in the
twelfth century; for, in 1195, according to the historians, the city of
Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk, was obliged to furnish the king
witli 24,000 herrings. We also find mention made of the herring
fishery in a chronicle of the monastery of Evesham in the year 709.
Towards the year 1030, the French sent vessels into the North
Sea from Dieppe for this fishing, nearly a century before the Dutch
made the attempt ; but as early as the thirteenth century the latter en-
terprising people employed 2,000 boats in this industry. The Danes,
Swedes, and Norwegians also occupied themselves with this tra-de
at an early period. The French, Danes, and Swedes furnish them-
selves at the present time with only sufficient for home consumption.
The monopoly of the foreign trade belongs to the English, Dutch,
and Norwegians. " The quantity of herrings gathered every year by
our neighbours beyond the Channel," says Moquin-Tandon, "is truly
enormous. In Yarmouth alone 400 ships, of from forty to sixty tons,
are equipped; the largest being manned by twelve men. The
revenue derived from this fleet is about ,£700,000. In 1857, three
of these fishing-boats, belonging to the same proprietors, carried
home 3,762,000 fishes."
Since the beginning of this century, the Scottish fishermen have
emulated the zeal of the English. In a paper communicated to the
British Association in 1854, Mr. Cleghorn, who has paid great atten-
tion to the subject, states "that there are 920 Wick boats engaged in
the fishing, and that the produce was 95,680 barrels" in one week
alone; this being, however, a falling off of 61,000 barrels from the
previous year. The cause Oi this immense falling off was ascribed
to a storm which had swept along the coast at the height of the
season ; but Mr. Cleghorn was inclined to ascribe it mainly to
over-fishing, which had gradually diminished the number of herrings
captured.
The boats employed by the French and Dutch in the herring
fishery are about sixty tons burden. They generally depart for the
Orkney and Shetland Isles. They afterwards betake themselves to
the German Ocean, and fish the Channel in November and De-
cember. These boats carry up to sixteen hands, according to
their size. Arrived at their fishing-ground, they cast their nets, as
seen in PLATE XXVI.
The lines oi the Dutch fishermen are 500 feet in length, composed
of fifty or sixty different nets. The upper parts of these nets are
595
supported by empty barrels or cork-buoys, the lower edge being
weighted with lead or stones, which are kept at a convenient depth
by shortening or lengthening the cords by which the buoys are attached.
The size of the mesh of the nets is such that the herrings of a certain
size are caught in by the gills and pectoral fins. If the first mesh is
too large to hold them, they pass through, and get caught by the next
or succeeding mesh, which is smaller. The herring-rishery is regu-
lated by Act of Parliament, and the legal mode of capture is by means
of what is called a drift-net. The drift-net is made of fine twine,
marked with squares of an inch each, to allow for the escape of the
young fish. The nets are measured by the barrel bulk, a net measuring
fifty feet long by thirty-two deep, and each holding half a barrel. The
drift is composed of many separate nets fastened together by means oi
a back rope, and each separate net of the series is marked off by a
bladder or empty cask. The process is that described by Dr. Bertram
in an article published in the " Cornhill Magazine." The writer had
made his arrangements for a night at the herring-fishery, under the
auspices of Francis Sinclair, a very gallant-looking fellow, who sails
his own boat from Wick, and takes his own venture. Bounding over
the waves with a good capful of wind, they had left the shore and
beetling cliffs far behind them ; they reached their fishing-ground,
where they tacked up and down, eagerly watching for the oiiy
phosphorescent gleam which is indicative of herrings. "At last, after
a lengthened cruise," he says, " our commander, who had been silent
for half an hour, jumped up and called to action. * Up, men, and at
them!' was the order of the night. The preparations for shooting
the nets at once began by lowering sail. Surrounding us on all
sides was to be seen a moving world of boats; many with sails down,
their nets floating in the water, and their crews at rest. Others were
still flitting uneasily about, their skippers, like our own, anxious to
shoot in the right place. By-and-by we were ready ; the sucker goes
splash into the water ; the ' dog,' a large inflated bladder to mark the
far end of the train, is heaved overboard, and the nets, breadth after
breadth, follow as fast as the men can pay them out, till the immense
train is all in the water, forming a perforated wall a mile long and
many feet in depth ; the * dog ; and the marking-bladder floating and
dipping in long zigzag lines, reminding one of the imaginary coils
of the great sea-serpent. After three hours of quietude beneath a
beautiful sky, the stars —
'The eternal orbs that beautify the night —
began to pale their fires, and, the grey dawn appearing, indicated that
596 THE OCEAN WORLD.
it was time to take stock. We found that the boat had floated quietly
with the tide till we were a long distance from the harbour. The
skipper had a presentiment that there were fish in his net ; and the
bobbing down of a few of the bladders made it almost a certainty ;
and he resolved to examine the drifts. By means of the swing rope,
the boat was hauled up to the nets. ' Hurrah !' exclaimed Murdoch
of Skye ; 'there's a lot of fish, skipper, and no mistake !' Murdoch's
news was true ; our nets were silvery with herrings — so laden, in fact,
that it took a long time to haul them in. It was a beautiful sight to
see the shimmering fish as they came up like a sheet of silver from
the water, each uttering a weak death-chirp as it was flung into the
bottom of the boat. Formerly the fish were left in the meshes of the
net till the boat arrived in the harbour ; but now, as the net is hauled
on board, they are at once shaken out. As our silvery treasure
showers into the boat, we roughly guess our capture at fifty cranes — •
a capital night's work."
But there is a reverse to this medal. Wick Bay is not always
rippled by the land-breeze as on this occasion. " The herring fleet
has been more than once overtaken by a fierce storm, when valuable
lives have been lost, and thousands of pounds worth of netting and
boats destroyed, and the gladdening sights of the herring-fishery have
been changed to wailing and sorrow."
The Yarmouth boats are decked vessels of from fifty to eighty
tons, with attendant boats, costing about ^1,000, and having stowage
for about fifty lasts; nominally, 10,000, but, counted fisherwise, 13,000,
herrings, besides provision for a five or six days' voyage. Leaving a
hand or two in charge of the vessel, the majority of the crew are out
in the smaller boats, fishing.
The Dutch herring fishery is usually pursued during the night.
When the nets are in the water, the boat is left, as we have seen in
Dr. Bertram's excursion, to drift in the meantime. Each boat is
furnished with a lantern, which serves the double purpose of attracting
the shoals of fish, and preventing collisions with other boats. The
herring fishery is extremely capricious in its results; one or two boats
have been known to carry into port the whole takings of a night.
Valenciennes witnessed the capture of 110,000 herrings in less than
two hours. The nets are hauled in when moderately charged with
fish by the crew ; but it is often necessary to have recourse to the
capstan in the process. Some of the hands are stationed to detach
the fish from the nets ; others detach the nets from the buoys ; while
others again fold up and stow away the nets for future use.
On the coast of Norway the electric telegraph is applied to the
FISHES. 597
herring fishery, being employed to announce to the inhabitants of the
fishing towns the approach of the shoals of fish. In the fiords of
Norway, where the produce of the herring fishery is the principal
means of existence to nearly the entire population, it often happens
that the fish make their appearance at the most unexpected times,
and on some parts of the coast the shoals could only be met by one
or two boats. Before the boats from the bays and fiords could
take part in the fishery, the herrings had deposited their spawn and
returned to the open sea.
To prevent these disappointments, often repeated with great loss
to the fishermen, the Norwegian Government established, in 1857, a
submarine electric cable along the coast frequented by the herrings,
of 100 miles in length, with stations on shore at intervals conveniently
placed for communicating with the villages inhabited by the fishermen.
As soon as a shoal of herrings is known to be in the offing — and they
can always be perceived at a considerable distance by the wave they
raise — a telegram is despatched along the coast, which makes known
in each village the approach to the bay in which the herrings have
established themselves.
This important branch of industry has only assumed its real
character since the fourteenth century, and its sudden and prodigious
extension is due to the discovery of a simple Dutch fisherman, George
Benkel, who died in 1397. To this man Holland owes much of its
wealth. He discovered, in short, the art of curing the herring so as
to preserve it for an indefinite time. From that moment the herring
fishery assumed an unexpected importance, and became the source of
much wealth to Holland and its industrious and enterprising people.
Two hundred years after his death, the Emperor Charles V. solemnly
ate a herring on Benkel's tomb ; it was a small homage paid to the
memory of the creator of an industry which had enriched his native
land.
The Shad (C. alosa) has the body round and more plump than the
herring, and is still more distinguishable by the arrangement of its
teeth. More than twenty species of this genus are known, varying
considerably in size. They inhabit the seas which wash the coasts of
Europe, Africa, India, and America. One species is the Common
Shad, C. alosa (Fig. 383), which is found in the Channel, the North
Sea, and all round our coast. It is of a silvery tint generally, greenish
on the back, with one or two black spots behind the gills. The shad
approaches the mouths of rivers and great estuaries, and habitually
ascends them in the spring for the purpose of depositing its ova ; it
is found at this season in the Rhine, the Seine, the Garonne, the
598
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Volga, the Elbe, and many of our own rivers. In some of the Irish
rivers the masses of shad taken in the seine-net have been so great
that no amount of exertion has been sufficient to land them. It some-
times attains a very considerable size, weighing as much as from four to
six pounds. The shad taken at sea are less delicate in their flesh than
those caught in fresh- water. The habits of the shad are very im-
perfectly known. Two varieties are found on the British coast,
namely, the Twaite Shad of Yarrell, which is about fourteen inches in
length, brownish-green on the back, inclining to blue in certain lights,
Fig. 383.— The Common Shad (C. alosa).
the rest of the body silvery white, with five or six dusky spots on each
side, arranged longitudinally, the jaws are furnished with distinct
teeth, the tail deeply forked ; and the Common or Allice Shad,
which is considerably larger, sometimes attaining twelve and even
fifteen inches in length, having only one spot on each side of the body
near the head ; the jaws are without teeth, and the scales are small
in proportion. This species is plentiful in the Severn, but rare in the
Thames.
The Twaite shad is found in the Severn and Thames in con-
siderable quantities about the second week in July. They reach
the fresh water about May, deposit their spawn, and return to salt
water in July. Their scales are large.
FISHES. 599
The Sprat (C. Sprattus) has been the subject of a great controversy;
one party contending that it is the young of the herring, another that
it is a distinct species. Pennant, Yarrell, and many eminent natu-
ralists adopt the first view ; yet its specific characters, according to
Pennant, are " greater depth of body than the young herring ; gill-
covers not veined ; teeth of the lower jaw so small as to be scarcely
sensible to the touch ; the dorsal fin placed far back, and the sharp
edge of the abdomen more acutely serrated than in the herring."
