THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
THE OCEAN WORLD.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STKEKT
AND CHARING CROSS.
Plate I. The Argonaut sailing in the open sea.
THE
OCEAN WORLD
BEING A DESCRIPTION OF
THE SEA AND ITS LIVING INHABITANTS.
ItY
LOUIS I< I G U I E R.
THE CHAPTERS ON CONCHOLOGY REVISED AND ENLARGED
BY CHARLES O. GROOM-NAPIER, F.G.S., &c.
WITH 427 ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
CASSEI^L, FETTER, AND GALPIN;
AND 596, BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
P E E F A C E.
" OUR PLANET is surrounded by two great oceans," says Dr. Maury,
the eminent American savant : " the one visible, the other invisible ;
one is under foot, the other over head. One entirely envelopes it, the
other covers about two-thirds of its surface." It is proposed in " THE
OCEAN WORLD " to give a brief record of the Natural History of one
of those great oceans and its living inhabitants, with as little of the
nomenclature of Science, and as few of the repulsive details of Ana-
tomy, as is consistent with clearness of expression ; to describe the
ocean in its majestic calm and angry agitation ; to delineate its inha-
bitants in their many metamorphoses ; the cunning with which they
attack or evade their enemies ; their instructive industry ; their
quarrels, their combats, and their loves.
The learned Schleiden eloquently paints the living wonders of the
deep : " If we dive into the liquid crystal of the Indian Ocean, the
most wondrous enchantments are opened to us, reminding us of the
fairy tales of childhood's dreams. The strangely-branching thickets
bear living flowers. Dense masses of Meandrineas and Astreas con-
trast with the leafy, cup-shaped expansions of the Explanarias, and
the variously-branching Madrepores, now spread out like fingers, now
rising in trunk-like branches, and now displaying an elegant array of
interlacing tracery. The colouring surpasses everything ; vivid greens
alternate with brown and yellow ; rich tints, ranging from purple and
I
ri PREFACE.
deepest blue to a pale reddish -brown. Brilliant rose, yellow, or peach-
coloured Nullipores overgrow the decaying masses : they themselves
being interwoven with the pearl-coloured plates of the Retipores,
rivalling the most delicate ivory carvings. Close by wave the yellow
and lilac Sea-fans (Gorgonia), perforated like delicate trellis- work.
The bright sand of the bottom is covered with a thousand strange
forms of sea-urchins and star-fishes. The leaf-like Flustrde and Escharse
adhere like mosses and lichens to the branches of coral the yellow,
green, and purple-striped limpets clinging to their trunks. The sea-
anemones expand their crowns of tentacula upon the rugged rocks or
on flat sands, looking like beds of variegated ranunculuses, or sparkling
like gigantic cactus blossoms, shining with brightest colours.
" Around the branches of the coral shrubs play the humming-birds
of the ocean : little fishes sparkling with red or blue metallic glitter,
or gleaming in golden green or brightest silvery lustre ; like spirits of
the deep, the delicate milk-white jelly-fishes float softly through the
charmed world. Here gleam the violet and gold-green Isabelle, and
the flaming yellow, black, and vermilion-striped Coquette, as they
chase their prey ; there the band-fish shoots snake-like through the
thicket, resembling a silvery ribbon glittering with rose and azure
hue. Then come the fabulous cuttle-fishes, in all the diaphanous
colours of the rainbow, but with no definite outline.
" When day declines, with the shades of night this fantastic garden
is lighted up with renewed splendour. Millions of microscopic medusae
and crustaceans, like so many glowing sparks, dance through the
gloom. The Sea-pen waves in a greenish phosphorescent light.
Whatever is beautiful or wondrous among fishes, Echinoderms, jelly-
fishes and polypi and molluscs, is crowded into the warm and crystal
waters of the Tropical ocean."
It is stated on the Title-page that " THE OCEAN WORLD " is chiefly
translated from M. Louis Figuier's two most recent works. In justice
to that gentleman, we must explain this statement. The History of the
Ocean is to a large extent, but not wholly, compiled from " La Terre
et les Mers," one of the volumes of M. Figuier's " Tableau de la
Nature ;" but the larger portion of the work is a free translation of
PREFACE. vii
that author's latest work, "La Yie et les Moeurs des Animaux."
Other chapters, such as " Life in the Ocean," the chapter on Crusta-
ceans, and some others, are compiled from various sources ; they will
not be found in either of M. Figuier's volumes ; but in other respects
his text has been pretty closely followed.
M. Figuier's plan is to begin the study of animals with the less
perfect beings occupying the lower rounds of the Zoological ladder, his
reason for doing so being an impression that the presence of the
gradually perfecting animal structure, from the simplest organisms up
to the more perfect forms, was specially calculated to attract the
reader. " What can be more curious or more interesting to the mind,"
ne asks, "than to examine the successive links in the uninterrupted
chain of living beings which commence with the Infusoria and ter-
minate in Man ?"
The work, he hopes, is not without the impress of a true cha-
racter of novelty and originality ; at least he knows no work in which
the strange habits and special interests of the Zoophytes and Molluscs
can be studied, nor any work in which an attempt is made to represent
them by means of designs at once scientifically correct and attractive
from the picturesque character of the illustrations, most of which
have been made from specimens selected by Monsieur Ch. Bevalet
from the various museums in Paris.
One of those charming plain-speaking children we sometimes meet
with lately said to M. Figuier, " They tell me thou art a vulgariser of
Science. What is that ?"
He took the child in his arms, and carried it to the window, where
there was a beautiful rose-tree in blossom, and invited it to pull a rose.
The child gathered the perfumed flower, not without pricking itself
cruelly with the spines ; then, with its little hands still bleeding, it
went to distribute roses to others in the room.
" Thou art now a vulgariser," said he to the child ; " for thou takest
to thyself the thorns, and givest the flowers to others P
The parallel, although exaggerated, is not without its basis of truth,
and was probably suggested by the criticism some of his works have
vii; PREFACE.
met with ; the critics forgetting apparently that these works are an
attempt to render scientific subjects popular, and attractive to the
general reader.
In the present edition of " THE OCEAN WOELD " it is only necessary
to add to the above (dated January, 1868), that the work has been
revised throughout, and some not unimportant errors corrected. For
several of these I am indebted to Mr. C. 0. Gr. Napier, who has re-
arranged the whole of the Mollusca. Mr. David Grieve has kindly
revised and added to the Crustacea ; and to the Messrs. Johnston of
Montrose, and Dr. Wilson Johnston of the Bengal service, I am
indebted for some valuable practical information respecting the salmon
and the various modes of taking it.
W. S. 0.
March 1, 1869.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE OCEAN , 1
Depth of the Sea . . . . , 5
Colour of the Ocean .... 11
Phosphorescence 13
Saltness of the Sea .... 15
CHAPTER II.
CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN ... 27
Trade-winds 28
Gulf Stream 31
Storms 32
Tides 35
Polar Seas 43
Antarctic Seas ..... 50
CHAPTER III.
LIFE IN THE OCEAN . 60
CHAPTER IV.
ZOOPHYTES , 68
Foraminifera 87
Infusoria .97
CHAPTER V.
POLYPIFEHA . . . . . , H6
CHAPTER VI,
CORALLINES ....... 119
Tubiporinse ...... 120
Gorgoniadse 121
Isidians , 124
CHAPTER VII.
PAGE
ZOANTHARIA 147
Madreporidse 149
Porites 162
Actiniaria 181
Mmyadinians 193
CHAPTER VIII.
ACALEPHJB 195
MedusadsB 213
Rhizostoma 219
Vilelladse 229
Ctenophora 254
CHAPTER IX.
ECHINODERMATA 259
Asterias 260
Crinoidea 270
Echinidae 280
MOLLUSCA.
GENERAL DEFINITION 301
CHAPTER X.
MOLLUSCOIDA 303
Tunicata 309
Ascidians 309
CHAPTER XL
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA 316
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEK XII.
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA
PAGE
. 344
CHAPTER XVII.
CRUSTACEANS
PAGE
. 477
Mjtilid.se
. 344
General Definition
477
CHAPTEE XIII.
Crabs and Crayfish .
Lobsters ...
. 486
496
CEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA ....
Their Characteristics
CHAPTER XIV.
. 391
. 391
CHAPTER XVIII.
502
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS . .
. 396
OQ7
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES . . .
Cyclostomata
. 508
. 508
400
Selachia
. 510
4.0A
Sturioiia
. 524
Pterocera
. 439
CHAPTER XV.
MOLLUSCOUS PTEROPODS . . .
. 441
CHAPTER XIX.
OSSEI, OR BONY FISHES .
. 529
529
CHAPTER XVI.
CEPHALOPODOUS MOLLUSCA
445
Lophobranchii ....
Malacopterygii ....
Abdominales
. 534
. 536
560
Tentaculifera .
445
Acanthoptery r ians
590
Ace tabula
448
Pharynsreans
596
ILLUSTBA.TIONS.
PLATE . PAGE
I. THE ARGONAUT SAILING BEFORE THE WIND . (Frontispiece) 467
II. SPONGE FISHING ON THE COAST OP SYRIA 78
III. CORAL FISHING ON THE COAST OF SICILY . . . . . 138
IV. CORAL ISLAND IN THE POMOTOUAN ARCHIPELAGO . . .169
V. SEA ANEMONES (I.) . . . . . . . 187
VI. SEA ANEMONES (II.) .189
VII. AGALMA RUBRA . . . . . . . . . 239
VIII. GALEOLARIA AURANTIACA ........ 244
IX. SEA-URCHINS . . . . 290
X. FISHING FOR HOLOTHURIA -. 295
XI. SYNAPTA DUVERNEA 299
XII. DREDGING FOR OYSTERS 374
XIII. OYSTER PARKS ON LAKE FUSARO 376
XIV. PECTLNID^: * 386
XV. SPONDYLUS 388
XVI. ANODONTA .340
XVII. TRIDACNA GIGANTEA ......... 338
XVIII. VENUS AND CYTHEREA 336
XIX. SOLENID2E (Razor-fisJi) . . . 333
XX. TEMPLE OF SERAPIS 330
XXL CONUS '*".'. 427
XXII. CYPRJEADJS . 421
xii ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATE PAGE
XXIII. VOLUTA 426
XXIV. CAPTURE OF A GIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISH 462
XXV. SHAKE FISHING . ... . . .... 520
XXVI. STURGEON FISHING ON THE VOLGA 528
XXVII. FISHING FOR ELECTRICAL EELS . . . . .*' . > . . 539
XXVIII. GrREENLANDERS FlSHING FOR HALIBUT 551
XXIX. THE HERRING FISHERY . . . ' 580
XXX. A KOMAN FEAST . . . j .- . . . . 593
XXXI. FISHING FOR TUNNY IN PROVENCE 598
XXXII. FISHING FOR MACKEREL OFF THE CORNWALL COAST 601
THE OCEAN WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
THE OCEAN.
"Apiffrov fj.lv i/Swp "The best of all things is water." PINDAR.
IT is estimated that the sea covers nearly two-thirds of the surface of
the earth. The calculation, as given by astronomers, is as follows :
The surface of the earth is 31,625,625 T V square miles, that portion
occupied by the waters being about 23,814,121 square miles, and
that consisting of continents, peninsulas, and islands, being 7,811,504
miles ; whence it follows that the surface covered with water is to
dry land as 3*8 is to 1*2. The waters thus cover a little more than
seven-tenths of the whole surface. " On the surface of the globe,"
Michelet remarks, " water is the rule, dry land the exception."
Nevertheless, the immensity and depth of the seas are aids rather
than obstacles to the intercourse and commerce of nations ; the mari-
time routes are now traversed by ships and steamers conveying cargoes
and passengers equal in extent to the land routes. One of the features
most characteristic of the ocean is its continuity ; for, with the excep-
tion of inland seas, such as the Caspian, the Dead Sea, and some
others, the ocean is one and indivisible. As the poet says, " it em-
braces the whole earth with an uninterrupted wave."
Tlepl iratrav ff
^SCHYLUS in Prometheus Vinctus.
The mean depth of the sea is not very exactly ascertained, but
certain phenomena observed in the movement of tides are supposed to
be incapable of explanation without admitting a mean depth of three
2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
thousand five hundred fathoms. It is true that a great number of
deep-sea soundings fall short of that limit ; hut, on the other hand,
many others reach seven or eight thousand. Admitting that three
thousand fathoms represents the mean depth of the ocean, Sir John
Herschel finds that the volume of its waters would exceed three
thousand two hundred and seventy-nine million cubic yards.
This vast volume of water is divided by geographers into five great
oceans : the Arctic, the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Antarctic Oceans.
The Arctic Ocean extends from the Pole to the Polar Circle ; it is
situated between Asia, Europe, and America.
The Atlantic Ocean commences at the Polar Circle and reaches
Cape Horn. It is situated between America, Europe, and Africa, a
length of about nine thousand miles, with a mean breadth of two
thousand seven hundred, covering a surface of about twenty-five
million square miles, placed between the Old World and the New.
Beyond the Cape of Storms, as Cape Horn may be truly called, it is
only separated by an imaginary line from the vast seas of the south,
in which the waves, which are the principal source of tides, have their
birth. Here, according to Maury, the young tidal wave, rising in the
circumpolar seas of the south, and obedient to the sun and moon, rolls
on to the Atlantic, and in twelve hours after passing the parallel of
Cape Horn is found pouring its flood into the Bay of Fundy, whence
it is projected in great waves across the Atlantic and round the globe,
sweeping along its shores and penetrating its gulfs and estuaries,
rising and falling in the open sea two or three feet, but along the
shore having a range of ten or twelve feet. Sometimes, as at Fundy
on the American coast ; at Brest on the French coast ; and Milford
Haven, and the mouth of the Severn in the Bristol Channel, rising
and falling thirty or forty feet, " impetuously rushing against the
shores, but gently stopping at a given line, and flowing back to its
place when the word goes forth, f Thus far shalt thou go, and no
farther.' That which no human power can repel, returns at its
appointed time so regularly and surely, that the hour of its approach
and the measure of its mass may be predicted with unerring certainty
centuries beforehand."
The Indian Ocean is bounded on the north by Asia, on the west
by Africa, on the east by the peninsula of Molucca, the Sunda Isles,
and Australia.
THE SEA. 3
The Pacific, or Great Ocean, stretches from north to south, from
the Arctic to the Antarctic Circle, being bounded on one side by
Asia, the island of Sunda, and Australia ; on the other by the west
coast of America. This ocean contrasts in a striking manner with
the Atlantic : the one has its greatest length from north to south, the
other from east to west ; the currents of the Pacific are broad and
slow, those of the other narrow and rapid ; the waves of this are low,
those of the other very high. If we represent the volume of water
which falls into the Pacific by one, that received by the Atlantic will
be represented by the figure 5. The Pacific is the calmest of seas,
and the Atlantic Ocean is the most stormy.
The Antarctic Ocean extends from the Antarctic Polar Circle to
the South Pole.
It is remarkable that one half of the globe should Be entirely
covered with water, whilst the other contains less of water than dry
land. Moreover, the distribution of land and water, if, in considering
the germ of the oceanic basins, we compare the hemispheres separated
by the Equator and the northern and southern halves of the globe, is
found to be very unequal.
Oceans communicate with continents and islands by coasts, which
are said to be scarped when a rocky coast makes a steep and sudden
descent to the sea, as in Brittany, Norway, and the west coast of
the British Islands. In this kind of coast certain rocky indentations
encircle it, sometimes above, sometimes under water, forming a
labyrinth of islands, as at the Land's End, Cornwall, where the
Scilly Islands form a compact group of from one to two hundred
rocky islets, rising out of a deep sea ; or in the case of the Channel,
on the opposite coast of France, where the coast makes a sudden
descent, forming steep cliffs and leaving an open sea. The coast is
said to be flat when it consists of soft argillaceous soil descending to
the shore with a gentle slope. Of this description of coast there are
two, namely, sandy beaches, and hillocks or dunes.
What is the average depth of the sea ? It is difficult to give an
exact answer to this question, because of the great difficulty met with
in taking soundings, caused chiefly by the deviations of submarine
currents. No reliable soundings have yet been made in water over
five miles in depth.
B 2
4 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
Laplace found, on astronomical consideration, that the mean depth
of the ocean could not be more than ten thousand feet. Alexander
von Huniboldt adopts the same figures. Dr. Young attributes to the
Atlantic a mean depth of a thousand yards, and to the Pacific, four
thousand. Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Eoyal, has laid down a
formula, that waves of a given breadth will travel with certain velo-
cities at a given depth, from which it is estimated that the average
depth of the North Pacific, between Japan and California, is two-
thousand one hundred and forty-nine fathoms, or two miles and a
half. But these estimates fall far short of the soundings reported by
navigators, in which, as we shall see, there are important and only
recently discovered elements of error. Du Petit Thouars, during his
scientific voyage in the frigate Venus, took some very remarkable
soundings in the Southern Pacific Ocean : one, without finding
bottom at two thousand four hundred and eleven fathoms ; another,
in the equinoctial region, indicated bottom at three thousand seven
hundred and ninety.
In his last expedition, in search of a north-west passage, Captain
Boss found soundings at five thousand fathoms. Lieutenant Walsh,
of the American Navy, reports a cast of the deep-sea lead, not far
from the American coast, at thirty-four thousand feet without bottom.
Lieutenant Berryman reported another unsuccessful attempt to fathom
mid ocean with a line thirty-nine thousand feet in length. Captain
Denman, of H. M. S. Herald, reported bottom in the South Atlantic
at the depth of forty-six thousand feet ; and Lieutenant J. P. Parker,
of the United States frigate Congress, on attempting soundings near
the same region, let go his plummet, after it had run out a line fifty
thousand feet long, as if the bottom had not been reached. We
have the- authority of Lieutenant Maury for saying, however, that
" there are no such depths as these." The under-currents of the deep
sea have power to take the line out long after the plummet has
ceased to sink, and it was before this fact was discovered that these
great soundings were reported. It has also been discovered that the
line, once dragged down into the depths of the ocean, runs out un-
ceasingly. This difficulty was finally overcome by the ingenuity of
Midshipman Brooke. Under the judicious patronage of the Secretary
to the United States Navy, Mr. Brooke invented the simple and in-
genious apparatus (Fig. 1), by which soundings are now made, in a
DEPTH OF THE OCEAN. 5
manner which not only establishes the depth, but brings up specimens
of the bottom. The sounding-line in this apparatus is attached to a
weighty rod of iron, the lower extremity of which contains a hollow
cup for the reception of tallow or some other soft substance. This
rod is passed through a hole in a thirty-two pound spherical shot,
being supported in its position by slings A, which are hooked on to
the line by the swivels a. When the rod strikes the bottom, the
Fig. 1. Brooke's Sounding Apparatus.
tension on the line ceases, the swivels are reversed, the slings B are
thrown out of the hooks, the ball falls to the ground, and the rod,
released from its weight, is easily drawn up, bringing with it portions
of the bottom attached to the greasy substance in the cup. By
means of this apparatus, specimens of the bottom have been brought
up from the depth of four miles.
6 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
The greatest depth at which the bottom has been reached with this
plummet is in the North Atlantic between the parallels of thirty-five
and forty degrees north, and immediately south of the great bank
of rocks off Newfoundland. This does not appear to be more than
twenty-five thousand feet deep. " The basin of the Atlantic," says
Maury, " according to the deep-sea soundings in the accompanying
diagram, is a long trough separating the Old World from the New,
and extending, probably, from pole to pole. In breadth, it contrasts
strongly with the Pacific Ocean. From the top of Chimborazo to
the bottom of the Atlantic, at the deepest place yet reached by
the plummet in that ocean, the distance in a vertical line is nine
miles."
" Could the waters of the Atlantic be drawn off, so as to expose to
view this great sea gash which separates continents, and extends from
the Arctic to the Antarctic Seas, it would present a scene the most
rugged, grand, and imposing ; the very ribs of the solid earth with the
foundations of the sea would be brought to light, and we should have
presented to us in one view, in the empty cradle of the ocean, ' a
thousand fearful wrecks,' with the array of ' dead men's skulls, great
anchors, heaps of pearls, and inestimable stones,' which, in the poet's
eye, lie scattered on the bottom of the sea, making it hideous with
the sight of ugly death."
The depth of the Mediterranean is comparatively inconsiderable.
Between Gibraltar and Ceuta, Captain Smith estimates the depth
at about five thousand seven hundred feet, and from one to three
thousand in the narrower parts of the straits. Near Nice, Saussure
found bottom at three thousand two hundred and fifty. It is said
that the bottom is shallower in the Adriatic, and does not exceed
a hundred and forty feet between the coast of Dalmatia and the
mouths of the Po.
The Baltic Sea is remarkable for its shallow waters, its maximum
rarely exceeding six hundred feet.
It thus appears that the sea has similar inequalities to those
observed on land ; it has its mountains, valleys, hills, and plains.
The Deep-sea Sounding Apparatus of Lieutenant Brooke has already
furnished some very remarkable results. Aided by it, Dr. Maury has
constructed his fine orographic map of the basin of the Atlantic, which
is probably as exact as the maps which represent Africa or Australia.
DEPTH OF THE OCEAN. 7
Dr. Maury has also published many charts, giving the depths of the
ocean, the substance of which is given in the accompanying map, which
represents the configuration of the Atlantic up to the tenth degree of
south latitude, not in figures, as in Dr. Maury 's charts, but in tints ;
diagonal lines from right to left, representing the shores of both hemi-
spheres, indicate a depth of less than a thousand fathoms ; from left
to right, indicate bottom at one thousand to two thousand ; horizontal
lines, two to three thousand fathoms ; cross lines show an average depth
of three to four thousand fathoms ; finally, the perpendicular lines in-
dicate a depth of four thousand fathoms and upwards. Solid black
Fig. 2. Chart of the Atlantic Ocean.
indicates continents and islands; waving lines, surrounding both
continents at a short distance from the shore, indicate the sands which
surround the coast line at a little distance from the shore.
The question may be asked, what useful purpose is served by taking
soundings at great depths? To this we may quote the answer of
Franklin to a question of similar tendency, addressed to aeronauts
"What purpose is served by the birth of a child?" Every fact in
physics is interesting in itself; it forms a rallying point, round which,
sooner or later, others will meet, in order to establish some useful
8 THE OCEAN WORLD.
truth ; and the importance of making and recording deep-
sea soundings is established by the successful immersion
of the transatlantic telegraph.
At the bottom of the Atlantic there exists a remark-
able plateau, extending from Cape Eace in Newfoundland,
to Cape Clear in Ireland, a distance of over two thousand
miles, with a breadth of four hundred and seventy miles :
its mean depth along the whole route is estimated at two
miles to two miles and a half. It is upon this telegraphic
plateau, as it has been called, that the attempt was made
to lay down the cable in 1858, and it is on it that the
enterprise has been so successfully completed, during the
year 1866. Tubular annelids, capable of boring into all IHH |
organic substances, are native to this plateau, and have
materially assisted in destroying the electric cable. The
surface of the plateau had been previously explored by
means of Brooke's apparatus, and the bottom was found
to be composed chiefly of microscopic calcareous shells
(Foraminifera), and a few siliceous shells (Diatomacete).
These delicate and fragile shells, which seemed to strew I
the bottom of the sea, in beds of great thickness, were
brought up by the sounding-rod in a state of perfect
preservation, which proves that the water is remarkably
quiet in these depths, an inference which is fully borne
out by the condition in which the cable of 1858 was UU
found, when picked up in 1866.
The first exploration of this plateau was undertaken by
the American brig Dolphin, which took a hundred sound-
ings one hundred miles from the coast of Scotland, after-
wards taking the direction of the Azores, to the north of
which bottom was found, consisting of chalk and yellow
sand, at nine thousand six hundred feet. To the south of
Newfoundland, the depth was found to be sixteen thousand
five hundred feet. In 1856, Lieutenant Berryman, of the
American steamer Arctic, completed a line of soundings
from St. John, Newfoundland, to Yalentia, off the Irish
coast, and in 1857, Lieutenant Dayman, of the English
steamship Cyclops, repeated the same operation : this last
DEPTH OF THE OCEAN. 9
line of soundings, the result of which is represented in the accom-
panying section, differed slightly from that followed by Lieutenant
Berryman.
In the Gulf of Mexico, the depth does not seem to exceed seven
thousand feet ; the Baltic does not in any place exceed eleven hun-
dred. The depth of the Mediterranean is, as we have said, very variable.
At Nice, according to Horace de Saussure, the average depth is three
thousand three hundred feet. Between the Dalmatian coast and the
mouth of the Po, bottom is found at a hundred and forty feet.
Captain Smith found soundings at from one thousand to nine thou-
sand feet in the Straits of Gibraltar, and at ten thousand feet
between Gibraltar and Ceuta, where the breadth exceeds sixteen miles.
Between Ehodes and Alexandria, the greatest depth is ten thousand
feet. Between Alexandria and Candia it is ten thousand three hun-
dred. A hundred and twenty miles east of Malta it is fifteen thousand.
The peculiar form of the Mediterranean has led to its being compared
to a vast inverted tunnel.
The Arctic Ocean has, probably, no great depth. Hence salt water,
following the general law of contracting as it is cooled until it freezes,
no ice can be formed on its surface till the temperature has fallen
through its entire depth nearly to freezing point, when the entire
mass is consolidated into pack-ice. According to Baron Wrangel, the
bottom of the glacial sea, on the north coast of Siberia, forms a gentle
slope, and, at the distance of two hundred miles from the shore, it is
still only from ninety to a hundred feet. Nevertheless, in Baffin's
Bay, Dr. Kane made soundings at eleven thousand six hundred feet.
The inequalities of the basin of the Pacific Ocean are, comparatively,
unknown to us. The greatest depth observed by Lieutenant Brooke
in the great ocean is two thousand seven hundred fathoms, which he
found in fifty- nine degrees north latitude and one hundred and sixty-
six degrees east longitude. Applying the theory of waves to the billows
propelled from the coast of Japan to California, during the earth-
quake of the 23rd of December, 1854, Professor Bache calculated that
the mean depth of this part of the Pacific is fourteen thousand
four hundred feet. In the Pacific Ocean, latitude sixty degrees
south and one hundred and sixty degrees east longitude, he found
soundings at fourteen thousand six hundred feet about two miles and
a half. Another cast of the lead in the Indian Ocean was made in
10 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
seven thousand and forty fathoms, but without bringing up any soil from
the bottom. Among the fragments brought up from the bottom of the
Coral Sea, a remarkable absence of calcareous shells was noted, whilst
the siliceous fragments of sponges were found in great quantities. Other
soundings made in the Pacific, at a depth of four or five miles, were
examined by Ehrenberg, who found a hundred and thirty-five different
forms of infusoria represented, and among them twenty-two species new
to him. Generally speaking, the composition of the infusoria of the
Atlantic are calcareous; those of the Pacific, siliceous. These ani-
malcules draw from the sea the mineral matter with which it is
charged that is, the lime or silica which form their shell. These
shells accumulate after the death of the animal, and form the bottom
of the ocean. The animals construct their habitations near the surface ;
when they die, they fall into the depths of the ocean, where they
accumulate in myriads, forming mountains and plains in mid ocean.
In this manner, we may remark, en passant, many of the existing con-
tinents had their birth in geological times. The horizontal beds of
marine deposits, which are called sedimentary rocks, and especially
the cretaceous rocks and calcareous beds of the Jurassic and Tertiary
periods, all result from such remains.*
The sea level is, in general, the same everywhere. It represents
the spherical form of our planet, and is the basis for calculating all ter-
restrial heights ; but many gulfs and inland seas open on the east are
supposed to be exceptions to this rule : the accumulation of waters,
pressed into these receptacles by the general movement of the sea
from east to west, it is alleged, may pile up the waters, in some
cases, to a greater height than the general level.
It had long been admitted, on the faith of inexact observation, that
the level of the Bed Sea was higher than that of the Mediterranean,
It has also been said that the level of the Pacific Ocean at Panama is
higher by about forty inches than the mean level of the Atlantic at
Chagres, and that, at the moment of high water, this difference is
increased to about thirteen feet, while at low it is over six feet in the
opposite direction. This has been proved, so far as the evidence goes,
to be error in what concerns the difference in level of the Bed Sea and
Mediterranean; and the opening of the Suez Canal, which is near at
hand, will probably furnish still more convincing proofs. Becent
* "World before the Deluge." Second edition.
BLUE WATEK. 11
soundings show that the mean level of the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans are identical.
It has been calculated that all the waters of the several seas
gathered together would form a sphere of fifty or sixty leagues in
diameter, and, supposing the surface of the globe perfectly level, that
these waters would submerge it to the depth of more than six hundred
feet. Again, admitting the mean depth of the sea to be thirteen
thousand feet, its estimated contents ought to be nearly two thousand
two hundred and fifty millions of cubic miles of water ; and, if the
sea could be imagined to be dried up, all the sewers of the earth
would require to pour their waters into it for forty thousand years, in
order to fill the vast basins anew.
If we could imagine the entire globe to be divided into one thousand
seven hundred and eighty-six parts by weight, we should find approxi-
mately, according to Sir John Herschel, that the total weight of the
oceanic waters is equivalent to one of these parts.
The specific weight of sea water is a little above that of fresh water,,
the proportion being as a thousand to a thousand and twenty -seven.
The Dead Sea, which receives no fresh water into its bosom to main-
tain itself at the same level as other seas, acquires a higher degree of
saltness, and is equal to a thousand and twenty-eight. The specific
gravity of sea water is about the same as the milk of a healthy woman.
