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MARVELS

ANIMAL LIFE

CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER

FELLOW OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. AUTHOR OF “ ELEMENTS

OF ZOOLOGY,” ETC.

LONDON

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON

Crown Buildings, 188 Fleet Street

TO MY WIFE, THE COMPANION OF MANY OF MY RAMBLES,
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

Many of the observations chronicled in the following pages were
made during a long residence upon a coral reef or atoll, some while
swimming under water along the bristling coral banks that formed
a characteristic feature of our tropical home, and others are the
memories of many practical collecting tours in various localities in
search of specimens valued by the lover of nature.

The chapters relate to widely different subjects; the strange forms
of animal life found in various parts of the world, that from the
striking evidence of design in their structure and ways are deemed
the marvelous productions of the Great Maker.

Natural objects are not appreciated by the majority of young people
until the attractive side has been pointed out, and I have endeavored
to accomplish this by presenting some of the thoroughly interesting
features of nature that will incite my young friends to take to the
woods and streams, and become investigators themselves, selecting
some of the subjects — mimicry, nest-building fishes, etc. — as their
specialties. The way to study the sword-fish is to first go sword¬
fishing, if you can, and so with all natural studies, take to the field
and arouse an interest for the work to be done. I have told about
sharks and other animals while giving my own experience with them,
in this way hoping to show how much profit and pleasure may be
derived from personal observation in these and other subjects.

An attempt has been made to do justice to the fishes, their habits

and ways, and to other unfamiliar animals that perhaps have been too

vi Preface.

long neglected in popular works, and whose claim to our interest is
equally strong.

To render many of the topics more valuable and exhaustive, my
own observations are frequently supplemented by the opinions of
specialists and others, so that my young readers may have access to
the interesting and not generally available material relating to the
subject.

While I have endeavored to present the facts in simple language,
and in a popular manner, the work being in no sense a scientific
one, some technical names will be found that are indispensable to any
one wishing to determine an animal, as often the common name
changes with the locality or is absent altogether.

The subject matter of a few of the chapters originally appeared in
Harper’s and Lippincott’s Magazines, but has been revised and adapted
for a wider field of readers, young and old.

"v .

a f. h.

New York, October 1st, 1885.

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I.

The Nest-Builders of the Sea, . 1

CHAPTER II.

Living Homes, . 22

CHAPTER III.

Dry Land Fishes, . 33

CHAPTER IV.

Meteors of the Sea, . 40

CHAPTER V.

Parental Care among Animals, . 50

CHAPTER VI.

An Ocean Swordsman, . 61

CHAPTER VII.

Finny Light-Bearers, . 75

CHAPTER VIII.

Old Friends, . 83

CHAPTER IX.

Is there a Sea-Serpent? . 91

CHAPTER X.

Animal Electricians, . 109

• •

Vll

Contents .

• • •

PAGE

CHAPTER XI.

Our Common Snakes, . . . 120

CHAPTER XII.

Animal Mimics, . 138

CHAPTER XIII.

Lost Races, . . 151

CHAPTER XIV.

The Ink-Bearers, . 163

CHAPTER XV.

The King of Crabs, . . . . 170

CHAPTER XVI.

The Tiger of the Sea, . 173

CHAPTER XVII.

Living Lights, . 192

CHAPTER XVIII.

Wonders of the Air, . 198

CHAPTER XIX.

Animal Traps and Trappers, . 204

CHAPTER XX.

The White Whalers, . 215

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

Frontispiece. The Shell Tridacna as a Play-House, . . . Face Title

Plate I. Lamprey Eels Building a Nest, . 1

II. Gourami and Nest, . 8

III. Paradise Fish Building its Bubble Nest, . 16

IV. Hermit-Crab and its Boarder as it Appears under

Water, . 24

“ V. Periophthalmi Searching after Food on Dry Land, 32

“ VI. American Gobies Crawling on the Shore, .... 48

“ VII. Climbing Perch Migrating Oyer Land, . 56

£‘ VIII. South American Cat-Fish Crawling on Dry Land, 64

“ * IX. Dry Burrow of the Lung Fish, . 72

“ X. Martinique Tree-Toad, with Young Clinging to its

Back, . 80

“ XI. The Sailor-Fish of Ceylonese Waters, . 88

XII. Sword-Fish Attacking a Dory, . 96

“ XIII. The Brilliant Lamp Fish, . 104

“ XIV. The Luminous Argyropeletus, . 112

“ XV. Hermit-Crab in a Tobacco-Pipe, . 120

“ XVI. The Pemaquid Sea-Serpent, . 128

List of Illustrations ,

Plate

PAGE.

XVII. Elasmosaurus Platyurus, Fifty Feet in Length, 136
XVIII. An Extinct Reptile. Camarasaurus, Seventy-

Five Feet Long, . 144

XIX. Young Rattlesnakes Entering Their Mother’s

Mouth, . 152

XX. Insect that Mimics a Moss-Covered Twig, . . .160

XXI. The Walking Leaf (Phyllium Sicci Folium), . 168

XXII. A Caterpillar that Mimics a Shrew, . 176

XXIII. Mammoth Adrift on an Ice Field, . 188

XXIV. Extinct Sea-Cow (Rhytina), Thirty Feet in

Length, . 192

XXV. Giant Squid, Fifty-Five Feet Long, . 198

XXVI. Giant Octopus, Twenty-Eight Feet Across, . . 204
XXVII. Gigantic Extinct Pterygotus, Compared with a

Lobster, . 210

XXVIII. Spotted Shark (Rhinodon), Seventy Feet Long,

Rising under a Canoe, . 214

XXIX. A Gigantic Pyrosoma, . 216

XXX. Group of Flying Tree-Toads, . 220

XXXI. Pteranodon, an Extinct Flying Reptile, . . . 224

PLATE I

LAMPREY EELS BUILDING A NEST,

MARVELS OF ANIMAL LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

THE NEST-BUILDERS OF THE SEA.

How often we are impressed by the resemblance in the actions
and habits of animals in totally different phases of life ! In
drifting over the reefs of our Southern border, the similarity be¬
tween the creatures of land and sea is extremely striking. The
gardens of the lower world abound in lavish growth : trees,
shrubs, waving vines, are all produced in the wondrous forms
of the sea. Here a forest of coral branches raise their myriads
of bristling points, each tipped by a delicate polyp, and present¬
ing a rich olive-green tint in contrast to the deep blue of the
channel, upon whose banks they grow. Pure as crystal, the
water seems to intensify the beauty of the objects, even in the
greater depths ; gaily-bedecked fishes move lazily about ; rising
and falling among the living branches ; poising, perhaps, to
pluck some morsel from a limb, in all their motions reminding
us of the birds of the shore. The gorgeous parrot-fishes are
the sun-birds of the sea ; wondrous tints — azure-blue, golden-
yellow, and red — mark them. Some appear iridescent, bathed in
metallic hues, as if encased in burnished armor ; while many
more in modest garb, found in our colder waters of the North,
call to mind the robin and the thrush, those welcome harbingers

of spring. But it is not in their color alone that the fishes re-

2 Marvels of Animal Life.

semble the birds ; it is in the home-life and love of offspring
that we find a close resemblance. Many are nest-builders, erect¬
ing structures as complicated as those of some birds, and equalling
them in design and elaboration. In floating along the shores of
some woodland stream, we may watch the domestic life of the
sun-fish ( Eupomotis ), the mottled, bespangled plague of the
angler, that is seemingly always on hand to be caught in default
of nobler game.

Along the borders where delicate grasses grow, where floating
lily-pads cast their shadows, and the white-pink-tipped buds
reach upward, here among the winding stems, perhaps sheltered
by a mossy bank with overhanging ferns, the sun-fish builds
its nest. It may be seen in pairs, moving in and out among
the lilies near the shore, as if jointly selecting the site for
a nursery. This is generally a gravelly spot, and once agreed
upon, the little builders vigorously commence work. The stems
or roots are torn up for several inches about, and carefully carried
to a distance away, while the smaller rootlets are swept aside by
skilful blows of their tails, both fishes often standing over the
nest creating a mimic whirlpool with their fins that effectually
carries off the objectionable particles. The stones are next taken
up, the smaller ones in their mouths, the larger being pushed out
bodily, or fanned away by the sweeping process, until finally an
oval depression appears, with a fine sandy bottom. The stems
and other aquatic verdure about the sides, that seem to have been
purposely left, now naturally fall over, so that oftentimes the nest
is a perfect bower, its walls bedecked with buds, while the roof
is a mat of white lilies floating upon the surface. Here the eggs
are deposited, the male and female alternately watching them.
We have always known the sun-fish as the most peaceful of the
finny tribe, and only in wanton playfulness chasing the golden

The Nest- Builders of the Sea.

carp ; but let a stranger, a bewhiskered cat-fish, approach the
bower, and war is at once declared. The little creatures seem to
snap with rage and defiance, the sharp dorsal fins stand erect,
the pectorals vibrate with repressed emotion, while the convul¬
sive movements of their powerful tails show that they are ready
to stand by their homes to the last ; and indeed, so vigorous is
their charge, that large fishes are forced to retreat, and as the
sun-fishes build in companies, the intruder is often attacked by
an entire colony of them.

Nearly all the sun-fishes are nest-builders, some forming
arbors, as we have seen ; others, as the banded variety ( Mesogo -
nistius chaetodon), scoop out nests on the sandy shores, rearing
their young in the late spring ; while the spotted sun-fish
( Enneacanthus obesus) is more democratic, affecting muddy
streams, and, as cold weather comes on, making a nest for itself
in the muddy bottom, where it lies dormant till the coming
spring.

Alike as are many of the members of this family in their
habits, we find that the common perch {Perea fluviatilis), unlike
its piratical cousin, builds its nest in mid-winter, its operations
having been watched by careful observers through the ice. It
forms a clearing much after the manner of the sun-fish, without,
however, the decoration and romantic surroundings that are the
possibilities of spring.

In some quiet nook or corner we have made friends with the
dace ( Rhinichthys atronasus), another little nest-builder, and
a veritable finny jester. Stretched upon the green turf that
overshadows their homes, we have caught glimpses of them,,
and, perhaps unseen, played the spy upon their domestic
doings.

Life to them is a gala time. What games and sports they

Marvels of Animal Life .

have ! Now in jest they join in the chase of some intruding
minnow, suddenly changing their course and rising to dash at
some resplendent dragon-fly that, with staring eyes, hovers over
the leafy canopy of their home ; again they dart about the sur¬
face, rising at imaginary flies and bits of floating weed. One
more daring than the rest fairly clears a lily-pad in its leap ;
another lands upon the partly submerged leaf, the momentary
struggle to escape attracting the attention of the sharp-eyed
king-fisher, who dashes down fiercely in fruitless chase, a dire
warning to the sportive fishes. All is not play, however, even
among the dace. In the warm weeks of June come the sterner
duties, the nesting-time ; male and female join in the prepara¬
tion, and the locality is selected, perhaps in some running brook,
in shallow water. Roots, snags, and leaves are carried away,
both fishes sometimes tugging at a single piece, taking it down¬
stream, and working faithfully, until we, who are watching
from the* bank, see a clearing over two feet in diameter. Here
the first eggs are deposited, and the male who has retired soon
appears from up-stream, bearing in its mouth a pebble, that is
placed in the centre of the clearing. Now they both swim
away, soon returning, each bearing a pebble in its mouth,
that is dropped upon the eggs. Slowly the work goes on,
until a layer of clean pebbles apparently covers the eggs ; now
the female deposits a second layer of eggs, and more pebbles
are brought, the little workers scouring the neighborhood for
them, seemingly piling up eggs and stones alternately until
the heap attains a height of eight inches or more, formed in
various shapes, sometimes pyramidal or dome-shaped — monu¬
ments of the patience of these finny housekeepers. Who
would suspect their purpose ? Even the gleaners of the golden
fields, in whose waters our little friends are found, have not

The Nest-Builders of the Sea.

discovered their secret, and think the curious piles washings of
the brook itself.

THE LAMPREY-EEL AND NEST.

Very similar to the Dace in their habits of erecting a nest are
the lamprey-eels ( Petromyzon marinus). They are common on our
Eastern sea-board, living alike in salt and fresh water. In the
early spring they follow, sometimes precede, the shad up the
rivers, and search for safe localities in which to deposit their
spawn. The same process of clearing away is seen as cited in
the case of the dace. Their long bodies are bent in coils, and
used in pushing aside the accumulation on the bottom, and to the
uninitiated the appearance of two eels, each three feet in length,
twisting and seemingly coiling about one another, would be
indicative of war. The water having cleared, a smooth spot
becomes visible. Upon this the lampreys proceed to place
stones, ( Plate /.), the size of some of which is almost as astonish¬
ing as the intelligence they exhibit in transporting them. Irreg¬
ularly shaped stones of small size are easily and quickly brought
in their mouths from the several localities in which they forage ;
some they are able to carry only a few feet ; then, dropping
them, they push them along by main force. But when stones
that weigh several pounds are to be brought, they adopt tactics
worthy of an engineer. As the spots in which they rear these
submarine castles are generally subjected to a swift current, the
largest stones that it would be thought impossible for them to
move, are looked for up-stream only. A suitable one found, it
is moved about until a favorable portion is presented, and to this
the sucking mouth is fastened ; the tail of the fish is then raised
aloft, and by a convulsive effort the heavy stone is lifted from

Marvels of Animal Life.

its place, the current pushing against the fish and stone, sweep¬
ing them along several feet before they sink ; another effort on
the part of the fish, and the rock is again raised and carried
down-stream, until finally, by repeated liftings and struggles,
the ingenious nest-builder is swept down to the nest, and its
load deposited. This laborious work is carried on until the pile
assumes a height of two or three feet, and a diameter of four.
No special shape seems to be desired, it being generally oval and
compact, well devised to contain the eggs, which are deposited
within, affording protection in its many interstices for the young
when they hatch. Strange little fellows they are. When about
six inches long, they have no teeth, are blind, and possess so
many characteristics to distinguish them from the adult form,
that for a long time they were considered distinct animals, and
described as a different genus ( Ammoccetes ).

The largest nest that has ever been observed was found by
Mr. John M. Batchelder ; interesting as showing that as many
as fifty eels join in building a common nest. Mr. Batchelder
says: “ During the month of June I had an excellent oppor¬
tunity to observe the manner in which the lamprey-eel ( Petro -
myzon marinus) builds a stone dam for the deposit of spawn,
and for the protection of the progeny.

“ The location of the structure was in the Saco River, Maine,
within the ripples near the foot of the lower falls, three miles
from the sea, and near the level of mean high water. It was
nearly at right angles with a shore- wall of granite, and was about
fifteen feet long, and from one to three feet in height. Its
position and triangular shape in vertical section were well adapted
for securing a change of water, and a hiding place among the
stones for the young.

“ When I first noticed the movements of the eels, they were

The Nest- Builders of the Sea.

diligently at work, their system of operation being very me¬
thodical ; but I was not able to determine whether there was
any action by single pairs, as their movements were rapid, and
the- number engaged at one time must have been fifty, while it
is probable that a hundred were at work, for they were con¬
stantly coming from various directions to take or resume their
places on the up-stream side of the dam.

“ The river-bed at this point was made up of water-worn
stones, chips of granite, and fragments of bricks, over which
there was a steady flow of water, the depth being four or five
feet, but varying with the level of the tide.

“ The mode of raising the material was the same in all cases :
the eel attached his mouth to a stone, and then, with many
wriggliugs and contortions (the head always pointing up-stream)
lifted it from the bottom ; he then backed down stream, floating
with the current, until the stone was over the centre of the heap,
when it was dropped, lodging sometimes on one side, and some¬
times on the other. He then usually returned for more material
to the deep and comparatively still pool formed above the dam
by the previous excavations, but in some instances was unable
to stem the more rapid current at the top of the dam, and was
carried below it. When this happened, he swam around the
outer end of the dam, and returned to the pool to resume the
work.

“I noticed in many instances that the heavier stones were
lifted by two eels, working alongside of each other, and carried
to their proper places in the structure. Half-bricks, weighing
two pounds, were thus transported by one individual, and many
of the stones were of much greater weight. Later in the season
many of the eels were lying quietly upon the up-stream side of
the dam, and about the middle of July all had disappeared.

8 Marvels of Animal Life.

“ The temperature of the water, when the river-current was
not met by the tide, was in June about 64° F., and in July,
71°.

“ Stones of various sizes, lying at the base of the shore-wall,
were removed ; and it was evident that the stability of this
wall would have been impaired if it had been built upon a
pebble or gravel foundation, instead of a solid ledge.”

The most remarkable work performed by fishes, as far as my
observations go, are the nests of the fresh water chub, Semo-
tilus bullaris known in some localities as the stone toter, a
fish attaining a length of fifteen inches or so. The finest nests
that I have found are on the shores of Westminster Island, and
they are common on nearly every island that has a sandy,
gravelly shore among the many that make up the assemblage
known as the Thousand Islands. The first one I saw was on
the edge of the little channel known as the Rift, and it was
pointed out as an ash-dump from a steamer, standing in four
feet of water, rising sufficiently near the surface to obstruct a
sail boat. The largest heap that I have examined was about ten
feet across at the base and four feet high, approaching within a
foot of the surface, and contained a large cart-load of stones
weighing in all perhaps a ton. The stones ranged from small
pebbles to some four inches long, and as some of the nests were
quite a distance from gravel beds each stone represented a

journey, and as there are tens of thousands of them, the amount

of labor performed by these finny workers can be imagined.
Each stone is brought in the mouth of the chub and dropped
over the pile, one or more fishes working at the same heap. It
is possible that there is a rude plan followed in the work, as in a
number of nests evidently recently commenced the first deposit
of stones was small, and dropped to form a circle or semicircle.

PLATE II

GOURAMI AND NEST

The Nest- Builders of the Sea.

The largest heaps are undoubtedly the work of successive years,
the fishes piliug up the stones year after year just as the bird
Megapodius heaps up leaves and other material in the same place
on successive seasons. Again, the stones on top were always fresh,
as if in endeavoring to carry them the alga or moss had been
worn off, while those forming the base were moss-covered. On
many of the nests I readily reached the top stones from the
boat, and one of the largest weighed nearly four ounces ; un¬
doubtedly the fish carry stones much heavier. The nests are
built or added to during the last of May or June, and at this
time the chubs are seen lying on the heaps, when the eggs are
probably deposited. All the labor of piling up is to protect
them from predatory fishes, a necessary provision, as cat-fish,
rock-bass, perch, and others prey upon the eggs. Whether the
latter are special delicacies or not they are well protected,
washing into the crevices and interstices probably as soon as
deposited, remaining until hatched.

The trout excavates a simple nest in gravelly beds not in¬
comparable to the nest of some gulls, that is a mere depression
in the sand. The nest of the salmon ( Scdmo salar) is a furrow
in the gravelly bottom, often ten feet in length, the depression
being made as fast as it is required, the fish forming it with its
tail, and covering up the eggs in the same way. In the
Canadian rivers these nests can be distinguished by the lighter
marking on the bottom.

Who of those fond of idly drifting along our sea-shores in
admiration of the panorama below, are not familiar with the
quaint toad-fish ( Bcttrachus ), that in its shape and color so
closely mimics a moss- covered stone, finding in this resem¬
blance an effective protection against its enemies. The parent
fish intrenches itself among the weed and gravel carelessly

Marvels of Animal Life.

thrown aside, after the fashion of some of the gulls, and here
the young are reared, their yolk sacs enabling them to cling to
the rocks of the nest soon after birth, where, under the watch¬
ful eye of the parent, they remain until old enough to swim
away.

In some neighboring stream that sooner or later finds its way
to the sea, we shall find the most vigilant of all nest-builders,
the four-spined stickleback ( Apeltes quadracus). The different
species, though very similar in their general architectural ideas,
vary mainly as to location. Some place the nests upon the
bottom, concealed among the wrack that abounds there ; others
are hung pendent from some projecting ledge, or swing in the
tide from the sunken bough of some overhanging tree, there
undergoing a motion akin to rocking.

The work of nidification is performed solely by the male
stickleback, the female taking no part in the labor, and when
the spawning season arrives, he, having assumed a bright nuptial
lustre, shows extraordinary activity in securing a site for his
edifice, and transporting the building materials thither. These
are fragments of plants of all kinds, which he often seeks at a
distance and brings home in his mouth. He arranges them so
as to form a kind of carpet work, but as there is some danger
of the current carrying away the light materials, he brings sand
to weigh them down and keep them in their places. Then,
having entwined them with his mouth to his satisfaction, he
slides gently over them on his belly with a vibratory motion of
the body, and glues them together with the mucus that exudes
through his pores. Having in this manner firmly established
the floor of his edifice, he seeks somewhat more solid materials
for the walls — sometimes bits of wood, sometimes pieces of
straw — which he always seizes with his mouth, and lays either

The Nest-Builders of the Sea. 1 1

on the surface of the floor or sticks into its sides, withdrawing
them and thrusting them in anew until he is satisfied ; or, if he
cannot adapt a piece properly to his building, he carries it to
some distance from the nest and rejects it. After the side walls
are erected the little architect proceeds to throw over the chamber
a roof of the same materials with the floor, and to give firmness
to the whole structure he again and again creeps over it, and by
the rapid action of his fins and the vibratory movements of his
tail fans out the light and useless particles. In carrying on his
building operations he takes care to preserve a circular opening
into the chamber, often thrusting in his head and a great part of
his body, widening and consolidating it so as to render it a fit
receptacle for the female. When choosing material the fish has
been seen trying its specific gravity by letting it sink once or
twice in the water, and if its descent was not rapid enough
finally abandoning it.

The most remarkable part of this building, that has been
discovered since Costa made the above observations, is the exact
method by which the fish binds the nest with cords, keeping
it in shape. The investigations that led to the discovery of
this were made by Prof. Ryder, of Johns Hopkins University.
He found that in the four-spined stickleback the male-fish
binds them together by means of a compound thread, which he
spins from a pore or pores, while he uses his bobbin-shaped
body to insinuate himself through the interstices through which
he carries the thread with which he binds a few stalks of
Anacharis, or other water weeds, together, bringing in his mouth
every now and then a contribution of some sort in the shape of
a bit of a dead plant or other object, which he binds into the
little cradle in which the young are to be hatched. The thread
is spun fitfully, not continuously. He will go round and round

Marvels of Animal Life .

the nest for perhaps a dozen times, when he will rest awhile and
begin again, or turn suddenly and force his snout into the top
with a vigorous, plunging motion, as if to get it into the proper
form. Its shape is somewhat conical before completion, an
opening remaining at the top through which it is supposed he
introduces the eggs. The thread is wound round and round the
nest in a horizontal direction, and if this is placed under a
microscope when freshly spun, it is found to be composed of
very thin, transparent fibres to the number of six or eight,
where they are broken off they have alternated tapering ends, as
though the material of which they were made had been exhausted
when the spinning ceased. Very soon after the thread is spun
particles of dirt adhere to it and render it difficult to interpret
its character. Prof. Ryder saw the thread drawn from the
abdomen repeatedly, and it appeared to him probable that it
came from the openings of a special spinning gland. The nest
measures half an inch in height and three-eighths in diameter.

The time occupied in collecting building materials and con¬
structing the nest is about four hours, and when all is ready the
male proceeds to seek a female, and, having found her, conducts
her with many polite attentions to the prepared home. The
female of another species, according to Sir John Richardson,
enters the nest by one door, and, having laid several eggs,
escapes by the opposite outlet, leaving the eggs exposed to
the current of cool water which flows through the nest. Then
the male establishes himself as guardian of the precious deposit,
not suffering even the female to approach it again. Every fish
that comes near, even though much larger than himself, is furi¬
ously attacked ; and he gives battle valiantly, striking at their
eyes and seizing their fins with his mouth. His acute dorsal and
ventral spines are effective weapons in these combats. The con-

The Nest-Builders of the Sea.

stant watchfulness of the male is needed ; for, if he is removed by
way of experiment, the sticklebacks and other fish lurking in the
vicinity rush with one accord upon the nest, and devour the eggs
in an instant. For a whole month does the male provide for the
safety of his offspring. In the first few days the openings are
enlarged so as to admit a larger current of water to the eggs ;
and about the tenth day the male employs himself in tearing down
the nest and transporting the material to some little distance.

at this time may be observed in motion.
Around these the male guardian continually moves, suffering no
encroachment ; and as the young brood gain strength and show
an inclination to stray beyond bounds, he drives them back within
their precincts, until they are advanced enough to provide for
themselves, when both old and young disappear from the place
of observation.

In specimens kept and observed by me the male assumed a
fiery-blood-red hue at this time, and was constantly on guard,
dashing at my hand if presented at the glass, even injuring him¬
self by the violence of his blows. This vigilance was kept up
until the eggs hatched, and then when the young offered to stray,
the father-fish would draw them into his mouth and shoot them
out violently in the direction of the nest. As they grew larger
and stronger, and strayed away to a greater distance, his
patience became exhausted, and one day he suddenly deserted
them.

THE GREAT SARGASSO SEA.

In the vast area of floating sea-weeds, occupying 260,000
square miles of surface in the Atlantic and known as the Sar¬
gasso Sea, are found numbers of animals that seem peculiarly
adapted by various modifications to the pelagic life they lead.

With a lens the fry

Marvels of Animal Life.

On the outskirts of this sea great detached patches of Fucus
and Sargassum are often found available to the voyager, richly
repaying a passing examination of the nomadic inhabitants.

During many hours spent in drifting in the Florida Straits,
surrounded by similar thickly growing and matted weed of the
Gulf Stream, I renewed acquaintance with one of the quaintest
and most skilful of the marine nest- builders.

Collecting in the gulf weed requires no little prescience, as
the inhabitants, one and all, from the soft shell-less mollusk
Scylloea* to the short-tailed crab Nautilograptus , have assumed
the exact tint of the surrounding weed — a protective resemblance
that serves them well — but a close examination soon reveals
myriads of strange creatures. Though the strong trade-wind is
blowing, the great patches of weed are so profusely distributed,
that the intervening stretches of clear blue water are smooth as
glass. Now the claws of some quaint crab wave a moment in
the air as it essays a submerged bunch of weed ; dazzling forms
of gurnards, with their lace-like wings and burnished helmets,
rise and soar away over the grassy sea. The warm wind is
burdened with saline odors ; the blue channels among the weeds
scintillate with golden reflections ; and from far away comes the
weird “Ha! ha!” of the laughing gull, that, with the occa¬
sional splash of the pelican, is the only sound to be heard in
this ocean world.

In the full enjoyment of our novel surroundings, I was at¬
tracted by a singular object peering out of the water ; the boat
being pushed nearer, the curious creature proved to be the pela¬
gic fish, Antennarius marmoratus , so exact in its imitation to the

* In many instances there is no common name for the object mentioned. In
such cases the technical terms can only be used. Those who desire to have
more definite information can find it under the respective heads in text-books.

The Nest- Builders of the Sea.

gulf-weed ( Sargassum ), that, had I not been familiar with it,
it would have been passed by. The tall and barbeled dorsal fins
were out of water, as well as the curious seeming horns that deco¬
rate the head, and thus, half submerged, the little fellow appeared
about to take leave of its native element, and walk away over
the weed. It was resting upon its nest, an oval ball of Sargassum. ,
a little larger than an Edam cheese. This curious creature,
whose pectoral fins resemble limbs, selects from the floating
algse bits of Sargasmm bacceferum, which consists of feathery
bunches, each tuft having a thread-like branching stem studded
with round air-vesicles that form perfect floats or buoys. These
are collected into a single mass by the fish, and woven in and
out in a seemingly incomprehensible manner. A bit is taken in
its mouth, with which the fish dives into the mass, coming out
at the opposite side. As the nest assumes a more compact
shape, a gelatinous substance is attached to the various parts
that serves to connect them. It is now an irregular oval,
floated by the natural buoys. Now the eggs are deposited, and
attached to the weed by some secretion. This done, other pieces
are added to partly conceal them, and the fish passes repeatedly
around the nest, rubbing its abdomen against it, and binding it
together by silken bands of a visceral secretion that it takes,
perhaps, from certain glands, as in the case of the stickleback.
This completed, the strange inhabitants of this pelagic world lend
their aid in its adornment. The rich bryozoon (Membranipord )
incrusts the various parts with its silvery growth, the nest itself
throwing out new shoots, their tips assuming rare tints of yellow
and green, in strong contrast to the dark shades of the older
forms. Graceful stalked vases of the Campanularia appear as
if by magic ; small barnacles hang pendent upon the leaves,
while delicate shapes of Ianthina , Vellela , and Porpita, glistening

1 6 Marvels of Animal Life.

in blue and silver, with the fantastic Glaucus and luminous
Salpa , hover about in close attendance. Around the nest the
quaint parents move, or recline upon it, as we have seen.
When the small eggs hatch, the bauds become loosened, and in
the nest, that is a veritable living arbor, the young find abun¬
dant protection, and closely resemble the bits of weed among
which they lie concealed.

Among the fantastic gobies are several that vie with the birds
in nest-building. In the great submarine tangles of the Medi¬
terranean Sea, where grim kelps wave their long-leaved stalks,
the black goby ( Gobius niger ), according to Olivi, builds its
home. The finer bits of weed, Zostera and others, are bound
and interwoven in irregular form, and in the nest are placed the
eggs. As with the stickleback, it is the male that erects the
nest, and, after the eggs have been placed within, mounts guard,
remaining in watchful surveillance long after the young are
apparently large enough to take care of themselves.

THE GOURAMI AND NEST.

One of the most interesting nest-builders is the famous gou-
rami, ( Osphromenus goramy), originally a native of China, but
introduced into many countries. According to Baron de Rou-
joux, the gouramis attain in their native country a length of six
feet, and weigh over one hundred pounds. But their nest-build¬
ing is the most remarkable, showing that they rank with the land
animals in intelligence. In their family relations, according to
Gill, they resemble the sun-fishes of temperate North America,
and the cichlids of tropical America and Africa. The spawning
season, according to this author, falls in the autumn (March and
April) and spring (September and October) of the transequatorial

PLATE III

naaagH

jtiHHHi

PARADISE FISH BUILDING ITS BUBBLE NEST.

The Nest- Builders of the Sea.

islands of Mauritius and Bourbon. When that time has come
the males and females pair off, and each pair select a suitable place
wherein they construct a rude nest. Like all intelligent animals,
they will only propagate when insured a suitable temperature for
the eggs and young, a fit retreat for the building of the nest, with
plants and mud for its construction, and aquatic plants for the
food of the young. The bottom selected is muddy, the depth
variable within a narrow area; that is, in one place about a
yard, and near by several yards deep. They prefer to use for
the nest tufts of a peculiar grass, ( Panicum jumentorum), which
grows on the surface of the water, and whose floating roots,
which rise and fall with the movements of the waters, form
natural galleries, under which the fish conceal themselves. In
one of the corners of the pond, among the plants which grow
there, the gouramis attach their nest, which is of a nearly
spherical form, and composed of plants and mud, and consider¬
ably resembles in form those of some birds. {Plate II.)

The nests, of course, vary in size in proportion to the fishes,
but the usual size is somewhat less than a man’s hand in length.
The fishes are employed some five or six days or a week in
building, and their task is rendered easier, when the pairing
season has arrived, by placing in the water, almost at the surface,
branches of bamboo, to which are attached bundles of fine
dogs’-tooth grass. The gouramis take this grass, and with it
form their nests in the branches of the submerged bamboo, in a
manner analogous to that with which the common silk-worm
avails itself of the branch which is presented to it to make
its nest on. When the nest is wholly completed the female
deposits her eggs, which in a moderate-sized individual amount
to about eight hundred to one thousand. After the eggs have
been deposited and while they are hatching, the parents remain

1 8

Marvels of Ajiimal Life.

near, jealously guarding them and rushing with vehement fury
at any ordinary intruder near their domains, and thus they
continue to guard the young for a time after they are hatched.
The eggs are soon hatched, and in the nest the young find a
refuge where they are free from a thousand dangers to which
they would be otherwise exposed during the first days of their
life; and in the macerated vegetable matter of which their home
is partly composed they obtain their earliest food, and that
which is most suitable to them in their most delicate condition.
Soon, however, they make short excursions from the nest though
under the guidance of the parent-fish, who is prepared to give
them aid in case of need. They do not soon disperse, but keep
together in shoals.

THE PARADISE FISH AND ITS NEST.

In Siam there is found a fish called the plakat, known to
science as the Macropodus or paradise fish, on account of its
curiously shaped fins. These fishes are kept by the Siamese as
pets, being carried about in jars of water and fed upon the larvrn
of mosquitoes, and trained to fight for the amusement of their
owners. When the paradise fish builds its nest, it uses no hard
material, the male merely rising to the surface and sucking in
air, carrying it down, issuing it as a mucus-covered bubble.
This is done an innumerable number of times, until repeated
layers of them are deposited, forming a quite large mass of the
filmlike bubbles of spittle. This floating mass constitutes the
nest, and in it the eggs of the female are deposited ; and, wonder¬
ful to relate, the material of which the nest is made forms the
first food of the young fry, and by the time they have devoured
the nest so that they will drop out they are large enough to take

The Nest- Builders of the Sea.

care of themselves. Does this recall the bees in the method of

♦

providing for their young ?

Those observed by myself were in confinement in the museum
over Fulton Market, New York, having been brought from
India by the captain of a sailing vessel. I was particularly
struck with their seeming intelligence, if this term can be
applied, or perhaps vivaciousness would better describe it. Never
at rest, they were continually on the alert, darting about with
graceful movement, trailing their beautiful plume-like fins
behind. At any movement of my hands over the water, they
would rise without fear and follow the finger in play ; darting
around as if ready for any game or sport that might be suggested.
The affection of the pair was particularly evident. In approach¬
ing each other they would stand in mid-water, face to face, and
move round and round, retaining the same position, as if in the
maze of some mystic dance. At this time the broad fins of the
upper and caudal portions would be fully extended, and fairly
vibrating as if with emotion, presenting a striking appearance.
As soon as the fish separated the fin rays dropped, seemingly
reducing the size of the animal one third. I also noticed that
whenever the two met, they expanded the opercula, or gill-
covers, so that they stood out very distinctly, showing the gills
within, an operation that reminded me of the pouting of
monkeys when engaged in an interchange of abuse, though the
action on the part of the paradise fishes was evidently a friendly
one, as they made no attempt to attack each other.

The attempts at nest-building were very much the same as
previously described. The male would rise to the surface, as he
often did in play, readily taking objects from its owner’s hand,
and inhale pure air, then sinking beneath the surface would
somewhat forcibly emit the supply of oxygen in the form of

Marvels of Animal Life.

bubbles, the covering of which was undoubtedly a film of
mucus. These rapidly rose to the surface and clung closely
together. ( Plate III.) By repeating this an indefinite number of
times an area of bubbles was formed three or four inches in diam¬
eter, the continual supply haviug the effect of lifting the upper
layer out of water, so that the small portion of the nest exposed
to the air assumed a slightly convex shape, like the crystal of a
watch. When complete, or nearly so, the nest was several inches
deep, very fragile, and easily blown apart, but probably age
and fungous growth would soon render it more tenacious.

His work ended, the male began to chase his mate around the
aquarium, as if to drive her toward the nest.

Professor Rice, to whom these fishes belong, is of the opinion
that he could distinguish a space, or air-chamber, between the
upper layer of cells and those lying directly upon the water, and
suggested that the eggs might be deposited there or find their
way to it. These fish are of a rich olive hue, marked with oval
spots, lacking, however, the coloring that distinguishes their
allies of the Eastern and tropical seas.

The famous Serrasalmo or perai, of South American waters,
often selects for its nest a structure that reminds us of the home
of the oriole. On the borders of the rivers great vines or Hanes
climb the palms, and creeping out upon the leaves finally fall
down until they reach the water. There rootlets grow, foreign
matter is collected, and finally a veritable miniature floating
garden swings in the current. Beneath this arbor, amid the
clustering roots, the perai is wont to place its eggs, and there
they are watched and guarded until the fry can safely leave their
swinging cradle.

The cat-fishes of this and neighboring regions are noted for
their domestic habits. The armored Callichthys (Plate VI II.),

The Nest- Builders of the Sea.

according to Schomburgk, lays its eggs on straws “ which they
gather together and cover over. They are watched by the parent
until they arrive at maturity. The adults are taken in trenches
at this time by putting a basket near the nest, with which it is
lifted out of the water.”

The most remarkable statement concerning these fishes made
by this author is that the Hassar, which is the native name for
Callichthys subulatus, constructs a regular nest of blades of grass
and leaves in holes just above the water, where it deposits its
eggs, and watches them until the young appear.

The great Ceradotus of Australian rivers forms a rude nest in
the weeds at the bottom of the stream. The lump-fish is also
accredited with being a nest-builder, and, unlike many others,
the young follow the parent fish. Fishermen call them hen and
chickens at that time. The young have the curious ventral
suckers that characterize the parent, and according to some
naturalists, cling to the male. In fact, in nearly all these instances
of affection among our finny friends, the mother runs away, leav¬
ing the father to perform all the domestic duties. The Solenostoma
and Aspredo are the only cases among fishes in which the mother
does not desert her young.

CHAPTER II.

LIVING HOMES.

In glancing at the nest-builders of the sea, we have observed
only one side of the home-life of our humble friends. We may
term the former the educated classes, the architects ; but just as
among the human inhabitants of the world, there is a class whose
members are dependent upon others. They do not seem to
have the faculty of caring for themselves, and so find their pro¬
tection in the companionship of other forms. In fact, they
have living homes, taking up their residence with or in the
person of some larger animal. They must not be mistaken for
parasites, that prey upon animals they live with. They may at
times overstep the bounds of hospitality, but in the main they
merely use their living refuge as a dwelling-place, and in many
cases become so dependent upon it that they never stray into the
outer world.

During several years’ residence on the growing atoll of
Tortugas, on the Florida Reef, many opportunities were afforded
for observing instances of this peculiar phase of existence.
The group, comprising seven or eight keys,* made up of
coral, is surrounded by a long reef that almost completely
skirts the latter, composed of dead coral heads, against which
the sea beats powerfully. A fevr feet within this range of
breakers the reef stretches away ; a field, as it vTere, of pure

*The term “ Key ” which will be repeated often, is a corruption of the
Spanish Cayo, an islet.

Living Homes.

white sand, covered here and there with patches of corals of
many kinds.

Here was the collector’s paradise, as strange creatures, crabs,
fishes, and shells, appeared at every move, and dropped in
showers from every piece of coral lifted from the water.

One of the commonest animals in this submarine garden was
a long, worm-like creature, called the trepang ; or, scientifically,
Holothuria. It looked like a great black cucumber lying on
the bottom, and was so tough that with difficulty could a spear
be sent into its leathery hide. I was wading along in about
three feet of water one day, towing the boat, when wishing to
secure one, I picked up a specimen, ten inches perhaps, in length.
The curious creature slowly doubled up when taken from its
native element, and lazily ejected a stream of water from its
mouth as it was placed in a glass jar, carried for aquarium
purposes. In a short time the holothurian exhausted the air in
the water of the jar, and began to move about restlessly, and
soon something else was affected by the lack of seration, as a
beautiful, silvery transparent fish was seen thrusting its head
from the body of the holothurian, and in a moment fairly
made its way into the outer world. It moved slowly about for
a short time, making ineffectual efforts to swim, and though the
water was immediately renewed, it soon died.

The fish was about six inches in length, and evidently a
creature unused to the outside world ; a veritable phantom fish,
so ghostly white and transparent that, if laid over a newspaper,
print could be read through it. In general appearance it
resembled an eel ; its upper and lower fins were all joined, and
extended the entire length of the body. Its scientific name is
Fierasfer dubius, and nearly all the family take up their abode
in other animals. Many of these curious boarders were found

Marvels of Animal Life.

afterward ; in fact, very few of the holotliurians were without
them, but, in every case, though the greatest care was taken to
have the water fresh, the fish died when exposed to light and
open water; and the supposition was that here, at least, certain
individuals never left their host.

Since then another holothurian has been watched, in the
Naples aquarium, and found to afford shelter to a fish that
comes out and returns at pleasure, the latter operation being
performed in a most remarkable manner. The curious sea-
cucumber that is thus converted into a boarding-house, forces
water in and out of its body at short intervals, so that there
may be said to be an intermittent current running in and out.
When the fish wishes to return it takes advantage of this, and
inserts its tail in the orifice that forms the door of its house, and
as the animal takes in water the fierasfer is drawn along with it,
and by degrees gradually reaches the interior. That it goes in
tail first would seem a singular performance, but being a long
fish it could not easily turn if once in head first, so by entering
in the opposite direction it is always ready to come out again.

These cases are not confined to certain localities, but all the
fierasfers of the world seem inclined to adopt the sea-cucumber
as a home. At Madeira, Dr. Greef found one occupied in the
same way, and Quoy and Gaimard state that a fierasfer is a
dweller in Stichopus tuberculosus. As the holotliurians are also
tenanted by various shells and crabs, they not inaptly suggest
the boarding-house.*

Though many of the fishes have been examined, there is yet

* In the Agassiz Museum, Cambridge, Mass., is a valve of a pearl oyster, in
which a Fierasfer is beautifully enclosed by a pearly deposit. The fish being
a permanent boarder in the living oyster, the latter impatient at the intrusion
covered it as by the same process that forms valuable pearls.

PLATE IV

HERMIT CRAB AND ITS BOARDER AS IT APPEARS UNDER WATER,

Living Homes.

much discussion as to their method of obtaining a living.
Some naturalists contend that the fierasfer goes without to ob¬
tain its dinner ; others, like Semper, have it, that when hard
pressed the fish will prey upon the body of its protector ; in¬
deed, the latter naturalist, in the Philippine Islands, opened a
number of fierasfers that he took from sea-cucumbers, and found
there decided evidence that they were living upon the respira¬
tory processes of their friend, that fortunately was able to re¬
produce them, and was not injured in the slightest.

The fierasfers are not the only fishes that take possession of
these much-abused animals. At Zamboanga there has been
found a species ( Scabra ) in whose stomach there lives a little fish,
of a totally different genus ( Enchelyophis ), but whether it comes
out after the fashion of the Naples fierasfer or not is not known.

The great mouthed angler ( Lophius ), found on our coast,
offers a retreat in its mouth for a number of fishes that use the
cavity for a house. At Nice, an allied form, that is there called
the Beaudroie, gives lodging in its bronchial sac and gills to a small
eel-like fish of the family Murenidce, a number of little crabs
also sharing its home.

The beautiful sea-anemone is often made the victim of some
playful fish, remarkable from the fact that the former has a terrible
armament, being covered in many parts by lasso-cells that hurl
out sharp, poisonous darts at the slightest warning. In Chinese
waters an anemone about two feet in diameter is nearly always
thus tenanted ; the little fish, when alarmed, darting away in the
direction of its protector, that whether by a mutual understand¬
ing or from fright, immediately closes its mouth and perfectly
conceals the tenant, perhaps to the wonder and astonishment of
the follower.

Lieutenant de Crispigny, an officer in the French service,

26 Marvels of Animal Life.

kept an Actinia crassicornis for a long time in an aquarium.
One day, soon after securing the creature, lie was surprised to
find a fish in the globe. When he attempted to observe it, it
darted around as if greatly alarmed, and finally made a leap,
like the harlequin in the play, and landed fairly in the centre of
the anemone and disappeared ; the latter closing its tentacles
over it. These pets were kept by the officer for over a year,
and he became thoroughly convinced that here was a positive
case of friendship between the totally different creatures.

Even more wonderful yet is the fact that star-fishes offer
homes for fishes. One, in the Indian Ocean, known as the
Asterias discoida, is tenanted by a little fish, but whether it
often leaves its host, presumably a very difficult operation, has
never been determined.

Fishes of the great mackerel family are remarkable for their
associations ; thus many, when young, live up among the tenta¬
cles of the great jelly-fishes; and among numerous jellies that I
have examined in tropical waters, rarely was one found that did
not afford protection to one or more finny dependents.

One of the most interesting cases is observed in the physalia.
This animal is a colony, the individuals of which are called
zooids. Some are for locomotion, others feeders, while others
again are for various purposes ; but to the casual observer,
they all look alike — a blue, entangled, jelly-like mass of
threads, coiling, drawing up and lowering again, like so many
snakes, floated and suspended from a rich balloon-like bubble.
On closer examination the secret of their power is seen.
The tentacles are covered with delicate cells, each of which
contains a minute coiled dart, called a lasso, and the mo¬
ment a foreign substance comes in contact with the tentacles,
millions of these weapons are hurled into it, like shots from a

Living Homes.

gun, producing a peculiar paralyzing effect. This is particu¬
larly noticeable in fishes, and I have repeatedly observed the
tragedy. The long, tempting tentacles, streaming invitingly
down, would be seized by a small sardine ; a wild leap of fear,
perhaps, and the victim would roll over dead, to become entan¬
gled and absorbed by the living man of war.

The effect of the darts upon human beings is almost equally
fatal, if contact is made at the right spot. I have been stung
a number of times by them upon the hand, when the pain
resembled that ‘ occasioned by scalding water; but upon one
occasion, in swimming upon my side, I passed completely over
the tentacles of a large physalia. If I had been in deep water,
nothing could have saved me, as my chest and abdomen were
covered with the blue mass that seemed to penetrate into the flesh
like molten leach I regained my feet, but could move only with
difficulty. Shortness of breath was, perhaps, the most serious
symptom, which with the terrible burning rendered me almost
powerless. Some workmen near by plunged into the water,
and carried me to the shore, where the blue mass was scraped
off with knives. Applications of oil and generous use of
stimulants acted favorably, but the virulent nature of the poison
can be judged from the fact that for over six months I could
have passed as a very respectable tattooed man, the flesh being
covered with fanciful blue tracings resembling designs in India
ink.