Like the herring, they inhabit the deep water during the summer,
following the shoal to the sea-shore in autumn. The sprat fishing
commences in November, and continues during the winter months,
when they are caught in such numbers that in some localities they
have been used as manure.
In support of the view that the sprat is a good species, the
serrated belly and relative position of the fins are dwelt upon,
together with the instance detailed by Mr. Mitchell, the Belgian
consul at Leith, who exhibited a pair of sprats, having the roe and
milt fully developed.
On the other hand, the abundance of the sprat has been adduced
as a reason for its being the young herring. In addition to this,
anatomists declare their anatomy shows no difference but size. " As
to the serrated belly," says Bertram, " we may look on that as we do
on the tuck in a child's frock, namely, as a provision for growth."
If this is so, Dr. Bertram's views supply material at once for thought
and legislation. " The slaughter of sprats," he says, " is as decided a
case of killing the goose with the golden eggs as the grilse slaughter
carried on in our salmon rivers." But Dr. Bertram here overlooks a
fact of which any one may convince himself, namely, that the young
herrings are caught without the serrated belly; nay, the curer's
purchase is regulated by the sprat's rough and the herring's smooth
belly.
The Pilchard, Clupea .pilchardus (Fig. 384), sometimes called the
Gipsy Herring, visits our coasts all the year round. It was at one time
thought, as the herring was, to be migratory, but, like that fish, it is
now found to be a native of our own seas, and a constant inhabitant
of our shores. It has been known to spawn in May, but the usual
time is October; and authorities like Mr. Couch think it breeds only
once a year. Its visit to shallow water causes immense excitement ;
persons watch night and day from the lofty cliffs along the Cornish
coast, and the watchers (locally called " huers ") signal the boats at
sea beneath them the moment they see indications of the approach of
a shoal. Mr. Wilkie Collins gives an animated picture of the "huer :"
600 THE OCEAN WORLD.
"A stranger in Cornwall, taking his first walk along the cliffs in
August, could not advance far without witnessing what would strike
him as a very singular and even alarming phenomenon. He would see
a man standing on the extreme edge of a precipice just over the sea,
gesticulating in a very remarkable manner, with a bush in his hand,
waving it to the right and to the left, brandishing it over his head,
sweeping it past his feet ; in short, acting the part apparently of a
maniac of the most dangerous description. It would add considerably
to the stranger's surprise if he were told that the insane individual
before him was paid for flourishing the bush at the rate of a guinea a
Fig. 384.— The Pilchard (Clupea pilchardus).
week. And if he advanced a little, so as to obtain a nearer view of
the madman, and observed a well-manned boat below turning carefully
to the right and left, as the bush turned, his mystification would
probably be complete, and his ideas as to the sanity of the inhabitants
would be expressed with grievous doubt.
" But a few words of explanation would make him alter his opinion.
He would learn that the man was an important agent in the pilchard
fishery of Cornwall, that he had just discovered a shoal swimming
towards the land, and that the men in the boats were guided, by his
gesticulations alone in their arrangements for securing the fish on
which so many depend for a livelihood."
Where the pilchards come from, and whither they go, seems alike
unknown. All that is certain is, that they are met with in shoals
swimming past the Scilly Islands as early as July. In August the
inshore fishing begins, and they appear on various parts of the coast
FISHES.
as far north as Devonshire and the south coast of Ireland up to
October and November; no doubt those which have escaped the
innumerable nets spread for them.
" The first sight from the cliffs of a shoal of pilchards," says Mr.
Collins, "is not a little interesting. They produce on the sea the appear-
ance of the shadow of a dark cloud, which approaches until you can see
the fish leaping and playing on the surface by hundreds at a time, all
huddled close together, and so near the shore that they can be caught
in fifty or sixty feet of water. Indeed, when the shoals are of con-
siderable magnitude, the fish behind have been known literally to force
the fish in front up to the beach, so that they could be taken in
baskets, or even with the hand.
" With the discovery of the first shoal, the active duties of the look-
out, or ' huer/ on the cliffs begin. Each fishing village places one or
more of these men on the watch all round the coast. He is, there-
fore, not only paid his guinea a week while he is on the watch, but a
percentage on the produce of all the fish taken under his auspices.
He is placed at his post, where he can command an uninterrupted
view of the sea, some days before the pilchards are expected.
" The principal boat used is, at least of fifteen tons burden, and
carries a large net called the ' seine/ which measures 190 fathoms
in length, and costs £120 — sometimes more. It is simply one
long strip, from eleven to thirteen fathoms in breadth, composed of
very small meshes, and furnished all along its length with cork at one
edge and lead at the other. The men who cast this net are called
' shooters/ and receive eleven shillings and sixpence a week and one
basket of fish out of every haul.
" As soon as the ' huer ' discerns a shoal he waves his bush. The
signal is conveyed to the beach by men and boys watching near him.
The ' seine '-boat, accompanied by another, to assist in casting the
net, is rowed out to where he can see it ; then there is a pause and
hush of expectation. Meanwhile the devoted pilchards press on — a
compact mass of thousands on thousands of fish — swimming to meet
their doom. All eyes are fixed on the 'huer;' he stands watchful
and still, until the shoal is thoroughly embayed in water which he
knows to be within the depths of the ' seine.' Then, as the fish begin
to pause in their progress, and gradually crowd closer and closer to-
gether, he gives the signal, and the ' seine ' is cast or ' shot ' over-
board.
"The grand object is now to enclose the entire shoal. The leads
sink one side of the net perpendicularly to the bottom, the corks buoy
the other to the surface of the water. When it has been taken all
602 THE OCEAN WORLD.
round the shoal, the two extremities are made fast, and the fish are
imprisoned within an oblong barrier of netting. The art is how to let
as few of the pilchards escape as possible while the process is being
completed. Whenever the * huer ' observes that they are startled, and
separating at any particular point, he waves his bush, and thither the
boat is steered, and there the net is shot at once ; the fish are thus
headed and thwarted in every direction with extraordinary address
and skill. This labour completed, the silence of intense expectation
that has hitherto prevailed is broken, there is a shout of joy on all
sides — the shoal is secured.
" The ' seine ' is now regarded as a great reservoir of fish. It may
remain in the water a week or more; to secure it against being
moved from its position, in case a gale should come on, it is warped
by two or three ropes to points of land in the cliff, and is at the same
time contracted in circuit by its opposite ends being brought together
and passed lightly over its breadth for several feet. While these
operations are being performed, another boat, another set of men, and
another net, are approaching the scene of action.
" The new net is called the ' tuck ;; it is smaller than the 'seine,'
inside which it is to be let down, for the purpose of bringing the fish
close to the surface. The men who manage this net are called
' regular sewers.7 The boat is first of all rowed inside the seine-net,
and laid close to the seine-boat, which remains stationary outside.
To its bows one rope at the end of the tuck-net is fastened. The
tuck-boat now slowly makes the inner circle of the seine, the smaller
net being dropped overboard, and attached to the seine at intervals
as she goes. To prevent the fish from getting between the two nets
during the operation, they are frightened into the middle of the
enclosure by beating the water with oars, and stones fastened to ropes,
When the * tuck ' has at length travelled round the whole circle of
the ' seine/ and is securely fastened to the seine-boat at the end as it
was at the beginning, everything is prepared for the great event of
the day — hauling the fish to the surface.
" Now all is excitement on sea and shore ; every little boat in
the place puts ofT, crammed with idle spectators ; boys shout, dogs
bark, and the shrill voices of the former are joined by the deep voices
of the 'seiners.' There they stand, six or eight stalwart, sun-burnt
fellows, ranged in a row in the seine-boat, hauling with all their
might at the * tuck '-net, and roaring out the nautical * Yo, heave ho!'
in chorus. Higher and higher -rises the net ; louder and louder
shout the boys and the idlers ; the * huer/ so calm and collected
hitherto, Joses his self-possession, and waves his cap triumphantly.
FISHES. 603
' Hooray ! hooray ! Yoy — hoy, hoy ! Pull away, boys ! Up she
comes ! Here they are !' The water boils and eddies ; the 'tuck'-
net rises to the surface ; one teeming, convulsed mass of shining,
glancing, silvery scales ; one compact mass of thousands offish, each
one of which is madly striving to escape, appears in an instant.
Boats as large as barges now pull up, in hot haste, all round the nets,
baskets are produced by dozens, the fish are dipped up in them, and
shot out, like coals out of a sack, into the boats. Presently the men
are ankle-deep in pilchards ; they jump upon the benches, and work
on till the boats can hold no more. They are almost gunwale under
before they leave for the shore."
In the process of curing, the scene becomes doubly picturesque,
but this is shore-work, with which our space forbids us to deal.
11 Some idea of the almost incalculable multitude of pilchards
caught on the Cornish shores," says Mr. Collins, " may be gathered
from the following data : At the small fishing cove of Trereen 600
hogsheads " were taken in little more than a week, during August,
1850. Allowing 2,400 fish only to each hogshead (3,000 would
be the highest calculation), we have a result of 1,000,440
pilchards caught by the inhabitants of one little village alone,
on the Cornish coast, at the commencement of the season's
fishing."
The sardine of commerce (Clupea sardina) is sometimes taken in
the Channel, on the coasts of Brittany and Cornwall, but is very
common indeed in the Mediterranean, and on the coast of Sardinia,
whence its commercial name. In Brittany floating nets are employed
for its capture. The fishing is conducted in boats, each carrying five
men ; hundreds of these boats may sometimes be seen engaged at the
same time three or four leagues from tlie coast, the nets being only
drawn when they are fully charged, when the fish are arranged bed
upon bed in osier baskets, each boat returning habitually to port
when it has secured 25,000 fishes. The fishery extends over five or
six months, the produce being about 600,000,000 of sardines.
The Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus] is chiefly taken in the
Mediterranean, and is much sought after for its delicate flavour when
salted and cured. It is a small, slender fish, about four to four and
a half inches in length ; head pointed, mouth very wide, gill-open-
ings large, abdomen smooth ; when living it is greenish on the back,
silvery beneath ; after death it changes to a bluish black. The
fishery which gives the most abundant results takes place on the
shores of the Mediterranean, principally on the coast of Sicily, the
isles of Elba, Corsica, Antibes, Frejus, St. Tropez, and Cannes.
604 THE OCEAN WORLD.
They are also taken on the Dalmatian coast, and in the neighbour-
hood of Ragusa.
The anchovy is only fit for food after being preserved and salted.
The process of curing commences by throwing it into a strong brine ;
then, the head and entrails being removed, they are arranged in rows
in barrels or boxes of tin, in alternate layers of salt and fish \ finally,
after some days of exposure, they are hermetically closed and des-
patched to market. Those prepared on the Provencal coast were
formerly carried to the fair of Beaucaire, whence they found their
way all over France, and to many parts of Europe. Now, the
anchovies cured at Marseilles, and other Provencal ports, are sent
direct to the various markets of Europe.