The colour of the sea is continually varying, and is chiefly
caused by filtration of the solar rays. According to the testimony
of the majority of observers, the ocean, seen by reflection, presents
a fine azure blue or ultramarine (cseruleum mare). When the air
is pure and the surface calm this tint softens insensibly, until it
is lost and blended with the blue of the heavens. Near the shore it
becomes more of a green or glaucus, and more or less brilliant,,
according to circumstances. There are some days when the ocean
assumes a livid aspect, and others when it becomes a very pure green ;.
at other times, the green is sombre and sad. When the sea is agitated,
the green takes a brownish hue. At sunset, the surface of the sea is
illumined with tints of every hue of purple and emerald. Placed in a
vase, sea water appears perfectly transparent and colourless. According.
12 THE OCEAN WORLD.
to Scoresby, the Polar seas are of brilliant ultramarine blue. Castaz
says of the Mediterranean, that it is celestial blue, and Tuckey
describes the equinoctial Atlantic as being of a vivid blue.
Many local causes influence the colours of marine waters, and give
them certain decided and constant shades. A bottom of white sand
will communicate a greyish or apple-green colour to the water, if not
very deep ; when the sand is yellow, the green appears more sombre ;
the presence of rocks is often announced by the deep colour which the
sea takes in their vicinity. In the Bay of Loango the waters appear
of a deep red, because the bottom is there naturally red. It appears
white in the Gulf of Guinea, yellow on the coast of Japan, green to the
west of the Canaries, and black round the Maldive group of islands.
The Mediterranean, towards the Archipelago, sometimes becomes more
or less red. The White and Black Seas appear to be named after the
ice of the one and the tempests to which the other is subject.
At other times, coloured animalcules give to the water a particular
tint. The Eed Sea owes its colour to a delicate microscopic algaa
(Trychodesmium erythrteum) , which was subjected to the microscope
by Ehrenberg ; but other causes of colouration are suggested. Some
microscopists maintain that it is imparted by the shells and other
remains of infusoria; others ascribe the colour to the evaporation
which goes on unceasingly in that riverless district, producing salt
rocks on a great scale all round its shores. In the same manner
sea water, concentrated by the action of the solar- rays in the salt
marshes of the south of France, when they arrive at a certain stage of
concentration take a fine red colour, which is due to the presence of
some red-shelled animalcules which only appear in sea water of this
strength. The saline lakes on the Great Thibetian water sheds are
due to this cause. Strangely enough, these minute creatures die
when the waters attain greater density by further concentration, and
also if it becomes weaker from the effects of rain.
Navigators often traverse long patches of green, red, white, or yellow
coloured water, all of which are due to the presence of microscopic
crustaceans, medusae, zoophytes, and marine plants ; the Vermilion Sea
on the Californian coast is entirely due to the latter cause.
The phenomenon known as Phosphorescence of the Sea is due to
analogous causes. This wonderful sight is observable in all seas, but
PHOSPHOEESCENCE OF THE SEA. 13
is most frequent in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Gulf, and other
tropical seas. In the Indian Ocean, Captain Kingman, of the American
ship Shooting Star, traversed a zone twenty-three miles in length so
filled with phosphorescent animalcules that at seven hours forty-five
minutes the water was rapidly assuming a white, milky appearance,
and during the night it presented the appearance of a vast field of
snow. " There was scarcely a cloud in the heavens," he continues,
" yet the sky, for about ten degrees above the horizon, appeared as
black as if a storm were raging ; stars of the first magnitude shone
with a feeble light, and the ' Milky Way ' of the heavens was almost
entirely eclipsed by that through which we were sailing." The
animals which produced this appearance were about six inches long,
and formed of a gelatinous and translucent matter. At times, the
sea was one blaze of light, produced by countless millions of minute
globular creatures, called Noctilucss. The motion of a vessel or the
plash of an oar will often excite their lucidity, and sometimes, after
the ebb of tide, the rocks and seaweed of the coast are glowing with
them. Various other tribes of animals there are which contribute to
this luminous appearance of the sea. M. Peron thus describes the
effect produced by Pyrosoma Atlantieum, 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 : they were 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 colour of these animals when
in repose is an opal yellow, mixed with green ; but, on the slightest
movement, the animal exhibits a spontaneous contractile power, and
assumes a luminous brilliancy, passing through various shades of deep
red, orange green, and azure blue."
14 THE OCEAN WOKMX
The phosphorescence of the sea is a spectacle at once Imposing and
magnificent. The ship, in plunging through the waves, seems to
advance through a sea of red and blue flame, which is thrown off by
the keel like so much lightning. Myriads of creatures float and play
on the surface of the waves, dividing, multiplying, and reuniting, so
as to form one vast field of fire. In stormy weather the luminous
waves roll and break in a silvery foam. Glittering bodies, which
might be taken for fire-fishes, seem to pursue and catch each other
lose their hold, and dart after each other anew. From time im-
memorial, the phosphorescence of the sea has been observed by
navigators. The luminous appearance presents itself on the crest of
the waves, which in falling scatters it in all directions. It attaches
itself to the rudder and dashes against the bows of the vessel. It
3>lays round the reefs and rocks against which the waves beat, and on
silent nights, in the tropics, its effects are truly magical. This
phosphorescence is due chiefly to the presence of a multitude of
mollusks and zoophytes which seem to shine by their own light ;
they emit a fluid so susceptible of expansion, that in the zigzag
movement pursued they leave a luminous train upon the water, which
spreads with immense rapidity. One of the most remarkable of
these minute mollusks is a species of Pyrosoma, a sort of mucous sac
of an inch long, which, thrown upon the deck of a ship, emits a light
like a rod of iron heated to a white heat. Sir John Herschel noted
on the surface of calm water a very curious form of this phosphores-
cence ; it was a polygon of rectilinear shape, covering many square
feet of surface, and it illuminated the whole region for some moments
with a vivid light, which traversed it with great rapidity.
The phosphorescence of the sea may also result from another cause.
"When animal matter is decomposed, it becomes phosphorescent. The
bodies of certain fishes, when they become a prey to putrefaction, emit
an intense light. MM. Becquerel and Breschet have noted fine phos-
phorescent effects from this cause in the waters of the Brenta at
Venice. Animal matter in a state of decomposition, proceeding from
dead fish which floats on the surface of ponds, is capable of producing
large patches of oleaginous matter, which, piled upon the water, com-
municates to a considerable extent the phosphorescent aspect.
Whatever may be the case elsewhere, there are local causes which
SALTNESS OF THE SEA. 15
affect the colour of the waters in certain rivers, and even originate
their names. The Guamia, which with the Casiquaire forms the Eio
Negro, is of a deep brown, which scarcely interferes with the limpidity
of its waters. The waters of the Orinoco and the Casiquaire have
also a brownish colour. The Ganges is of a muddy brown, while the
Djumna, which it receives, is green or blue. The whitish colour
belongs to the Kio Bianco, or White Kiver, and to many other rivers.
The Ohio in America, the Torgedale, the Goetha, the Traun at Ischl,
and most of the Norwegian rivers, are of a delicate limpid green. The
Yellow Kiver and the Blue Kiver in China are distinguished by the
characteristic tint of their waters. The Arkansas, the Ked Kiver, and
the Lobregat in Catalonia, are* remarkable for their red colour, which,
like the Dart and other English rivers, they owe to the earth over
which they flow, or which their waters hold in suspension.
The water of the sea is essentially salt, of a peculiar flavour, slightly
acrid and bitter, and a little nauseous. It has an odour perfectly sui
generis, and is slightly viscous. In short, it includes a great number
of mineral salts and some other compounds, which give it a very dis-
agreeable taste, and render it unfit for domestic use. It contains
nearly all the soluble substances which exist on the globe, but
principally chloride of sodium, or marine salt, and sulphate of magnesia,
of potassium, and of lime.
Pure water is produced by a combination of one volume of oxygen
and of two volumes of hydrogen, or in weight, 100 oxygen and 12'50
hydrogen. Sea water is composed of the same ; but we find there,
besides, other elements, the presence of which chemistry reveals to us.
In 1000 grains of sea water the following ingredients are found:
Water 962'0
Chloride of sodium 27*1
Chloride of magnesium 5'4:
Chloride of potassium 0*4
Bromide of magnesia O'l
Sulphate of magnesia 1*2
Sulphate of lime 0'8
Carbonate of lime O'l
Leaving a residuum of .... 2-9
1000
consisting of sulphuretted hydrogen, hydrochlorate of ammonia, iodine
16 THE OCEAN WOELD.
iron, copper, and even silver in various quantities and proportions,
according to the locality of the specimen. In examining the plates of
copper taken from the bottom of a ship at Valparaiso, which had been
long at sea, distinct traces of silver were found deposited by the sea.
Finally, we find dissolved in the ocean a peculiar mucus, which seems
of a mixed animal and vegetable nature, and is evidently organic
matter proceeding from the successive decomposition of the innumerable
generations of animals which have disappeared since the beginning of
the world. This matter has been described by the Count Marsigli,
who designates it sometimes under the name of glu, and sometimes as an
unctuosity. It is the " ooze " of marine surveyors, and consists chiefly of
carbonate of lime, ninety per cent, of which is formed of minute animal
organisms. Its mealy adhesiveness results from the pressure of the
superimposed water. The numerous salts which exist in the sea can
neither be deposited in its bed, nor exhaled with the vapour, to be
again poured upon the soil in showers of rain. Particular agents retain
these salts in solution, transform them, and prevent their accumula-
tion. Hence sea water always maintains a certain degree of saltness
and bitterness, and the ocean continues to present the chemical
characters which it has exhibited in all times, varying only in certain
localities where more or less fresh water is poured into the sea basin
from rivers : thus the saltness of the Mediterranean is greater than
that of the ocean, probably because it loses more water by evaporation
than it receives from its fresh-water affluents. For the opposite
reason, the Black and the Caspian Seas are less charged with these
salts. The Dead Sea is so strongly impregnated with salt that the
body of a man floats on its surface without sinking, like a piece of
cork upon fresh water. The supposed cause is excessive evaporation
and the absence of rivers of any importance.
The saltness of the sea seems to be generally less towards the poles
than the equator ; but there are exceptions to this law. In the Irish
Channel, near the Cumberland coast, the water contains salt equal to
the fortieth of its weight ; on the coast of France, it is equal to one
thirty-second ; in the Baltic, it is equal to a thirtieth ; at Teneriffe, a
twenty- eighth; and off the coast of Spain, to a sixteenth. Again, in
many places the sea is less salt at the surface than at the bottom. In
the Straits of the Dardanelles, at Constantinople, the proportion is as
seventy-two to sixty-two. In the Mediterranean, it is as thirty-two
SALTNESS OF THE SEA. 17
to twenty-nine. It is also stated that as the salt increases at a certain
depth, the water becomes less bitter. At the mouth of the great
rivers it is scarcely necessary to add that the water is always less
saline than on shores which receive no supplies of fresh water ; the
same remark applies to sea water in the vicinity of polar ice, the
melting of which is productive of much fresh water. A recent analysis
of the water of the Dead Sea by M. Eoux gives about two pounds of
salt to one gallon of water. No mineral water, if we except that of
the Salt Lake of Utah, is so largely impregnated with saline substances ;
the quantity of bromide of magnesia is 0'35 grammes to the litre.
The water of the Dead Sea is, according to these proportions, the
richest natural depository of bromide, which it might be made to
furnish abundantly. The waters of the great Lake of Utah and Lake
Ourmiah in Persia are both highly saline. In Lake Ourmiah, as in
the Dead Sea, the proportion of salt is six times greater than in the
ocean. Many of our fresh-water lakes were probably salt originally,
but have by degrees lost their saline properties by the mingling of
their waters with those of the rivers which traverse or flow into them.
Among the lakes which appear to have been divested of their saline
properties may be mentioned the great lakes of Canada and the Sea
of Baikal, in all of which seals and other marine animals are still
found, which have become acclimatized as the water gradually became
fresh.
The saltness of sea water increases its density, and at the same
time its buoyancy, thus adapting it for bearing ships and other
burdens on its bosom ; moreover, to abbreviate slightly Dr. Maury's
remark, " the brine of the ocean is the ley of the earth." From it
the sea derives dynamical power, and its currents their main strength
It is the salt of the sea that imparts to its waters those curious
anomalies in the laws of freezing and of thermal dilatation, that assist
the rays of heat to penetrate its bosom ; the salts of the sea invest it
with adaptations which fresh water could not possess. In the latter
case, the maximum density would be thirty-nine degrees two seconds F.
instead of twenty-seven degrees two seconds F., when the dynamical
force of the sea would be insufficient to put the Gulf Stream in
motion. Nor could it regulate those climates we call marine.
We have said that sea water contains nearly all the soluble sub-
o
r
18 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
stances which exist in the globe. Nevertheless its exhalation is com-
paratively pure. " The water which evaporates from the sea," says
Youman, in his " Chemistry," " is nearly pure, containing but very
minute traces of salts. Falling as rain upon the land, it washes the
soil, percolates through the rocky layers, and becomes charged with
saline substances, which are borne seaward by the returning currents.
The ocean, therefore, is the great depository of all substances that
water can dissolve and carry down from the surface of the continents ;
and, as there is no channel for their escape, they would constantly
accumulate, were it not for the creatures which inhabit the seas, and
utilize the material thus brought within their reach." These sub-
stances are chloride of sodium or marine salt, sulphates of magnesia,
potassa, lime, and other substances which the water of various seas is
found to contain.
In the year 1847, I made an analysis of water taken a few leagues
from the coast at Havre, which gave the following result, from one
litre (1 pint -760773) : *
Grammes.
Chloride of sodium 25-704
Chloride of magnesium 2*905
Sulphate of magnesia 2462
Sulphate of lime ... 1-210-
Sulphate of potassa 0'094
Carbonate of lime 0132
Silicate of soda 0*017
Bromide of sodium 0*103
Bromide of magnesium 0'030
Oxide of iron, carbonate and phosphate of mag-) Only
nesia, and oxide of manganese ... . ( traces.
32-657
The water of the Mediterranean contains more salts than that of
the ocean.
The following are, according to M. Usiglio, who was one of a com-
mission sent to examine the different kinds of salt water in the south
of France, the component parts of one hundred gallons of Mediter-
ranean water :
* Examen Comparatif des Principales eaux Mine'rales Salines de France ct d'AHe-
magne, par MM. L. Figuier et Mialhe. Head at the Academic de Medecin, 23rd of
May, 1848.
SALTNESS OF THE SEA. 19
Ibs.
Chloride of sodium 29*524
Chloride of potassium 0*405
Chloride of magnesium 3'219
Sulphate of magnesia 2-477
Chloride of calcium 6*080
Sulphate of lime 1-557
Carbonate of lime . 0'114
Bromide of sodium 0*356
Protoxide of iron . . 0*003
Total . . . 43*735
We conclude, from the quantity of sea salt contained in the water
of the ocean, that, if it were spread over the surface of the globe, it
would form a layer of more than thirty feet in height.
The salt contained in sea water gives it a greater density than fresh
water; its average specific weight is 1*027. The density of the
water of the Mediterranean is, according to M. Usiglio, 1*025 when
at the temperature of seventy degrees. But the saltness of the sea
varies very much under the influence of a great many local circum-
stances, among which we must count principally currents, winds
favourable to evaporation, rivers coming from the continents, &c.
It has been remarked that the sea is less salt towards the poles
than at the equator ; that the saltness increases, in general, with the
distance from land, and the depth of the water ; that the interior seas,
such as the Baltic, the Black Sea, the White Sea, the Sea of Mar-
mora, and the Yellow Sea, are less salt than the ocean. The Mediter-
ranean is an exception to this last rule ; it is, as we have seen, salter
than the ocean. This difference is explained by the fact that the
quantity of fresh water brought into it by rivers is less than that lost
by evaporation. The Mediterranean must therefore grow salter with
time, unless its water is discharged into the ocean by a counter
current, which would run under the current coming from the Atlantic
by the Straits of Gibraltar.
The Black Sea, on the contrary, the water of which has a density
of only 1*013, receives from rivers more fresh water than it loses by
evaporation. The saltness of this interior sea is only half as intense
as that of the ocean.
The Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea are still less salt than the
Black Sea.
c 2
20
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The following table shows the relative composition of the water in
these three interior seas :
Black Sea.
Sea of Azov.
Caspian Sea.
In 100 Gallons of Water.
.Density
Density
Density
1-013
1-009.
1-005.
Chloride of sodium . . .
14-0195
9-6583
3-6731
Chloride of potassium .
9-1892
0-1279
0-0761
Chloride of magnesium . .
i-3045
0-8870
0-6324
Sulphate of magnesia .
Sulphate of lime . . . .
1-4704
0-1047
0-7642
0-2879
1-2389
' 0-4903
Bicarbonate of magnesia .
0-2086
0-1286
0-0129
Bicarbonate of lime . .
0-3646
0-0221
0-1705
Bromide of magnesium . :.
0-0052
0-0035
traces
17-6663
11-8795
6-2942
In lakes without any outlet, as the Dead Sea and the Lake of
Ural, the degree of saltness is considerably augmented. Numerous
experiments have proved that the water of the Dead Sea is six times
salter than that of the ocean. MM. Boutron and O'Henry analysed,
in April, 1850, after the rainy season, some water of the Dead Sea,
taken at about two leagues from the mouth of the Jordan ; its density
was then 1*10.
The saltness of sea water makes it more fitted to float ships,
because its density is increased by the salts which are dissolved in it.
Besides this, these salts contribute to prevent the water becoming
contaminated with decomposed organic matter.
By the table representing the composition of the water of the
ocean and of that of the Mediterranean, we see that salts of lime and
potassium, as well as iodine and silica, are only found in infinitely
small quantities. Nevertheless, the lime and silica contained in the
sea water are of very great importance ; for these quantities, which
appear to us so small in the table of a chemical analysis, become
enormous in the entire extent of the ocean. The marine plants take
in the lime, the silica, the potassa, and the iodides which are dis-
solved in the sea water : these mineral substances enter into their
textures. It is from the carbonate of lime and silica that the
marine animals form their solid covering, their shell or carapace.
The infusoria make use of the lime, silica, and potassa for the same
purpose. It is by the life and habits of the polypi that we explain
those Coral Islands found in the sea, the existence of which has been
CORAL ISLANDS. 21
a subject of much astonishment, and ought, therefore, to find a place
in this chapter.
The Pacific and Indian Oceans are studded with islands in a state
of formation, which owe their origin to the polypi and corallines.
These zoophytes extract from the sea water the lime and silicium
which are found there in the state of soluble salts. In order to grow
and develop, they must be continually under water. They are con-
stantly producing calcareous deposits; these deposits rise rapidly,
and at last reach the surface of the water. Then the seaweed and
rubbish of all kinds that the sea carries along with it, arrested by
these emerged masses, cover them with a layer of fertile soil, which is
soon covered with vegetation, as the birds and the waves bring seeds
thither.
The Coral Islands of the Pacific, which are described in another
chapter, are formed in this manner.
Besides the substances named, sea water also contains, in infinitesi-
mally small quantities, metals, such as iron, copper, lead and silver.
The old copper collecting ground the keels of ships sometimes so
much silver that it has been thought worth extracting ! A curious
calculation has been attempted, based on the age of ships and the
distance they have gone during all their voyages, to show that the
sea contains in solution two million tons of silver.*
The question has often been asked, whence comes the salt and other
substances held in solution in sea water ? If our readers will turn
back to the first few pages of " The World before the Deluge," they
will better understand the very simple geological explanation that we
are going to give of the origin of different substances dissolved in
sea water.
In the first stage of our planet, before the watery vapours contained
in the primitive atmosphere were condensed, and before they had
begun to fall on the earth in the form of boiling rain, the shell of the
earth contained an infinite variety of heterogeneous mineral substances,
some soluble in water, others not. When rain fell on the burning sur-
face for the first time, the waters became charged with all the soluble
substances, which were reunited and afterwards deposited, accumu-
lating in the large depressions of the soil. The seas of the primitive
* Sir J. Herschel'd " Physical Geography,' 5 p. 22, gives the basis and details of tins
calculation.
22 THE OCEAN WOULD.
globe were thus formed of rain water, holding in solution all that the
earth had given up, collected in large basins. Chloride of sodium, sul-
phates of soda, magnesia, potassium, lime, and silica, in the form of
soluble silicate ; in a word, every soluble matter that the primitive globe
contained formed part of the mineral contingent of this water. If we
reflect that through all time up to the present day none of the general
laws of nature have changed if we consider that the soluble substances
contained in the water of the primitive seas have remained there,
and that the fresh water of the rivers constantly replaces the water
which disappears by evaporation we have the true explanation of
the saltness of sea water. " It is a very simple theory, it is true," adds
M. Figuier, " but one that we have found nowhere, and the responsi-
bility of which we therefore claim. The chloride of sodium is by no
means the only substance dissolved in sea water. It contains, besides,
many other mineral substances : in short, every soluble salt on the
face of the globe, and, along with them, portions of different metals in
infinitely small quantities."
The mean temperature of the surface of the sea is nearly the same
as the atmosphere, so long as no currents of heat or cold interpose
their perturbing influence. In the neighbourhood of the Tropics, it ap-
pears that the surface of the water is slightly warmer than the ambient
air, but experiments on the temperature of the sea from the surface to
the bottom reveal, according to our author,* " some evidence which
establishes a curious law. In very deep water a perfectly uniform
temperature of four degrees below zero prevails, which corresponds, as
physics have established, to the maximum density of water. Under the
Equator this temperature exists at the depth of seven thousand feet. In
the Polar regions, where water is colder at the surface, this tempera-
ture is maintained at four thousand six hundred feet. The isothermal
lines of four degrees form a line of demarcation between the Zones,
where the surface of the sea is colder, and those where it is warmer
than the bed of four degrees below zero." This is more clearly shown
in Fig. 4, which represents a section of the ocean, the curved line
which touches two points at the surface indicating the depths where
the temperature is constantly fixed at four degrees.
Dr. Maury's account of this phenomenon is asserted with less confi-
dence. The existence of an isothermal floor of the ocean, as he calls
* " La Terre et les Mers," p. 517. Troisieme Ed.
USES OF SALT SEAS. 23
it, was first suggested by the observations of Kotzebue, Admiral
Beechey, and Sir James C. Boss. "Its temperature, according to
Kotzebue, is thirty-six degrees Fahr., or four degrees Cent.; the
depth of this bed, of invariable and uniform temperature, is twelve
hundred fathoms at the Equator; thence it gradually rises to the
parallel of about fifty-six degrees north and south, when it crops out,
and there the temperature of the sea from top to bottom is conjectured
PolJ 90 ' "
Fig 4. Therma 1 Lines ot equa 1 Temperature.
to be permanent at thirty-six degrees. The place of this outcrop, no
doubt, shifts with the seasons, vibrating north and south, after the
manner of the Calm belts. Proceeding onwards to the Frigid zones,
this aqueous stratum of an unchanging temperature dips again, and
continues to incline till it reaches the Poles, at the depth of seven
hundred and fifty fathoms ; so that on the equatorial side of the out-
crop the water above the isothermal floor is the warmer, but in Polar
seas the supernatant water is the colder."
In the saline properties of sea water Maury discovers one of the
principal forces from which currents in the ocean proceed. " The
brine of the ocean is the ley of the earth," he says ; " from it the sea
derives dynamical powers, and its currents their main strength.
Hence, to understand the dynamics of the ocean, it is necessary to
study the effects of their saltness upon the equilibrium of the waves.
Why is the sea made salt ? It is the salts of the sea that impart to
its waters those curious anomalies in the laws of freezing and of
thermal dilatation. It is the salts of the sea that assist the rays of
heat to penetrate its bosom." The circulation of the ocean is indis-
pensable to the distribution of temperature to the maintenance of
24 THE OCEAN WOULD.
the meteorological and climatic conditions which rule the develop-
ment of life; and this circulation could not exist at least, the
character of its waters would be completely changed if they were
fresh in place of salt. " Let us imagine," says M. J alien, " that
the sea, now entirely composed of fresh water, of one uniform
temperature from the Pole to the Equator, and from the surface to
its greatest depths ; the solar heat would penetrate the liquid beds
nearest to the Equator; it would dilate them, so as to raise them
above their primitive level ; by the single effect of gravitation, they
would glide on the surface towards the polar zones. The absence of
all solar radiation would tend, on the contrary, to cool and contract
them without this tendency. An exchange would be established
from the extremities towards the centre ; in other words, a counter
current of cold and heavy water, calculated to replace the losses occa-
sioned by the action of solar radiation, would descend from the Poles,
but quite maintaining itself beneath the light and warm current from
he Equator."
In a like system of general circulation, the physical properties of pure
water, which attains its maximum of density seven degrees two seconds
F. below zero, would produce the most singular consequences. As its
temperature rose above that point, the water would become lighter,
having, consequently, a tendency to ascend towards the upper beds. After
this, the equatorial current, meeting in its progress towards the Poles
the cold water, would itself be cooled down ; and when its temperature
had reached four degrees below zero, being now heavier than the polar
current, would change places with it, descending until it reached water
equally dense, while the polar current would ascend. Hence would
arise a sort of confusion of currents which would give to a fresh-water
ocean the strangest results, disarranging every instant the regular
circulation of its waters. It could not be so, however, in an ocean of
salt water, which attains its maximum specific gravity at four degrees
eight seconds F. below zero. By evaporation at the surface it is con-
centrated and precipitated, and thus rendered denser than that imme-
diately below the surface. It consequently sinks, while the lower beds
come up to replace, in order to modify it, and in turn to be precipitated
in the same manner. " In this manner we find established a continually
ascending and descending movement, which carries down into the depths
of ocean the water wanned at the surface by the solar rays of the Torrid
USES OF SALT SEAS. 25
zone. This double vertical current facilitates and prepares the grand
horizontal current which puts these submarine reservoirs of heat in
communication with the lower beds of the glacial sea. In the Arctic
basin the clouds, the melted snow, and the great rivers, which have
their mouths on the north of both continents, produce considerable
quantities of fresh water, which, mixing with the waves of the Polar
Sea, form a bed of mean density light enough to maintain itself and
flow off towards the Atlantic Ocean. These surface movements deter-
mine in the lower regions certain contrary movements, whence origi-
nate the powerful counter currents which ascend the Straits from
Baffin's Bay and reappear in the mysterious ' Polynia ' of Kane, diffus-
ing there its treasure of heat brought from intertropical seas." Dr.
Kane, in his interesting Narrative, reports an open sea north of the
parallel of eighty- two degrees, which he and his party crossed a barrier
of ice eighty miles broad to reach, and before he reached it the ther-
mometer marked sixty degrees. Beyond this ice-bound region he found
himself on the shores of an iceless sea, extending in an unbroken sheet
of water as far as the eye could reach towards the Pole. Its waves were
dashing on the beach with the swell of a great ocean ; the tides ebbed
and flowed. Now the question arises, Where did those tides have their
origin ? The tidal wave of the Atlantic could not have passed under the
icy barrier which De Haven found so firm ; therefore they must have
been cradled in the cold sea round the Pole ; in which case it follows
that most, if not all, the unexplored regions about the Pole must be
covered with deep water, the only source of strong and regular tides.
Seals were sporting and waterfowl feeding in this open sea, as Dr.
Kane tells us, and the temperature of the water which rolled in and
dashed at his feet with measured beat was thirty-six degrees, while
the bottom of the icy barrier of eighty miles was probably hundreds
of feet below the surface level.
" The existence of these tides," says Maury, " with the immense
flow and drift which annually take place from the Polar Seas and the
Atlantic, suggests many conjectures as to the condition of these unex-
plored regions. Whalemen have always been puzzled as to the breed-
ing place of the great whale. It is a cold-water animal, and, following
up the train of thought, the question arises, Is not the nursery for the
great whale in this Polar Sea, which is so set about and hemmed in by
a hedge of ice, that man may not trespass there ?"
26 THE OCEAN WORLD.
One or two points worthy of notice may be recorded here. Shallow
water, and water near the coast, or covering raised sand-hanks, is colder
than water in the open sea. Alexander von Humholdt explains this
phenomenon by supposing that deep waters of higher temperature
reascend from the lowest depths and mingle with the upper heels.
Fogs are frequently formed over sand-banks, because the cold water
which covers them produces a local precipitation of atmospheric vapour.
The contour of these fogs are perfectly denned when seen from a
distance: they reproduce the form and accidents due to the sub-
marine soil. Moreover, we often see clouds arrested over these points,
which look from afar like the peaks of mountains.
CHAPTEE II.
CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN.
" seas that sweep
The three-decker's oaken mast." TENNYSON.
THE ocean is a scene of unceasing agitation ; " its vast surface rises and
falls," to use the image suggested by Schleiden, " as if it were gifted
with a gentle power of respiration ; its movements, gentle or powerful,
slow or rapid, are all determined by differences of temperature."
Heat increases its volume and changes the specific gravity of the
water, which is dilated or condensed in proportion to the change of
temperature. In proportion as it cools, water increases in density, and
descends into the depths until it reaches a constant temperature of
four degrees twenty-five minutes Cent, below zero, which it preserves
in all latitudes at the depth of a thousand yards, according to
M. D'Urville.
If the water continues to cool, and reaches zero, it becomes lighter
than it was at four degrees twenty-five minutes Cent., and ascends in
a state of congelation a process which, by an admirable provision of
nature, can only take place at the surface. So long as the tempe-
rature is above four degrees twenty-five minutes, water is light, and
ascends to the surface, while colder water sinks to the bottom.
Below four degrees twenty-five minutes the process is reversed ; the
first phenomenon is always in force under the Equator, the second
near the Poles. The evaporation, which is in continual operation in
warm seas, forming vast rain-clouds at the expense of the sea, is com-
pensated by unceasing currents of colder water flowing from the Poles.