On one occasion, while rowing along the surf on the reef, I
found a hawk-bill turtle lying on the surface, completely par¬
alyzed by a physalia, or Portuguese man-of-war, as it is called,
scarcely larger than a hen’s egg. The blue tentacles had en¬
tirely encompassed the animal’s head, and the darts or lassos
had penetrated the unprotected skin around the eyes.

Marvels of Animal Life.

I have thus described the power of the physalia to more
clearly show the wondrous nature of the friendship (?) that
exists between it and several small fishes, of the genus Nomeus.
Up among the deadly lobes of this fairy ship, they are
found swimming about perfectly fearless, dodging in and out
among the tentacles that are instant death to others, and evi¬
dently aware that their protector is little likely to be attacked
by other animals. Perhaps the most remarkable part of it is
that the fishes are a vivid blue color ; in fact, the exact tint of
the tentacular part of their host ; so that they are not only pro¬
tected by it, but are likely to be taken for the tentacles them¬
selves.

In Brazil is found a curious fish, .allied to our cat-fishes, that
in its mouth gives shelter to a number of small fishes that lodge
in the various cavities, and seem to find perfect protection. For
a long time these were supposed to be the rightful progeny of
the Platystoma, but examination showed them to be fishes of an
entirely different kind, and full-grown, though small.

The pilot-fish that accompanies the shark, in one sense makes
its huge companion a home ; at least, finding protection in the
companionship.

Another companion of the shark, however, frequently shares
its fate. This is the remora, that bears upon its head an oblong
plate or disk, arranged with transverse rows, like the slats on a
blind. When the remora presses this upon the shark, the air is
exhausted, and thus it clings, so that it may be said to live upon
its huge companion. I have frequently hauled sharks high and
dry, and had to pull the remoras off by main force to secure them.

Among the crabs there are many that constitute homes for
other animals, while many others have living homes themselves.
Of the latter the Pinnotheres is the best known. One species

Living Homes.

is the little crab we find in oysters, and from their habit of
forcing themselves upon the oyster, making a home among its
soft folds, they share its fate. The association, however, re¬
dounds to the benefit of both, as the crab may possibly drag in
bits of food for the oyster to eat, while the latter affords it pro¬
tection from the predaceous fishes. They inhabit a great variety
of shells, and, as we have seen, the air-chambers of the sea-
cucumber. In Northern waters a shell known as the Modiola
papuana affords a home to two of these crabs that attain the
size of a chestnut, and it has been impossible, so far, though
hundreds of the shells have been opened, to find one without its
quota of crabs.

The large shell Avicula, the one that affords the best
pearls, is the home of a Pinnotheres , also of a crustacean allied
to the lobster, and perhaps the material dragged in by these
boarders has formed the base for pearls that have sold for thou¬
sands of dollars.

In Eastern waters is found the giant clam Tridacna , that
often weighs five hundred pounds, the animal alone thirty.
The largest shells are nearly five feet in length, and are often
used for ornamental purposes, or as a play-house for native
children, as shown in the accompanying picture or frontispiece.
When alive the great clam gives shelter in its folds to a number
of crabs, one especially, known to naturalists as the Ostraco-
theres tridacnce, nearly always being found in the huge mollusk.
In the pearl mussels, common on the coast of Mozambique, three
crabs are found. In the Atlantic waters a large acephalous mol¬
lusk affords protection to a number of crabs, and in the Pinna
marina , a beautiful fan shell, a crustacean, of a pale rose color, lives.

Even Pliny was aware of these living homes, and ascribes to
the dwellers a mistaken office. He says the Chama is a clumsy

30 Marvels of Animal Life .

animal without eyes, which opens its valves and attracts other
fishes, which enter without mistrust, and begin to take their
pastime in their new abode. The pinnothere, seeing his dwel¬
ling invaded by strangers, pinches his host, who immediately
closes his valves, and kills one after another of these pre¬
sumptuous visitors, that he may eat them at leisure.

Rumphius, the Dutch naturalist, had similar ideas, and said
that these crustaceans inhabit always two kinds of shell-fish,
the Pinna , and the Chama squamata. According to him, when
these mollusks have attained their growth, one pinnothere (one
only, at least, in the Chama), lives in their interior, and does
not abandon its lodging till the death of its host. He regards
this crustacean as a faithful guardian, fulfilling the duties of a
doorkeeper.

On the Peruvian coast we find a curious little crab, that in¬
stead of taking up its abode in a shell, chooses an Echinus as its
home ; and how it manages to make its way through the grind¬
ing teeth without getting squeezed to death, is somewhat of a
mystery.

A CRAB AND ITS BOARDER.

Around Marseilles and in our own waters a crab is often
taken by the fishermen, that carries about an anemone on its
back. The fortunate anemone, moreover, is so placed that its
mouth is always opposite that of the crab, thus receiving all the
morsels that fall from its host’s table.

Colonel Stuart Wort ley has paid great attention to the alli¬
ance that exists between the soldier crab and the sea-anemone
Adamsea , and the movements of the crab to protect its tenant
are certainly governed by intelligence. The best morsels are
offered it, and when the crab finds that it must leave its shell, it

Living Homes. 3 1

strives with the greatest care to also remove its friend, and by
delicately prying olf its disk, ultimately succeeds in doing so.
If the AdaUisea is not suited, and will not retain its position,
the obliging crab tries other shells until one is found satisfactory
in every respect to this curious creature. ( Plate I V.)

One of the most astonishing cases of living homes was ob¬
served by Dr. Richter in two crabs of the family Polydectince ,
the members of which have their front claws armed with large
teeth. Latreille remarked that a gummy substance was gen¬
erally to be found at the ends of the claws, and Professor Dana
described the animal as having always something spongy in its
hands. Dr. Mobius discovered the remarkable fact that these
things, held in the two claws of the crab, are in reality living
sea-anemones. These anemones are attached to the immovable
joint of each claw, whilst the teeth of the movable joint of the
claw are kept buried deep into the flesh of the sea-anemones, and
thus hold them fast ; although each anemone can easily be pulled
away from its position with the forceps, in specimens preserved
in spirits. The mouth of the anemone is always turned away
from the crab. The same curious association exists in the case
of another species of the same family, but of a different genus,
which also inhabits Mauritius. Dr. Mobius gives the fol¬
lowing account of the matter : “ I collected about fifty male and
female specimens of Melia tesselata. All of these held in each
claw an Actinia prehensa. The recurved hooks of the inner
margins of the claw-joints of the crab are particularly well
adapted to hold the actinias fast. I never succeeded in driving
the living actinias out without injuring them. If I left the
fragments of them when pulled out lying in the vessel in which
the Melia was, the crab collected them again in its clutch in a
short time. If I cut the actinias in pieces with the scissors, I

Marvels of Animal Life.

found them all again in the claws of the crab after a few hours.
It is very probable that the actinias aid the crab in catching its
prey by means of their thread-cells, and that the actinias, on
the other hand, gain by being carried from place to place by
the crab, and thus brought into contact with more animals,
which can serve as food to them, than they would if stationary.
This is a very interesting case of commensalism.”

From all these instances there is one inference which we
draw, namely, that lowly as are the animals in the scale of
intelligence, we certainly must accord them the faculty of dis¬
tinguishing between friend and foe, and admit that they have
feelings more or less comparable to our own.

PLATE V

PSRIOPHTHAEMI SEARCHING AFTER FOOD ON DRY LAND

CHAPTER III.

DRY LAND FISHES.

That some fishes should leave the water and travel overland
is, perhaps, not more remarkable than the fact that certain birds
without special modification, as the ouzel, should leave their
natural element and fly into and under the water. Who knows
the secret paths of the great marsh but has watched the
brown-hued eels wriggling their way from one pool to another
through the grass, especially at night, leaving their homes and
wandering about.

I have seen the great armored gar rise again and again
for the air that would seem necessary to its existence, and many
other fishes are equally dependent upon it. In a great number,
however, there appears to be a special modification of structure,
enabling them to remain for a greater or less time entirely out
of water. It has long been known that the blennies are frequently
left by the tide in the rocky pools of the coast, often being found
under the damp weed, entirely out of water, the occurrence
supposed to be involuntary ; but late information tends to show
that these fishes intentionally place themselves so that they will
be left by the tide — a most unfish-like operation, certainly.

The most remarkable instance of this has been observed in the

fish known as Blennius pholis. On placing a specimen in a gfiiss

vessel of sea water it appeared perfectly quiet for some hours,

but at length became restless, and made frequent attempts to

throw itself out of the water. It then occurred to the observer,
3 33

34 Marvels of Animal Life.

a Mr. Ross, of England, that, on a former occasion, when
occupied at the seaside, he had a blenny in a vessel with some
Actinice and Serpulce , which regularly passed a portion of its time
on a stone ; he therefore placed a pebble in the glass, the fish
immediately leaping on it completely out of water. It thus
appeared that these changes of element were necessary to its
existence. On going to the front of the house the naturalist
perceived that it was near low water, and knowing that it would
flow until ten o’clock that night, he watched the movements of
his little captive, and as the clock struck, had the gratification of
seeing it plunge again into its natural element, and for over five
months this remarkable fish was an accurate tide-indicator. It
was noticed that the fish had the power of altering its position
on the stone with great facility by means of its pectoral and ven¬
tral fins. At times it reclined on its side, at others was perfectly
erect, resting on its broad pectorals, and turning itself from
side to side. It took crumbs of bread and small earth-worms,
two or three a day being sufficient, and became so familiar as to
take its food from its owner’s hand, and if not attended to,
dashed the water about to let him know that he was on the look¬
out for his bit of meat or rice.

While in the water the colors of this blenny are less strongly
marked ; but after being a short time exposed to and inhaling
atmospheric air, the color changes to a deeper brown, and the
markings become nearly black, with a regular series of white
spots above and following the course of the lateral line.

The New Zealand gobies run along the sands at low tide,
much after the fashion of water-birds, jumping at the half-
buried crustaceans, and moving so rapidly that they are called
by the natives “ running fish.” The sunghong is often seen
running in groups along the paddy grounds of Whampoa ; while

Dry Land Fishes.

the pakkop, or white frog of China, that is carried about the
streets of Canton alive, often during the barter that precedes the
sale, attempts to hop away.

The flower-fish, hawaya, so commonly portrayed on Chinese
ware, is an amphibious goby, that spends certainly half its time
above water on land, where they are often caught. The Periop-
thalmus is equally at home on land, and is chased along the
shore by natives, like frogs, the fish jumping from rock to rock,
and not taking to the water until closely pressed. ( Plate V.)

The habits of these remarkable fishes that form a genus of
the Goby family are most peculiar, and are an enigma that sci¬
entific men find difficult to solve. A gentleman connected with
the Challenger expedition was fortunate in observing them on
shore, and expressed his opinion that they are more at home on
land than in the water. He saw hundreds of them high and
dry darting around as nimbly as frogs, raising themselves on
the two pectoral fins, and looking around with their prominent
eyes in a most comical manner; but it was found extremely
difficult to catch them.

AMPHIBIOUS GOBIES.

We need not go to foreign lands to find a goby that does not
object to a trip overland, as on our Southern shores, Texas and
Mexico, are found several species that are often seen in shallow
pools left by the tide. One especially, the Gobius soporator ,
will of its own accord crawl over the moss and weed, thus pass¬
ing from pool to pool. During a recent government expedition
to the Texas and Central American coast, numbers of these
little fishes were captured by the naturalists in charge, and
placed in buckets some distance from the water, preparatory to

Marvels of Animal Life.

taking aboard the steamer. The gobies, however, had different
views ; and without loss of time, one and all began to clamber
out of the pails, and were soon on their way overland to their
natural element. When recaptured they immediately began
their attempts at escape, and seemed but little inconvenienced by
the time spent out of the water. ( Plccte VI.)

A fish found in Ceylon is often seen out of water, and when
the pool in which they live becomes shallow, the fishes burrow
in the mud, working their way downward sometimes to a depth
of four feet. If the drought penetrates to them there, they
wriggle to the surface again, and in a body move into the woods
in search of water, and by some peculiar instinct they generally
travel in the right direction. By the aid of the grass they are
enabled to keep an upright position, slowly moving along by
means of the pectoral fins, that in this family are very strong
and long. ' Some jump and use the tail, but the general motion
is by a backward and forward movement of the fins.

THE CLIMBING PERCH.

That certain fishes were inclined to live on shore was well
known to the ancients, and Theophrastus is supposed to be the
author of a work entitled u Fishes that Lived on Dry Land.”
He says that in India certain little fishes resembling the mullet
leave the rivers for a time and return to them again. Although
a commentary on this treatise was published in 1665 at Naples,
by Severinus, it was not properly understood until 1797, when
M. Daldorf communicated to the Linnsean Society his observa¬
tions on the tree-climber ( Anabas scandens ), one of which he had
himself captured as it was ascending a palm tree that grew near
a pond. The object of the fish in making this ascent is said to

Dry Land Fishes.

have been to reach a small reservoir of rain water collected in
the axils of the leaves, and full of insects. This faculty of
climbing has been vouched for by some observers, and denied
by several.

Dr. Cautor says that in the Malay countries the Anabas is
eaten by the poorer classes, who do not attribute to it either the
medicinal qualities or the climbing propensities for which it is
celebrated. It can live long, however, out of water, and is
frequently sent in a dry vessel from the marshes of Jazar to
Calcutta, a journey of several days, which it survives.
( Plate VII.)

By what special provision of nature these and other fishes are
enabled to adapt themselves to an amphibious existence has for a
long time been little understood. We see ordinary fishes
breathing by their gills, absorbing oxygen from the current
that bathes them, then passing out behind the operculum
through the gill-opening ; but in various forms we find certain
modifications.

In the families Luciocephalidae and Labyrmthici the gills
or breathing-organs are modified, and have cavities with peculiar
folds, which extend far into the head ; while in the Ophioce-
phalidae , the species have a simple cavity with feebly developed
folds.

The generally accepted theory of their power of living upon
land has been explained by assuming the hypothesis that the
labyrinthine cavity was used to store water to be used in their
wanderings upon land. Decent researches, however, have shown
the fallacy of such a belief, and the accessory gill-cavities are
thought never to contain water, but are air-cavities that take the
place of true lungs ; a fact that shows the Boleopthalmus and
others to be truer amphibiaus than even the frogs.

Marvels of Animal Life.

AMPHIBIOUS CAT-FISH.

The curious cat-fishes, Doras, and Callichthys, are noted over¬
land travelers. In the dry seasons the streams in which the
latter is found run low, when a remarkable scene is enacted ; the
entire body of fish start overland, a compulsory migration, but
with unerring instinct they head for distant water. At times
the column that is struggling through the grass, now erect, now
on their sides, comes to a halt, and some of the fish burrow, as if
with the intent of finding water below the surface. Birds and
other animals prey upon them, but eventually, they reach water,
not having been affected by their stay on dry land. ( Plate VIII.)

Another cat-fish, found in South American streams, seems
also at home out of water. Voyagers have frequently observed
them floating down the streams upon submerged logs, upon
which they had crawled after the manner of frogs. In appear¬
ance they are extremely striking, the head seemingly ornamented
with an array of writhing snakes, in reality the whiskers or
feelers of the Tangsa.

During the dry season of Africa and South America, the
streams in which the Dipnoi , or lung-fishes live are often dry,
and at the first approach of what would seem a dire calamity
the fishes retreat to the bottom, forming a cell in which they
pass months in a state resembling hibernation. The cases or nests
have been sent to Europe in trunks and the fishes then soaked
out. ( Plate IX.)

Though not amphibious in their habits, there are a number
of fishes that obtain their food out of the water ; such is
the archer fish, Toxotes , whose extended lower jaw seems per¬
fectly adapted for such work, and, swimming along shore, if the

Dry Land Fishes.

fish observes an insect it rises instantly and ejects a drop of water
with unerring aim three or four feet, bringing the insect to the
surface, where it is snapped up by the finny marksman.

The long-beaked Chaetodon obtains much of its food in a
similar manner, the long bill serving to guide the drop, thus
being a veritable blow-gun. These fishes are often kept in
aquariums in the East, and so tamed that they will shoot insects
held in the hands of their owners over the water.

The Anableps, a South American fish, obtains much of its
food upon the surface of the water, and to further this purpose,
has eyes that are so divided that the fish possesses apparently
four, owing to the cornea and iris being divided by transverse
bands, so that the two pupils are observed upon each side, while
the other parts of the eye are single. From this peculiarity
they are known on the rivers of Guiana as four-eyed fish ; but
the modification is undoubtedly to enable them to secure prey
upon the surface, their movements being much like those of a
frog leaping along upon the surface partly out of the water, so
that they would be taken by the casual observer for these
animals.

CHAPTER IV.

THE METEORS OF THE SEA.

One of the most fascinating themes connected with our knowl¬
edge of the ocean world is that bearing upon its illumination.
Until quite recently it has been thought that animal life could
not exist in the abyssal depths of the sea, but recent American
and European expeditions have shown that this is not the case,
and this obscure region, that was supposed to be the most deso¬
late spot on the habitable globe, is found teeming with life, the
numerous forms adapted by peculiar modifications of structure
to their life in a world over which roll perhaps four or five
miles of water, where the temperature is just above freezing,
and where the pressure amounts to two or three tons to the
square inch of surface.

When considering the conditions of such a life, we wonder

how the inhabitants of this dark region see to move about, and

whether nature has made any provision for their wants. In

answer we need only visit the seashore, and there we shall find

that the old ocean instead of being wrapped in darkness, has its

moons, suns, and stars of living lights that illuminate the

greater or less depths with their splendors. Many of them are

the common objects of the seaside, and in our wanderings on

summer nights may always be observed, especially on rocky

coasts where the beauties of the phosphorescent jelly-fishes are to

be seen. The dark surges come thundering on in tidal measure,

laden with the secrets of the sea ; the crest seemingly ignites,
40

The Meteors of the Sea.

combing, gleaming on the rise far down the line, and then with
sullen roar is hurled a mass of living light upon the sands,
trickling back in rills of molten gold only to storm the breach
again and again.

On the New England coast these displays of phosphorescent
phenomena are particularly noticeable. When

“ The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of night,”

the phantoms of this world of light spring into existence, chang¬
ing the bosom of the ocean to a scene of weird revelry. Every
drop of water seems a gleam of light ; and the brown kelps and
sea- weeds that hang upon the rocks drip with liquid fire. Ahead
of our boat as we slowly scull along, waves of light appear;
while beneath, moons and stars move here and there, revolving
and rising in graceful curves with gentle undulation. Now
swift flashes, coming from the gloom beyond, dart across the
field, leaving a brilliant nebulous train behind.

The scene as the waves break upon the rocks is one of
dazzling splendor. At Spouting Horn, Nahant, the water forced
through a natural crevice in the overhanging crag, is thrown
high in the air ; for a moment it hangs suspended — a luminous
mist, then settles upon the grim battlements, bathing them in a
warm lambent light that winds its way in gleaming rivulets to
the sea. We dip our scoop-net into the water ; the wish of old
King Midas seems here fulfilled. The meshes become a sheeny
web of golden fabric, and in the catch are myriads of gleaming,
living creatures, the veritable lamps of the sea.

They are Medusae , jelly-fishes, if you will ; unsightly objects
when stranded upon the shore, but at night possessed of a love¬
liness peculiarly their own. Large forms of Aurelia and Cyanea

Marvels of Animal Life .

are striking objects as they glide along, surrounded by a halo of
golden greenish light.

The Cyanea is a giant of its kind, a fiery comet moving in
and out among the lesser constellations. One of these huge
jellies, observed near Nantucket, from the mast of a vessel, was
seen swimming lazily along, its disk surrounded by a luminous
halo, fifteen feet in diameter, while the train of gleaming ten¬
tacles stretched away two hundred feet or more.

One of the most interesting exhibitions of the light of a jelly¬
fish was witnessed by Mr. Telfair in 1840, near Bombay. The
natives had reported at various times that a gigantic flaming
monster had been seen in the sea, and some said that they had
observed it in the sky many years before — evidently meaning a
comet. Finally Mr. Telfair himself saw the monster that proved
to be a jelly-fish of enormous dimensions. Its tentacles at
night seemed a fiery train over three hundred feet in length,
presenting a dazzling spectacle to those who rowed over it ; each
tentacle appeared like a red-hot wire, gleaming with a brilliant
light, while the body resembled an enormous incandescent sphere
throwing out a light for many feet about it. The jelly finally
ran ashore upon the beach, or was washed in, where many of
the natives watched it, hoping to obtain its skeleton, which it is
needless to say they failed to find. For several days after it
stranded it emitted so strong a light at night that it was visible
for a great distance, and illuminated the forms and faces of those
who stood about with great brilliancy. It was estimated to
weigh, including all the tentacles, two tons, and was the largest
invertebrate animal ever seen. In the daytime the great semi¬
transparent disk of the Cyanea with its flexible lobed margin is a
dark reddish-brown color, while the tentacles, bristling with
lasso-cells and spiral darts, are yellow, purple, brown or pink.

The Meteors of the Sea.

While the Cyaneas tint the sea with a greenish light, the little
Dysmorphosa, that at times appears in vast numbers around
rocky points, illumines it with a deep aurelian hue. On suc¬
cessive nights we may find as many different varieties of these
jelly light-givers changing the water to white and yellow tints.
The shapely Zygodadylae produce a strange effect as we see
them in the depth below wandering about — the ignusfatui of the
sea. Here the delicate Idylia gleams with ever changing hues ;
Pleurobrachia rise in graceful curves, their fringed trains glisten¬
ing with red, green, yellow and purple rays ; the golden Melicerta
flit by with erratic course, while the resplendent forms of Coryne ,
Tima , Clytia , Eucope , and a host of others add to the glories of
the scene.

The Pleurobrachia and its kindred, from the peculiar character
of tlieir locomotive appendages, are among the most beautiful
of all marine light-givers. The Beroes are perhaps the most
familiar ; assuming many shapes, sometimes spherical, oval and
oblong, they move through the water, clear as crystal, by means
of their lace-like hyaline fins, which, as they wave to and fro in
rhythmic measure, decompose the rays of light from other forms,
and glitter with hues of vivid iridescence.

So beautiful are these creatures that they have been immortal¬
ized in verse by Drummond in the following :

“ 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.”

So vast are the numbers of these and other light-giving sea-
jellies in the Northern seas, that the olive-green tint of the

Marvels of Animal Life.

waters is due to them in the day time. Mr. Scoresby finding
sixty-five of them in a cubic inch of water, summed up the
amusing calculation that if eighty thousand persons had com¬
menced at the beginning of the world to count, they would
barely at the present time have completed the enumeration of
individuals of a single species found in a cubical mile.

These beautiful phosphorescent jellies can be observed as we
drift along, by using a small glass cylinder. Keeping the finger
pressed upon the top, and lowering the open end near the little
creature, then removing the finger, it will be drawn into the
improvised aquarium. If the night is very dark, the play of
light about its delicate form will be found a rare study.

Darwin refers to the beauties of the phosphorescent jellies
observed on one of his collecting tours. He says : u While
sailing a little south of the Plata on one very dark night, the
sea presented a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle. There
was a fresh breeze, and every part of the surface, which during
the day is seen as foam, now glowed with a pale light. The
vessel drove before her bows two billows like liquid phosphorus,
and in her wake she was followed by a milky train. As far as
the eye reached the crest of every wave was bright, and the sky
above the horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid flames,
was not so utterly obscure as over the vault of the heavens. . . .
Having used the net during one night, I allowed it to become
partially dry, and having occasion twelve hours afterward to
employ it again, I found the whole surface sparkling as brightly
as when first taken out of the water. It does not appear prob¬
able, in this case, that the particles could have remained so long
alive. On one occasion, having kept a jelly-fish of the genus
Diancea till it was dead, the water in which it was placed be¬
came luminous.”

The Meteors of the Sea.

To Spallanzani is due the credit of first calling attention to
the phosphorescence of jelly-fishes. He made some interesting
experiments with the jelly Aurelia phosphor ea, and came to the
conclusion that the light-emitting power lay in the arms, tenta¬
cles, and muscular zone of the body, and cavity of the stomach ;
the rest of the animal showing no luminosity. The light
seemed to be a viscous liquid, a secretion that oozed to the sur¬
face. One aurelia that he squeezed in twenty-seven ounces of
milk made the whole so luminous that a letter was read by the
light three feet distant, being the first practical result of the
discovery of animal phosphorescence. Humboldt experimented
with the same animal, and, having placed it upon a tin plate,
observed that whenever he struck it with another metal, the
slightest vibration of the tin rendered the animal completely
luminous. He also observed that it emitted a greater light
when in a galvanic circuit.

Of the Infusoria , the giant monad Noctiluea presents the most
gorgeous spectacle. It can hardly be seen with the naked eye,
and resembles a currant ; a curved filament, its locomotive organ,
resembling the stem ; beneath the outer envelope is the gelatin¬
ous layer containing numerous granules, that seem to be the light¬
giving organs. A gobletful of these minute creatures produces
sufficient light to read by at a distance of two feet, the glass
appearing fairly ablaze with light, while a sensitive thermometer
placed among them shows not the slightest elevation of tempera¬
ture.

Humboldt bathed among the Noctilucae of the Pacific, and
tells us that his body was luminous for hours after, and even the
sands upon which they were left at low tide appeared like grains
of gold. The captain of an American vessel traversed a zone of
these animals in the Indian ocean nearly thirty miles in extent.

Marvels of Animal Life .

It was a perfect night, yet the light emitted by these myriads of
fire-bodies eclipsed the brightest stars ; the milky way was but
dimly seen, and as far as the eye could reach the water presented
the appearance of a vast gleaming sea of molten metal of purest
white. The sails, masts and rigging cast weird shadows all
about ; flames sprang from the bow as the ship surged along,
and great waves of living light spread out ahead — a fascinating
and appalling sight.

I have observed the beauties of these forms in the tropics, but
as well on the Maine coast, and in a rocky cove near York
the display was often remarkable. Returning from a day’s
fishing late one night, I noticed a number of brilliant lights,
apparently on the rocks. Impressed with the belief that our
friends had lighted lanterns and were fishing, we rowed in that
direction, only to find that the lights were bunches of pendent
sea-weed, glowing as if at a white heat, the light produced from
myriads of Noctilucae and other luminous animals left on the
weed by the ebbing tide. So brilliant was the phosphorescence
on this evening, that by merely splashing the water with my
hand, the sea seemed to ignite and blaze in living flames.

The Noctilucae alone do not always produce these wonderful
effects ; vast shoals of diatoms illuminate the Southern seas, those
known as Pyrocistis pseudonoctiluca and P. fusiformis being the
most brilliant. They are generally confused with the former
animals, resembling them somewhat in general appearance, but
have an extremely thin coating of silica, and differ from them in
many ways. The magnificent spectacle of a water-spout rising
among these forms has been seen, resembling a gigantic pillar
of fire, followed by a cloud of seemingly luminous foam and
spray. Among the peculiar bottom light-givers, the star-fishes
Aster ias and Ophiura are worthy of notice, often being seen

The Meteors of the Sea.

gleaming with a pale phantom light. Of them the late Sir
Wyville Thompson says: “We were steaming slowly back
toward the coast of Ireland ; and on July 26th we dredged in
depths varying from five hundred and fifty-seven to five hundred
and eighty-four fathoms in ooze, with a mixture of sand and
dead shells. In these dredgings we got one or two very inter¬
esting alcyonarian zoophytes and several ophuirideans. Many
of the animals were most brilliantly phosphorescent, and we
were afterward even more struck by this phenomenon in our
Northern waters. In some places nearly everything brought
up seemed to emit light, and the mud itself was perfectly full of
luminous specks. The alcyonarians, the brittle stars, and some
annelids were the most brilliant.”

On the trip to Shetland from Stornaway they were fortunate
in observing another exhibition of the phosphorescent phe¬
nomena. He says : “ Among star-fishes, Ophiacanthct spinulosa
was one of the prevailing forms, and we were greatly struck
with the brilliancy of its phosphorescence. Some of these hauls
were taken late in the evening, and the tangles were sprinkled
over with stars of the most brilliant uranium green ; little stars,
for the phosphorescent light was much more vivid in the younger
and smaller individuals. The light was not constant, nor con¬
tinuous all over the star, but sometimes it struck out a line of
fire all round the disk, flashing, or one might rather say glowing
up to the centre; then that would fade, and a defined patch
break out in the middle of an arm and travel slowly out to the
point, or the whole five rays would light up at the ends and
spread the fire inward.”

The sea-pens are remarkable for their phosphorescence, Ren-
nilla reniformis , according to Agassiz, emitting a golden-green
light of most wonderful softness.

48 Marvels of Animal Life.

The Pennatula phosphorea, as its name implies, is a wondrous
light-giver ; the luminous halo assuming a rich purple tint as
they move along by the regular pulsation of their fringed arms
that, when fully expanded, resemble the feathers of a quill pen.
One of the most beautiful of these forms is the Virgularia
mirabilis. “Two series of half-moon shaped wings, obliquely
horizontal, 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 dentature of the fringe
being the lodging of their pretty little polyps, which display
occasionally their gaping mouths and expanded frills. The
polyps are white and semi-transparent. When they display
their rays, the margin of each wing presents an edging of silvery
stars.” A huge Arctic form, the Umbellularia , also a light-giver,
grows to the height of four or five feet. The sea-pen Virgularia
is often left bare at low tide on the Patagonian coast and at
night the shoal appears dotted with myriads of torches, resem¬
bling the lights of an immense army.

Many of the sea-pens emit a lambent white light, while others
give out gleams of many tints. The scientists of the “ Porcu¬
pine ” observed a most brilliant display near the coast of Scot¬
land. Sir Wyville Thompson writes : “ Coming down the
sound of Skye from Loch Torridon, on our return, we dredged
in about one hundred fathoms, and the dredge came up tangled
with the long pink stems of the singular sea-pen Pavonaria
quadrangular is. Every one of these was embraced and stran¬
gled by the twining arms of Asteronyx loveni , and the round,

PLATE VI

,1 \

(S::'.

/.-. / * - /'• ,i, • • Iti'lLUM/l

te&mam

/fd

ivwtwRlWMifiUw

f/li SiimlMifimmiMu

nil Ol iill Iran ncHMlofl ll

AMERICAN GOBIES CRAWLING ON THE SHORE.

The Meteors of the Sea.

soft bodies of the star-fishes hung from them like plump, ripe
fruit. The Pavonarice were resplendent with a pale, lilac phos¬
phorescence, like the flame of cyanogen gas; not scintillating,
but almost constant, sometimes flashing out at one point more
brightly, and then dying gradually into comparative dimness,
but always sufficiently bright to make every portion of a stem
caught in the tangles or sticking to the ropes distinctly visible.
From the number of specimens of Pavonarice brought up at
one haul, we had evidently passed over a forest of them. The
stems were a metre long, fringed with hundreds of polyps.”

When the ship “Venus” was lying off Simonstown, one of
her boats passed over a forest of sea-pens in shoal water, that
gave such a light that the crew could read by it ; while where
the ship lay at anchor other forms of phosphorescent animals
illuminated the ports so that the men laid in them, and read
by the wondrous light on the darkest night.

CHAPTER Y.

PARENTAL CARE AMONG ANIMALS.

In their care of offspring the lower animals perhaps approach
nearer to the human standard than in any other respect. Even
in the lowest forms, where action seems subservient to instinct
alone, we find acts of maternal or paternal devotion curiously
similar in their performance to those of man. What care ex¬
ceeds that of the common spider, that, when alarmed for the
safety of her progeny, grasps the silken nursery in her mandi¬
bles and rushes away, and when brought to bay fiercely con¬
tends against superior forces to the last, often being torn limb
from limb before relinquishing her hold ?

The young of a small black spider common in the New
England States are protected in a curious manner. The mother
carries them about on her back, the clinging mass often com¬
pletely covering her ; when alarmed and closely pursued, and it
becomes necessary to render the flight less conspicuous, each of
the young springs from her back in different directions, first
having attached to her a silken cable, by which apron-string
they find their way back.

A spider in the East envelops her eggs in an oval balloon,

to which a silken rope is attached and made fast to a leaf or

twig, and floats securely in the air, by its motion defying the

most active of its enemies. In almost every family of insects

the same care is noted. One of the centipedes actually sits

upon its eggs after the manner of a hen; rolling them over and
50

Parental Care Among Animals . 51

over with its many feet to remove any fungus that might adhere
and prove detrimental to them later on.

The mole-cricket, Gryllotalpa vulgaris , has earned a reputa¬
tion as a good-hearted insect, showing great solicitude for its
young. These little iron-jawed creatures are very common in
the South, and perhaps it will be of interest to insect collectors
to know that they have obtained so firm a footing in some of
the extreme outer keys of the Florida reef that it is next to
impossible to raise anything. Our garden was raided by them
day and night, the loose coraline sand affording a medium
through which they moved with great rapidity, the upturned
ridges resembling those of the mole. On account of the nature
of the soil, being entirely of ground coral, and the plates of
lime-secreting algae, mixed with broken shells, I never could
find that they formed a nest in this locality, and as during
heavy gales the tide sometimes rose up through the key until it
was a foot deep in front of our house, the nests would hardly
have lasted. But in various localities on the mainland, where
they have been observed, their care and solicitude for the young
is indeed marked; no animal, in fact, outdoing them in this
respect, and so, although I fought them for five years or more,
I will not refrain from giving them proper recognition. When
the eggs are about to be deposited, and this refers to localities
within the frost-line, the female erects or forms a cell of earth,
about as large as a hen’s egg, that she packs together for the
purpose, in the centre of which she places the coming young.
The cell becomes hardened, and is in itself a sufficient protec¬
tion, but the cricket does not depend upon this alone, as about it
is constructed a perfect moat, while innumerable avenues and
blind leads are built to mislead the various carnivorous beetles
that are ever on the lookout for such luxuries as young crickets

Marvels of Animal Life.

or eggs. It is quite evident that the mother displays something
akin to thought ; at least, she appreciates changes of weather,
as does a cold wave come suddenly upon the locality in which
she is, she immediately removes the family to a deeper level, so
that the growth of the immature young may not be retarded.
As soon as the cold wave passes they are again brought nearer
the surface where the genial rays of the sun reach them, at least
in effect. Almost equally solicitous for the welfare of their
young are the ants. The leaf-cutting species of South America
are often seen in long columns bearing pieces of leaves to their
vast subterranean nests, that, when arranged as thatching or
otherwise, become overgrown with fungi particularly adapted as
food for the young, and eaten by them with great avidity. At
the slightest warning, the young ants or eggs are seized by
the workers and conveyed to a place of safety, and cared
for with all the tenderness displayed by parents of a higher
order of intelligence. Some of the large African workers
will submit to all kinds of torture before releasing an egg.
Their legs may be severed, body, and finally the head, which
will retain its hold upon the unconscious offspring for hours
after.

The white ant ( Termitidae ), a neuropterous insect, shows great
solicitude for the young, and remarkable preparations are made
for their proper care. To this end they erect structures that in
Africa have been observed fifteen feet in height, the entire hill
covering an. area of twenty-five square feet. In the centre of the
pile is a cell resembling the section of half an egg, originally
about an inch in length, but as the queen grows it is enlarged to
meet her requirements, and they are not a few. In mature life
she is a thousand times heavier than any of the servitors that
wait upon her. The royal chamber, as it is called, is built of

Parental Care Among Animals .

clay, so that it becomes perfectly hard and durable. A number
of doors are left just large enough to admit the laborers and sol¬
diers, but the queen herself is a prisoner. About this chamber
are various rooms much smaller, generally nicely arched, but of
different shapes. These are the quarters of the soldiers and
laborers, where they sleep, rest, and stand guard upon the queen.
These rooms are all connected, and branch off into a labyrinth of
paths and lanes that lead to store-houses where the food supply
is cared for. Near the royal chamber are found quite a different
kind of apartments. They are very small, but built in large
clay chambers, and are formed of woody fibre joined by some
gummy secretion. These are the nurseries, where the young
and eggs are carefully tended, and, curiously enough, the walls
of these minute rooms are generally found overgrown with a
delicate mould, dotted here and there with little white globules
about the size of a pin’s head. The latter are microscopic plants,
that under the glass look like mushrooms, and it is supposed
that in some way their growth is encouraged here to furnish a
tender and succulent food supply for the young when they first
appear. To give an idea how fast they do appear, it may be said
with safety that the queen deposits at least eighty thousand eggs
a day, that are immediately carried away by the attendants and
placed in the nurseries that are continually being built for them,
and where they are watched and cared for by vast numbers of
workers.

The female scorpion bears her young about upon her back,
and, according to some authorities, they repay this care by de¬
vouring the mother

The habit of carrying young upon the back as a protection,
is seen in a large and varied class of animals. We have noted
the spider and its young, and in strange analogy is the opossum,

Marvels of Animal Life ,

the common marsupial of the South. At first the young are
retaiued in the pouch. When not alarmed they appear in vari¬
ous strange positions on the mother’s back, their smooth, pre¬
hensile tails coiled about that of the parent that is, perhaps,
bent over her back for the purpose ; the tail seemingly serving
as a fifth limb, intuitively clasping branch or bough.

The great ant-eater, a thoroughly clumsy creature, walking
upon the sides of its clawed fore-feet, transports its young on
its back, which performance I have been fortunate in wit¬
nessing. The young ant-eater clings to the rougli fur, throwing
its tail forward over its head, while over all comes the bush¬
like canopy of the mother, forming effective concealment to her
long-nosed offspring.

The huge hippopotamus has been observed by many travelers,
drifting down the sluggish streams of the East, bearing upon
its broad, platform-] ike back, a pink, shapeless young, and often
when in deep water the gigantic infant appears to be floating
along lightly upon the very surface of the water. In a similar
way young alligators are borne about, often thus becoming ex¬
posed while the parent is hidden below.

Among the tree-toads are several that carry about their young
in a like manner, especially those found in the islands of Guada-
loupe and Martinique. ( Plate X.) In the latter, owing to a lack
of swamps and water suitable for the proper development of
the young, they are carried about by the parent, clinging to its
back by some peculiar secretion. In the nototrema there is a
sac in the back that contains the young ; but perhaps the most
interesting case is that of the Surinam toad. In the breeding
season the female deposits her eggs in some secluded place, and
instead of leaving them, after the manner of many mothers, she
remains in the same spot, until the male with his broad,

Parental Care Among Animals .

web-like feet lifts them upon her back, where they are retained
by some glutinous secretion. Now a curious change takes
place. The eggs gradually disappear, seemingly being absorbed,
hexagonal shaped cells forming around them. At this period
the toad enters the pond and conceals herself in the mud ; the
skin that supports the eggs now becomes inflamed, and the
cells finally become covered with a thick membrane, the eggs
entirely disappearing, and the back of the animal resembling
a piece of honeycomb more than anything else, the cells
being about large enough to admit a large horse-bean. When
the young have sufficiently grown, the mother leaves the pond
and crawls upon the shore, when a strange scene is enacted.
The young toads are seen leaving the cells in all positions —
some head first, with legs and arms protruding ; others clinging
to her back as if loath to leave, while many more plunge off*
into the mud and water, becoming food for birds and fishes.
In eighty days all signs of this curious performance have dis¬
appeared, the cells becoming absorbed, and only reappearing on
the return of the breeding season again.

The Aspredo, a South American catfish, carries its eggs about
with it. During the breeding season, and after the eggs have
been deposited, the fish passes over them, the eggs becoming
attached to the ventral surface and fins in great numbers.
Horny, stalked peduncles connect most of them, so that the eggs
dangle like pendants, all traces of the curious nurseries disap¬
pearing after the young are hatched.

Another catfish, found at Panama, has a sac-like fold in the
skin of the abdomen, in which the young are carried. In the
sea-horse this is even more striking. As soon as the eggs are
deposited, the male, who possesses the pouch, in some way
receives them into it, and the young are nurtured by its fatty

Marvels of Animal Life.

lining, often as many as a thousand young colts, measuring
about five lines in length, being so cared for. When, in the
judgment of the parent, they are sufficiently grown to swim
about in safety, the sac is pressed against a stone or shell, and
the young brood are forced out of their nest, presenting a curi¬
ous spectacle as they move along like a cloud by the rapid,
vibratory movement of their minute dorsal fins.

During his journey in Brazil, Professor Agassiz discovered a
fish allied to the cat-fishes, that not only carried its eggs in its
mouth and gill-folds, but the living fish were found there in
great numbers. This is equally true of an East Indian species
of Arius, and of a large and varied class of animals.

A number of the echinoderms, discovered by the “ Challenger ”
expedition, were provided with a nursery similar to that of the
sea-horse, called a marsupium. In some the spot was covered
by thick plates, that were gradually forced up, forming effective
protection to the young ; in others the long spines were directed
over the spot, embracing and imprisoning the bristling and
spinous progeny.

The curious crustacean, Ardurus , common in Arctic seas,
bears its young upon its long claws that are raised above and
before its head.

The domestic cat is a more familiar example of animals that
bear their young in their mouths, the mother often performing
wonderful feats in the way of transporting her family, carrying
the weakest between her teeth, while encouraging the others to
follow. An interesting case came under my observation, show¬
ing their persistence.

A dog arrived at a farm-house unfortunately at a time when
the old family cat was engaged in the earliest maternal duties.
The next day she and her litter of five were missing, and word

PLATE VII.

CLIMBING PERCH MIGRATING OVER LAND

Parental Care Among Animals.

was brought from the nearest neighbor, a mile away, that the
old cat was there. She and her family were brought back and
watched, and almost immediately the mother seized one of the
kittens in her mouth, and, head high in air, started off through
the fields to the friendly neighbors that did not keep a dog. In
the course of the day the entire family were safely removed a
second time, the cat having traveled during the transportation
ten miles. Suffice it to say she was allowed to remain until
the departure of the possible enemy.

Hunters in India have observed the tiger, generally so ready
to stand her ground, slink away with something in her mouth,
at first supposed to be prey, but closer examination showing it
to be her young, and in all the cat tribe this same trait is seen.

Among birds the most painstaking endeavors are seen in the
erection of their nests, that are built in a variety of ways, to
afford all possible protection to the young. Many of the
humming-birds’ nests are covered with moss taken from the
tree upon which they are built, and so skilfully adjusted that
they mimic the tree, and can scarcely be distinguished from it.
Others are fastened upon leaves that, constantly moving, afford
protection.

Certain birds related to the raven cover their nests with a .
chevaux-de-frise of briers that protects the young from predatory
animals. In Africa others that are preyed upon by snakes build
long pendent nests over the water, the opening being low. One
of the grebes builds a floating nest that rises and falls with the
tide, and can be paddled away by the mother. But perhaps the
most astonishing instance of maternal care among birds is that
observed in the woodcock. The mother bird has been seen by a
number of sportsmen, when closely followed by them, to rise
with a single young between her feet -and fly heavily away.

Marvels of Animal Life.

The common snipe displays almost equal intelligence. When
her nest is approached she feigns lameness, and hops off clumsily
in an opposite direction, and when the nest is far behind, she
assumes her natural gait, takes wing and flies off to regain it by
a roundabout way.

Many of the penguins have a pouch in which they carry their
single egg until hatched, thus bearing their nest about with
them. At this time their motion is a hop, the feet being kept
together to hold the egg in place, but when the young is hatched
they walk as do other birds. The albatross, although it builds
a high nest, also conceals its egg in a fold in the skin, so that it
is difficult to ascertain whether they are sitting even when lifted
from the ground.

A number of the stormy petrels rear their young under¬
ground, after the fashion of the burrowing owl. Here, how¬
ever, the young birds have a natural outlet, but in the Celebes
bird Mateo the eggs are buried several feet in the sand along
the beach, exactly as are turtle eggs, the bird showing great
cunning in destroying her tracks to the eggs, a peculiarity that
I have noticed in the green turtle. The eggs are finally hatched
by the heat of the sun, the young birds digging their way up to
the surface, and, strange to say, they are enabled to fly imme¬
diately, a necessary provision, as the maternal duties end with
the burial of the eggs. These strange birds are allied to the
mound-building Megapodius that has somewhat similar habits.

Among the seals and other marine mammals the young are
often held or supported by the flipper, so that when standing
upright in the water, embracing their curious young, they bear
much resemblance to the typical mermaid. To such occur¬
rences are we indebted for many of the marvellous tales related
by the mariners of the olden time, who, no doubt, believed that

Parental Care Among Animals.

such evidences of affection were impossible among common
animals.

Even among the shells wonderful provision is seen for the
protection of the young. In the argonaut the eggs are fastened
to the interior of the pearly home. The violet snail forms a
raft to which its eggs are attached, the entire family floating
along in company. Other shells carry about their young on the
capacious foot. The natica moulds its eggs in a collar of sand,
while the great land snails of South America, as the bulimus,
form regular nests of leaves in which their great bird-like eggs
are deposited. In some cases they are laid in rows upon a
single leaf, the latter being rolled up over them. In the crabs
the eggs are generally attached to the abdominal limbs, while
others deposit them in the sand, or carry the young in the
immature state, clinging to their back.

The wonderful foresight of insects in depositing their eggs in
places favorable to the young when hatched, is called instinct,
but many observers see thought and intelligence in the action.
A wonderful instinct is that which causes certain insects whose
young depend upon the hives of honey-bees in which to pass a
period of their existence, to deposit their eggs on certain flowers,
so that the young larvae may clasp the visiting bee, and thus be
transported to its storehouse. Many of the ichneumon flies
penetrate the bark of trees, beneath which a grub is safely en¬
sconced. The egg is placed in it, the young feeding upon the
victim later on ; and thus millions of caterpillars and grubs
become living nurseries and future food for the young of many
species.