V. ANACANTHINA.
This sub-order of spineless fish contains four families, of which two,
the Ammodytidcz and OphifKida, are destitute of ventral fins, and two,
the Gadidce and Pleuronectida, which have these organs placed in the
neighbourhood of the pectorals. Of the first family the best known
genus is that of Ammodytes ; here the body is elongated and serpent-
like, having a continuous fin extending along the greater part of the
back, with another at the opposite side, and a third or forked fin at
the end of the tail. The muzzle is also lo^g; the lower jaw longer
than the upper. The Sand-eel, A. lancea (Fig. 385), buries itself
in the sand ; hence it is called the sand-eel ; it hollows out a burrow
for itself in the sand with its muzzle to the depth of fifteen or twenty
inches, where it hunts out worms, on which it feeds, while it shelters
itself from the jaws of many voracious fishes, which eagerly pursue it
for its delicate flesh. In appearance the A. lancea is silvery blue,
brighter on the lower parts than on the upper, the radiating fins on
the abdomen being alternately white and bluish in colour.
The Pleuronectidce, or Flat-fishes, have the body flat and greatly
compressed. In the Rays the body is flattened horizontally, while in
the Pleuronectidae it is compressed laterally. The head of the fishes
of this order is not symmetrical ; the two eyes are placed on the same
side ; the two sides of the mouth are unequal,
To these peculiarities of structure we shall return when we come
to observe the several types more exactly. In rest, as in motion, the
flat-fishes are always turned upon their side, and the side turned
towards the bottom of the sea is that which has no eye. This habit
of swimming on their side is that to which they owe their name of
', side, and ve'x-ros, swimmers.
FISHES. 6O5
Their chief organ of natation is the caudal fin, but they are
distinguished from all other fishes by the manner in which they use
this oar. When turned upon their side this organ is not horizontal, but
vertical, and strikes the water vertically up and down. They advance
through the water but very slowly, compared to the motion of other
fishes. They ascend or descend in the water with great promptitude,
but they cannot turn to the right or left with the same facility as other
fishes. This property of rising or sinking in the water with facility is
the more useful to them, inasmuch as the greater part of their existence
is passed at the greatest depths, where they draw themselves along the
Fig- 385.— The Sand-eel (Ammodytes lancea).
sands at the bottom of the sea, and often hide themselves from their
enemies. Among the Phuroncctidce, soles, turbot, flounders, and
plaice may be noted.
The soles have the body oblong, the snout is round, nearly always
in advance of the mouth, which is twisted to the left side and furnished
with teeth on one side only, while the eyes are on the right side. The
dorsal fin commences about the mouth, and extends up to the caudal
or terminal fin. The Common Sole, Solca vulgar is (Fig. 386), is
plentiful in the Channel, along our coasts, and especially in the
Mediterranean. It is brown on the right and whitish on the opposite
side. Its pectoral fins are spotted black ; the scales rugged and
denticulate ; its size seems to vary according to the coast it frequents.
Off the mouth of the Seine soles are sometimes taken eighteen and
twenty inches in length. There are several modes of taking them,
6o6
THE OCEAN WORLD.
but for commercial purposes they are taken by the trawl-net When
the ground-hook is employed it is baited with fragments of small fish
Every one knows the delicate flavour of the flesh of the sole, which
however, varies greatly in different localities, those of the Channel
islands being particularly choice.
386. — The Common Sole (Solea vulgaris).
The Turbot, Rhombus maximus (Fig. 387), resembles in its general
form a lozenge, whence its name of rhombus. Its under jaw is more
advanced than the upper jaw, and is furnished with many rows of
small teeth. Its fins are yellow with brownish spots. The left side
is marbled brown and yellow ; the right side, which is the inferior,
white with brownish spots and points. The true turbot is the special
delight of the^ epicure, and fabulous sums are said to have been given
at different times by rich persons in order to secure a fine turbot.
FISHES.
607
The fish used to be taken largely on our own coasts, but now we have
to rely upon more distant fishing-grounds for a large portion of our
supply — large quantities coming from Holland. The turbot spawns
during the autumn, and is in fine condition during spring and early
summer. Mr. Yarrell says that it spawns in spring. Dr. Bertram
doubts this, although he is not quite sure of the contrary, inasmuch as
Fig. 387. — The Turbot (Rhombus maximus).
" there will, no doubt, be individuals of the turbot kind, as there are of
all other kinds of fish, that will spawn all the year round." The
turbot abounds on our west coast, round Torbay, and off the mouth
of the Seine and the Somme, from whence comes most of the fish
consumed in London and Paris.
The Flounders and Plaice (Platcssa) inhabit the northern seas ot
Europe. They have their eyes placed on the right side ; the dorsal
as well as the anal fin extending from over the eyes to the caudal fin,
6o8
THE OCEAN WORLD.
both stretching out to a point towards the centre, giving a rhombic
form to the fish. The jaws are furnished with a single row of obtuse
teeth.
The Common Plaice, P. vulgaris (Fig. 388), attains the length of
twelve or eighteen inches ; it is brown above, spotted with red or
orange. On the eye-side of the head are some osseous tubercles.
The body, which is somewhat lozenge-shaped, is smooth.
The Flounders (P. flesus] are fresh-water fishes of small size,
Fig.
. — The Common Plaice (Platessa vulgaris).
abundant in the Thames and many other rivers ; these flounders
and plaice are only second in importance to the soles and turbot
among the Pleuronectidae ; the numbers of brill, flounders, dab, and
plaice required being close upon a hundred million for the yearly
supply of London alone.
The usual mode of capturing flat-fish is by means of a trawl-net,
but many species of them may be caught with a hand-line. "A day's
sea-fishing," says Dr. Bertram, in his " Harvest of the Sea," " will
be chequered by many little adventures. There are various minor
monsters of the deep that will vary the monotony of the day by oc-
casionally devouring the bait. A tadpole fish, better known as the
sea-devil, or angler, may be hooked ; or a visit from a hammer-headed
FISHES.
609
shark, or a file-fish, will add greatly to the excitement ; and if the
: dogs ' should be at all plentiful, it is a chance if a single fish be got
out of the sea in its integrity. So voracious are these Squalidae, that
I have often enough pulled a mere skeleton into the boat, instead of
a plump cod often or twelve pounds weight."
The Dab, P. limanda (Fig. 389), is very common in the markets
Fig. 389. — The Dab (Platessa limanda).
of Paris, where it is held in great esteem. It takes its name Limanda
from the hard and dentate scales on its body. It has jaws fur-
nished with a single row of obtuse teeth ; the dorsal fin only extends
in front to a line with the eye, leaving an interval between it and the
caudal. The form of the body is rhomboidal, as in the turbot, and
the eyes are usually on the right side.
The Holibut, Hippoglossus vulgar is (Fig. 390), is a large fish,
inhabiting the seas of Northern Europe and Greenland, where it is
occasionally caught measuring seven feet, and weighing from 300
U
6io
THE OCEAN WORLD.
to 400 pounds. A fish of this species was brought to Edinburgh
market in April, 1828, measuring seven feet and a half in length
and three feet broad, weighing 320 pounds. The body of the
holibut is more elongated than that of the plaice or flounder, the
jaws and pharynx being armed with strong and pointed teeth.
F'ig. 390.— The Holibut (Hippoglossus vulgaris).
Great quantities of this fish are caught on the Greenland and
Norway coasts, and other northern regions. According to Lacepede,
the natives fish for this with an implement which they call gangnaed.
It is composed of a hempen cord 500 or 600 yards in length, to
which are attached some thirty smaller cords, each furnished with
a barbed hook at its extremity. The larger cord is attached to float-
ing planks, which act as trimmers, indicating the place of this for-
midable engine of destruction.
UK I.-.!*1! li: ffl'l'illli !." ;iii
The Greenlanders usually replace the hempen cords by thongs ol
whalebone or narrow bands of shark's skin. At the end of twenty
hours these lines are drawn home, and it is not at all unusual to find
five or six large holibuts caught on the hooks. PLATE XXVII.
represents the native mode of fishing for holibut in the Greenland
Seas.
Another mode of capturing this and other flat-fish is to speai
them on their sandy beds. " No rule can be laid down," says Dr.
Bertram, " for this method of fishing. It is carried on successfully
by means of a common pitchfork, but some gentlemen go the length
of fine spears made for the purpose, very long, and with very sharp
prongs. Others, again, use a three-pronged farmyard graip, which
has been known to do as much real work as more elaborate single
points contrived for the purpose. The simplest directions I can give
is just to spear every fish you see." M. Figuier adds, as a caution,
that before attacking these fishes, body to body, it is necessary to
wait till they are somewhat exhausted, otherwise they might overturn
both bark and fisherman.
The Greenlanders cut the animal up, and salt the pieces ; then
expose them to the air, in order to dry them, preparatory to a long
voyage.
In its fresh state the holibut is not very delicate, and is hard
and difficult of digestion ; however, its great size renders it a
valuable prize. We may add that, notwithstanding its large
dimensions, the holibut has deadly enemies in the dolphins, as
well as in the birds which prey upon fishes on the shore. It is
itself a voracious fish, devouring crabs, cod-fish, and even rays, not
even sparing its own species, for they sometimes attack each other,
nibbling at one another's tails or fins.
The Gadidae embrace the whole of the Linnsean genus Gadus.
They are found mostly in the seas of cold or temperate regions in
both hemispheres, and are the objects of pursuit for which the great
fisheries of Europe and America are established. They are known
by the position of the ventral fin under the throat, and by the pointed
character of these fins. The body is long and slightly compressed ;
the head well proportioned. Their fins are soft, and their scales are
small and soft. The jaws have unequal-pointed teeth of moderate
size, which are disposed in several rows. The gill-covers are large,
and consist of seven rays. Most of the species have the dorsal fin,
and two other unpaired fins besides, namely, a ventral and an anal
fin. The stomach is large and the intestine long. The air-bladder
large and strong, and in some cases notched on the margin. The
6 14 THE OCEAN WORLD.
flesh of most of the species yields white, healthy, and agreeable food,
easily separable into flakes when cooked, and easy of digestion. The
family includes the several genera : — Morrhua, to which belongs
the common cod-fish (M. vulgaris}, the haddock (M. aglefinus) ;
Merlangus, the whiting (M. vulgaris and M. albus] ; the coal-fish
(M. carbonarius) and the pollack (M. pollachius); Merlucdus, the hake
(M. vulgaris); Lota, the ling (L. molva) ; Motella, the rock ling
(M. vulgaris], and silver gade (M. argenteola); and other genera of
less importance.