This evaporation has a direct- influence, moreover, on the density of
sea water, and is pointed out by Dr. Maury as a remarkable instance
28 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of the compensations by which the oceanic waters are governed :
" According to Eodgers' observations," he says, " the average specific
gravity of sea water on the parallels of thirty-four degrees north and
south, at a mean temperature of sixty-four degrees, is just what it
ought to be, according to saline and thermal laws ; but its specific
gravity, when taken from the Equator at a mean temperature of eighty-
one degrees, is much greater than, according to the same laws, it ought
to be the observed difference being '0015, whereas it ought to be
0025. Let us inquire," he adds, "what makes the equatorial waters
so much heavier than they ought to be.
" The anomaly occurs in the trade-wind region, and is best de-
veloped between the parallel of forty degrees in the North Atlantic and
the Equator, where the water grows warmer, but not proportionally
lighter. The water sucked up by the trade-winds is fresh water, and
the salt it contained, being left behind, is just sufficient to counteract
by its weight the effect of thermal dilatation upon the specific gravity
of water between the parallels of thirty-four degrees north and south.
The thirsting of the trade-winds for vapour is so balanced as to pro-
duce perfect compensation, and a more beautiful instance than we have
here stumbled upon is not, it appears to me, to be found in the mecha-
nism of the universe."
The oceanic currents are due to a great number of causes : the
duration and force of the winds, for instance; the rise and fall of
tides all over the globe ; the variations in the density of the waters,
according to its temperature, and the evaporating powers of the atmo-
sphere; the depth and degree of saltness to which we have already
alluded ; finally, to the variations of barometric pressure.
The currents which furrow the ocean present a striking contrast with
the immobility of the neighbouring waters; they form rivers of a
determinate breadth, whose banks are formed by the water in repose,
and whose course is often made quite perceptible by the vrachs and
other aquatic plants which follow in their train.
In order to comprehend the origin of these pelagic rivers, it is
necessary to consider the laws which govern the atmospheric currents,
in particular the trade-winds. "Hence," says Maury, " in studying
the system of oceanic circulation, we set out with the very simple
assumption, that from whatever part of the ocean a current is found
to run, to that same part a current of equal volume is bound to
CUKEENTS OF THE OCEAN. 29
return ; for on this principle is based the whole system of currents
and counter currents." The differences of temperature between
equinoctial and polar countries generate two opposing currents,
the upper one proceeding from the Equator to the Poles, the lower
one directed from the Poles towards the Equator. On reaching the
Equator, the cold current of air from the Poles is warmed and rarefied,
and ascends to the upper beds of the atmosphere, whence it is again
led to its point of departure ; there it is again cooled, and returns
with the lower current towards the tropical regions. But the
rotatory movement of the earth modifies the direction of these atmo-
spheric currents. The movement by which it is carried from west to
east being almost nothing at the Poles, but inconceivably rapid under
the Equator, it follows that the cold air, in proportion as it advances
towards the Tropics, ought to incline a little towards the west. This
is just what takes place with these counter currents. The north-east
trade-winds, which prevail in the northern hemisphere, move in a sort
of spiral curve, turning to the west as they rush from the Poles to the
Equator, and in the opposite direction as they move from the Equator
towards the Poles; the immediate cause of this motion being the
rotation of the earth on its axis. "The earth," says Dr. Maury,
" moves from west to east. Now, if we imagine a particle of atmo-
sphere at the North Pole, where it is at rest, to be put in motion in a
straight line towards the Equator, we can easily see how this particle of
air, coming from the very axis of diurnal rotation, where it did not par-
take of the diurnal motion, would, in consequence of its own vis inertias,
find as it travelled south that the earth was slipping from under it, as it
were, and it would appear to be coming from the north-east and going
towards the south-west ; in other words, it would be a north-east
wind."
In the same manner, the upper currents of air, which proceed
towards the Poles with equatorial rapidity, ought to outstrip the atmo-
spheric beds, which are gifted with much smaller rapidity of motion
towards the Poles, and turn them towards the east in consequence.
These are the south-west and north-west counter ' trade-winds, which,
passing above the north and south-east trades, often sweep the surface
of the sea in the latitudes of the Temperate zone. The two trades are
separated by a belt more or less broad, where the friction experienced
at the surface of the sea neutralizes their impulse towards the west ; in
30 THE OCEAN WOELD.
general, the current of air there is an ascending current. This belt,
which does not exactly correspond with the Equator, is called the Zone
of Calms, where atmospheric tempests frequently occur, and the winds
make the entire tour of the compass, which has acquired for them the
name of tornadoes.
The trade-winds, whose movement towards the west is retarded by
the friction which the waves of the ocean oppose to them, communi-
cate to these waves, by a sort of reaction, a tendency towards the west,
or, to speak more exactly, towards the south-west in the northern hemi-
sphere, and towards the north-west in the opposite hemisphere. The
currents on the surface of the water which result from this reaction,
reunite under the Equator, and form the grand equinoctial current
which impels the waters of the east towards the west. This movement
is stronger at the edges than in the middle of the current, because the
force which produces it acts there with more energy : it results from
this, that the currents bifurcate more readily when any obstacle pre-
sents itself to its movement. In the Atlantic Ocean, bifurcation takes
place a little to the south of the Equator ; the southern branch descends
along the coast of Brazil, and probably returns by reascending along the
west coast of Africa. The northern branch follows the coast of Brazil
and Guiana, enters the Sea of the Antilles, and directs its course, rein-
forced by the current which reaches it from the north-east, into the
Bay of Honduras, traverses the Yucatan Channel, and enters the Gulf
of Mexico, whence it debouches by the Florida Channel, under the
name of the Gulf Stream. Of this oceanic marvel Dr. Maury observes
that " there is a river in the bosom of the ocean ; in the several
droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows ;
its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm ;
it takes its rise in the Gulf of Mexico, and empties itself into the Arctic
Seas. This mighty river is the Gulf Stream. In no other part of the
world is there such a majestic flow of water ; its current is more rapid
than the Amazon, more impetuous than the Mississippi, and its volume
is more than a thousand times greater. Its waters, as far as the
Carolina coast, are of indigo blue ; they are so distinctly indicated
that their line of junction can be marked by the eye." Such is Dr.
Maury 's description of this powerful current of warm water, which
traverses the Atlantic Ocean, and influences in no slight manner the
climate of Northern Europe, and especially our own shores.
CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN. 31
The Gulf Stream thus described by the American savant issues from
the Florida Channel, with a breadth of thirty-four miles, and a depth
of two thousand two hundred feet, moving at the rate of four and a
half miles per hour. The temperature of the water in the vicinity is
about thirty degrees Cent. From the American coast the current takes
a north-east direction towards Spitzbergen, its velocity and volume
diminishing as it expands in breadth. Towards the forty-third degree of
latitude it forms two branches, one of which strikes the coast of Ireland
and of Norway, whither it frequently transports seeds of tropical origin :
it also warms the frozen waters of the glacial sea. The other branch,
inclining towards the south, not far from the Azores, visits the coast
of Africa, whence it returns to the Antilles. Throughout this vast
circuit may be seen all sorts of plants and driftwood, with waifs and
strays of every description borne on the bosom of the ocean. " Mid-
way the Atlantic, in the triangular space between the Azores, Cana-
ries, and Cape de Verd Islands, is the great Sargasso Sea, covering an
area equal in extent to the Mississippi Valley : it is so thickly matted
over with the Gulf Weed (Sargassum laceiferum), that the speed of
vessels passing through it is actually retarded, and to the companions
of Columbus it seemed to mark the limits of navigation ; they be-
came alarmed. To the eye at a little distance it seemed sufficiently
substantial to walk upon." These moving vegetable masses, always
green, which tail off to a steady breeze, serving as an anemometer
to the mariner, afford an asylum to multitudes of mollusks and
crustaceans.
The Gulf Stream plays a grand part in the Atlantic system. It
carries the tepid water of the equinoctial regions into the high latitudes ;
beyond the fortieth parallel the temperature is sixteen degrees Cent.
Urged by the south-west winds which predominate in that zone, its
tepid waters mix with those of the Northern Sea, softening the rigour
of the climate in these regions. To the south of the great bank of
Newfoundland, the warm current, in vast volume rushing from the
Florida Straits, meets the cold currents descending from the Arctic
Circle through Baffin's Bay and the Sea of Greenland, running with
equal velocity towards the south. A portion of these waters reascend
towards the Pole along the western coast of Greenland. It is to this
conflict of the polar and equatorial waters, that the formation of the
banks of Newfoundland is ascribed. Each of these great currents
32 THE OCEAN WORLD.
having unceasingly deposited the de'bris carried in its bosom, the
bank has been thus formed bit by bit in the concourse of ages.
The difference of temperature between the Gulf Stream and the
waters it traverses gives birth inevitably to tempests and cyclones. In
1780 a terrible storm ravaged the Antilles, in which twenty thousand
persons perished. The ocean quitted its bed and inundated whole
cities ; the trunks of trees, mingled with other debris, were tossed
into the air. Numerous catastrophes of this kind have earned for the
Gulf Stream the title of the King of the Tempests. In consequence
of the numerous nautical documents which have been placed at the
command of the National Observatory of Washington, and the admir-
able use made of them by the late Naval Secretary and his assistants,
the directions and range of these cyclones engendered by the Gulf
Stream may be foreseen, and their most dangerous ravages turned
aside. As an example of the utility of Dr. Maury's labours in settling
the direction of storms in the traject of the Gulf Stream, we quote a
well-known instance : In the month of December, 1859, the American
packet San Francisco was employed as a transport to convey a regi-
ment to California. It was overtaken by one of these sudden storms,
which placed the ship and its freight in a most dangerous position.
A single wave, which swept the deck, tore out the masts, stopped the
engines, and washed overboard a hundred and twenty-nine persons,
officers and soldiers. From that moment the unfortunate steamer
floated upon the waters, a waif abandoned to the fury of the wind.
The day after the disaster the San Francisco was seen in this desperate
situation by a ship which reached New York, although unable to assist
her. Another ship met her some days after, but, like the other, could
render no assistance. When the report reached New York, two
steamers were despatched to her assistance ; but in what direction
were they to go ? what part of the ocean were they to explore ? The
luminaries of Washington Observatory were appealed to ! Having
consulted his charts as to the direction and limits of the Gulf Stream
at that period of the year, Dr. Maury traced on a chart the spot to
which the disabled steamer was likely to be driven by the current, and
the course to be taken by the vessels sent to her assistance. The crew
and passengers of the San Francisco were saved before their arrival.
Three ships, which had seen their distressing situation, had been able
.to reach them, and the steamers sent to their assistance only arrived
CUKKENTS OF THE OCEAN. 33
to witness the safety of the passengers and crew. But the point
where the steamer foundered shortly after they were transferred to
the rescuing ships was precisely that indicated by Dr. Maury. If the
ships sent to their assistance had reached in time, the triumph of
SCIENCE would have been complete.
The equinoctial currents of the Pacific are very imperfectly known.
It is believed, however, that they traverse the Great Ocean in its
whole length, and bifurcate opposite the Asiatic coast, where the
weakest branch bends northward until it encounters the polar current
from Behring's Straits, when it returns along the Mexican coast. The
larger branch inclines towards the south, passing round Australia,
where it is met by one or many counter currents coming from the
Indian Ocean of the complicated and dangerous nature of which
both Cook and La Peyrouse speak.
The cold waters from the Antarctic Pole are carried towards the
Equator by three great oceanic rivers. The first bifurcates in forty-
five degrees ; one portion goes round Cape Horn ; the other Hum-
boldt's current ascends the Chilian and Peruvian coasts up to the
Equator, ameliorating the rainless climate as it goes, and making it
delightful. A second great current takes the direction of the African
coast, and is divided at the Cape, ascending both the east and west
coasts of Africa. On either side of the warm current which escapes
from the intertropical parts of the Indian Ocean, but especially along
the Australian coast, a polar current wends its way from the Antarctic
regions, carrying supplies of cold water to modify the climate and
restore the equilibrium in that part of the world. This cold current
turns at first towards the west, then towards the south in the direction
of Madagascar ; more to the south still it is driven back by the polar
current from Cape Horn. It is thus that the warm waters from the
Bay of Bengal, pressed by the Indian polar current, circulate between
Africa and Australia, one lateral branch of the current sweeping along
the south coast of this vast continent.
The monsoons which reign in the Indian Ocean tend still more to
complicate the currents, already sufficiently intricate and confused.
But it is not intended at present to occupy the reader's attention
further with these questions of intricate currents.
We have already spoken of a submarine current which appears to
D
34 THE OCEAN WORLD.
carry the waters of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean. Its
existence is in some respects established by calculations which prove
that the quantity of salt water supplied by the upper current through
the Straits of Gibraltar is equal to seventy-two cubic miles per annum,
while the quantity of fresh water brought down by the rivers is equal
to six, and the quantity lost by evaporation to twelve cubic miles per
annum. This would leave an annual excess of sixty-six cubic miles,
if the equilibrium was not re-established by an under current flowing
into the Atlantic. This hypothesis would appear to have been
confirmed by a very curious fact.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, a Dutch brig, pursued
by the French corsair Phoenix, was overhauled between Tangier and
Tarifa, and seemed to be sunk by a single broadside ; but, in place of
foundering and going down, the brig, being freighted with a cargo of
oil and alcohol, floated between the two Currents, and, drifting towards
the west, finally ran aground, after two or three days, in the neigh-
bourhood of Tangier, more than twelve miles from the spot where she
had disappeared under the waves. She had therefore traversed that
distance, drawn by the action of the under current in a direction
opposite to that of the surface current. This ascertained fact, added
to some recent experiments, lend their support to the opinion which
admits of the existence of an outward current through the Straits of
Gibraltar. Dr. Maury quotes an extract from the " log " of Lieute-
nant Temple, of the United States Navy, bearing the same inference.
At noon on the 8th of March, 1855, the ship Levant stood into
Almeria Bay, where many ships were waiting for a chance to get
westwards. Here he was told that at least a thousand sail were
waiting between the bay and Gibraltar, " some of them having got
as far as Malaga only to be swept back again. Indeed," he adds, " no
vessel had been able to get out into the Atlantic for three months
past." Supposing this current to run no faster than two knots an
hour, and assuming its depth to be four hundred feet only, and its
width seven miles, and that it contained the average proportion of
solid matter, estimated at one-thirtieth, it appears that salt enough to
make eighty-eight cubic miles of solid matter were carried into the
Mediterranean in those ninety days. " Now," continues Dr. Maury,
" unless there were some escape for all this solid matter which has
been running into the sea, not for ninety days, but for ages, it is very
TIDES.
35
clear that the Mediterranean would long ere this have been a vat of
strong brine, or a bed of cubic crystals."
For the same reason, Dr. Maury considers it certain that there is
an under current to the south of Cape Horn, which carries into the
Pacific Ocean the overflowings of the Atlantic. In fact, the Atlantic
is fed unceasingly by the Great American rivers, while the Pacific
receives 'no important affluent, but ought to be, and is, subjected to
enormous losses, in consequence of the evaporation continually taking
place at the surface.
TIDES.
Tides are periodical movements produced by the attraction of the
sun and moon. This action, which influences the whole mass of the
earth, is made manifest by the swelling movement of the waters.
The attractive force exercised by the moon is three times that of the
sun, in consequence of its approximation to the earth, as compared to
the greater luminary.
In order to comprehend the theory of tides, we shall first consider
the lunar influences, putting aside for a moment the solar action.
South Pole.
Fig. 5. Lunar Tides.
The attraction which the moon exercises upon any point on the
earth's surface is in the inverse ratio of the square of its distance.
D 2
36 THE OCEAN WORLD.
If we draw a straight line from the moon passing through the centre-
of the earth, this line will meet the surface of the waters at two points
diametrically opposite to each other namely, z and N (Fig. 5) ; one
of these points would be to the moon its zenitli, the other its nadir.
The point of the sea which has the moon in the zenith namely,
that above which the moon is perfectly perpendicular will be nearest
to the planet, and will consequently be more strongly attractive to the
centre of the earth, while the points diametrically opposite to which
the moon is the nadir will be more distant, and consequently less
strongly attracted by that luminary. It follows that the waters
situated directly under. the moon will be attracted towards it, and
form an accumulation or swelling at that point ; the waters at the
antipodes being less strongly attracted to the moon than to the centre
of the earth, will form also a secondary swelling on the surface of the
sea, thus forming a double tide, accumulating at the point nearest the
moon and at its antipodes. At the intermediate points of the cir-
cumference of the globe, where the waters are not subjected to the
direct attraction of the moon, the sea is at low water, as represented
in Fig. 5.
The earth, in its movement of rotation, presents, in the course of
twenty-four hours, every meridian on its surface to the lunar attrac-
tion ; consequently, each point in its turn, and at intervals of six hours,
is either under the moon, or ninety degrees removed from it : it
follows, that in the space of a lunar day that is to say, in the
time which passes between two successive passages of the moon on
the same meridian the oceanic waters will be at high and low tide
twice in the month on every point of the surface of the. globe. But
this result of attraction is not exercised instantaneously. The moon
has passed from the meridian of the spot before the waters have attained
their greatest height ; the flux reaches its maximum about three hours
after the moon has culminated ; and the watery mountain follows the
moon all round the globe, from east to west, about three hours in its
rear.
It is obvious, however, that the great inequalities of the bottom of
the sea ; the existence of continents ; the slopes of the coast, more or
less steep ; the different breadths of channels and straits ; finally, the
winds, the pelagic currents, and a crowd of local circumstances, must
materially modify the course of the tides. Nor is the moon the only
TIDES.
37
celestial body which influences the rise and fall of the waters of the sea.
We have already said that the sun asserts an influence on the waves.
It is true that, in consequence of its great distance, this only amounts
to a thirty-eight-hundredth part of that of the earth's satellite. The
inequality which exists between the solar and lunar days the latter
exceeding the first by fifty-four minutes has also the effect of adding
to or subtracting from this force alternately. When the sun and
moon are in conjunction (Fig. 6), or in opposition, that is to say,
placed upon the same right line, their attraction on the sea is com-
bined, and a spring tide is produced. This happens at the period of
Tlie Sun.
South Pole.
Fig. 6. Lunar-Solar Tides.
the syzygies the period of new and full moon. At the period of the
quadrature, or the first and last quarters, the solar action, being opposed
to that of lunar attraction, tends to produce a sensibly weaker tide.
These effects are never produced instantaneously ; but, the impulse
once given, it will continue to influence the tides for two or three days,
the highest and lowest tides being nearly in the proportion of 138 to 63,
or of 7 to 3. The highest tides occur at the equinoxes, when the
moon is in perigee ; the lowest at the solstices, when it is in apogee.
In our. ports, and along the coast, the water rises twice in twenty-four
hours, when it is said to be high water ; when it retires, it is low
water : they are respectively iheflux and reflux of the waves.
38 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The tide is retarded every day about fifty minutes, the lunar day
being twenty-four hours fifty minutes of mean time. If, for instance,
it is high water to-day at two o'clock in the morning, that of the next
day will take place at fifty minutes past two. Low water does not
occur, however, at the half of the intermediate time ; the flux is more
rapid than the reflux : thus at Havre, Boulogne, and at corresponding
places- on this side of the Channel, it takes two hours and eight
minutes more in retiring ; at Brest, the difference is only sixteen minutes
more than the flux. The daily retardation of high water by the passage
of the moon in the meridian, at the equinoxes, is a constant quantity
for the same locality, which can be determined by direct observation.
The height of the tide varies in the different regions of the globe,
according to local circumstances. The eastern coast of Asia and the
western coast of Europe are exposed to extremely high tides ; while in
the South Sea Islands, where they are very regular, they scarcely reach
the height of twenty inches. On the western coast of South America?
the tides rarely reach three yards; on the western coast of India
they reach the height of six or seven ; and in the Gulf of Cambay it
ranges from five to six fathoms. This great difference makes itself
felt in our own and adjoining countries : thus, the tide, which at
Cherbourg is seven and eight yards high, attains the height of fourteen
yards at Saint Malo, while it reaches the height of ten yards at
Swansea, at the mouth of the Bristol Channel, increasing to double
that height at Chepstow, higher up the river. In general, the tide
is higher at the bottom of a gulf than at its mouth.
The highest tide which is known occurs in the Bay of Fundy, which
opens up to the south of the isthmus uniting Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick. There the tide reaches forty, fifty, and even sixty feet,
while it only attains the height of seven or eight in the bay to the north
of the same isthmus. It is related that a ship was cast ashore upon
a rock during the night, so high, that at daybreak the crew found
themselves and their ship suspended in mid-air far above the water !
In the Mediterranean, which only communicates with the ocean by a
narrow channel, the phenomenon of tides is scarcely felt, and from this
cause that the moon acts at the same time upon its whole surface,
which are not sufficiently abundant to increase the swelling mass of
waters formed by the moon's attraction; consequently, the swelling
TIDES. 39
remains scarcely perceptible. This is the reason why neither the
Black Sea or White Sea presents a tide, and the Mediterranean a very
inconsiderable one. Nevertheless, at Alexandria the tide rises twenty
inches, and at Yenice this height is increased to about six feet and a
half. Lake Michigan is slightly affected by the lunar attraction.
Professor Whewell has prepared maps, in which the course of the
tidal wave is traced in every country of the globe. We see here that
it traverses the Atlantic, from the fiftieth degree of south latitude up
to the fiftieth parallel north, at the rate of five hundred and sixty
miles an hour. But the rapidity with which it proceeds is least in
shallow water. In the North Sea it travels at the rate of a hundred
and eighty miles. The tidal wave which proceeds round the coast of
Scotland traverses the German Ocean and meets in St. George's
Channel, between England and Ireland, where the conflict between
the two opposing waves presents some very complicated phenomena.
The winds, again, exercise a great influence on the height of the
tides. When the impulse of the wind is added to that of the attract-
ing planet, the normal height of the wave is considerably increased.
If the wind is contrary, the flux of the tide is almost annihilated.
This happens in the Gulf of Vera Cruz, where the tide is only per-
ceptible once in three days, when the wind blows with violence. An
analogous phenomenon is observable on the coast of Tasmania.
The rising tide sometimes strikes the shore with a continuous and
incredible force. This violent shock is called the surf. The swell
then forms a billow, which expands to half a mile. The surf increases
as it approaches the coast, when it sometimes attains the height of
six or seven yards, forming an overhanging mountain of water, which
gradually sinks as it rolls over itself. But this motion is not in
reality progressive it transports no floating body. The surf is 'very
strong at the Isle of Togo, one of the Cape de Yerd Islands in the
Indian Ocean, and at Sumatra, where the surf renders it dangerous
and sometimes impossible to land on the coast. Fig. 7 represents the
effects of the surf at Point du Baz, on the coast of Brittany.
The winds adding their influence to these causes, give birth on
the surface of the sea to waves or billows, which increase rapidly,
rising in foaming mountains, rolling, bounding, and breaking one
against the other. "In one moment," says Malte Brun, "the
40
THE OCEAN WORLD.
waves seem to carry sea-goddesses on its breast, which seem to revel
amid plays and dances ; in the next instant, a tempest rising out of
them, seems to he animated by its fury. They seem to swell with
passion, and we think we see in them marine monsters which are
prepared for war. A strong, constant, and equal wind produces long
swelling billows, which, rising on the same line, advance with a
uniform movement, one after the other, precipitating themselves upon
Fig. 1. Point du Raz, Coast of Brittany
the coast. Sometimes these billows are suspended by the wind or
arrested by some current, thus forming, as it were, a liquid wall. In
this position, unhappy is the daring navigator who is subjected to its
fury." The highest waves are those which prevail in the offing off
the Cape of Good Hope at the period of high tide, under the influence
of a strong north-west wind, which has traversed the South Atlantic,
pressing its waters towards the Cape. " The billows there lift them-
selves up in long ridges," says Dr. Maury, "with deep hollows between
WHIRLPOOLS AND EDDIES.
41
them. They run high and fast, tossing their white caps aloft in the
air, looking like the green hills of a rolling prairie capped with snow,
and chasing each other in sport. Still, their march is stately, and
their roll majestic. The scenery among them is grand. Many an
Australian-bound trader, after doubling the Cape, finds herself followed
for weeks at a time by these magnificent rolling swells, furiously
driven and lashed by the " brave west winds." These billows are said
to attain the height of thirty, and even forty feet ; but no very exact
measurement of the height of waves is recorded. One of these moun-
tain waves placed between two ships conceals each of them from the
Fig. 8. Height of Waves off the Cape of Good Hope.
other an effect which is partially represented in Fig. 8. In round-
ing Cape Horn, waves are encountered from twenty to thirty feet
high ; but in the Channel they rarely exceed the height of nine or ten
feet, except when they come in contact with some powerful resisting
obstacle. Thus, when billows are dashed violently against the Eddy-
stone Lighthouse, the spray goes right over the building, which stands
a hundred and thirty feet above the sea, and falls in torrents on the
roof. After the storm of Barbadoes in 1780, some old guns were
42 THE OCEAN WORLD.
found on the shore, which had been thrown up from the bottom of
the sea by the force of the tempests.
If the waves, in their reflux, meet with obstacles, whirlpools and
whirlwinds are the result the former the terror of navigators. Such
are the whirlpools known in the Straits of Messina, between the rocks
of Charybdis and Scylla, celebrated as the terror of ancient mariners,
and which were sung by Homer, Ovid, and Yirgil :
" Scylla latus dextrum, Isevum irrequieta Charybdis,
Infestat ; vorat hsec raptis revomitque carinas.
. . . Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdiin."
These rocks are better understood, and less redoubted in our days. At
Charybdis, there is a foaming whirlpool ; at Scylla, the waves dash
against the low wall of rock which forms the promontory, scarcely
noticed by the navigator of our days.
Another celebrated whirlpool is that of Euripus, near the Island of
Eubcea ; another is known in the Gulf of Bothnia. But perhaps the
best known rocky danger is the Maelstrom, whose waters have a
gyratory movement, producing a whirlpool at certain states of the
tide, the result of opposing currents, which change every six hours,
and which, from its power and magnitude, is capable of attracting
and engulfing ships to their destruction, although chiefly dangerous
to smaller craft.
To the combined effects of tides and whirlpools may also be attri-
buted the hurricanes, so dreaded by navigators, which so frequently
visit the Mauritius and other parts of the Indian Ocean. In periods
of the utmost calms, when there is scarcely a breath to ruffle the air,
these shores are sometimes visited by immense waves, accompanied by
whirlwinds, which seem capable of blowing the ships out of the water,
seizing them by the keel, whirling them round on an axis, and finally
capsizing them. " At the period of the changing monsoon, the winds,
breaking loose from their controlling forces, seem to rage with a fury
capable of breaking up the very fountains of the deep."
The hurricanes of the Atlantic occur in the months of August and
September, while the south-west monsoon of Africa and the south-
east monsoon of the West Indies are at their height ; the agents of
the one drawing the north-east trade-winds into the interior of Mexico
and Texas, the other drawing them into the interior of Africa, greatly
disturbing the equilibrium of the atmosphere.
THE FIRST ARCTIC NAVIGATOR. 43
THE POLAR SEAS.
The extreme columns of the known world are Mount Parry,
situated at eight degrees from the North Pole, and Mount Koss,
twelve degrees from the South Pole. Beyond these limits our maps
are mute ; a blank space marks each extremity of the terrestrial axis.
Will man ever succeed in passing these icy barriers ? Will he ever
justify the prediction of the poet Seneca, who tells us that " the time
will come in the distant future when Ocean will relax her hold on the
world, when the immense earth will be open, when Tethys will appear
amid new orbs, and where Thule (Iceland) shall no longer be the
extreme limit of the earth ?"
" Venient annis
Ssecula seris quibus oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet et ingens
Pateat tellus, Tethysque novos
Detegat orbes, nee sit terris
Ultime Thule." Medea.
No one can say. Every step we have taken in order to approach the
Pole has been dearly purchased ; and it is not without reason that
navigators have named the south point of Greenland, Cape Farewell.
Of the number of expeditions, for the most part English, which have
been fitted out, at the cost of nearly a million sterling, to explore the
Frozen Ocean, one-twentieth have had for their mission to ascertain
the fate of the lamented Sir John Franklin.
The first navigator who penetrated to Arctic polar regions was
Sebastian Cabot, who in 1498 sought a north-west passage from
Europe to China and the Indies. Considering the date, and the state
of navigation at that period, this was perhaps the boldest attempt on
record. Scandinavian traditions attribute similar undertakings to
the son of the King Kodian, who lived in the seventh century ; to
Osher, the Norwegian, in 873; and to the Princes Harold and
Magnus, in 1150.
Sebastian Cabot reached as high as Hudson's Bay, but a mutiny of
his sailors forced him to retrace his steps. In 1500, Gaspard de
Cortereal discovered Labrador ; in 1553, Sir Hugh Willoughby Nova
Zembla ; and Chancellor the White Sea, about the same time. Davis
visited in 1585 the west coast of Greenland, and two years later he
discovered the strait which bears his name. In 1596 Barentz dis-
44 THE OCEAN WORLD.
covered Spitsbergen, wliich was again seen by Hendrich Hudson, who
sailed up to and beyond tbe eighty-second parallel. Three years later
Hudson gave bis name to tbe great Labrador Bay, but be could get
no farther. His crew also revolted, and be was left in the ship's
launch with his son, seven sailors, and the carpenter, who remained
faithful. Thus perished one of our greatest navigators.
The Island of Jan Mayen was discovered in 1611 ; the channel
which Baffin took for a bay, and which bears his name, was discovered
in 1616. Behring discovered, in his first voyage in 1727, the strait
which separates Siberia from America ; he sailed through it in 1741,
but his ship w T as stranded, and he himself died of scorbutic disease.
In the year 1771 the Polar Sea was discovered by Hearne, a fur
merchant ; it was explored long after by Mackenzie.