Some of the wasps capture other insects, and after paralyzing
them deposit in the body an egg, then burying it, the insect
remaining alive but motionless until the birth of the young

Marvels of Animal Life.

wasp, when it is slowly devoured. Other insects, knowing that
their young require dead wood, deposit their eggs in a limb, and
carefully girdle the branch below them, thus preventing the flow
of sap, and by the time the eggs hatch they are in a dead limb,
through which the larvae work with ease.

The gall insects are provided with some secretion that is de¬
posited with the egg in a tender branch, causing an abnormal
growth about it, forming perfect protection for the coming
larvae, and more especially the exact food that it requires.

In all these cases, and many more, instinct seems to play an
important part; but who shall say that the animals do not
possess thoughts and desires differing from our own perhaps
only in degree.

CHAPTER VI.

AN OCEAN SWOKDSMAN.

“ It wan’t so fur from here thet I run afoul o’ my first so’d-
fish,” said Captain Sam, leaning on the wheel with one booted
leg over a leeward spoke, while a smile at some long-forgotten
memory radiated all over his bronzed countenance. “ I was a
yonker then,” he continued, “ and, ef I dew say it, was dretful
green — dretful — a regular high-tide clam-digger, always a-lookin’
fur the wind from lew’ard, and the like.”

“ Starboard,” came from aloft in lusty tones, and Captain
Sam sprang into activity, and with a jerk at the wheel sang
out, “ Where away ? ” “ Tew pints ter leeward,” was the an¬

swer; and quickly the little vessel fell away, gathering fresh
energy under the slackened sheet.

We were off Boon Island, Maine. Our craft, the Thumb¬
screw, as Captain Sam said, “ rated A No. 1 in York
county — three decks and no bottom, no odds wanted, and none
taken.”

The Thumbscrew was a sword-fisherman, long, low and
rakish, fast, and wet in rough weather, differing from other
vessels of her kind only in the iron stanchion that ornamented
the tip end of the bow-sprit, in which the harpooner found sup¬
port and security when wielding his lily-iron. Captain Sam,
who whiled away the long hours with an incessant flow of
original volubility, and told us privately, “ when I ain’t

a-talkin’ you’ll know I’m sick,” was skipper, and four men,

Marvels of Animal Life.

who hailed from down East, constituted the port and starboard
watches, first, second, and third mates, cook and crew.

Another hail coming from the foretop, one of the crew ran
nimbly out upon the bow-sprit, and, leaning against the semi¬
circular iron band that tipped the stanchion, unlashed the long
harpoon, which, from the character of the prong, is called the
lily-iron. The rest of the hands saw that the rope attached to
the pole was not fouled with the downhaul, that the coil in the
tub was in shape, and that the gayly-painted keg at the end of
the rope was ready for a bath. By the time these minor details
had been attended to, the sharp dorsal fin of a huge fish could
be seen from the deck, cutting the sea, and rushing about in an
erratic manner.

“He’s takin’ his last meal, ef the wind holds,” said Captain
Sam, with one eye on the sword-fish and the other instinctively
on the luff of the main-sail. “ Curious fish. I’ve lied ’em
give me a chase fur hours right in sight, and couldn’t fetch ’em
over the bow or alongside tew save me. Fall away, so would
they. If we’re tew lew’ard, and luffed or tried tew eat up on ’em
fish would haul tew wind’ard too.”

The sword-fish was now moving along about a hundred yards
to windward, and by going aloft a bird’s-eye view was obtained
of its movements. It was nearly ten feet long, and had charged
a school of mackerel, which in the summer months throng the
Gulf of Maine. Now the lithe fish would dash at the flying
school, that in turning seemed a galaxy of silvery stars gleam¬
ing in a watery sky. As they massed in terror, they seemed to
give out flashes of light, moving in circles or in graceful curves,
suddenly disappearing, again leaping into the air in wild af¬
fright, falling back to join the panic-stricken throng that rushed
on, the ocean before them, but safety nowhere. Once in the

An Ocean Swordsman .

fleeing mass, the swordsman made savage cuts to right and left,
up and down, now leaping half out of the water in tierce and
carte, thrusting, striking, and plunging in savage enjoyment,
while a shower of sinking silvery bodies told of the carnage
done. Then, lightly turning, and showing the white ventral
surface, the great fish deftly picked up the wounded victims
and severed parts, occasionally striking them again with its
sword, as if to impart some of the excitement of the chase to
the more prosaic after-play of eating. Not all the spoils were
collected ; the living game had greater attractions, and, rising,
the great dorsal fin was soon cutting the water in pursuit, start¬
ling the white-winged gulls that in eager expectation were fol¬
lowing — the ghouls of this marine battle-field.

Gradually the skipper had been keeping away and gaining on
the fish, and now, with a mighty turn of the wheel, the little
vessel fell away with a rush, the jib being hauled hard to wind¬
ward, and the fish was across the bow. The long pole quivered
in mid-air, the filed barb of the steel lily glistened, then with a
splashing thud was buried in the body of the fish.

“ Stand clear the line ! ” shouted the mate. Captain Sam
was winding down the wheel, and the schooner fairly groaned
with the suddenness with which she was brought up into the
wind, the line shrieking and singing as it tore from the tub in
its flying race after the fish.

“ Thet was a master hit,” said Captain Sam. “ Right afore
the side fin ; sent in tew stay.” “ I calculate ’twas,” replied the
harpooner, who had lashed the pole and now took in hand the
barrel and held it aloft.

“ All ready ! ” And with a jerk the last coil leaped from the
tub, and the keg was thrown into the sea, to follow and eventu¬
ally wear out the gamey fish.

Marvels of Animal Life.

The fore and main gaff topsails were now clapped on to the
Thumbscrew, and with the white spot moving ahead for bearing,
she plunged on in pursuit.

“ Starn chase,” said the captain, “ but we’ll hev him in half
an hour, yaou mark. Let’s see : I was abaout tellin’ of my first
so’d fish. Well, as I was a-sayin’, I was powerful green — spent
most o’ the time a-mumin’ araound the farm. After a time I
got a-coastin’ on father’s vessel, and one summer he couldn’t git
no work for her, so I says, ‘ Father, let me take the schooner
and go a-fishin’.’ She bein’ insured and hogged (broken-
backed), he agreed. So the next night we was off and baound
up to George’s Banks, not a-livin’ soul of us ever havin’ been
there afore, and all young and fresh as a spare room. We had
poor luck on the Banks, for the reason that I found aout after,
— we hed never struck the Banks at all, and hed been a-cod-
fishin’ off bottom. Howsomever, we worked up the coast, —
hevin’ no charts, from pint to pint, and from light to light, fur
several days ; then, water runnin’ low, we hailed a lumberman
baound daown, who gave us the bearin’s of a place tew north’ard
and east’ard. We kept up till we struck a bay and run abaout
twenty miles; then, night a-comiu’ on, we come tew anchor
abaout three miles from shore, in abaout five fathom, and,
everythin’ bein’ snug, all hands, four of us, turned in in ham¬
mocks slung in the hold, that bein’ the coolest place. Well, the
next mornin , John Hanson sings aout, ‘ D’ye hear that, Sam ? ’
‘ What ? ’ says I. 1 Hogs,’ says he. ‘ Go ’long,’ says I. But,
sure enough, there was the greatest gruntin’ and squealin’ yaou
ever heard.

“ ‘ Queer country this,’ says John ; ‘ hogs swim aout tew ves¬
sels.’ I thought so myself, but I didn’t let on. The gruntin’
was gittin’ wuss and wuss, so I reached aout my head, and it

An Ocean Swordsman

was jest light enough tew see the snout of a big hog lookin’
daown the hold. That settled it. When it came tew a drove
of hogs swim min’ off tew a vessel and climbin’ aboard, it was
sartin time tew turn aout. I rolled aout first, and daown I went ;
the old schooner had a lurch tew port on her, so you couldn’t
stand up. ‘ We’re going daown,’ says Hanson, rollin’ aout.
‘Nonsense!’ says I ; ‘she’s on her beam ends,’ and with that
we all made a break for the hatch and come on deck. I ain’t
no hand tew be took aback, but for a spell we sot on the
combin’ of the hatch in a regular sog. She was high and dry,
with fifteen fathoms of cable aout, and hogs a-feedin’ and rootin’
araound the starn post, and some on ’em on deck. Ye
couldn’t see water fur ten miles away. We was powerful sot
back. ‘ Is she insured?’ says John. ‘ I believe she is,’ says I.
‘ Well,’ says John, somethin’s happened, — ’arthquake, or a
powerful parch, — and I’m fur strikin’ in.’ So we packed up
and walked ashore through the mud, nigh on tew three miles.
At last we come across a man diggin’ clams ! ‘ What station is

this ? ’ says John Hanson. ‘ That’s Monckton over there,’ says
he. ‘ What’s the flat called?’ says John. ‘ Oh,’ says the man,
‘ this ere’s the Bay o’ F undy, and if yaou’re a-goin’ to Monck¬
ton ye’d better shake a leg afore flood-tide.’ ‘ High tides,
here?’ says John, kind o’ knowin’-like. ‘Tolerable,’ says the
man ; ‘a like o’ fifty feet or so.1

“ Well, three days later, we was tew home and aout o’ com¬
mission. We’d never heard of no big tides, and I reckon this
is the first time the tellin’ o’ that ere master parch has been let
aout. Dretful green ! — dretful ! ” And Captain Sam leaned
over the binnacle, grew a deeper red, and laughed spasmodically,
gradually regaining his former equilibrium.

“ And the sword-fish ? ” I asked.

Marvels of Animal Life .

“Oh, yes, the so’d-fish. Well, we found it alongside, left by
the tide ; that’s what the hogs was after.”

During this recital we had been gaining on the keg, and now,
at a word from the skipper, the dory that was bounding along
astern was hauled alongside, the painter tossed in, and the entire
port watch, numbering two souls, and the passenger, as volun¬
teer, literally tumbled in, and were soon moving toward the
jumping buoy, that was now almost stationary.

“ Yaou clap on to the keg, mister,” said John, the veritable
Hanson of the great parch, “ and we’ll lay you alongside.”

A few sturdy strokes, and the keg swung by, and was
secured ; oars were jerked in, and not a moment too soon was
the line slipped into a crotch in the bow, for the gamey fish,
feeling the line tauten, leaped into activity, jerking the volunteer
ignominiously among the bailers.

The cry “ starn all,” in a literal sense, was not needed ; we
were all there, and with bow half under, were headed out,
taking everything as it came. A fair sea was running, and
soon our small craft started an opposition wave, that, curling
several feet ahead, seemed leading us to victory or a capsize.

“ She won’t heft many o’ them,” said John, as a big wave
came slashing in upon us. “We’ll have to get in that slack.”
And seizing the line, he passed it aft, and the struggle, three to
one, commenced. To gain a fathom of line was hard work, the
fish now using desperate efforts, making long surges to the right
and left, or cleaving the waves its entire length, in vain
endeavors for freedom. In twenty minutes we were in sight
of the monster, and, with a shout, all hands laid on, and the
game was alongside.

“ Pass the line astern ! ” shouted John, and in the struggle
down we went with a crash, quickly climbing to windward to

An Ocea7i Swordsman .

avert the catastrophe threatened by the line fouling in a row-
lock. For a moment we were upon a dizzy height — on the
upper rail ; then the line slackened and cleared, and with a rush
was passed to the scull-hole in the stern.

“ Lay on naow, hard ! ” shouted some one, and lay on we did,
knee-deep in the water shipped during the flurry. One good
pull all together, and the line was “ chock up,” and the fish fast
astern. The green hand venturing to prospect the field, the
ugly sword came flying over the dory, creating a “ down-
bridge” movement. The sinewy form bent in great curves,
straightening out with extreme rapidity, making slashing blows
against the boat, while the sharp tail quivered and glanced, cut¬
ting the water like a knife.

To the disinterested observer it would have been an exhilar¬
ating spectacle. The volunteer, being in the front row, was
moved from not altogether humanitarian feelings, to cut the
rope ; but this now proved unnecessary : the game was up.
The gallant swordsman was weakening ; the slashes, rushes
and bounds became less frequent, and finally, as the sharp sword
came against the gunwale, John Hanson caught it with a round
turn and securely lashed it high out of water : the gamey fish
was conquered.

“ It’s kind of a question in my mind,” screamed Captain
Sam, as the Thumbscrew rounded to, “ whether yaou caught the
fish, or he caught yaou.”

The painter was thrown aboard, and a running bow-line
passed around the fish’s tail, and as the dory dropped astern the
Xiphias gladius was hoisted aboard, the schooner filling away to
bide the call of the fresh man who now went aloft. The fish
proved to be nearly nine feet long, with a perfect sword, so
well tempered that it had received no damage from the heavy

68 Marvels of Animal Life.

blows against the dory. Every feature betokened speed and
activity ; its whole appearance was rakish, that of the
privateer ; the dorsal was tall and graceful, the tail keeled, the
lower jaw sharp, and the back a rich bluish black grading off
to a clear silvery white below.

“ He’s good fur eight dollars,” remarked Captain Sam, as we
went aft after relieving the monster of several parasites — Pen-
ellafilosa, etc. — that infested him.

“ Yaou see,” he continued, “ they’re a kind of mackerel — be¬
long to the same family — and there’s always a big demand fur
’em. Strike a ship? Well, I should say so. I shipped sev¬
eral years ago on the Maria Jane from Gloucester, and while
a-mackerel-fishin’, we was struck by a so’d-fish. The first thing
we knowed the wheel wouldn’t work, and, on lookin’ over,
there was a so’d a-stickin’ in between the rudder and the post,
broken off short, and it took us a couple of hours to git it aout.
I reckon it kills ’em in the long run. It’s a common thing fur
us to strike ’em without any so’ds. Sometimes they break ’em
in whales, or agin’ vessels ; and I’ve hauled ’em in when their
heads was all mud, showin’ how they’d rushed agin’ the bottom,
and perhaps broken it off in that way. But when the so’d’s
gone they’re always poor ; so it makes me think they don’t
feed without it. The habit’s so strong in ’em to strike a fish,
that they think they must do it. Why, I’ve tossed a dead
porgy to one and seen him knock it up and daown, jist like a
game of bat and ball, afore he’d touch it, and then kind of
slide under and come up and take it. I’ve caught ’em on a
hook and line, and in a herrin’-net, — and bought a new net,
tew, with the very money I got fur ’em ; obliged ter do it.
But there’s one curious thing ; yaou can’t find a so’d-fisherman
on the coast of Maine, thet, winter or summer, ever see a young

An Ocean Swordsman.

one. There’s a good many folks disbelieve they hev young • but
I’ve heard tell haow they breed on the other side of the water.”

The captain’s idea was the right one, and, on careful inquiry,
I could not find a fisherman on the shore that had ever seen a
young sword-fish. They belong to one of a number, including
the horse-mackerel, that perhaps cross the Atlantic, depositing
their eggs, for some unknown reason, on European shores, or in
unknown waters. In the Mediterranean Sea, the females ap¬
proach the shore in the latter part of spring or the first of sum¬
mer. The white compact flesh of the young fish is held in great
esteem, that of the adult resembling the tunny, and preferred to
the sturgeon or halibut, which it somewhat resembles in flavor.

The young sword-fish differ greatly in appearance from the
adult. The young of the genus Histiophorus, when about nine
millimetres long, have, according to Gunther, jaws of equal
length, armed with sharp teeth ; the dorsal and anal fins are a
low-fringe ; and the ventrals make their appearance as a pair
of short buds. When fourteen millimetres long, the young fish
has still the same spines on the head, but the dorsal fin has be¬
come much higher, and the ventral filaments have grown to a
great length. At a third stage, when the fish has attained to a
length of sixty millimetres, the upper jaw is considerably pro¬
longed beyond the lower, losing its teeth ; the spines of the head
are shortened, and the fins assume nearly the shape which they
retain in mature individuals. Young sword-fishes without ven¬
tral fins ( Xiphias ) undergo similar changes ; and, besides, their
skin is covered with small rough excrescences longitudinally ar¬
ranged, which continue to be visible after the young fish has in
other respects assumed the mature form.

The sword-fish industry on the Maine coast and south of Cape
Cod is an important one, employing a large number of men and

Marvels of Animal Life.

boats. The pursuit is one of the most ancient on record. Strabo
mentions it as having been followed in the days of Ulysses.
Pliny associates the fish with several others as “ suitable to use
as salted fish,” and Rondelet describes it under the name “ Pois¬
son Nomm6 Empereur .” In the Greek it was Xiphias ; in the
Latin, Gladius; the Italians call it Pesce spada ; while in France
it is known as Heron du mer, and Poisson Empereur.

In the Straits of Messina the fishery is of great importance,
numbers of men from Messina and Reggio being employed. The
boats at night are lighted with huge flambeaux, which are sup¬
posed to attract the fish, while a man stationed aloft upon a sin¬
gle mast announces the approach of the game. The Sicilian
fishermen, as well as those of Reggio, chant a peculiar jargon
during the chase, supposed to be a sentence in Greek, to charm
the fish within reach of their harpoons, the common belief being
that if the fish hears a word of Italian he will dart to the bot¬
tom. Kircher took down the words, and found that they were
more like Hebrew ; and he suggests that they are a remnant of
the ancient Phoenician tongue.

SAILOR-FISH.

There are three genera well known : the common Xiphias , a
species of which is found in South -American waters twenty-five
feet long, the bill — or bayonet — fish ( Tetrapturus ), and the great
sail — or sailor — fish ( Histiophorus ) of the Mediterranean and In¬
dian Ocean. The last attains, near Ceylon, a length of twenty-
five or thirty feet, the enormous dorsal fin, which is in this
locality retained in the adult fish, often being ten feet in height,
and presenting a strange appearance, rushing along out of water,
and scintillating with blue and golden tints. {Plate XI.)

An Ocean Swordsman.

Many interesting cases illustrating the pugnacity of these
swordsmen have been recorded. Sir Joseph Banks cites an
instance where the entire sword was driven into the solid wood
of a ship ; and in another case, in which the sword had pene¬
trated the copper sheathing and three and a half inches of solid
oak, competent judges estimated that to drive a pointed bolt of
iron of the same size and form to the same depth would require
nine or ten blows of a hammer weighing thirty pounds.

Professor G. Brown Goode, in his material for the history of
the sword-fishes, enumerates various instances showing that, far
from being unusual, these attacks of sword-fish are of yearly
occurrence.

In the London Daily News of December 11th, 1868, the
following statement is made :

“ Last Wednesday the Court of Common Pleas — rather a
strange place, by-the-by, for inquiring into the natural history
of fishes — was engaged for several hours in trying to determine
under what circumstances a sword-fish might be able to escape
scot-free after thrusting his snout into the side of a ship. The
gallant ship Dreadnought, thoroughly repaired, and class A 1,
at Lloyd’s, had been insured for three thousand pounds against
all the risks of the seas. She sailed on March 10th, 1864, from
Colombo, for London. Three days later, the crew, while
fishing, hooked a sword-fish. Xipkias , however, broke the line,
and a few moments afterward leaped half out of water, with
the object it should seem of taking a look at his persecutor, the
Dreadnought. Probably he satisfied himself that the enemy was
some abnormally large cetacean, which it was his natural duty to
attack forthwith. Be this as it may, the attack was made, and
at four o’clock the next morning, the captain was awakened with
the unwelcome intelligence that the ship had sprung aleak. She

Marvels of Animal Life.

was taken back to Colombo, and thence to Cochin, where she
was ‘ hove down/ Near the keel was found a round hole,
an inch in diameter running completely through the copper
sheathing and planking.

“ As attacks by sword-fish are included among sea-risks, the
insurance company was willing to pay the damages claimed by
the owners of the ship if only it could be proved that the hole
had really been made by a sword-fish. No instance had ever
been recorded in which a sword-fish had been able to withdraw
his sword after attacking a ship. A defence was founded on
the possibility that the hole had been made in some other way.
Professor Owen and Mr. Frank Buckland gave their evidence,
but neither of them could state positively whether a sword-fish
which had passed its beak through three inches of stout
planking could withdraw without the loss of its sword. Mr.
Buckland said that fish have no power of ‘ backing/ and
expressed his belief that he could hold a sword-fish by the beak ;
but then he admitted that the fish had considerable lateral
power, and might so ‘ wriggle its sword out of a hole/ And so
the insurance company will have to pay nearly six hundred
pounds because an ill-tempered fish objected to be hooked and
took its revenge by running full tilt against coj^per sheathing
and oak planking/’

In 1875, the Gloucester steamer Wyoming was similarly
struck, so that the men had to take to the pumps to keep her

free ; and a like experience was that of the English brigantine

Fortunate. Her captain reported that while on his passage
from Rio Grande, his ship was struck by a large fish, which
made the vessel shake very much. Thinking it had been
merely struck by the tail of some sea-monster, he took no

further notice of the matter ; but, after discharging cargo at

PLATE IX

DRY BURROW OF THE LUNG FISH

An Ocean Swordsman .

Runcorn and coming into the Canada half-tide dock, he found
one of the plank ends in the stern split, and on closer examina¬
tion discovered that a sword-fish had driven his sword com¬
pletely through the plank, four inches in thickness, sending the
point of the sword nearly eight inches farther. The fish, in its
Struve, broke the sword olf level with the outside of the
vessel, losing nearly a foot of the weapon. There can be no
doubt that this somewhat singular occurrence took place when
the vessel was struck as Captain Harwood describes.

{The experience of Captain Wm. Taylor, of Mystic, with one
of these monsters, is to be remembered. He started from that
place in October, 1832, on a fishing voyage to Key West, in
company with the smack Morning Star. They were off Cape
Hatteras, the wind blowing heavily from the northwest, and the
smack under double-reefed sail, when at ten o’clock in the even¬
ing they were struck by a “ woho,” which shocked the vessel all
over. The smack was leaking badly, and they made a signal to
the Morning Star to keep close by them. The next morning
they found the leak, and both smacks kept off to Charleston.
On arrival thev took out the ballast, hove her out, aud found
that the sword had gone through the planking, timber and ceil¬
ing. The plank was two inches thick, the timber five inches,
and the ceiling one and a half inches white oak. The sword
projected two inches through the ceiling, on the inside of the
“ after-run.” It struck close by a butt on the outside, which
caused the leak. They took out and replaced a piece of the plank,
and proceeded on their voyage.

On the return of the whale-ship Fortune to Plymouth, Mass.,
in 1827, the stump of a sword-blade of this fish was noticed
projecting like a cog outside, which, on being traced, had been
driven through the copper sheathing, an inch-board undersheath-

Marvels of Animal Life.

ing, a three-inch plank of hard wood, the solid white oak timber
twelve inches thick, then through another two and a half-inch
hard-oak ceiling, and lastly penetrated the head of an oil-cask,
where it stuck, not a drop of the oil having escaped.

In a calm day in the summer of 1832, on the coast of
Massachusetts, a pilot was rowing his little skiff leisurely along,
when he was suddenly aroused from his seat by a thrust from
below by a sword-fish, who drove his sharp instrument more
than three feet up through the bottom. ( Plate XII.) With rare
presence of mind, with the butt of an oar he broke it off level
with the floor before the fish had time to withdraw it. Fortu¬
nately, the thrust was not directly upward. Had it been so, the
frail boat would have been destroyed.

The secret of these attacks upon vessels may perhaps be ex¬
plained by the fact that the ship is mistaken for some enemy.

On a long reach to the eastward, yet within hearing of the
groaning buoy off Boon Island, we captured another sword-fish,
weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, and in the course of the
day four fine specimens were added to the number, deciding our
skipper to find a market ; and, after a consultation with John
Hanson, who was a third owner in the Thumbscrew, in which
the fall of a tossed penny seemed to shape the course, the sheets
were slackened off, and wing and wing the sword-fisherman bore
away, by the Isles of Shoals, for Gloucester town.

CHAPTER VII.

FINNY LIGHT-BEAKERS.

Among the most interesting light-givers of the abyssal depths
of the ocean are the fishes. Some have remarkably large eyes,
perhaps emitting light themselves ; others have curious phos¬
phorescent organs about their heads and bodies. The late Pro¬
fessor Willemoes-Suhm saw directly the phosphorescence of the
curious fish Sternoptyx , and records it as a most wonderful ex¬
hibition ; while of another he wrote, “ It hung in the net like a
golden star.” Another striking light-giver is the brilliant lamp-
fish Scopelus resplendens ( Plate XIII.) ; on its sides and various
parts of the body are numbers of curious round pearly spots
that emit a phosphorescent light, while upon the forehead a bril¬
liant blaze is seen, scintillating as it rushes along, beaming like
a miniature headlight of a locomotive, and where a shoal of them
is seen, we can imagine them the ignus fatui of the sea; the lights
moving up and down, now here, now there, appearing and re¬
appearing in a strange ghostly manner. When the water about
them is phosphorescent of itself, the scene is still more striking :
flashes of flame dart across the field of vision, and here the out¬
line of the fish is seen in fire that is lost in a brilliant glare
as the finny light-bearer darts away, followed by a train of
radiance.

In another species, the saury, Scopelus Humboldti , we find the

same singular phosphorescent spots that have occasioned so much

discussion among naturalists. Although it is only quite lately

7 6 Marvels of Animal Life.

that these have attracted any special attention in other fishes,
their presence in Scopelus was long ago noted by various ob¬
servers.

Very similar in general appearance to the Sternoptyx is the
Argyropelecus ( Plate XIV.), a quaintly formed fish from the waters
of the Mediterranean. If we examine it, as did Drs. Ussow
and Leydig, we shall find that there is one spot in front of the
eye, and behind it two ; six smaller ones are found on the gill-
membrane, and six larger ones on the throat ; by the gill-cleft
we see four, the largest on the body, of which two lie in front,
and two behind the cleft. At the side of the body, and close to
the abdominal profile, there are twelve, which decrease in size
from before backward ; and above these there is a second row of
six, all of which are of very much the same size. Between the
ventral and anal fins there are again four, and behind the
anal fin there are six others, of which the smallest are in the
middle. Just in front of the tail fin we find the last quartet of
these organs. This gives us fifty-three in all, and as they are
paired, we find one hundred and six of these comparatively
large spots on the body of this small fish.

Professor Leydig entertains the belief that the spots are not
alone luminous, but may be divided into three groups : (1) eye¬
like organs, (2) mother-of-pearl-like organs, and (3) luminous
organs. In the fish Chauliodus there are thousands of these
spots ; enough, if they all give light, to mark the creature
against the water in lines of fire, while in the Stomias, with its
snake-like body and frightful head, we can imagine rowg of
lamps, serving as warning-lights, if indeed its hideous appear¬
ance was not enough to repel all curious fishes.

An interesting example of the large-eyed light-givers, is the
Ipnops, a new fish found by the “ Challenger,” its great orbs

Finny Light- Bearers.

being described as blazing with phosphorescence in the night.
One of the most familiar light-givers, however, is the moon-
fish, or sun-fish, of our coast. In the Mediterranean they are
very common, and at night present a remarkable appearance,
moving along like gigantic globes of light, or resembling the
reflection of the moon upon the water. When numbers of
them swim along together, the huge dorsal cutting the water,
that breaks itself into ripples of molten silver, the scene is de¬
scribed as being magnificent in the extreme.

The curious faculty of phosphorescent light appearing both in
life and death in the same subject, is nowhere so well shown as
in the fishes, where many that have not been light-givers during
life now seem invested with this light-emitting power. In the
mackerels, pompinos, jacks, etc., this is especially noticeable.
If they are touched, the luminous substance, which seems to be
oily, comes off upon the hands, so that they appear as if rubbed
with phosphorus. A German scientist says if the fish are
placed in water the light is communicated to it, showing that it
is some peculiar secretion — a seeming combustion without heat,
at least, the most delicate instruments known to science fail to
detect it.

The phosphorescence of dead fish is not confined to salt water,
as the carp has been seen to gleam with light. During the
summers of 1880 and 1881, thexlaily papers from time to time
treated their readers to selections from the Flying Dutchman,
revised, however, to suit the times. The inhabitants of the
eastern end of Long Island and “ down Block Island way,”
according to these romancers of the pen, were in mortal terror
of a phantom ship that Avas often seen cruising about the
vicinity. The accounts were denied by many readers, and the
war of words succeeded in drawing out a reputable citizen of

yS Marvels of Animal Life.

Rhode Island, who affirmed that he had observed the phantom.
He described her as a full-rigged ship, and had seen her every
year for a long time; sometimes she hove in sight off the harbor
at dusk, rushing on toward shore, and when about to dash
against the rocks, would disappear as suddenly as she came.
This much respected but credulous gentleman was a firm
believer in the phantom ship, for the very good reason that he
had seen her beating to windward when there was not a breath
of wind. “ The first time I saw it,” he said to an acquaintance,
“ our yacht was lying off Gardiner’s Bay one warm summer
night, when one of the men, an old sailor, standing by me, said,
c There’s a sail beyond ; the wind’s a-freshening outside.’ It
was nearly dark, but out on the sound appeared a vessel that
every moment came nearer. There was not a breath of wind,
yet on she came, the foam piling up under her chains, and
everything standing. ‘ That aint a vessel,’ said the old man,
after we had gazed at the strange sight awhile in wonderment.
The great white mass had come on so rapidly that she now
seemed within a fourth of a mile of us. ‘ What else is it ? ’ I
called, as he moved away. ‘ It’s a barque, and she’ll run us
down ! ’ he answered. ‘ Ahoy, there ! ’ I hailed to the man on
the for’castle, rushing forward at the same time to warn them ;
and springing into the rigging, I swung out and hailed the
craft, ‘ Ship ahoy ! Bear away ! Ship ahoy ! ’ But it was too
late. I clung riveted to the spot, and with another cry to the
men to jump for her chains, I stood ready to follow suit, think¬
ing it our only chance. On she came ; I could almost feel the
spray from her cut-water, when I felt a tap on my shoulder,
and the old tar spoke up, ‘ I told you that ’ere wasn’t a living
ship.’ And, sure enough, she was gone ; whether up or down,
in the air, or where, I can’t say ; but I saw her as distinctly as

Finny Light-Bearers.

I ever saw anything in my life, and have seen the same thing
again, many and many a time.”

One peculiarity about the phantom ship is that she always ap¬
pears at or near night, and there is no reason to doubt that some¬
thing in appearance resembling a ship has been seen by many
along the New England coast, and the phantom vessel, in the
author’s opinion, will continue to cruise about and be seen along
shore by those who stay out o’nights, until the last run of Men¬
haden. Every season from eight to ten millions of these fishes
are caught in Long Island Sound, their oil amounting to six gal¬
lons per thousand. That these fish emit an oily substance every
fisherman knows ; while many others who go down to the sea in
ships not as professionals, must have seen the immense “ slicks ”
of oil, often miles in extent, left upon the water by them. Even
if each fish emits an infinitesimal amount of such matter, the
effect of millions of such emissions rising to the surface by natu¬
ral means or from wounded or dying fish, as the school moves
along, might, under certain conditions, become luminous, and, to
the imagination of lookers on, assume the guise of the famous
Dutchman.

The phosphorescence of crabs was first discovered by Sir Joseph
Banks on his voyage to Rio Janeiro from Madeira. A small
crustacean ( Cancer fulgens) was taken aboard one evening, which
gave a wondrous exhibition of its light-emitting power. Its en¬
tire surface seemed bathed with a white flame, that flashed and
sparkled like living fire, and so resembled it that later one of the
sailors picked the crab up, thinking it a coal that had rolled
out of the galley fire.

Mm. Edoux and Toulezet, two French naturalists who made
a scientific voyage around the world, observed that certain small
phosphorescent Crustacea sometimes secrete a peculiar phosphores-

Marvels of Animal Life.

cent matter, and that when they are irritated they send forth
magnificent flashes of light. These gentlemen collected a cer¬
tain quantity of the phosphoric substance, and found it to be yel¬
lowish, viscous, and soluble in water, communicating its lumi¬
nous property to this liquid, but only for an instant or two. It
lost its luminosity when it had been separated for a few moments
from the body of the animal.

The deep sea crabs have phosphorescent eyes, especially Geryon
tridens, Gonoplax , Dorynchus , and * Munida ; the latter being
particularly noticeable for the balls of fire into which the tips
of their stalked eyes seem to have been converted. In some the
eyes have totally lost their proper functions, and assumed those
of phosphorescent organs.

The little Cyclops of our fresh water ponds, that form so
beautiful an object under the microscope, have been observed to
gleam with a silvery light. A remarkable spectacle in which
these single-eyed crustaceans took part was observed near
Bloomington, Ill., a few years ago in a rain-storm during the
night. Before daybreak the gutters, roofs and streets were
found to be covered with quantities of these little creatures that
appeared like molten metal, gleaming and glowing with a
wonderful light. They had been caught up by a whirlwind
from some distant point, and deposited here by the rain. In
the daytime they presented the appearance of minute yellow and
reddish specks, some of them possessing an extremely brilliant
and vivid coloring.

Along our sea-shores we may often see under the rocks, cling¬
ing to the eel-grass, in some pool left by the tide, gleaming spots
that move about in erratic courses ; now many collecting
together, then breaking up into small patches of light which in
turn separate again. They are curious crustaceans, known

PLATE X

MARTINIQUE TREE TOAD WITH YOUNG CLINGING TO ITS BACK

8 1

Finny Light- Bearers.

scientifically as the Idotea phosphorea. We shall find that they
are usually spotted or entirely a bright yellow, a peculiarity that
the reader will notice in nearly all light-giving animals.

In the Arctic regions beautiful lights have been observed that
are due to a minute crustacean. Lieut. Bellot first witnessed it
in the North American polar regions, and Nordenskiold refers
to it in his voyage of the Vega, the most brilliant displays
being seen at Mussel Bay. He says : u If during winter one
walks along the beach on the snow, which at ebb is dry, but
at flood-tide is more or less drenched through with sea water,
there rises at every step an exceedingly intense, beautiful bluish-
white flash of light, which in the spectroscope gives a one-col¬
ored labrador — blue spectrum. This beautiful flash of light
arises from the snow that shows no luminosity before it is
stepped upon. The flash lasts only a few moments, but is so
intense that it appears as if a sea of fire would open at every
step a man takes. It produces indeed a peculiar impression on
dark and stormy winter days (the temperature of the air was
sometimes in the neighborhood of the freezing point of mercury)
to walk along in this mixture of snow and flame, which at every
step one takes splashes about in all directions, shining with a
light so intense that one is ready to fear that his shoes or clothes
will take fire.”

The cause of this phenomenon is a little crustacean, Metridia
arinata , that much resembles the cyclops, and the great changes
of temperature to which it is subjected in the snow sludge seem
to have no effect upon it.

Many of the worms common on our own shores are interest¬
ing light-givers, some rising to the surface at night, presenting
a brilliant appearance as they wind their way over the sea.

The most striking forms are found in the families Polynoidce ,
6

Marvels of Animal Life.

Syllidce , Chaetopteridce , and Poly cirrus. The first emits a
greenish light at the attachment of each scale. In the second
the surfaces of the feet seem to be the luminous points. In the
third the light appears about the tenth joint, while the Poly -
cirrus is a veritable fiery worm, its entire surface gleaming with
a vivid bluish light.

To observe these and other small luminous animals, as the
Noctilucce , etc., a night-laboratory should be set up upon some
rocky point where pools are left at low tide. A dark night
should be selected, and with a good microscope and a bull’s-eye
lantern, a very enjoyable evening may be passed. The weed
clinging to the rocks and partly submerged, will afford abundant
material, as when a wave recedes, the pendent bunch will -often
be seen to fairly blaze with the luminous forms. There is an
additional zest added to the investigations in this direction from
the fact that the subject of phosphorescence is still in its infancy
as regards explanation, and comparatively nothing is known
concerning the why and wherefore of the phenomena, that ap¬
pear in life and death, in growth, and in decay.

CHAPTER VIII.

OLD FRIENDS.

Our pets were perhaps more remarkable for their variety than
for their display of intelligence, which was not strange, consider¬
ing that, as a rule, they were not selected from the high and ex¬
alted ranks of society, that includes the monkeys and parrots,
but formed a part of the great class popularly called the lower
animals. Perhaps some of them would hardly be thought to
come under the head of pets when I confess that in several in¬
stances they were not in confinement at all, but had the range
of the great coral shoal, only restricted by the line of breakers
that pounded upon the outer fringing reef around our tropical
home. In the shallow lagoon were numbers of what we called
heads of coral, enormous oval masses of astrea and meandrina,
sometimes four feet across and three or four feet in height.
Many of these were hollowed out from various causes ; the coral
polyps perhaps being killed upon the upper surface at extreme
low tides, various worms helping on the process of disintegra¬
tion, until finally the head was a gigantic coral vase peopled by
numerous strange forms.

Now as many fishes, crabs, and other animals exhibit a par¬
tiality for their homes just as we do, I could almost always find
the same animals on succeeding visits ; and as these heads were
visited many hundreds of times during the years spent on the
reef, you can well imagine that we became very friendly.

But who, you will ask, were our friends? First there were

Marvels of Animal Life.

the craw-fishes. They occupied the first floor, and lived beneath
the edge of the heads where they had excavated holes in the sand
for the purpose, and all around the borders you could see their
whip-like feelers moving nervously to and fro. They were good
and valued friends of the coral, as by making their homes there
they prevented the fatal inroads of sand that would have
destroyed the delicate polyps.

In the vase, or natural aquarium, would be found numbers
of richly tinted anemones, several young craw-fish, sea-eggs
(black echini, with long needle-like spines), a variety of star¬
fishes, curious blue crabs, and above all, numbers of small
fishes, from their beautiful colors, known as angel fishes. The
latter in their movements were extremely graceful, and they
would often allow us to approach within a few feet of them.
In deeper water, in swimming along the face of a branch coral
bed, I have been so near some of these wondrous birds of the
sea that I could almost touch them, and of course could see
them distinctly, although we were both perhaps twenty feet
below the surface.

One day in visiting a favorite coral head, I noticed several
small cow-fishes come out of a hole, and as they were within
easy reach, I extended my hand slowly, when to my astonish¬
ment they met me half-way, examining my fingers curiously,
being especially attracted by the nails at which they delicately
nibbled. I then opened my fingers, and they swam between
them without showing the slightest fear, and as I was very
careful not to alarm them, we were soon on terms of close
friendship. I next ventured to lift them in my hand, and as I
raised one up nearer the surface, its brother or cousin would
follow along as if determined not to be left behind. Finally,
on another occasion, I lifted one from the water, where it

Old Friends.

presented a comical appearance, not being able to frisk about
like other fishes, as its body was encased in a hard armor, only
the tail and fins being movable. The position was not a natural
one, so I soon returned the little creature ; but even this rough
treatment did not cause them to lose faith in me, and for a long
time I visited the head, occasionally treating them to soft bits
of craw-fish ( Palinurus ) and other dainties that they were fond of

One of the commonest forms upon the reef was the hermit-
crab. Several kinds were known: one that lived entirely in the
water, a great red-clawed fellow that hauled about a shell of
the horse conch, Strombus gigas , and others much smaller that
were always found on shore. Almost every empty shell upon
the sands was occupied by one of these curious little fellows, as
they are so formed that an artificial home is necessary to their
safety, and this is changed several times a year, or as fast as they
outgrow it.

The land-crabs were often very ornamental, having red and
purple claws. I generally kept several in my room, and to
render them still more attractive ground off the rough
outside of their shell, which was usually a Top-shell ( Trochus ),
exposing the rich pearly interior, so that in houses of pearl they
presented an appearance altogether gorgeous. The clank, clank,
of their shells could be heard at any time about the room, and
I found them in all sorts of strange places. One day in lift¬
ing over a board pile to find some crabs, this being a favorite
place for them, as well as for scorpions, I came upon a large old-
fashioned clay tobacco pipe, stemless and evidently cast aside.
Wondering how it came in such a position, I picked it up and
solved the mystery, for snugly coiled up within was the quaint
old fellow shown in the accompanying picture, suspended from
a branch. ( Plate XV.) The old pipe-bowl had been selected

Marvels of Animal Life.

as a home, and a very good one it proved. This unique example
prompted us to adopt the crab as a special pet, and the position
shown in the picture was a result of its venturesome nature, as
it took the liberty to pass out of its bounds and climb a neigh¬
boring shrub.

Diogenes, as we named it, became very tame. Its actions
were exceedingly grotesque ; especially so was its passage up the
corner of a bookcase, on which it crawled daily to get a drink of
water which was placed there upon a ledge. This species usually
occupied a trochus shell about half the size of one's closed hand ;
but our pet had a freak for something out of the common, and
adopted the old pipe. We took several of these hermits North,
where they lived over one season, moulting twice, and became
tame enough to eat from one’s hand.

Later we found another hermit in a pipe-bowl, this time a
marine form, much smaller and less interesting, as it was ex¬
tremely timid, withdrawing into the pipe at the slightest warn¬
ing.

Several gophers, land turtles, were found upon the key and
kept as pets, but they remained unimpressed by all acts of
friendship, as did a young hawk-bill turtle that we rescued from
the tentacles of a physalia. The hawk-bill would feed from my
hand, but always resisted any further advances.

The most interesting of our reptilian pets were the recently
hatched green and loggerhead turtles. These curious little
creatures were often caught coming from the nest, and at one
time I had several hundred, each about an inch and a half long,
loggerheads in miniature, in our study at the same time. This
apartment was built at the edge of the water, a door leading
from it into an inclosed aquarium, and it was interesting to note
how well their instinct served them, as when both doors were

Old Friends.

closed, and the little creatures were turned about repeatedly to
confuse them, they would turn as soon as placed upon the floor,
and head directly for the door that led to their native element,
clustering about it in groups, and when it was opened, tumble
headlong into the welcome water.

Besides these humbler pets, there were a number of goats,
one of which deserves mention for her remarkable - intelligence
and distinctive traits. As a pet she was like a dog, following
the members of the household about, and insisting upon remain¬
ing in the house, showing a decided preference for the library,
where she contented herself with the bindings of books. In
fact, Bon was an expensive luxury. Numerous valuable articles,
such as lace collars, important papers, Panama hats, etc., being
considered by her as choice delicacies. One of the last of her
depredations that I remember witnessing, was seeing her leave
my side and rush at a box that stood among the trees, and seize
a long, eight-page letter that some one had just written and left
for a moment.

Bon was thoroughly aristocratic ; she would not associate with
the other goats ; and to show how she recognized the power of
rank, I will cite an instance. In her prime the fort was garri¬
soned by a regiment of volunteers. Bon was a great pet among
the officers, but had an intense dislike for a private soldier, for
the simple reason that whenever she attempted to pass the sally¬
port, they drove her back and occasionally caught her.

One day, however, an idea entered Boil’s head that completely
outwitted the men. When she wished to pass the sentry she
would wander in that direction, nibbling along by the palm trees,
or perhaps lie down until an officer came in sight, when she
would quickly join him and follow along, and while the men and
sentinels were standing at attention and saluting their superior,

Marvels of Animal Life.

she Would pass through the gate in safety, close at the heels of
her protector. This ruse was adopted nearly every day, and
became thoroughly appreciated by the men. Finally it was
taken up by other goats of the garrison, who took advantage
of the situation and followed Bon, and the men standing at
attention would have difficulty in repressing a smile, as the
officer of the day passed by, followed by Bon with her glisten¬
ing brass-tipped horns and shining black and white coat, who
formed a gallant leader to the herd of goats behind.

Bon was not devoid of humor, and was possessed of the most
exuberant spirits, one of her tricks being to rush at the side of
a house, plant her four hoofs firmly on it, several feet from the
ground, and leap away with extraordinary agility. This per¬
formance was repeated time after time, by bidding her do it, and
when applauded she would toss her head as if decidedly pleased.

When we finally left the fortress, Bon was domiciled at an
island near Havana, where we afterward learned she lived to a
good old age. She had been a faithful friend, and supplied us
with all the milk we had, as there were no cows. But it must
be admitted it was an ungracious gift, as it generally took three
persons to milk her; one to hold her head, another her hind feet,
while the third milked her. Even then she managed to upset all
three and the pail, at times.

Among the pets that from time to time have taken our atten¬
tion, might be mentioned an iguana, an American chameleon,
and divers horned toads that formed interesting specimens in
which to study the changes of color described in the chapter on
mimicry. At one time we had forty different spiders domesti¬
cated in glass bottles that were filled with their webs.

Snakes and toads were not the least among the dependents of
our Northern home, and one of the latter was especially esteemed

PLATE XI.

THE SAILOR FISH OF CEYLONESE WATERS

Old Friends.

for its skill as an architect. It had selected for its summer
house a location over which a stream of water ran every time a
shower came up, and, consequently, the pit became flooded.
Several lessons of this kind evidently made his toadship put on
his thinking cap, for one day I discovered that the hole had
been enlarged by an ingeniously devised chamber, or tunnel,
that led up and away over the pit, so that the latter was now a
safety drain for the real abode, in which the toad resided in
perfect security.

Our flying-squirrel, notwithstanding his fancy for forming a
nest out of a certain silk dress, was a most entertaining little
fellow. Often has he sat on my inkstand, pretending to handle
a nut, as I wrote, and endeavoring to distract my ideas by the
twinkling of his bright black eyes ; now suddenly darting up
my sleeve and into a pocket ; now on my head, or taking a
flying leap to the floor where he scampered around the room in
a wild and gleeful race.

One day he crawled into the lining of a lady visitor’s bonnet,
and went to sleep, only awakening when the owner had nearly
placed it on her head, creating, as you may think, a deal of
excitement. Our friends were not alone the victims of this
mischievous creature. One night after retiring I was aroused
by a loud roaring in my ears, and as I had been taking quinine,
I presumed that was the occasion of the sound, and that I had
taken an overdose. But as it momentarily grew louder, and I
imagined that my head was whirling about, somewhat alarmed
I got up, when it instantly ceased. Astonished I struck a light,
and going to my pillow, there in the pillow case, just where
my ear had been, I found Peter, for so we called him, still
making the curious whirring sound flying-squirrels often make
when about to go to sleep.