The head of the cod (Morrhiia vulgaris} is compressed ; the eyes
placed on the side, close to each other, and veiled by a transparent,
membrane, a conformation which, according to Lacepede. enables the
animal to swim on the surface of the water in northern regions in
the midst of mountains of ice and under banks covered with snow,
without being dazzled by the brilliant light ; but this opinion is,
indeed, unsupported by any other naturalist of note.
The jaws of the cod-fish are unequal, and among the rows
of teeth with which it is armed many are mobile, and can be
hidden in their cavities, or raised, according to the will of the
animal. The dorsal fins are three in number, as represented in
Fig- 383 ; the anal fins are two ; pectoral fins narrow, and termi-
nating in a point ; the caudal fin slightly forked. Its colour is of
an ashy grey, spotted with yellow on the back; white and some-
times reddish beneath.
The cod-fish is provided with a vast stomach, and is very
voracious, feeding on fishes, crabs, and molluscs. * It is so gluttonous
and indiscriminating, that it will even swallow pieces of wood and
other similar objects. This is essentially a sea-fish : it is never seen
in fresh- water streams or rivers, remaining during the greater part of
the year in the depths of the sea. Its habitual sojourn is in the
portion of the Northern Ocean lying between the fortieth and sixty-
sixth degrees of latitude.
In the vast range thus frequented by the cod, two large spaces
are pointed out which it seems to prefer. The first extends to the
coast of Greenland, and the other is limited by Iceland, Norway, the
Danish coast, Germany, Holland, and the east and north coast of
Great Britain and the Orkney Isles, comprehending the Doggerbank,
Vellbank, and Cromer coast, together with salt-water lakes and arms
of the sea, such as the Gairloch, Portsoy, and the Moray Firth,
which indent the west coast of Scotland, and attract considerable
shoals of cod-fish.
The second range, less generally known, but more celebrated
FISHE.
among sailors, includes the coast of New England, Cape Breton,
Nova Scotia, and, above all, the island of Newfoundland, on the south
coast of which is the famous sand-bank called the Great Bank, having
a length of nearly 200 leagues, with a breadth of sixty-two, over
which flows from ten to fifteen fathoms of water. Here the cod-fish
swarm, for here they meet shoals of herrings and other animals, on
which they feed. Such is, according to Lacepede, the geographical
distribution of the cod-fish.
Fig. 391. — The Cod-fish (Morrhua vulgaris).
The English, French, Dutch, and Americans devote themselves
to the cod-fishery on the bank of Newfoundland with inconceivable
ardour. This island was discovered and visited by the Norwegians
in the tenth and eleventh centuries, long before the discovery of
America; but it was only in 1497, after the discoveries of Columbus,
that the navigator, John Cabot, having visited these regions, gave it
the name by which it has since been known, and called attention to
swarms of cod-fish which inhabited the surrounding sea. Immediately
after, the English and some other nations hastened to reap these
6l6 THE OCEAN WORLD.
fruitful fields of fish. In 1578 France sent 150 ships to the great
bank, Spain 125, Portugal 50, and England 40.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, England and her
colonies, with the French, cultivated the cod-fishery.
From 1823 to 1831 France sent 341 ships, with 7,685 men, which
carried into port over 50,000,000 pounds offish, an average of about
6,000,000 pounds annually. Two thousand English ships of various
sizes, manned by 30,000 seamen, are now employed in this important
branch of industry.
On the coast of Norway, from the frontiers of Russia to Cape
Lindesnges, the cod-fishery is an important branch of trade, in which
a maritime population of 20,000 fishermen are employed, with 5,000
boats.
The cod is taken either by net or line. The net is chiefly
employed at Newfoundland. The net used is rectangular, and
furnished with lead at the lower edge and cork buoys on the upper
edge. One of the extremities is fixed on the coast; the other is
carried seaward, following a curve taken by the boats, and the fish are
attracted by drawing upon both extremities of the net ; and by one
stroke many boat-loads are sometimes taken.
The modern cod-smack is clipper-built, with large wells for carry-
ing the fish alive, its cost being about ;£i,5oo. The crew usually
consists of ten to twelve men and boys, including the captain. The
line is also used for taking cod and haddocks. " Each man," says
Bertram, "has a line of fifty fathoms in length, and attached to each
ot these lines are a hundred * snoods/ with hooks already baited with
mussels, pieces of herring, or whiting. Each line is laid clear in a
shallow basket, and so arranged as to run freely as the boat shoots
ahead. The fifty-fathom line with a hundred hooks is in Scotland
called a ' taes.' If there are eight men in a boat, the length of the
line will be 400 fathoms, with 800 hooks, the lines being tied to each
other before setting. On arriving at the fishing-ground, the fishermen
heave overboard a cork buoy, with a flagstaff about six feet in height
attached' to it. This buoy is kept stationary by a line, called the ' pow
end/ reaching to the bottom of the water, where it is held by a stone
or grapnel fastened to the lower end. To the ' pow end ; is also
fastened the fishing-line, which is then paid out as fast as the boat
sails, which may be from four to five knots an hour. Should the
wind be unfavourable for the direction in which the crew wish to set
the line, they use the oars. When the line or * taes ' is all out, the
end is dropped and the boat returns to the buoy. The ' pow ; line is
hauled up with the anchor and fishing-line attached to it. The
FISHES.
fishermen then haul in the line, with the fish attached to it. Eight
hundred fish might be, and often have been, taken by eight men in a
few hours by this operation ; but many fishermen say now that they
consider themselves fortunate when they get a fish on every fifth
hook on an eight-lined ' taes '-line."
Hungry cod-fish will seize almost any kind of bait, and this is used
either fresh or salted. The fresh bait is furnished by the herring,
whiting, and capelan, a little fish which in the spring descends from
the North Sea in shoals, pursued by the cod-fish. In the terror
caused by the innumerable bands of their enemies, the capelans
spread themselves in all the seas round Newfoundland in masses so
thick that the waves throw them ashore, and they accumulate
occasionally in heaps upon the sandy beach.
The principal fishery for capelan intended for bait takes place on
the coast of Newfoundland. The inhabitants of these regions carry
their booty to the fishermen who make Saint-Pierre their rendezvous,
with whom they find ready purchasers.
The schooners, with a fair provision of bait, leave Saint-Pierre and
other ports, take a north-easterly direction towards the great bank,
and, having chosen their fishing-ground, cast anchor in fifty or sixty
fathoms, and forthwith the crews give their sole attention to the
work ; some of them watch the lines, which are raised every instant,
the captured fish removed, and the hooks re-baited; others subject the
captured fishes to a first preparation for preserving them ; they are
opened, the entrails removed, and the fish split in two, and piled one
on the other, and covered with salt. This labour goes on as long as
the fishing lasts. The sailor is on deck night and day, covered with
oil and blood, and surrounded with all sorts of offal and fish-like
smells. But this alone is insufficient. Boats manned by crews of
two or three sailors, are continually moving about, attending to the
more distant lines, or " taes," which radiate round the ship in all
directions.
One portion of the cod caught is dispatched to Europe in a fresh
state, without other preparation than the salting which they receive
on the deck of the schooner. But much the greater portion are
carried on shore and subjected to further preparation. Saint-Pierre
and Miquelon Islands, which are granted to the French fishermen on
condition that no fortifications are erected on them, are resorted to for
the purpose by the French fleet; St. John's, the capital, by the
English. The Comte de Gobineau gives an animated picture of the
whole process of curing the cod-fish in the " Tour du Monde for
1863." " The French houses which pursue this branch of trade," he
6l8 . THE OCEAN WORLD.
says, "belong principally to the ports of Granville and St. Brieuc; and
the crews of their ships consist of two very distinct elements ; the
smaller portion being specially raised among the fishermen properly
so called, they form the aristocracy on board ; to these are added a
larger number of mere labourers, who are landed on the arrival of the
vessel at her port. Their functions are limited to receiving the fish
from the boats, opening it, washing off the glutinous matter in the
chauffant, putting the liver apart, and laying out the split fish between
the layers of salt ; finally, subjecting it to the different phases of the
drying process on the strand.
"The chauffant is a shed raised upon piles, standing one half in
the water and one half on shore ; it is constructed of planks and
posts, through which the air is suffered to circulate freely, but covered
in with some of the ship's sails. Here the process of separating the
intestines from the body of the fish and the salting process are
carried on, in the midst of an atmosphere charged with all manner ot
disgusting smells, for the labourer is by no means delicate, and never
thinks of removing the disgusting impurities which he is creating.
There he stands, knife in hand, tearing and cutting out intestines and
separating vertebrae, his only care being to avoid cutting himself —
which is the chief danger he runs — in the midst of odours sufficient to
produce suffocation.
" Connected with the platform on which this rough operation is
performed is a cauldron, sunk in the earth, to receive the oil pressed
out of the liver. This cauldron is surmounted by a roof some nine
feet in height, in the fo~m of an inverted cone. Here the oil which
flows from the open way above is suffered to remain, after which it is
drawn off into casks.
"The drying sheds, formerly of wood, are now constructed of
stone, and in places well exposed to the sun, and especially to the
wind. The sun, it is said, does not dry, but scorches ; the wind, on
the other hand, marvellously fulfils the purpose, and in order to
avoid the one and court the other, an apparatus has been invented,
consisting of long movable branches, which can be inclined so as to
bring the wind directly upon the row of cod, in connection with the
sun's rays, which are, indeed, not very formidable in this foggy
region."
The cod-fish thus dried at Newfoundland are forwarded for con-
sumption to all parts of the world ; but only a small part of the
products of the fishery are thus prepared. More than half the pro-
duce of the French fleet are sent to France merely salted, by ships
which carry salt, bringing back fish in return to Rochelle, Bordeaux,
FISHES. 619
and Cette, where the process of curing is completed. In our home
fisheries, to abbreviate slightly Dr. Bertram's account, the greater
part of the cod taken are eaten fresh, but considerable quantities of
the cod and ling taken on the coast are sent to market cured. The
process pursued is very simple : they are brought on shore quite fresh,
and are at once split from head to tail, and, by copious washings,
thoroughly cleansed from all particles of blood ; a piece of the back-
bone is cut away ; they are drained, and afterwards laid down in long
vats, where they are covered with salt, and kept under heavy weights.
By-and-bye the fish are taken out of the vats ; they are once more
drained, and carefully brushed, to remove any impurity, and bleached
by being spread out singly on the sandy beach or on the rocks ,
when thoroughly bleached, they are collected into heaps technically
called steeples, and when the bloom, or whitish appearance, comes out
on the fish they are ready for the market.