From the year 1810, when Sir John Boss, Franklin, and Parry
turned their attention to the Arctic regions, these expeditions to the
Polar Seas rapidly succeeded each other. In 1827 Parry reached the
eighty-second degree of north latitude; and in 1845 Sir John Frank-
lin, with the ships Erebus and Terror, and their crews, departed on
their last voyage, from which neither he nor his companions ever
returned. There is now no doubt that they perished miserably, after
having discovered the north-west passage, which Captain M'Clure also
discovered, coming from the opposite direction, in 1850. In 1855 the
expedition of Dr. Elisha Kane found the sea open from the Pole.
The Antarctic Pole had in the meantime attracted the attention of
navigators. In 1772 the Dutch captain, Kerguelen, discovered an
island which he took for a continent. In 1774 Captain Cook explored
these regions up to the seventy-first degree of latitude. James
Weddell, in a small whaler, sailed past this parallel in 1823. Biscoe
discovered Enderby's Land in 1831. The Zelee and Astrolabe , under
the command of Captain Dumont D'Urville, of the French Marine,
and the American expedition, under Captain "Wilkes, reached the
same region in 1838. The former discovered Adelia's Land. Finally,
in 1841 , Sir James Clark Boss, nephew of Sir John Koss, with the
Erebus and Terror, penetrated up to the seventy-eighth degree south
latitude. Here he discovered the volcanic islands which he named
after his ships, and, farther to the south, a new continent or land,
which he called Victoria's Land.
THE POLAR SEAS. 45
While these efforts were being made to penetrate the ice which
surrounds the Antarctic Pole, a region having little which could
attract human enterprise, the interests of commerce seemed to call for
obstinate and persevering attempts to penetrate to the Arctic Pole.
In spite of these numerous expeditions, however, which extend over
two centuries, the regions round the North Pole are far from being
known to geographers. The fogs and snows which almost always
cover them were the source of many errors made by the earlier navi-
gators. In his first voyage, made in 1818, Sir John Eoss was led to
think that Lancaster Sound was closed by a chain of mountains, which
he called the Croker Mountains ; but in the following year Captain
Parry, in command of two ships, the Heda and Griper, discovered
that this was an error. This celebrated navigator discovered Barrow's
Straits, Wellington Channel, and Prince Eegent Inlet; Cornwallis,
Sir Byam Martin, and Melville Islands, to which the name of Parry's
Archipelago has been given. In this short voyage he gathered more
new results than were obtained by his successors during the next forty
years. He was the first to traverse these seas. Upon Sir Byam
Martin Island he has described the ruins of some ancient habitations of
the Esquimaux. He passed the winter on Melville Island. In order
to attain his chosen anchorage in Winter's Bay, he was compelled to
saw a passage in the ice of a league in length, which involved the
labour of three days ; but scarcely were they moored in their chosen
harbour than the thermometer fell to eighteen degrees below zero.
They carried ashore the ship's boats, the cables, the sails, and log-books.
The masts were struck to the maintop ; the rest of the rigging served to
form a roof, sloping to the gunwale, with a thick covering of sail-cloth,
which formed an admirable shelter from the wind and snow. Number-
less precautions were taken against cold and wet under the decks.
Stoves and other contrivances maintained a supportable degree of
temperature. In each dormitory a false ceiling of impermeable
cloth interposed to prevent the collection of moisture on the wooden
walls of the ship. The crew were divided into companies, each com
pany being under the charge of an officer, charged with the daily
inspection of their clothes and cleanliness an essential protection
against scurvy. As a measure of precaution, Captain Parry reduced
by one-third the ordinary ration of bread; beer and wine. were substi-
tuted for spirits ; and citron and lemon drinks were served out daily
46 THE OCEAN WORLD.
to the sailors. Game was sometimes substituted to vary a repast
worthy of Spartans. As a remedy against ennui, a theatre was fitted
up and comedies acted, for which occasions Parry himself composed a
vaudeville, entitled "The North-west Passage; or, the End of the
Yoyage." During this long night of eighty-four days, the thermo-
meter in the saloons marked 28, and outside 35 below zero, and for
a few minutes actually reached 47. Some of the sailors had their
members frozen, from which they never quite recovered. One day the
hut which served as an observatory was discovered to be on fire. A
sailor who saved one of the precious instruments lost his hands in the
effort ; they were completely frost-bitten in the attempt.
Nevertheless, the month of June arrived, and with it the opportu-
nity of making excursions in the neighbourhood. It was found that,
in Melville Island, the earth was carpeted with moss and herbage,
with saxifrages and poppies. Hares, reindeer, the musk-ox, northern
geese, plovers, white wolves and foxes, roamed around their haunts,
disputing their booty with the crew. Captain Parry could not risk
a second winter in this terrible region. He returned home as soon
as the thaw left the passage open.
In 1821, Captain Parry undertook a second voyage with the Fury
and Heda. He visited Hudson's Bay and Fox's Channel. In his
third voyage, undertaken in 1824, he was surprised by the frost in
Prince Eegent's Channel, and was constrained to pass the winter there.
The Fury was dismantled, and, being found unfit for service, Captain
Parry was obliged to abandon her and return to England.
Accompanied by Sir James Koss, Parry again put to sea in the
Hecla, in April, 1826. On his third voyage, on leaving Table Island
on the north of Spitzbergen, Parry placed his crew in the two training
ships, Enterprise and Endeavour ; the first under his own command,
the second under orders of Sir James Ross. Sometimes they sailed,
sometimes hauled through the crust of the ice; sometimes the ice,
which pierced their shoes, showed itself bristling with points, intersected
into valleys and little hills, which it was difficult to scale. In spite of
the courage and energy of their crews, the two ships scarcely advanced
four miles a day, while the drifting of the ice towards the south led
them imperceptibly towards their point of departure. They reached
latitude eighty-two degrees forty-five minutes fifteen seconds, however,
and this was the extreme point which they attained.
THE POLAR SEAS. 47
In the month of May, 1829, Sir John Eoss, accompanied by his
nephew, James Clark Eoss, again turned towards the Polar Seas. He
entered Prince Eegent's Channel, and there he found the Fury, which
had been dismantled and abandoned by Parry, in these regions, eight
years before. The provisions, which the old ship still contained,
were quite a providential resource to Eoss's crews. The distinguished
navigator explored the Boothian Peninsula, and passed four years con-
secutively in Port Felix, without being able to disengage his vessel,
the Victory. This gave him ample leisure to become familiar
with the Esquimaux. Sir John Eoss, in his account of this long
sojourn in polar countries, has recorded many conversations with the
natives, which our space does not permit us to quote. From this
terrible position he was extricated, and emerged with his crew from
this icy prison, when all hope of his return had been abandoned.
After being exposed to a thousand dangers, Eoss and his crew were
at last observed by a whaling ship, which received them on board,
after many efforts to attract attention. On learning that the ship
which had saved them was the Isabella, formerly commanded by
Captain Eoss, he made himself known. " But Captain Eoss has been
dead two years," was the reply.
We need not repeat here the enthusiastic reception Captain Eoss
and his companions met with on their arrival in London.
During an excursion made by the nephew of the Commander (after-
wards Sir James Clark Eoss), he very closely approached the North
Magnetic Pole. This was at eight o'clock on the morning of the
1st of June, 1831, on the west coast of Boothia. The dip of the
magnetic needle was nearly vertical, being eighty-nine degrees fifty-
nine seconds one minute short of ninety degrees. The site was a
low flat shore, rising into ridges from fifty to sixty feet high, and
about a mile inland.
Contrary to the judgment of many officers of experience in polar
explorations, the last and most fatal of all the expeditions was under-
taken by Sir John Franklin, with one hundred and thirty-seven picked
officers and men, in the ships Erebus and Terror. The adventurers left
Sheerness on the 26th of May, 1846, the ships having been strength-
ened in every conceivable way, and found in everything calculated
to secure the safety of the expedition. On the 22nd of July the
48 THE OCEAN WORLD.
ships were spoken by the whaler Enterprise, and, four' ( clays later,
they were sighted by the Prince of Wales, of Hull, moored to an ice-
berg, waiting an opening to enter Lancaster Sound. There the veil
dropped over the ships and their unhappy crews. In 1848, their fate
began to excite a lively interest in the public mind. Expedition in
search of them succeeded expedition, at immense cost, sent both by
the English and American authorities, and by Lady Franklin her-
self, some of which penetrated the Polar Seas through Behring's
Straits, while the majority took Baffin's Bay. In 1850, Captains
Ommaney and Penny discovered, at the entrance of Wellington
Channel, some vestiges of Franklin, which led to another expedition
in 1857, which was got up by private enterprise, of which Captain
M'Clintock had the command. Guided by the indications collected
in the previous expedition, and intelligence gathered from the Esqui-
maux by Dr. Eae in his land expedition, Captain M'Clintock in the
yacht Fox discovered, on the 6th of May, 1859, upon the north point of
King William's Land, a cairn or heap of stones. Several leaves of parch-
ment, which were buried under the stones, bearing date the 28th of
April, 1848, solved the fatal enigma. The first, dated the 24th of May,
1847, gave some details ending with " all well." The papers had been
dug up twelve months later to record the death of Franklin, on the
llth of June, 1847. The survivors are supposed to have been on
their way to the mouth of the Eiver Back, but they must have sunk
under the terrible hardships to which they were exposed, in addition to
cold and hunger.
In September, 1859, Captain M'Clintock returned to England,
bringing with him many relics of our lost countrymen, found in the
theatre of their misfortunes.
It only remains to us to say a few words on the latest voyages
undertaken in the Polar Seas. After the return of Captain M'Clin-
tock, in 1850, Captain M'Clure, leaving Behring's Straits, discovered
the north-west passage between Melville and Baring's Island, which
passage had been sought for without success during so many ages.
He saw the thermometer descend fifty degrees below zero. In the
month of October, 1854, he returned to England, and at a subsequent
period it was ascertained with certainty that, before his death, Franklin
knew of the other passage which exists to the north of America, to
the south of Victoria Land, and Wollaston.
THE POLAR SEAS. 49
The expedition of Dr. Kane entered Smith's Strait in 1853, and
advanced towards the north upon sledges drawn by dogs ; the mean
temperature, which ranged between thirty degrees and forty degrees
below zero, fell at last to fifty degrees. At eleven degrees from the
Pole they found two Esquimaux villages, called Etah and Peterovik,
then an immense glacier. A detachment, conducted by Lieutenant
Morton, discovered, beyond the eightieth degree of latitude, an open
channel inhabited by innumerable swarms of birds, consisting of
swallows, ducks, and gulls, which delighted them by their shrill,
piercing cries. Seals (plioca) enjoyed themselves on the floating ice.
In ascending the banks, they met with flowering plants, such as
Lychnis, Hesperis, &c. On the 24th of June, Morton hoisted the
flag of the Antarctic, which had before this seen the ice of the
South Pole, on Cape Independence, situated beyond eighty-one degrees.
To the north stretched the open sea. On the left was the western
bank of the Kennedy Channel, which seemed to terminate in a chain
of mountains, the principal peak rising from nine thousand to ten
thousand feet, which was named Mount Parry. The expedition re-
turned towards the south, and reached the port of Uppernavick
exhausted with hunger, where it was received on board an American
ship. Dr. Kane, weakened by his sufferings, from which he never
quite recovered, died in 1857.
We cannot conclude this rapid sketch of events connected with the
expeditions to the Arctic Pole without noting a geological fact of great
and singular interest. When opportunities have presented themselves
of examining the rocks in the regions adjoining the North Pole, it has
been found that great numbers belong to the coal measures. Such is
the case in Melville Island and Prince Patrick's Island. Under the
ice which covers the soil in these islands coal exists, with all the fossil
vegetable debris which invariably accompany it. This shows that in
the coal period of geology, the North Pole was covered with the rich
and abundant vegetation whose remains constitute the coal-fields of
the present day ; and proves to demonstration that the temperature of
these regions was, at one period of the earth's history, equal to that
of equatorial countries of the present day. What a wonderful change
in the temperature of these regions is thus indicated ! It is, indeed,
a strange contrast to find coal formations under the soil covered by
the polar ice. Let us suppose that human industry should dream of
E
50 THE OCEAN WOELD.
establishing itself in these countries, and drawing from the earth the
combustible so needed to make it habitable, thus furnishing the means
of overcoming the rigorous climatic conditions of these inhospitable
regions.
The Antarctic Pole is probably surrounded by an icy canopy not
less than two thousand five hundred miles in diameter ; and numerous
circumstances lead to the conclusion that the vast mass has diminished
since 1774, when the region was visited by Captain Cook. The Ant-
arctic region can only be approached during the summer, namely, in
December, January, and February.
The first navigator who penetrated the Antarctic circle was the
Dutch captain, Theodoric de Gheritk, whose vessel formed part of the
squadron commanded* by Simon de Cordes, destined for the East
Indies. In January, 1600, a tempest having dispersed the squadron,
Captain Gheritk was driven as far south as the sixty-fourth parallel,
where he observed a coast which reminded him of Norway. It was
mountainous, covered with snow, stretching from the coast to the
Isles of Solomon. The report of Simon de Cordes was received with
great incredulity, and the doubts raised were only dissipated when the
New South Shetland Islands were definitely recognized. The idea of
an Antarctic continent is, however, one of the oldest conceptions of
speculative geography, and one which mariners and philosophers alike
have found it most difficult to relinquish. The existence of a southern
continent seemed to them to be the necessary counterpoise to the
Arctic land. The Terra Australis incognita is marked on all the
maps of Mercator, round the South Pole, and when the Dutch officer,
Kerguelen, discovered, in 1772, the island which bears his name, he
quoted this idea of Mercator as the motive which suggested the
voyage. In 1774, Captain Cook ventured up to and beyond the
seventy-first degree of latitude under the one hundred and ninth
degree west longitude. He traversed a hundred and eighty leagues,
between the fiftieth degree and sixtieth degree of south latitude,
without finding the land of which mariners had spoken : this led him
to conclude that mountains of ice, or the great fog-banks of the region,
had been mistaken for a continent. Nevertheless, Cook clung to the
idea of the existence of a southern continent. " I firmly believe," he
says, " that near the Pole there is land where most part of the ice is
THE POLAR SEAS. 51
formed which is spread over the vast Southern Ocean. I cannot
believe that the ice could extend itself so far if it had not land and
I venture to say land of considerable extent to the south. I believe,
nevertheless, that the greater part of this southern continent ought
to lie within the Polar Circle, where the sea is so encumbered with ice
as to be unapproachable. The danger run in surveying a coast in
these unknown seas is so great, that I dare to say no one will venture
to go farther than I have, and that the land that lies to the south
will always remain unknown. The fogs are there too dense ; the
snowstorms and tempests too frequent ; the cold too severe ; all the
dangers of navigation too numerous. The appearance of the coast is
the most horrible that can be imagined. The country is condemned
by nature to remain unvisited by the sun, and buried under eternal
hoar frost. After this report, I believe that we shall hear no more of
a southern continent." This description of these desolate regions, to
which the great navigator might have applied the words of Pliny,
"Pars mundi a natura damnata et densa mersa caligine" only
excited the courage of his successors. In our days, several expeditions
have been fitted out for the express survey of regions which may be
characterised as the abode of cold, silence, and death. In 1833, a
free passage opened itself into the Antarctic Sea. The Scottish
whaling ship, commanded by James "Weddell, entered the pack ice,
and penetrated it in pursuit of seals ; but having, by chance, found
the sea open on his course, he forced his way up to seventy-four
degrees south latitude, and under the thirty-fourth degree of longitude,
but the season was too advanced, and he and his crew retraced their
steps. The voyage of Captain Weddell caused a great sensation, and
suggested the possibility of more serious expeditions. Twelve years
later three great expeditions were fitted out : one, under Dumont
D'Urville, of the French Marine ; an American expedition, under
Captain Wilkes, of the "United States Navy; and an English ex-
pedition, under Sir James Clark Eoss.
Dumont D'Urville, who perished so miserably in the railway
catastrophe at Versailles, in 1842, passed the Straits of Magellan on
the 9th of January, 1838, having under his command the two
corvettes Astrolabe and ZeUe. He expected to find it as Weddell had
described, and that, after passing the first icy barrier, he should find
an open sea before him. But he was soon compelled to renounce this
E 2
52 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
hope. The floating icebergs became more and more closely packed
and dangerous. The southern icebergs do not circulate in straits and
channels already formed, like those of the North Pole, but in enormous
detached blocks which hug the land. Sometimes in shallow water
they form belts parallel to the base of the cliffs, intersected by a small
number of sinuous narrow channels. These icy cliffs present a face
more or less disintegrated as they approximate to the rocky shore.
The blocks of ice form at first huge prisms, or tabular, regular masses
of a whitish paste ; but they get used up by degrees, and rounded off
and separated under the action of the waves, which chafe them, and
their colour becomes more and more limpid and bluish. They ascend
freely towards the north, in spite of the winds and currents which
carry them in the contrary direction. One year with another these
floating icebergs accumulate with very striking differences, and it is
only by a rare chance that they open up a free passage such as
Captain Weddell had discovered. These floating islands of ice have
been met with in thirty-five degrees south latitude, and even as high
as Cape Horn.
The two French ships frequently found themselves shut up in the
icebergs, which continued to press upon them, and driven before the
north winds, until the south wind again dispersed their vast masses,
enabling them to issue from their prison in health and safety. In
some cases D'Urville found it necessary to force his ship through
fields of ice by which he was surrounded and imprisoned, and to cut
his way by force through the accumulating blocks, using the corvette
as a sort of battering-ram. In 1838 he recognized, about fifty leagues
from the South Orkney Isles, a coast, to which he gave the name of
Louis Philippe's and Joinville's Land. This coast is covered with
enormous masses of ice, which seemed to rise to the height of two
thousand six hundred feet. Boss discovered still more lofty peaks,
such as Mount Penny and Mount Haddington, rising about seven
thousand feet. The English navigator states that this land is only a
great island. The crew of D'Urville's ship being sickly and over-
worked, he returned to the port of Chili, whence he again issued for
the South Pole in the following January.
On this occasion his approach was made from a point diametrically
opposite to the former. He very soon found himself in the middle of
the ice. He discovered within the Antarctic Circle land, to which he
THE POLAR SEAS. 53
gave the name of Adelia's Land. The long and lofty cliffs of this
island or continent he describes as being surrounded by a belt of
islands of ice at once numerous and threatening. D'Urville did not
hesitate to navigate his corvettes through the middle of the band of
enormous icebergs which seemed to guard the Pole and forbid his
approach to it. For some moments his vessels were so surrounded
that they had reason to fear, from moment to moment, some terrible
shock, some irreparable disaster. In addition to this, the sea produces
around these floating icebergs, eddies, which were not unlikely to draw
on the ship to the destruction with which it was threatened at every
instant. It was in passing at their base that D'Urville was able to
judge of the height of these icy cliffs. " The walls of these blocks of
ice," he says, " far exceed our masts and riggings in height ; they
overhang our ships, whose dimensions seem ridiculously curtailed.
We seem to be traversing the narrow streets of some city of giants.
At the foot of these gigantic monuments we perceive vast caverns
hollowed by the waves, which are engulfed there with a crashing
tumult. The sun darts his oblique rays upon the immense walls of
ice as if it were crystal, presenting effects of light and shade truly
magical and startling. From the summit of these mountains,
numerous brooks, fed by the melting ice produced by the summer
heat of a January sun in these regions, throw themselves in cascades
into the icy sea.
" Occasionally these icebergs approach each other so as to conceal
the land entirely, and we only perceive two walls of threatening ice,
whose sonorous echoes send back the word of command of the officers.
The corvette which followed the Astrolabe appeared so small, and its
masts so slender, that the ship's crew were seized with terror. For
nearly an hour we only saw vertical walls of ice." Ultimately they
reached a vast basin, formed on one side by the chain of floating
islands which they had traversed, and on the other by high land
rising three and four thousand feet, rugged and undulating on the
surface, but clothed over all with an icy mantle, which was rendered
dazzlingly imposing in its whiteness by the rays of the sun. The
officers could only advance by the ship's boats through a labyrinth of
icebergs up to a little islet lying opposite to the coast. They touched
the land at this islet ; the French flag was planted, possession was
taken of the new continent, and, in proof of possession, some portions
54 THE OCEAX WORLD.
of rock were torn from the scarped and denuded cliffs. These rocks
are composed of quartzite and gneiss. The southern continent, there-
fore, belongs to the primitive formation, while the northern region
belongs in great part to the transition, or coal formation. According
to the map of Adelia's Land, traced by D'Urville over an extent of
thirty leagues of country, the region is one of death and desolation,
without any trace of vegetation.
A little more to the north, the French navigator had a vague vision
on the white lines of the horizon of another land, which he named
Cote Clarie, or Coast Clear, the existence of which was soon confirmed
by the American expedition under Commodore Wilkes. This officer
has explored the southern land on a larger scale than any other
navigator, but he suffered himself to be led into error by the dense
fogs of the region, and has laid down coast lines on his map where
Sir James Eoss subsequently found only open sea an error which
has very unjustly thrown discredit on the whole expedition.
The English expedition entered this region on Christmas Day,
1840, which was passed by Eoss in a strong gale, with constant snow
or rain. Soon after, the first icebergs were seen, having flat tabular
summits, in some instances two miles in circumference, bounded on
all sides by perpendicular cliffs. On New Year's Day, 1841, the
ships crossed the Antarctic Circle, and reached the edge of the pack
ice, which they entered, after skirting it for several days. On the
5th, the pack was passed through, amid blinding snow and thick fog,
which on clearing away revealed an open sea, and on the llth of
January land was seen directly ahead of the ships. A coast line rose
in lofty snow-covered peaks at a great distance. On a nearer view,
this coast is thus described : ' It was a beautifully clear evening, and
two magnificent ranges of mountains rose to elevations varying from
seven thousand to ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. The
glaciers which filled their intervening valleys, and which descended
from near the mountain summits, projected in many places several
miles into the sea, and terminated in lofty perpendicular cliffs. In a
few places the rocks broke through their icy covering, by which alone
we could be assured that lava formed the nucleus of this, to all
appearance, enormous iceberg. This antarctic land was named
Victoria Land, in honour of the Queen. It was coasted up to
latitude seventy-eight degrees south, and near to this a magnificent
THE POLAR SEAS. 55
yolcanic mountain presented itself, rising twelve thousand feet above
the level of the sea, which emitted name and smoke in splendid
profusion. The flanks of this gigantic mountain were clothed with
snow almost to the mouth of the crater from which the flaming smoke
issued. At a short distance, Eoss discovered the cone of an extinct,
or, at least, inactive volcano nearly as lofty. He gave to these two
volcanoes the names of his vessels, Erebus and Terror (Fig. 9)
names perfectly in harmony with the surrounding desolation. The
Fig. 9. Mounts Erebus and Terror.
ice-covered cliffs rose about a hundred and ninety feet high, and
appear to be about three hundred feet deep, soundings being found at
about four hundred fathoms. In the distance, towards the south, a
range of lofty mountains were observed, which Eoss named Mount
Parry, in honour of his old commander. When Eoss retraced his
steps, the expedition had advanced as far as the seventy-ninth degree
of south latitude.
It may be said of polar countries, that they form a transition state
56 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
between land and sea, for water is always present, although in a solid
state ; the surface is always at a very low temperature ; snow does not
melt as it falls, and the sea is thus sometimes covered with a continu-
ous sheet of frozen snow ; sometimes with enormous floating hlocks of
ice which are driven by the currents. Meeting with these floating
masses of ice is one of the dangers of polar navigation. Captain
Scoresby has given a very detailed description of the different kinds of
ice met with in the Arctic Seas. The ice-fields of this writer form
extensive masses of solid water, of which the eye cannot trace the
limits, some of them being thirty-five leagues in length and ten
broad, with a thickness of seven to eight fathoms ; but generally these
ice-fields rise only four to six feet above the water, and reach from
three to four fathoms beneath the surface. Scoresby has seen these
ice-fields forming in the open sea. When the first crystals appear,
the surface of the ocean is cold enough to prevent snow from melting
as it falls. On the approach of congelation the surface solidifies, and
seems as if covered with oil ; small circles are formed, which press
against each other, and are finally soldered together until they form a
vast field of ice, the thickness of which increases from the lower
surface.
The water produced from melted ice is perfectly fresh the result
of a well-known physical cause. When a saline solution like sea
water is congealed by cold, pure water alone passes into the solid
state, the saline solution becomes more concentrated, increases in
density, and, sinking to the bottom, remains liquid. Blocks of ice,
therefore, in the Polar Seas, are always available for domestic use.
There are, however, salt blocks of ice, which are distinguished from
fresh-water ice by their opaqueness and their dazzling white colour :
this saltness is due to the sea water retained in its interstices.
Scoresby amused himself sometimes by shaping lenses of ice, with
which he is said to have set fire to gunpowder, much to the astonish-
ment of his crew.
The ice-fields, which are formed in higher latitudes, are driven to-
wards the south by winds and currents, but sooner or later the action
of the waves breaks them up into fragments. The edges of the
broken icebergs are thus often rising and continually changing : these
asperities and protuberances are called hummocks by English navi-
gators; they give to the polar ice an odd, irregular appearance.
THE POLAK SEAS. 57
Hummocks form themselves of the stray, broken icebergs which come
in contact with each other at their edges, and thus form vast rafts,
the pieces of which may exceed a hundred yards in length.
When these icebergs are separated by open spaces, through which
vessels can be navigated, the pack ice is said to be open. But it often
happens that mountains of ice occur partly submerged, where one
edge is retained under the principal mass, while the other is above the
water. Scoresby once passed over a calf, as English mariners call
these icy mountains, but he trembled while he did so, dreading lest it
should throw his vessel, himself, and crew into the air before he could
pass it. The aspect of the ice-fields varies in a thousand ways. Here
it is an incoherent chaos resembling some volcanic rocks, with crevices
in all directions, bristling with unshapely blocks piled up at random ;
there it is a strongly-marked plain, an immense mosaic formed of vast
blocks of ice of every age and thickness, the divisions of which are
marked by long ridges of the most irregular forms ; sometimes re-
sembling walls composed of great rectangular blocks, sometimes re-
sembling chains of hills, with great rounded summits.
In the spring, when a thaw sets in, and the fields begin to break up,
the pieces of light ice which unite the great blocks into unique masses
are the first to melt ; the several blocks then separate, and the motion
of the water soon disperses them, and the imprisoned ships find a free
passage. But a day of calm is still sufficient to unite the dispersed
masses, which oscillate and grind against each other with a strange
noise, which sailors compare to the yelping of young dogs.
When a ship is shut up in one of these floating ice-fields, inexpli-
cable changes sometimes occur in the vast incoherent aggregations.
Vessels, which think themselves immovable, are found in a few hours to
have completely reversed their positions. Two ships shut in at a
short distance from each other were driven many leagues without
being able to perceive any change in the surrounding ice. At other
times ships are drawn with the floating ice-fields, like the white bears,
who make long voyages at sea upon these monster vehicles. In 1777
the Dutch vessel, the Wilhelmina, was driven with some other whaling
ships from eighty degrees north back to sixty-two degrees, in sight of
the Iceland coast. During this terrible journey the ships were broken
up one after the other. More than two hundred persons perished,
and the remainder reached land with difficulty.
.58 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Lieutenant De Haven, navigating in search of Sir John Franklin, was
caught in the ice in the middle of the channel in Wellington Strait.
During the nine months which he remained in captivity, he drifted
nearly thirteen hundred miles towards the south ; and the ship Resolute,
abandoned by Captain Kellet in an ice-field of immense extent, was
drifted towards the south with this vast mass to a much greater
distance.
Some curious speculations are hazarded by Dr. Maury, arising out of
his investigations of winds and currents, facts being revealed which
indicate the existence of a climate, mild by comparison, within the
Antarctic Circle. These indications are a low barometer, a high degree
of aerial rarefaction, and strong winds from the north. " The winds,"
he says, u were the first to whisper of this strange state of things, and
to intimate to us that the Antarctic climates are in winter very unlike
the Arctic for rigour and severity." The result of an immense mass
of observation on the polar and equatorial winds reveals a marked
difference in atmospherical movements north, as compared with the
same movements south of the Equator ; the equatorial winds of the
northern hemisphere being only in excess between the tenth and
thirteenth parallel, while those of the southern hemisphere are
dominant over a zone of forty-five degrees, or from thirty-five degrees
south to ten degrees north.
" The fact that the influence of the polar indraught upon the winds
should extend from the Antarctic to the parallel of forty degrees south,
while that from the Arctic is so feeble as scarcely to be felt in fifty degrees
north, is indicative enough as to the difference in degree of aerial rare-
faction over the two regions. The significance of the fact is enhanced by
the consideration that the ( brave west winds,' which are bound to the
place of greatest rarefaction, rush more violently and constantly along
to their destination than do the counter-trades of the northern hemi-
sphere. Why should these polar-bound winds differ so much in
strength and prevalence, unless there be a much more abundant
supply of caloric, and, consequently, a higher degree of rarefaction, at
one pole than at the other r"
That this is the case is confirmed by all known barometrical obser-
vations, which are very much lower in the Antarctic than in the Arctic,
and Dr. Maury thinks this is doubtless due to the excess in Antarctic
regions of aqueous vapour and this latent heat.
THE POLAE SEAS. 59
" There is rarefaction in the Arctic regions. The winds show it, the
barometer attests it, and the fact is consistent with the Kussian theory
of a Polynia in polar waters. Within the Antarctic Circle, on the
contrary, the winds bring air which has come over the water for the
distance of hundreds of leagues all around; consequently, a large
portion of atmospheric air is driven away from the austral regions by
the force of vapour."
60 THE OCEAN WORLD.
CHAPTEE III.
LIFE IN THE OCEAN.