Marvels of Animal Life.

Among our fishes, tri-tailed Japanese gold fishes, dace, pickerel
and cat-fishes, the sun or pond-fish proved the most interesting.
One especially I kept for nearly three years. At first he was
most pugnacious, attacking and destroying other fishes and animals
with the greatest fury, until finally he had the tank entirely to him¬
self. He soon grew exceedingly tame ; would allow himself to be
scratched upon the head with a straw; would take food from my
hand, and many were the games he joined me in, racing about
the tank, rising to leap at my fingers, and darting around with
every evidence of enjoyment. In feeding he would often jump
out of the water repeatedly, as far as the pectoral fins, in trying
to take the morsel, in many ways convincing me that he was a
very remarkable fish.

Kindness with animals rarely fails, if I except the case of a
favorite fox-hound Van, who became so learned that she recognized
the proud cackle of the hens when an egg was laid, and took
occasion to rush down to the nests and eat them while they were
warm and fresh. Words were thrown away upon her, and even
while receiving a salutary whipping, her great brown eyes had a
look in them as though she knew it was all humbug, and was
being done merely for appearance.

CHAPTER IX.

IS THERE A SEA-SERPENT?

When Sir Charles Lyell asked Colonel T. H. Perkins, a well-
known resident of Boston, whether he had heard of the sea-
serpent, the reply was, “ Unfortunately, I have seen it,” and
although this answer was given many years ago, it would serve
equally well for the present day, as all those who have seen the
great unknown are looked upon with a suspicious eye and innu-
merable arguments brought to bear to prove that they are mis¬
taken. The time has come, however, when the statements of
well-known men should at least meet with respectful considera¬
tion. For many years the reports of the gigantic squid were
considered fabulous, and it is within ten years only that these
animals, possessing a length of fifty feet or so, have been
accepted by an exacting public. If these large creatures have
so long remained concealed, the deep sea may easily hide even
larger forms that might readily correspond with the sea-serpent
described in current literature. One of the commonest sights
along shore is the porpoise and dolphin, yet rarely are these
animals found dead or their remains washed ashore, and if they
and many others are destroyed by natural causes, how possible it
would be for any larger animal to remain undiscovered.

To show plainly the evidence in favor of the existence of the
sea-serpent, the following testimony is given ; a letter from an old
friend, followed by a description of the actual sea-serpents whose

remains are found in the geological horizons of the ancient world.

Marvels of Animal Life.

“Lynn, 3fass., June 26th, 1881.

“ Mr. C. F. Holder:

“Decu' Sir: Yours of the 24th inst. came duly
to hand, and, in reply to that part of it relating to the account
given by myself of a strange fish, serpent, or some other marine
animal called a sea-serpent, I have to say that I saw him on a
pleasant, calm summer morning of August, 1819, from Long
Beach, Lynn, now Nahant.

“ At this time he was about a quarter of a mile away; but the
water was so smooth that I could plaiuly see his head and the
motion of his body, but not distinctly enough to give a good
description of him. Later in the day I saw him again off* ‘ Red
Rock.’ He then passed along one hundred feet from where I
stood, with head about two feet out of the. water, and his speed
was about the ordinary of a common steamer. What I saw of
his length was from fifty to sixty feet.

“ It was very difficult to count the bunches, or humps (not
fins), upon his back, as by the undulating motion they did not
all appear at once. This accounts in part for the varied
descriptions given of him by different parties. His appearance
on the surface of the water was occasional and but for a short
time. The color of his skin was dark, differing but little from
the water or the back of any common fish. This is the best
description I can give of him from my own observation. And
I saw the monster just as truly, although not quite so clearly, as
I ever saw anything.

“ This matter has been treated by many as a hoax, fish-story,
or a sea-side phenomenon, to bring trade and profit to the water¬
ing-places ; but, notwithstanding all this, there is no doubt in
my mind that some kind of an uncommon and strange rover in

Is there a Sea-Serpent?

the form of a snake or serpent, called an ichthyosaurus, plesi¬
osaurus, or some other long-named marine animal, has been seen
by hundreds of men and boys in our own, if not in other waters.
And five persons besides myself — Amos Lawrence, Samuel
Cabot, and James Prince, of Boston, Benjamin F. Newhall of
Saugus, and John Marston of Swampscott — bore public testi¬
mony of seeing him at the time. Yours truly,

“ Nathan D. Chase.”

This appearance attracted so much attention that the Boston
Linnsean Society — the scientific society of the time — sent a
committee to report upon it. Dr. Bigelow and Mr. F. C. Gray
were selected, and drew up a report signed by a number of wit¬
nesses who were within fair sight of the creature. “ The mon¬
ster,” they say, “ was from eighty to ninety feet long, his head
usually carried about two feet above water ; of a dark brown
color; the body with thirty or more protuberances, compared by
some to four gallon kegs, by others to a string of buoys, and
called by several persons bunches, on the back; motions very
rapid, faster than those of a whale, swimming a mile in three
minutes, and sometimes more, leaving a wake behind him;
chasing mackerel, herrings, and other fish, which were seen
jumping out of the water, many at a time, as he approached.
He only came to the surface of the sea in calm and bright
weather. A skillful gunner fired at him from a boat, and,
having taken good aim, felt sure he must have hit him on the
head ; the creature turned toward him, then dived under the
boat, and reappeared one hundred yards on the other side.”

Mr. Amos Lawrence writes of the same animal: “I have
never had any doubt of the existence of the sea-serpent since the
morning he was seen olf Yah ant by old Marshal Prince through

Marvels of Animal Life.

his famous spy-glass. For within the next two hours I con¬
versed with Mr. Samuel Cabot and Mr. Daniel P. Parker, I
think, who had spent a part of that morning in witnessing its
movements. In addition, Colonel Harris, the commander at
Fort Independence, told me that the creature had been seen by
a number of his soldiers while standing sentry in the early
dawn, some time before this show at Nahant ; and Colonel Harris
as firmly believed it as though the creature were drawn up
before us in State Street, where we then were. I again say, I
have never, from that day, to this, had a doubt of the sea-ser¬
pent’s existence.”

James Prince, Esq., then marshal of the district, writes as
follows to the Hon. Judge Davis:

“My dear Judge: I presume I may have seen what is gener¬
ally thought to be the sea-serpent. I have also seen my name
in the evening newspaper printed at Boston, on Saturday in a
communication on this subject. For your gratification aud from
a desire that my name may not sanction anything beyond what
was actually presented and passed in review before me, I will
now state that which in the presence of more than two hundred
other witnesses took place near the Long Beach of Nahant on
Saturday morniug last.

“ Intending to pass two or three days with my family at
Nahant, we left Boston early on Saturday morning. On passing
the Half-Way House, on the Salem Turnpike, Mr. Smith
informed us that the sea-serpent had been seen the evening
before at Nahant beach, and that a vast number of people from
Lynn had gone to the beach that morning in hopes of being
gratified with a sight of him. This was confirmed at the hotel.
I was glad to find that I had brought my famous mast-head
spy-glass with me, as it would enable me, from its form and size,

Is there a Sea-Serpent?

to view him to advantage if I might be so fortunate as to see
him. On our arrival on the beach, we associated with a consid¬
erable collection of persons on foot and chaises ; and very soon
an animal of the fish kind made his appearance. . . . His
head appeared about three feet out of water ; I counted thirteen
bunches on his back ; my family thought there were fifteen. He
passed three times at a moderate rate across the bay, but so fleet
as to occasion a foam in the water; and my family and self, who
were in a carriage, judged that he was from fifty to not more
than sixty feet in length. Whether, however, the wake might
not add to the appearance of his length, or whether the undula¬
tions of the water or his peculiar manner of propelling himself
might not cause the appearance of protuberances, I leave for
your better judgment. The first view of the animal caused some
agitation, and the novelty perhaps prevented that precise dis¬
crimination which afterward took place. As he swam up the
bay, we and the other spectators moved on and kept nearly
abreast of him. He occasionally withdrew himself under water,
and the idea occurred to me that his occasionally raising his
head above the level of the water was to take breath, as the time
he kept under was, on an average, about eight minutes.

. . . “ Mrs. Prince and the coachman, having better eyes
than myself, were of great assistance to me in marking the
progress of the animal. They would say, ‘He is now turning;’
and by the aid of my glass I distinctly saw him in this move¬
ment. He did not turn without occupying some space, and
taking into view the time and the space which he found neces¬
sary for his ease and accommodation, I adopted it as a criterion to
form some judgment of his length. I had seven distinct views
of him from the Long Beach, so called, and at some of them the
animal was not more than a hundred yards distant. After we

g6 Marvels of Animal Life.

had been on the Long Beach with other spectators about an
hour, the animal disappeared, and I proceeded on toward
Nahant; but on passing the second beach I met Mr. James
Magee, of Boston, with several ladies in a carriage, prompted by
curiosity to endeavor to see the animal ; and we were again
gratified beyond even what we saw in the other bay, which I
concluded he had left in consequence of the number of boats in
the offing in pursuit of him, the noise of whose oars must have
disturbed him, as he appeared to us to be a harmless timid ani¬
mal. We had here more than a dozen different views of him,
and each similar to the other, — one, however, so near that the
coachman exclaimed, ‘Oh, see his glistening eye!’ Certain it is,
he is a very strange animal.”

Among the papers of the late Benjamin F. Newhall, of Sau¬
gus, is an interesting account of what he witnessed of the seem¬
ing gambols of the monster, who appeared to him also to be a
timid animal. “ As he approached the shore, about nine A. M.,”
says Mr. Newhall, “ he raised his head apparently about six feet,
and moved very rapidly. I could see the white spray each side
of his neck as he plunged through the water.” He came so
near as to startle many of the spectators, and then suddenly
retreated. “As he turned short, the snake-like form became
apparent, bending like an eel. I could see plainly what appeared
a succession of bunches, or humps, upon his back, which the
sun caused to glisten like glass.”

As most of these observers were not seafaring men, their
evidence might be doubted from their not being perfectly
familiar with marine animals. To show, however, that all
classes agreed upon the main particulars, I give the following :
“ J ohn Marston, a respectable and credible resident of Swamps-
cott, appeared before a justice of the peace and made oath that

PLATE XII

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SWORDFISH ATTACKING A DORY

Is there a Sea-Serpent ?

as he was walking over Nahant Beach, on the 3d of August,
his attention was suddenly arrested by seeing in the water,
within two or three hundred yards of the shore, a singular-
looking fish in the form of a serpent. He had a fair view of
him, and at once concluded that he was the veritable sea-serpent.
His head was out of water to the extent of about a foot, and
he remained in view from fifteen to twenty minutes, when he
swam off toward King’s Beach. Mr. Marston judged that the
animal was from eighty to a hundred feet in length, and he
says : £ I saw the whole body of the serpent — not his wake, but

the fish itself. It would rise in the water with an undulatory
motion, and then all his body would sink, except his head.
Then his body would rise again. His head was above water all
the time. This was about eight o’clock A. M. It was quite
calm. I have been constantly engaged in fishing since my youth,
and I have seen all sorts of fishes and hundreds of horse-
mackerel, but I never before saw anything like this.’”

A further example of what might be called expert testimony,
is furnished in that of the crew of the bark “ Pauline,” of
London. Their testimony was taken before the stipendiary
magistrate at the Liverpool court :

“ Borough of Liverpool, in the county Palatine of Lancaster, to
wit : We, the undersigned, captain, officers, and crew of the
bark ‘ Pauline,’ (of London), of Liverpool, in the county of
Lancaster, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
do solemnly and sincerely declare that on July 8th, 1875, in lati¬
tude 5° 13' s., longitude 35° w., we observed three large sperm-
whales, and one of them was gripped round the body with two
turns of what appeared to be a huge serpent. The head and
tail appeared to have a length beyond the coils of about thirty
feet, and its girth eight or nine feet. The serpent whirled its

Marvels of Animal Life.

victim round and round for about fifteen minutes, and then
suddenly dragged the whale to the bottom, head first. George
Drevar, master ; Horatio Thompson, John Henderson Landells,
Owen Baker, William Lewarn.

“ Again, on July 13th, a similar serpent was seen about two
hundred yards off, shooting itself along the surface, the head
and neck being out of the water several feet. This was seen
only by the captain and one ordinary seaman, whose signatures
are affixed: George Drevar, master ; Owen Baker.

u A few moments after, it was seen elevated some sixty feet
perpendicularly in the air by the chief officer and the following
able seamen, whose signatures are also affixed : Horatio Thomp¬
son, William Lewarn, Owen Baker.”

The well-known geologist J. W. Dawson, states that a sea-
monster appeared at Marigomish, in the gulf of St. Lawrence,
about one hundred feet long, and was seen by two intelligent
observers, nearly aground in calm water, within two hundred
feet of the beach, where it remained in sight about half an hour
and then got off with difficulty. One of the witnesses went up a
bank, in order to look down upon it. They said it sometimes
raised its head (which resembled that of a seal) partly out of the
water. Along its back were a number of humps or protuber¬
ances, which, in the opinion of the observer on the beach, were
true humps, while the other thought they were produced by
vertical flexures of the body. Between the head and the first
protuberance there was a straight part of the back of consider¬
able length, and this part was generally above water. The color
appeared black, and the skin had a rough appearance. The
animal was seen to bend its body almost into a circle and again
to unbend it with great rapidity. It was slender in proportion
to its length. After it had disappeared in deep water, its wake

Is there a Sea-Serpent ?

99 .

was visible for some time. Some other persons who saw it com¬
pared the creature to a long string of fishing-net buoys moving
rapidly about. In the course of the summer, the fishermen on
the eastern shore of Prince Edward’s Island, in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, had been terrified by this sea-monster ; and the year
before, a similar creature swam slowly past the pier at Arisaig,
near the east end of Nova Scotia, and, there being only a slight
breeze at the time, was attentively observed by Mr. Barry, a
mill-wright, of Pictou, who told Mr. Dawson he was within one
hundred and twenty feet of it, and estimated its length at sixty
feet, and the thickness of its body at three feet. It had humps
on the back, which seemed too small and close together to be
bends of the body. The body appeared also to move in long
undulations, including many of the smaller humps. In conse¬
quence of this motion the head and tail were sometimes both out
of sight and sometimes both above water. The head was
rounded and obtuse in front, and was never elevated more than
a foot above the surface. The tail was pointed, appearing like
half a mackerel’s tail. The color of the part seen was black.
It was suggested by Mr. Dawson that a swell in the sea might
give the deceptive appearance of an undulating movement, as it
is well known “ that a stick held horizontally at the surface of
wrater when there is a ripple seems to have an uneven outline.”
But Mr. Barry replied that he observed the animal very atten¬
tively, having read accounts of the sea-serpent, and felt confident
that the undulations were not those of the water.

Professor Richard A. Proctor, the well-known astronomer, gives
the following account of a remarkable sea animal, which, how¬
ever, I am inclined to think was a form allied to the giant-squids,
I have often observed squids iu Southern waters, especially when
pursued, rushing along at the surface, the arrow-shaped caudal

lOO

Marvels of Animal Life.

extremity elevated above the water and coming down at intervals
with a splash, looking, in truth, like the head of a snake, while
the tentacles dragging behind formed ripples and convolutions
that might easily have suggested the motions of an animal of
serpentine form. Mr. Proctor says, “Soon after the British
steamship ‘Nestor’ anchored at Shanghai, last October, John K.
Webster, the captain, and James Anderson, the ship’s surgeon,
appeared before the acting law-secretary in the British Supreme
Court, and made affidavit to the following effect : On September
1 1th, at half-past ten A. m., fifteen miles northwest of North Sand
lighthouse, in the Malacca Straits, the weather being fine and the
sea smooth, the captain saw an object which had been pointed out
by the third officer as a ‘shoal.’ ‘Surprised at finding a shoal
in such a well-known tract, I watched the object and found that
it was in motion, keeping up the same speed with the ship, and
retaining about the same distance as first seen. The shape of the
creature I would compare to that of a gigantic frog. The head,
of a pale yellowish color, was about twenty feet in length and
six feet of the crown were above the water. I tried in vain to
make out the eyes and mouth : the mouth, however, may have
been below water. The head was immediately connected with
the body, without any indication of a neck. The body was about
forty-five or fifty feet long, and of an oval shape, perfectly smooth,
but there may have been a slight ridge along the spine. The
back rose some five feet above the surface. An immense tail, •
fully one hundred and fifty feet in length, rose a few inches above
the water. This tail I saw distinctly from its junction with the
body to its extremity : it seemed cylindrical, with a very slight
taper, and I estimated its diameter at four feet. The body and
tail were marked with alternate bands of stripes, black and pale
yellow in color. The stripes were distinct to the veiy end of the

Is there a Sea-Serpent ?

IOI

tail. I cannot say whether the tail terminated in a fin or not.
The creature possessed no fins or paddles, so far as we could per¬
ceive. I cannot say if it had legs. It appeared to progress by
means of an undulatory motion of the tail in a vertical plane
(that is, up and down)/

“Mr. Anderson, the surgeon, confirmed the captain’s account
in all essential respects. He regarded the creature as an
enormous marine salamander. It was apparently of a gelatinous
(that is, flabby) substance. Though keeping up with us, at the
rate of nearly ten knots an hour, its movements seemed lethargic.
I saw no eyes or fins, and am certain that the creature did not
blow or spout in the manner of a whale. I should not compare
it for a moment to a snake. The only creatures it could be com¬
pared with are the newt or frog tribe.” Probably a squid.

The above accounts give a general idea of the appearance of
the supposed sea-serpents, and now let us examine some of the
fishes known to science, and see if any of them could possibly be
taken for one of these forms. The band or tape-fishes from their
snake-like appearance, are first worthy of notice, one, the Regale-
cus BanJcsii, attaining a remarkable length. The largest known
was captured by one of Lord Norbury’s smacks in the Frith of
Forth, Scotland, and was about sixty feet in length, eight or
nine inches in width, and altogether a wonderfully slender crea¬
ture. If swimming at the surface, it might have looked very
much like a snake. These ribbon fishes are deep water forms,
rarely coming to the surface, and are found in various seas.

THE PEMAQUID SEA-SERPENT.

Quite recently a remarkable fish has been brought to the
attention of the director of the National Museum. It was
twenty-five feet long, abput eight inches wide, and called a sea-

102

Marvels of Animal Life.

serpent by the fishermen who discovered it. It was caught off
Pemaquid Point, Maine, and the following extracts of letters
were written by the fisherman explaining his find, the accom¬
panying illustration ( Plate XVI.) having been made from his
sketch that was forwarded to Professor Baird. “ The fish was
about twenty-five feet in length and from eight to ten inches in
diameter, with a tail like an eel. The skin was not like a scale-
fish, but more like a dog-fish or shark, though a great deal finer
in quality. I did not save the fish for the reason that I did not
know what I had caught. In fact I considered it a streak of ill-
luck rather than good fortune, having torn my nets very badly
and otherwise bothering me in my business. The fish could
have been grappled twenty-four hours after, it being in only four
fathoms of water and it being a small shoal, with deep water all
around it. A storm arose later, which made it impossible to do
so. . . . Exclusive of the head, it looked very much like an eel.
The body was round or very near that form. The tail was like
that of a common eel. The color of its back was of a slate or
fish color; belly, grayish- white. There were two fins, one on
either side, a little abaft the head. They were not stiff-pointed
fins like the shark, or sword-fish, but more like the side fins of
the cod or sun-fish, only they were in size to correspond with
the fish. The top or dorsal fin was like the corresponding fin on
the cod. I do not know whether it was stationary or closed,
like the top fin of the mackerel and other fish of the same
species. All the fins that were on the tail were like that of the
eel. The skin was like that of the dog-fish, only very much
finer. The head resembled that of the shark, though more
stunted, i. e., it did not lengthen out like the shark’s. It looked
more like the head of the sucker. The mouth was very small,
not any larger than that of a good-sized dog-fish, with fine

103

Is there a Sea-Serpent?

briery teeth, and located at the extreme end of the head or nose.
The fish was dead when caught.”

This fish is possibly a form similar to the new Japanese eel¬
like shark Chlamydoselachus anguineus, recently described by
Mr. Garman. Regarding it he says : “ Such an animal is likely
to unsettle disbelief in what is popularly called the ‘ sea serpent.’
In view of the possible discoveries of the future, the fact of the
existence of such creatures, so recently undiscovered, certainly
calls for a suspension of judgment in regard to the non-existence
of that oft-appearing but elusive creature, the serpent-like
monster of the oceans.”

It has been suggested that several sharks or porpoises swimming
one behind the other would correspond in appearance with the
descriptions given of the sea-serpent ; yet it seems impossible
that so many persons familiar with the sea should have been
deceived.

It has also been claimed that if the sea-serpent exists that it is
a descendant of some of the wonderful serpentine creatures that
lived in former geological ages, and a glance at the results of the
investigations of Profs. Leidy, Cope, and others, shows that even
if this is not so, sea-serpents in all the term implies, were the
common features of these past ages.

The Mesozoic time, or the Age of Reptiles, in which the ancient
sea-serpents lived, includes, according to Cope, the Triassic,
Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods ; and the period of transition
from the Palaeozic to it is strongly marked. A great change was
impending, and a nearly complete extermination of existing life
took place. In the new era came the monster forms with which
we have become familiar within a few years. During the Cretace¬
ous, in the limestones of which in Kansas and New Jersey are
found some of the most interesting creatures, the North American

104

Marvels of Animal Life.

continent presented a strange contrast to its present state. Florida
was not yet above water, nor any of the border States, while a
great sea extended from the gulf of Mexico northwest. The old
coast-line can be readily traced, and extended from Arkansas to
near Fort Filey, on the Kansas River, passing to the east through
Minnesota to Canada, near the head of Lake Superior, while to
the west it spread away to an unknown distance, the shore
probably now submerged by the Pacific. Such was the Cretaceous
sea, and now cities, towns, and railroads are dotted over the region,
while immense desert tracts mark other portions, where water is
now never seen. But only yesterday in the age of the world
another scene was being enacted, which is further described by
Professor Cope in substance in the following :

SEA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE.

Far out on the expanse of this ancient sea might have been
seen a huge snake-like form, which rose above the surface and
stood erect, with tapering throat and arrow-shaped head, or
swayed about, describing a circle of twenty feet radius above the
water ; then, plunging into the depths, naught would be visible
but the foam caused by the disappearing mass of life. Should
several have appeared together, we can easily imagine tall, flexible
forms rising to the height of the masts of a fishing-fleet, or, like
snakes, twisting and knotting themselves together. This extra¬
ordinary neck — for such it was — rose from a body of elephantine
proportions, and a tail of the serpent pattern balanced it behind.
The limbs were probably two pairs of paddles, like those of the
Plesiosaurus , from which this diver chiefly differed in the arrange¬
ment of the bones of the chest. In the best-known species twenty-
two feet represent the neck in a total length of fifty feet. This

PLATE XIII.

THE BRILLIANT LAMP FISH

Is there a Sea-Serpent?

105

is the Elasmosaurus platyurus a carnivorous sea-reptile ( Plate
XVII.), no doubt adapted for deeper waters than many of the
others. Like the snake-bird of Florida, it probably often swam
many feet below the surface, raising the head to the distant air for a
breath, then withdrawing it, and exploring the depths forty feet
below without altering the position of its body. The general form
of this reptile, a fine skeleton of which can be seen in the museum
of the Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, was that of a serpent,
with a relatively shorter, more robust, and more posteriorly placed
body than is characteristic of true serpents, and with two pairs of
limbs, or paddles. It progressed by the strokes of its paddles,
assisted by its powerful and oar-like tail. The snake-like neck
was raised high in air or depressed at the will of the animal,
now arched swan-like preparatory to a plunge after a fish, now
stretched in repose on the water, or deflexed in exploring the
depths below. Researches into their structure have shown that
these creatures were of wonderful elongation of form, especially
of tail ; that their heads were large, flat, and conical, with eyes
directed partly upward; that they were furnished with two pairs
of paddles, like the flippers of a whale, attached by short, wide
peduncles to the body. With these flippers and the eel-like
strokes of their flattened tail they swam, some with less, others
with greater speed. They were furnished like snakes with four
rows of formidable teeth on the roof of the mouth. Though
these were not designed for mastication, and in the absence of
paws for grasping, could have been little used for cutting, as
weapons for seizing their prey they were very formidable.

These sea-serpents swallowed their prey entire, being able to
do so by a peculiar arrangement of the jaws. It is also assumed
by Professor Cope that the only sound they could utter was a
serpent-like hiss.

106 Marvels of Animal Life .

The giants of the Pythonomorpha of Kansas have been called
Liodon proriger , and Lindon dyspelor. The first must have
been very abundant, and its length could not have been far from
seventy-five feet, — certainly not less. Its physiognomy was
rendered peculiar by a long, projecting muzzle, reminding one
of that of the blunt-nosed sturgeon of our coast ; but the resem¬
blance was destroyed by the correspondingly massive end of the
branches of the lower jaw. Professor Cope states that he once
found the wreck of an individual of this species strewn around
a sunny knoll beside a bluff, and its conic snout pointing to the
heavens formed a fitting monument, as at once its favorite
weapon and the mark distinguishing all its race. The Lindon
dyspelor was the longest of known reptiles, and probably equal
to the great finner-whales of modern oceans.

Another monster snake-like reptile was the Mososaurus, which
closely resembles, when restored, the typical sea-serpent of to¬
day. Professor Marsh, of Yale, says of it: “The reptiles most
characteristic of our American cretaceous strata are the Moso-
sauria , a group with few representatives in other parts of the
world. In our cretaceous seas they ruled supreme, as their
numbers, size, and carnivorous habits enabled them to easily
Vanquish all rivals. Some were at least sixty feet in length,
and the smallest, ten or twelve. In the inland cretaceous sea
from which the Pocky Mountains were beginning to emerge,
these ancient sea-serpents abounded, and many were entombed
in its muddy bottom. On one occasion, as I rode through a
valley washed out of this old ocean-bed, I saw no less than
seven different skeletons of these monsters in sight at once.
The Mososaurs were essentially swimming lizards, with four
well-developed paddles, and they had little affinity with modern
serpents, to which they have been compared.” The Clidastes

Is there a Sea-Serpent?

107

was noted for its elongation, and a specimen, representing an
animal from sixty to eighty feet in length, has recently been
discovered at Freehold, N. J., by Professor Lockwood, of Rut¬
gers. The teeth were terrible weapons, having fore and aft
cutting edges.

Even more remarkable than the above were the Amphicoelias
and Camcirasaurus ( Plate X VIII.), the former attaining a length
of one hundred feet, and the latter seventy-five — gigantic ser¬
pentine reptiles that floated in shallow waters, anchored by
their ponderous tail and legs.

Such were some of the sea-serpents of the Reptilian Age,
bones of which the sceptic may find in any of our museums.
According to Professor Marsh, the first American serpents, so
far as now known, appeared in the Eocene, which contains also
the oldest European species.

On the then Atlantic border existed a great sea-snake, at
least thirty feet long, known to science as the Titanophis, while
about the inland lakes and bodies of water lived large serpentine
forms allied to the boa-constrictors of to-day. The true water-
snakes of the present time often attain a large size, and might
readily pass for sea-serpents. They are known scientifically as
the Hydrophidoe. Professor Bickmore informed me that on his
voyage to the Indian Archipelago, he frequently shot at them
in the open ocean. The master of the ship Georgiana claims
to have seen one off Rangoon that was fifty feet long, that
slowly passed the ship’s bows. It was of a gray yellowish hue,
and appeared to be about a foot thick. The captain and crew
watched it for twenty minutes, examining it well and carefully.
These snakes are often venomous, and differ from ordinary
land snakes in having a flat paddle-like tail, that enables them
to move quickly through the water.

108 Marvels of Animal Life.

Is the sea-serpent a gigantic form of these snakes, a huge
band fish, Regalecus , a shark-like ally of Chlamydoselachus ,
or is it a survivor of the age of the Elasmosaurus f I
have shown that the sea-serpent did exist, and it probably
would not surprise paleontologists to find a living form yet
alive.* The chances are, however, against such an occurrence,
and the sea-serpent possibly may prove a gigantic deep-sea fish
that only at occasional intervals appears upon our shores to
excite the wonder and amazement of the inhabitants.

* As this work goes to press I have received information from a reliable
source that a long, slender animal, forty-two feet by actual measurement, has
been found in Southern waters. Its greatest girth was about that of a horse,
the tail long and slender. The finder stated that it had bony ribs and a pair
of paddles, hence it was not a shark. The small body and attenuated tail do
not suggest a whale of forty-two feet. Its length precludes the idea of its
being a manatee, and the sketch made by the finder is that of a headless,
neckless, Elasmosaurus. The head of the animal was gone ; but the finder
hauled the body above high water mark, and a party will be sent to determine
whether or not it is an animal new to science.

CHAPTER X.

ANIMAL ELECTRICIANS.

How often in wandering by the shore or through some quiet
stretch of woodland are we attracted by the ingenious efforts at
defence or protection displayed by the lowly creatures that there

find homes ! Some erect elaborate structures, calculated to deceive

by their resemblance to extraneous objects, while many more
possess peculiarly aggressive features that furnish effective pro¬
tection. Among the latter class are a number of fishes that are
remarkable electric batteries, presenting a strange resemblance to
the electric appliances of human invention.

Nine different fishes, representing several genera, have been
found charged by nature in this remarkable manner. Along our
Eastern shore, the torpedo— one of the rays, and the best known
of the electric animals— is not uncommon, and fishermen fre¬
quently find their arms bound in invisible chains and rigid from
the message sent up the line from this strange creature.

In the seventeenth century the attention of Redi, the Italian
naturalist, was attracted by the tales told by the fishermen, who
thought the torpedo was protected by some peculiar witchcraft
that overcame them when they attempted its capture. One was
brought to the distinguished savant , who subjected it to a num¬
ber of tests. “I had scarcely touched and pressed it with my
hand,” he writes, “when I experienced a tingling sensation, which
extended to my arms and shoulders followed by a disagreeable

trembling, with a painful and acute sensation in the elbow-joint

109

I IO

Marvels of Animal Life.

that made me withdraw my arm immediately.” He also found
that these sensations resulting from contact with the fish dimin¬
ished as the death of the torpedo approached, ceasing altogether
as the animal died. Later, Reaumur examined the then prob¬
lematical subject, and says concerning it, “The benumbing in¬
fluence is very different from any similar sensation. All over the
arm there is a commotion which it is impossible to describe, but
which, so far as comparison can be made, resembles the sensa¬
tion produced by striking the tender part of the elbow against
a hard substance.”

Neither of these scientists, however, discovered the true nature
of the creature’s defence, — an honor reserved for Dr. Walsh, of
London. During a visit to the Isle of Re, he and a number of
friends amused themselves with these fishes, finally discovering
their electrical nature. The battery is constructed on the princi¬
ple of the voltaic pile, and consists of two layers or series of cells
of hexagonal shape, as many as two thousand five hundred
being found in a single fish of small size. The space between
the numerous delicate transverse plates in the cell is filled with a
jelly-like mucous fluid, so that each cell represents to all intents
and purposes a Leyden jar. Each cell is provided with nerves,
while the dorsal side is positive and the ventral negative. It is
supposed that the impression is conveyed by certain nerves to the
brain, exciting there an act of the will, which is conveyed along
the electric nerves to the batteries producing the shock.

One of the experiments of Dr. Walsh was to place a living
torpedo upon a wet cloth or towel ; he then suspended from a
plate two pieces of brass wire by means of silken cord, which
served to isolate them. Round the torpedo were eight persons
standing on isolating substances. One end of the brass wire was
supported by the wet towel, the other end being placed in a

Animal Electricians .

1 1 1

basin full of water. The first person had a finger of one hand
in this basin, and the finger of the other in a second basin, also
full of water. The second person placed a finger of one hand in
this second basin and a finger of the other hand in a third basin.
The third person did the same ; and so on, until a perfect chain
was established between the eight persons and the nine basins.
Into the ninth basin the end of the second brass wire was
plunged, while Dr. Walsh applied the other end to the back of
the torpedo, thus establishing a complete conducting circle. At
the moment when the experimenter touched the torpedo, the
eight actors in the experiment felt a sudden shock, similar in all
respects to that communicated by the shock of a Leyden jar,
only less intense. When the torpedo was placed on an isolated
supporter, it communicated to many persons similarly placed
from forty to fifty shocks in a minute and a half. Each effort
made by the animal in order to give them was accompanied by
the depression of its eyes, which seemed to be drawn within their
orbits, while the other parts of the body remained immovable.
If but one of the two organs of the torpedo were touched, only
a slight sensation was experienced, — a numbness rather than a
shock. When the animal was tried with a non-conducting
rod, no shock followed ; glass, or a rod covered with wax, pro¬
duced no effect; touched with a metallic wire, a violent shock
followed. Melloni, Matteucci, Becquerel, and Breschet have all
made the same experiment, with the same results, — Matteucci
having ascertained that the shock produced by the torpedo is
comparable to that given by a voltaic pile of a hundred to two
hundred and fifty pairs of plates.

The experiments of Dr. Walsh produced an electric craze in
England, and the demand for torpedoes was unprecedented.
Their curative powers were extolled, and large sums were paid

1 1 2 Marvels of Animal Life.

by invalids for opportunities to test their effects. On old
Brighton Beach a large torpedo or cramp-fish was exhibited in
a shallow water aquarium by an enterprising showman, who
proclaimed to the assembled multitudes that he had on exhibition
“the heaviest fish in the world, — heavier than a whale, and
brought in a single ship all the way from the Antarctic Ocean !”
He furthermore stated that a ha’penny would be accepted as a
consideration for the privilege of lifting the fish, and a shilling
would be given to any one who should lift it out of the tank
bare-handed. This enticing offer was taken by numbers of
muscular sojourners on the beach, but always resulted disas¬
trously to the lifter, who, however, was unable to explain why
he had failed. Another would step boldly up with bared arms,
insert one hand carefully under the fish to see that it was not
held down (just what the showman wished him to do), and
place the other upon the torpedo’s back. Its queer eyes would
wink, a convulsive movement followed, and the experimenter
would find himself either unable to move or almost lifted into
the air by the “heft” of the creature, and would fall back
bewildered, amid the jeers and laughter of the crowd.

The effect of the shock upon birds is generally fatal. A reed-
bird placed in the water over a torpedo showed symptoms of fear
almost immediately, and in less than two minutes dropped dead.
Although the torpedo does not heed its own shocks, and is used
as an article of food on the Mediterranean coast, it is particularly
sensible to shocks administered by a regular battery, and can thus
be readily killed. Its power is hardly sufficient to kill a man,
though I have been told by a reliable informant that he was
almost completely paralyzed when spearing one, and on
attempting to pull the iron from the fish he was knocked
over as suddenly as if shot. Even after the death of the

plate xiv.

THE LUMINOUS ARGYROPELETUS.

Animal Electricians.

ll3

torpedo he could hardly hold the dissecting knife, so intense
were the shocks.

In 1671 the astronomer Richer visited Cayenne as a rep resent-
ative of the Paris Academy of Sciences on the geodesic survey.
During a fishing trip on one of the streams of the neighborhood,
he made an involuntary experiment which few would care to
repeat. Having hooked a large fish, he found that his arms were
powerless, and the whole upper portion of his body became rigid,
as if paralyzed. The natives detached the line from his hand,
and for half an hour he remained overcome by the strange attack.
Later he was informed by the natives that he had been bewitched
by an eel (the gymnotus) which inhabited those waters and fre¬
quently killed animals by merely touching them. Richer’s
experience was detailed to the French Academy, but the savants
were perhaps incredulous, and the matter was forgotten until
seventy years later, when Condamine, the naturalist, visited South
America and revived it. Later, in 1755, an eminent Dutch
surgeon, Gramund, found that “ the effect produced by the fish
corresponded exactly with that produced by the Leyden jar, with
this difference, that we see no tinsel 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.”

Humboldt also examined the gymnotus, and gradually the

power of this remarkable living battery became generally known.

One was quite recently captured near Calabozo, which not only

killed a mule, but so prostrated the rider by its terrible powers

that his life was despaired of. An English traveler reached the

spot a few days after the occurrence, and, learning the size of the

monster, determined to catch it. It was finally hooked and

dragged upon the shore. The line, however, becoming wet,

the fish communicated to the two natives who were holding it
8

1 1 4 Marvels of Animal Life.

such a shock that they were utterly powerless to move. The
Englishman rushed forward, cut the rope with a knife, aud re¬
leased the men, but received a shock himself. The fish was
finally secured, and a load of shot sent into its head. The men
then took hold of its tail to drag it to the bank above, when they
were knocked over as if by an axe, and nothing could induce
them to touch it again. Not till three days after, when decom¬
position had probably set in, was it dragged from the shore and
suspended from a tree, and skinned with the intention of send¬
ing the dried skin to the British Museum, where it would have
been placed, but for the ants, who succeeded, in less than a
month, in reducing it to tissue.

These gigantic eel-like creatures are most forbidding in ap¬
pearance, varying from six to twenty-two feet in length, having
the same relative size throughout their entire length. The head
is broad, the tail compressed, and along its under surface lie the
four batteries, two on each side, the mass occupying nearly the
whole lower half of the trunk. The curious plates are vertical,
instead of horizontal, as in the torpedo, and the entire batteries
or cells are horizontal instead of vertical, as in the same fish, each
being supplied with nerves by the ventral branches of nearly four
hundred spinal nerves. With such an armament they are to be
dreaded indeed. A touch of their long bodies is death to fish
larger than themselves.

In the streams about Caraccas, South America, are famous
spots for these much dreaded fishes, while so common are they
in a small lake near Calabozo, that they are caught by thou¬
sands. This is done by a singular method, called embarbascar
con caballos , or intoxicating by means of horses. Mules, horses,
and other animals are used, and the scene, though frightfully
cruel, is made the occasion of great festivities. The poor

Animal Electricians.

animals are driven by shouts and blows into the water, where
they dash about as if aware of their danger. Great eel-like,
yellow bodies appear, their backs flashing in the sun, darting
about, hurling themselves against the terrified beasts, which with
staring eyes and trembling frames are completely paralyzed by
the electric discharges. Some are killed as if by lightning, and
fall among the writhing mass ; others endeavor to break through
the howling throng of natives upon the banks, but are beaten
back to terrible death or torture. The eels seem to be aware of
the most vulnerable points of attack, as they strike the poor
brutes near the heart, discharging the whole length of their
battery. The terrible struggles last from twenty to thirty
minutes, and then those horses that have survived the ordeal
seem to grow careless of the attacks. The fishes have exhausted
their electric supply for the time ; and now the natives step to
the fore. The eels, finding their power on the wane, seek the
bottom of the lake ; the natives, mounting the horses, rush
wildly about among the fleeing animals, striking them with
their long spears, and dragging them ashore, or anon rolling
from their horses, paralyzed by unexpected shocks that dart up
the wet lines. Great numbers of eels are captured, and it is
always found that, though they soon exhaust their force, if an
attack is intended the next day the same precautions are neces¬
sary, their recovery of vital force being extremely rapid.

In 1842 two of these creatures were carried to London, and
kept alive for six years, during which time they doubled their
weight each year. They were examined and experimented upon
by most of the scientific men of the day, and considered remark¬
able curiosities. “ I was so fortunate,” says Professor Owen,
“ as to witness the experiments performed by Professor Faraday
on the large gymnotus which was so long preserved alive at the

Marvels of Animal Life.

1 16

Adelaide Gallery in London. That the most powerful shocks
were received when one hand grasped the head and the other
hand the tail of the gymnotus I had painful experience, espe¬
cially at the wrists, the elbow, and across the back. But our
distinguished experimenter showed us that the nearer the hands
were together, within certain limits, the less powerful was the
shock. He demonstrated by the galvanometer that the direction
of the electric current was always from the anterior parts of the
animal to the posterior parts, and that the person touching the
fish with both hands received only the discharge of the parts of
the organs included between the points of contact. Needles
were converted into magnets, iodine was obtained by polar
decomposition of iodide of potassium ; and, availing himself of
this test, Professor Faraday showed that any given part of the
organ is negative to other parts before it, and positive to such as
are behind it. Finally heat was evolved, and the electric spark
obtained.”

There is a story current that a few years ago a firm in Boston
ordered a number of gynmotes from their agent in Bio. The
fish were duly shipped on a fruit schooner, which was forced by
rough weather to make the Bermuda Islands. During a stay
there of several days, the crew were continually annoyed by
numbers of colored visitors who insisted upon coming aboard,
sampling the cargo with such pertinacity that its entire depletion
was threatened. They seemed possessed with the demon of
curiosity. One huge black was especially obtrusive; nothing

was sacred. He went aloft, scoured the hold, examined the

galley, and finally lifted the tin cover of the can containing the
gynmotes.

“ What’s dis yer?” he asked the skipper. The latter, who
was sitting on the rail, meditatively rubbed his nose, and wink-

Animal Electricians.

ii 7

ing at the cook, replied, “Them’s Fiji eels; we swapped off the
first mate for ’em out in the Cannibal Islands.” •

“Is dey big?” questioned the astonished darkey, whirling the
water about, and endeavoring to make out the fish.

“They’re jest so big,” returned the skipper, knocking the
ashes out of his pipe, “that ef you’ll lift one out on to the deck,
I’ll give you the best bunch of bananas on the Ann Eliza.”

“ Dat settles it,” rejoined the darkey. “ Why, Captin, I’se
de boss eeler on dis yer reef ; ketch murries all de times, two or
tree feet long;.”

“Waal, they hain’t Fiji eels,” retorted the mariner. “You
don’t look to me as ef you lied the necessary muscle.”

The native was a brawny specimen, weighing at least two
hundred pounds, and this last speech was too much for him.
Motioning back some of his companions who had joined him,
the “boss eeler” reached into the can, and, cautiously moving
about, secured a hold with one hand, while he made a quick
grasp with the other and straightened up. A howl that might
have been heard half a mile broke from him as he rose up with
an enormous eel writhing in his rigid arms. His eyes fairly
stood out while he roared and cried in what was veritable anguish.

“What’s de matter?” shouted a comrade; “de fish ain’t

a-bitin’ vo ? ”

•/

“Take it off!” cried the champion.

Thus appealed to, the other seized the eel, and, being a weaker
party, was knocked fairly over. Completely demoralized, the
entire company, headed by the two victims, now made for the
shore, averring that they had been “ voudooed,” and nearly killed
by the Yankee captain’s fish.

It would indeed be remarkable did we not find an electrician
amoug the siluroids or cat-fishes which abound in peculiar char-

1 1 8

Marvels of Animal Life.

acteristics. The Malapterus electricus of the Nile is one. The
electric cells form a layer directly beneath the skin, and envelop
the entire body except the head and fins, the creature finding in
it perfect protection. The cells are, however, extremely small,
about one and a half millimetres in diameter, — and lozenge¬
shaped. Several specimens of these cat-fishes were exhibited in
New York in 1876, and were found to impart a decided shock,
though not comparable to that of the torpedo or gymnote. The
natives in North Africa call them raad or thunder, — certainly a
suggestive title; while on the Niger the native name is Ishenza.

An electric balloon fish — Tetraodon — has been discovered in
the waters about the Comoro Islands. These curious fishes
were found in great numbers among the cavities of the rocks by
the crew of an English ship, and when taken from the water
they gave sharp and decided shocks, immediately assuming the
strange oval shape from which they have derived their English
appellation.

Other fishes — nine in all — are known to be electricians of more
or less power, but as yet little is known of their natural method
of using their curious defence. That it is such is hardly to be
doubted ; yet the torpedo is infested with a parasite that bores
into its various parts, utterly insensible to the batteries of its
victim. Professor Leydig, the eminent Swiss naturalist, marshals
the forces of a small army of believers in the electric properties
of the mother of pearl spots found in the luminous Chauliodus,
and other fishes indigenous to the Mediterranean waters. The
alleged electric organs are oval spots, generally scattered over the
ventral surface, which, when critically examined, appear to bear
a resemblance to the electric or pseudo-electric organs of other
fishes.

Of all the electric animals, the insects are perhaps the most

Animal Electricians.

119

interesting, possibly from the fact that but little is yet known con¬
cerning them. The late General Davis, of the British Army, was
the first to discover these insect batteries. His experiments were
chiefly confined to a wheel -bug ( Becluvius ) of the West India
Islands. In picking one up from the ground he received a
decided shock, as if from an electric jar, which affected his arms
as high as the elbow. Shaking the insect off, he observed six
marks where its feet had been, and from this he inferred that
the legs were the electric organs. Other instances of insect elec¬
tricians have been communicated to the London Entomological
Society by Air. Farrel. One is referred to in a letter from Lady
de Gray, of Groby, in which the shock was caused by one of
the beetles ( Elateridae ), — so powerful that the arm of the experi¬
menter was rendered useless for some moments. Captain Blake-
ney, R. N. had a most remarkable experience in South America.
Observing a large hairy lepidopterous caterpillar, he attempted
to pick it up, when he experienced so powerful an electric shock
that his right arm and side were almost paralyzed : his life was,
in fact, considered in danger, the force of the discharge being as
powerful as that of the torpedo, and more subtile.

CHAPTER XI.

OUR COMMON SNAKES.