The cod is one of our best-known fishes, and was at one time
much more plentiful and cheaper than it is now. It is a deep-water
fish, found, as we have seen, in all northern seas, and in the Atlantic,
but never in the Mediterranean. It is extremely voracious, greedily
eating up the smaller denizens of the ocean. It grows to a large
size, and is very prolific, as most fishes are. A cod's roe has been
found more than once to be half the gross weight of the fish, and
specimens of the female cod have been caught with upwards of
8,000,000 eggs. The fish spawn in mid-winter; but here our in-
formation ceases ; when it becomes reproductive is unknown. Dr.
Bertram thinks that it is at least three years old before it is endowed
with the power of breeding.
The growth of the cod is supposed to be very slow. Dr. Bertram
quotes the authority of a rather learned fisherman of Buckie, who had
seen a cod which had got enclosed in a large rock pool, and he found
that it did not grow at a greater rate than eight to twelve ounces per
annum, though it had abundance of food.
On our own coast two modes of fishing are in common use : one
by deep-sea lines, on each of which hooks are fastened at distances
twelve feet apart by means of short lines six feet long, called on the
Cornish coast " snoods." Buoys, ropes, or grapnels, are fixed to
each end of the long line, to keep them from entanglement with each
other. The hooks are baited with capelan, lance, or whelks, and the
lines are shot across the tide about the time of slack water, in from
forty to fifty fathoms, and are hauled in for examination after six hours.
An improvement has been introduced upon this mode of fishing
by Mr. Cobb. He fixes a small piece of cork about twelve inches
62O
THE OCEAN WORLD.
above the hook, which suspends the bait and exhibits it more clearly
to the fish by the motion of the wave. The fishermen, when not
engaged in hauling, shooting, or baiting the long lines, fish with
hand-lines, holding one in each hand, each armed with two hooks,
kept apart by a strong piece of wire. A heavy weight attached to
the lower end of each line keeps it steady near the ground, where the
fish principally feed. Enormous quantities of cod, haddock, whiting,
and coal-fish, with pollack, hake, ling, and torsk, are taken in this
way all round our coast. Of cod-fish alone 400 to 550 have been
Fig. 392. —The Whiting (Merlangus vulgaris).
taken in ten hours by one man, and eight men have taken eighty
score of cod in one day, fishing off the Doggerbank in five-and-twenty
fathoms water. Latterly the Norfolk and Lincoln, and even the
Essex coasts, have yielded a large supply of fish, which are caught
as described, and are stowed in well-boats, in which they are car-
ried to Gravesend, whence they are transhipped into market boats,
and sent up to Billingsgate by each evening tide • the store-boats
not being allowed to come up higher, as the fresh water would kill
the fish.
The Haddock (Morrhua ceglefinus] is common in our markets ; it
is much smaller than the cod, but in other respects not unlike it. It
FISHES. 621
frequents the same localities, and is caught with long lines baited
usually with mussels ; the old fish keep close in shore, and are only
got with herring bait. In the village of Findhorn, Morayshire, large
numbers of haddocks are dried and smoked with fumes of hard wood
and sawdust. Hence the term "Finnan haddies," an article in such
request at a Scottish breakfast. The village of Findhorn affords a
very small portion of the haddocks sold as such, but the true " Fin-
nans " are supposed to have the finest flavour.
The Whiting, Merlangus vulgaris (Fig. 392), by some amateurs
considered the most delicate of all the Gadidae, is plentiful all round
our coast. It spawns in March, and the eggs are quickly hatched. It
prefers a sandy shore, and is usually found some miles from the coast.
It is a small fish, rarely exceeding twelve inches long, and seldom
reaching two pounds in weight. The whiting is long in the body,
clothed with very small, thin, and round scales ; its dorsal fins are,
like the cod's, three in number ; it is without barbels ; its upper jaw
projects over the lower ; it is of a silvery white, sometimes relieved
by an olive tint, which is contrasted upon the back by the blackish
tint which distinguishes the pectoral and caudal fins, and by a black
spot which some individuals have at the junction of the pectorals with
the body.
The whiting inhabits the seas which wash the whole European
coast, often approaching the shore in shoals, and are taken annually
in great numbers.
V I. — ACANTHOPTERYGEA.
The number of fishes belonging to this sub-order, which may be
regarded as the most typical of the class, is exceedingly great. The
families are also, as might be expected, very numerous. The first of
these we will mention is the Aulostomida, in which the bones of the
face are drawn out into a longish tube at the end of which is the
small mouth. Of this family, Fistularia tabacaria (Fig. 393) may be
considered the type. The tube of the muzzle is long and flat, and
from the caudal fin springs a terminal filament nearly as long as the
body. This species of pipe-fish is common at the Antilles ; it
attains the length of about three feet, but its flesh is leathery and
insipid. It feeds upon crustaceans and small fishes, which it drags
from the interstices of the rocks and stones by means of its long and
taper snout.
The Trachinida, known in England as the Weevers, form
another family. They are characterised by their very compressed
head and the strong spines of the operculum. They are elongated
622
THE OCEAN WORLD.
in shape, with short muzzles; they have a habit of burying themselves
in the sand, and are formidable to fishermen, from the dangerous
wounds they inflict with their spines. Trachinus communis (Fig. 394)
is widely diffused in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Another
genus, Uranoscopns, is so named from the position of the eyes, which
are directed towards the sky, from otyai/bs, the heavens, and .
times found eight and nine feet in length, and weighing 300 to 400
pounds. The upper part of the body is a bluish-black ; the belly is
grey, with silvery spots. These fishes sometimes present themselves
in the Atlantic, but in the Mediterranean they are very abundant.
At some periods of the year they approach the coast in innumerable
shoals, and in numerous serried ranks, forming a vast battalion, which
conceals itself under the waves, and only betrays itself on the exterior
by the motion of the sea, caused by such vast numbers travelling
rapidly through the water. In many localities the shoals of tunnies
show themselves in the spring, pursuing their way towards the sea;
and in the autumn we find them pursuing an opposite direction. We
see the same thing on the coast of Provence. Upon the coast of La
Ciotat a first fishing takes place from the months of March to July,
and a second again from July to October. But at other points of the
coast they arrive at the same time from very different directions \
nevertheless, in some places they are only winter visitors.
The tunny-fishing goes back to the remotest antiquity. The
Phoenicians, the first navigators known, carried it on on the coast of
Spain. In our days the fishing is carried on with great activity on
the coasts of Provence, of Sardinia, and Sicily.
The fishing is generally carried on by the tunny-net, but in
Provence it is conducted in an enclosed pace called the madragne.
The tunny-net consists of a combination of nets, which is quickly
cast into the sea in order to head the tunnies at the moment of their
passage. When the sentinels, posted for the purpose, as in the pil-
chard fishery, have signalled the approach of a shoal of tunnies, and
its direction, by the indications of a flag which points to the spot
occupied by the finny tribe, the fishing-boats are immediately directed
to the designated spot, and ranged in curved lines, forming with the
light floating net a half circular enclosure, turned towards the shore,
the interior of which is called the garden. The tunnies thus enclosed
in this garden, between the coast and the net, become agitated with
terror. As they advance towards the shore they press upon the en-
closure, or rather a new interior enclosure is formed with other nets
held in reserve. In this second enclosure an opening is left, through
which the tunnies have to pass. In continuing thus to diminish the
space by successive enclosures, each occupies a smaller diameter, in
which the fish are enclosed in about a fathom and a half of water.
At this moment a species of seine-net is thrown into the garden. This
net is hauled into shallow water by the fishermen, and the small
tunnies are taken by the hand, the larger by hooks. The boats are
filled with them, and they are carried ashore. A single day's fishing
FISHES. 633
will sometimes produce as many as 16,000 tunnies, each from twenty
to twenty-five pounds weight.
When the park, in place of being established for a single fishery,
is a permanent construction in the sea, it is called, in Provence, a
"madrague." The madragueis a vast enclosure. The netting which
forms the partitions of its chambers are sustained by buoys of cork
on the surface, and kept down by heavy stones and other weights on
the lower edge, and maintained in this position by cords, one ex-
tremity of which is attached to the net, and the other is moored to
an anchor. The madrague is intended to arrest the shoals of tunnies
at the moment when they abandon the shore in order to return to
the open sea. For this purpose a long alley or run is established
between the sea-shore and the park or madrague. The tunnies follow
this alley, and, after passing from chamber to chamber, betake them-
selves at last to the body of the park.
In order to force them into the madrague they are pressed towards
the shore by means of a long net, which is extended in their rear
attached to two boats, each of which sustains one of the upper
angles of the net. When the fishes come to the last compartment,
the fishermen raise a horizontal net, which makes a sort of false bottom
to this compartment, by which the fishes are gradually raised to the
surface of the water. This operation occupies the whole night
In the morning the tunnies are collected in a very narrow space,
and at varying distances from the shore ; and now the carnage com-
mences. The unhappy creatures are struck with long poles, boat-
hooks, and other weapons. The tunny-fishing presents a very sad
spectacle at this its last stage ; fine large fish perish under the blows
of a multitude of fishermen, who pursue their bloody task with most
dramatic effect. The sight of the poor creatures, some of them
wounded and half dead, trying in vain to struggle with their ferocious
assailants, is very painful to see. The sea, red with blood, long
preserves traces of this frightful carnage, of which an illustration is
attempted in PLATE XXIX.
The flesh of the tunny is much esteemed, being firm and whole-
some. It is called the salmon of Provence. " For our part," says
M. Figuier, " we put it far above the salmon. Nothing is comparable
to the fresh tunny thrown into a hot frying pan, and sprinkled with
vinegar and salt. When properly cooked, nothing can be more firm
or savoury. In short, nothing of the kind can rival, or even be com-
pared, with the tunny, as we find it at Marseilles and Cette.;'
The tunny is greatly celebrated among the Greeks and other in-
habitants on the chores of the Mediterranean, of the Propontus, and
634
THE OCEAN WORLD.
the Black Sea. The Romans Attached great value to certain parts of
this fish, as the head and the lower part of the belly. The neigh-
bouring parts were in little esteem with them. They cut them into
pieces and preserved them in vases filled with salt. They are now
preserved with oil and salt, before being cooked ; this preparation is
in great request at Cette, Montpellier, and Marseilles. With a pot of
marine tunny, preserved in the vinegar of Lunel, a household is
pretty well prepared for any event.
The Bonita (Ihynnus pdamys) is not unlike the mackerel in
shape, but less compressed, and upwards of twenty-five to thirty
Fig. 398.— The Mackerel (.Scomber scombrus).
inches long • it is a fish of considerable size, celebrated by its pursuit
in great shoals of the flying-fish (Exoccetas volitans]. It is occasionally
found on our coast, but only as an accidental visitor, for its true
home is the Tropics. It is a beautiful fish of a fine blue colour, with
short pectoral fins and four longitudinal bands on each side of the
belly. It is easily harpooned from the dolphin-striker, and appears
to have some power of generating electricity. Any one grasping the
living fish is violently shaken as in palsy, so much so that the most
resolute son of Neptune cannot control his speech ; every attempt
culminates in an unintelligible spasmodic sputter. The instant
the Bonita is dropped, the muscles resume their ordinary action.