" See what a lovely shell, small and pure as a pearl,
Frail, but a work divine, made so fairly well,
With delicate spore and whorl, a miracle of design." TENNYSOX.
" THE appearance of the open sea," says Fredol, from whose elegant
work this chapter is chiefly compiled, "far from the shore the
boundless ocean is to the man who loves to create a world of his
own, in which he can freely exercise his thoughts, filled with sublime
ideas of the Infinite. His searching eye rests upon the far-distant
horizon. He sees there the ocean and the heavens meeting in a
vapoury outline, where the stars ascend and descend, appear and dis-
appear in their turn. Presently this everlasting change in nature
awakens in him a vague feeling of that sadness ' which,' says Hurn-
boldt, ' lies at the root of all our heartfelt joys.' "
Emotions of another kind and equally serious are produced by the
contemplation and study of the habits of the innumerable organized
beings which inhabit the great deep. In fact, that immense expanse of
water, which we call the sea, is no vast liquid desert ; life dwells in
its bosom as it does on dry land. Here this mystery reigns supreme
in the midst of its expansions, luxuries, and agitations. It pleases the
Creator. It is the most beautiful, the most brilliant, the noblest, and
the most incomprehensible of His manifestations. Without life, the
world would be as nothing. The beings endowed with it transmit it
faithfully to other beings, their children, and their successors, which
will be, like them, the depositaries of the same mysterious gift ; the
marvellous heritage thus traverses years and hundreds of years without
losing its powers ; the globe is redolent with the life which has been
LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 61
so bounteously distributed over it. In the words of Laniartine, " We
know what produces life, but we know not what it is ;" and this igno-
rance is perhaps the powerful attraction which provokes our curiosity
and excites us to study.
Every living being is animated by two principles, between which a
silent but incessant combat is being carried on life, which assimilates,
and death, which disintegrates. At first, life is all powerful it lords it
over matter ; but its reign is limited. Beyond a certain point its vigour
is gradually impaired ; with old age it decays ; and is finally extinguished
with time, when the chemical and physical laws seize upon it, and its
organization is destroyed. But the elements, though inert at first,
are soon reanimated and occupied with a new life. Every plant, every
animal is bound up with the past, and is part of the future, for every
generation which starts into life is only the corollary upon that which
expires, and the prelude of another which is about to be born. Life
is the school of death ; death is the foster-mother of life.
Life, however, does not always exhibit itself at the moment of its
formation. It is visible later, and only after other phenomena. In
order to develope itself, a suitable soil or other medium must be pre-
pared, and other determinate physical and chemical conditions provided.
The presence and diffusion of living beings are no chance products ; they
follow rigorously an order of law. Speaking of the higher forms of
animal life, the Duke of Argyll says, in his able and satisfactory work,
" The Reign of Law," " In all these there is an observed order in the
most rigid scientific sense, that is, phenomena in uniform connexion
and mutual relations which can be made, and are made, the basis of
systematic classification. These classifications are imperfect, not
because they are founded on ideal connexions where none exist, but
only because they fail in representing adequately the subtle and per-
vading order which binds together all living things."
The knowledge of fossils has thrown great light upon the regular
and progressive development of organization. The evolution of living
beings seems to have commenced with the more rudimentary forms ; the
more ancient rocks, until very recently, had revealed no traces of life,
and what has been revealed tends to confirm this view. In the Cam-
brian rocks of Bray Head, county Wicklow, the Oldhamia is a zoophyte
of the simplest organization, and the Rhizapods found near the bottom
of the Azoic rocks of Canada are the lowest form of living types;
G2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
and it is only in beds of comparatively recent formation that complex
organization exists. Vegetables first snow themselves, and even
among these the simplest forms have priority. Animals afterwards
appear, which, as we have seen, belong to the least perfect classes.
The combinations of life, at first simple, have become more and more
complex, until the creation of man, who may be considered the
masterpiece of organization.
If we expose a certain quantity of pure water to the light" and air
in the spring, we should soon see it producing shades of a yellowish or
greenish colour. These spots, examined through the microscope,
reveal thousands of vegetable agglomerates. Presently thousands of
animalcules appear, which swim about among the floating masses,
nourishing themselves with its substance. Other animalcules then
appear, which, in their turn, pursue and devour the first.
In short, life transforms inanimate into organized matter. Vege-
tables appear first, then come herbivorous animals, and then come the
carnivorous. Life maintains life. The death of one gives food and
development to others, for all are bound up together all assist at the
metamorphoses continually occurring in the organic as in the mineral
world, the result being general and profound harmony harmony
always worthy of admiration. The Creator alone is unchangeable,
omnipotent, and permanent ; all else is transition.
The inhabitants of the water are much more numerous than those
of the solid earth. " Upon a surface less varied than we find on
continents," says Humboldt, " the sea contains in its bosom an
exuberance of life of which no other portion of the globe could give us
any idea. It expands in the north as in the south ; in the east as in
the west. The seas, above all, abound with it ; in the bosom of the
deep, creatures corresponding and harmonizing with each other sport
and play. Among these especially the naturalist finds instruction,
and the philosopher subjects for meditation. The changes they
undergo only impress upon our minds more and more a sentiment of
thankfulness to the Author of the universe."
Yes, the ocean in its profoundest depths its plains and its moun-
tains, its valleys, its precipices, even in its ruins is animated and
embellished by innumerable organized beings. These are at first
plants, solitary or social, erect or drooping, spreading into prairies,
LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 63
grouped in patches, or forming vast forests in the oceanic valleys.
These submarine forests protect and nourish millions of animals which
creep, which run, which swim, which sink into the sands, attach
themselves to rocks, lodge themselves in crevices, which construct
dwellings for themselves, which seek for or fly from each other, which
pursue or fight, caress each other lovingly, or devour each other
without pity. Charles Darwin truly remarks somewhere that our
terrestrial forests do not maintain nearly so many living beings as
those which swarm in the bosom of the sea. The ocean, which for
man is the region of asphyxia and death, is for millions of animals the
region of life and health : there is enjoyment for myriads in its waves ;
there is happiness on its banks ; there is the blue above all.
The sea influences its numerous inhabitants, animal or vegetable,
by its temperature, by its density, by its saltness, by its bitterness, by
the never-ceasing agitation of its waves, and by the rapidity of its
currents.
We have seen in preceding chapters that the sea only freezes under
intense cold, and then only at the surface, and that at the depth of five
hundred fathoms the same permanent temperature exists in all
latitudes. On the other hand, it is agreed that the agitations produced
by the most violent storms are never felt beyond the depth of twelve
or thirteen fathoms. From this it follows that animals and vege-
tables, by descending more or less, according to the cold or disturbing
movements, can always reach a medium which agrees with their
constitutions.
The hosts of the sea are distinguished by a peculiar softness.
Certain pelagic plants present only a very weak, feeble consistence ;
a great number are transformed by ebullition into a sort of jelly.
The flesh of marine animals is more or less flaccid ; many seem to
consist of a diaphanous mucilage. The skeleton of the more perfect
species is more or less flexible and cartilaginous ; and it rarely attains,
as to weight and consistency, the strength of bone exhibited by
terrestrial vertebrate animals. Nevertheless, both the shells and coral
produced in the bosom of the ocean are remarkable for their stony
solidity. Among marine bodies, in short, we find at once the softest
and hardest of organized substances.
The separation of organized beings, nourished by the ocean, is
64 THE OCEAX WOKLD.
subjected to certain fixed laws. We never find on the coast, except
by evident accident, the same species that we meet with far from the
shore ; nor on the surface, creatures whose habits lead them to hide
in the depths of ocean. What immense varieties of size, shape, form,
and colour, from the nearly invisible vegetation which serves to
nourish the small zoophytes and mollusks, to the long, slender algaB
of fifty and even five hundred yards in length ! How vast the
disparity between the microscopic infusoria and the gigantic whale !
" We find in the sea," says Lacepede, " unity and diversity, which
constitute its beauty ; grandeur and simplicity, which give it sub-
limity ; puissance and immensity, which command our wonder."
In the following pages we shall figure and describe many inhabi-
tants of the sea ; but how many remain still to figure and describe !
During more than two thousand years research has been multiplied,
and succeeded by research without interruption. " But how vast the
field," as Lamarck observes, " which Science has still to cultivate, in
order to carry the knowledge already acquired to the degree of per-
fection of which it is susceptible !"
" When the tide retires from the shore, the sea leaves upon the
coast some few of the numberless beings which it bears in its bosom.
In the first moments of its retreat, the naturalist may collect a crowd
of substances, vegetable and animal, with their various characteristic
colours and properties. The inhabitants of the coast find there their
food, their commerce, and their occupations. At low water the
nearest villages and hamlets send their contingents, old and young,
men, women, and children, to the harvest. Some apply themselves to
gathering the riband seaweed (Zostera), the membranous Viva, the
sombre brown Fucus vesiculosus, formerly a source of great wealth to
the dwellers by the sea, being then much used in making kelp ; others
gather the small shells left on the sands ; boys mount upon the rocks
in search of whelks (Buccinum), mussels (Mytilus), detach limpets
(Patella), and other edible marine animals, from the rocks to which
they have attached themselves. On some coasts, shells, as Mactra,
Cytheria, and Bucardium, are sought for their beauty. By turning
the stones, or by sounding the crevices of the rocks with a hook at the
end of a lath, polypes and calmars are sometimes surprised sometimes
even sea and conger eels, which have sought refuge there ; while the
LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 65
pools, left here and there by the retiring tide, are dragged by nets of
very small mesh, in which the smaller crustaceous mollusks and small
fish are secured."
In the Mediterranean and other inland seas, where the tide is
almost inappreciable, there exist a great number of animals and
vegetables belonging to the deep sea, which the waves or currents
very rarely leave upon the sea shore. There are others so fugitive,
or which attach themselves so firmly to the rocks, that we can watch
them only in their habitats. It is necessary to study them floating
on the surface of the waves, or in their mysterious retirements. Hence
the necessity that naturalists should study the living productions of the
salt water even in the bosom of the ocean, and not on the sea shore.
The means generally employed for this purpose is a drag-net,
sounding-line, and other engines suitable for scraping the bottom, and
breaking the harder rocks. In a voyage which Milne Edwards made
to the coast of Sicily, he formed the idea of employing an apparatus
invented by Colonel Paulin, which consisted of a metallic casque pro-
vided with a visor of glass, and consequently transparent, which fixed
itself round the neck by means of a copper collar made water-tight by
stuffing a diving-bell, in short, in miniature. It communicated with
an air-pump by means of a flexible tube. Four men were employed
in serving the pump, two exercising it while the other two rested
themselves. Other men held the extremity of a cord, which was
passed over a pulley attached at a higher elevation, and enabled them
to hoist up the diver with the necessary rapidity in emergencies. A
vigilant observer held in his hand a small signal cord. The immersion
of the diver was facilitated by heavy leaden shoes, which assisted him at
the same time to maintain his vertical position at the bottom.
M. Edwards made the descent with this apparatus in three fathoms
water with perfect success. He was thus enabled to study, in their
most hidden and most inaccessible retreats, the radiate animals,
mollusks, crustaceans, and annelids, especially their larvss and eggs,
and by his descriptions to contribute most essentially to make known
the functions, manners, and mode of development of certain inhabitants
of the sea, whose sojourn and habits would seem to sequestrate them
for ever from our observation.
Another and easier mode of studying the living creatures sheltered
r
66 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
by the sea was first suggested by M. Charles des Moulins of Bordeaux,
in 1830. The aquarium, which is charged with fresh or salt water,
according to the beings it is intended to contain, serves the same
purpose for the inhabitants of the deep which the aviary does for the
birds of the air cages of glass being used in place of iron wire or
wicker-work, and water in place of atmospheric air.
When a globe is filled with fresh water, and with mollusks,
crustaceans, or fishes, it is observed, after a few days, that the water
loses its transparency and purity, and becomes slightly corrupt. It
necessarily follows that the water must be changed from time to time.
Changing the water, however, causes much suffering, and even death
to the animals. Besides, the new water does not always present the
same composition, the same aeration, or the same temperature with
that which is replaced. To obviate this defect, and taking a leaf out
of Nature's book, M. Moulins proposed to put into the vase a certain
number of aquatic plants floating or submerged duckweed, for
example which would apt upon the water in a direction inverse to
that of the animals inhabiting it. It is known that vegetables
.assimilate carbon, while decomposing the carbonic acid produced by
the respiration of animals, thus disengaging the oxygen indispensable
to animal life. In this simple manner was the necessary change of
water obviated. The same happy idea has been successfully applied
to salt water, and aquariums for salt-water plants and animals have
been proposed on a great scale. That of the Zoological Gardens of
Paris, in the Bois de Boulogne, inaugurated in 1861, is perhaps the
largest in the world. It is a solid stone building of fifty yards in
length by about twelve broad, presenting a range of forty reservoirs
of Angers slate, running north and south. The reservoirs are nearly
cubical, presenting in front the strong glass of Saint Gobain, which
permits of the interior being seen. They are lighted from above ;
but the light is weak, greenish, uniform, and consequently mysterious
and gloomy, giving a pretty exact imitation of the submarine light
some fathoms down. Each reservoir contains about two hundred
gallons of water. It is furnished with rocks disposed a little in the
form of an amphitheatre, and in a picturesque manner. Upon the
rocks various species of marine vegetables are planted. The bottom
is of shingle, gravel, and sand, in order to give certain animals a
sufficiently natural retreat.
LIFE IN THE OCEAN. 67
Ten of these reservoirs are intended for marine animals. The
water employed is never changed, but it is kept in continual agitation
by circulation, produced by a current of water led from the great pipe
which feeds the Bois de Boulogne. This water, being subjected to a
strong pressure, compresses a certain portion of air, which, being per-
mitted to act on a portion of the sea water contained in a closed
cylinder placed below the level of the aquarium, makes it ascend, and
enter with great force into a reservoir, into which it is thrown from a
small jet. The sea water thus pressed absorbs a portion of the air,
which is drawn with it into the reservoir. A tube placed in a corner
of the reservoir receives the overflow, and conducts it into a closed
carbon filter, whence it passes into a gravelly underground reservoir,
returning again to the closed cylinder. The water is once more
subjected to the pressure of air, and again ascends to the aquarium.
The cylinder being underground, a temperature equal to about
sixteen degrees Cent., which is nearly the uniform temperature of
the ocean, is easily maintained. During winter, the aquarium is
heated artificially.
r 2
68 THE OCEAN WOULD.
CHAPTEE IV.
ZOOPHYTES.
" Nature is nowhere more perfect than in her smaller works."
" Natura nusquam magis qvuliu in minirais tola est." FLINT.
IT will not be out of place here to offer some remarks on animals in
general, including the whole kingdom as well as the great divisions
which form the subject of this particular volume. But considering
the vastness of the subject, and our imperfect knowledge of the whole
animal series as a subject of study, nothing is more difficult than to
seize upon the real analogies between beings, of types so varied, of
organizations so dissimilar. The arrangements which naturalists have
established in order to study and describe animals the divisions, classes,
orders, families, genera, and species are admirable contrivances for
facilitating the study of creatures numerous as the sands of the sea
shore. Without this precious means of logical distribution, the indi-
vidual mind would recoil before the task of describing the innumerable
phalanges of contemporary animal life. But the reader must never
forget that these methodical divisions are pure fictions, due to human
invention : they form no part of nature ; for has not Linnaeus told us
that nature makes no leaps, natura non facit saltus ? Nature passes
in a manner almost insensibly from one stage of organization to
another, altogether irrespective of human systems.
Moreover, when we come to watch the confines of the animal and
vegetable kingdom, we realise how difficult it is to seize the precise
line of demarcation which separates the great kingdoms of Nature.
We have seen in the "Vegetable World" germs of the simplest
organization, as in the Cryptogamia, spores, as in the Algao, and
ZOOPHYTES. G9
fruitful corpuscles, as in the Mosses, which seem to be invested -with
some of the characteristics of animal life, for they appear to be gifted
with organs of locomotion, namely, vibratile cilia, by means of which
they execute movements which are to all appearance quite voluntary.
Side by side with these are vegetable germs and fecundating corpuscles,
known as antherozoides among the Algae, Mosses, and Ferns, which,
when floating in water, go and come like the inferior animals, seeking
to penetrate into cavities, withdrawing themselves, returning again,
and again introducing themselves, and exhibiting all the signs of an
apparent effort. Let us compare the Infusoria, or even the Polypi
and Gorgons, with these shifting vegetable organisms, and say
if it is easy to determine, without considerable study, which is
the plant and which the animal. The precise line of demarcation
which it is so desirable to establish between the two kingdoms of
Nature is indeed difficult to trace.
The word zoophyte, to which this comparison introduces us, seems
very happily applied : it is derived from the Greek word f<5W,
animal, and (frvrov, plant ; and is, as it seems to us, quite worthy
of being retained in Science, because it consecrates and materialises,
so to speak, a sort of fusion between the two kingdoms of Nature
at their confines. Let us guard ourselves, however, from carrying
this idea too far, and, upon the faith of a happy word, altering alto-
gether the true relations of created beings. In adopting the name
zoophyte, to indicate a great division of the animal kingdom, the
reader must not imagine that there is any ambiguity about the
creatures designated, or that they belong at once to both kingdoms,
or that they might be ranged indifferently in the one or the other.
Zoophytes are animals, and nothing but animals ; the justification for
using a designation which signifies animal-plant is, that many of them
have an exterior resemblance to plants ; that they divide themselves
by offshoots, as some plants do, and are sometimes crowned with
organs tinted with lively colours, like some flowers.
This analogy between plants and zoophytes is nowhere more appa-
rent than in the coral. Kooted in the soil and upon rocks, the form of
its branches many times subdivided, above all, the coloured appendages
which At certain periods so closely resemble the corolla of a flower,
have all the form and appearance of plants. Until the eighteenth
century most naturalists classed the coral as Linnaeus did, without the
70 THE OCEAN WORLD.
least hesitation, with analogous creations in the vegetable world.
Keaumur long contended for the contrary opinion ; but it is only in
our day that the animal nature of the coral is satisfactorily esta-
blished. The sea anemone may be cited as another striking example
of the resemblance borne by certain inferior organisms to vegetables.
We hold, then, that we are justified in using the word zoophyte to
designate the beings which now occupy our attention.
We shall not surprise our readers by telling them that the structure
of the zoophyte, especially in its inferior orders, is excessively simple.
They are the first steps in the scale of animal life, and in them a purely
rudimentary organization was to be expected. In these beings true
types of animal life the several parts of the body, in place of being dis-
posed in pairs on each side of its longitudinal plane, as occurs in animals
of a higher organization, are found to radiate habitually round an axis or
central point, and this whether in its adult or juvenile state. Zoophytes
have not generally an articulate skeleton, either exterior or interior, and
their nervous system, where it exists, is very slightly developed. The
organs of the senses, other than those of touch, are altogether absent
in the greater part of beings which belong to this, the lowest class of
the last division of the animal kingdom.
Several questions arise here : Has the zoophyte sentiment, feeling,
perception ? Has it consciousness, sense, sensibility ? The question
is insoluble; it is an abyss of obscurity. The coral, or rather the
aggregation of living beings which bear the name, are attached to the
rock which has seen their birth, and which will witness their death :
the infusoria, of microscopic dimensions, which revolve perpetually in a
circle mfinitesimaUy small ; the Amoebae, the marvellous Proteus, which
in the space of a minute changes its form a hundred times under the
surprised eyes of the observer, are, in truth, mere atoms charged with
life. Yet all these beings have an existence to appearance purely vege-
tative. In their obscure and blind impulse, have they consciousness or
instinct ? Do they know what takes place at the three-thousandth
part of an inch from their microscopic bodies ? To the Creator alone
does the knowledge of this mystery belong.
It would be foreign to the object of this work to enter into* minute
division of the innumerable creatures which swarm on the ocean and
on its confines. We shall perhaps best consult the convenience of
ZOOPHYTES. 71
our readers by adopting the following simple arrangement of these
animals into
I. PROTOZOA, including the Spongiadse, Infusoria, and Fora-
minifera.
II. POLYPIFERA, including the Hydrse, Sertularia, and Penna-
tularise.
III. ECHINODERMATA, or Sea-urchins and Star-fishes.
Our space will prevent our doing more than presenting to the
reader in succession the most characteristic types of each of these
groups.
I. THE PEOTOZOA.
The Protozoares represent animal life reduced to its most simple
expression. They are organized atoms, mere animated and moving
points, living sparks. As they are the simplest forms of animal life
as regards their structure, so also they are the smallest. Their micro-
scopic dimensions hide them from our view. The discovery of the
microscope was a necessary step to our becoming acquainted with
these beings, whose existence was ignored by the ancient world, and only
revealed in the seventeenth century by the discovery of the microscope.
When armed with this marvellous instrument, applied to examine
the various liquid mediums as when Leuwenhoek, for example, ap-
plied the magnifying glass to the inspection of stagnant water, with
its infusions of macerated vegetable and animal substances when he
scrutinized a drop of water borrowed from the ocean, from rivers, or
from lakes, he discovered there a new world a world which will be
unveiled in these pages.
Some modern writers believe that the Protozoa is a mere cellular
organism, that being the principle and end of organization, such as
we find it in the cellular vegetable. According to this hypothesis, the
Protozoares would be the cellulars of the animal kingdom, as the Algae
and Mushrooms are of the vegetable world. This idea is so far
wrong, that it has been founded upon the empire of pure theory.
" In reality," says Paul Gervais and Yan Beneden, " the animals to
which we extend it very rarely resemble elementary cellulars." The
tissue of which the bodies of the Protozoa are composed is habitually
destitute of cellular structure. They are formed of a sort of animated
jelly, amorphous and diaphanous, and have received from Dujardin
the name of Sarcoda, or soft-fleshed animals.
72 THE OCEAN WOULD.
Infinitely varied in their form, the Protozoares are furnished with
vilratile cilia, which are organs of locomotion belonging to the lower
annuals inhabiting the liquid element. Their bodies are sometimes
naked, sometimes covered with a siliceous, chalky, or membranous
cuirass. They are divided into two great classes, the Rliizopoda and
Infusoria.
SPONGIA.
The Sponge is a natural production, which has been known from
times of the highest antiquity. Aristotle, Pliny, and all other writers
who occupied themselves with natural history in ancient times, are
agreed in according to it a sensitive life. They recognize the curious
fact that the sponge evades the hand which tries to seize it, and
clings to the rocks on which it is rooted, as if it would resist the
efforts made to detach it. Pliny, Dioscorides, and their commentators,
even formed the idea that sponges were capable of feeling, that they
adhered to their native rock by special force, and that they shrunk
from the hand which tried to seize them. They even distinguished
males from females. Erasmus, however, criticising Pliny, concludes
that he may pass over all he has written upon the sponge. The
sponge, in short, was to the ancients something between a plant and
an animal.
Eondelet, the friend of the celebrated Eabelais, whom the merry
curate of Meudon designated under the name of Eondibilis, who was
himself a physician and naturalist of Montpellier, denied at first the
existence of sensibility in sponges. He originated the idea that these
productions belonged to the vegetable world an idea which Tourne-
fort, Gaspard Bauhin, Key, and even Linnaeus, in the first editions of
his "Systems Naturae," supported by the great authority of their
names. Afterwards, influenced by the convincing labours of Trembley
and some other observers, Linnaeus withdrew the sponges from the
vegetable world. He satisfied himself, in short, that certain poly-
piers much resembled sponges in the nature of their parenchyma, and
that, on the other hand, the assimilation of sponges with plants was
not such as could be maintained. Neuremberg, Peyssonnel, and
Trembley maintain the animal nature of sponges, and their views are
adopted by Linnaeus, Guettard, Donati, Lamouroux, and Ehrenberg
on the Continent, and by Ellis, Fleming, and Grant in England.
SPONGIA. 73
They live at the bottom of the seas in five to twenty-five fathoms of
water, among the clefts and crevices of the rocks, always adhering
and attaching themselves, not only to inorganic bodies, but even
growing on vegetables and animals, spreading, erect, or pendent,
according to the body which supports them and their natural habit.
The power of fixing themselves to other objects, which certain
animals possess, is very singular. Nevertheless, it is certain that
whole tribes exist consisting of innumerable strictly adherent species,
which live and die attached to some rock or other object ; and among
these are all polypiers, such as the sponges and corallines. It follows
that they are wholly dependent on external agencies for their means
of existence. " The poor little creatures," says Alfred Fredol, " re-
ceive their nourishment from the wave which washes past them ;
they inhale and respire the bitter water all their lives; they are
insensible to that which is only the hundredth part of an inch from
their mouth."
In the months of April and May, these animalcules engender
germs, round, yellow, or white, whence proceed certain ovoid granular
embryos furnished towards their largest extremity with small vibratile
cilia. They are thrown off by the currents, which serve as a stomach,
and form swarms of larvae round the polypier. They swim about
with a gliding wavy motion, and when they have been some time in
the water they usually come to the surface ; but they are also often
carried off by the current. During two or three days they seem to
seek a convenient place to fix themselves. Once fixed, the larvae
loses the cilia, spreads itself out, and takes the form of a flattened
gelatinous disk.
Its interior organization consists of contractile cellules and numerous
spiculae " a tribe," says Gosse, " of the most debateable forms of life,
long denied a right to stand in the animal ranks at all, and even still
admitted there doubtingly and grudgingly by some excellent natura-
lists. Yet such they certainly are, established beyond reasonable
controversy as true and proper examples of animal life."
It may, then, be safely asserted that all naturalists are now satisfied
of the animal nature of sponges, although they represent the lowest
and most obscure grade of animal existence, and that so close to the
confines of the vegetable world, that it is difficult in some species to
determine whether they are on the one side or the other. " Several
74 THE OCEAN WOELD.
of them, however," says Mr. Gosse, " if viewed with a lens under
water while in a living state, display vigorous currents constantly
pouring forth from certain orifices ; and we necessarily infer that the
water thus ejected must he constantly taken in through some other
channel. On tearing the mass open, we see that the whole substance
is perforated in all directions hy irregular canals, leading into each
other, of which some are slender, and communicate with the surface
hy minute hut numerous pores, and others are wide, and open hy
ample orifices ; through the former the water is admitted, through
the latter it is ejected." It is not to be denied, however, that these
beings constitute, in spite of investigations of modern naturalists, a
group still somewhat problematical, and still very imperfectly known
as regards their internal organization.
Sponges are masses of a light elastic tissue, which is, at the same
time, resistant, full of air-cells, and with much varied exterior arrange-
ments. Nearly three hundred species are known, the different
appearances of which have been characterised by names more or less
singular. There is, for instance, the Feather Sponge, the Fan
Sponge, the Bell, the Lyre, the Trumpet, the Distaff, the Peacock
Tail, and Neptune's Grlove.
There are river sponges and sea sponges.
The first are irregular and arenaceous masses, which pile them-
selves upon plants and solid bodies immerged in fresh water. Such
are the spongilles, upon which anatomic and embryonic observations
have very frequently been made in relation to the group more im-
mediately under consideration.
The second is found in almost every sea ; especially are they found
in the Mediterranean, the Eed Sea, and the Mexican Gulf. Affecting
warm and quiet waters, they attach themselves to bold and rugged
rocks at depths ranging from five to twenty-five fathoms. They are
erect, pendent, or spreading, according to their form or position.
Fig. 10, drawn from Nature, represents a very remarkable form of
sponge, which was fished up in sixty fathoms.
The sponge is very common in the Mediterranean and round the
Grecian Archipelago, and is known vulgarly under the name of the
Marine Mushroom, the Sailor's Nest, and the fine soft sponge of
Syria. It is a mass more or less rounded, covered with a mucous bed,
glutinous above, formed of a light elastic but resisting tissue full of
SPONG1A.
75
gaps, and riddled with air-cells. This tissue is formed of delicate
flexible fibres, uniting in all directions by anastomosis, but presenting
numerous pores, which are formed by what is termed osculation,
Fig. 10. Spongia, half the natural size, attached to its rocky bed.
having irregular conduits which connect them. In this tissue certain
very small solid bodies are discovered, named spiculse. The spiculse
are siliceous or calcareous in their nature, varying according to the
76 THE OCEAN WORLD.
species, and sometimes varying even in the same species. Some of
these resemble needles, others are pin-like, and others again resemble
very small stars.
The physiological function of those tubes and orifices which present
themselves on all parts of the sponge has been interpreted in various
ways. Ellis, writing in 1765, supposes that they were the orifices of
the cells occupied by the polypi. In 1816, Lamarck still advocated
this opinion; and even now we find the observer, whose notes
M. Fre"dol has edited with so much judgment, asserting that " the
inhabitants of the sponge are a species of fleeting, transparent, gela-
tinous tube, susceptible of extension and contraction ; young polypes,
as we may call them, without consistence, without cilia; incipient
polypes, in short, of very simple but sufficient organization. The
animalcule of the sponge is a stomach, without arms, very simple,
very elementary in short, an animal all stomach !"
This mode of considering the sponge is not conformable to the
views of the leaders of modern science, however. Mr. Milne Edwards,
for instance, in place of seeing in the sponge a collection of united
beings, forming as it were a colony, considers each to be an isolated
being, an unique individual. The innumerable canals by which the
sponge is traversed, according to that author, are at once the digestive
organs and breathing pores of the zoophyte. The vibratile cilia are
necessary to the renewed aeration of the water required as a respiratory
fluid in the interior canals of the sponge. The currents in these
channels have one constant direction. The water penetrates the
sponge by numerous orifices of minute dimensions and irregular dis-
position \ it traverses channels in the body of the zoophyte, which
reunite somewhat like the root of a plant, in order to constitute the
trunk and increase its substance ; finally, the water makes its escape
by special openings. According to this view, the channels of the sponge
have a kind of cumulative physiology, performing the two functions of
digestion and respiration. The rapid currents of aerated water which
traverse them lead into them the substances necessary to the nourish-
ment of these strange creatures, rejecting all excremental matter. At
the same time, the walls of these canals present a large absorbing
surface which separates the oxygen with which the water is charged,
and disengages the carbonic acid which results from respiration.