Perhaps no class of animals so widely distributed and so
common in every-day life are so little known and understood
as the snakes. This is not because the study has been neglected
or overlooked, as the scientific institutions of the various cities
of the country are replete with fine collections of most of the
reptiles and exhaustive works upon their habits and customs.
Yet, notwithstanding this, the snake still forms the subject of
ever-recurring tales, fabulous in the extreme, that seem handed
down from generation to generation with a faithfulness that
would do credit to the New Mexico Indians who preserve their
records in this way. Curiously enough, many of these strange
stories are current among those who, from the nature of their
life, would be expected to be well and accurately posted upon
the habits of the animals. Thus many farmers and horticul¬
turists can be found that religiouslv believe that the milk-snake
( Ophibolus clericus) deprives cows and milk-giving animals of
their supply of milk. An intelligent farmer informed me that
for a long time his cows had failed to give a proper supply of
milk, and it was a great mystery until one morning before
milking he saw a milk-snake between two of the cows , and killed

it on the spot, after that having no trouble. This man could

not be convinced of his mistake, although he acknowledged that

it was impossible that so small a snake could have held a pint

of milk, even if forced into its body.

120

PLATE XV

HERMIT CRAB IN A TOBACCO PIPE

Our Common Snakes.

121

A statement often seen and believed by many, is that a certain
snake of the South (the whip-snake) seizes its tail — -which has a
sting (?) — in its mouth, and rolls away in the form of a wheel,
stopping suddenly and striking the enemy with the sting.
Such fables are current by the score, and denial only seems to
strengthen belief. .

We have in America, north of Mexico, about one hundred
and thirty species of snakes, nearly all having a wide geograph¬
ical distribution. They constitute the first order ( Opkidia ) of
the reptiles, have long cylindrical bodies, are footless, without a
shoulder girdle, and covered with a coat of scales which is shed
in the summer months. They are formed from the epidermis,
and generally overlap each other as in the fishes; but in other
cases, as the Acrohonlus, etc., they do not, and are tubercular.
The eyes of snakes have no lids in the strict sense of the term,
being covered permanently by a delicate film, or membrane,
that takes the place of the lid, thus explaining the stony stare
that all snakes have, and that is so disagreeable to many ; so
it may be said that the snake cannot shut its eyes.

When we examine the skeleton, we see that it is arranged to
allow the greatest amount of freedom and flexibility. The pieces
of bone (vertebrae) that go to make up the long tapering back¬
bone number four hundred in some species, are hollow in front
and convex behind, literally working on a ball-and-socket plan.

The processes of the vertebrae are provided with what are
called articular facets, that lock into or grasp each other, thus
strengthening and giving a greater degree of flexibility to the
backbone. In the head, however, we see the most remarkable
arrangement, that enables the snake to prey upon animals that
seem larger than itself. The jawbones would seem to be a com¬
bination of elastic springs, having no gauge to their tension ;

122 Marvels of Animal Life.

thus the quadrate bones that conuect the lower jaw with the
skull are movable, allowing the enormous gape that all who
have seen a snake swallow its prey are familiar with. Beside
this, the bones of the jaw itself and palate are more or less
movable, also tending to assist greatly in the distension of the
throat. .

As the snakes do not tear or mutilate their prey, their teeth
are not set in sockets, and are merely for two purposes : first, to
poison and stupefy the prey ; and second, to prevent its escape,
acting as hooks by which the body is hauled over the victim.
We have seen that the bones of the lower jaw were not fastened
closely to each other, so in swallowing prey the teeth on one side
are advanced, securing a hold, then on the other side, and so on
until the victim is hauled into the snake’s throat overhand, as if
so many hooks were alternately pulling at it.

The poisonous snakes, as the rattlesnakes, have two long sharp
fangs, each appearing as if flattened out like a knife blade and
bent up, forming a hollow tube, or groove, open at both ends.
The upper portion of the hollow fang is fastened to a bone in the
cheek which moves with ease, so that when not in use the fangs
can be folded — packed away, so to speak — until needed.

Undoubtedly all animals, even man, have in their saliva a
deadly poison, though in the latter it is extremely diluted, and
of use only in assisting the digestion of our food. In the
poisonous snakes, however, we find it accumulated in sacs that
are modifications of the salivary gland, and placed on each side
of the upper jaw. A delicate canal extends from the poison
gland under the eye forward to the edge of the jaw, and there
opens into the fang above the tube of the tooth ; and if we
examine here, we shall find rudimentary fangs, all ready to grow
out if the large one is lost. To use the poison, the snake has

Our Common S7iakes.

123

merely to strike its prey, the muscles of the jaw being so
arranged that, as soon as the fang enters the flesh of the victim,
certain muscles press upon the glands, squeeze the poison
through the little canal down through the hollow fang, and the
work is done.

In their actions snakes are most graceful. The gliding mo¬
tion is effected by the movements of the large or ventral scales,
that are successively pushed forward, the hinder edges resting on
the ground and forming a support. These scales, fulcra, or
pushers, are fastened to the ribs by muscles, and by holding a
snake the swelling movement can be readily felt.

In color the snakes vary much, but are generally adapted to
their surroundings, the green snakes being found in green grass
and vegetation, while the grey snakes frequent rocky districts,
where they are alike protected. The skin is shed in one piece
at various seasons of the year, being forced off in some cases by
the snake forming a ring with its tail and squeezing the rest of
the body through it, or by wriggling through the bushes. The
poisonous snakes may always be recognized by their broad
flattened heads, and generally short and thick bodies. They also,
as a rule, possess a vertical keel running along the centre of each
scale. The non-poisonous snakes have long bodies, with the
head small, no distinct neck, and the scales not keeled.

Probably the best known of our common poisonous snakes are
the rattlesnakes, that with the moccasins and copperheads form
the dangerous family Crotalidae, distinguished by the large ugly *
head and the absence of teeth in the upper jaw, excepting the
long fangs, and the pit in the head.

The Northern rattlesnake ( Orotalus horridus ) has probably
the widest geographical range, being found in nearly every State
in the union, from the borders of the Gulf of Mexico to Northern

124 Marvels of Animal Life.

New England, and west to the Rocky Mountains. It has a most
forbidding appearance, and never could be mistaken when once
seen, having an enormous head, triangular in shape, and large
brilliant eyes, with a fiery iris. Between the eye and the nostril
is a deep pit, that is peculiar to the family.

As the name indicates, they have a rattle that is a horny

appendage to the tail, formed of separate button-like objects,

that rattle together when the tail is vibrated. This often warns

human beings, and perhaps arouses a curiosity in animals that

proves fatal. The popular belief that a rattle is added every

year is not borne out by facts. In a specimen observed by Dr.

Holbrook, two rattles appeared within a year, and Dr. Buchanan’s

specimens attained four in that period. Mr. Peale, the naturalist,

kept one of these snakes fourteen years. When he obtained it

it possessed eleven rattles, and though it lost several every year,

new ones took their place, and at its death it retained the original

number, although, during the fourteen years of confinement in

the Philadelphia Museum, it had increased four inches in length.

So it will be seen that it is impossible to determine the age of these

animals bv this means. The number of rattles attained is also
•/

uncertain ; the greatest number observed by Dr. Holbrook, was
twenty-one, all of which were perfect ; but a writer in the
Columbian Magazine, in 1786, recorded a specimen that had
forty-four.

The rattlesnake is mild and peaceful if unprovoked, and has
never been known to follow a human being for purposes of
attack. A friend of the author, an army officer, was sitting on
a stump in Florida with his hands upon his knees, looking
down upon the ground, when a large rattlesnake, not, however,
of this species, slowly crawled between his legs, and moved
away. The officer had the nerve to remain perfectly quiet,

Our Common Snakes.

I25

which was necessary, he said, there being no stimulant within
two hundred miles.

' Rattlesnakes prey upon small animals, as rats, squirrels and
rabbits, and can always be safely approached when stretched out,
only striking when they are coiled. They are not climbers,
rarely, if ever, being found in trees, and their alleged powers of
fascination are purely mythical, this lying merely in the horror
their presence inspires in the lower animals as well as in man.
Paralyzed by fear, the victim is often incapable of flight, and
stupidly awaits its fate. This I think will explain all the so-
called cases of fascination, and the reader can well apply it to
familiar examples by recalling instances where men, women and
children have been attacked by animals, and rooted to the spot,
as it were, by fear and surprise. Men have been so horrified
and confused at an approaching train, that they have stood until
tossed from the track, yet, in entering the plea for damages, the
plaintiff’s lawyer never claims that the injured party was fasci¬
nated bv the train.

These dangerous snakes are extremely common in New York
State, and especially in the mountainous and secluded parts of
Pennsylvania. On the shores of Lake Champlain they are also
very abundant, and some years ago two men, in three days,
destroyed over eleven hundred rattlesnakes on the sides of
Tongue Mountain, in Bolton Township, N. Y.

As one of the vagaries of fashion is to have card-cases, bags,
belts, pocket-books, etc., made of the rich skins of these animals,
an extensive business is now carried on, and many men are
engaged as professional rattlesnake-hunters. Especially in Sul¬
livan and Ulster counties is this curious business followed ; and,
according to a gentleman living in Middletown, very large sums
are made every year in the sale of rattlesnake oil, which is

126 Marvels of Animal Life .

believed to possess wonderful curative powers by a large pro¬
portion of the inhabitants of not only those but of adjoining
counties. Many snakes are killed during the summer season,
but the grand gathering of the crop is in the fall, when they
have returned to their dens and wintering-places. These retreats
are well known to the snake-hunters, and they choose sunny
days in October and November for raiding them. On such
days the reptiles crawl out of their dens in the rocks, and
huddle together by the score, different varieties frequently being
found massed together. The snakes are dull and sluggish at
that time of the year, and come out to bask in the sun. The
hunters arm themselves with old fashioned flails, and when they
come upon a group of snakes, proceed at once to thrash them,
but few escaping.

The rattlesnakes are assorted from the other species and
carried home, where the oil is simply tried out and bottled up,
ready for the market and the credulous patient.

In the winter mouths these snakes enter upon a state of
hibernation, burying themselves in the ground, entwined or
singly, coming out in early spring.

DO RATTLESNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG?

Perhaps no subject connected with snakes has attracted
so much attention as the vexed one as to their care for their
young. A snake would scarcely be expected to show much
maternal affection, but such is the case, and in a most remark¬
able manner ; in fact, taking their young in their mouths, if
alarmed.

Dr. Edward Palmer, a well-known traveler and collector,
states that, when in Paraguay with the Water- Witch expedition,

Our Common Snakes.

127

lie saw seven young rattlesnakes ( Caudisona terrified) run into
their parent’s mouth. ( Plate XIX.) After it was killed, they all
ran out. These snakes, parent and brood, are preserved in the
National Museum, Washington.

Palisot de Beauvois, an eminent French naturalist, thus details
an observation made near the close of the last century : “ When
making my first excursion into the Cherokee country, I hap¬
pened, while botanizing, to see a rattlesnake in my path. I
approached as softly as possible ; but just as I was about to
strike, imagine my surprise to see it, after sounding its rattle,
open a very large mouth, and receive into it five little serpents,
each about the size of a goose-quill. Astonished at this singular
spectacle, I retired some distance and hid behind a tree. After
some minutes, the animal, believing itself out of danger, again
opened its mouth and allowed tthe little ones to escape. I
advanced ; the little ones retreated to their stronghold, and the
mother, carrying her precious treasure, disappeared among the
uuderbrush, where I was not able to find her.”

Among other rattlesnakes, the diamond attains a length of
eight feet, and is strictly a Southern species, only found on the
Atlantic south of the Carolinas. In the same locality is found
the ground rattlesnake, about thirteen inches long. Others are
the red, Mitchell’s, horned, “ side-winder,” tiger, St. Lucas,
banded, Arizona, spotted, scutulated, confluent, and the black-
tail rattlesnakes, all of the genus Orotalus. In the Caudisona
are found the Mexican ground, the Southern ground, the Sonora
ground, and the black rattlesnake — a ferocious array. The bite
of nearly all of these is extremely dangerous, though in the
smaller it is not necessarily fatal. Almost all animals succumb
to them, and man, if proper remedies are not at hand. It is a
general belief that the hog is exempt ; but this is at least not

128

Marvels of Animal Life.

the rule, and where these reptiles are common, these animals are
often killed by them.

Almost every locality has its seer with a remedy for snake
bites ; whiskey, however, is generally the most successful. This
was well shown in New York in 1883, where a show man was
bitten by a large rattlesnake, and recovered by being kept under
the influence of large doses of whiskey. Being a temperance
man, he asserted that he suffered more from the liquor than
he did from the bite. This is one of the best authenticated
cases of the utility of alcohol on record.

It is stated that M. Dr. Lacerda, of the French Academy of
Sciences, has established the fact that permanganate of potash is
the best antidote to the poison of snakes. The experiments were
exhaustive, and deemed satisfactory. The scientist injected the
active venom of a deadly snake, diluted with distilled water,
into the cellular tissue and veins of a dog, and found that the
antidote stopped the manifestations of venom injuries. The
experiments were made in the presence of the Emperor of
Brazil and a large company of scientists, and the fortunate
experimenter has been decorated by the Emperor for his valuable
discovery.

The juggling of the Hindoo fakirs with the deadly cobra, is
familiar to all, and it is now known that it is done at times
without resort to trickery ; but it is not generally known that
similar experiments have been tried with the rattlesnake in this
country. Chateaubriand says : “ One day, when we had stopped
on a plain on the banks of the River Genedie, a rattlesnake
entered our camp. We had a Canadian amongst us who played on
the flute ; wishing to amuse us he approached the animal with
this new kind of weapon. At the approach of his enemy, the
splendid reptile at once coiled itself up spirally, flattened its head,

PLATE XVI

THE PEMAQUID SEA SERPENT

Our Common Snakes. 129

puffed out its cheeks, aud showed its enveuomed faugs, while its
forked tongue moved rapidly, and its eyes burned like red-hot
coals ; its body became inflated with rage, rose and fell like a pair of
bellows ; its dilated skin bristled with scales ; and its tail which
produced a sinister sound, oscillated with lightning rapidity. The
Canadian now began to play upon his flute. The snake made a
movement expressive of surprise, gradually drew its head back¬
ward, closed its inflamed mouth, and as the musical sounds
struck it, the eyes lost their sharpness, the vibration of its tail
relaxed, and the noise which it made became weaker and weaker,
and finally died away altogether ; the coiled up line became less
perpendicular, the coils of the charmed snake opened, and in
their turn rested in wider concentric circles on the ground. The
scales of the skin were also lowered, and immediately recovered
their wonted brilliancy ; and, turning its head slowly toward
the musician, the snake remained immovable in an attitude of
pleased attention. At this moment the Canadian walked away
a few steps, drawing low and monotonous tones from his flute ;
the reptile lowered his neck, opened a way among the fine grass
with its head, and crawled in the steps of the musician who thus
fascinated him, stopping when he stopped, and following him
when he began to move away. The snake was thus conducted
from our camp, in the midst of a throng of spectators — as many
red skins as Europeans — who could scarcely believe their eyes.”

Of all the poisonous snakes of this country, the copperhead

is the most dreaded. It is also known as the cotton-mouth,

moccasin and red-eve in the South. It is common from the

Catskill region to the Gulf States. It attains a length of two

feet, is of a hazel hue, the head having a bright coppery lustre.

The copperhead conceals itself in shady spots in meadows of high

grass, feeding upon small animals, and rarely attacking large
9

130 Marvels of Animal Life.

ones unless stepped on ; in this way horses are sometimes killed
by them. The mother copperhead has also been observed to
take its young in its mouth when danger threatened them.

The water-moccasin ( Ancistrodon piscivorus), from its pugna¬
cious disposition, is perhaps equally to be feared. While the
rattlesnake will slink away from danger, the moccasin will
attack man or brute with savage ferocity, and thus is treated with
respect by the negroes of the South. It is found from the
neighborhood of the Pedee River to the Gulf States, and to
some extent in the Mississippi Valley ; while another species —
the A. piscivorus pugnax — is found in Texas, and called the
Texas moccasin.

But the stronghold of the moccasin is in the vast swamp of
Southern Florida, where the members of a recent expedition
state that they exist in enormous numbers, having to be pushed
aside as they advanced, and crawling into the boats and canvas
at night. They are essentially water-snakes, chasing fishes and
small reptiles in the streams of the rice plantations. They may
be recognized by the dark-brown colors on the upper portion of
the head, and the yellowish line extending from the snout to or
over the nostril. They rarely attain a length of over twenty
inches, and are short in proportion.

The moccasins show the same curious care for their young
already mentioned. A few years ago, a gentleman, directing
some hands at work on the lawn of Dr. Phares, of Woodville,
Miss., heard a low, blowing noise, and on looking saw a large
water-moccasin, and a large number of young hurrying to her
head and disappearing so rapidly that he first thought they ran
under her. He soon discovered that they went into her slightly-
opened mouth, which was held close to the ground till they
had all entered. She then attempted to escape, but was cut in

Our Common Snakes .

1 31

two with a lioe; a number of young, eight or ten inches long
were taken from her.

- A gentleman in Georgetown, S. C., writes : “ I had for several
days noticed a very large moccasin coiled around the limb of a
small tree near the pond. I concluded to capture it, and accord¬
ingly procured a large rabbit and placed it some way up from
the pond, to toll her away from the water. She soon came
down and disappeared under a large log ; when next seen, she
was near the bait, having traced it along the log on its opposite
side. When she had nearly swallowed the bait, we made an
advance; quickly disgorging it, she gave a shrill whistling noise,
and five young snakes ran from under the log, and ran down
the throat of the old one. We cut off her head and found the
five young, which made efforts to get away.”

One of the most beautiful snakes found in the United States,
venomous, but not necessarily fatal in its bite, is the bead-snake
(Elaps). It has permanently erect poison-fangs, but is extremely
mild in its disposition. The coloring of the harlequin, as it is
sometimes called, is exceedingly rich, the principal color being
red, with seventeen broad, black rings, each bordered with
yellow. It ranges from Virginia to Arkansas, four other
species being known in Florida and Texas. The South Amer¬
ican species are extremely dangerous. They are generally found
underground, often being hoed up by the hands working in the
fields.

One of the commonest of the non-poisonous snakes is the
striped or common garter-snake, ten species of which are known
in the United States. In early spring they are almost the first
of the reptiles to roll out of their holes, where they have been
hiding in balls or clusters. The author has seen them in New
York before the snow was fairly away. Though easily aroused,

1 32

Marvels of Animal Life.

and striking quickly, their bite is little more than a scratch. In
the spring they are always hungry, and I have seen one chase a
toad for fifty feet over a gravelly road, finally catching it. I
captured the snake, and fed it with three adult toads within
three hours. If the victim was seized by the head, his fate was
soon determined ; but when a hind leg was caught, the other, for
a while seemed to offer an obstacle, and called to mind the fable
that once went the rounds of the papers, to the effect that a toad
seeing itself about to be swallowed, seized a stick and held it
crosswise in its mouth, thus averting the danger.

The garter-snake is remarkably prolific, and in the spring
their numbers about pools are sometimes astonishing. It has
been suggested that they are both viviparous as well as ovovivi-
parous, from the fact that seventy-eight young have been taken
from a single female, some being found free and others in sacs.
With a brood of forty or fifty young, the striped snake would
seem to have a difficult time in protecting its offspring by taking
them in her mouth. They have this habit, however, as is shown
by the following statement from a writer from Chesterfield, N. H.
He says : “I saw a striped snake on the hillside, and noticed
something moving about her head, and counted twenty little
snakes from one and a half to two inches long. I made a move,
and the old one opened her mouth, and they went in out of sight.
I stepped back and waited, and in a few moments they began to
come out. Then I made for the old snake, and killed her, and
forced out several.”

Another gentleman writes : “ Some years ago I came across a

garter-snake with some young ones near her. Soon as she per¬
ceived me she hissed, and the young ones jumped down her
throat, and she glided beneath a stone heaj). Another time I
caught a snake of the same species, but, as I thought, of immense

Our Common Snakes ,

133

size, which I took home and put in a cage. On going to look
at her some short time afterward, I discovered a great number of
young ones (about thirty, if I remember rightly), and whilst I
was still looking at the sudden increase, two more crept out of the
old one’s mouth, and finally, after a little while, a third one did
likewise.

The black snake ( Bascanion constrictor ), that is a match for
the rattlesnake, often squeezing it to death, is a familiar form,
and widely distributed. A party of hunters recently observed
in Pennsylvania a black ball, two feet in diameter, rolling slowly
down a hill, and found on examination, that it was composed
of hundreds of these reptiles. In appearance they are very
attractive, from a decorative point of view, being of a steel-blue
uniform color, with a rich tessellated arrangement of scales. In
their natures, they are wild, untamable, powerful, and active
foes, often engaging in encounters with other snakes, especially
the rattlesnakes, quickly killing and forcing them to disgorge
their prey. In their movements they are so rapid that they are
often called the racer.

In the breeding-season they are bold, often going out of their
way to attack passers-by, and have been known to chase an
intruder for some distance. According to Holbrook, they will
even descend a tree to attack the one who is teasing them.

The black snake is the one that most frequently appears in
the guise of a charmer, but as I have previously suggested, this
power, so often imputed, is merely imaginary. The reptile
preys upon birds in their nests, penetrating thickets in search
of them; and often the cat-bird and the red-winged black-bird
are seen acting strangely, crying and fluttering before the reptile
in fear and rage, while thus charmed , frequently falling a victim
in their attempt to protect their young. At such times the cries

134

Marvels of Animal Life .

of distress of the old bird have called a number of birds of
different genera, who assemble to join forces against the common
enemy, finally forcing it to retreat.

Like other snakes mentioned, the black snake is said to pro¬
tect its young by taking them in its mouth. The Lev. Chauncey
Loomis, of Middletown, Conn., saw the Alleghany black snake
open its mouth, and seven young pass down its throat, upon
which the mother darted swiftly away.

In speaking of this interesting phase of snake life, Professor
Goode says, referring to the testimonies on various genera : u The
total number of testimonies in my possession is one hundred and
twenty. Sixty-seven witnesses saw the young snakes enter the
parent’s mouth ; twenty-two of these heard the young warned by
a whistle, or hiss, or click, or sound of the rattles; five were
considerate enough to wait and see them re-appear when danger
seemed over, one seeing the act repeated on several days. These
saw young snakes coming out of a large one’s mouth, and not
having seen them enter, were naturally much astonished. Five
struck the parent, and saw the young rush from its mouth;
eighteen saw the young shaken out by dogs, or running from
the mouth of the dead parent. Thirty-six of those who saw the
young enter the parent’s mouth, found them living within its
body. Only twenty of the sixty-seven allowed the poor, affec¬
tionate mother to escape. Thirty-three who did not see the
young enter found them living within the parent’s body.”

The coach-whip snake, a long, slender form of the Southern
and Gulf States, from its attenuation and rapid movements, has
been vested with remarkable powers by the credulous. The
Indians formerly asserted that it had the power of cutting its
antagonist in twain by its whip-like motions ; others thought
that it formed itself into a wheel by holding its tail in its mouth

Our Common Snakes.

135

and rolling away. Many of these curious fables are still be¬
lieved in the South.

An interesting fact concerning the common milk snake has
been shown by Professor C. F. Brackett, of Princeton, illustra¬
ting how, immediately after birth, the young make use of their
instinctive faculty. He says : “ A workman who was mowing

in my father’s hay field came upon a moist, moss-grown knoll,
and his scythe cleft off a portion of the thick moss and sphag¬
num, and revealed several (at least a dozen, I should say) small
soft bodies, which he declared to be snakes’ eggs. I, at that
time, having no knowledge of such matters, was incredulous, and
proceeded to tear one of them open, when, to my surprise, there
appeared a small, perfectly formed milk-adder, which immedi¬
ately assumed a pugnacious attitude, and brandished its tongue
as defiantly as an old snake would have done. Other eggs were
torn open with like results. Soon the old snake appeared, and
after endeavoring apparently to encourage the young family thus
suddenly initiated into the world, it put its mouth down to the
ground, and every one that had been liberated from the egg
voluntarily and hastily disappeared within the abdomen of the
old one. Last of all, I put the point of a pitchfork through the
old snake, and with a pocket-knife opened the abdomen, and
found the young ones still active.”

The hog-nose snake, or blowing adder, common in the Eastern
States, is, notwithstanding its disagreeable aspect, perfectly
harmless.

Among the most attractive forms are the green snakes. The
Leptophis aestivus, common in the South, is of a brilliant green
color, and a perfect mimic of a vine, and would rarely be taken
for a living creature when lying amid the branches of a tree.
They have a habit of coiling in birds’ nests, often surprising the

1 36 Marvels of Animal Life ,

egg hunter by bounding away. Allied species, further to the
South, have been seen to leap twenty feet into the air, falling to
the ground and escaping. They are perfectly harmless, and,
like the common green snake of the North, can be handled with
impunity; are easily tamed, feeding from the hand. A lady
once appeared in public with three such pets, — one about her
neck as a necklace, the others clasped about her wrists as
bracelets.

The water-snake ( Nerodia sipedon ) is an extremely common
form in the Eastern United States; and an allied form, known as
the red-bellied water-snake, is common in Michigan, while
several other species are well known in various localities.
They are inoffensive creatures, and prey upon small animals.
In Ohio they are quite common, and a farmer of Mechanicsburg,
Ohio, says that, seeing a large one on Deer Creek, he procured
a pole for the purpose of killing her. One stroke slightly
wounded her, and she immediately made for the water. After
she had swam about her length, she wheeled, placing her under
jaw just out of the edge of the water, and opened her mouth
to the fullest extent. Some dozen young snakes, three to four
inches long, then seemed to run, or rather swim, down her throat,
after which she clumsily turned in search of a hiding-place. He
opened her, and found about twenty living young snakes, two or
three, seven or eight inches long. This shows them to have the
same peculiar habit noticed in so many others.

The water-snakes are generally found about water-courses,
often hanging in the branches of trees over streams, into which
they rapidly drop. Dr. Bell, the English naturalist, tamed a
European species of this genus. His pet would distinguish him
among a crowd, and crawl to him, passing into his sleeve, where
it curled up for a nap. Every morning it came to the doctor’s

PLATE XVII

ELASMOSAURUS PLATYURUS — B’lFTY FEET IN LENGTH

Our Common Snakes.

137

table for its share of milk. For strangers it had an aversion,
flying and hissing at them when touched.

In tracing back the history of the snakes, we find that the
earliest occurs in the Eocene Tertiary period, and their fossil
remains are found in various parts of the country. At this
early time, several species of a great water-snake, at least
eighteen feet in length, lived on the New Jersey coast. Remains
of others, allied to the existing boa-constrictor, have been found
in the Eocene lake deposits of the West; so, comparatively speak¬
ing, the snakes are of modern origin.

CHAPTER XII.

ANIMAL MIMICS.

A number of years ago reports came to the headquarters of an
English regiment stationed in India, that a portion of the
country lying in its jurisdiction was being systematically pil¬
laged by a band of native robbers. As soon as practicable a
force was sent against them, and for many days the trail was
followed without success. One evening when the troops had
gone into camp after a long day’s march, one of the men led his
horse toward some curious blasted and upturned roots that stood
upon the plain near by, thinking to there tie the animal that
had shown a disposition to run away. The private had
approached within a few feet of the roots, when to his amazement,
they moved, actually turning into men, who, with derisive cries,
darted away, disappearing in a rocky defile where they were safe
from pursuit. The wily natives had, by twisting and contorting
their bodies, so mimicked the roots of trees that they would have
escaped observation but for the accidental approach of the soldier.

In a very similar way many of the lower animals are enabled

to avoid their enemies or better approach their prey. Who is

not familiar with the protection afforded our game-birds by the

adaptation of their colors to those of their surroundings? Quail,

woodcock, and grouse have almost the exact colors of the grasses

they most affect. In the North we find the ptarmigan in winter

assuming a white garb, so that against the snow it cannot be

distinguished ; and as the summer months come on, its plumage
138

Animal Mimics.

139

changes, and is adapted to the gray lichens and mosses of the
warmer times. The polar bear, and many of the hares, gulls,
and carnivorous animals of that region, have a white coloring.
The young of some seals are pure white, a color that serves them
well ; and deer, elk, and the larger game offer no strong contrast
as they stand amid the solitudes of their choice.

In the great arid tracts of the West, where the sun has
given everything a dry, withered tint, we find similarly-colored
animals. The horned-toad so resembles the ground that it is
hardly noticeable. The tawny skin of the lion, the stripes of
the leopard, the gray color of our puma, that renders it incon¬
spicuous when crouching on a rock, are all familiar examples of
this natural endowment.

These, however, are only generalized cases, and might be
passed as accidental occurrences were there not instances so
wonderful that design is evident at the very outset. Among
the fishes they are extremely numerous. This is especially
noticeable in the family of which the goose-fish, or angler, is a
member. In drifting along we see upon the bottom a black
moss-covered rock ; the kelps and algae that grow upon it wave
to and fro in the current, and not until the apparent rock is
touched do we discover that it is a fish. The huge mouth is
fringed with barbels of flesh that are perfect imitations of the
local weed in shape and color ; the pectoral fins look like sprays
of it ; while the curious dorsals are covered with dancing fila¬
ments that are seriously believed by many a luckless fish to be
marine plants. The most remarkable mimic of this family was
discovered by the “Challenger.” The entire fish was apparently
covered with fringes and streamers of flesh that gave it the exact
appearance of a bunch of sea-weed.

In Eastern seas we find the grass-fish ( Nemichthys ), which is

140 Marvels of Animal Life.

invariably seen upright among the grass it resembles. The
Antennarius and Chironectes resemble the gulf-weed in which
they live not only in form, but in color ; yellow, green, and white
tints are scattered over their bodies in seeming confusion, so that
two alike have never been found. Even the white polyzoons
that grow upon the sargassum appear to have been imitated,
and thus, lying partly submerged upon the gulf-weed, exposed
to the watchful eyes of predatory gulls, these fishes find absolute
safety in the resemblance.

The sea-horse ( Hippocampus ) and pipe-fish are wonderfully
protected. In a recently discovered species of the first, the fins
seem to have been replaced by long streamers, in some cases as
long as the fish itself, that wind about, moving to and fro in the
water, so that when clinging to the weed by its prehensile tail,
and surrounded by its waving fins or filaments, its most inveter¬
ate enemy would pass it by as a mat of sea- weed. The pipe¬
fishes may be found in the eel-grass near the mouths of the Dela¬
ware, Hudson and other rivers ; and so closely do they resemble
bits of weed that the keenest observation is required to find them,
and often the movement of the fish as the grass is lifted from
the water is the only means of detecting the little mimics.

Among the fishes that rely upon color alone as a protection,
might be cited the little Yomeus, as showing what may be
called the perfection of mimicry. I first observed these fishes in
the Gulf Stream, in the vicinity of Yucatan, in 1860. The
water was covered with myriads of the fairy physalia, or Portu¬
guese man-o’-war, which, with their oval hulls and pink and
silver sails, were cruising about at the mercy of the warm trade
wind. Wishing to obtain specimens, we rowed among them.
Upon lifting one from the water, which could be done safely by
the sail, several dark fishes were observed darting wildly about.

A nimal M imics.

141

Thinking they might be attendants upon the physalia, we
returned the latter to the water, and no sooner was this done
than four or five little fishes of the most intense blue darted to
it from under the boat, and took their places under the long,
blue, deadly tentacles. They were of the same color, so that
within a short distance of the floating bubble the fishes could
hardly be distinguished. But even more remarkable than this
resemblance was their immunity from the death-dealing lasso-
cells of their protector. I have seen a sardine touch one of the
tentacles and succumb as if by an electric shock ; yet here in the
midst of the virulent blue stings the little blue fishes found a
home. Evidently the powers of the physalia are well known to
the inhabitants of the sea, and they give it a wide berth ; but the
blue fishes, by being mimics of the tentacular parts of their host,
find protection. Jelly-fishes were often seen side by side with
the physalia, also having their attendants, who imitated their
host in being transparent and tipped with reddish and pink
tints; yet never did we find the blue friend of the physalia under
the jellies, or vice versa.

The perch, dolphin, stickleback, corbitis, etc., have long been
noted for their power of changing color, some assuming a new
tint instantaneously and others more gradually. If we arrange
small enclosures in shallow water, having the bottoms of each
different, one pure white sand, one covered with black kelp, and
another a medium shade, we shall find, if we place flounders of
the same general tint in each, that they will very shortly assume
a color assimilated to that of the bottom. Now take out the
flounder that has been on the white bottom and place it on the
black kelp, and it soon appears to observe the difference, gradu¬
ally adopting the color. If a blind flounder of normal color is
placed on the dark or white bottom, we find that no change is

142

Marvels of Animal Life .

effected. The conclusion would naturally be that the fish had
observed the change that brought it out in such bold and dan¬
gerous relief, and had exerted certain powers of reason to pro¬
duce a like change in itself. This, according to Semper, does not
seem to be the case. We find that the skin consists of two distinct
portions, the epidermis and the cutis, the former being entirely
composed of cells, the innermost layer containing cylindrical ones.
The cutis is composed chiefly of fibre, and encloses nerves and large
cavities for glands and cell-elements. These contain pigment,
and to its distribution and the power of the highly-ramified cells
of shrinking and expanding under various circumstances are due
the remarkable variations of color that we are all more or less
familiar with. The pigment in the cells varies in different fishes
or animals, and in different parts of the body, being yellow,
black, red, green, or brown, as the case may be. In experiments
with the goby it has been found that the pigment-cells, or chro-
mataphores, that are yellow or greenish-yellow when distended,
become orange-colored when contracted, while the orange or red
cells, when exposed to an irritation that produces shrinkage,
become black, or even brown. The pigment-cells are arranged
in layers in the cutis ; close to the epidermis are the light-
colored yellow cells, beneath them the red or brown, below, the
black. If they all relax, then the prevailing color will be black
or brown, and the patches of light-colored cells will be dulled.
If they contract while the light patches are yet expanded, the
latter will be rendered more conspicuous, and the fish or frog
will appear mottled. As we have seen, the eye is the medium
by which the irritant is conveyed, and the latter is undoubtedly
reflected light, producing certain effects upon the optic nerve
that are transmitted to the sympathetic nerves extending parallel
with the vertebrae, thus reaching the chromataphores. That

Animal Mimics.

this is the correct explanation can be shown by severing one of
the nerves, and by careful manipulations one side of the fish
may be made to appear striped, while the other will retain its
normal tint ; so it will be seen that the immediate accomplish¬
ment of a protective resemblance is an intuitive change, and does
not involve any mental action on the part of the animal, which
is perhaps unconscious that such a change has taken place.

An instance of involuntary adaptation occurs among the
shrimps, similar to that of the flat fish cited. The chameleon
shrimp is found generally among grasses of vivid green, with
which it agrees in color. If we remove it to a jar of water, it
grows pale, the green tint finally disappearing, until we have a
transparent shrimp, almost invisible. On brown sand it also
assumes that tint ; but when its eyes are destroyed it will be
found to assume any color, as in the case of the blind flounder.

Among the crabs are a number of striking mimics. Our
familiar rock crab, if taken and cleansed (and I have often tried
the experiment), will immediately, when placed in the water,
commence to plant upon its back bits of weed that it cuts from
the bunches all about. The severed branch is first placed against
the mouth and some glutinous secretion affixed, then placed upon
the back, where it lives and grows. In less than an hour one of
these crabs will cover itself so that only sharp eyes can dis¬
tinguish it from a moss-covered stone. Others, as Parthenope,
resemble rocks in their structure, so that many a skate or codfish
would pass them by not suspecting that its legitimate prey was
concealed beneath the rough exterior. I have seen a large land-
crgb in the South ascend the prickly pear, evidently to feed upon
the fruit, and so imitate it in color and shape that at a few feet
it was absolutely unnoticeable, and when alarmed it would draw
back into the crevice and assume almost the exact position of the

144 Marvels of Animal Life.

fruit. These crabs were found in great numbers on the fallen
mangrove-boughs that covered the beach ; but on the pure white
shore, where their rich purple bodies would soon have caught
the eye of the watchful laughing gull, we never saw them.
There were crabs here, however, in great numbers, but every one
was perfectly white, the same shade as the sands bleached for
years in the tropical sun.

How interesting is the mimicry of the little isopods, so common
on rocky shores ! Every stone overturned reveals myriads of
them, no two alike, decked in varied garbs, blocked and dashed
with grotesque colorings in imitation of the barnacles and weed
that hang upon the rocks about them. One, the jcera copiosa ,
abounds in greater numbers than the larger forms, and, with its
shades of gray, slate, green, brown, and white, successfully simu¬
lates its surroundings. So with the Idotea, found clinging to
the eel-grass, or ulva, of which it seems a veritable part.

Among the hydroids and delicate forms of algae, we shall
discover the curious capsella clinging to the surface with its
stick-like legs, safe in its protective garb and shape. The most
remarkable crab mimics are found in the Sargasso Sea ; and in
many I have caught, from the delicate Nautilograptus to the
larger and more predatory forms, all had fantastic markings
exactly resembling the leaves of the sargassum. The backs and
claws of the larger crabs looked, when first taken from their
resting-place, as if another artist than nature had been at work.
The yellow and delicate brown and green tints were perfectly
reproduced, even the membranipora that grew upon the weed
seeming to be imitated. How necessary is this protection, is
seen in the numbers of gulls that roam over the vast areas of
sargassum and would be attracted by the slightest contrasting
feature. This surveillance on the part of the birds has undoubt-

PLATE XVIII

AN EXTINCT MARINE REPTILE, CAMARASAURUS— SEVENTY-FIVE FEET LONG

Animal Mimics.

edly resulted in the perfection of mimicry. The crabs that offer
strong contrast have always been observed and devoured, only
those with protective tendencies being preserved, whose progeny
would naturally in each successive generation become more and
more in keeping with their surroundings, assuming that the
unprotected exceptions were being continually weeded out, which
is probably the case.

Not only the crabs, but all the inhabitants of the gulf-weed
are equally protected. On the shrimps the imitation of the
bryozoon Membranipora is wonderful. The planarian worms
cannot be distinguished from the weed itself. The mollusk
Scylloea not only has the prevailing color, but its members and
body seem to have been modified even in form to suit the exigen¬
cies of the case. Among the weed is found the fairy-like
Ianthina, a beautiful blue shell, and clinging to its raft we find
the little crab Naut ilagrapt us, here a perfect blue, while but a
moment before we have seen others upon the weed, their backs
white and yellow.

All the pelagic animals are either colorless or specially provided
with a protective tint. The Ianthina and Vellela are both blue, —
the rich tint of the Gulf Stream ; while the floating raft of the
former we should pass by as a fleck of sea-foam. The dark
tint of many of the Salpcie causes them to resemble bits of sea¬
weed, though at night they blaze with unwonted splendor — the
most beautiful of the luminous forms. Perhaps below the float¬
ing weed, with its pelagic inhabitants, we shall find the sea-cucum¬
ber — the very prince of mimics. In some the organs resemble
the leaves of the pineapple ; in others the tentacles exactly imi¬
tate some delicate branching algae ; while again, toadstools seem
» growing from the sand. The common sea-cucumber (Pentacta) of

our shore can easily be examined. Its black, leathery, bag-like
10

146

Marvels of Animal Life.

body offers a strong contrast to the sand — a fact seemingly known
to it, as when dropped into the aquarium it almost immediately
disappears. It is not long, however, before a shapely tendril
breaks through the sand ; soon another and then another appears,
until a perfect shrub is seen waving in the current, and hardly
noticeable among the branches of real weed around it : these are
the breathing-organs of the Pentacta.

INSECT MIMICRY.

Perhaps, however, the most striking instances of mimicry oc¬
cur among the insects. Some resemble leaves, sticks, and other
inanimate objects ; others find safety in imitating insects that are
known to birds as being poisonous, and are hence avoided by
them. The walking-sticks are curious examples of the first class,
resembling the twig upon which they rest, not only in color, but
in their very structure and joints. Some found in the tropics
are eight inches in length. The decayed particles of a dead
limb, the small rugosities of the bark, the moss or fungus that
may grow upon it, are perfectly reproduced in these curious in¬
sects, which, hanging from the limbs with legs all awry, would
never be considered living creatures by the casual observer.
[Plate XX.) The leaf-insect ( Phyllium ) ( Plate XXI.) is equally
wonderful, in shape resembling a moderate-sized leaf; the vein-
ing and tint are near copies of the leaf upon which they live ; and
travelers have touched them without finding out the deception.
In J ava they are kept alive, and strangers are often asked to point
them out, and though numbers are before them, they find it diffi¬
cult to detect the mimics from the true leaves. To make the resem¬
blance more perfect, many have mould spots, or what appear to be
such, upon their wings. This is still oftener the case with the
locusts, many of which bear a strong resemblance to leaves. Mr.

Animal Mimics .

147

Belt, the naturalist, observed the use of this resemblance in a case
where one of the mimic locusts was overtaken by an army of
ants. The locust might have flown away, but it would then
have been devoured by the birds that were preying upon the
ants ; so it merely remained quiescent, imitating an old worm-
eaten dried leaf, and was passed over unnoticed by the swarm
of ants, after which the cunning mimic moved off. In Java, the
home of the beautiful leaf-butterfly, so noted for its curious
forms, a pink mantis has been discovered that resembles a pink
orchis so closely that it is difficult to distinguish them. Here
the insect is protected from the birds, and, being carnivorous, it
is enabled to capture other insects that mistake it for a flower,
and is thus a self-baited trap.

Many insects that are harmless and unprotected are found to
mimic in shape and color, other insects that are notably aggres¬
sive. Thus, the stinging ants in Central America are imitated
by spiders and certain beetles ; a virulent stinging wasp, which
few birds would venture to touch, is found to have a double that
is in reality a harmless bug. Many flies resemble bees, both in
appearance and in the sounds they produce. The butterflies, as
Danais and Archippus , that are distasteful to the birds, perhaps
on account of their poisonous nature, are mimicked by butterflies
that the birds are eager for. Mr. Wallace observed a remarkable
case of this in Malaisia. He noticed a butterfly which the birds
always recognized and avoided, mimicked by an eatable butterfly.
As soon as the bird started in chase, the wily insect assumed the
clumsy and laborious movement of the wings that served as a
danger-signal to the other species, and the bird at once gave up
the pursuit.

One of the most remarkable facts in this phase in the struggle
for existence is that not only do the insects adopt the color about

1 48 Marvels of Animal Life.

them, but the chrysalis of an African butterfly ( Papilio niveus )
has the same power. This was first noticed by Mr. T. W.
Wood, who found that the colors of the chrysalis of the small
cabbage-butterfly changed according to the tint of the interior of
the box in which it was confined. Those in white boxes were
white; those in dark, black; some against a brick wall were
reddish. The same is true of the cocoon of the Emperor moth.

What wonderful appreciation of the benefits of a protective
resemblance is seen in some of the trap-door spiders ! If left as
completed, the oval door of silk would attract enemies ; but to
avoid this the cunning builder brings earth, places it upon the
trap, and here plants moss and bits of weed, which it brings
from far and near, that soon take root and grow, effectually con¬
cealing the door and trap. Other species as the Nemesia, fasten
entire leaves upon the top of their nests, and thus disguise them.

Among the larval and pupa forms of insects, the examples are
both numerous and wonderful.. Some resemble bits of stone;
others small shoots of trees just starting, the buds of flowers,
and even the flowers themselves. Others again mimic bits of
moss and various objects of different colors. The caterpillar of
Coelodasys unicornis , common on hazel leaves, is an interesting
mimic. It eats into the edge of the leaf, extending the body
along the eaten portion, following the curve and clinging to it
by its feet, and in this position is very difficult to distinguish.
A species of Notodonta , that is often found on the willow, is a
remarkable mimic, and resembles the rugosities of the tree.

A MIMICKING CATERPILLAR.

Mr. S. E. Peal reports from Asam a very interesting case of
mimicry in a caterpillar. The animal, when at rest and undis¬
turbed, resembles the upper outline in Plate XXII., and is a large

Animal Mimics .

149

insect of a general brownish gray color with green markings.
When attacked or alarmed, it immediately assumes the ferocious
appearance indicated in the lower figures of the cut, and becomes
in a second a mimic of an insectivorous animal, a shrew. So
striking is the resemblance that Mr. Peal was completely deceived.
Only the fact that it did not run at his approach caused him to
examine it closer, when he found instead of a shrew a harmless
caterpillar that probably thus mimicked the very animal that
perhaps preyed upon it.

The rich green iguanas are almost invisible among the leaves
of their native haunts ; the bull-frog among the sedges by the
river-side is green also ; while the toad that affects dusty roads
is mottled or gray.

A wonderful mimic is the chameleon, though our Anolis is
equally interesting. In this case, according to an American
naturalist, the color of the integument can seemingly be
altered at the will of the animal. In it the two layers of
movable pigment-cells are deeply seated in the skin, but can be
brought to the surface. The layers are blue and yellow, and by
pressing certain muscles they can be forced up either separately
or together ; when the muscles are not brought into use, the
general color of the animal is grayish ; but when occasion
requires, it applies the lever, if we may so call it, and by an
action of the will greater or less pressure is brought to bear,
producing tints varying from blue or green to yellow, brown, or
mottled.

Who can doubt that the bits of moss placed by the humming
birds upon their nests, rendering them so difficult to find, are
intended to have this result ? The nests, when completed, are
perfect imitations of the moss-tipped knobs of the apple tree,
and are often passed by unseen by those in search of them.

150 Marvels of Animal Life .

The curious Australian bird, Megapodius, when pursued or in
danger, has been seen to alight upon a limb and straighten out
its neck, so closely resembling a branch of the tree that the pur¬
suer was completely discomfited.