The Mackerel (Scomber scombrus] Fig. 398, is too well known to
require minute description. Who has not admired these fishes, with
their steel-blue back, and changing iridescent sides of gold and
FISHES. 635
purple and green, relieved by fine waving lines of deeper black, as
they appear on the market-stalls, or as they are emptied in the early
morning from the fishing-boat ? The head is blue above, with black
markings, the rest of the body being heightened with iridescent
shades of gold and purple.
The mackerel is common to all European seas : being the Veirat
of the Bay of Languedoc ; the Aurion of Provence ; the Bretal in
some parts of Brittany ; the Macarello of the modern Romans ; the
Scombro of the Venetians ; the Lacesto of the Neapolitans ; the
Cavallo of the Spaniards ; the well-known Mackerel of our own
shores, and the Makril of the Swedes ; it is found on the coast of
North America, and as far south as the Canary Islands. It is a
wandering, unsettled fish, supposed to be migratory, but individuals
are always found on our coast. They are supposed to remain during
the winter in the North Sea, and afterwards on the coast of Scotland
and Ireland in January and February, on their way to the Atlantic.
Here their great army is divided into two : one branch passes along
the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, while the other enters the
Channel. In May they appear on the coasts of England and France ;
in June they reach Holland ; in July one portion of them returns
to the Baltic, while another skirts the coast of Norway on its way to
winter quarters.
. Lacepede believed that this migration, which is so regular, and
its stages so rigorously indicated, was irreconcilable with a great
number of very precise observations ; and he arrived at the conclu-
sion that the mackerel passes the winter at the bottom of the sea, more
or less remote from the coast, which they again approach in the
spring. At the commencement of the fine season they advance
towards the shore which best agreed with them, showing themselves
often on the surface ; like the tunny, traversing the sea in courses
more or less direct or sinuous, but never following the periodical
circle which has been so ingeniously traced out for them.
M. Milne-Edwards also remarks that, if these legions of fishes
ascend from the Polar seas, they ought to visit the Orkneys before
they appeared in the Channel, and enter the Mediterranean later in
the season ; but he is assured that they appear at the Orkneys late
in the season. It appears, also, that there are different varieties
which haunt the several neighbourhoods in which they abound.
The largest mackerel are taken at the entrance of the Channel,
but they are considered less delicate than the smaller fishes. The
shoals of mackerel, it appears, never enter the Gulf of Gascony, but
they abound along the shores of Brittany up to the North Sea. It is
636 THE OCEAN WO&Lb.
about the month of April that they begin to be met with, but they
are then still small and without milt or roe. In the months of June
and July the fish is in its most perfect state. Towards the end of
September and October mackerel of the same year's hatching are
taken ; finally, in November and December, the fishermen still fish
them, and send them to market, but this is an irregularity ; and the
fishermen of Lowestoft and Yarmouth take their great harvest in
May and June ; in the Frith of Forth, and on the north coast of
Scotland, at a few weeks later.
As mackerel are very voracious, they greedily devour all sorts of
bait, but they are chiefly taken by the drift-net. The drift-net is
twenty feet deep and 120 feet long, well buoyed at the tipper edge,
but without weights at the bottom. The meshes, made of fine twine
tarred to a reddish colour for preservation, are calculated to admit
the head of the fish and catch it by the gill-covers so as to prevent
its withdrawal, A fleet of mackerel-boats dragging these large nets,
which are extended vertically in the sea, or float between the two
tides, is well represented in PLATE XXX.
The flesh of the mackerel is fat and high flavoured. Among the
ancients a liquid was extracted from this fat called garum, which was
considered a very nourishing preparation. The price of this liquid
was very high ; in modern measures it was valued at about sixteen
shillings the pint. It was acrid, half putrefied, and very nauseous,
but it had the property of rousing the appetite and stimulating the
digestive organs. Garum played the part of a condiment at a period
when the exciting array of Indian spices was unknown. Seneca
charges it, as we do pepper and other hot spices taken in excess,
with destroying the stomach and health of gourmands. This garum
is spoken of by the traveller Pierre Belon, writing in the sixteenth
century, as being held in great estimation at Constantinople in his
time. Rondelet, the author of a very remarkable book published in
1554, who ate garum at the table of William Pellicier, Bishop of
Maguelonne, thought he could trace the liquid not to the mackerel,
but to one of the Sparoids (Sparus smarts).
The mackerel possesses phosphorescent properties, which cause it
to shine in the dark, especially after death, when decomposition has
commenced.
The mackerel is not only voracious, but, in spite of its small size,
it has the hardihood to attack fishes much larger and much stronger
than itself. It is even said that they love human flesh. According
to the naturalist bishop, Pontoppidan, who lived in the sixteenth
century, a sailor belonging to a vessel which had cast anchor in one
FJSHES.
639
of the Norwegian ports, when bathing one day in the sea, was assailed
by a shoal of mackerel. His companions came to his relief; the
eager band were repulsed with great difficulty, but not till it was too
late : the unfortunate sailor was so exhausted that he died a few
hours after. By a natural law of compensation the ubiquitous
mackerel is surrounded by numerous enemies ; the larger inhabitants
of the ocean eagerly devour them. Certain fishes, in appearance
very weak, such as the Munena, fight them with great advantage.
Fig. 399.— The Sword-fish (Xiphias gladius).
The family Xiphiidc?, contains the Sword-fish, Xiphias gladius
(Fig. 399), so called from the upper jaw being elongated into a
formidable spear or sword. It was known to the ancients, and
has borne the name which recalls its salient characteristic from
very early times. It is recognised at a glance irom its peculiar
appearance, and from the resemblance of its prolonged horizontal
and trenchant snout to the blade of a sword. With the ancients it
was Edicts, and Gladius ; with the moderns it is the Sword-fish the
Dart, the Spece spada, and f Espadon epee.
640
THE OCEAN WOtiLD.
This fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean
and Atlantic, in company with the tunny, from five to six feet in
length. Its body is lengthy, and covered with minute scales, the
sword forming three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a
single long dorsal fin ; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the
mouth toothless, the upper part of the fish bluish-black, merging into
Fig. 400. — Fishing for Sword-fish in the Straits of Messina.
silver beneath. It seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards
and against all the weapon with which Nature has furnished it ; it
darts with the utmost fury upon the most formidable moving bodies ;
it attacks the whale ; and there are numerous and well-authenticated
instances of ships being perforated by the weapon of this powerful
creature.
In 1 7 25, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom
of a ship which had just returned from the tropical seas, found the
snout of a sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They
FISHES.
641
declared that, to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and
form to the same depth, would require eight or nine blows with a
hammer weighing thirty pounds. From the position of the weapon
it was evident that the fish had followed the ship while under full
sail ; it had penetrated through the metal sheathing, and three inches
and a half beyond, into the solid frame.
The sword-fish has obstinate combats with the saw-fish, and even
the shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a
vessel he takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy.
The flesh of the young sword-fish is white, compact, and of ex-
cellent taste ; that of adults resembles the tunny. It is the object of
Fig. 401.— The Sea-Snail (Liparis barbatus).
a fishery of some importance in the Straits of Messina. The fisher-
men of Messina and Reggio join in this fishery with a great number
of boats, carrying brilliant flambeaux, while one of the crew is
stationed at the mast-head to announce the approach of the sword-
fish. At a given signal the boats rush on to attack them with the
harpoons (Fig. 400). During this fishery the sailors sing a peculiar
melody without words.
In the family of Gobiodeae there is a section which consists of a
small number of species characterised by their ventral fins being
formed into a disc with all the rays undivided, as in the sea-snails
(Liparis), in which the lengthened body has but one long dorsal
fin ; the pectoral and ventrals forming a disc, as in Z. barbatus (Fig.
401), or the Suckers (Lepidogaster\ where the pectorals and ventrals
€>42 THE OCEAN WORLD.
form two discs. In the Lump-fish, Cydopterus htmpus (Fig. 402),
the disc formed by the ventrals forms a sort of sucker, by which the
fish attaches itself to the rocks ; while the genus Echineis is remark-
able for having on its head a disc-like sucker, which, according to
M. Blainville, is an anterior dorsal fin strangely metamorphosed.
Fig. 402.— The Lump-fish (Cyclopterus lumpus).
The Echineis remora is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, and
abounds in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It is furnished with a
flat disc, which covers its head, as represented in Fig. 403, which is
formed of a number of transverse and movable cartilaginous plates.
Aided by this organ, it attaches itself firmly to rocks, and even to
ships and larger fishes, such as the Dog-fish (Acanthius), which it
meets with in its wanderings. Its adhesion to those objects is so
strong that the strength of a man fails to separate them. It invari-
FISHES. 643
ably attaches itself to the dorsum and flank of the shark, and some-
times weighs a pound and a quarter. " I have found," writes a friend,
" as many as seven on one shark." It is never solitary, and makes
long voyages on this monstrous animal locomotive, and that without
fatigue or danger, for its enemies are kept at a distance by the for-
midable monster which carries it.
The family of Lophiidce. are particularly distinguished by having
the carpal bones very long, forming a sort of arm at the extremity of
which are the pectoral fins ; it includes the fishing Frog (Lophius
piscatorius), Fig. 404, remarkable for the excessive circumference of
Fig. 403. — Echineis remora.
the head and shoulders as compared with the rest of the body, the
immense opening of its jaws, armed with pointed teeth, and the
cutaneous jagged stripes of various lengths with which it bristles at
many points. Its skin is soft, smooth, and without scales or other
asperities ; the carpal bones support the pectorals, and its shape and
other peculiarities combine to render it a hideous and forbidding
object, well calculated in ignorant and superstitious times to frighten
the multitude. The remains of this fish, prepared in such a manner
as to be transparent, and rendered luminous by a lamp enclosed in
its interior, has often helped to deceive and frighten the timid by its
fantastic appearance.
The Fishing-Frog, Lophius piscatorius, Linn. (Fig. 404), often
attains the length of four or five feet, lives in the sand, or sunk in the
mud, leaving the long and movable filaments with which the head is
644
THE OCEAN WORLD.
furnished to float in the water ; the shreds which terminate them act
as natural bait when they float about in different directions, from their
resemblance to worms and other marine creatures. The fishes which
swim above them, and which they see very well by the assistance of
their two eyes placed on the summit of the head, are attracted by
these deceitful decoys. When the prey arrives near to the enormous
Fig. 404.— The Frog-fish (Lophius piscatorius).
jaws, which are almost always wide open, it is engulfed and torn to
pieces by the strongly-hooked teeth.