Sponges contain true eggs, from which embryo polyps are
SPONGIA. 77
produced ; these have not cilia at first. In the interior of these eggs
the contractile cellules have their hirth ; then the spiculse ; and when
they are finally covered with the vihratile cilia, aided by them these
larvfe of ovoid form swim, or rather glide, through the water. The
species of infusoria horn of the sponge resemble the larvae of various
polypes at the moment they issue from the egg. " They soon attach
themselves to some foreign body," says Mr. Milne Edwards, "and
become henceforth immovable; no longer giving signs either of
sensibility or of contractibility, while in their enlargement they are
completely transformed. The gelatinous substance of their bodies is
channeled and riddled with holes the fibrous framework is completed
the sponge is formed."
We may add, however, that other zoologists, and among them
MM. Paul Gervais and Yan Beneden, take a different view of the
development of the sponges, and Dr. Johnston omits them altogether
from his great work on " British Zoophytes." " If they are not the
production of polypi," he says, " the zoologist who retains them in his
province must contend that they are individually animals, an opinion
to which I cannot assent, seeing that they have no animal structure
or individual organs, and exhibit not one function usually supposed to
be characteristic of the animal kingdom." Gervais and Van Beneden
consider, as Milne Edwards does, that the embryos are at 'first
movable, then fixed, many of them uniting together, and melting, as
it were, into one common colony, which become a sponge, such as we
see it. An isolated embryo might also, by throwing out germs, pro-
duce a similar colony, which would thus become a product of agamous
generation. Thus it appears that Science is far from being settled in
its views as to the organization and development of these obscure and
complex formations ; nor is it more advanced in its knowledge of the
duration of life and the quickness of growth in sponges. It is agreed,
however, on one point namely, that the sponge-fisher may return
to the same fishing- ground after three years from the last fishing.
At the present time sponge-fishing takes' place principally in the
Grecian Archipelago and the Syrian littoral. The Greeks and Syrians
sell the product of their fishing to the Western nations, and the trade
has been immensely extended in recent times, when the sponge has
become an almost necessary adjunct of the toilet as well as the stable,
and in other cleansing operations.
78 THE OCEAN WOULD.
Fishing usually commences towards the beginning of June on the
coast of Syria, and finishes at the end of October. But the months
of July and August are peculiarly favourable to the sponge harvest,
if we may use the term. Latakia furnishes about ten boats to the
fishery, Batroun twenty, Tripoli twenty-five to thirty, Kalld fifty,
Simi about a hundred and seventy to a hundred and eighty, and
Kalminos more than two hundred. The operations of one of these
boats fishing for sponges on the Syrian coast is represented in
Plate II.
The boat's crew consists of four or five men, who scatter themselves
along the coast for two or three miles in search of sponges under the
cliffs and ledges of rock. Sponges of inferior quality are gathered in
shallow waters. The finer kinds are found only at a depth of from
twelve to twenty fathoms. The first are fished for with three-
toothed harpoons, by the aid of which they are torn from their native
rock; but not without deteriorating them more or less. The finer
kinds of sponges, on the other hand, are collected by divers aided by
a knife ; they are carefully detached. Thus the price of a sponge
brought up by diving is much more considerable than that of a
harpooned sponge. Among divers, those of Kalminos and of Psara
are particularly renowned. They will descend to the depth of twenty-
five fathoms, remain down a shorter time than the Syrian divers, and
yet bring up a more abundant harvest. The fishing of the Archipelago
furnishes few fine sponges to commerce, but a great quantity of very
common ones. The Syrian fisheries furnish many of the finer kinds,
which find a ready market in France ; they are of medium size. On
the other hand, those which are furnished from the Barbary coast are
of great dimensions, of a very fine tissue, and much sought for in
England. On the Bahama banks, and in the Gulf of Mexico, the
sponges grow in water of small depth. The fishermen, Spanish,
American, and English, sink a long mast or perch into the water
moored near the boat, down which they drop upon the sponges ; by
this means they are easily gathered.
In the Bed Sea, the Arabs fish for sponges by diving, their produce
being either sold to the English at Aden or sent to Egypt. Sponge-
fishing is carried on at various other stations in the Mediterranean,
but without any intelligent direction, and in consequence it is effected
without any conservative foresight. At the same time, however, the
Pluto II. Sponge Fishing on the Coast of Syria.
SPONGIA. 79
trade in this product goes on increasing. But it is only a question of
time when the trade shall cease ; the demand which every year clears
the submarine fields of these zoophytes causes such destruction that
their reproduction will soon cease to he equal to the demand.
In order to prevent this troublesome result, it is very desirable that
the several species of sponges should be naturalized on the French
and Algerian coast, and the cultivation and reproduction of the
zoophyte protected. For this purpose, the rocky coasts of the Medi-
terranean, from Cape Cruz to Nice, and round the islands of Corsica
and Hyeres, in the Algerian waters, and even some of the salt lakes
of the departments near the Mediterranean, might be utilized. The
whole of the Italian littoral would also be available under the new
regime for this purpose.
M. Lamiral considered that the composition of the water of the
Mediterranean being thought the same on the coast of France, of
Algeria, and on the Syrian coast, that the difference of temperature
between the two latitudes especially at the depth where the sponges
flourish most would not interfere with the existence of these robust
zoophytes, and that their acclimatization on the coasts of France and
Algeria would be a certain success. He remarked, moreover, that the
more the sponges advanced towards the north, the finer and compacter
their tissues became ; and he argued from this fact, that a considerable
improvement in the quality would result from the experiment.
The only difficulty, then, would consist in the transplanting sponges
from Syrian waters to the coasts of France and Algeria. A submarine
boat, such as M. Lamiral makes use of for operations conducted in
deep water, would, according to this naturalist, give every facility for
collecting sponges for the purpose. This boat can descend to great
depths, and its crew can dwell there a considerable time, for it is con-
tinually fed with fresh air from above, which is conveyed by an air-
pump and tube into the interior of the boat, so that the men could
readily select such individuals as were suited for acclimatizing;
removing the blocks of rock along with them, either by placing them
in cases pierced with holes, or by towing them to their new abode.
Everything seems to promise that in the following year the zoophytes
would begin to multiply in their new country.
The larvae might also be collected in the months of April and May,
as they separate from the parent sponge, and be transplanted to
80 THE OCEAN WORLD.
favourable localities. At the end of three years, when these true
submarine fields would be ripe for harvesting, they could be put in
train for methodical collection by means of diving boats.
The toilet sponge is an article which produces a high price, often
as much as forty shillings the pound for very choice specimens, a price
which few commercial products attain, which prohibits its use, in
short, to all but the wealthy. It is, therefore, very desirable to carry
out the submarine enterprise of M. Lamiral. With the assistance of
the Acclimatization Society of Paris, some experiments have already
been made in this direction so far without any satisfactory results, it
is true, but everything indicates that by perseverance we shall see the
enterprise crowned by the success it merits.
Such specimens as now reach our ports are chiefly distinguished by
their appearance, quality, and origin.
The fine soft Syrian sponge is distinguished by its lightness, its
fine flaxen colour, its form, which is that of a cup, its surface con-
vex, voluted, pierced with innumerable small orifices, the concave part
of which presents canals of much greater diameter, which are prolonged
to the exterior surface in such a manner that the summit is nearly
always pierced throughout in many places. This sponge is sometimes
blanched by the aid of caustic substances, acids, or alkalies ; but this
preparation shortens its duration and changes its colour. This sponge
is specially employed for the toilet, and its price is high. Those
which are round-shaped, large, and soft, sometimes produce as much
as five or six pounds.
The Fine Sponge of the Archipelago is scarcely distinguishable
from that of Syria, either before or after being cleansed ; nevertheless,
it is weightier, its texture is not so fine, and the holes with which it is
pierced are at once larger and less in number. It is nearly of the
same country as the former, in fact, the fishing extending along the
Syrian coast as well as the littoral of Barbary and the Archipelago.
The Fine Hard Sponge, called Greek, is less sought for than either
of the preceding ; it is useful for domestic and for certain industrial
purposes. Its mass is irregular, its colour fauve ; it is hard and com-
pact, and pierced with small holes n
The White Sponge of Syria, called Venetian, is esteemed for its
lightness, the regularity of its form, and its solidity. In its rough
state it is brown in colour, of a fine texture, compact and firm.
SPONGIA.
81
Purified, it becomes flaxen and of a looser texture. The orifice of the
great channels which traverse it are edged with rough and bristly hairs.
The Brown Barbary Sponge, called the Marseileise, when first taken
out of the water, presents itself as an elongated flattened body, gela-
tinous, round in shape, and charged with blackish mud. It is then hard,
heavy, coarse, but compact, and of a reddish colour. By a simple wash-
ing in water it becomes round, still remaining heavy and reddish. It
presents many gaps, the intervals of which are occupied by a sinuous and
(From Dr. Grant.)
Fig. 11. Spongia oculata, showing the orifices and currents outwards. 2. Anastomosing horny sub-
stance of Spongia communis. 3. Siliceous spiculum of S. papillaris. 4. Of S. cineria. 5. S. panicea.
6. Calcareous spiculum of S. compressa. 1, Transverse section of a canal of S. papillaris, showing the
structure of the ova passing along the canal. 8. Ovum of S. panicea seen laterally the cilia? anterior.
9. The same seen on the end, with a circle produced by the ciliary action. 10. Young Spongia papillaris.
tenacious network. It is valuable for domestic use, because of the
facility with which it absorbs water, and its great strength.
Other sorts of sponges are very abundant. The Blonde Sponge of
the Archipelago, often confounded with the Venetian; the Hard
Barbary Sponge, called Gelina, which only comes by accident into
France; the Salonica Sponge is of middling quality; finally, the
Bahama Sponge, from the Antilles, is wanting in flexibility and a little
hard, and so is sold at a low price, having few useful properties to re-
commend it.
82 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Many species of Spongia are described as inhabiting British seas,
but none of any commercial value. Kegarding them as apolypiferous
zoophytes, Dr. Grant has pointed out certain principles of analysis
on which they may be grouped, according to the arrangement of the
horny fibres, the calcareous and siliceous spiculse, and the distribution
and formation of their pores and orifices.
I. GEOUPS OF WHICH THE CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE IS KNOWN.
Spongia. Mass soft, elastic, more or less irregular in shape, very
porous, traversed by many tortuous canals, which terminate at the
surface in distinct orifices. Substance of the skeleton cartilaginous,
fibres anastomosed in all directions, without any earthy spicula.
Example, 8. communis (Fig. 11 [2]).
Caloispongia (Blainville). Mass rigid or slightly elastic, of irregular
form, porous, traversed by irregular canals, which terminate on the sur-
face in distinct orifices; skeleton cartilaginous, fibres strengthened
by calcareous spicula, often tri-radiate. Example, 8. compressa
(Fig. 11 [6]).
Halispongia (Blainville). Mass more or less rigid or friable, irre-
gular, porous, traversed by tortuous irregular canals, which terminate
at the surface in distinct orifices; substance cartilaginous, fibres
strengthened by siliceous spicula, generally fusiform or cylindrical.
Example, S. papillaris (Grant) (Fig. 11 [3]).
Spongilla (Lamarck). Mass more or less rigid or friable, irregular?
porous, but not furnished with regular orifices or internal canals.
Example, S. fluviatalis (Linn.).
II. GROUPS DEPENDING ON CHARACTERS OF SURFACE OR
GENERAL FIGURE.
Geodia (Lamarck). Fleshy mass, tuberous, irregular, hollow
within, externally incrusted by a porous envelope, which bears a
series of orifices in a small tubercular space. Example, G. gibberosa
(Schmeiger).
Coeloptychium (Goldfuss). Mass fixed, pedicled, the upper part
expanded, agariciform, concave, and radiato-porose above, flat and
radiato-sulcate below; substance fibrous. Example, C. agarisidioi-
deum (Goldfuss). Fossils from the chalk of Westphalia.
KHIZOPODA. 83
Sipkonia (Parkinson). Mass polymorphous, free or fixed, ramose or
simple, concave or fistulous above, porous at the surface, and penetrated
by anastomosing canals, which terminate in sub-radiating orifices within
the cup.
Myrmecmm (Goldfuss). Mass sub-globular, sessile, of a close fibrous
texture, forming ramified canals which radiate from the base to the
circumference. Summit with a central pit
ScypJiia (Oken). Mass cylindrical, simple, or branched, fistulous,
ending in a large rounded pit, and composed entirely of a reticulated
tissue.
Eudea (Lamouroux). Mass filiform, attenuated, sub-pedicellate at
one end, enlarged and rounded at the other, with a large terminal pit ;
surface reticulated by irregular lacunae, minutely porous.
Halirrhoa (Lamouroux). Mass turbinated, nearly regular, circular,
or lobate ; surface porous ; a large central pit on the upper face.
Happalimus (Lamouroux). Mass fungiform, pedicellate below, ex-
panding conically, with a central pit above ; surface porous and irre-
gularly excavated.
Cnemidium (Goldfuss). Mass turbinate, sessile, composed of close
fibres and horizontal canals, diverging from the centre to the circum-
ference ; a central pit on the upper surface, cariose in the exterior and
radiate at the margin.
lerea (Lamouroux). Mass ovoid, sub-pedicellate, finely porous;
pierced on the upper part by many orifices, the terminations of the
internal tubes.
Tethium (Lamarck). Mass sub-globose, tuberose, composed of a
cariose firm substance, strengthened by abundance of siliciary spicula,
fasciculated, and diverging from the centre to the circumference.
RHIZOPODA.
Gervais and Van Beneden include under the name of RMzopods, or
foot-rooted animals (so called fromptfa, root; TTOU?, TroSo?, footed ani-
mals), those of the simplest organization, which may be characterised
by the absence of distinct digestive cavities, and the presence of vibratile
cilia, as well as by the soft parts of their tissues. This tissue emits
prolongations or filaments which admit of easy extension, sometimes
simple, sometimes branching. Occasionally we see these branching
filaments withdraw themselves towards the mass of the body, disappear,
*G 2
4 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
and gradually melt into its substance in such a manner that the indi-
vidual seems to absorb and devour itself. If, in exceptional cases,
some of the superior animals, as the wolf, devour each other, the rhizo-
pods go much farther : they devour themselves, so to speak !
The rhizopods are found both in fresh and salt water. They live,
as parasites, on the body of worms and other articulated animals. The
class is divided into many orders. We shall speak here only of three,
namely, the Amoebss, Foraminifera, and Noctiluca.
In nearly all ancient animal and vegetable infusions, not quite
putrid upon all oozy beds covering bodies which have remained for
some time in fresh or sea water we find the singular beings which
belong to this order. They are the simplest organisms in creation,
being reduced to a mere drop of living matter. Their bodies are
formed of a gelatinous substance, without appreciable organization.
The quantity of matter which forms them is so infinitesimal, that it
becomes incredibly diaphanous, and so transparent that the eye, armed
with the microscope, traverses it in all directions, so that it is necessary
to modify the nature of the liquid in which it is held in suspension,
and introduce the phenomenon of refraction in order to observe them.
It would be difficult to say exactly what is the form these creatures
assume. They frequently have the appearance of small rounded
masses, like drops of water ; but, whatever their form may be, it is
always so unstable, that it changes, so to speak, every moment, so
that it is found impossible to make a drawing from the model under
the microscope the design must be finished by an appeal to memory.
This instability is the characteristic manifestation of life in the Amoebte,
which are naked beings, without apparent organization ; in fact, they
occupy the first step in the scale of creation.
The transparent immovable drop under consideration emits an ex-
pansion, and a lobe of a vitreous appearance upon its circumference,
which, gliding like a drop of oil upon the object-glass of the microscope,
begins by fixing itself to it as a supporting point, afterwards slowly
attracting to itself the whole mass, and thus gradually increasing its
bulk under the observer's eye.
The Amoebte, according to their dimensions and degree of develop-
AM.CEBM. 85
ment, successively emit a greater or smaller number of lobes, none of
which are precisely alike, but, after having appeared for an instant, each
successively re-enters into the common mass, with which it becomes
completely incorporated. Variable in their respective forms, these lobes
present appearances quite different in the several genera. They are
more or less lengthy, more or less fringed, and often branching ; some-
times they are filiform, sprouting in all directions over the animal
mass, which rolls in the liquid like the husk of a small chestnut.
If we ask how these animals are nourished, in which no digestive
apparatus can be distinguished, the question is difficult to answer.
It is thought that they are nourished by simple absorption, and by
absorption only. In the interior of the gelatinous mass which constitutes
the animals, however, granules and microscopic portions of vegetables
are frequently discovered. " We can conceive," says Dujardin, " how
these objects have penetrated to the interior, if we remark, on the one
hand, that in creeping on the surface of the glass, to which they adhere
very exactly, the Amoebse can be made to receive, by pressure, foreign
substances into their own bodies, by means of the alternate contrac-
tion and extension of the various parts natural to them, and, on the
other hand, that the gelatinous mass is susceptible of spontaneous
depressions here and there near to or even at the surface of the
spherical cavities, which successively contract themselves and disappear
in connection with the strange body which they have absorbed."
The Amoebss are often observed to be tinted red or green ; this
arises from the special colouring matter which has been absorbed into
its mass.
The question arises, How do these creatures, so simple in their
organization, propagate their species ?
We believe that they are chiefly multiplied by parting with a lobe,
which, in certain conditions, is enabled to live an independent exist-
ence, and develop itself, thus forming a new individual. This is what
naturalists term generation by division fissiparism or fission. The
absence of a nutritive and reproductive apparatus in the Amoebse, and
the want of stability in their forms, explain how nearly impossible
it is to characterise as species the numerous individuals daily met
with in infusions of organic matter in stagnant water. In order to
distinguish some of the groups, Dujardin bases his descriptions upon
their size and the general form into which they expand.
THE OCEAN WOELD.
We shall be able to form some idea of the appearance of these
beings, rendered mysterious by their very simplicity, by throwing
a glance upon the two accompanying figures (Figs. 12 and 13),
borrowed from the Atlas of Dujardin's great work, "Les Zoophytes
Infusoires," which we shall have occasion to quote more than
once.
We have said that the Amoebae change their form every few
moments under the eyes of the
observer. Fig. 13 represents
the changes of form through
which they pass, according to
Dujardin, when examined under
the microscope.
Dujardin points out very
clearly the identity of structure
between organisms like Amoebte
and such forms as Difflugia
and Arcella. All these crea-
tures are without trace of mouth
or digestive cavity, and the
entire body is a single cell,
or aggregation of cells, which
receive their nutriment by
absorption ; for, although the creatures have neither mouth nor
stomach, yet, according to Professor Kolliker, they take in solid nutri-
ment, and reject what is indigestible.
When in its progress through the water
one f these minute organisms ap-
proaches one of the equally minute
Algae, from which it draws nourish-
ment, it seizes the plant with its
tentacular filaments, which it gradually
encloses on all sides; the filaments, to
a11 appearance, becoming more or less
shortened in the process. In this way
the captive is brought close to the surface of the body ; a cavity is thus
formed, in which the prey is lodged, which closes round it on all
sides. In this situation it is gradually drawn towards the centre, and
Fig. 12. Amcebse princeps (Ehrenberg),
magnified 100 times.
F01UMINIFERA. 87
passes at last entirely into the mass. The engulfed morsel is gradually
dissolved and digested.
FORAMINIFERA.
There is nothing small in Nature. The idea of littleness or great-
ness is a human conception a comparison which is suggested by the
dimensions of his own organs. Nature, on the other hand, compen-
sates smallness by numbers. The result produced by the bones of
some large animals is also accomplished by the accumulated spoils of
millions of animalcules. The history of the Foraminifera is a striking
example of this great truth.
What, then, is a Foraminifer ? It is a very small zoophyte, a shell
nearly invisible to the naked eye ; for, in general, its dimensions
rarely exceed the two hundredth part of an inch ; in short, it is
strictly microscopic. Examine under a microscope the sand of the
ocean, and it will be found that one-half of it consists of the debris of
shells, of various but well-defined forms, each habitually pierced with
a number of holes. To this they are indebted for their name Fora-
minifera, horn, foramen, a hole. With these microscopic animalcules
Nature has worked wonders in geological times ; nor have the wonders
ceased in our days.
Many beds of the terrestrial crust consist entirely of the remains of
Foraminifera. In the most remote ages in the history of our planet,
these zoophytes must have lived in innumerable swarms in the seas
of the period ; they buried themselves in the bottoms of the seas, and
their shells, heaped up during many ages, have finished by forming
hills of great thickness and extent. We may say, to give an example,
that during the Carboniferous period, a single species of these zoophytes
has formed, in Russia alone, enormous beds of calcareous rock. Many
beds of cretaceous formation are> in great part, composed of Forami-
nifera, and they exist in immense numbers in the white chalk which
covers and forms the vast mountains ranging from Champagne, in
France, nearly to the centre of England.
But it is to the Tertiary formation that these zoophytes have contri-
buted the most enormous deposits. The greater part of the Egyptian
pyramids is only an aggregation of Nummulites inserted in the syenite.
A prodigious number of Foraminifera present themselves in the tertiary
88 THE OCEAN WORLD.
deposits of the Gironde, of Italy, and of Austria. The chalk so abun-
dant in the basin of Paris is almost entirely composed of Foraminifera.
The remains of these creatures are so abundant in the Paris chalk, that
M. d'Orbigny found upwards of fifty-eight thousand in a small block,
scarcely exceeding a cubic inch of chalk, from the quarries of Chan-
tilly. This fact, according to this author, implies the existence of three
thousand millions of these zoophytes in the cubic metre (thirty-nine
inches square and a small fraction) of rock ! As the chalk from these
quarries has served to build Paris, as well as the towns and villages of
the neighbouring departments, it may be said that Paris, and other
great centres of population which surround it, are built with the
shells of these, microscopic animals.
The sand of the littoral of all existing seas is so full of these
minute but elegant shells, that it is often half composed of them.
Ehrenberg, the celebrated German microscopist, was recently invited
by the Prussian government to assist in tracing the robbery of a
special case of wine. It had been repacked in littoral sand only found
in an ancient sea-board in Germany. The criminal was thus detected,
M. d'Orbigny found in three grammes (forty-six grains troy) of sand from
the Antilles, four hundred and forty thousand shells of Foraminifera.
Bianchi found in thirty grammes (four hundred and sixty-seven
grains) from the Adriatic, six thousand of these shells. If we
calculate the proportion of these beings contained in a cubic metre
alone of sea-sand, we reach a figure which passes all conception.
What would this be if we could extend the calculation to the immen-
sity of surface covered by the waves which surround the globe ?
M. d'Orbigny has satisfied himself, by microscopic examination of
sands from all parts of the globe, that it is the debris of Foraminifera
which form, in all existing seas, those enormous deposits which raise
banks, obstruct the navigation in gulfs and straits, and fill up ports,
as may be seen in the port of Alexandria. In common with the
corals and madrepores, the Foraminifera are the great agents in
forming the isles which surge up under our eyes from the bosom of
the ocean in the warmer regions of the globe. Thus shells, scarcely
appreciable to the sight, suffice by their accumulations to fill up seas,
while performing a very considerable part in the great operations of
Nature, although it may not be apparent to us.
Our exact knowledge of the Foraminifera is of very recent date.
FORAMINIFERA. 89
Great numbers of minute particles, of regular and symmetrical form,
were long distinguished on the sands of the sea shore. These corpus-
cular atoms early attracted the attention of observers. But with the
discovery of the microscope, these small elegant shells, which were
among the curiosities revealed by the instrument, assumed immense
importance. We have stated that these corpuscles are nothing but
the shell or solid framework of a crowd of marine animalculse : we
may then consider them as living species analogous to the Ammonites
and Nautilus of geological times. Linnaeus has placed them in this
last genus, which would include, according to that author, all the
multilocular shells. In 1804, Lamarck classed them among the
molluscous cephalopods. But Alcide d'Orbigny, who has devoted
long years to study and observation, and may be considered the great
historian of the Foraminifera, makes it appear that this mode of
classification was inexact. Dujardin separated them altogether from
the class of mollusks, and showed that they ought to be consigned to
an inferior class of animals. These minute creatures, in short, are
deficient in the true appendages analogous to feet, which exist in the
higher mollusks. They simply possess filamentous expansions, very
variable in their form.
We have stated that the Foraminifera are of microscopic dimensions.
With some trifling exceptions, this is generally true ; but there exist
a number of species which are visible to the naked eye. The Fora-
minifers found in the nummulite formation of Tremsted, in Bavaria,
between Munich and Saltzberg, are still larger, being nearly double
the size of the nummulite of the Pyramids ; in short, they are the
giants of this tribe of animals.
After these remarks, we may venture to give some idea of the
structure and classification of these beings, whose part in the work of
creation has, in former times, been so considerable.
The bodies of the Foraminifera are formed of a gelatinous sub-
stance, sometimes entire and round, sometimes divided into segments,
which can be placed upon a line, simple or alternate, wound up into
a spiral form or rolled round its axis, like a ball. A testaceous envelope,
modelled upon the segments, follows the various modifications of form,
and protects the body in all its parts. From the extremity of the
last segment of one or many openings of the shell, or of the numerous
pores, issue certain long and slender filaments, more or less numerous,
90 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
which are divided and subdivided over their whole length, like the
spreading branches of a tree. They can attach themselves to external
bodies with force enough to determine the progression of the animal.
Being formed of transparent non-colouring matter, they may be
said to be mere expansions, which vary in form and length according
to the conditions of the ambient medium. The filaments have also
very variable positions : sometimes they form an unique and retractile
band, issuing from a single opening ; sometimes they project them-
selves across from numerous little pores in the shell, which covers
the last segment of the animal. These pores, or openings, give the
name to the creatures under consideration.
In conclusion, the filaments, contractile and variable in their form,
which constitute the feet and arms of these little creatures, appear to
have something electric in them: it is stated that the Infusoria
are at once paralysed in their motions when brought in contact with
the minute arms of the Foraminifera. " It is probably by this
means," says M. Fredol, " that these creatures succeed in catching
their prey. Is it not worthy of remark that these beings, however small
their size and slight their form, are unpitying flesh-eaters? The
smallest, the weakest, and the most microscopic animal in existence
thus becomes, by means of a homoeopathic dose of poison, a most
formidable destroyer."
Another singular observation on these little filaments or arms we
owe to Dujardin. This naturalist observed that, when a miliola at-
tempted to climb up the walls or sides of a vase, it could improvise, as it
were, on the instant, and at the expense of its own substance, a pro-
visional foot, which stretched itself out rapidly and performed all the
functions of a permanent member. The occasion served, this tem-
porary foot seemed once more to return to the common mass, and was
absorbed into the body. It would thus appear that with these minute
creatures the presence of a necessity gives the power to create an
organ by the mere will of the creature, while man, with all his
genius, cannot manufacture a hair. To the present day, however, we
have not been able to discover any organ of nutrition in the Fora-
minifera ; they have no stomach, properly so called, but Nature rids
gifted them with a peculiar tissue, at once gelatinous and contrac-
tile, and essentially simulative, which probably serves the same pur-
pose.
FOKAMINIFEKA. 91
We have already said that the shells of these minujte zoophytes vary
much in form. They are generally many-chambered, each chamber
communicating by pores in the walls ; the different gelatinous parts
of the animalcules are, in this manner, placed in continual communi-
cation with each other. Alcide d'Orbigny, to whom we owe almost
all that is known of the class, has distributed them into six families,
making the form of the shell the basis of their arrangement. These
six families include sixty genera, and more than sixteen hundred
species, the families being as follows :
I. Monostega. Animals consisting of a single segment. Shell of
a single chamber.
II. Stichostega. Animal in segments, arranged in a single line.
Shell in chambers, superimposed linearly on a straight or curved axis.
III. Helicostega. Animal in segments, spirally arranged. Cham-
bers piled or superimposed on one axis, forming a spiral erection. In
Fig. 21 we have a horizontal section of Faujasina, in which the spiral
convolutions are visible on the truncated half of the shell.
IV. Entomostega. Animal composed of alternating segments form-
ing a spiral. Chambers superimposed on two alternating axes, also
forming a spiral.
Y. Enallostega. Animal formed of alternate segments. Non-spiral
chambers disposed alternately along two or three axes, also non-
spiral.
VI. Agathistega. Animal formed of segments wound round an
axis. Chambers formed round a common axis, each investing half the
circumference.
The simplest form of Foraminifera is illustrated by Fig. 14 (OrbuUna
universa), which is a small spherical shell, having a lateral aperture,
the interior of which has been occupied by the living jelly, to which
the shell owes its existence. In the second order, the shell (Fig. 15),
Dentalina communis, advances beyond this simple type by a process
of linear budding, the first cell being spherical, with an opening
through which a second segment is formed, generally a little larger
than the first. This new growth is successively followed by others
developed in the same way, until the organism attains its maturity,
when it exhibits a series of cells arranged end on end, in a slightly
curved line.
In the next group the gemmation takes a spiral bias, producing the
92
THE OCEAN WOULD.
nautilus shape which misled the earlier naturalists. In some cases
all the convolutions are visible, as in Operculina (Fig. 16). In others,
the external convolute conceals those previously formed, as in Num-
mulitis lenticularis (Fig. 17), Cassidulina (Fig. 18), Textilaria
Fig. 14. Orbulina
universa.
Fig 16. Operculina.
Fig. 15. Dentalina
cornmuuis.
Fig. 18. Cassidulina.
Fig. 19. Textilaria.
Fig. 17. Nummulitis
lenticularis.