Even among plants we find strange cases of similar means of
protection, that of the stone mesembryanthemum of the Cape of
Good Hope being one of the most striking. It so resembles the
stones among which it grows that the novice is always deceived
and passes specimens by when making most careful search. The
little plant is extremely juicy, and especially coveted by grazing
animals of all kinds, and would undoubtedly soon be exterminated
were it not for the singular protection that causes it to be mistaken
for stones. Other cases are known of curious plants growing in
the stony karroo, with the tuberous roots above the soil, so that
when not in leaf their resemblance to the surrounding rock is
perfect. Some of the fungi are mimics of other forms that are
known to be unsuitable for food, and thus find protection. The
labiate plant Ajuga ophrydis of Southern Africa mimics an
orchid, and thus may attract insects to fertilize it.

Such are merely a few out of myriads of examples that illus¬
trate one of the many devices employed by nature in preserving
her offspring.

CHAPTER XIII.

LOST RACES.

Not the least interesting feature connected with the extinction
of animals, is that relating to the manner of their disappearance,
and the conditions that caused these myriads of forms to be
swept away, leaving only their hardened remains to tell the story.
Without referring particularly to the older geological ages, let us
glance at some of the more recent forms that have disappeared
within the time of man.

At the discovery of St. Helena, Deadwood and Longwood, so
well knowm from Napoleonic associations, were covered with
forest-trees. In 1502 goats were introduced on the island, and
eighty-six years later had increased to great numbers, and were
eating the young trees, the old ones rapidly falling from age.
In 1731 the inhabitants were aroused at the prospect of the total
destruction of their forests, and all stray animals were killed, —
too late, however, to save Greatwood, as the wooded country was
called, and in a short time nearly every tree had disappeared, the
entire tract now being pasture-land. With the destruction of
the forest came that of a multitude of insects dependent upon
such conditions, and many land-snails, in all eight species, were
entirely exterminated in a period of about two-hundred and
twenty years, and, as the snails were peculiar to the island, the
extinction was complete. A similar fate befell many of the

animals of the Virgin Islands, where the crews of vessels set

151

*52

Marvels of Animal Life .

fire to the bush, thus destroying the vegetation upon which the
animals were dependent.

Examples of extermination in localities are common on our
own shores. The oyster beds once frequent upon the coast of
Maine are now represented only by the shells piled in heaps
along the shore.

EXTINCT ELEPHANTS.

The disappearance of larger animals seems perhaps more in¬
explicable; yet that early man is responsible in a greater or
less degree for the extinction of the mammoth there can be
but little doubt. From the earliest times the remains of these
elephantine giants have been found in the North. One of the
most important discoveries was made at the mouth of the Lena
River, Siberia, at the beginning of the present century. A
fisherman first observed the monster projecting from the frozen
ground or tundra. Each successive year it became more exposed,
and finally fell upon the sand as fresh as though it had died a
month before, although in the estimation of some naturalists the
last mammoth’s death occurred at least a million of years ago.
The body was somewhat damaged by bears and foxes, but the
skeleton and part of the hair were preserved and are now in the
museum in St. Petersburg.

Another mammoth was unearthed bv a land-slide in 1839 on

the shore of a lake near the mouth of the Yenisei. It was
extremely perfect, and, according to the natives, a black tongue
(the trunk ?) as long as a month-old reindeer calf was hanging
out of its mouth. In 1842 it was secured by a merchant, but
had been badly torn.

The remains of mammoths are common near the shores of the
Polar Sea, and especially on the New Siberia Islands, which

PLATE XIX

YOUNG RATTLESNAKES ENTERING THEIR MOTHER’S MOUTH

Lost Races.

153

appear to be a vast burying-ground for these monsters. The
greater number probabty died a natural death ; or, perhaps
wandered out upon the floes ( Plate XXIII.), becoming entombed
in the ice, so falling victims to the polar bear and other animals
of prey. But within a few years similar remains have been found
in France in company with flint arrow-heads and roughly- worked
pieces of ivory bearing rude drawings of the animal, facts that
point conclusively to man as their contemporary and undoubted
enemy.

Many other animals have been found mingled with the
remains of man, who is still in the ascendant, while they have
passed away. Near Aray, in the department of Aube, France,
the jaw of a human being has been found in a mixture of bones
of the great cave-bear, hyena, and rhinoceros; while in Kent’s
Cavern, near Torquay, England, and in other places, flints and
rude pottery have been found mingled with the bones of ancient
and extinct mammals. One of the most remarkable finds was
made in a cave near Aurignac, in the Pyrenees. Here human
skeletons were discovered with flint and bone implements,
together with fragments of the cave-bear, cave-dog, wild boar,
bison, Irish elk, reindeer, and many others that had been carried
in by their rude captors and used as food, the bones of many
showing where they had been split to obtain the marrow. In
various countries such finds have been made, showing that the
extinction of large and conspicuous animals has been hastened
by human intervention.

In 1742 Behring’s Island was inhabited by herds of sea-cows,
or manatees, that attained the enormous growth of twenty-five
or thirty-five feet, and weighed five or six tons. ( Plate XXIV.)
They were of a dark-brown color, streaked with grayish or light
stripes ; the skin was thick and leathery, protected by a dense

154

Marvels of Animal Life .

growth of hair that formed an exterior protective skin resembling
the rugged bark of a weather-worn tree. Instead of teeth they
had two masticating plates, one in the gum and the other in the
under jaw. Vast herds of them were discovered by Steller, who,
with a ship-wrecked crew, visited the island in 1742. They
were found feeding upon the fields of sea-weed, that skirted the
shore, and when attacked, showed a remarkable attachment for
one another. Warfare was waged against them by all comers,
with such effect that twenty-seven years later they were nearly
all extinct, and now not one exists. Nordenskiold thus refers to
this great animal : “ I succeeded in actually bringing together a
very large and fine collection of skeleton fragments. When I
first made the acquaintance of Europeans on the island, they
told me that there was little probability of finding anything of
value in this respect, — for the company had offered one hundred
and fifty roubles for a skeleton without success. But before I
had been many hours on land I came to know that large or
small collections of bones were to be found here and there
in the huts of the natives. These I purchased, intentionally
paying for them such a price that the seller was more than
satisfied and his neighbors were a little envious. A great part
of the male population now began to search for bones very
eagerly, and in this way I collected such a quantity that twenty-
one casks, large boxes, or barrels were filled with Bhytina bones,
among which were three very fine complete skulls, and others
more or less damaged, several considerable collections of bones
from the same skeleton, etc. The Bhytina bones do not lie at
the level of the sea, but upon a sand bank thickly overgrown
with luxuriant grass, at a height of two or three metres above it.
They are commonly covered with a layer of earth and gravel
from thirty to fifty centimetres in thickness. In order to find

Lost Races.

155

them, as it would be too troublesome to dig the whole of the
grassy bank, one must examine the ground with a pointed iron
rod, or bayonet, or some such tool. One soon learns to distin¬
guish by the resistance and nature of the sound whether the rod
stuck into the ground has come into contact with a stone, a piece
of wood, or a fragment of bone. The ribs are used by the
natives, on account of their hard ivory-like structure, for shoe¬
ing the runners of the sledges or for carvings. They have,
accordingly, been already used upon a large scale, and are more
uncommon than any other bones. The finger-bone, which per¬
haps originally was cartilaginous, appears in most cases to be
quite destroyed, as wTell as the outermost vertebrae of the tail. I
could not obtain any such bones, though I specially urged the
natives to get me the smaller bones, too, and promised to pay a
high price for them.”

The disappearance of such large animals and in such vast
numbers in so short a time seems incredible ; yet, without gov¬
ernmental intervention, the sea-bears of the far North will soon
be extinct, over three and a half million skins having been im¬
ported from the Pribylov Islands alone in eighty-four years,
while elsewhere for many years the slaughter has been carried on
without restriction.

The extinction of the great auk is undoubtedly due in a great
measure to man. In 1834 Nuttall wrote : “ As a diver he is

unrivalled, having almost the velocity of birds in the air. They
breed in the Faroe Islands, and in Iceland, Greenland, and New¬
foundland, nesting among the cliffs, and laying but one egg each.
They are so unprolific that if this egg be destroyed no other is
laid during that season. The auk,” he continues, “ is known
sometimes to breed in the Isle of St. Kilda and in Papa Westra ;
according to Mr. Bullock, for several years past no more than a

156 Marvels of Animal Life .

single pair had made their appearance.” Now there is not a
single living species, and specimens are so rare that the Museum
of Natural History, Central Park, paid six hundred and fifty
dollars for one and the cast of an egg, the only others known in
this country being in the cabinets of Vassar College, the Phila¬
delphia Academy of Sciences, the Smithsonian, and Cambridge
University. Not many years ago, comparatively speaking, they
were common as far south as Nahant on the New England coast,
and the great shell-heaps of Maine have furnished many of their
bones. They also occur in the Danish kitchen-middens, and
deposits containing them have recently been found at Caithness.

The great auk was commonly known as the gare fowl, and the
last living specimens were killed in 1844, at a group of islands
called Funglasker, off the southwest coast of Iceland. In 1833
a fine one was taken by some fishermen at the entrance of Water¬
ford harbor, another in 1821 near St. Kilda, while a pair killed
at Papa Westra, in 1812, now adorn the ornithological cabinet of
the British Museum. In the eighteenth century these birds
were common in the Faroes, and in the Iceland seas there are
three localities named after them, so numerous were they, and now
the name and tradition alone tell their story. It would seem that
they were gradually driven from one nesting-place to another,
and from the earliest settlement of the country. In 1813 the
sailors of a Faroese craft, after successfully driving them from
the open shores, followed them to a rookery formerly considered
inaccessible, and destroyed great numbers of them. Seven years
later Faber the naturalist attempted the same feat, but failed.
In 1830, as if nature herself was in league with man against the
birds, the inaccessible skerry, by a submarine eruption, was en¬
gulfed by the sea, the survivors establishing a colony on a rock
called Eldey, near the mainland. During the following fourteen

Lost Races.

157

years sixty birds and eggs were taken, and finally, in 1844, the
last pair were destroyed. In Newfoundland the birds were
known as penguins, and were followed with equal pertinacity.
In 1536 the French and English vessels drove them ashore or
into their boats in droves, or “as many as shall lade her/’ salting
them down as provision* and it would seem that the French
rarely provisioned their vessels with fresh meat, depending en¬
tirely upon the auks. On Funk Island can be seen to-day rude
enclosures made of stone, in which the luckless birds were im¬
prisoned previous to slaughter — -monuments of a lost race.

Found in the same localities, and meeting a common fate, was
the Labrador duck — a large, handsome bird, which, as late as
thirty-five years ago, was quite common in summer months about
the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the eastern shores of Labra¬
dor, finding its way in winter along the coast of Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, and New England. Its size and appearance
made it a strong attraction to the sportsman ; its eyries on
islands safe from foxes were sacked, and finally, driven to the
shores of the mainland, where the eggs became the prey of
predatory animals, it gradually succumbed, and the last one was
killed by Colonel Wedderburn in Halifax harbor in 1852.

The disappearance of the gigantic pigeon-like bird Didus
ineptus, commonly called the dodo, is no less remarkable.
When the Portuguese under Mascarenhas discovered Mauritius
in the early part of the sixteenth century, the bird was extremely
common there; but not until Van Neck’s voyage in 1598 was a
definite account given of them. The Dutch call them walgh
vogels, meaning nauseous birds, and this quaint description is
given by Brontius : “ The dronte, or dodors, is, for bigness, of

mean size, between an ostrich and a turkey, from which it partly
differs in shape, and partly agrees with them, especially with the

158 Marvels of Animal Life .

African ostriches, if you consider the rumps, quills and feathers,
so that it was like a pygniy among them, if you regard shortness
of legs. It has a great ill-favored head, with a kind of mem¬
brane resembling a hood ; great black eyes, a bending, promi¬
nent, fat neck ; an extraordinary long, strong, blue-white bill,
only the ends of each mandible are a different color — that of the
upper black, that of the nether yellowish — both sharp-pointed
and crooked ; its gape huge, wide, as being naturally voracious.
Its body is fat and sound, covered with soft gray feathers, after
the manner of an ostrich’s, on each side. Instead of hard wing-
feathers or quills, it is furnished with small soft-feathered wings
of a yellowish-ash color, and behind, the rump, instead of a tail,
is adorned with five small curled feathers of the same color.
Four toes on each foot, solid, long, as it were, really armed with
strong black claws.” He adds, in conclusion, “ It was much more
pleasing to the eye than the stomach.” The literature upon the
subject is extremely voluminous, but unsatisfactory in detail.
The first English observer of the bird was Emanuel Altham,
who, in a letter to his brother, says : “ You shall receive ... a
strange fowle, which I had at the Hand Muritius, called by ye
Portuigalls a Do Do, which for the rareness thereof I hope will
be welcome to you, if it live.” Whether the bird was received
is not known ; but Herbert, who sailed in the same fleet, refers to
the bird in the following : “ The dodo comes first to a descrip¬

tion here, and in Dygarrois (and nowhere else, that ever I could
see or heare of) is generated the Dodo (a Portuguize name it is,
and has reference to her simpleness), a bird which for shape and
rareness might be call’d a Phoenix (wer’t in Arabia.) ” He also
gives a quaint figure of the bird.

Canche, who made the voyage to Mauritius in 1651, says that
the dodo had a cry like a young duck fit a un cry comme

Lost Races .

159

Poison ”), and that it laid a single white egg, " gros comme un
pain Stun sol on a mass of grass in the forests.

The dodo was undoubtedly sent many times to Europe alive.
Sailors, we are informed, killed them to obtain the stones in
their crops, upon which to sharpen their knives, and finally they
totally disappeared — a few pictures, a foot in the British Muse¬
um, a head and foot at Oxford, a perfect skull at Copenhagen,
and a fragmentary piece at Prague, being all that is left to attest
the reality of the existence of the king of the pigeons, the last of
which were probably destroyed in the beginning of the eighteenth
century.

To the south of Mauritius lies a small island which has suc¬
cessively born the names of Mascarenhas, Bourbon, and Re¬
union, and was formerly the home of a large bird known as the
solitaire. Du Bois, in 1674, gave a meagre description of it, and
Boutekoe and Witthoos have left rude sketches of it.

On the island of Rodriguez lived a didine bird, the Pezophaps
solitarius of Leguat, a Huguenot exile, who lived on the island
for some time (1G91-1693). He left an account of the birds,
and several cuts, whose authenticity has been amply shown by
the discovery later of nearly perfect skeletons of the birds, which
may now be seen in the museum at the University of Cam¬
bridge, England. These, however, by no means comprise all
the last forms of the Mascarene group. In the library of the
German emperor is a picture of a long-billed, flightless ralline
bird, known as the Aphanapteryx , which at one time lived upon
one of the islands, and recently its bones have been found in
the peat of the Mare aux Songes. Here were also two species
of parrot, a dove, and a large coot, the remains of which are to
be found in a few scientific collections. In Reunion a starling,
Fregilupus , with a beautiful crest, existed until about forty-five

160 Marvels of Animal Life.

years ago, when it became extinct. In Rodriguez nearly the
entire original avifauna has disappeared, including a large
heron, a small and extremely peculiar owl, a parrot, and a dove.

A parrot ( Nestor produdus ) has recently become extinct at
Phillip Island, near New Zealand, the last living specimen
having been seen by Mr. Gonld in 1851, and hardly a dozen
specimens of skins are known in all the museums of the world.

New Zealand is pre-eminently the land of gigantic extinct
birds, which were undoubtedly destroyed by the natives, their
roasted remains, egg-shells, etc., being found, together with those
of human beings, showing that they formed part of a cannibal¬
istic feast indulged in by the ancestors of the Maori. The most
important discoveries of these giant-birds have been made in
caves by Julius Haas, F. R. S., and the results of his labors are
seen in the Smithsonian and the New York Museum of Natural
History, the latter possessing the finest collection known.

That the gigantic moa was destroyed by man is proved also
by the Maori traditions which tell of the great birds, and the
songs that extol the magnificence of their plumage and the skill
of their hunters, who ate the birds, reserving their wonderful
plumes as decoration. These, and the unequivocal marks of the
celt or jade axe on the recent leg-bones, are incontrovertible
proofs that the giant moa, like the dodo, gave way before the
advance of higher and human animals.

In 1847 Mr. Walter Mantell found the remains of a bird
mixed with those of the moa at Waingongora, New Zealand. It
was named the Notornis , and described by Professor Owen as a
gigantic extinct rail, and in 1850 the soundness of his physio¬
logical inferences and deductions were shown by the discovery of
a living Notornis, — -a magnificent creature. Since then one or
two other specimens have been killed, and now doubtless the

PLATE XX.

INSECT THAT MIMICS A MOSS COVERED TWIG.

Lost Races.

1 6 1

bird is extinct. Previous to its capture scientists were familiar
with it by means of maori traditions referring to a swamp hen
that lived at the time of the giant moa and had been a valued
article of food to the ancients. In the North Islands it was
known as the moho, and in the South as the takahe, and, as it
had not been seen since English occupation, it was supposed to
be extinct. Mr. Mantel 1, however, came upon some fishermen
who, in searching for seals, had found the track of a strange bird,
which they captured after a long chase, in a gully on Resolution
Island. It fought violently, uttering loud screams. It was two
feet high, and ornamented with rich purple, green, and golden
tints. The sealers had eaten the bird, pronouncing it delicious,
and to this fact it probably owes its extinction.

In 1796 Ledrus gave a list of fourteen kinds of birds observed
by him on the islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix ; and now,
eight of these have become extinct.

According to M. Guion, there were at no distant . period six
species of Psittaci on the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique,
which are now exterminated.

The list of animals verging on extinction is very large, and
without the gift of prophecy, we may predict that the bison in
fifty years, if not swept away, will have become exceedingly
rare. At present their range is between the upper Missouri and
the Rocky Mountains and from Northern Texas and New Mexico
to Great Martin Lake in latitude 64° north, and year by year it
is growing smaller and more constricted.

With them, to the common fate of extermination, the Indians
are surely passing, — a forcible example of extinction within the
memory of man. Within a few hundred years mighty tribes
have been swept away before the advance of civilization. The

Eastern States, one of the centres of barbaric power, have but

162

Marvels of Animal Life.

their annals to record the fact. The powerful tribes of Georgia
are represented by rude works of pottery in our halls of science.
The Florida braves are rapidly disappearing ; the entire race of
red men, the former kings of the New World, forming but a
pitiable study for the ethnologist of the Nineteenth Century.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE INK-BEARERS.

The cuttle-fish bone that our canary pecks so eagerly, and the
sepia of the artist in water color, are some of the practical offer¬
ings of the ink-bearers, and when we remember the commercial
value of the one, and the importance of the latter in olden times,
it will be seen that the cuttle-fishes are not without their value
to mankind.

The head-footed animals, or Cephalopods, as they are called,
embrace a large and varied assortment of animals known as
squids, octopods, argonauts, spirulas, etc., nearly all having a
wide geographical range and an extremely ancient ancestry.
Fossil remains have been reported where the shells were almost
as large as a cartwheel, while the Orthoceros titan must, says
Dr. Xe wherry, have weighed some tons.

With such ancestors, we would not be surprised to find modern
representatives of huge size, and, within comparatively a few
years, this assumption has been fully justified. For many years
the various works on natural history have contained vague refer¬
ences to gigantic squids, but not until 1876, or thereabouts, were
the tales verified by the capture and exhibition of a large speci¬
men. This individual I examined with Dr. Holder and Professor
Verrill, and it was found to measure about forty-five feet in
length, and, in appearance, to fully justify its popular name of
devil-fish. The body was long, slender, and sack-like, as shown in

( Plate XXV.), ending in an arrow-shaped tail. The head, with its

163

164

Marvels of Animal Life.

enormous eyes, seemed separate from the body, and was appar¬
ently divided up into ten arms or tentacles, that extended before
it, eight being of medium size, while two were extremely long,
having a group of suckers at their enlarged end. These arms
were apparently used as forceps. They could be joined together
or combined in securing prey, and shot out at a victim with
great ease and velocity. They are also used to anchor the
animals, the latter swinging to them like a ship at her moorings
in a gale. The eight short arms had suckers along their entire
length, cup-shaped objects with serrated edges, each being a
sucker and having a piston-like arrangement, the whole consti¬
tuting a terrible armament.

Among the tentacles at their base is the mouth, provided
with a toothed tongue and a pair of parrot-like beaks of a rich
chestnut color, the upper fitting into the lower. Below the
mouth is found a tube called the siphon. Water is taken in
around the neck to bathe the gills, and by forcing it out of this
tube the squid shoots rapidly backward, trailing its long arms or
tentacles behind.

When the animal is alarmed, the ink-bag that connects with the
siphon, opens its valve, and a cloud of the black fluid is ejected into
the water where it becomes quickly diffused, forming an effectual
bar to pursuit. The squids also have the faculty of changing their
color with great rapidity, and when laboring under great excite¬
ment, waves of color seem to pass over them in quick succession.
Their motions, as noticed in small specimens, are extremely rapid ;
darting along with the velocity of light, now rushing into a
school of small fry tail first, turning quickly to seize a victim and
press it against the bird-like beak where by making triangular
nips the vertebrae is generally instantly severed. It is interest¬
ing to note that the bite is always in the same place, — the neck.

The Ink- Bearers.

165

When darting among a school of young mackerel or sardines,
their color is generally pale or light. At other times they may
be spotted red or brown, and whenever they settle upon the
bottom, as they often do, seemingly to escape observation, they
assume the exact hue of their surroundings, and so lie quietly,
their presence unsuspected, until a victim passes.

The force with which the squids eject water and ink from
their siphons is somewhat remarkable. I have seen a small one
hardly six inches long, send a stream into a man’s face, who was
bending over the water, at a distance of at least two feet, the
inquisitive observer suddenly finding himself drenched with ink.

The large squids are found in many waters, though they seem
to be especially common on the Newfoundland coast. Until
within a few years they have only been known by hearsay, and the
disconnected parts found by whalers in the whales. But through
the exertions of the Rev. Mr. Harvey, of Newfoundland, some
remarkable accounts of them have been reported to the National
Museum. The largest, the relative size of which is shown in the
accompanying figure, was fifty-five feet in total length, from the
extremity of the tail to the ends of the long tentacles. This
monster was caught by Stephen Sherring, a fisherman living
near Notre Dame Bay. Rowing along he observed the creature
partly grounded, and presenting a terrible appearance with its
huge glassy eyes. It was churning the water into foam by aid
of its enormous arms, and pumping it and ink in large volumes
from the funnel, so that the water about it was black. The
boatman succeeded in throwing a grapnel into it, the sharp
points taking hold, and by fastening the rope against a tree it
was securely held, though its struggles were terrific, until the
tide went out, when it was left high and dry upon the shore
where it was finally converted into dogs’ meat.

1 66 Marvels of Animal Life.

That these monsters will attack a boat when cornered there
seems no reason to doubt. According to Mr. Harvey, two fisher¬
men were pulling across Portugal Cove in 1873, when they ob¬
served something floating upon the surface that they took to be
wreckage. One of the men threw his gaff into it, when it moved
off, proving to be a giant squid. The men stated that its beak
was as large as a six gallon keg. It struck the boat, threw out
its enormous arms, as if to entwine them, which they severed with
an axe as they laid over the boat. Thus wounded the creature
darted off1, ejecting so much ink that the water was colored for
several hundred yards about. This specimen was the Architeu-
this Harveyi . The one exhibited in New York, distorted with
artificial red eyes in the wrong place, was known to science as
Architeuthis princeps. Within a few years numbers of fine speci¬
mens have been found on the Grand Banks floating on the sur¬
face, giving rise to the impression that there had been some
epidemic among them.

A GIGANTIC OCTOPUS.

Another interesting group of cephalopods is represented by
the octopus. They have, as their name implies, only eight arms,
and are, as a rule, bottom animals, crawling in and out among
the rocks, and drawing themselves through crevices that would
seem impossible for so large a body to pass through. They also
have ink-bags, and I have often lost specimens by the sudden
diffusion of this black cloud, the octopus gliding away through
the coral, its rapidly changing hues aiding in its escape. On
the Florida reef they rarely exceed two feet across, and were
never aggressive, though they were extremely powerful, and as
an evidence of their tenacity, I have speared them, and when

The Ink-Bearers.

167

hauling them in had the animal lift bunches of branch coral
weighing from ten to fifteen pounds. At such times waves of
color, red and brown, would rapidly pass over the animal ; its
eyes would glisten with a green, lambent light, while from the
siphon would pour a stream of ink that spread far and near.

The Octopods of the North Pacific are giants compared to these.
The Octopus pundatus , a form found in Alaska waters, attains a
radial spread of nearly thirty feet {Plate XXVI.). The body is
small, and the tentacles slender and attenuated. Numerous tales
are current of their ferocity, but it is doubtful if they willingly
attack a human enemy. A case is on record of an Indian girl
on the Oregon coast being captured by one, though it should be
received with considerable reserve.

Extremely large specimens of the Octopus pundatus are often
seen in the San Francisco markets, there being eaten by the
Chinese, French and Italian inhabitants. The animals are caught
by Chinese fishermen, either being speared among the rocks, or
trapped in nets of various kinds. Occasionally they are taken
in shallow pools where they are left by the tide, and when struck
they make desperate efforts to escape, throwing out their long
spider-like arms, endeavoring, perhaps, to reach the open water.
They are thoroughly marine animals, and never take to the
land unless forced.

The octopus though cowardly does not fail to protect itself
when attacked, and the sensation of feeling the sucker-lined arms
wound about your hands or feet is disagreeable in the extreme,
while the pain caused by the serrated edges of the suckers is not
inconsiderable.

On the outer Florida reef, they were generally found in the
branch-coral, coiled among the branches at their base, and so
common that one would be found every ten or fifteen feet in

1 68 Marvels of Animal Life.

certain localities. In collecting certain shells, as Cypreas, I
would wade along through the lanes that are always found in
the branch-coral beds, and lift great bunches up to examine
them for shells. As soon as the coral was raised from the
water, brittle stars, echini, worms, occasionally an Astrophyton
(basket-fish) would drop out in a living shower, and finally a
sprawling octopus, and as I often had to introduce my hand into
the coral to obtain the specimens, stooping over with my head
under water, I would sometimes grasp one of the ugly creatures,
and find my hand for the moment seized in a by no means
pleasant manner.

At times when the coral needed breaking up to secure speci¬
mens, a flat boat was loaded and taken to one of the keys, and
the coral thrown upon the beach. On one of these occasions,
one of the men who was assisting a friend of mine, espied a
good-sized octopus crawling from a bunch of coral, some twenty
feet from the water, where it had been placed. The animal
came out with a clumsy motion, and was making its way toward
its native element, its body held aloft and rigid, when the man,
wishing to preserve it as a specimen, placed himself in front and
gave it a violent kick with his bare foot. The next moment he
was dancing to and fro, with the indignant mollusk securely
entwined around his legs, from which position he was finally
released by the laughing observers, who considered it only a fair
return for unnecessary cruelty to the harmless animal.

The octopods range from the tropics to Sitka on the Pacific
side, and quite far north on the Atlantic. A very interesting
foijm named after Professor Baird, Octopus Bairdii , is found off
the coast of Maine, though they are rarely seen in shallow water.
The different members of this class form attractive objects for
study, and one series of experiments will prove of exceptional

PLATE XX!

THE WALKING LEAF— (PHYLLIUM SICCIFOLIUM).

The Ink- Bearers.

169

interest. This consists in placing several specimens of the same
species of octopus in an enclosure in the open water, providing
each an apartment with a different colored bottom, and watching
the animals adapt their color to it. Some specimens will not
change, but in the majority, it is strikingly apparent, — a wonder-
' ful example of protective resemblance.

The argonaut is a shelled cephalopod, and occasionally though
rarely is cast upon the New Jersey coast. I knew of one specimen
that came in at Elberon, and others have been found at Cape Cod.

The spirula is a squid-like form, extremely common on the
Florida reef, containing a coiled partitioned shell. I never
succeeded in capturing one of these beautiful decapods alive, yet
after a storm the keys of the reef, especially Long Key, would
be lined with their pearly shells, in every case without the
animal, and as they lay upon the beach, the contrast with the
myriads of wrecked purple sea-snails, Ianthina, that accompanied
them was exceedingly rich.

The latter are much lower in the scale of life, and float about,
buoyed up by a bubble float, to which their eggs are attached.
When touched they emit a rich purple ink that is almost
indelible; at least lasting for many years.

The nautilus has no ink-bag, and is confined to Eastern seas.

We need not be confined to the mollusks in our search for
ink-bearers. The spines of the great black echinus that are
five or six inches in length, secrete a purple dye, as I have often
found to my cost. One of the sea-slugs, a great green creature,
commonly known on the reef as the sea-pigeon, when disturbed,
emits a cloud of purple ink quite equal to that of a small octopus.
In former times the famous Tyrian dye was obtained from
certain mollusks, and a large number of animals might be
considered as veritable living ink-stands.

CHAPTER XY.

THE KING OF CRABS.

Among all families, whether they are human or belong to the
lower animal kingdom, we find individuals that from their
unusual size are termed giants. From the crabs of our shores
it would perhaps be difficult to select a form very remarkable in
this respect, although some of the recent deep sea discoveries
show some extremely large specimens, while occasionally a
gigantic lobster weighing forty-five pounds is caught by the
fishermen on our Northern coast. If, however, we go down
toward the straits of Magellan, we shall soon find crabs of great
size, bulky fellows, with long spider-like legs spreading three or
more feet across.

But this South American crab is, after all, but a pigmy when
compared to its Oriental cousin, found far away on the coast of
Japan. When the first one was seen by a European, it was
supposed to be one of the peculiar inventions of the Japanese, and
some curious toy or grotesque plaything made in exaggerated
imitation of the common rock crab. The traveler who observed
them first, saw some claws standing; against a fisherman’s hut
that was situated on the banks of a small river near the sea.
The claws were the biting ones, and were long and slender, the
nippers seemingly of ivory, so white and glistening were they.

But it was their length that astonished the observer. Each

one was ten feet in length, so it was evident that the crab when

moving along over the bottom with its claws spread out, as you
170

The King of Crabs.

171

have probably seen other crabs do, covered an area of twenty-
two feet — surely the king of crabs.

The fisherman assured the man from the West that the crabs
were common enough in that locality, and later he saw a perfect
one brought in by one of the native boats. Its body, or shell,
was about twice the size of a man’s head, and resembled a rough
hewn rock, so that deprived of the long legs, it would easily
have escaped detection.

These gigantic crabs were given the name Inachus , but it has
been changed, and they are now included in a group known as
Macrocheira. They range from specimens with claws four or
five feet in length to twice that. The Cambridge Museum has
one of moderate length, and Central Park Museum possesses a
body alone that would well cover the head of any of my readers.
Such crabs are naturally expensive and a dozen served in this
country would cost about twelve hundred dollars, the price
perhaps varying with the size.

A gentleman who has visited the localities in which they are
found ofi Japan, told me that they leave the water at night and
crawl up the sandy shores of the coast, ostensibly to feed,
and when moving along over the beach they present the
appearance of enormous spiders. Even when in the water their
motions are very slow and deliberate, resembling those of our
common lady-crab. The largest of the Japanese crabs was, as
given, twenty-two feet across ; but the deep sea may hide
still larger forms, though it should be remembered that the
giants are the exception.

In China crabs are used in medicine, and, curiously enough,
a fossil crab ground up into a powder, is esteemed the most, and
supposed to have some miraculous virtue.

Among the remarkable giants might be mentioned a strange

172

Marvels of Animal Life.

crustacean that lived in the earlier days of the earth’s history.
It differed entirely in appearance from any crab or crustacean now
living, having a very long tail, if so it can be called, with many
joints, while the head part bore the claws arranged in a very sin¬
gular mauner. These sea-scorpions, for they somewhat resembled
these insects in appearance, are now found only in the slabs of
limestone in certain geological formations, and Plate XXVII.,
shows in bas relief, the largest ever discovered, in the slab
that was closed about its body as soft mud, the intervening years
changing it to hard rock. This Pterygotus was about nine feet
in length, and surely might be called the king of the crabs of
that time. Many of these curious forms are found in the rocks
of this country, but none so large as this giant from the Old
World.

CHAPTER XYI.

THE TIGERS OF THE SEA.

“ In the Louisiana lowlands low.”

The last notes of the old refrain, rendered doubly sweet by
negro voices, came drifting over the waters of the outer reef,
dying away as our boat crunched into the coral sands of Long
Key, which forms a part of the extreme southwestern end of the
reefs of the Florida peninsula.

We had “ browsed ” along, as Scope, our cook, expressed it,
down the reef under easy sail, and now, under the friendly
gleams of Garden Key light, were on the way to the camp of
turtlers and Conchs, whose acquaintance we had made some time
before.

Our dingy hauled up on the coral beach, we were soon upon

the confines of the camp, which, in the warm, tropical twilight,

seemed set for weird and picturesque effects. The moonbeams

and the flames from a great brush-fire lighted up the men, boats,

and fixtures, casting curious shadows upon the white, sandy

beach that stretched away around the curve. The bay was

“ dead calm/’ and so still that the far-away “ Ha ! ha ! ” of the

wakeful laughing gull, and the thundering return of a shark or

ray to the water, came distinctly from the outer reef, miles away.

Two rude tents, that might have been relics of the Seminole

war, were raised against the brush, while several boats, a well-

patched seine, and numerous grains and lines, formed the stock

in trade. The banjo was never picked by a jollier party, and,

173

174 Marvels of Animal Life.

lying upon the sand about the fire, they were waiting for the
“ ’way-up moon,” before hauling the great net. Captain Dave
and myself accepted seats of honor where the smoke was densest,
and the insects consequently least annoying. Scope joined the
musicians to the windward, and the songs rolled on, waking the
dormant echoes of the old reef again and again. Now the rich,
sonorous voices rose in chorus, followed by a laughing solo im¬
provised on the spot, and dealt out lavishly to the inspiriting
picking of the banjo. The stern realities of life had no place
here ; light-hearted, clear of conscience, these boyish men lived a
life of sunshine and enjoyment, and were contented. From far
and near they came, and were at home anywhere. Some sang
from personal experience of the “ Louisiana Lowlands Low,”
others of the “ Yellow Rose of Texas,” and the “Suwanee River,”
while Sandy sang in truth of the “ Old Kentucky home so far
away.”

The evening was well along when the tide gently surrounded
old Alick’s feet, which were extended seaward, a quiet reminder
of work to be done.

“ Turn out yere, yo’ lazy coons ! ” shouted the good-hearted
tyrant, who was the recognized boss in perpetuity. “ Yo’ Sam
an’ Pinckney F ust, run in de dingy, an’ de res’ of we kin ten’ de
payin’ out. We aint a gwine toe have dis yer sene wusted de
way she was over yander. Yo’ see, gem’n,” he continued,
addressing Captain Dave and myself, who had risen to lend a
hand, “ we hauled de oder evenin’, an’ w’en we swunged in de
net, she bag so, an’ I see de mullet beatin’. I give de word, an’
dese yer boys in wif de net wif a rush, an’ I’m dogged ef dey
didn’t land fifty of de wustest, onaryest mango roots in county
Dade, sah.” But the net was in the water, and all hands laid
hold to assist in paying out, — some of the boys wading in with

The Tigers of the Sea.

17 5

it, to see that it did not foul. Out it ran like a huge fiery
serpent, the meshes, floats, and sinkers waking to life myriads of
phosphorescent creatures, that sparkled and glittered like molten
gold, and every movement as we waded along threw out streams
and flames of dazzling brilliancy that seemed to dart away,
veritable creatures of light, into the darkness. When about two
hundred feet from the shore, the dingy swept up the beach,
Pinckey First (there were four of them) pulling hard and
Sam paying out. Finally the end was reached, and they headed
in, and when near shore the boys waded out and grasped the
line. The silence was broken now: yells, peals of laughter,
snatches of song, and heave-hoys rent the air, and under the
inspiriting influence of the uproar the net came quickly in, the
space between the floats showing decided signs of animation.
Here a score of mullets sprang into the air, or some larger fish
essayed to cross the line. Myriads of sardines leaped affrighted
from the water, the moon-beams glancing from their sides in
silvery gleams. In they came with a rush, the finny victims
leaping and splashing. The uproar grew fast and furious;
everybody shouted and pulled, while old Alick, up to his waist
in the jumping mass, encouraged first one side and then the
other in inarticulate words and invective, his speech occasionally
ending in a hoarse gurgle as he disappeared under water to fish
up a mangrove-root and toss it without the magic circle. It was
during one of these submarine excursions that he came to grief.
The net was well in shore, and nothing was visible of the old
man except his bald pate, around which the mullets seemed to
play mischievously. It was only for a second, and then up he
rose from the sea as if driven from the mouth of a volcano, and
with a mighty crash fell upon his face and made for shore,
wildly giving orders to drop the net. But it was too late, and,

176

Marvels of Animal Life.

as it came in, the cause of the old man’s flight became apparent.
A great fish was seen rushing from side to side, confused by the
throng of smaller fry and mowing them down with terrific blows.
It was a man-eater, and to save the net a sponge-hook was
caught in its gills, and after several trials the unwelcome visitor
was hauled high and dry upon the shore. The net, for the
moment dropped, was now with a rush dragged well upon the
beach, and its load of struggling forms hurled upon the sand.
How they glistened and gleamed ! every tug at the net turning
them over in great waves of silvery light, twisting, sliding over
one another, the larger tossing the others high in air in desper- ,
ation, while the patter of the lesser fry was like the falling rain.
Mullets with their rounded heads, jacks with golden fins and
silver scales dripping with phosphorescent drops, grunts that
opened their wide mouths in audible protest, hog-fish, jew-fish,
angel-fishes of resplendent vesture, parrot-fishes that vied with
their namesakes of the land in gorgeous coloring, snappers red
and brown, groupers, sea-shad, porgies, yellowtails, and a host of
others, made up this Argus-eyed assemblage, while the crabs, sea-
eggs with bristling spines, sea-cucumbers, and other strange crea¬
tures that came in entangled in the net would have warmed the
heart of my young readers interested in natural history.

The snappers, groupers and porgies were sorted out and tossed
into a great car floating near the beach, that was even now over¬
loaded, and would be called for in a few days by a smack in the
Havana trade. The mullets were reserved for home consump¬
tion, and, finally, the great net was hauled up on the shore to be
cleaned for the morrow.

“ Is’e been on de back,” said old Alick, “ of nigh on to ebery-
ting in dis yer country, from a wil’ steer toe a manatee, but I never
did ’spec’ toe be toted by a sherk. He dash right ’twixt my legs,

PLATE XXII.

A CATERPILLAR THAT MIMICS A SHREW

The Tigers of the Sea.

177

an’ den sen’ me blim intoe de air. I don’t keer fo’ any mo’.
I’se talken now.” “ He’s good for a gallon of oil,” spoke up
Sam. “ Dat’s a fac’,” rejoined the old man. “ I didn’t ride him
fo’ nutliin’, son ; an’ I ’spec’ we may as well try fo’ mo’ in de
mawnin’.”

The prospect of having a chance of hauling in a man-eater
from the shore was enticing, and we decided to remain ou the
beach all night and join in the sport on the morrow.

“ We do a right smart business in shark-oil,” said Sam, as we
resumed our places around the fire, an Adirondack “ smudge ”
of bay-cedar. “ We try out the oil, an’ when we gits a barrel
we ship it up to Key Wrest.”

“ What is the oil used for?” I asked.

“Well,” replied old Alick, with a mysterious air, “dat’s
reliably one of de secrets of de trade. Dis yer sherk-oil goes to
Key West an’ Jacksonville, dat’s sartin sho’, an’ dey say dere’s
a right smart call fo’ cod-liber oil on ’count of dese yer inwalids
a-flockin’ dere. Jes’ were de oil goes I can’t say ; you kin dra’
yo’ own influences.”

The “ influences ” opened a field of speculation too extended
for the lateness of the hour, and soon the sands of the key
resounded with the hoarse breathing of the whole camp.

Our morning toilet consisted in shaking the hermit or soldier-
crabs from our clothes, followed by a swim in the warm water,
after which we turned our attention to the fried mullets that
Sam was turning with a mangrove branch fork to the tune of
“ Ham fat fry in’ in de pan.”

The boys were soon at work ; the trying-pots were taken to a
small inlet lower down the beach, and five stout poles were
driven into the ground, about fifty feet apart, to which the lines

were attached. These latter were ropes about two hundred feet
12

178 Marvels of Animal Life.

in length. The hook was a gigantic instrument, eight inches
across, that worked on a swivel attached to the line by a three-
foot chain. The bait, a large grouper, was fastened on, and
then the lines were towed out by the dingy, and thrown over
fifty feet from the shore, near the channel. Each line at the
water’s edge passed over a crotched stick, the fall of which was
the signal of a bite.

“ Did any one ever get bitten by a shark about here ? ” asked
Captain Dave as we lay stretched out in the shade of the bay-
cedars, waiting for a nibble.

“ I knew of one case,” replied Sam, “ down by Sea-Horse
Key, and the man was my own cousin. We was goin’ out the
southwest channel, when the sail jibed, and the boom struck
Dorsey an’ knocked him over. I threw the oar at him, but
before I reached him he threw up his arms with a terrible
scream, an’ went down. It was a great place for tiger sharks,
an’ one must have taken him. They jump ten feet out of
water an’ take fish hangin’ over the stern of a smack. Off goes
my line ! ” he shouted suddenly, jumping to his feet.

All hands followed suit, and, sure enough, the stick was
down, and the line twitching and jerking as if a curious crab
was nibbling at the bait. Most sharks bite in this way from
the bottom, nosing the bait before starting off.

There had been some dispute the night before among the boys
as to Scope’s abilities as a shark fisherman, he having claimed
that he could catch a shark single-handed ; and now, at his
request, the rest stood back to receive a few lessons. Scope had
been our faithful cook for years on many a trip about the reef,
but had never confided to us that he was a shark expert ; but
under the taunts of the mainland darkies he had rushed reck¬
lessly upon his fate. He took the line from Sam’s hand just as

The Tigers of the Sea.

179

it began to run out, and stepping back about five feet from the
water’s edge, planted his bare feet in the treacherous sand and
“paid out,” while the other boys stood around, loquaciously
questioning as to whether he had a large family to leave and
had made his will. But Scope kept his eye on the line, paying
out gradually as the fish swam off, and finally, when he
thought the bait had been swallowed, he braced back ; the line
tautened, grew rigid, and at this supreme moment he gave a
mighty jerk. The result was unexpected. A cloud of sand, a
pair of heels in the air after a black object in transitu , a terrific
splash, and a yell of laughter greeted our unfortunate cook as
he picked himself up, ten or twelve feet from where he had
originally stood, and scrambled ashore. The fish had fairly
jerked him into the water. But there was yet a chance to redeem
himself, and, grasping the hissing line, he lay back upon the sand,
only to let go in time to save a repetition of his late experience.

“ Haul in de fish,” said old Alick, shaking with laughter.
“ Yo’se a born sherker, sho’ ’nuff.”

Scope looked at the rigid rope, and laid hold in desperation.
Suddenly the line slackened, and, with a look of triumph he
threw the line over his shoulder, and started up the beach on a
run. The shark was swimming in, a trick they have, often
breaking a line in the rush that always follows.

“ Look out ! ” cried Sam.

But it was too late. The great fish, still unseen, suddenly
changed its tactics, and a terrific jerk threw Scope backward in
almost a complete somersault, filling his mouth and eyes with
sand and almost breaking Lis back ; before he could recover, the
line, which had a turn around his wrist, nearly dragged him
over, but from this predicament he was rescued by the laughing
boys, and, chafed mentally and physically and thoroughly dis-

i8o

Marvels of Animal Life.

gusted, he gave place to Sam. How simple it all seemed — now
hauling, slacking out, jerking the line this way and that, running
up the beach as the shark made desperate rushes from side to
side, Sam was surely the Walton of the shark line. Suddenly he
lay back upon the beach, almost prostrate, his feet ploughing
deep furrows in the sand, while the man-eater, as if enraged at
this resistance, rose fairly in the air above water, and shook its
ugly maw in desperation. But the clanking chain was its funeral
knell. A few more leaps and surges, and the monster was
humbled. “Clap on yere, boys !” cried Sam. All hands quickly
seized the rope, and with a rush the shark came in, lashing the
water with terrible blows, running its shovel nose into the sand,
and was finally landed high and dry, snapping its jaws in savage
defiance. It was a noble one — over thirteen feet long. Alick
finished it with grim satisfaction, and was preparing to commence
a post-mortem in the interests of the Jacksonville invalids, when
another line was noticed running out farther down the beach.
Wishing to try the sport, Captain Dave and myself started for
the rope, followed by Scope, but before we reached it the line
came taut with a thud, and the post tore from its bed with a
spring, and dashed into the water. Upon the impulse of the
moment, we launched the dingy that lay upon the beach, and
were soon in full pursuit of the log, which was rushing up the
channel at the rate of ten knots an hour. It would have been a
fruitless chase, but for the fact that the channel, like many others
on the reef, was a blind one, ending in a shallow, coral-lined bank.
The fish soon reached the end and turned, and the log came tear¬
ing toward us.”

“ Steady ! ” shouted Captain Dave.

“ Steady ! ” gasped Scope in a hoarse whisper, himself very
unsteady with excitement and his late exercise.

The Tigers of the Sea .

1 8 1

As the post shot by, Captain Dave, who was in the bow,
grasped it. The little boat whirled about madly, throwing us
down among the oars and bailers, and Scope, utterly demoralized,
begged the captain to “ cut de rope.7’ Up along the beach we
tore, two of the boys putting out to lend a hand ; but our steed
was only warming up, and the rope they tossed us was missed
as we went by. “ This won’t do,” gasped Captain Dave, red in
the face from the exertion of trying to keep the line in the
notch at the bow ; u we’re going out the channel.”