This manner of lying in ambush, and fishing, as it were, with a
hook and line for fishes which its conformation may not permit it to
pursue, has acquired for it the name of the fishing-frog, which is some-
times given to it. It is found more or less in all parts of the Mediter-
ranean and in many parts of the Atlantic, being frequently taken both
in the Gulf of Gascony and around the British coast.
We close our abbreviated history of the Ocean and such of the
inhabitants with which it swarms as seems most likely, from their
FISHES. 645
habits and other peculiarities, to interest the reader, conscious of its
many imperfections. Where every creature which moves and breathes
in the watery world is so full of interest, it will not surprise the reader
to learn that one of the writer's chief difficulties has been that of
selection, his most painful task that of rejecting the vast mass of
interesting matter he had necessarily to pass in review.
We have shown in the first chapter of this work that nearly three-
fourths of the surface of the earth is bathed by the sea. Struck with
this vast extent of ocean, a witty French writer says, " One is almost
tempted to believe that our planet was specially created for fishes."
They are, indeed, a very important part of creation ; they form, as it
were, a bond uniting the vertebrate to invertebrate animals. They
nave a more complicated organisation than any of the other oceanic
inhabitants (except the Cetacea), as they are also the most numerous,
the most varied in form, and by far the most brilliant in colour, and
the most active in their movements.
Pliny, the naturalist, describes ninety-four species of fishes. Lin-
naeus has characterised 478. The naturalists of the present day know
upwards of 13,000, a tenth of which are fresh-water fishes.
647
INDEX.
THE ITALICS ARE ILLUSTRATIONS
Acalephoe, or Sea Nettles, 163.
Acanthopterygea, 621.
Acclimatising sponges, 73.
Acephalous Mollusca, 316.
Achatina zebra, 427.
Achatina zebra, 427.
Acrocladia mammiliata, 275, 277.
Actinidae, 203.
Actinia dianthus, 2 1 1.
sEquorea violacea, 157.
^quorea violacea, 163.
Agalma rubra, 135. Its graceful appear-
ance, ib. Its structure, ib.
Alcyonaria, 218.
Alcyonium digitatum, 240.
Allice Shad, 598.
Alternation of generation, 169, 315.
Alveolina ovoidea, 82.
Alveolina ovoidea, 85.
Ambulacral appendages, 256.
Ammodytes lancea, 604.
Amoeba diffluens, 77.
,, princeps, 78.
Amoeba diffluens, 78.
„ princeps, 78.
Anabas scandens, 629.
Analysis of sea water, 14, 16, 17, 18.
Anatomy of fishes, 527.
Anchovy (Engraulis), 603.
Antarctic Ocean, 3. Discoveries, 46.
Antipathidae, 172.
Apiocrinus rotundus, 264.
Aplysia depilans, 41 1.
Aplysia depilans , 412.
„ inca, 412.
„ ,, shell of, 412.
Apolemia contorta, 128.
Apolemia contorta, 131, 132.
Aporous Madrepores, 173,
Aquarium, the, 59.
Arctic Ocean, 2, 40.
Argonauta, fables concerning it, 493.
Aristotle's description, 494. Oppian's
description, ib. His mistakes, ib.
Rumphius, 495. Real history, 496.
Madame Power's experiments, 497.
Locomotive organs, ib.
Argonauta argo, 495, 496.
,, papyracea, 498.
Argonauta argo, 498.
papyracea, 498.
Aristotle's Lantern, 279.
Ascidia microcosmus, 309.
,, pedunculata, 310.
Ascidia microcosmus, 309.
,, pedunculata, 310.
Ascidians, simple, social, and compo-
site, 309.
Aspergillum vaginiferum, 332.
Aspergillum vaginiferum, 332.
Asteracanthion glacialis, 258.
Asterias attrantiaca, 256.
,, rubens, 255.
Asterias aurantiaca, 256.
„ rubens, 255.
Asterophyton verrucosum, 2J2.
Asterophyton verrucosum, 272.
Astreopora punctifera, 188.
Astreopora punctifera, 180.
Atlantic Ocean, 2.
Atlantic Ocean, Chart of, 6.
,, ,, Section of, 8.
Atmospheric currents, 27.
Atolls, 1.91.
648
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Aurelia aurita, 160.
Bacterium termo, 98.
Bacterium termo, 99.
Baffin's Bay discovered, 41.
Baltic Sea, 6.
Barrier Reefs, 197.
Beale's Ad venture with a Cuttle-fish, 479.
Behring's Straits, 41.
Beroe. Forskalii, 249.
Beroe Forskalii, 248.
Berthelot's capture of a Cephalopod,489.
Birth of coralline larva, 233.
Bivalve mollusca, 316.
Blue Minyad, 216.
Bonitas, 634.
Bonpland's account of the Electrical
Eel, 572.
Boring Pholades, 327.
Botrillus, 310.
Bream, teeth of, 531.
Breathing in Molluscs, 374, 409, 477.
Brachiopoda, 407.
Brooke's Sounding Apparatus, 5.
Brookes Sounding Apparatus, 5.
Buccinum senticosum and B. undatum,
457-
Buccinum senticosum, 457.
,, tindatum, 457.
Bulimus sultanus, 426.
Bulimus sultanus, 426.
Bulla ampulla, B. oblonga, and B. nebu-
losa, 412.
Bulla ampulla, 412.
,, aspersa, 413.
,, nebjilosa, 413*
,, oblonga, 413.
Cabot's Discoveries, 41.
Calcarina calcitrapoides, Si.
Callianiridas, 252.
Calmar, the, 483.
Campanularinse, 126.
Cape of Good Hope, height of waves off
the, 39.
Carcharius vulgaris (the Shark), 543.
Its description, ib. Destructive
habits, 545. Immense power, ib. Its
flesh coarse, 549. Superstitious de-
votions to, ib.
Cardium hians and C. groenlandicum,
342.
Cardium aculeatum, C. edulis, and C.
costatum, 343.
Cardium acideatum, 343.
,, costatum, 344.
„ edulis, 343*.
,, groenlandicum, 342.
,, hians, 342.
Carnivorous Cephalopods, 482.
Carp, anatomy of, 529.
,, swimming bladder of, 528.
,, teeth of ,$$\.
Cartilaginous fishes, 535.
Caryophillia cyathus, 1 76.
Caryophilla cyathus, 176.
Cassidulina Icevigata, 84.
Cassidulina Isevigata, 85 ,
Cassiopea Andromeda, 165.
Cassiopea Andromeda, 166.
Cassis canaliculata, 454,
,, glauca, 454.
,, madagascariensis, 454.
,, rufa, 454.
,, zebra, 456.
Cassis glauca, C. rufa, C. canaliculata,
and C. madagascariensis, 453.
Cephalopodous Mollusca, 470.
Cephalous Mollusca, 409.
Cephea cyclophora, 167.
Cerithium aluco, 439.
,, fasciatum, 439.
,, giganteum, 439.
Cerithium fasciatum, C. aluco, and
C. giganteum, 437.
Cestidse, 252.
Cestiumveneris, 251.
Cethurnia Pyxidiformis, IO2.
Chart of the Atlantic, 6.
Charybdis, whirlpool of, 39.
Chimsera monstrosa, 535.
Chimcsra monstrosa, 536.
Chiton magnificus, 428.
Chiton magnificus, 429.
Chrysaora Gaudichaudi, 162.
Chrysaora Gaudichaudi, 163.
Ciliate Infusoria, 102.
Cirrhotheutis Mulleri, 493.
Cirrhotheutis Mulleri, 493.
Cleodora cuspidata, 469.
,, lanceolata and C. compressa.
469.
Cleodora compressa, 469.
,, cuspidata, 469.
INDEX.
649
'Cleodora lanceolata, 469.
Clupead», 588.
Chipea alosa, 598.
Clypeaster rosaceus, 279.
Clypea rosaceus, 281.
Clypeaster rosaceus, 280.
Cocos Island, 192, 195.
Cod curing, 617.
„ fish (Morrhua vulgaris), 614.
, fisheries, 615.
Cod-fish, the, 615.
•Coffre-fish (Ostracion), 561.
•Colour of the sea, 10. Local causes
of, ib. Effects of animalcules, ib.
Algse, II.
Comatula, 267.
,, mediterranea, 268.
Comatula mediterranea, 268.
Condylostoma patens, 104.
Conger (common}, the, 578.
•Conger Eels (Anguilla conger), 578.
Conus, principal forms of, 449.
Cook's discoveries, 46.
Coral, apparatus for nutritive fluids in,
231.
larva, birth of, 233.
polyp, 229, 234, 235.
section of a branch of, 232.
spicules, 230.
Co al, precious, 225.
fisheries, 236.
islands, 190.
precious, spicula, 230.
Cornularia cornucopia, 244.
Corystes Cassivelaunus, 5I4> S1S-
•Corystes Cassivelaunus, 515.
Cothurina pyxidiformis, 103.
•Crabs, their habits, 5°7-
Cramp-fish (Torpedo marmorata), 540.
Crangon vulgaris, 524.
Crania, 407.
Crinoidea, 263.
Cristatella, 305.
Cristatella mucedo, 306.
Crustacea, 503. Their organisation, 504.
Reproduction, 505. Breathing appa-
ratus, 506. Destructive habits, 507.
•Ctenophora, 109, 248.
-Cultivation of Oysters, 386.
•Currents of the ocean, their causes, 25.
•Cuttle-fish, 473. Described, ib. Its
pigment, 481. Habits, 482.
Cyclones, 29.
i Cyclopterus, 642.
Cyclostoma, 414.
Cyprtza, 440.
argus, 441.
capensis, 443.
coccinella, 442.
histrio, 441.
madagascariensis, 443.
mappa, 441.
montta, 443.
nucleus, 444.
pantherina, 444.
Scottii, 440.
testudinaria, 443.
tigris, 441, 442.
undata, 442.
zig-zag, 442.
Cyprsea, principal forms of, 440.
Cytherea, principal forms of, 341.
,, geographica, 342.
Cytherea geographica, 341.
Dab (Platessa limanda), 609.
Dab, the, 609.
Dactylopora cylindracea, 81.
Dactylopora cylindracea, 82.
Darwin's theory of coral islands, 192.
,, ,, subsidence, 195.
Davis's discoveries, 41.
Dead men's fingers, 246.
Decapoda, their organisation, 511.
De Haven's search for Franklin, 53.
Delphinula sphserula, 436.
Delphinula sph&rula, 436.
Dendrophylla ramea, 185.