Fig. 20. Spiroloculina.
(Fig. 19), and Alveolina oblonga, d'Orbigny (Fig. 25), the latter
forming part of the eocene formation in the quartz and greystone
rocks of the neighbourhood of Paris; one figure representing the
. shell entire, and the other a vertical section, while the small figure
between represents it in its natural size.
In the fourth group the shell is spiral, with the chamber equilateral,
with a larger and smaller side, the position being alternately reversed
as the segments are multiplied, as in Cassidulina (Fig. 18). In
the succeeding group the new segments are arranged alternately on
opposite sides of the central line, as in Textilaria (Fig. 19), thus
forming two alternating non-spiral parallel segments, each connected
by a single orifice.
FORAMINIFERA. 93
The sixth family differ entirely in appearance and structure from the
other Foraminifera. They are more opaque than the other orders,
having a resemhlance to white porcelain, which presents a rich amber-
brown hue when viewed by transmitted light. They are more or less
oblong, each new segment being nearly equal to the entire length of
the shell, so that the terminal orifice presents itself alternately at its
opposite extremities, sometimes in one uniform plane, as in Spirolocu-
lina (Fig. 20), and Faujasina (Fig. 21). At other times each new seg-
ment, instead of being exactly opposite each other, is a little on one
side.
Professor Williamson has shown that the
shell enclosing each new segment is at first
very thin; but as additional calcareous
chambers are formed, each addition not only
encases the new gemmation of the soft
animal, but extends over all the exterior of
the previously formed shell. The exact
manner in which this is accomplished is
doubtful ; but the Professor thinks it prob-
able that the soft animal has the power of Fi s 21 -
diffusing its substance over the shell, and thus depositing upon its
surface additional layers of calcareous matter.
The fossil Foraminifera are chiefly distinguished from recent and
existing species by the size of the former. While the living forms
range from one-fourth to the one-hundredth part of an inch, the tertiary
strata abound in examples of Nummulites varying from the eighth of
an inch to the size of half-a-crown. The engraving is a drawing
from Nature, by MM. d' Archaic and Haime, of a piece of nummulitic
rock, of Nousse, in the Landes, in which a great variety of sizes and
forms are exhibited.
The Nummulina belong to the third family, or Helicostega, in
which the outer convolutions completely embrace the earlier-formed
ones. Hence it is only by making microscopic sections, or thin slices,
that their structure can be fully seen. When such a section is carried
horizontally through the centre of the shell, the segments present a
spiral arrangement, which, like the convolutions, are remarkable for
their small size, and consequent great number.
With respect to the distribution of the Foraminifera according to
THE OCEAN WORLD.
geological periods, we may briefly state that they have been found in
every formation from the Silurian to the Tertiary. The species, at first
m
Fig. 22. Nummulites Kouaultf(d'Arclniic and J. Haime).
very simple in their forms, begin to appear in increasing numbers in the
carboniferous formations. They become more numerous, and, at the
Fig. 23. Siderolites calcitrapoides (Lamarck;. Natural size and magnified.
same time, more complex in their forms, in the Cretaceous period ; they
are still more diversified, and appear to have multiplied much more
FOEAMINIFERA.
1)5
Fig. 24. Fabularia discolithes (Pefrance).
Natural fcize and magnified.
rapidly in the Tertiary period, where they attain the maximum of
their numerical development. In the celebrated quarries of St. Peter,
at Maestrecht, the Siderolites
calcitrapoides of Lamarck are
found in the upper chalk (Fig.
23). In the calcareous forma-
tion of Chaussy, in the Seine
and Oise district, and other
parts of the Paris basin, the
Fabularia discolitlies (Fig. 24)
of Defrance is found. Finally,
the Dactylopora cylindracea of
Lamarck (Fig. 26) is found in
the eocene formation of Val-
mondois and in the chalk of
Grignon. At first, this little
creature was thought to be a
polype ; but d'Orbigny, in his
" Prodrome de Paleontologie,"
has placed it among the Fora-
minifera, thinking that it ap-
peared to occupy a place be-
tween the two classes.
The existing Foraminifera
Hg 25. Alveolina oblonga (d'Orllgny).
Natural size and magnified.
are by no means equally dis-
tributed in every ocean. Some
genera belong to warm coun-
. . , , , Fig. 26. Dactylopora cylindracea (Lamarck),
tries, Others tO temperate and Natural size and magnified.
cold climates. They are much more numerous, however, and much
more varied in their forms, in warm than in cold climates, and, we
may add, larger also, for Sir E. Belcher brought a recent species
from Borneo which measured two inches in diameter.
Before passing on to the study of the Infusoria, a few words may
be offered on the Noctiluca, a genus of animals usually referred to
the class ACALEPHJE. One species only of this genus has been
described, which occurs occasionally on the English coast in prodigious
numbers. It is a small creature, scarcely the hundredth part of an
96 THE OCEAX WORLD.
inch in diameter, according to Mr. Huxley (Fig. 27, Nodiluca mili-
aris). It was discovered by M. Surriray, in 1810, who describes it as
a spherical gelatinous mass, scarcely bigger than a pin's head, with a
long filiform tentacular appendage,
a mouth, an oesophagus, one or many
stomachs, and branching ovaries
thus exhibiting a certain complexity
of organization. De Blainville took
the same view, and placed it among
the Diphydss. Yan Beneden and
Doyere, on the other hand, deny its
F.g.27.' Nocdiucarniiiavis. relation to the Acdephv, conceiving
Magnified. ft g organization to be much more
simple : they place it with the Ekizopoda. Quatrefages adopts the
same view, denying the existence of a true mouth or intestinal
canal : he considers the so-called stomachs as simple " vacuales," simi-
lar to those observed in the Ehizopoda and Infusoria. Mr. Huxley,
describing it in the " Journal of Microscopical Science " (vol. iii.),
says it has nearly the form of a peach, a filiform tentacle, equal in
length to the diameter of the body, occupying the place where the
stalk of the peach might be, which depends from it, and exhibits slow
wavy motions when the creature is in full activity. " I have even
seen a noctiluca" he adds, " appear to push against obstacles with
this tentacle."
"The body," he continues, "is composed of a structureless and
somewhat dense external membrane, which is continued on to the
tentacle. Beneath this is a layer of granules, or rather of gelatinous
membrane, through whose substance minute granules are scattered
without any very definite arrangement ; from hence arises a network
of very delicate fibrils, whose meshes are not more than one three-
hundredth part of an inch in diameter, which gradually pass internally
the reticulation becoming more and more open into coarser fibres,
taking a convergent direction towards the stomach and nucleus. All
these fibres and fibrils are covered with minute granules, which are
usually larger towards the centre."
Mr. Huxley is inclined to think, from all he has observed, that the
animal has a definite alimentary cavity, and that this cavity has an
excretory aperture distinct from the mouth.
INFUSOEIA. 97
Surriray discovered the noctiluca while investigating the cause of
phosphorescence of sea water at Havre, where it was abundant in the
basins; sometimes in such abundance as to form a crust on the
surface of the water of considerable thickness. " This singular little
creature," says M. Fredol, " offers here and there in its interior certain
granules, probably germs, and also luminous points, which appear and
disappear with great rapidity the least agitation determining their
lustre." The noctiluca are so abundant in the Mediterranean and in
some parts of the channel, that in a cubic foot of sea water, which has
been rendered phosphorescent by their presence, it is calculated that
there exist about twenty-five thousand.
INFUSORIA.
With the Infusoria we return to the domain of the infinitely little.
Of this very interesting group a large proportion are marine, and
numerous varieties of them are found in British seas. In their
minuteness and variety they almost baffle the attempts of naturalists
to classify them.
The waters, both fresh and salt, are inhabited by legions of active,
ever-moving beings, of dimensions so small as to be inappreciable to
the naked eye ; these minute creatures are disseminated by millions
and thousands of millions in the great deep, and all knowledge of
them would have escaped us, as they escaped the knowledge of the
ancients, but for the discovery of the microscope, the sixth sense of
man, as it has been happily expressed by the historian and poet
Michelet. Another writer of equally poetical mind, M. Fredol, tells
us that " the infusorial animalcules are so small that a drop of water
may contain them in many millions. They exist in all waters, the
fresh as well as the salt, the cold as well as the hot. The great
rivers are continually discharging them in vast quantities into the
sea."
The Ganges transports them in the course of one year in masses
equal to six or eight times the size of the great pyramid of Egypt.
Among these animalcules, according to Ehrenberg, we may reckon
seventy-one different species.
The water collected in vases between the Philippine and the
Marianne Isles at the depth of twenty-two thousand feet (making
H
98 THE OCEAN WORLD.
some allowance for erroneous soundings), have yielded a hundred and
sixteen species. Near the Poles, where heings of higher organization
could not exist, the Infusoria are still met with in myriads ; those
which were observed in the Antarctic Seas, during the voyages of
Captain Sir James Boss, offer a richness of organization, often accom-
panied by elegance of form, quite unknown in more northern regions.
In the residuum of the blocks of ice floating about in latitude seventy-
eight degrees ten minutes, nearly fifty different species were found.
Many of them had ovaries, according to Ehrenberg, still green, which
proved that they had struggled successfully with the rigours of the
climate in searching for food.
At a depth in the sea which exceeds the height of the loftiest
mountain, Humboldt asserts that each bed of water is animated by an
innumerable phalanx of inhabitants imperceptible to the human eye.
These microscopic creatures are, in short, the smallest and the most
numerous creations in Nature. They constitute with human beings
one of the wheels of that very complicated machine, the globe. They
are in the rank and at the station willed for them, as determined in
the great First Thought. Suppress these microscopic beings, and the
world would be incomplete. It was said, and wisely said, long, long
ago, " there is nothing so small to the view but that it may become
great by reflection."
The Infusoria, in short, abound everywhere. We find their remains
on the loftiest mountain ridges, and in the profoundest depths of the
sea. They increase and multiply alike under the Equator, and
towards the polar regions. The seas, rivers, ponds the flower vase
which rests upon the casement even our tissues, and the fluids of
our bodies all contain infusorial animalcules. Whole beds of strata,
often many feet thick, and covering a surface of considerable extent,
are almost exclusively formed of their accumulated debris. It is to
the Infusoria that the mud of the Nile and other fluviatile and
lacustrine deposits owe their prodigious fertility. To them also is due
the red or green layer of colouring matter found in ponds and tanks
at certain seasons. When exposed to great solar heat, in order to
extract the salt, as it is in the vast artificial basins hollowed out for
the purpose in the salt marshes near the sea-shore in the south of
France, the salt water, when it reaches a certain degree of concentra-
tion, acquires a fine rose colour, which is due to the presence of in-
INFUSOKIA. 99
numerable masses of small Infusoria having a reddish shell. Finally,
let us add that the solid debris of certain fossil Infusoria, of surprising
minuteness, have formed the stone so much used by workers in metal,
which is known as tripoli.
The study of these creatures is intensely interesting to the naturalist,
the philosopher, the physician, and the general reader. They have
had a great part assigned to them in Nature, as is evident in the forma-
tion of certain beds of rock of immense extent, in which the geologist
traces their action.
Our earliest knowledge of the Infusoria is traceable to the seven-
teenth century; to the celebrated naturalist, Leuwenhoek, we are
indebted for their discovery. On the 24th of April, 1676, this
observer saw for the first time some infusorial animalcules. Fifty
years later, Baker and Trembley studied them anew. In 1752, Hill
essayed the first attempt at their classification. In 1764, Wiesberg
gave them the name of Infusoria, because he found them in such
great abundance in animal and vegetable infusions. Miiller pub-
lished a special book upon them.
From that time the Infusoria have been considered as forming a
special group among the radiate animals ; afterwards, in the pages of
Baer and of De Blainville, we see in these creatures, so imperfect in
appearance, only the indeterminate prototype of other classes. But
ideas changed altogether respecting them when microscopes of great
power, and armed with achromatic lens, were employed in their study.
Thanks to the labours of Ehrenberg and Dujardin, we have arrived at
a better comprehension of the organization of these infinitely small
beings. Naturalists have established, with more exactness, the limits
of the zoological group to which they belong.
Some stagnant waters are so filled with Infusoria that it is only
necessary to dip at random into the liquid medium to procure them in
abundance. In other waters they form a bed, occupying the whole
basin. In general, it is necessary to search for them where the water
is calm, and occupied by vegetation of some kind, such as the confervas,
or lemna, &c., in the marshes, and ceramium if in the sea. Certain
Infusoria live not only in water, but also in places habitually moist, as
among tufts of mosses ; in beds of oscittaria, on moist soil, or on air-
damp walls. Others live as parasites on the exterior or in the interior
of animals, such as hydra, lombrics, and naiads. Quantities of them
H 2
100 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
are found in the liquid excrements and other products of certain
organisms, and they have heen noted even in women's milk.
But, as their name indicates, it is in aqueous infusions, vegetable or
animal, that these animalcules abound. Armed with a microscope, the
reader may, with very little trouble, afford himself the pleasure of
studying these animals. It is only necessary to place some organic
debris the white of an egg, or some grass, for example in a vase
with a large mouth, filled with water, and expose it to the light and
air. Certain reagents, as phosphate of soda, the phosphates, nitrates,
or oxalates of ammonia, or carbonate of soda added to these infu-
sions, will singularly favour the development of Infusoria.
There are also some accidental infusions which seem to furnish
these microscopic beings in great abundance. Water which stagnates
in garden soil or in vegetable mould, in the watering-cart or in
flower vases, is filled with myriads of these beings.
So much for the medium in which they live, move, and have their
being. Let us pass on to their organization. We have already dwelt
on their extreme minuteness; their mean size is a fifth of a line
or the sixtieth part of an inch ; the largest species scarcely reveal
themselves to the naked eye. They are generally colourless ; some of
them are, nevertheless, green, blue, red, brown, and even blackish. Seen
on the object-glass of the microscope, they appear to be gelatinous, trans-
parent, and naked, or invested with an envelope more or less resistant,
which we shall designate after Dujardin by the term Sarcoda, a sub-
stance which is homogeneous, diaphanous, elastic, contractile, and, above
all, destitute of every kind of organization. They are usually ovoid or
globular. Those most frequently met with, and which attract the
most attention from observers, are. furnished with vibratile cilia,
which cover the whole body, acting as paddles. These organs are
evidently intended to propel the animal from one place to another.
At other times they appear to be employed in conveying food to the
mouth, if we may use the expression. Some Infusoria are without
these cilia, having only one or many very slender filaments, the
undulating movement of which suffices to determine their progression
through the liquid which surrounds them.
Authors who have written on the Infusoria have sometimes, like
Leuwenhoek, Ehrenberg, and Pouchet, attributed to them a very com-
INFUSORIA. 101
plex structure. Others, like Miiller, Cuvier, and Lamarck, have con-
sidered them to be gifted with an organization extremely simple. We
shall probably find that the truth lies between these two extremes.
In the superior Infusoria, besides the granules, the interior globules,
vesicles full of liquid, vibratile cils, and a tegumentary system, more
or less complex, we find the substance which is called Sarcoda.
The digestive apparatus of the Infusoria has been the subject of
numerous observations, and has been provocative of very animated
discussions. In the inferior order of the class, which comprehends
the very smallest animalcules, it has not been found possible to observe
the organization of the digestive apparatus in a satisfactory manner.
Some writers think they have no mouth, what has been taken for that
organ being only hollow dimples on the surface of the body ; others
recognize the existence of a buccal orifice, sometimes furnished with
a solid armature. As to the arrangements of the interior cavities in
which digestion takes place, we know nothing certain.
The digestive apparatus is better understood in the superior Infusoria,
called ciliate, namely, those provided with vibratile cils. These cils
seem to determine the currents of the liquid, leading the nutritive cor-
puscles suspended in the water towards the entrance of the digestive
apparatus. They form, in some sort, the prehensile organs which seize
the aliment. The cils are, at the same time, the organs intended
to facilitate respiration; in short, these little whips playing upon
the water unceasingly round the Infusoria, is just the action required
for the absorption of the oxygen contained in the water. These
cils, then, serve at once for the propulsion of the animal, for its
nutrition, and for its respiration, presenting a remarkable example of
cumulative functions in physiology.
The corpuscles of nutritive substances directed towards the buccal
orifice by the vibratile cils soon disappear in the interior of the animal.
Availing himself of this fact and the transparency of the animal, Herr
Gleichen, a German physiologist of the last century, conceived the
happy idea of colouring the water which contained these animalcules
with a finely-powdered carmine; he traced the colouring matter in
the bodies of some of them. But it was reserved for Ehrenberg to avail
himself of the same artifice in order to study the internal structure
and mode of absorbing nutritive matter in these minute creatures.
This physiologist fed many groups of Infusoria, some of them with water
102 THE OCEAN WORLD.
coloured with carmine, others with, indigo and other colouring matters.
He saw, besides, some coloured globules, nearly uniform in size, in
different individuals of the same species. From this he arrived at
the conclusion that the colouring matter was deposited in many of the
surrounding dimples. Ehrenherg thought that each of these dimples
was a stomach, and that the introduction of the food into the interior
of these reservoirs, as well as the evacuations, were produced by means
of an intestine around which these stomachs are arranged. In some
cases he even thought he could distinguish the outlines of this intestinal
canal, and its connection with numbers of ampula or bladders. Gene-
ralizing the conclusions drawn from his observations, in short, we find
that his class, Infusoria, embraced two very different forms of animal
life, which he divided into Infusoria, Polygastrica, and Roti/era, the
latter division including those known as Wheel animalcules ; the
Polygastrica being so called from his idea that the typical forms
possessed a number of stomachs. In some, Ehrenberg counted four
stomachs, an organization which brings these microscopic beings into
a strange kind of comparison with the ox and the goat. In others he
counted two stomachs.
Other observers were not slow in raising objections to these views.
Dujardin, especially, was much opposed to the batch of stomachs attri-
buted to these creatures by the German physiologist. He attempted
to establish the fact that the coloured globules which appeared in
the bodies of the Infusoria, while subjected to a regimen of carmine and
indigo, are not confined by a membrane ; that is to say, they are not
contained in intestinal sacs. According to Milne Edwards, " they are
a species of basins, constituted," he says, " by the alimentary matter
with which each is gorged, united into a rounded pasty mass, where it
could no longer be dispersed, but would continue to advance, still pre-
serving its form. We have, in short, seen these spherules changing
their places, and passing one another in their progress from the mouth
to the intestinal canal. That they could not do this is evident, if many
stomachs were attached to the intestinal canal !"
This opinion, due to the patient and precise studies of Dujardin,
has been adopted by most naturalists of eminence. Besides, this learned
microscopist does not admit that there was in the sarcodic mass of
Infusoria any pre-existent cavity destined to receive the food. In a
word, he does not recognise any stomach whatever. This view of
INFUSOKIA. 103
the extreme simplicity of structure in the Infusoria has, however,
met with much opposition. To accord them neither four nor two
stomachs, it is not necessary to deprive them of the organ altogether.
Meyen represents them as having one great hollow stomach occupied
by a pulpy matter, into which the alimentary masses are successively
absorbed. " All recent observations," says Milne Edwards, " tend to
establish the fact that the digestive apparatus of the ciliate Infusoria
consists of first, a mouth ; second, of a pharyngeal canal, in which the
food often assumes the form of a bolus ; third, of one great stomach
with distinct walls, and more or less distant from the common tegu-
mentary membrane ; fourth, of an excretory orifice."
This mouth presents sensible differences both as to its position and
conformation, often occupying the bottom of a hollow, the edges of
which are furnished with well-developed cilia, the action of which
attracts the aliment ; in short, the mouth is a sort of decoy at the
bottom of a simple pit, being at once contractile and prehensile, the
interior part being sometimes capable, according to Milne Edwards, of
being turned inside out in the form of a trumpet, while in a great
many species it is provided with a peculiar armature, consisting of a
band of rigid bristles disposed in the form of a bow-net, and suscep-
tible of dilatation and contraction, according to the wants of the
animal. The oesophagus, which is connected by means of the canal
with the mouth, has generally an oblique direction backwards, often
terminating in a great undivided stomach.
The reproduction of the Infusoria exhibits some very surprising
phenomena, while it offers another proof of the wonderful means
Nature employs for perpetuating the races of animals. They can be
reproduced by three different processes : 1. By gemmation, or budding,
somewhat after the manner of plants. 2. By sexual reproduction ; for
in these little creatures it has recently been discovered that sexual
differences exist. 3. By the spontaneous division of the animal into
two individuals a process known to zoologists as fissiparism or fission.
Among these three processes, that which appears best understood is
the last. The singular phenomenon of spontaneous division may be
witnessed by any one having patience to examine the creature long
enough, isolated from its innumerable companions, under the micro-
scope. The oblong body of the animal will soon be observed to con-
tract at the middle, the compression becoming more and more marked.
104
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The lower segment soon begins to show a few vibratile cils, thus indi-
cating the place which will soon be a new mouth ; the organ soon
becomes more and more distinct, and now the Infusoria literally cuts
itself into two parts. We see, at first, the fragment of glutinous
substance fluttering on the edge of the plate ; the two halves then
separate from each other very quickly, each moiety having finally a
perfect resemblance to the primitive animal. This process is repre-
sented in Fig. 28, A and B being the adult, c the same in course of
separation, D after its completion. Assuredly this is one of the most
remarkable phenomena which the study of living beings can present.
" By this mode of propagation," says Dujardin, "an infusoria is the
half of the one which preceded it, the fourth of the parent of that,
Fig. 28. Propagation of an Infusorfk by spontaneous division.
the eighth of its grand-parent, and so on, if we can apply the terms
father or mother to animals which must see in its two halves the
grandfather himself by a new division again living in his four parts.
We might imagine such an infusoria to be an aliquot part of one like
it, which had lived years, and even ages before, and which by con-
tinued subdivision into pairs might continue to live for ever by its
successive development."
This mode of generation, however, enables us to comprehend the
miraculous fecundity of these beings. The process defies calculation,
if we wished to be precise. We may, however, arrive at a proximate
estimate of the number which may be derived from a single individual
INFUSORIA.
105
by this process of fission. It has been found that at the end of a
month two 8tyloniclii& had a progeny of more than one million and
forty-eight thousand individuals, and that in a lapse of forty-two days
a single Parameoium had produced more than one million three
hundred and sixty-four thousand forms like itself.
Life is spread over Nature in such abundance that the smallest
infusoria has its parasite a little smaller ; these in their turn serving
as " a dwelling and pasture ground," to use Humboldt's words, for
still smaller animalcules, as represented in Fig. 29 a being parasites
in various stages ; I, the larger animalcule on which they have estab-
lished themselves.
a
Fig. 29. Paramecium aurelia and its Parasites.
The prodigious number to which the calculation would reach, if we
were to add the other modes of propagation, viz., by germs aud :by
budding, we dare not mention : it would only be necessary to place a
single germ in a favourable condition for its development, in order to
produce myriads of these microscopic animalcules in a very few
days.
We have seen three modes of reproduction in the Infusoria ; it is
possible that a fourth mode exists, to which its partisans give the
name of spontaneous generation. According to their views, an
infusoria can be produced without egg-germ or pre-existent parent.
It would be sufficient to expose organic matter, animal or vegetable,
to the action of the air and water at a suitable temperature, in order
106 THE OCEAN WORLD.
/
to see this matter organize itself, and form itself into living infusorial
animals.
Such is the general enumeration of the question of spontaneous or
heterogeneous generation, on which so much has heen written in the
last ten years. The great expounders of the doctrine have heen the
two French naturalists, MM. Pouchet and Joly. Their views have,
however, made little progress ; they have, on the contrary, met with
vigorous opposition from the generality of French naturalists, and
from most of the memhers of the Academie des Sciences of Paris, who
have raised their voices against a doctrine which is contrary to the
ordinary course of nature. In short, the direct observations made
upon the theory of " primitive generation " are as yet wanting in
necessary exactness ; those observers who profess to have witnessed
the sudden origin of the minutest of the infusoria from elementary
substances have in all probability overlooked the organic structure of
these elementary bodies. The wonderful changes of form undergone
by many infusoria have their limits, and the laws governing them
have still to be defined. With the poet we may say :
" Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice lis est."
Many of the Infusoria are subject to metamorphoses, and it has
already been ascertained that certain species which have been con-
sidered as distinct are only transition forms of the same species
depending on age.
We know that it is common for insects to enclose themselves in
protecting envelopes, and to remain for whole months shut up in this
their retreat, to all appearance dead. Similar facts have been observed
in the Infusoria. We have even seen some of these beings surrounding
strange bodies as if in a mass of jelly, forming a sort of living envelope
around them.
The average duration of life with them is only a few hours ; but
certain species present, in relation to the duration of life, phenomena
which are only imperfectly known, but which never fail to excite the
surprise and admiration of the naturalist. By drying certain infusoria
with care, it is possible to suspend and indefinitely prolong its life.
Thus dried, and covered with a powder, which shelters it from every
breath of wind, it may be carried to any given distance, through any
indefinite period of time abandoned on some ledge of rock, on a
INFUSOKIA. 107
housetop, in the cleft of a wall, or under the capital of a column ; but
let a drop of water approach it, and the dormant being awakes imme-
diately the microscopic Lazarus springs again into existence : feeds
and multiplies as before : and its life, suspended possibly for years,
resumes its interrupted course !
Into what a world of reflection does not a revelation of this
mysterious property of a living creature plunge us !
The physiologist Miiller has noted another peculiarity in infusorial
life. These animalcules can lose a part of their bodies without being
destroyed ; the dead part disappears, and the individual, diminished
by one-half, or reduced to a fourth of its former size, continues to live
as if nothing had happened. Miiller has observed a kalpode (Kolpoda
meleagris) thus melt before his eyes until scarcely a sixteenth part of
its body remained. After its loss, this sixteenth part of an animal
continued to swim about without troubling itself as to its diminished
proportions. " The infusoria," says Fre'dol, in " La Monde de la Mer,"
" present yet another kind of decomposition. If we approach the drop
of water in which it swims with the barb of a feather dipped in
ammonia, the animalcule is arrested in its movement, but its cils
continue to move rapidly. All at once, upon some point of its circum-
ference, a notch is formed, which increases bit by bit until the whole
animal is dissolved. If a drop of pure water is added, the decom-
position is suddenly stopped, and what remains of the animalcule
recommences its swimming movements." (Dujardin.)
We may divide the Infusoria into two orders the Ciliate Infusoria,
namely, those provided with vibratile cilia, and the Flagelliferous
Infusoria, those, namely, which have arms or branches. The greater
part of Infusoria belong to the first order, which comprehends many
families; our space limits us to the mention here of a few typical
forms only -in each group, selecting those which appear the most
interesting, from their size, structure, rarity, or abundance.
FLAGELLIFEROUS INFUSORIA.
The family of Vibrionidse, so named from their darting or quivering
motion, includes the eel-like microscopic animalcules which occur in
stale paste, vinegar, &c., with some others, which are parasitic on
living vegetables, such as Vibrio tritici, which infest the grains of
108 THE OCEAN WORLD.
wheat, producing the destructive disease called corn-cockle or purples.
They are filiform animals, extremely slender, without appreciable
organization, internal stomach, or apparent organs of locomotion.
They are the first animalcules which show themselves in any infusion
of organic matter. By using microscopes of the highest magnifying
power, traces of very thin, short lines can he perceived, either straight
or sinuous, the thickest of them not exceeding the thousandth part of
the fraction of an inch. They are contractile, and propagated by
spontaneous division, or fission. Among them some resemble right
lines, more or less distinctly articulated, and endowed with a very slow
movement ; these are Bacttridde. Others are flexuous and undulating,
and more or less lively ; these are true Vibrions. Others have the
body fashioned in the form of a corkscrew, turning unceasingly upon
themselves with great rapidity ; these are the Spirillidse, having an
oblong fusiform or filiform body, which undulates or turns spirally
upon itself.
The Bacterium termo (Fig. 30) is the smallest of the Infusoria. It
is found, at the end of a short time, in all vegetable or animal infusions
exposed to the air. It shows itself in infinite
;/ ^ . numbers, forming swarms of animalcules,
I {l ( n a ^ G^^*. which disappear as other species multiply
11 * *""/ B ^^ss, in the liquid, to which animals it serves for
't \ *
1 n * ** nourishment. When the infusion becomes
too foetid for these new species to live in it,
Fig. 30. Bacterium. The same, r
termo (Muiierx magnified i n consequence of fermentation or putrefac-
magnitied 600 times. 1600 times. J- .
tion, the Bacterium termo reappears. This
species was one of the first observed ; Leuwenhoek found it in the
white matter in the teeth and gums, which is called teeth tartar. It
is also found in the fluids of various animals which have
been affected by disease.
The Wand-like Vibrion (Fig. 31) has the body trans-
parent, filiform, with long articulations, often appear-
ing as if broken at each connection. It moves very
slowly in the water. Leuwenhoek observed this second
Fig. 31. Vibrion J
baguette (Mailer), species pined to the first in the teeth tartar, and also
magnified 300 . * ... .
times. m a great number of organic infusions. " There is no
microscopic object," says Dujardin, " which excites the admiration of
the observer more vividly than the twisting spirillum (Fig. 32). He
INFTJSOKIA. 109
is struck with surprise when he first contemplates this little creature,
which, under the greatest magnifying power, only presents the appear-
ance of a thin black line, fashioned like a corkscrew,
which every instant turns upon itself with marvellous
velocity, such as the eye can scarcely follow, or the
mind divine the cause which produces this startling
r Fi<*. 32. Spirillum
phenomenon. tonraoyant (Ehr.),
The Monads are other infusorial animalcules which magniiie
make an early appearance in vegetable infusions. They constitute a
family that are destitute of any covering. The substance of their
bodies can swallow itself, or draw itself out more or less ; many of
the whip-like filaments serve as organs of locomotion. They are
sometimes provided with lateral appendages disposed as a kind of
tail. Their organization is extremely simple ; their whip-like filaments
are so fine as to be scarcely perceptible, their length being sometimes
double and even quadruple the length of the animal itself.