The boys, who were pulling after us, shouted, “ Take in the
slack ! ” This we endeavored to do, but every movement on
our part only spurred the shark on to greater feats of speed, and
the dingy was now taking everything as it came, and was nearly
half-full of water. We hauled away, now gaining a foot, then
losing it, when suddenly the line slackened. “ He’s gone,”
exclaimed the captain, wiping the salt water from his eyes ;
“ the line’s broken.” “ Bless de Lord ! ” began Scope — but he
went no further.

It was the old trick. The line fairly screeched through
the water, slipped from the bow, and in a second was over the
side. “ Cut it, Scope ! ” shouted Captain Dave, leaning up to
windward. But Scope was getting to windward himself ; with
a surge the rope caught under the dingy, the opposite rail flew
up, and for a single second we were high in air ; then with a
slash, the water cajne in upon us, and the boat righted half-full
of water, and rushed away in the opposite direction from that
we had taken a moment before.

We were soon picked up by the boys, who played the great
fish, hauling him in, jerking him this way and that, till finally,
when he was thoroughly beaten, the line was passed astern, the
monster drawn to the surface, and the chain made fast. Though

1 82 Marvels of Animal Life.

powerless to swim, its great tail lashed the water into foam, and,
after bending its body into a curve, it would suddenly straighten
out, lifting the boat out of water. At last, as if in desperation,
it seized the keel, crunched the pine planks, and shook the boat
as a cat would shake a mouse. But the shark was fairly caught
and slowly we towed it ashore. The line was soon passed to
those on the beach, and the man-eater run upon the sand.

The sharkers had not been idle : three large fish were thrash¬
ing upon the beach. The one that had led us such a wild chase
was hoisted upon an improvised derrick, and found to measure
fourteen feet in length, while the others were not under twelve.
Their girth was so enormous, however, that their great length
was hardly appreciable.

The strength of these brutes is surprising, yet by skilful
management and an ample allowance of line, a boy can subdue
one, though a dozen or so men will be required to land it.
Among the many I have caught during a long residence on the
reef, a striped shark showed the most power. I had fastened
my boat to a clump of branch-coral by a coral-hook that could
be readily cast off, when ten or more sharks appeared suddenly,
attracted, perhaps, by the bucket of beef blood that my man
tipped overboard. I soon had a bite and caught a glimpse of
the great fish as he took the bait. After giving him twenty feet
I jerked the hook into his jaw, and was almost hauled out of
the boat by his answering pull. The coral-hook was taken in,
and in a moment we were flying up the channel, bow under, at
race-horse speed. I stood on the little deck of my boat with
my foot on the line to keep it in the notch, and glancing over
the side I saw four or five of the sharks were following along,
their sides and eyes turned upward as if in curiosity. I must
confess that their attendance gave me a most unpleasant feeling.

The Tigers of the Sea.

183

For half a mile our steed towed us, tlieu suddenly changed his
course, by a miracle not upsetting us. The line, despite our
utmost endeavors slipped over the side, and more than once I
had the knife over it to cut it, but finally we got it righted and
the monster on the back track. A friend on the key watching
the struggle had put out in a twelve-oared barge, and as we
rushed by they threw us a rope. For a moment the shark held
against the twelve rowers, then came an ominous sound, the
line broke, and he was off. We could not tell his size, but
judging from the amount of strength he displayed, he might
have been fifteen feet or over. On all the sharks captured was
found the remora, a peculiar sucking fish. Three or four would
always cling to their great consort even after it had been hauled
upon the sand. Pilot-fishes were also always seen about the
sharks here. I have often seen them dart away from their huge
consort, and swim swiftly back, as if to carry the news, but this
is purely imaginary, as the fishes probably live about the shark
as a matter of protection, just as others of the family are found
under jelly-fishes, the physalia, etc.

The sharks are the lions, tigers, jaguars, and wild cats of the
ocean world ; differing in form and methods of life, yet calling
to mind these animals in all their habits. So we can compare
them to the rapacious birds. The great man-eater is the vulture ;
the dog-fish resembles the predatory hawk ; while the large
basking-shark reminds us of the great condor, that, though ex¬
tremely powerful, often prefers the smallest game, and that at
second-hand.

The sharks, of which about two hundred and sixty species are
known, differ greatly from the other denizens of the sea, and are
literally without bones, the skeleton, if it can be so called, being
made up of cartilage. The centre of the vertebral column is

184 Marvels of Animal Life.

only at times more or less bony, and the dorsal cord does not
always exist ; notwithstanding this, the vertebrae are generally
distinctly indicated. The parts of the skull are not united by
sutures, as in other fishes. The gills resemble straps, and vary
in number. They have no air-bladder, that is such a prominent
feature in true fishes. Their eggs, few in number, are often
peculiar in form, being inclosed in horny capsules, have four
liandle-like feelers or tendrils, that have the faculty of grasping
sea- weed, or other objects, as soon as deposited, exactly as does
the advance tendril of a grape-vine ; thus the egg is prevented
from washing ashore, and often they so resemble the surround¬
ing weed as to find protection in the mimicry. In many species,
the young are born alive.

In general appearance the shark is repulsive. The skin is
rough and file-like, being protected with minute or hardened
granules ; the mouth is generally placed beneath, and armed
with sometimes eight or nine rows of sharp, serrated or saw-
edged teeth, all except the first having the faculty of lying
down, a reserve force that is only used as occasion requires,
rising up so many hooks, to secure, hold, and lacerate the
struggling prey. They are found in all waters, from Arctic to
Equatorial, and in both salt and fresh.

Perhaps no animal excites so much dread as these monsters of
the deep. They are the scavengers of the ocean, and though
their ferocity is often exaggerated, there are many cases on record
showing that they are not feared without cause.

While on the reef, I often in company with others swam out
into the channel in the direction of a neighboring key, when
sharks ten or twelve feet long had been seen to pass a few
moments before. Their presence was not thought of, perhaps
because no accident ever occurred, and they were so common ;

The Tigers of the Sea.

185

again, they were well fed from the neighboring slaughter-house.
The only time I ever saw any disposition to follow a person was
one day I was wading along in water about up to my knees,
when a young shark, about four feet long, suddenly appeared
and darted after me, whether in fear or play I did not wait to
ascertain, having left my grains in the boat. It was nearly two
hundred feet to the fringing bare reef, and the way was paved
with echini, craw-fish, and young coral. I was barefooted, but
I must have astonished the shark by my leaps, as I reached
shoal-water well ahead, and pummeled my follower with sea-
cucumbers, and short white-spined echini, at which it darted
away so rapidly that I was assured that its action was only play.

Sharks occasionally attack boats, either thinking they are fish
or with more vicious intent. For several years fishing dories
along the Maine coast were attacked from time to time by a
huge fish that the men called the great biting-shark. It made
desperate attempts to get into boats, and a fisherman at York
informed me that his grandfather was attacked by it, and with
difficulty drove it off, the boat nearly tipping over. Accounts
were heard of the shark for a long time along the coast. A few
seasons ago a fisherman was sitting in his dory off the Nubble,
near York Beach, when a shark, nine feet long, deliberately
jumped into the dory and began hurling the oars about, much
to the astonishment of the fisherman. In this instance the fish
had evidently made a mistake.

The shark generally known as the man-eater of the American
coast is Atwood’s shark, a rare and formidable creature, bulky
in the extreme, and attaining a length of thirteen feet. It
ranges from Newfoundland to Florida. One struck by a
harpoon, some time ago off Cape Cod, turned upon the boat,
seized the cut-water in its mouth, crushed it badly, and only

1 86 Marvels of Animal Life.

succumbed when it had been repeatedly struck with the harpoon
and lance. The most ferocious of all the sharks belong to this
genus. Fortunately in our waters they do not attain their full
size, but in the British Museum is a jaw of a man-eater, cap¬
tured in Australian waters, that measured thirty-six feet and a
half in length, more than twice the length of the largest so-called
man-eater shark that I have observed on the Florida reef. Such
a fish would be a much more terrible enemy to encounter than
a whale, and a match for a large boat. The jaw of such an one
would well allow a man to stand upright in it, and a man or a
horse would be but morsels to appease its appetite.

Among the predatory sharks is the mackerel shark, a beautiful
fish, somewhat resembling that after which it is named. They
attain a length of ten feet, and a weight of four hundred pounds,
and greatly annoy the fishermen by biting off their hooks. The
thresher, or fox-shark, attains a length of twenty feet, with a tail
of nearly half that length, and presents a remarkable appearance ;
while others are the blue shovel-nosed, dusky, and hammer-head.
The latter has two projections, or lateral, hammer-like prolonga¬
tions, upon each side of the head, that bear the eyes, giving the
fish a most singular appearance. It is much dreaded for its
boldness and ferocity.

It is not generally known that sharks live in fresh water ; yet
such is the case, one kind having been seen in Lake Nicaragua
by Belt, the naturalist; and in the Fiver Wai Levi, in Fiji,
another shark, the Carcharias gangeticus , also lives. This shark
is likewise found in the Tigris at Bagdad, three hundred and
fifty miles from the sea. In Viti Levi it breeds in a fresh- water
lake above the falls, where there is not the slightest possibility
of the water being even brackish.

The man-eater, Carcharias , is by no means the largest shark.

i87

The Tigers of the Sea.

In the waters about the Seychelles Islands a shark is found that
attains a greater size than many whales, some reaching, it is said,
seventy feet. The native whalers often mistake them for those
cetaceans, and harpoon them, but the error is soon seen, and, it
is said, so lightning-like is their rush and dive that the rope is
often burned or entangled, and the boat torn to pieces. In one
case one of these monsters was struck, and as it dived the men,
seeing what it was, rushed to the line to cut it ; but this was
impossible. The men cried for help, and several dashed into the
water and started for another boat, when suddenly the line became
exhausted, and with a lurch the Pirogue disappeared. Some
days later she was found a number of miles away, completely
wrecked.

The Pliinodon typieus , for this is the name of the monster,
occasionally upsets boats by rising under them ( Plate XXVIII.),
evidently taking them for others of its kind, but otherwise than
its terrible strength it is perfectly harmless, not having the sharp
teeth and ferocious nature of the man-eater.

Comparatively few of these fishes have been caught. One of
the finest specimens, now in the Colombo Museum, was captured
in the Indian Ocean in 1883. Its length is twenty-three feet;
girth, thirteen feet. It was taken in what the Cingalese call a
mahadthalle, or great net, that they run out nearly a quarter of a
mile into the sea. Mr. Ward, friend of Dr. Wright, of the
Dublin University, measured one that was forty-nine feet long,
and the latter saw others that exceeded fifty feet. He likewise
obtained the assurance of competent witnesses that they had
been seen seventy feet in length. Dr. Wright verified his state¬
ments of their great size by seeing specimens harpooned and
photographing them.

This, with the exception, perhaps, of the basking-shark of our

1 88 Marvels of Animal Life.

shores, is not only the largest living fish, but the largest animal
in existence next to the great rorqual-whale. Like the whales,
they prey upon extremely small and pelagic animals, and have
certain modifications for this purpose similar to that of whales
or the basking-shark. The mouth, instead of being under¬
neath, opens on a level with the snout, and in it are found
cartilaginous bands, analogous to the whalebone of whales,
evidently for retaining small prey.

Equaling this monster in size, is the basking-shark of our
own waters. It is known under a number of names, as sun-
fish, sail-fish, hock-mar, and bone or elephant-shark. It is
quite harmless, its food being the small animals that float at the
surface of the sea ; the mouth having a whale-bone arrangement
calling to mind that of the whalebone whale. On the Green¬
land coast they are caught in great numbers, the most important
fishery being at Naorkanek, where three hundred or more are
taken during the season (a short one), their livers yielding about
two thousand four hundred barrels of oil, which is preferred to
seal-oil, and finds a ready market and good price at different
ports in Europe. The fisheries on the coast now extend beyond
Fiskenaes and Proven, where the “ spec/7 or blubber, of
“ hocwealder,” as the Icelanders call the great fish, is taken as a
medium of exchange for tobacco, pipes, coffee, and other luxuries
from the outer world.

There is a legend recorded by Mitohell that bone-sharks were
formerly caught at Provincetown, Cape Cod, in paying quanti¬
ties. Twenty years ago one was washed ashore off Pockaway
that was thirty feet long. Earlier than this one came ashore
at Cape Cod, of such gigantic proportions that the inhabitants
went to the beach for blubber, thinking it a whale. Seven barrels
of oil were taken from its liver and sold in Boston for one hun-

PLATE XXIII

MAMMOTH ADRIFT ON AN ICE FIELD.

The Tigers of the Sea.

189

dred and four dollars. About the Orkney Islands is a favorite
place for them, where they are called the hocmar.

Mr. Daniel Perkins, School Commissioner of Wells, Me., in¬
formed me that the Gloucester fishermen claimed the largest
specimen of this shark ever caught — a monster seventy feet long.
Later, to refresh my memory, I wrote him upon the subject, and
the following is his reply :

“ Your remembrance of the story was mainly correct. The
facts are these : The schooner Virgin, of Gloucester, of which
vessel one of my neighbors, now deceased, was one of the crew,
caught a shark off Block Island from which they took eight barrels
of liver. They lashed its head to the windlass-bitts, and his tail
extended past the stern, so that he was longer than the vessel,
which was of sixty-eight tons burden. They also struck another
shark the same day which they reported larger, but he took

their harpoon and line . Several well-authenticated stories

of sharks of nearly equal size are reported. My great-grand¬
father emptied a pan of coals on the back of a shark which was
lying alongside of his vessel, on the Grand Banks, which he said
was longer than the vessel.”

On the coast of Portugal is a great shark fishery. The fish
are brought up from a distance of nearly two-thirds of a mile in
the bay, and are invariably dead when they reach the surface.

Strangely enough, the smallest sharks are often the most
dreaded. The simple dog-fish has within its power to cut off
the entire income of the fisherman. On the Maine coast,
during August, where boatloads of cod, hake, and haddock are
brought in to-day, to-morrow not one can be had, the cause
of this peculiar disappearance being the sudden appearance of
immense schools of dog-fish. It would be impossible to estimate
the vast numbers of these fish. All other fishing is given up ;

190 Marvels of Animal Life.

everybody goes dog-fishing, and after several hours the dories
come in loaded to the water’s edge. The fish are so ravenous
that the men spear them while waiting to haul their trawls, and
they bite at the sails that drag overboard, and even at the oars
and boat. The water seems fairly alive with the starving horde,
that bite and devour each other on the hooks. Their livers are
sold for the oil, and the skin is often used for the handles of
swords, covering boxes, etc.

Concerning the voracity of the dog-fish there is little doubt,
and to fall overboard out upon the Banks would often be fatal.
The visitation of these fish is of yearly occurrence, generally
during the month of August. The fishermen believe them to
come from the Gulf Stream and warmer water, as they disappear
upon the approach of cold weather.

In English waters they are equally a scourge, and as many as
20,000 have been caught in the single haul of a net. Their
numbers are beyond conception. A fair example is a school of
picked dog-fish observed by Professor Couch, who states that
they extended in an unbroken phalanx from Moray to Aberdeen,
and from twenty to thirty miles to sea. They are used as guano,
and in many parts of the New England coast large signs are
seen, “ Dog-fish factories,” “ Dog-fish bought and sold,” etc.
Here the fish are taken, ground up, dried, and prepared and sold
as soil-dressing, or as a substitute for guano.

The economic value of sharks is not confined to their oil and
hides. The negroes of the New Guinea coast eat the flesh after
it approaches the u high ” state of excellence so esteemed by
epicures in hare, venison, etc. Fifty thousand dollars’ worth of
shark-fins are imported yearly from Calcutta to China, where
they are in great demand for soup. On some parts of the African
coast the shark is valued as a god, and named the Jou-Jou. Its

The Tigers of the Sea.

191

mouth is supposed to be the sure aud only way to heaven, and
three or four times a year a human victim is sacrificed to it. In
some of the islands of the Pacific the teeth are greatly regarded
as weapons, being bored at their bases and lashed upon swords,
daggers and spears, forming terrible arms, the serrated edges
lacerating and tearing the flesh. As a protection from these the
natives have a regular armor, made of cocoanut fibre, fine examples
of which may be seen as well as the weapons, in the archeological
collection in the Museum of Natural History, Central Park. The
most formidable weapons are a pair of gloves, or long gauntlets,
that cover the arms, and are faced with long recurving teeth.
These are only worn by the largest men, who, in battle, rush
boldly into the throng, seize a victim in their arms, and literally
tear him to pieces. The real value of the shark, however, is its
work as a scavenger ; it, with the vast droves of dog-fish, form¬
ing the purifiers of the sea.

The fossil sharks form an interesting chapter, especially from
their gigantic size. The man-eaters of the Tertiary time
attained one hundred and twenty-five feet in length. The teeth
of these great sharks are very common on the site of Charleston.

Interesting in this connection is the Port Jackson shark, four
species of which have been discovered in the Indian Ocean. It
has crushers instead of teeth, and is altogether a most remark¬
able creature. But strangest of all, it seems one of the few
forms of the ancient geological times preserved unto this, closely
allied species being common in the older geological formations.

CHAPTER XVII.

LIVING LIGHTS.

It is in the Southern seas that the most wondrous displays of
phosphorescence are seen. I have drifted over the great coral
reefs, where the bottom with its waving plumes and fans seemed
studded with gleaming gems, and graceful yellow and purple
gorgonias with their reticulated surfaces, were bathed with soft,
lambent lights of blue and white, that when taken from the
water illuminated all about with a soft radiance. Flashes of
light came and disappeared, appearing again in the distant
depths like spectres. The silvery sand even turned upon the
oar that disturbed it, and gleamed and flashed with sparks of
living light. Processions came and went winding away, break¬
ing up and reforming in aggregations of light, nebulae, of living
stars in a watery sky.

On such a night, among the keys of another locality, a party
had been floating along in silent admiration of the scenes below,
when in one of the boats some distance ahead a singular light
suddenly appeared. A large Pyrosoma had been captured, and
in its glassy prison, held aloft, in pleasant jest, a living beacon to
the more tardy explorers. Although a small one, the brilliancy
of this beautiful creature was distinctly visible for quite a dis¬
tance, so the light of one five feet in height can well be imagined.

The Pyrosoma is scientifically an ascidian, and the branch

is remarkable for its phosphorescent peculiarities. Some are

stationary, as the sea-squirts, while others as the Pyrosoma,
192

PLATE XXIV.

EXTINCT SEA COW (RHYTINA' — THIRTY FEET IN LENGTH

Living Lights. 193

( Plate XXIX.), and Salpa are pelagic. The former is an aggre¬
gation of individuals forming a hollow cylinder, closed at one
end, and from two inches to five feet in height. The animals,
amounting to many thousands, are grouped in whirls, their orifices
so arranged that the inhalent are upon the outer side of the
cylinder, and the exhalent upon the inner side. Each animal
draws in a current from the outside, ejecting it into the interior,
and the result of this volume of water rushing from the open
end forces the entire colony along. They are richly tinted
during the day, but at night, as their name implies, are veri¬
table fire bodies all aflame.

Humboldt refers to the spectacle he enjoyed when passing
through a zone of them in the Gulf Stream, distinguishing by
their light the forms of dolphins and other fishes, that, bathed by
their gleams, stood out in bold relief far below the surface. The
light they emit is at times yellow, reddish-green, and azure-blue,
and so brilliant that it is said of Bibra, the naturalist, that he
used them to illuminate his cabin, writing a description of them
by their own light. They are met with in the South American
waters in vast shoals ; the light of the stars is dimmed, and vessels
seem plunging over a sea of molten lava, that breaks into lurid
flames at the bow, and clings to the chains in golden drops ;
while in the depths below, myriads of incandescent forms are
seen, the light appearing in flashes that illuminate the ship, sails,
and rigging, with an unearthly radiance.

Mr. Bennett, the naturalist, thus describes his experience with
these beautiful creatures : “ Late one night in June the watch

called me to witness a very unusual appearance in the water.
This was a broad and extensive sheet of phosphorescence, extend¬
ing from east to west as far as the eye could reach. I imme¬
diately cast the towing-net over the stern of the ship, which soon
* 13

i94

Marvels of Animal Life.

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 length. On taking in the towing-net it was found
half-filled with Pyrosoma Atlanticum , which shone with a beau¬
tiful pale greenish light. After the mass had been passed through
by the ship, the light was still seen astern, until it became in¬
visible in the distance, and the ocean became hidden in the
darkness as before this took place.”

M. Peron observed the beauties of this same animal on his
voyage to the Isle of France. The wind was blowing with
great violence, the night was dark, and the vessel was making
rapid way, when what appeared to be a vast sheet of phosphorus
presented itself, floating on the waves, and occupying a great
space ahead of the ship. The vessel having passed through this
fiery mass, it was discovered that the light was occasioned by
animalcules swimming about in the sea at various depths round
the ship. Those which were deepest in the water looked like
red-hot balls, while those on the surface resembled cylinders
of red-hot iron. Some of the latter were caught ; and
found to vary in size from three to seven inches. All the
exterior of the creatures bristled with long, thick tubercles,
shining like so many diamonds, and these seemed to be the
principal seat of their luminosity. Inside also there appeared
to be a multitude of oblong narrow glands, exhibiting a high
degree of phosphoric power. The color of these animals when
in repose is an opal yellow, mixed with green; but on the
slightest movement, the animal exhibits a spontaneous con¬
tractile power, and assumes a luminous brilliancy, passing
through various shades of deep red, orange, green, and azure
blue.

Living Lights.

195

The naturalist Moseley captured a Pyrosoma four feet long,
ten inches in diameter, with walls an inch in thickness. It was
placed upon the deck of the vessel, and for a long time gave out
no light, but writing his name upon the animal with his finger,
it came out in letters of fire ; each letter then seemed to increase
in size, until the entire name was lost in a blaze of light that
radiated rapidly, and soon diffused the entire animal, presenting
a marvelous spectacle, as if it had suddenly been heated to a
white heat, and various chemicals were being thrown upon its
surface to produce different colors.

Equally resplendent as a light-giver is the Salpa, a relative of
the Pyrosoma. Some species are found upon our own shores,
and are sometimes caught in large quantities in Long Island
Sound in drag-uets. The curious creatures are free, and habitu¬
ally swim on the waters of the ocean, and are alternately solitary
and aggregated. The solitary individuals resemble short but
rather wide tubes, which are often of considerable size, and so
transparent that Professor Forbes says they look as if carved in
crystal. As they move along on dark nights they often present,
when found, the appearance of gigantic fiery serpents, sometimes
several yards long, winding their way over the sea — a most awe¬
inspiring spectacle to witness.

Among the corals the beautiful Caryophyllia is an interesting
light-giver, and is found in quantities in Northern as well as
Southern waters. When the Atlantic cable was taken up for
repair, numbers of Caryophyllia eledrica were found growing
upon it in water at a depth of over a mile, and in this spot
of intense darkness it perhaps gave out a faint gleam — its contri¬
bution to the light of the submarine world.

Professor Moseley, naturalist of the Challenger , is of the
opinion that the corals are the most important light-givers. All

196 Marvels of Animal Life.

the alcyonarian corals, dredged by the Challenger in deep water,
were found to be brilliantly phosphorescent when brought to the
surface, and their phosphorescence was found to agree in its
manner of exhibition with that observed in the case of shallow
forms. There seems to be no reason why these animals should
not emit light when living in deep water just as do their shallow
water relatives.

Some of the sea-anemones, the cousins of the corals, are
luminous. The light is generally confined to the tentacles and
the smoother soft portion of the column near the summit. We
can imagine this beautiful column standing, perhaps, upon some
projecting ledge, or at the entrance of some gloomy cavern;
its delicate tentacles lighting up, then disappearing as the animal
closes, only to reappear cautiously, finally beaming out in all its
splendor, in strange analogy to the revolving-light upon the
shore above. At times the anemones might be compared to
light-ships adrift, as they are apt to take refuge or prominence
upon the shell of a gaily-bedecked hermit-crab, that thus travels
about, bearing its own lantern, and perhaps preying upon the
animals that are attracted by the strange beacon.

In the little boring-shell Pholas we find the most wondrous
display of bluish-white phosphorescence. Pliny was the first to
notice it, and states that their light was at times so brilliant that
the small objects about them were distinctly visible. “ Those who
eat the Pholades,” he says, “ in an uncooked state (which is by
no means rare, for the flavor of the mollusk does not 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 mollusk in the dark,
would give to his little ones the spectacle of a fire-eater on a
small scale.”

i97

Living Lights .

Dr. Priestly says this mollusk illuminates the mouth of the
person who eats it, and it is remarkable that contrary to the
nature of true fishes which give light when they tend to putres¬
cence, this is more luminous the fresher it is; when dried its
light will revive on being moistened with salt water or fresh ;
brandy, however, immediately extinguishes it.

Some very interesting experiments have been made with these
light-givers. A single pholas has been found to render seven
ounces of milk so luminous that the faces of persons could be
distinguished by it, and it looked as if transparent. Many
attempts have been made to render the luminosity of the pholas
permanent. The best result was obtained by placing the dead
mollusk in honey, by which its property of emitting light lasted
more than a year ; whenever it was plunged into warm water
the body of the pholas gave out as much light as ever.

Another beautiful phosphorescent shell is the little pteropod
Cleodora lanceolata , that, with its distinct head, curious fins,
and arrow-shaped shell, swims along, a faint light gleaming
through its transparent house, one of the most interesting
lanterns of the sea, a pelagic light-ship floating about at its own
free will.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WONDERS OF THE AIR.

The dexterity displayed by various animals in escaping from
their enemies may, in many cases, be traced to some special
modification of their structure ; in other words, nature has
provided them with strange and to us wonderful methods of
protection. This is shown in an interesting manner in the
common flying-fish Exocetus , and also in the flying-gurnard. The
former is a beautiful silvery, large-eyed creature, resembling
somewhat some of the herrings ; but as it tosses about upon the
deck you immediately perceive that it is quite another fish. The
two side or pectoral fins are developed, or enlarged to an enor¬
mous extent, so that they are to all intents and purposes wings,
and as such are used in a greater or less degree.

The flying-fish is found in many waters, but in the warm
currents of the tropics they are seen to the best advantage. In
the Gulf Stream I have frequently observed them rise from a
wave and dart away over the water seemingly without any
perceptible effort, dropping to the water after remaining in the
air perhaps for a sixteenth of a mile, and flights have been
observed of twice that distance.

When they leave the water, the dolphin or some predatory

fish is generally close behind them, though they often leave their

native element and soar away in pure amusement. When they

rise, often in pairs, or by the score, the tail is seen to work

vigorously like a screw, and the wing-like fins to vibrate
198

PLATE XXV

GIANT SQUID— FIFTY-FIVE FEET LONG.

Wonders of the Air.

199

quickly, as if they were exerting all their energy to launch
themselves with the greatest force into the other element. After
once clear of the water, I have never observed the fins move like
wings, though I have carefully watched many hundreds in the
air. It is only just to say that some observers claim that they
have seen such motion, though I think that examination will
fail to show muscular power sufficient to accomplish much in
this way.

In the air the fish spreads out the great wing-like pectorals so
that they form regular parachutes, and are evidently used as
such, as when the impetus is exhausted the fish begins to fall and
soon drops. I can only compare the motion to that of the
pelican when it rises a few feet, darts down toward the water,
and moves along for quite a long distance with its wings out¬
stretched and immovable, then rising and darting down again to
repeat the act that is evidently as much a pleasure to the bird as
it is a source of wonder to the spectator.

In performing this feat, the bird skims along the surface
within a few inches of the water, just clearing it, and that the
wings are held stiff there can be no doubt, as I have observed it
not only in hundreds of wild birds, but in a tame pelican that
Avas following me and not four feet from my boat.

When a gale is bloAving the flying-fishes often accomplish
wonderful flights. As they rise from the crest of a wave the
wind catches them, and they are borne away, and often carried
as high as the top sail of a ship, striking against the canvas,
and falling twisting and flapping to the deck. They ha\Te been
knoAvn to dart through cabin windows, attracted by the light,
and a flying gurnard on one occasion struck a sailor upon the
forehead in its headlong flight and felled him to the deck.

The gurnards ha\Te their heads protected by a heavy thick

200 Marvels of Animal Life.

armor, and so can strike a powerful blow. Their side or
pectoral fins also form great wings or parachutes, and are, as is
the entire fish, often very richly colored with red, blue and
yellow hues, so that as they dart about amid the sargassum of
the Gulf Stream they appear like veritable butterflies of the sea.

The curious little fish Pegasus volans , of foreign seas, has
web-like pectorals that undoubtedly enable it to leap with
greater facility from the water.

Some of the fishes leave the water in long leaps without any
special modifications. They are, however, the long and slender
forms that seem adapted to such movements.

On the reef the common gars, that are there habitually found
on the surface, often leap into the air and dart away, skipping
along for some distance. In the East Indies the gars attain a
length of several feet, and, according to Professor Moseley, they
are often the cause of fatalities from this habit. The natives
wade over the reef in search of shells, and sometimes several of
these great fishes will rise and skip away blindly, perhaps
striking against the wader, and piercing him with the long bill
with all the force of an arrow.

A scientist who visits Florida every winter, cruising around
the mainland, related to me a curious experience with the
pompino, an extremely active fish. The yacht was sailing up a
small river, when suddenly a school of fish was seen ahead. A
moment later one rose from the water, struck against the sail
with telling force, and fell to the deck. Then another arose,
and in a few moments the fish were to all intents and purposes
bombarding the yacht ; some striking, others passing over,
clearing fifteen or twenty feet, striking and sliding away over the
water a great distance. They came with such force that the men
found it convenient to dodge them and get behind the bulwarks.

Wonders of the Air.

201

Among the fliers on land the little tree-toad Hhamphorhynchus
is perhaps the most remarkable. It was first discovered in Borneo,
where its habits might be compared to those of our common
flying-squirrel. As shown, the toes of all four feet are webbed
to the tips, so that the little creature has four parachutes which
it spreads to the wind. Its methods are, as have been suggested,
similar to those of the flying-squirrel. It boldly launches itself
from high trees, and swoops downward, the broad webs or mem¬
branes bearing it up, until it reaches a neighboring branch,
when it rises upward a few feet so as to stop its headway, and
then easily alights, to climb the tree and repeat the flight, in this
way traveling long distances without difficulty.

When in the air the toads present a curious appearance,
and sometimes several are observed darting down together
(Plate XXX.).

Equally interesting are some of the flying lizards, as the
draco, that has a membrane between its limbs that also serves as a
parachute, by the aid of which they pass readily from tree to tree.

The flying-squirrels, of which there are many varieties in the
old world, fly in a similar manner. When the leap is taken, the
animal spreads out its limbs to their full extent, the membrane
that appears to connect them catching the wind and buoying
them up during their flight. In the curious flying lemur there is
not only a membrane between the limbs, but also connecting the
hind limbs with the tail, thus forming a steering apparatus, so to
speak.

A spider, Attus volans , common in Australia, has side flaps to
its abdomen, which it moves up and down as wings when it
leaps from leaf to leaf.

Some spiders adopt a still more remarkable method. They
raise the abdomen upward and expel a delicate thread of silk

202 Marvels of Animal Life.

that seems to float upward, growing longer and longer, until
finally the wind catches it, and away goes the spider, buoyed up
by a balloon of its own making. Sometimes the balloon is a
mass of silk caught together, and hundreds of spiders are often
seen sailing away through the air in this way.

A GIGANTIC FLYING KEPTILE.

In the earlier days of the world’s history, the fliers were often of
enormous size. The great bat-like creature shown in Plate XXXI.
was at one time very common on this continent, and was a
flying reptile known as the Pteranoclon. It differed from the
European Pterodactyles in being toothless. The figure shown is
somewhat conjectural, and is merely intended to give some idea
of the size and probable appearance of the animal. From the
tip of one wing to another it measured nearly thirty feet, and
when a flock of these monsters is imagined in the air, some idea
of their appearance may be obtained. They were probably
harmless creatures, and judging from the quantities of bones
found they must have existed in great numbers. The museum
of Yale College possesses the remains of many specimens that
varied in size from the above to those not larger than a small
bird.

Very much smaller than the Pteranodon was the Phampho-
rhynchus phyllurus , a curious reptilian creature whose remains
have been found in the slate at Solenhofen, Germany. Its jaws
were armed with teeth, and its tail was nearly twice the length
of the body, long and slender like that of a monkey, or the bat
known to science as the Phinopoma microphyttum. But at the
end, instead of terminating in a point, it widened out into sail¬
like semi-oval membranes supported by boom-like bones, the

Wonders of the Air.

203

whole arrangement resembling a tennis-racket, and forming the
rudder for this strange aerial living craft. Only one specimen
has been found, and that is deposited in Yale College. It is
one of the most valuable discoveries ever made in this con¬
nection from the fact that on the slab the texture of the
membrane that constituted the wing is preserved — the first
instance on record.

These are but a few of the strange fliers that poised in the
air in the olden time, and probably many even stranger forms
yet remain to be discovered.

CHAPTER XIX.

ANIMAL TRAPS AND TRAPPERS.

To the lover of nature and her ways, who feels a responsive
thrill when meeting her in all her moods, there is vouchsafed an
experience and delight hardly to be described. It is a stimu¬
lation of the moral and physical senses, bearing rich fruit in its
effect upon the mind. Who has not felt the exhilaration that
comes with the mornings of early spring? As we walk across
the fields to meet the rising sun everywhere new born life greets
the eye, asserting itself to all the senses. The fresh green grass
bends beneath our feet, the fragrance of the flowers rises — the
incense of nature, while the humming of insect life, the carol
and song of the birds, with the rustling of the leaves form a
z harmony of joyous sounds. To the walker, and he or she need
not be confined to the woods and fields alone, who thus appre¬
ciates the simpler things, those that are too apt to be termed the
common-place happenings of nature, there is revealed many
phases of life remarkable for their direct and curious analogy
with the doings of human existence. In this peaceful corner of
* the field, or some quiet pool that reflects the sky and trees, the
great struggle for existence between various animal forms is in
silent progress.

An intimate knowledge of these combatants well repays the
close observer. In our own fields examples are innumerable, but
perhaps the most remarkable may be found in the warmer regions

of the South, where the extremes of cold are not experienced.

204

PLATE XXVI

GIANT OCTOPUS, PARTLY OUT OF WATER TO SHOW THE SIZE
TWENTY-EIGHT FEET ACROSS.

Animal Traps and Trappers.

205

In pressing through the vines and wild tangles of the
Southern forest in some localities, a common object is a worm¬
like creature, known as the peripatus, unsightly, perhaps,
resembling a lepidopterous caterpillar, of brown or black color,
possessing seventeen or more pairs of short comical legs armed
with curved claws. The head bears a pair of curious jointed
antennae, evidently sense organs and a pair of simple eyes. In
fact there appears to be nothing about this lethargic gloom-
loving creature to attract attention ; indeed, it is the simplest of
all the insects, occupying the outlying borderland between them
and the worms.

As we are observing these details that relegate the peripatus
to the common-place, an inquisitive insect approaches, flying
about in the uncertain manner of its tribe ; now examining its
sluggish and distant kinsman in various positions, again,
suspended in the air viewing it from the side, it moves gradually
along toward the antennae of the peripatus that now vibrate
gently. Nearer comes the intruder, its wings fanning the other,
and finally brushing the antennae that retract quivering as if
with suppressed emotion. The sluggish body that, perhaps, has
been taken for a part of the root upon which it has been resting,
moves in a convulsive effort ; a myriad of sunbeams flash before
it, and swifter than the eye can follow, the luckless inquisitive
insect is enveloped not in the jaws of the peripatus, but in a
perfect maze of silvery web that holds it firmly in the air. The
wings, limbs, and antennae remain in just the position in which
they were a moment ago ; the whole mechanism of life has come
to a standstill, involved in a common ruin by this living trap.
In a single second the unattractive peripatus has developed a
feature of matchless beauty. For several inches about its mouth
a cloud of hazy, lace-like fabric seems poised in the air, sunbeams

200

Marvels of Animal Life.

solidified, it might be, for in its entirety it seems composed of
slender shafts of glistening crystal, each reflecting the rays of
the sun in iridescent splendors. Around about the victim this
magic trap has formed, and thus imprisoned the unfortunate
insect awaits its fate.

The mechanism of this remarkable trap is not complicated,
and can be easily understood by an examination of the mouth
of the peripatus. Here we see that the first pair of locomotive
organs are turned forward, their claws being modified into a pair
of sickle-shaped toothed jaws that grind together in front of the
mouth. The second pair of appendages in the embryo in the
adult assume the form of short papillae, called oval papilla, and
at their tips small openings are noticed, that lead to large glands
where the viscid substance that forms the imprisoning web is
secreted. In the glands it is soft and gelatinous, but when
expelled, as shown by the muscular action of the animal, it in¬
stantaneously crystallizes in the air, forming a perfect net about
the victim, constituting, perhaps, the most remarkable defence
known in the animal kingdom.

Somewhat similar in its general effect upon the enemy is the
attack, or defence, as the case may be, of many of our common
land or aquatic planarian worms. In most instances they are
inoffensive creatures, incapable of active movement, either aggres¬
sive or otherwise, generally finding protection in their resem¬
blance to their surroundings. Let a snail or some enemy touch
the sluggish planarian and its antennae will be seen to withdraw,
as if struck by an electric shock. An examination of the skin
would show the cause, as it would be found punctured by innumer¬
able spears or arrows, the projectiles of this innocent and helpless
appearing trap. These lances are not retractile, and are projec¬
tiles in the full sense of the term, resembling in form stiff deli-

Animal Traps and Trappers.

207

cate rods, that are either coiled or irregularly twisted, or even
straight, inclosed in cells in the back of the worm. At the
moment of attack, as if the creature pulled some nerve trigger,
they are released and shot into the air, as if from a catapault, in
vast numbers penetrating the offending party, and being, per¬
haps, fatal to many small and sensitive animals. The effect upon
the more delicate portions of the human body, as the tongue, is
to produce a scalding sensation, accompanied by a slight swelling.
Semper is of the opinion that this method of defence is possessed
by the Onchidium, a shell-less sea-shore mollusk of the East,
that is chiefly remarkable for its number of eyes scattered over
the back, and that they are used with effect against its chief
enemy, the fish periopthalmus seen in Plate V., that leaves the
water, and hops along the shore after it.

In wandering over our fields we shall find in the sandy spots,
where the grass has been worn away, a prince of dissemblers,
the myrmeleon, and in few insects, and indeed, animals in general,
is the presence of seeming thought better shown. Lying upon
the ground the actions of the insect may be carefully watched.
Curiously enough, it is in the larval stage that its predatory oper¬
ations are carried on ; in after life, when assuming the adult and
perfect form, becoming to all intents and purposes a citizen of
good repute in the insect world.

Very soon after it hatches, the ant-lion begins its method of
action that entitles it to be considered a part, at least, of a living
trap. At this time it possesses a long, bottle-shaped body,
its small head being provided with an enormously-developed
pair of jaws, that appear like gigantic shears. The larva thus
armed, and clumsy withal, would present a warning in itself that
would prevent its natural prey approaching ; so some method
has to be devised that will at once conceal it, and at the same

208 Marvels M \ Animal Life.

time draw without fail the victim within reach of the jaws.
With the strategy and skill of an engineer the myrmeleon adopts
the pitfall, introducing itself at the bottom as the death-dealing
agent.

In forming the pitfall, that is, when finished, a perfect semi¬
cone, the insect selects a place where the sand is fine, if possible
in the grass where small insects are apt to pass, and taking a
secure hold upon a central point with its front feet, begins to
whirl its abdomen about as a broom or shovel, soon forming a
ridge ; and by continually altering its position a hollow cone
is finally the result.

The ingenuity and patience of these insect workers is often
strikingly shown in this labor. Small stones are met with in
the excavation, that, despite the whirling process, persist in roll¬
ing down into the trap. Innumerable times the myrmeleon will
endeavor to hurl them out by the side motion of its body, and
only when it has been thoroughly demonstrated to be impossible is
another method adopted. The pebble, often twice the weight of
the insect, is carefully rolled on to its back, balanced there, and
gradually pushed down towards the end of the tail ; finally,
when in position, by a muscular effort the tail is jerked upward,
and the pebble sent flying into the air, often several inches
beyond the pitfall. Sometimes the pebble cannot be thrown, and
an insect has been seen to renew the attempt over one hundred
times before realizing it — certainly a marvelous exhibition of
patience. When finally satisfied that the stones or obstruction
cannot be removed, the place is deserted and another excavation
commenced.

When the pit is complete, it is one or two inches deep, with
sides at an angle of about forty-five degrees, the surface covered
with fine quicksand that offers no resistance or foothold. At the

Animal Traps ar J Trappers.

209

bottom of this excavation the living trap buries itself, leaving
only the scissors-like jaws exposed, and so awaits the course of
events. Ants in particular are its victims. Running rapidly
along, they are over the edge before aware of it ; the sand so
carefully prepared slides them down the incline, and after a few
convulsive struggles they are seized by the relentless jaws, and
torn in pieces.

The deliberation of the myrmelcon in rending its prey would
be terrible in a larger animal, and the sang froicl with which it
places the empty skin upon its back, and shoots it out of the
trap, is characteristic of its savage nature. It is often the case
that large ants manage to obtain a foothold and escape ; but the
ant-lion is prepared for this, and the moment there appears to be
a possibility of losing its prey it throws off all concealment,
rushes out, and loading its back with sand, hurls charge after
charge at the victim, generally causing it to roll demoralized
and panic-stricken into the jaws of its assailant.

This predatory life is carried on for two years, when the insect

retires to a cocoon, and in a few weeks assumes the general

appearance of a dragon-fly. Some of the allies of this insect

display equal cunning and ferocity, and all are marked by what

in an Australian bushman would be considered intelligence.

The Chrysopa deposits its eggs on stalks that are attached to the

ground, so that they resemble delicate plants, while the Asca-

laphus hedges its eggs in by a perfect fence or paling, that

effectually keeps enemies out and prevents the young from straying

until they can care for themselves. A larva of an allied form

indulges in ghastly humor at the expense of its prey. It destroys

great numbers of Aphides, or plant lice, and then attaches the

empty skins like scalps to its back, until finally they form a

perfect protection, and covering several times the bulk of its
14

210 Marvels of Animal Life.

body, and in this portable catacomb or chamber of horrors it
lives.

In wandering by the sea-shore or floating over the ocean waves,
we find many curious and interesting instances of this phase in
the struggle for existence. Here is the uncanny basket-fish with
its multitudinous bifurcating arms, that are seemingly prepared
to drop net-like over some unsuspecting victim. In deeper
water we meet with fishes adapted in a marvelous manner to
obtain their food with a minimum amount of exertion. One
form recently discovered, not only resembles the bottom in color,
but the outline of the body appears to be cut up into myriads
of frills, cut artificially to resemble sea-weed ; and not only are
they found upon the sides but upon various parts of the body,
covering the fins, and hanging pendent from the enormous and
cavernous mouth, so that the entire fish fully and completely
mimics the weeds among which it lies.

This resemblance, however, is but part of the trap accessories,
as the fish possesses a complete and effective arrangement for
enticing its prey near its mouth. Like the human fisherman it
is provided with rod and fly, and not one only but several, com¬
parable in their size and shape to trout, bass, and salmon rods.
These rods are from six to eight inches in length, and situated
upon the neck just in front of the dorsal fin, seemingly modifica¬
tions of fin-rays. The first, or one nearest the mouth, is of the
most importance, and is the largest, generally about the size of
an ordinary steel darning-needle, covered with a soft delicate
membrane, often marbled or colored to render it attractive. Upon
the tip the fleshy lure enlarges, widens out, so to speak, and
dangles loosely in the water, and being many colored forms a
tempting bait. If rigid the rod would scarcely be of practical
use ; and here we notice a remarkable mechanism by which the

PLATE XXVII

GIGANTIC EXTINCT PTERYGOTUS COMPARED WITH A LOBSTER.

Animal Traps and Trappers.

21 I

fish can cast its living fly with a mathematical exactness. The
rod, or ray, as we may term it, is not connected to the median
bones or imbedded in the muscles, but forms at its base a staple
that is hooked into a corresponding staple below it so that it
works forward and back with perfect ease. The spines behind
this act in a somewhat different way, but in the living fish the
first one moves up and down at will, and is used exactly as a
fisherman uses a baited rod, as a lure. Safe in its disguise of
waving barbels the fish flattens itself among the weeds, and
lowering its rod casts the filamentous fly exactly in front of the
mouth. As some inquisitive small fry approaches, the rod is
gently raised, until the victim is beguiled into the right position.
This accomplished the abyssal mouth yawns beneath, and into
the vacuum the fish is drawn to be lacerated by the rows of
movable teeth.

These fishes, Lophidce, do not always depend upon the rod
and fly ; they have been known to attempt the capture of large
birds, and one was secured not long ago, that was found floun¬
dering at the surface with a large loon in its capacious maw.

Equally curious is the arrangement found upon the head of
the bat-fish, or Malthea. It is a soft fleshy object, susceptible
of being lowered and raised at will, seemingly a bait without the
rod, and supposed to be used as a lure to this living trap.

Some of the fishes dredged from great depths by the late
French and Italian expeditions, might be compared to nets, the
mouth being the principal part of the body. This is particu¬
larly noticeable in the deep sea fish known as Eurypharynx
pelecanoides. The body is eel-like, destitute of fins, and seems
to form merely the handle to the enormous scoop represented by
the mouth. So huge is the latter that the fish might well lie in
wait, and allow its legitimate prey to wander in out of sheer

2 1 2 Marvels of Animal Life .

curiosity. Their method of feeding probably is to lower the
under jaw, aud use it as a scoop or net, and by pushing along
fill it with material of any kind, in some way sifting out the
choice bits.