Dendrophylla ramea, 185, i£5.
Density of salt water, 15.
Dentalina subarcuata, 84.
Dentalina subarcuata, 84.
Depth of the sea, i.
Diodon pilosus, 560.
Diodon pilosus, 560.
Diphydae, 126.
Disaster of the San Francisco, 30.
Discina, 407.
Distribution of land and water, i .
,, mollusca, 498.
Dog-fish (Acanthias vulgaris), 550.
Donax denticulatus, 334.
„ rugosus, 334.
,, trunculus, 320.
650
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Donax trunculus, 312.
, , rugosus and D. denticulatus, 337.
Dredge employed in oyster fishing, 387.
Dujardin's discoveries, 92.
D'Urville's voyages, 47. Adelia's
Land, 48.
Dykes of Holland undermined, 322.
Early dawnings of animal life, 62.
Echineis remora, 642.
Echineis remora, 643.
Echinidse, 273. Skeleton and masti-
cating apparatus, 275.
Echinodermata, 253.
Echinus esculentus, 276.
Echinus esculentus, 277.
,, lividus, 279.
Edible Snails, 422.
Edwardsia calimorpha, 215.
Edwardsia calimorpha, 215.
Effects of hurricanes, 40.
Eggs of Sepia officinalis, 483.
Electrical Eel, 570.
Electrical eel, the, 571.
Electrical properties of the Torpedo,
540. Organs described, 542.
Eltctric ray, the, 539.
Eledone moschatus, its habits, 491.
Encrinites, or Stone-lilies, 264.
Encrinus liliformis, 264.
Equinoctial currents, 25.
Eschara, 303, 308.
Esocidae, 568.
Euglena viridis, 101.
Eugltna viridis, 101.
Evaporation, 16. Itseffectson the sea, 17.
Exocsetus exiliens, 565.
Experiments on the Physalia, 144.
Exuberance of life in the ocean, 55.
Fabularia discolithes, 82.
Fabularia discolithes, 81.
Falkland Islands, 164.
Fan Gorgon, 223.
File-fish (Balistes), 561.
File-fish, the, 561.
Fish's eye, a, 531.
Fishes, their organisation, 527. Loco-
motive apparatus, ib. Swimming
bladder, 528. Breathing apparatus,
i Sight, ib. Propagation, 532.
fication, 533.
Fishing for Coral, 236.
,, Electrical Eels with horses,
572.
Holibut, 613.
Sponges, 70.
Fistularia, 621.
Flabellum pavonium, 178.
Flabellum pavonium, 177.
Flat fishes, their organisation, 604.
Flight of the Flying-fish, 565.
Flounders (Platessa flesus), 608.
Flustra foliacea, 307.
Flustra foliacea, 308.
Flying-fish, 565.
Fly ing- fish, the, 566.
Flying Gurnard, 628.
Foraminifera, 79-
Franklin's discoveries, 44,
Fringing reefs, 198.
Frog-fish (Lophius), 643.
Frog-fish, the, 644.
Fungia agariciformis, 182.
,, echinata, 184.
Fungia echinata, 182.
,, patella, 183.
Fusus coins, 461.
,, pagodus, 461.
,, proboscidiferus, 461.
Fusus proboscidiferus, F. pagodus, and
F. colus, 462.
Gadidae, 613.
Galeolaria aurantiaca, 128.
Ganoidea, 533, 552.
Generation, Spontaneous, 95.
Geographical distribution of O ysters, 3 78.
Gigantic Cephalopod stranded on the
coast of Jutland, 486.
Globe-fish, 559.
Globe-fish, the, 559.
Gold-fish Dorada, teeth of, 532.
Gorgonia fiabellum, 220,221.
,, verticellata, 222, 223.
Gorgonia flabellum, G. verticellata, 223.
Gorgonidae, 220.
Gulf of Mexico, 8.
,, Stream, 28.
Gurnard, the flying, 628.
,, the red, 627.
Gurnards (Trigla), 627.
Gymnotus, its electrical properties, 572.
Effect of its shock, 572.
INDEX.
&5I
Haddock (Morrhua aeglefinus), 620.
Haliomma, 86.
Haliomma hexacanthum, 86.
Hammerhead Shark (Zygaena malleus),
551-
„ Oyster, 362.
Hammerhead, the, 55 !•
Harpa articularis, 459.
,, imperialis, 458.
„ ventricosa, 458.
Harpa imperialis, H. articularis, H.
ventricosa, 458.
Harpooning Holothuria, 293.
Helix aspersa, 423, 424.
,, citrina, 426.
,, Mackenzii, 425.
pomatia, 424.
Stuartia, 426.
translucida, 425.
undulata, 425.
Waltoni, 425.
Stuartia, 426.
Helix citrina and
Hermit Crab, 517.
Herring, the, 588. Habits, 590. Scotch
fisheries, ib. Dutch fisheries, 591. A
night at the herring fishery, 595.
Norwegian fisheries, 597.
Herring, the, 589.
Holibut, 609.
Holibut, the, 6lO.
Holothuria lutea, 288.
,, fishery, 290.
Holothuria lutea, 288.
Homarus, 522.
Humboldt's researches, 572.
Hyaleagibbosa and H. longirostris, 468.
Hyalea gibbosa, 468
,, longirostris, 468.
Hydra vulgaris, 114.
,, viridis, 115.
Hydra vulgaris, 113. H. viridis, 141.
Trembley, experiments on, 116.
Hydridas, 113.
Hydrozoa, 1 08, no.
lanthina communis, 431.
[mperator stella, 436.
Indian Ocean, 2.
Inequalities of the sea-basin, 8.
Infusoria, 88. Their numbers, ib. In
the Ganges, ib. Species, ib. la
blocks of ice, 16. Reproduction, 94.
Infusorial parasites, 97.
Infusoriansj propagation of, 94.
Isis hippuris, 224.
Isis hippuris, 225.
Jan May en's Island, 41.
Kane's, Dr., discoveries, 45.
Kondolostomata patens, 104.
Kraken, marvellous stories concerning,
486.
Labridae, 569.
Labrus communis, 5^9-
Labrus communis, 570.
Lamprey, the, 534.
Land and Water, i.
Legend of the first mussel-fisher, 356.
,, Sea-urchin, 274.
Leptocardia, 533.
Life in the ocean, 55.
Limax rufus, 418.
Limax rufus, 468.
Limncea stagnalis, 416.
Limnea stagnalis, 415.
Limneans, 415. Their habits, ib.
Limpets, 428.
Limulus, 510.
Lingula, 407.
Lobosa, 76.
Lobsters, 511.
Loligo Gahi, 484.
,, vulgaris, 484.
Loligo vuigaris and L. Gahi, 484.
Lophius piscatorius, 643.
Lophius piscatorius, 644.
Lophobranchii, 562.
Luidia fragillissima, 262.
Lump-fish (Cyclopterus), 642.
Lump-fish, the, 642.
Lunar tides, 32.
Mackerel, the, 634.
Mackerel, 634. Do they migrate ? 635.
M 'Clintock's discoveries, 44.
M'Clure's discoveries, 45.
Madrague, a combination of nets, 633.
Madrepora plantaginea, 187.
Madrepora plantaginea, 1 87 .
Madreporidse, 173
Maelstrom whirlpool, 39.
Malacopterygii, 565.
652
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Malleus alba, 362. M. vulgaris, ib.
Malleus alba, 362.
„ vulgaris, 363.
Mantle in Molluscs, its uses, 318.
Marennes Oysters, 395.
Mean depth of the sea, I -3.
Meandrina cerebriformis, 184.
Meandrina cerebriformis, 181.
Mediterranean Sea, 6.
Medusidae, 156.
Meleagrina margaritifera, 364.
Meleagrina margaritifera, 364, 365.
Merlangus vulgaris (Whiting), 621.
Millepora alcicornis, 189.
Millepora alcicornis, 190.
Minyadidse, 216.
Minyas ccerulea, 217.
Mitra episcopalis and M. papalis, 445.
Mitra episcopalis, 446.
,, papalis, 446.
Molluscoida, 302. Organisation, 303.
Mollusca, 300.
Mollusca, 316. Their characteristics, ib.
Monad twilight, 100.
Monas lens, 101.
Monodonta australis, 435.
„ labia, 436.
Monodonta australis and M. labia, 435.
Monsoons, 30.
Montfort, Denis de, on the Kraken, 485.
Moon-fish (Orthagoriscus mola), 559.
Morrhua vulgaris (Cod), 614.
Morrhua vulgaris, 615.
Mounts Erebus and Terror, 50.
Mounts Erebus and Terror, 5 1 .
Mullet (Mullus), 622. A Roman luxury,
623.
Mursena, 576.
,, ponds, a passion with Roman
patricians, 577.
Murex erinaceus, 460.
,, haustellum, 459.
,, scorpio, 460.
,, tenuispina, 459.
Murex scorpio and M. erinaceus, M.
tenuispina and M. haustellum, 458.
Muschelkalk rocks, 264.
Mussels, 354. Organisation of, 355.
Habits, ib.
Mussels of Aiguillon Bay, 361.
Musstls, piles covered with spawn oft 359.
,, piles covered with, 360.
Mytilus byss^ls^ mantle and oviduct of\
356.
Mytilus edulis, 354.
Mytilus edulis, 354-
Nautilus pompilius, 471, 472, 473
Nautilus pompilius, 472.
Nephthya, 246.
Nephrops norvegicus, 523.
Nephrops, 524.
Noctiluca miliaris, 87.
Noctiluca miliaris, 87.
Nummulina perforata, 84.
Nummulites, 80.
Nummulites Rouaulti, 81.
Octopus brevipes and O. horridus, 490.
Macropus vulgaris, 491.
Octopus brevipes, 491.
,, horridus, 491.
,, macropus, 491.
,, vulgaris, 490.
Oculina flabelliformis, 178.
Oculina virginea, 178.
Olaiis Magnus on the Kraken, 485.
Oliva erythrostoma, 450.
,, irisans, 450.
,, peruviana, 450.
, , porphyria, 450.
Oliva erythrostoma, O. porphyria, O.
irisans, and O. peruviana, 453.
Operculina, 85.
Ophiocoma Riisei, 271.
Ophiocoma Riisei, 271.
Qphiuradas, 269.
Orbulina universa, 84,
Organisation of Foraminifera, 79.
,, Infusoria, 91.
,, Sponges, 66.
,, Star-fishes, 254.
Orthagoriscus mola, 558.
Ostracion, 561.
Ostreadse (the Oyster), 372.
Ovulum cornea 445.
,, oviformis, 445.
„ volva, 445.
Oyster (Ostrea), 372. Its organisation,
ib. Reproduction, 375. Incubation,
ib.
Oysters, group