Another form, recognized by naturalists as the Melanocetus
Johnsoni , seems to combine the qualities and methods of the
last two mentioned fishes. The mouth is also so enormous that
it can swallow with ease fishes of twice its actual bulk, the pro¬
jecting pouch below being three or four times the size of the body.
The lower jaw, when the mouth is open, extends outward like a
platform, armed with an array of teeth equally to be dreaded.
Directly over the upper jaw on the median line is seen a long
slender rod with a tentacular tip, that constitutes the rod and bait.

As in the genus Lophius , with its curious limb-like fins, the
Melanocetus probably buries itself partly in the mud, and with
wide-open mouth dangles the bait, snapping up the victims as
they enter the trap so deftly arranged for their reception. To
enable many of these traps to swallow prey, there is an arrange¬
ment not unlike that found in the snakes, the jaws having great
extensibility, and in the Chiasmodus , a deep sea carnivorous fish,
working independently, actually hauling the victim into the
stomach by alternate movements, as in the reptiles referred to.

In China, Siam, and various other countries of the East, the
natives train certain varieties of fishes to fight, and the engage¬
ments are attended with as much excitement as are the cock fights
of the adjoining Malay Peninsula. The fishes selected for this
questionable sport are of great variety, and one species comes
under the head of our title, possessing a wonderful arrangement
for securing its prey only to be compared to the method observed
among the native bird of paradise hunters, who use a long blow-
gun with which they deftly bring down their game unharmed.

Animal Traps a7id Trappers.

213

The fish known popularly as the long-billed Chaetodon has
been provided by nature with a similar contrivance, the mouth
being extended into a long tube — the blow-gun. The projectile
is a drop of water, and so accurate is the aim of this finny hunter,
that at a distance of two feet, it will strike a fly held in the
hand of its owner.

They are marine fishes, frequenting the shores that are over¬
hung with reeds and grasses, and by swimming along near the
surface, the presence of an insect is soon detected, when the beak
is extended above the water and a liquid bullet projected that
brings the luckless insect quickly to the surface to be devoured.

The Chaetodons are among the most beautiful of the tribe,
being decked with gorgeous tints, and for this reason their allies
of tropical America are called angel-fishes.

Equally interesting is the Toxotes, or archer-fish, that cap¬
tures its prey in the same manner, though not possessing the
tubular mouth that distinguishes the former. Here the lower
jaw is very prominent, extending out like a platform, and evi¬
dently acting as a guide to the missile.

In the same waters is found a fish whose mouth constitutes a
trap of a totally different character. In appearance the Sly Epi-
bulus resembles somewhat our hog-fish of the South, seeming at
a casual glance to be a sober-sided, guileless fellow, incapable of
double dealing. This demeanor, however, is only preserved
when the fish is surfeited. When hungry it swims slowly and
innocently along, causing no commotion among the smaller fry,
who, from the extremely cunning way in which their numbers
are depleted, do not seem to notice the fact. If the fish is
closely watched, a method of procedure will be observed that
can only be compared to the game called snatching. The fish
moves slowly toward a victim, and when within a short

214 Marvels of Animal Life.

distance away the entire month seems to shoot out independently
of the fish and grasp the prey, the trap returning again so quickly
that unless the action is expected, it is not observed. In this
way the Sly Epibulus feeds without approaching near enough to
cause alarm by its superior size.

The mechanism of this trap is exceedingly simple. The
mouth may be said to be telescopic, capable of several inches pro¬
trusion, and naturally returning to its place, the parts fitting so
closely together that such an arrangement would never be
suspected.

PLATE XXVIII.

SPOTTED SHARK (RHINODON)- SEVENTY FEET LONG— RISING UNDER A CANOE

CHAPTER XX.

THE WHITE WHALERS.

“ Down with her ! Hard ! ” came hoarsely through the mist.

An oil-skinned figure threw himself heavily upon the oar ;
the little craft rounded tremblingly up into the wind, hurling
clouds of spray and foam aloft that were borne far away by the
whistling breeze. For a moment the sail beat furiously, as if
in protest at this infringement upon its privileges, then a second
oil-skin — the cause of this commotion — raised his arms, a steel
spear flashed, a willowy pole trembled in the air, a quick move¬
ment, a roar of rushing waters, a shower of spray that drenched
the craft, a sound of escaping steam or hissing rope, and a white
whale had been struck by Captain Sol Gillis, of Ric.

Captain Gillis, as might be assumed, was not a native ofi the
province of Quebec, but merely a carpet-bagger, who moved
North in the summer and returned in early autumn about the
time the wild geese went South, and all for reasons only known
to himself. He hailed from down East, and voted in a small
town not many miles from the historic shell-heaps and the
ancient city of Pemaquid.

Our meeting with the down-East skipper was entirely one of
accident. Wandering along the beach at Ric, we had come
upon a boat, half dory, half nondescript, which from the posses¬
sion of certain peculiarities was claimed by one of the party to
be of Maine origin, and, to settle the dispute, a little house a
few hundred yards higher up was visited.

215

2 1 6 Marvels of Animal Life.

It was like many others along shore, single storied, painted
white, with green blinds, with a small garden in the rear, in
which grew old-fashioned flowers and an abundance of “ yarbs ”
that bespoke a mistress of Thompsonian leanings. A stack of
oars, seine-sticks, and harpoon-handles leaned against the roof ;
gill-nets festooned the little piazza, while a great iron caldron,
that had evidently done service on a New Bedford whaler, had
been utilized by the good housewife to capture the rain-water
from the shingled roof.

“ Mornin’ to ye, gentlemen. Been lookin’ at the bot ? ”
queried a tall, thin, red-faced man, with an unusually jolly
expression, stepping out from a shed.

“ Yes, we thought she was of Maine build,” replied the
disputant.

“ Wall, so she is,” said the mariner, “so she is; and there
ain’t none like her within forty mile of Bic. I’m of Maine
build myself,” he added, “ but I ain’t owner. I’m sorter
second mate to Sol Gillis; sailed with him forty year come
Christmas. Don’t ye know him ? What ! don’t know Sol
Gillis ? ” and a look of incredulity crept into the old man’s eye.
“ Why, I thought Sol was knowed from Bic to Boothbay
all along shore. But come in, do. I know you’re parched,”
continued the friend of the skipper, dropping his palm and
needle and motioning the visitors toward the little sitting-room.
“ Mother,” he called, “ here’s some folks from daown aour way.”

As the old man spoke, a large-framed woman appeared in the
door-way, holding on to the sides for support, and bade us wel¬
come. Her eyes were turned upward, and had a far-away look,
as if from long habit of gazing out to sea, but, as we drew
nearer, we saw that she was blind.

Leading the way into the kitchen, which was resplendent

PLATE XXIX

A GIGANTIC PYROSOMA

The White Whalers.

217

with shining pans and a glistening stove, all the work of the
thrifty but blind housewife, she began to entertain us in her
simple manner, and described a model of a full-rigged ship that
rested on a table, though she had never seen it, with an exact¬
ness that would have done credit to many a sailor ; even the
ropes and rigging were pointed out, and all their uses dwelt upon
with a tenderness strangely foreign to the subject.

“ And Captain Sam built it?” we asked.

“No, no,” replied the old lady, turning her head to hide a
tear that stole from the sightless eyes. “ It’s all we’ve got to
remember aour boy John. He built her and rigged her. He
was his mother’s boy, but — ”

“He went daown on the Grand Banks in the gale of ’75 !”
broke in her husband, hoarsely.

“ Yes,” continued the wife, “ me and Sam’s all alone. It’s
all we’ve got, and Sam brings it up every summer as sorter
company like. Ye’re friends of Captain Sol, I guess?” she
said, brightening up after a minute. “ No ? ” and she looked in
the direction of the captain, as if for a solution of the mystery.
“ Naow ye don’t tell me that ye ain’t acquainted with Captain
Sol, and ye’re from aour way, too ? Why,” she continued,
earnestly, “ Sol’s been hog-reeve in aour taown ten years runnin” ;
and as for selec’-man, he’ll die in office. Positions of trust come
just as natural to him as reefin’ in a gale of wind. Him and
my man tuck to one another from the first.”

“ Then you were not townsmen always,” we suggested.

“ Yo, we wa’n’t,” was the reply. “ My man and Sol met
under kinder unusual circumstances. Tell ’em haow it was,
Sam.”

The old sailor was sitting on the wood-box, shaping a thole¬
pin from a piece of white pine, and, thus addressed, looked up

2i8 Marvels of Animal Life.

with a blank expression, as if he had been on a long search for
ideas and had returned without them.

“ He gits wanderin’ in his ideas when he sots his mind on the
’75 gale,” whispered the old lady. “Tell ’em abaout yer
meetin’ Captain Sol, Sam,” she repeated.

“ Me and Sol met kinder curious,” began the captain. “ That
year I was first mate of the Marthy Dutton, of Kennebec ; and
on this identical v’yage we was baound daown along with a load
of coal. In them days three was a full-handed crew for a fore-
an’-after, and that’s all we had, captain, mate, and cook, and a
dog and cat. One evenin’ — I guess we was ten miles to the south-
’ard of Boon Island — it was my trick at the wheel, and all
hands had turned in. It was blowin’ fresh from the east’ard,
and I had everything on her I could git. I guess it was
nigh on ter two o’clock, and as clear as it is to-day, when the
fust thing I knowed the schooner was on her beam ends. She
gave a kind of groan like, pitched for’ard, and daown she went,
takin everything with her ; and afore I knowed what was the
matter, I found myself floatin’ ten miles from shore. I see it
was no use, but I thought I’d make a break for it, so I got off
my boots and ile-skins in the water, and struck aout for shore,
that I could see every once in a while on a rise.

“ Wall, to make a long story short, I guess I was in the
water a matter o’ four hours, when I see the lights of a schooner
cornin’ daown on me. I hailed, and she heard me, ran up in
the wind, put aout a bot, and Sol Gill is, the skipper, yanked
me in. I couldn’t have held aout ten minutes longer. So Sol
and me has been tol’able thick ever since.”

“ Here he comes naow,” said the matron, whose quick ear had
caught the sound of approaching footsteps. “ Sam, set aout my
pennyroyal, will ye? Ye see,” she added apologetically, “Sol

The White Whalers.

2x9

is literary, and when he comes raound he gives us all the news,
and there is sech goin’s on in the papers now-a-days that it jest
upsots my nerves to hear him and Sam talkin’ ’em over. Sech
- murders, riots, wrackin’ and killin’ of folks ! If it wan’t for a
dish of tea I ’low I couldn’t hear to it.” And the good woman
held out her hand to a burly fisherman in a full suit of oil-skins,
and presented him to the visitors as Sam’s friend, Captain Sol
Gillis.

“ I’m a white-whaler at present, gentlemen,” said the captain,
with a hearty laugh that was so contagious that all hands joined
in, scarcely knowing why.

He was a tall robust specimen of a down-Easter, his open face
reddened by long battling with wind and weather, and shaved
close except beneath the chin, from which depended an enormous
beard that served as a scarf in winter and even now was tucked
in his jacket.

“ It’s a curious thing, naow, for the captain and mate of a
coaster to be in furrin parts a-whalin?, but we find it pays, eh,
Sam?” And Captain Sol closed one eye and looked wisely for a
second at his friend, upon which the two broke into hearty
laughter that had a ring of smuggled brandy and kerosene in it,
though perhaps it was only a ring, after all. “ Kin yaou go
a-whalin’ ? ” said the captain in reply to a question of one of the
visitors. “ Why, sartin, white whalin’s gittin’ fashionable.
There’s heaps o’ chaps come daown here from Montreal and
Quebec and want to go aout, so I take ’em. Some shoots, and
some harpoons, and about the only thing I’ve seen ’em ketch yet
is a bad cold ; but there’s excitement in it — heaps of it ; ain’t
there, Sam ? ”

“ I ain’t denyin’ of it,” replied the latter. “ What’s sport for
some is hard work for others. Work I calls it.”

220

Marvels of Animal Life.

“Wall, as I say,” continued the skipper, “white whalin’s
gittin’ fashionable, so in course there ain’t no hard work about it;
and if yaou will go, why, I’m goin’ aout now, me and Sam.
The only thing, it’s dampish like ; but perhaps mother here kin
rig yaou aout.”

Half an hour later the two landsmen were metamorphosed
into very respectable whalers, and, with the two captains, were
running the whale-boat down the sands of Ric into the dark
waters of the St. Lawrence. The light sail was set, and soon we
were bounding away in the direction of Mille Vaches, Captain
Sam at the oar that constituted the helm, and Captain Sol in
the bow, with harpoon at hand, ready for the appearance of
game.

The white whale, or Beluga, is extremely common at the
mouth of the St. Lawrence, and is found a considerable distance
up the river beyond Tadonsac. The oil is in constant demand
for delicate machinery, and Beluga leather, made from the tanned
hide, is manufactured into a great variety of articles of necessity
and luxury.

In appearance these whales are the most attractive of all the
cetaceans. They are rarely over twenty feet in length, more
commonly fifteen, of a pure creamy color, sometimes shaded with
a blue tint, but in the dark water they appear perfectly Avhite,
perhaps by contrast, and seem the very ghosts of whales, darting
about, or rising suddenly, showing only the rounded, dome¬
shaped head.

The Beluga is a toothed whale, in contradistinction to those
that are supplied with the whalebone arrangement that charac¬
terizes the right- whales ; consequently its food consists of fish, and
perhaps squid. To enable it to capture such prey it must be
endowed with remarkable powers of speed. The motor is the

PLATE XXX

GROUP OF PLYING TREE TOADS

The White Whalers.

221

great horizontal tail, powerful strokes of which force the animal
through the water and enable it to leap high into the air in its
gambols. The flippers are small and of little use in swim¬
ming. The head is the most remarkable feature. It is the only
instance in this group of animals where this organ appears at all
distinct from the body. By viewing the creature in profile, a
suggestion of neck may be seen, and it is claimed that there is
more or less lateral motion — that the head can be moved from
side to side to a limited extent. The outlines of the face are
shapely, the forehead rising in a dome-like projection and round¬
ing off in graceful lines, so that the head resembles to some ex¬
tent that of our Atlantic Right Whale (Balcena cisarctica).

In their movements the Belugas are remarkably active, and
are very playful, leaping into the air in their love-antics, rolling
over and over, chasing each other, and displaying in many ways
their wonderful agility. They often follow vessels in schools of
forty and fifty, and old whalers claim that they utter a whistling
sound that can be heard distinctly above the water. The young,
sometimes two, but generally one, are at first brown in color,
later assuming a leaden hue, then becoming mottled, and finally
attaining the cream-white tint of the adult. The calves are
frequently seen nursing, the mother lying upon the surface and
rolling gently.

The Beluga has a wide geographical range, being found upon
our Northern and Northwestern shores in great numbers. Their
southern limit seems to be the St. Lawrenoe, and in search of
food they venture up this river beyond the mouth of the
Saguenay, and often in water but little over their own depth.
On the western coast they also enter the great rivers, and have
been captured up the Yukon seven hundred miles from its
mouth. In their columnar movements they somewhat resemble

222

Marvels of Animal Life.

the porpoise, long processions being frequently seen, composed of
three in a row, perhaps led by a single whale.

Among the Samoyeds, at Chabanova, on the Siberian coast, the
white-whale fisheries amount to fifteen hundred or two thousand
pood of train-oil a year. On the coasts of Nova Zembla and
Spitzbergen they are captured by enormous nets made of very
stout material ; and the Tromsoe vessels alone have taken in a
single season over two thousand one hundred and sixty- seven
white whales, valued at about thirty thousand dollars. Magda¬
lena Bay is a favorite place for them, and often three hundred
are taken at a single haul in the powerful nets. Here, and in
most of the Northern localities, the entire body is utilized, the
carcass being used in the manufacture of guano. So perfectly
are the bodies preserved by the cold of these Northern regions
that if they cannot be removed at the time of capture, they are
secured in the ensuing season.

As the boat reached mid -stream, where the wind was blowing
against the current, great rollers were met with, that tossed
the light craft about like a ball. But this was evidently the
play-ground of the Beluga, and dead ahead the white forms
were seen darting about in the inky water with startling dis¬
tinctness, while faint puifs were occasionally borne down by the
wind.

Gradually we neared them, and suddenly a white dome
appeared on the weather bow. Then came the command and
ensuing scene chronicled at the commencement of this chapter.

We were perfectly familiar with whaling-terms, and as the
game was struck we construed Captain Sam’s impression “ git
aft” to mean “starn all,” and even in that moment of stumbling
and drenching felt a sense of disappointment in the suppression
of a time-honored term. To omit “ There she blows!”

was

The White Whalers.

223

enough, but to substitute “ git aft ” for “ starn all ” was a libel
on the chroniclers of the “ Whalers’ Own Book.”

There was little time, however, for regrets. Our combined
weight had raised the bow a trifle, yet not enough to prevent the
sea from coming in ; and, as the skipper, who was laboring with
the steering oar, said, the small whaler was “ hoopin’ along, takin’
everything as it came, and askin’ no questions.” Now by the
slight slacking of the line we were high on a wave, the crest of
which was dashed in our faces in the mad race ; now down in a
hollow, taking the next sea bodily and plunging through it,
causing the oars and harpoons to rattle as if they were the very
bones of the boat shaking in fear and terror.

In a short time she was a third full of water, and the amateur
whalers were invited to man the pumps — namely, two tin
basins — and bale the St. Lawrence out as fast as it came in.
The maddened animal soon carried us beyond the area of heavy
seas, and preparations were made for taking in the slack. The
boat was still rushing along at a five-knot rate ; and, as the
whale showed no signs of weakening, it was Captain Sam’s
opinion that nothing short of the lance would stop him.

“ Jest lay holt of the line, will ye?” sang out Captain Sol,
passing the slack aft, and four pairs of arms hauled the boat
nearer the game, that was far ahead. At first this only spurred
the creature to further endeavors ; but the steady pull soon told,
and after a great amount of labor the white head of the Beluga
came in sight.

“ Stiddy, naow ! ” shouted Captain Sol, releasing his hold,
and picking up the lance. “ Naow, then, work her ahead.”

A final haul, and the boat was fairly alongside of the fleeing
animal, careening violently under its rapid rushes ; and, in
response to the order “ Git to wind’ard,” we sprang to the

224 Marvels of Animal Life.

weather rail. A moment of suspense, a quick motion of the
lance, and the great white body of the whale rose from the water
and fell heavily back, beating it into foam in its convulsive
struggles.

“She dies hard/’ said Captain Sol, shaking the water from
the creases of his oil-skin as the boat rounded to at a safe
distance from the dying whale. “ But/7 he continued, lighting
a match by biting the sulphur, and puffing violently at a short,
black pipe, “ that ain’t nothing to what they do sometimes ; is
it, Sam?”

“ I ain’t denyin’ of it,” was the reply of that individual, who
was now sculling the boat about the whale in a great circle.

“ I’ve seen,” continued the skipper, “ a white whale smash a
bot so clean that ye’d ’a thought it hed been through a mill ;
and it was a caution haow we didn’t go with it. That was a
curious year,” he added. “Something happened to drive the
whales up here so thick that the hull river was alive with ’em,
and of course we was for reapin’ the harvest. When we struck
the rip-rap, as they call the tide agin’ the wind, it was jest alive
with ’em, puffin’ and snortin’ on all sides. I had three har¬
poons aboard, besides a rifle, and in a minute I had two foul,
with buoys after ’em, and as one big feller came up alongside to
blow I let him have it with the rifle.

“ Naow,” he went on, “ whether they heard it or not I can’t
say, but I heard a yell from Sam jest in time to look and see a
whale rise I’ll ’low twenty foot clean aout of the water. Then
there was a kind of a rush, and Sam and me went daown, and
when we riz it was gone. The critter had hopped clean over
that bot as slick as nothing. That kinder tuck the peartness
aout of us, so to speak ; but later in the day I got aout the gun
agin, havin’ broke the lance, and in killin’ the critter she jumped

PLATE XXXI.

PTERANODON, AN EXTINCT FLYING REPTILE— (SPREAD OF WINGS, TWENTY-TWO FEET).

The White Whalers.

225

on the bot, and — wall, Sam and me lit aout, and was picked up
arter a spell ; but that bot, there wasn’t enough of her to make
kindlin’ -wood of.

“ They ain’t vicious like,” continued the skipper, “ but clumsy,
and if ye get in the way ye’re baound to git hurted. Raound
the bend at Ric Island one came ashore one time and got left
# every tide, so she was out of water an hour or so every day.
Heaps of city folks went to see her, and one chap came along
and let on haow she couldn’t live aout of water, and poked her
like with a stick. Wall, it ain’t for me to sav haow manv feet
she knocked him, but when she fetched him with her flukes it
was a Tuesday, and I guess he thought he’d reached the turnin’-
pint of Friday when he hauled himself aout of the mud.

“ No, they won’t exactly live aout of water, but they’ll stand it
a like of three weeks if yaou splash ’em every hour or so. They
sent one to England that way. They ain’t fish. Whale’s milk’s
good, if cream is.

“ But the best bit of whalin’,” continued the communicative
Captain Sol presently, “ that I ever see in these ’ere parts was
done by that identical old chap in the starn there.”

“ When Sol ain’t talkin’, gentlemen,” retorted the person thus
alluded to, “ ye’ll know he’s sick.”

“ Wall,” said Captain Sol, laughing, “ I’ll spin the yarn, and
yaou kin go back on it if yaou kin. As I was sayin’, we was
aout one day I think a couple of miles below Barnaby Island. I
was a mummin’ for’ard, kinder sleepin’ on and by, and Sam at
the helm, when we see a bot a slidin’ into the ripple right ahead
of us, and in a minute a couple of white heads was dodgin’ up a
little to the wind’ard. Sam trimmed the sheet and hauled the
Howlin’ Mary — that’s what we called the bot — on the wind, and

the other bot did the same, both of us makin’ for the same spot.

226 Marvels of Animal Life .

I see it was nip and tuck ; and, knowin’ that Sam was a master-
hand, I says, ‘ Sam, yaou take the iron/ So we shifted.

“ The other hot had a trifle the weather-gage on us, but both
of us, mind ye, makin’ for where we thought the critter was
coinin’ up to blow, and in a minute, sure enough, up it come.
This ’ere other bot shot right across aour bows ; but, Lord bless
ye, it would take a proper good Injun to beat Sam, for he up,
hauls back, and let fly the harpoon clean over the other bot,
takin’ the critter right alongside the blow-hole so neat that the
line fell across the other bot — naow, deny it if yaou kin,” said
Captain Sol, turning to his friend.

“ Yer’e a master hand at talkin’,” retorted Captain Sam. “ I
ain’t denyin’ of it ; but it was luck, good luck, that’s all.”

By this time the white whale had succumbed, and lay upon the
surface motionless and dead ; and upon the boat being hauled
alongside the huge creature was taken in tow and soon stranded
upon the beach, where the valuable parts were secured — the
liver and blubber for the oil, and the thick, white skin that was
to be tanned and made into leather or used in the manufacture
of various articles.

The evening following, upon invitation, we visited the cabin
of Captain Sol, who was a widower and kept bachelor’s hall, so
to speak. We found him seated on a keg, by the side of an
enormous caldron that might have contained the witches com¬
pound, judging from the strange forms of steam that arose from
it, while the lurid flames beneath, fed by the oily drippings, lent
a still greater weirdness to the scene.

“ Good evenin’, gentlemen,” said the captain, rising quickly
as we entered. “ I was settin’ here in a so g like, and didn’t hear
ye. It’s a master-night, and we’re goin’ to have good weather
to-morrow. If yaou want to try it agin, ye’re welcome.” “ Sam ?

The White Whalers

227

sartin ; he’s goin’. Him and me’s jest like the figger ten ; if
yaou haul off the one we ain’t good for nothin’. If yaou want
to see a faithful friend, jest clap your eyes on Sam Whittlefield.
And that ain’t all,” continued the skipper, looking around and
speaking low. “ Ye might not think it, for lie’s master-modest,
but Sam’s got lamin’ that there ain’t many in aour taown kin
grapple with. Yaou had oughter see his libr’y. A full set of
the records of Congress from 1847 to 1861 ; and he’d have had
’em all, only he jined the navy and couldn’t keep ’em up. Then
there’s a history by Mister Parley, and a hull secretaryful of
books of all kinds. Oh, Sam’s literary, there ain’t no gittin’
raound that.

“ Yaou might hear him speak of their son John ! Wall, he
was a chip of the old block. He was as wild a yonker as they
make ’em ; but Sam never laid the whip on him ; he argied
with him and eddicated him on a literary principle. When John
did anything reckless like, the old lady’d fetch aout a sartin
book, called i The Terrible Sufferin’s of Sary Gunley,’ an’ read
him a chapter — like enough ye’ve heard on’t — and I tell ye that
tuck the conceit aout of him. She belonged to old Quaker stock,
down in Maine, and she kept it up till John was a man grown
and she lost her eye-sight. She made a good boy of him ; but
the poor feller went daown with the rest in the gale of 1875, on
the Grand Banks. John had hard luck. The first v’yage he
made, the schooner was struck by a sea on the Banks, capsized,
and rolled completely under, cornin’ up the other side, so’t the
men below dropped out of their bunks on to the ceilin’ and then
went back ag’in as she righted. The hatches were battened
daown and they found John lashed to the wheel, half drowned.
The next trip all hands foundered. They reckoned she went
daown at the anchorage.

228

Marvels of Animal Life.

“ Have some beans, won’t ye ? ” asked the skipper, abruptly,
as if he had been deluded by some trick into a gloomy frame of
mind and was determined to shake it olf then and there.
“Them is the real New England beans,” he continued, taking a
black bean-pot with a wooden spoon from the ashes. “ There’s
the bone and sinner of New England’s sons right here. I’m
master fond of ’em ; never sails without a pot or so. Every
time I see a pot it makes me think of old Joe Muggridge, a
deacon of aour taown. He beat me once years ago in ’lection
for hog-reeve ; but I don’t bear no ill feelin’. He was deacon
of the First Baptist, and captain of one of the biggest coasters
in aour parts, and that fond of beans that folks believed he’d a’
died if he couldn’t have had ’em. Well, it so happened one
fall that there came on a powerful gale on the Georges, and a
power of hands was lost. A good many bots got carried away
from the schooners, and one dory with two men from Boothbay
was picked up by one of these ocean steamers baound in for
New York, and that’s the way the yarn got aout. They’d
been without food and water for three days, and were abaout
givin’ up ; but the steamer folks tuck ’em in, and steamed for
port.

“ The next mornin’ it was blowin’ fresh and lively, and the
lookaout sighted a schooner lyin’ to a couple of miles to the
lew’ard, reefed daown close, and a flag flyin’ union daown —
signal of distress. Thinkin’ they were sinkin, the captain of the
steamer put towards her, and rounded to half a mile off, and
called for volunteers to git aout the hot. Half a dozen brave
fellers sprang to the davits, and among ’em aour Boothbay boys.
They’d been in a fix, ye see, and was eager to help the rest of
sufferin’ humanity. She was rollin’ so that it tuck ’em nigh an
hour to git the bot over, and then two men fell overboard ; but

The White Whalers .

229

finally they got off towards the schooner, all hands givin ’em
three cheers.

“ It was a hard pull and a nasty sea, but they kept at it, and
in half an hour was within hailin’ distance. Then the third
officer of the steamer stood up and sung aout, ‘ Schooner ahoy ! ’
‘ Ay, ay ! ’ says a man in the schooner’s fore-riggin’, and the
men see naow that she was ridin’ like a duck and as dry as a
sojer. ‘ Are ye in distress?’ sung aout the officer. ‘ Yas ,’ came
from the man in the riggin.’ ‘ Founderin’?’ shouted the officer
agin. ‘ No,’ sung aout old man Muggridge, for it was him ’
‘next thing to it We’re aout o’ beans. Kin ye spare a pot?’

“Wall,” continued Captain Sol, reddening with the roar of
laughter that accompanied the recollection, “it ain’t for me,
bein’ a perfessor of religion, to let on what the men in the
bot said, but it had a master effect on the deacon, for afore them
rescuers got back to the steamer he’d shook aout his reef and
was haulin’ to the east’ard.

“Wall,” said the old skipper, banking the fire with a shovel¬
ful of sand, as his visitors rose to go, “ to-morrow, then, at early
flood, sharp.”

The early flood was that dismal time when the phantom mists
of night still cling to the earth, and low-lying clouds of fog
cover the river, only to be dispersed by the coming day Cold
and cheerless as it was, it found us again launching the whale¬
boat, and when the sails were trimmed aft and pipes lighted, we
rushed into the fog and headed down the river to meet the
rising sun.

The mist was so dense that only the glimmer of Captain Sol’s
pipe could be seen for’ard, appearing like an intermittent eye
gleaming through the fog that settled upon our oil-skins in
crystal drops and ran in tiny rivulets down the creases into the

230 Marvels of Animal Life.

boat. For a mile we scudded along before the west wind
through the gloom, and then a wondrous change commenced.
Soft gleams of light shot from the horizon upward, the dark-
blue heavens assumed a lighter tint, the pencilled rays growing
broader and fusing together, producing a strange and rapidly-
spreading nebulous light. The cloud of low-lying mist now
became a brassy hue, seemingly heated to ignition, and then
from its very substance appeared to rise a fiery, glowing mass
that flooded the river with a golden radiance.

“ It’s a master-sight,” quoth Captain Sol between the putfs,
as the change went on and the fog began to break before the
rising sun. “ I ain’t no likin’ for fogs. Ye see — ” But here
the skipper stopped, as a peculiar sound and then another, the
puffing of the white whale, was heard.

The boat was hauled on the wind, the mast unshipped, and,
harpoon in hand, Captain Sol stood braced for the affray. The
ripple seemed alive with the ghostly creatures, their white forms
darting here and there, while the puffing came fast and furious.

“ Stand by to git aft ! ” whispered the harpooner, and that
moment, instead of a white head, the entire body of a Beluga
rose in front of the boat, clearing the water in a graceful leap.
Quick as thought the skipper hurled his weapon. It struck with
a sounding thud, a wing shot, and the great creature fell heavily,
impaled in mid-air, to rush away, bearing boat and white-
whalers far down the river toward the sea.

INDEX.

INDEX

Actinia, 26, 30, 32.

- luminosity of, 196.

- parasitic, 31.

Acrohordus, 121.

Adamsea, 30.

- on crab, 30.

Agassiz, 24, 56.

Ajuga, 150.

Albatross, 58.

- pouch of, 58.

Alligator, 54.

Alcyonarian, 47.

- luminosity of, 47.

Ammocoetes, 6.

Amphicoelias, 107.

Anabas, 36.

- climbing habits of, 36.

Anolis, 149.

- mimicry of, 149.

Angler, 25, 210.

Ant, 52.

Ant-eater, 54.

Ancistrodon, 130.

Anableps, 39.

Anemones, 30, 31, 32, 196.
Apeltes, 10.

- nest of, 10.

Arius, 56.

Argonauta, 59, 163.

Arcturus, 56.

— - care of young, 56.

Argyropelecus, 76.

- luminosity of, 76.

Architeuthis, 166.
Astrophyton, 168.

Ascidians, 192.

- luminosity of, 192.

Astrea, 83.

Aspredo, 21, 55.

- egg of, 55.

Asterias, 26, 46.

- inhabitants of, 26, 46.

Asteronyx, 48.

- luminosity of, 48.

Attus volans, 201.

- flight of, 201.

Atlantic Right Whale, 220.
Atwood’s shark, 185.

Auk, 155, 156.

- extinction of, 155, 156.

Aurelia, 1, 45.

- luminosity of, 45.

Banded Sun-fish, 2.

- nest of, 2.

Batchelder, J. M., 6.
Batrachian, 9.

Banks, Sir Joseph, 79.

Balloon Fish, 118.

Baird, S. F., Prof., 168.

Barge, 183.

Bagdad, 186.

- sharks near, 186.

Bead Snake, 131.

Beroidoe, 43.

Bennett, 193.

233

Index.

2 34

Beluga, 220.

Belt, 186.

- on mimicry, 186.

Bibra, 193.

- on Pyrosoma, 193.

Bison, 161.

- extinction of, 161.

Blenny, 33.

- amphibious habits of, 33.

Black snake, 131.

Block Island, 189.

- large sharks at, 189.

Boleophthalmus, 57.

- on dry land, 37.

Borneo, 201.

Bryozoon, 145.

Butterfly, 147.

- mimicry of, 147.

Bulimus, 59.

- nest of, 59.

Callichthys, 20, 38.

- on dry land, 38.

Cancer fulgens, 79.

- luminosity of, 79.

Carcharias, 186, 191.

- Fossil, 191.

Cat-fish, 55, 56.

- eggs of, 56.

- electric, 118.

- - amphibious, 38.

Campanularia, 15.

- on nest of Antennarius, 15.

Cautor, 37.

Caudisona, 127.

Camarasaurus, 107.

Caryophillia, 195.

- luminosity of, 195.

Centipede, 50.

- care of young, 50.

Cephalopoda, 163.

Ceradotus, 21.

Ceradotus, nest of, 21.

Ceylon, 36.

Chameleon, 149.

- mimicry of, 149.

Chameleon shrimp, 143.

- mimicry of, 143.

Chiasmodus, 212.

- phosphorescence of, 212.

- method of swallowing, 212.

Chaetodon, 39.

- long-nosed, 39.

- shooting drops of water, 39.

Challenger, 35, 56.

Chromataphores, 142.

Chauliodus, 76, 118.

- luminosity of, 76.

Chlamydoselachus, 103.
Chaetopteridae, 82.

China, 171, 190.

Chrysopa, 209.

- eggs of, 209.

Chama, 30.

- boarder in, 30.

Chase, N. D., 92.

- on sea serpent, 93.

Cleodora, 197.

- luminosity of, 197.

Clytia, 43.

Clidastes, 106.

Cobra, 128.

Cope, Prof., 103-106.

- on ancient sea serpents, 105.

- cretaceous sea serpents, 104.

Crab, 143.

- mimicry of, 143-145.

Comb-bearers, 43.

Copperhead, 129.

Cowry, 168.

Costa, 11.

Conchs, 172.

Couch, 190.

- on dog fish, 190.

Index.

2 35

Crabs, 76, 79, 143.

Craw-fish, 84.

Cricket, 51.

- nest of, 51.

Crocodile, 54.

Crotalus, 123.

Cuttle fish bone, 163.

Cyclops, 80.

- luminosity of, 80.

Cyanea, 41.

- giant, 41.

Cypreas, 168.

Dace, 2.

- nest of, 2.

Dana, 31.

Daldorf, 36.

- on climbing perch, 36.

Darwin, 44.

Devil fish, 163.

Dinornis, 160.

- extinction of, 160.

Dipnoi, 38.

- burrow of, 38.

Dianea, 44.

- luminosity of, 44.

Dog fish, 190.

- a vast number of, 190.

Dodo, 157.

Doras, 38.

- nest of, 38.

Dorynchus, 80.

- luminosity of, 80.

Drummond, 43.

Dysmorphosa, 43.

- luminosity of, 43.

Echinus, 30, 54, 84.

Edoux, Prof., 79.

Eel, 32.

- amphibious habits of, 32.

Elater, 119.

Elater, electric, 119.

Elasmosaurus, 105.

Electric fishes, 113.

- insects, 119.

Eocene snakes, 137.

Eucope, 43.

Eupomotis, 2.

- nest of, 2.

Eurypharynx, 211.

- mouth of, 211.

Exocetus, 198.

- flight of, 198.

- blown aboard ships, 198.

Fables, 134.

Faber, 156.

Fiji, 186.

- fresh water snakes at, 186.

Fiskenaes, 188.

- shark fishers at, 188.

Fierasfer, 11, 24.

- strange habits of, 11, 24.

Flounder, 143.

- mimicry of, 143.

Flying tree toad, 201.

Florida, 22, 51.

Flying squirrel, 201.

- lizard, 201.

- fox, 201.

- fish, 198.

- gurnard, 198.

- gurnard striking sailor, 199.

Gar, 200.

- striking natives, 200.

- pike, 33.

- breathing air, 33.

Garman, Prof., 103.

Gaimard, 24.

Garter-snake, 131, 132.

- young, in mouth of, 132.

Garden Key, 172.

Index.

236

Geryon, 80.

- luminosity of, 80.

Gill, Dr., 16, 37.

Giant Crab, 171.

Glaucus, 16.

- mimicry of, 16.

Gopher, 86.

Gourami, 16.

- nest of, 16.

Goby, 16, 32, 35.

- amphibious habits of, 32.

Goode, G. Brown, 71.

- on sword fish, 71.

- on snakes swallowing their

young, 134.

Goat, 151.

- intelligence of, 87.

- games of, 88.

Grouse, 138.

- mimicry of, 138.

Greef, Dr., 24.

Gryllotalpa, 51.

- nest of, 51.

Green snake, 135.

Grass fish, 139.

- mimicry of, 139.

Grunt, 175.

Guadaloupe, 54.

Gurnard, 14, 199.

Gymnotus, 113.

- electric shocks from, 113.

Haas, 160.

Hassar, 21.

- amphibious habits of, 21.

Harvey, Kev. Dr., 165.

- on giant squid, 165.

Hermit Crab, 86.

- as a pet, 87.

- in a tobacco pipe, 87.

Hippocampus, 140.

- mimicry of, 140.

Histiophorus, 69.

- large fin of, 69.

Hippopotamus, 54.

- method of carrying young, 54.

Holothuria, 23.

- mimicry of, 23.

- inhabitants of, 23.

Plog-nosed snake, 136.

Horned toad, 129.

- mimicry of, 129.

Holbrook, Dr., 124.

Holder, Dr. J. B., 163.

Hog fish, 135.

Hummingbirds’ nest, 139.

- mimicry of, 130.

Humboldt, 45.

Human mimics, 138.

Ianthina, 15, 145.

- mimicry of, 145.

- ink of, 145.

Idotea, 81, 144.

Idylia, 43.

- phosphorescence of, 43.

Iguana, 149.

Infusoria, 45.

- luminosity of, 45.

Indians, 161.

- extinction of,

Ink bearers, 163.

Ink bag, 169.

Jara, 146.

Japan, 171.

- giant crab of, 171.

Jou Jou, 190.

Kallima, 147.

- mimicry of, 147.

Key West, 172.

Labyrinthici, 37.

- habits of, 37.

Index.

2 37

Lamp fish, 75.

Lamprey, 5.

- nest of, 5.

- method of building, 5.

Laughing gull, 14.

Latreille, 31.

Labrador duck, 157.

- extinction of, 157.

Lasso cell, 26.

Leaf insect, 146.

Leaf cutting ants, 52.

Leydig, 76.

Lemur, 201.

Lizard, 201.

- flying, 201.

Liodon, 106.

Locust, 147.

- mimicry of, 147.

Lophius, 25, 211.

- fishing rods of, 211.

- mimicry of, 25.

- catching birds, 211.

- small fishes in gills of, 25.

Lung fish, 38.

- dry burrow of, 38.

Lump fish, 21.

- young of, 21.

Lyell, Sir Charles, 91.

- on sea serpent, 91.

Maleo, 58.

- nest of, 58.

Mammoth, 152.

- extinction of, 152.

- remains found, 152.

Mastodon, 153.

Mauritius, 157.

- birds of, 157.

Maori, 160.

Mantell, 160.

Malapterus, 118.

- electric properties of, 118.

Maeandrina, 83.

Marsh, Prof., 106.

Marsupium, 56.

Malthea, 211.

Macrocheira, 171.

Mangrove, 174.

Maneater, 135.

Marston, John, 97.

- on sea serpents, 97.

Megapodius, 9, 58, 150.

Melia, 31.

Melicerta, 43.

Medusae, 41.

Metridea, 81.

- luminous properties of, 81.

Melanocetus, 212.

Milk snake, 120.

- fables about, 120.

Michell, 188.

Mimicry of mammals, 139.

- of reptiles, 139, 149.

- of fishes, 140.

- of crabs, 143, 144.

- of ascidians, 145.

- of insects, 148.

- of plants, 150.

- Moa, 160.

Moccasin, 130.

- young in mouth of, 130.

Moss insect, 146.

Modiola, 29.

Mobius, Dr., 31.

Mososaurus, 106.

Mole cricket, 51.

- - intelligence of, 51.

Murenidae, 25.

Mullet, 135.

Myrmelion, 208.

- intelligence of, 209.

Nautilus, 169.

Nahant, 41, 156.

238

Index.

Naples Aquarium, 24.

- fierasfer observed at, 24,

N autilograptus, 144.

- mimicry of, 144.

New Mexico, 161.

Nestor, 160.

New Zealand, 160.

Newberry, Dr., 163.
Newfoundland, 165.

New Guinea, 190.

Newhall, B. F., 97.

- on sea serpents, 97.

Noctiluca, 45, 46.

- luminosity of, 45.

Nototrema, 54.

- care of young of, 54.

Nordenskiold, 81, 153.

Nomeus, 28, 140.

- — under physalia, 28.

Notornis, 160.

Notre Dame Bav, 165.

- giant squid at, 165.

Norbury, Lord, 101.

- on giant band fish, 101.

Nuttall, 155.

- on great auk, 155.

Octopus, 166.

- mimicry of, 166.

- great size of, 166.

- strength of, 166.

Olivi, 16.

Onchidium, 207.

Ophiacantha, 47.

- luminosity of, 47.

Ophidia, 121.

Ophiura, 46.

- luminosity of, 46.

Ophiocephalus, 37.

Orthoceras titan, 163.*
Ostracotheres, 29.

- parasitic habits of, 29.

Ougel, 32.

- submarine habits, 32.

Owen, Prof., 160.

Oyster heaps, 152.

Paper Nautilus, 169.

Paradise fish, 18, 28.

- nest of, 18.

Pavonaria, 48, 49.

- luminosity of, 49.

Panicum, 17.

Pentacta, 145.

- mimicry of, 145.

Perch, 2.

- nest of, 2.

Periophthalmus, 35.

- amphibious habits of, 35.

Pennatula, 48.

Penguin, 58.

- pouch of, 58.

Peron, 194.

Pegasus, 200.

- flight of, 200.

Pelican, 199.

Peripatus, 205.

- web of, 205.

Pemaquid, 215.

Physalia, 26.

- author stung by, 27.

Pholas, 196.

- luminosity of, 196.

Pilot fish, 28-183.

Pinnotheres, 28.

Pipe fish, 140.

- mimicry, 140.

Pinna, 29.

Pirogue, 187.

- sunk by rhinodon, 187.

Pliny, 29.

Pleurobrachia, 43.

Pompius, 200.

- leaping powers of, 200.

Index .

239

Pollycirrus, 82.

Porgy, 135.

Port Jackson shark, 191.
Portuguese man-of-war, 27.
Porpitw, 15.

Prebloo, 155.

Proven, 188.

Pteranodon, 202.

Ptarmigan, 138.

Pterygotus, 173.

Pyrocistis, 46.

Quail, 138.

Rattlesnake, 123.

- young in mouth of, 127.

Remora, 28, 183.

Resolution Island, 161.

Renilla, 47, 108.

- luminosity of, 108.

Regalicus, 101.

Redi, 109.

Reaumur, 110.

Reduvius, 119.

Rhinichthys, 2.

Rhytina, 153.

- extinction of, 153.

Rhinodon, 187.
Rhamphorhynchus, 201.
Rhinopoma, 202.

Ribbon fish, 101.

Richardson, Sir John, 12.
Richer, Dr., 31, 113.

Ross, 32.

- on blenny, 32.

Rumphius, 30.

Ryder, Prof. John, 30.

- on stickleback, 30.

Salmon, 9.

- nest of, 9.

Salpa, 16, 145, 193.

Salpa, luminosity of, 145.

- chains of, 145.

Saury, 75.

Sargasso Sea, 13, 15, 114.
Scopelus, 75.

- luminosity of, 75.

Scorpion, 53.

- young of, 53.

Scabra, 24.

Sea anemone, 32.

- cow, 253.

- cucumber, 145.

- horse, 54.

- serpent, 91.

Selache, 189.

Serpulae, 32.

Semper, 25.

Semotilus, 8.

- stone heaps of, 8.

Serrasalmo, 20.

- nest of, 20.

Sepia, 163.

Sea Scorpion, 172.

Seminole, 172.

Stickleback, 13.

- nest of, 13.

Stichopus, 24.

Sternoptyx, 75.

Surinam toad, 54.

Sword fish, 63.

- striking boat, 63.

- ships, 63.

Tangsa, 38.

- amphibious habits of, 38.

Telfair, 42.

- on giant jelly fish, 42.

Termitidse, 52.

Tetrapturus, 70.

Tetraodon, 118.

Thompson, Sir Wyville, 47.
Tima, 43.

240

Index.

Tima, luminosity of, 43.

Torpedo, 109.

Tortugas, 22.

Toxotes, 38.

- method of shooting water, 38.

Trap door spider, 148.

- mimicry of, 148.

Trochus, 85.

Trepang, 23.

Tridacna, 29, 48.

- sign of, 48.

- inhabitants of, 49.

Tyrian, 169.

U MBELLULARIA, 48.

- luminosity of, 48.

Venus, 49.

Virgularia, 48.

Virgin Islands, 151.

Viti Levi, 186.

- fresh water sharks at, 186.

Walking Stick, 146.

Walking leaf, 146.

Wai Levi, 186.

- sharks at, 186.

White whale, 220.

Woodcock, 57.

- carry young, 57.

Wortley, Col. S., 30.

Wright, Dr., 187.

Worms, 82.

- luminosity of, 82.

Xiphias, 67.

Yukon River, 20.

- white whale up, 20.

Yellow tail, 135.

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1 9

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