The Lentille Monad (Fig. 33) is a species which is frequently met
with in vegetable and animal infusions. The older microscopists had
it indicated under the form of a globule, moving in a slow and
vacillating manner. The globule is formed of a homogeneous trans-
parent substance, swollen into tubercles on its surface, and throws out
obliquely a whip-like filament,, three, four, or even five times the
length of the body of the Monad.
The Cereomonad of Davaine was discovered by this gentleman in
the still warm ejections of cholera patients. Its body
is pyriform, having, in front, a vibratile filament, very
long, very flexible, and easily agitated. Behind the
body there is a thicker straight filament attaching itself
sometimes to neighbouring corpuscles, round which,
in this case, the Cereomonad oscillates like the ball of Fig
a pendulum round its stem.
The Volvocinese are inhabitants of fresh limpid water 100 times '
full of confervse and other aquatic plants. The Volvocinede are, ac-
cording to Dujardin, animalcules of a green or yellowish brown colour,
regularly disseminated in the thickness and near the surface of a
gelatinous and transparent globe, which would become hollow and be
filled with water in its perfect state. In this state, from five to eight
smaller globules, with the same organization, appear destined to
110
THE OCEAN WORLD.
undergo the same changes when they are released hy the rupture of
the globule. These animalcules are each furnished with one or two
flagelliform filaments, which, by their agitation, determine the move-
ment by rotation of the mass.
A very remarkable phenomenon is recorded in the Transactions of
the Microscopic Society, namely, the conversion of the contents of an
ordinary vegetable cell into a free moving mass of Protoplasm, bearing
a strong resemblance to the animal Amoeba? (Fig. 20). This, it is
affirmed by Dr. Hicks, takes place in Yolvox, under circumstances
which suggest a vegetable transformation. But Dr. Carpenter does
not consider that this involves any real confusion in the boundaries
of Animal and Vegetable Life.
The Eevolving Volvox, V. glolator (Figs. 34 and 35), is found in
great abundance, during summer, in tanks and ponds of stagnant
water. It consists of green or brownish-
yellow globules about the eighth part of
an inch, formed of animalcules scattered
round a gelatinous and diaphanous sphe-
rical membrane, each furnished with a
flagelliform filament and with a reddish
interior point, which Ehrenberg took for
an eye. Leuwenhoek first observed this
Volvox in marshy waters. This eminent
naturalist has left a very interesting
account of his observations on these mi-
croscopic inhabitants of the waters, dis-
playing an amount of patience and address
which cannot be too much admired ; his
observations were made with a simple
lens, which he constructed himself. In
one hand he held his instrument, which
was very coarse if we compare it to the more perfect and infinitely
more powerful instruments now in use ; whilst, in the other hand, he
carried to his eye the glass tube full of water which contained the
object under observation. " The microscopes of Leuwenhoek," says
Dujardin, " were the very smallest bi-convex lenses, mounted in a silver
frame. He made a collection of twenty-six, which he bequeathed to
the Koyal Society of London. These instruments, subject to all the
Figs. 34 and 35. Volvox globator
(Muller), magnified 700 times.
INFUSOKIA.
Ill
inconveniences of a maximum of spherical aberration and a total want
of stability, were only fit for use in the hands of Leuwenhoek himself,
who had acquired, in his labour of twenty years, habits of observation
which compensated, in great part, for the want of perfection in his
instruments."
The Euglenise are infusoria usually coloured green or red. Their
form is very variable. They are oblong or fusiform in shape, swelling
at the middle during action, and contracted or bowl-shaped in repose,
or after death. They are furnished with the usual whip-shaped
filament, which issues from an opening in front, and from one or
many reddish points irregularly placed anteriorly.
Euglenia viridis (Fig. 36) is the most common species, and, per-
haps, the most widely diffused of all the Infusoria. It is this animalcule
which habitually covers stag-
nant pools with its floating sur-
face of green, and which forms,
on the surface of marshy waters,
the shining pellicle so strongly
coloured, which, collected upon
paper, so long preserves its bril-
liant tint.
The Euglenia sanguinea, at
first green, becomes subsequently
of a blood colour. It has often
been met with by microscopists.
Ehrenberg, who first described
it, attributes to its great abun-
dance the red colour of some
stagnant waters. Its presence
explains the pretended miracle
of water changing into blood,
which was frequently invoked
by the Egyptian priests.
s
Fig. 36. Euglenia viridis (Ehr.), magnified 350 times.
CILIATE INFUSORIA.
Let us now take a glance at some of the more remarkable species
of Ciliate Infusoria. TLe bodies of these creatures are all more or
less translucent. They have not substance enough, in fact, to reach a
U2 THE OCEAN WORLD.
state of opacity. Their bodies are more or less globular or ovoid,
sometimes fashioned like a shuttle, or curved while growing, sometimes
swollen in the middle like an ampulla, or bell-
shaped, and flattened into a discoid shape ;
some slightly resemble a tadpole, a thimble, a
shoe, a rose-bud, a flower, even a seed.
The Paramecians have a soft flexible body,
usually of oblong form, and more or less de-
pressed. They are provided with a loose reticu-
lated covering, through which issue numerous
vibratile cilia, arranged in a regular series.
They were known to the older naturalists ; and
it is in this group that organization is carried
to the highest perfection it attains among the
Infusoria. 'The Paramecium possess, besides
their reticulated and contractile tegument, cilia
Fig 37. Cothurnia pyxidiformis -. n . ,
(Udckem). disposed in such a manner as to serve at once
for locomotion, for prehension, that is, for seizing its food, and as a
means of respiration. They are furnished with a mouth, at the bottom
of which the whorl excited by the cilia determines, according to
Dujardin, the hollowing out of a cavity, formed after the manner of
a cul-de-sac, and also the formation
of vacuoles with permanent parti-
tions, in which are enclosed the
substances which the animalcules
have swallowed along with the
water.
The Paramecium are propagated
by spontaneous division, as already
described. They abound, as we
have said, in stagnant water, or in
pure water which is occupied by
aquatic plants, sometimes in such
Fig. 38. Parameciura bursaria .... . . , , ,
(Pritchard). prodigious quantities that they be-
come troublesome. They occur also in flower vases where the water
is not frequently renewed.
The species of this genus have an oblong compressed body, with
an oblique longitudinal fold, directed towards the mouth, which is
INFUSORIA.
113
lateral. They are sufficiently large to be observe! by the common
lens, or eye-glass. Paramecium aurelia appears chiefly in vege-
table infusions. It is common in ditches and moats with aquatic
plants.
Humboldt's assertion is fully verified in the case of the Infusoria
under consideration, which is often found with its parasites. These
are small creatures, cylindrical in form, and provided with suckers.
Swimming vigorously in the water, they devote themselves to chasing
the Paramecium. When they have overtaken the fugitive, they
throw themselves upon it, and establish themselves there. They soon
multiply in the interior of its body, and their starving progeny suck
and devour the unfortunate animalcule, which serves them at once
for dwelling-house and larder.
Another of the parasites which prey upon the Paramecium, in
place of pursuing it, remains perfectly quiet until one of these
approach, when it throws itself
upon its victim, and is carried
along with it. It buries itself
in the body of the Paramecium,
and, in a short time; multiplies
to such a degree, that some-
times fifty of them are found
on a single individual. Poor
victim !
The Nassula have the body
entirely covered with cilia ; they
are ovoid or oblong in form, con-
tractile, the mouth placed late-
rally and dentate, or surrounded
with a band of horny bristles,
the band dilating and contract-
ing according to the size of the
prey which it would swallow.
It either advances to seize the
prey, which the movement of
vibratile cilia have failed to draw
within the vortex of its mouth, or, as in the case of the Paramecium,
it is sometimes obliged to seek for its prey. These curious infusoria
1H THE OCEAN WORLD.
live in stagnant waters, feeding on the debris of aquatic plants, from
which they draw their chief nourishment as well as their colour.
The Bursarians are animals with an oval or oblong contractile
body, provided also with vibratile cilia, especially on the surface, having
also a large mouth, surrounded with cilia, forming a sort of microscopic
moustache, spirally arranged.
Among the species belonging to this group may be noted the Con-
dylostoma patens (Fig. 39), remarkable for its size and voracity. It
sometimes attains the twelfth of an inch, and abounds on every shore
from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. Another Bursarian, a species
of Pfagiostoma, lives between the intestines and the external muscular
bed of the earth-worm, Lumbricus terrestris. To the group of
Urceolarians belong the Stentors, which are in number the most
numerous of the Infusoria; they are, for the most part, visible to
the naked eye.
The Stentor s are inhabitants of fresh, tranquil water, not subject
to agitation, and covered with water plants. They are nearly all
coloured green, blackish, or blue ; their bodies
covered with cilia. They are eminently con-
tractile, and very variable in form. They can
attach themselves temporarily, by means of the
cils at their posterior extremities, when they
assume a trumpet-like form, the bell of which
is closed by a convex membrane, the edge
being furnished with a row of very strong
obliquely-placed cilia, ranged in a spiral, meet-
ing at the mouth, which is placed near this
edge. When they swim freely, they alter-
nately resemble a club, a spindle, or a sphere.
The Stentor Muelleri is seen in ponds in the
neighbourhood of Paris and elsewhere ; it has
been found even in the basins of the Jardins
des Plantes (Fig. 40).
The animals which constitute this genus are
fixed in the first part of their existence, but
free in the second. So long as they are fixed,
they resemble, in their expanding state, a bell
or funnel, with the edges reversed and ciliate. When they become
i*. 40. Stentor Muelleri (Enr.),
magnified 75 times.
INFUSORIA. 115
free, they lose their crown of cilia, take a cylindrical form, more or
less ovoid and elongated, and move themselves by means of a new
organ. " There is no animal," says Dujardin, " which excites our
admiration in a higher degree than the Vorticellate Infusoria, by
their crown of cilia, and by the vortex which it produces ; by their
ever-varying forms ; above all, by their pedicle, which is susceptible of
rapid spiral contraction, by drawing the body backward and again
extending it. This pedicle is a flat membranous band, thicker upon
one of its edges than the other, and containing on the thicker side a
continuous channel, occupied, at least in part, by a fleshy substance,
analogous to that of the interior of the body. During contraction,
this thick edge is shortened more than the thin side, and hence results
the precise form of the spiral of the corkscrew."
We cannot conclude our brief history of these curiously-organized
beings without recording the doubt which still exists in the minds of
our most eminent naturalists, whether some of those we have named
are animal or vegetable in their origin. The Desmidese, long classed
among animals, are now generally recognized as plants. The group
of Diatomacece are still considered doubtful, and the Monads and
Volocina are still subjects of discussion, the evidence inclining in
favour of those who argue for their vegetable nature. Messrs. Busk,
Williamson, and Cohn, have published in the " Microscopical Trans-
actions " minute details of the evolutions of these curiously-organized
globules, which seem to prove their vegetable nature. On fhe other
hand, it is difficult to imagine so accurate an observer as Agassiz
writing so positively as he does on a doubtful subject. Eemarking on a
former paper, in which he had shown that the .embryo hatched from
the egg of a Planaria was a true polygastric animalcule of the genus
Paramecium, he adds, that in former writers a link was wanting, viz.,
tracing the young hatched from the egg of Distoma. " This deficiency,"
he says, "I can now fill. It is another Infusorium, a genuine
Opalina. With such facts before us there is no longer any doubt
left respecting the character of all these Polygastria ; they are the
earliest larvse condition of worms." Amid these friendly disputes we
congratulate ourselves that we have to do with the oceanic creations,
both animal and vegetable.
i 2
THE OCEAN WORLD.
CHAPTEE Y.
POLYPIFEEA.
" Happy is he who, satisfied with his humble fortune, lives contentedly in the obscure state
where God has placed him." RACINE.
ENTERING on the class Polypifera, we leave the domain of the infi-
nitely small to enter the world of the visible. Beside the Infusoria,
the Polypifera, which are sometimes several inches in length, are very
important beings. Science has made great advances towards giving us
an exact knowledge of these singular animals. Many scientific pre-
judices have been dissipated, many errors have been corrected. The
Polyps, as they are denned in the actual state of Science, correspond
not only with the Polypes, properly so called, of Cuvier and De Blain-
ville, buf also with the acaleplious zoophytes of the same authors.
"We now know that certain Polyps engender medusw, or acalephous
zoophytes, and that there exist some medusae scarcely differing in their
structure and habits of life from the ordinary Polyps.
Thus regarded, the Polyps comprehend a great variety of animals,
the bodies of which are generally soft or gelatinous substances. The
principal and smaller divisions, to the number of more than two,
are arranged round an imaginary axis, represented by the central
part of the body. These divisions of the body have in their ensemble
the appearance of a regular cylinder, of a truncated cone, or of a
disk. They are invested with a skin or envelope of calcareous or
siliceous corpuscles, and even a portion of the deepest-lying tissues
may be invaded by a calcareous deposit, the mass of which belongs some-
times to an individual ; sometimes it is common to many, constituting
what Dr. Johnston calls the Polypidom, of which Professor Grant
POLYPIFEEA. 117
says, " there is but one life and one plan of development in the whole
mass, and this depends, not on the Polypi, which are but secondary,
and often deciduous parts, but on the general fleshy substance of the
body ;"* " the ramifications," says Dr. Johnston, " being disposed in a
variety of elegant plant-like forms. The stem and branches are alike
in texture : slender, horny, fistular, and almost always jointed at short
and regular intervals, the joint being a mere break in the continuity
of the sheath, without any character of a proper hinge, and formed by
regular periodical interruptions in the growth of the polypidoms.
Along the sides of these, or at their extremities, we find the denticles
or cup-like cells of the polypi arranged in a determinate order, either
sessile or elevated on a stalk." Near the base of each of these there
is a partition or diaphragm, on which the body of the polyps rests,
with a plain or tubulous perforation in the centre, through which the
connection between the individual polyps and the common medullary
pulp is retrained. Besides the cells, there are found at certain seasons
a larger sort of vesicle, readily distinguished from the others by their
size, and the irregularity of their distribution, which are destined to
contain and maturate the ovules.
With these animals the digestive tube is very simple, and presents
only one distinct orifice; the same opening serving at once for re-
ceiving the food and the expulsion of the residuum of digestion. This
is one of Nature's economies, which it is not for us to dispute : we
must record it without further remark.
In nearly all the Polyps the sexes are separate ; the generation is
sometimes sexual ; but these beings multiply also by what the zoolo-
gists call gemmation, or buds. They are provided with organs of the
senses ; nearly all of them have eyes an immense progress in organ-
ization as compared with the animals which have hitherto engaged our
attention. Their respiration is effected by the skin another instance
of the economy of Nature. The apparatus of their circulation is indis-
tinct, but they have a nourishing fluid analogous to the blood in
vertebrated animals. Yibratile cilia and stinging hairs often cover
the entire surface of the Polyps.
These general remarks may appear obscure and insufficient to the
larger number of our readers. They are necessarily so; they are
generalities upon animals very little known, even to naturalists. We
* " Outlines of Comparative Anatomy."
118 THE OCEAN WORLD.
quit this difficult ground, trusting to make the special study of the
several types we shall have to describe more interesting. The group
of Polyps divide themselves into many classes, namely, the Alcyonidte,
the Zoanthina, the Discophora, and Ctenophora. It will be our
task to describe in succession the habits and characters of each of these
classes, dwelling on such species as appear to us to offer to the reader
most real interest.
CHAPTER VI.
CORALLINES.
" As for your pretty Htlle seed-cups or vases, they are a sweet confirmation of the pleasure
Nature seems to take in superadding elegance of form to most of her works. How poor
and bungling are all the imitations of art! When 1 have the pleasure of seeing you next,
we shall sit down nay, kneel down and admire these things." HOGARTH xo ELLIS.
THE Alcyonaria are so designated from their principal type, that of
the Alcyons. The fresh-water species are composed of a fleshy,
sponge-like mass, consisting of vertical, aggregated, memhranaceous
tubes, which are open on the surface. In these tubes the polyps,
which are Isidians, are located. The mouth is encircled with a single
series of filiform tentacula, which, like those of the whole family, are
depressed or incomplete on one side. The eggs are contained in the
tubes, and are coriaceous and smooth. The tentacula of these polyps
are generally eight, disposed somewhat like the barbs of a feather,
and toothed on their edges like a saw, which has procured them the
name of Ctenoceros, from the Greek word %ret9, a comb. Their bodies
present eight perigastric lamellse ; their coral is often formed of
spiculse. We shall see, farther on, that among the Gorgonidae the
coral ceases to be parenchymous that is, spongy and cellular ; that
its axis assumes a horny and resistant consistence, which becomes
stony in the corallines. In this last group, the external bed, which
is the special lodging of the polyps, always remains soft on the surface.
We shall have a general idea of the organization, manners, and mode
of multiplication among the Alcyonaria when we come to treat of
corals and their strange history. The class Alcyonaria is divided
into many orders. We shall consider I. The Tubiporinse. II. The
Gorgoniadte. III. The Pennatulidve. IV. The Alcyonaria, properly
so called.
120
THE OCEAN WORLD.
I. THE TUBIPORIN^E
form a group consisting of several species, which live in the bosom of
tropical seas, in which the Coral Islands form so prominent a feature.
The group is exclusively formed of the curious genus Tubipora.
The Tubipora is a calcareous coral, formed by a combination of
distinct, regularly-arranged tubes, connected together at regulated
distances by lamellar expansion of the same material. The aggregate
formation resulting from this combination of tubes constitutes a
rounded mass, which often attains a very considerable size. In Fig. 41
we have a representation of the zoophyte Tubipora musica and its
product, which is sometimes designated by the vulgar name of Sea-
Organ. In the engraving, 1 is the calcareous product, reduced to half
its size ; 2, is a portion in its natural size ; 3, the tubes magnified, and
containing the polyp which occupies the summit of the tube, the whole
8
41. Tubipora musica (T.inn.), half the natural size.
of which constitutes this curious coral ; 4, is the polyp magnified ;
5, the head or collection of tentacula of the individual polyp.
CORALLINES.
121
Zoologists of the last century confounded all the species of this
genera inhabiting the tropical seas, making only one species, to which
they gave the name of Tubipora musica. But it is now known that
there are many species of Tubiporw, readily distinguishable in a fresh
condition by a difference in the colour of the polyps. The tissue of
these singular beings is of an intensely red colour. The disposition of
their tubes in the style of organ pipes has always attracted the atten-
tion of the curious inquirer into the secrets of Nature.
II. GORGONIAD^E.
Milne Edwards divides this order into three natural groups : I. The
Gorgoniadte. II. The Isidians. III. The Corallines.
The Gorgonians are composed of two substances : the one external,
Fig. 42. The Sea Fan, Gorgonia flabellum (Linn.).
.sometimes gelatinous and fugitive ; sometimes, on the contrary, creta-
ceous, fleshy, and more or less tenacious. Animated with life, this
122
THE OCEAN WORLD.
membrane is irritable and encloses the polyp ; it becomes friable or
arenaceous in drying. The second substance, internal and central,
sustains the first, and is called the axis. This axis presents a horny
appearance, and was formerly believed to possess chemical characters
analogous to the horns and hoofs of some of the vertebrated animals.
It has recently been asserted that the tissues of these corals consist
essentially of a particular substance which resembles horn, but which
is called Corneine. A little carbonate of lime is sometimes found
united with this substance, but never in a sufficient quantity to give
it a stony consistence. This outer covering developes itself in con-
centric beds, between
the portion of the axis
previously formed and
the internal surface of
the sclerotic covering.
The mode of growth in
this axis presents great
variations. Sometimes it
remains simple and rises
like a slender rod, some-
times it has numerous
branches. It is arbores-
cent when the branches
and their accompaniments
take different directions
so as to constitute tufts.
It is panicked when
they arrange themselves
on both sides of the stem
or principal branches,
after the manner of the
barbs of a feather. It
is fldbelliform when the
branches rise irregularly
under the same plane ; reticulated, when branches are so disposed as to
be attached to each other by network in place of remaining free.
The Gorgoniadse are found in every sea, and always at considerable
depths. They are larger and more numerous between the Tropics
Fig. 43. Fan Gorgon, magnified.
CORALLINES. 123
than in cold or even temperate climates. Some of these corals
scarcely attain the twelfth of an inch in height, while others rise to
the height of several feet.
Fig. 44. Gorgonia verticellata (Pallas).
Formed in the hosom of the ocean, it is only necessary to hehold
these singular creations in order to admire the brilliant colours which
decorate their semi-membranaceous branches. The brilliancy of their
robes are singularly diminished, have almost entirely disappeared,
124
THE OCEAN WORLD.
indeed, when they make their appearance in the cases of our natural
history collections.
The Fan Gorgon, from the Antilles (Fig. 42), is a species which
often attains the height of eighteen or twenty
inches, and nearly as much in hreadth. The
network of its interstices with its unequal
and serried meshes, resembling fine lace,
have led to its designation of Sea Fan. Its
colour is yellow or reddish. In Fig. 43 we
have the Sea Fan magnified to twice its
natural size, showing the curious details of
its organization.
The Whorled Gorgon (G. verticellatd),
which is found in the Mediterranean, is
yellowish in colour, and also of elegant form.
It is sometimes called the Sea Pen. This
species is represented in Fig. 44, while
Fig. 45 represents a small branch magni-
fied four times, in order to give an exact
idea of its form.
The Gorgons are not known to be useful
either in the arts or in medicine. They
are ornamental in cabinets, and interesting both as objects of study
and of zoological curiosity.
Fig. 45. Gorgonia verticellata
(Pallas), magnified four times.
ISIDIANS.
The Isidce constitute an intermediate group between the Gorgons
and Corallines. Their polypidorn is arborescent, but its axis is formed
of articulations alternately calcareous and horny. The principal genus
is that of the Isis, which is met with in the Indian Ocean, on the
American coast, and in Oceania. The inhabitants of the Molucca
Islands use these animals medicinally as a remedy in certain diseases ;
but as .they use them for the most opposite maladies, it may be
doubted if they are really efficacious in any medicinal point of view.
The Isis corollo'idis of Oceania has a coral with numerous
slender branches, furnished with cylindrical knots at intervals, con-
tracted towards the middle, finely striated, and rose-coloured. Isis
CORALLINES.
125
hippuris, represented in Fig. 46, has a singular resemblance to the
Common Mare's Tail (Hippuris vulgaris).
Fig. 46. Isis hippuris.
Four other species of Isidians are known. The same family includes
the genera of Melitsea and Mopsea, which, however, our limits forhid
us to describe.
CORALLINE.
The group of Corallines consist of a single genus, Corallium, having
a common axis, inarticulate, solid, and calcareous, the typical species
of which furnishes matter hard, brilliant, and richly coloured, and
much sought after as an object^ of adornment. This interesting
zoophyte and its product require to be described with some detail.
126 THE OCEAN WORLD.
From very early times, the coral has been adopted as an object
of ornament. From the highest antiquity, also, efforts were made to
ascertain its true origin, and the place assignable to it in the works of
Nature. Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny considered that the
coral was a plant. Tournefort, in 1700, reproduced the same idea.
Eeaumur slightly modified this opinion of the ancients, and declared
his opinion that the coral was the stony product of certain marine
plants. Science was in this state when a naturalist, who has acquired
a great name, the Count de Marsigli, made a discovery which threw
quite a new light on the true origin of this natural product. He
announced that he had discovered the flowers of the coral. He repre-
sented these flowers in his fine work, " La Physique de la Mer," which
includes many interesting details respecting this curious product of
the ocean. How could it be longer doubted that the coral was a plant,
since he had seen its expanded flowers ?
No one doubted it, and Eeaumur proclaimed everywhere the dis-
covery of the happy Academician.
Unhappily, a discordant note soon mingled in this concert. It
even emanated from a pupil of Marsigli !
Jean Andre de Peyssonnel was born at Marseilles in 1694. He
was a student of medicine and natural history at Paris when the
Academie des Sciences charged him with the task of studying the
coral on the sea-shore. Peyssonnel began his observations in the
neighbourhood of Marseilles in 1723. He pursued it on the North
African coast, where he had been sent on a mission by the Govern-
ment. Aided by a long series of observations as exact as they were
delicate, Peyssonnel demonstrated that the pretended flowers which
the Count de Marsigli thought he had discovered in the coral, were
true animals, and showed that the coral was neither plant nor the
product of a plant, but a being with life, which he placed in the first
" rung " of the zoological ladder. " I put the flower of the coral,"
says Peyssonnel, " in vases full of sea-water, and I saw that what had
been taken for a flower of this pretended plant was, in truth, only an
insect, like a little sea-nettle, or polyp. I had the pleasure of seeing
removed the claws or feet of the creature, and having put the vase
full of water, which contained the coral, in a gentle heat over the fire,
all the small insects seemed to expand. The polyp extended his feet,
and formed what M. de Marsigli and I had taken for the petals of a
CORALLINES. 127
flower. The calyx of this pretended flower, in short, was the animal,
which advanced and issued out of its cell."
The observations of Peyssonnel were calculated to put aside
altogether theories which had lately attracted universal admiration,
but they were coldly received by the naturalists, his contemporaries.
Reaumur distinguished himself greatly in his opposition to the young
innovator. He wrote to Peyssonnel in an ironical tone: "I think
(he says) as you do, that no one has hitherto been disposed to regard
the coral as the work of insects. We cannot deny that this idea is
both new and singular ; but the coral, as it appears to me, never could
have been constructed by sea-nettles or polyps, if we may judge from
the manner in which you make them labour."
What appeared impossible to Reaumur was, however, a fact which
Peyssonnel had demonstrated to hundreds by his experiments at
Marseilles. Nevertheless, Bernard de Jussieu did not find the reasons
he urged strong enough to induce him to abandon the opinions he
had formed as to their vegetable origin. Afflicted and disgusted at
the indifferent success with which his labours were received, Peyssonnel
abandoned his investigations. He even abandoned science and society,
and sought an obscure retirement in the Antilles as a naval surgeon,
and his manuscripts, which he left in France, have never been printed.
These manuscripts, written in 1 744, were preserved in the library of
the Museum of Natural History at Paris. The title is comprehensive
and sufficiently descriptive. It should be added, in order to complete
the recital, that Reaumur and Bernard de Jussieu finally recognized
the value of the discoveries and the validity of the reasoning of the
naturalist of Marseilles. When these illustrious savants became
acquainted with the experiments of Trembley upon the fresh-water
hydrae ; when they had themselves repeated them ; when they had
made similar observations on the sea anemone and alcyonidae ; when
they finally discovered that on other so-called marine plants animal-
cules were found similar to the hydra, so admirably described by
Trembley ; they no longer hesitated to render full justice to the views
of their former adversary.
While Peyssonnel still lived forgotten at the Antilles, his scientific
labours were crowned with triumph . at Paris ; but it was a sterile
triumph for him. Reaumur gave to the animalcules which construct
the coral the name of Polyps, and Coral to the product itself, for
THE OCEAN WORLD.
such he considered the architectural product of the polyps. In other
words, Beaumur introduced into Science the views which he had keenly
contested with their author. But from that time the animal nature
of the coralline has never been doubted.
Without pausing to note the various authors who have given their
attention to this fine natural production, we shall at once direct our
attention to the organization of the animalcules, and the construction
of the coral.
M. Lacaze-Duthiers, professor at the -Jardin des Plantes of Paris,
published in 1864 a remarkable monograph, entitled "L'Histoire
Naturelle du Corail." This learned naturalist was charged by the
French Government, in 1860, with a mission having for its object the
study of the coral from the natural history point of view. His
observations upon the zoophytes are numerous and precise, and worthy
of the successor of Peyssonnel ; but for close observation, practical
conclusions, and popular exposition, the world is more indebted to
Charles Darwin than to any other naturalist.
A branch of living coral, if we may use the term, is an aggregation
of animals derived from a first being by budding. They are united
among themselves by a common tissue, each seeming to enjoy a life of
its own, though participating in a common object. The branch seems
to originate in an egg, which produces a young
animal, which attaches itself soon after its birth,
as already described. From this is derived the
new beings which, by their united labours, pro-
duce the branch of coral or polypidom.
This branch is composed of two distinct parts :
the one central, of a hard, brittle, and stony nature,
the well-known coral of commerce ; the other
altogether external, like the bark of a tree, soft
and fleshy, and easily impressed with the nail.
This is essentially the bed of the living colony.
The first is called the polypidom, the second is
the colony of polyps. . This bed (Fig. 47) is
much contracted when the water is withdrawn
from the colony. It is covered with salient
mammals or protuberances, much wrinkled and furrowed.
Each protuberance encloses a polyp, and presents on its summit
Fig. 47. Living Bed of Coral
after the entrance of the
Polyps.
(Lacaze-Duthiers.)
COEALLINES.
129
Fig. 48. Three Polyps of the Coral.
(Lacaze-Duthiers.)
eight folds, radiating round a central pore, which presents a star-like
appearance. This pore as it opens gives to the polyps the op-
portunity of coming out. Its
edge presents a reddish calyx,
like the rest of the hark, the
festooned throat of which pre-
sents eight dentations.
The polyp itself (Fig. 48) is
formed of a whitish membra-
nous tube, nearly cylindrical,
having an upper disk, surrounded
by its eight tentacula, bearing
many delicate fibres spreading
out laterally. This assemblage
of tentacula resembles the corolla
of some flowers ; its form is very
variable, but always truly elegant.
Fig. 49 (which is borrowed
from M. Lacaze-Duthiers' great
work) represents one of these forms of the coral.
The arms of the polyps are at times subject to violent agitation : the
tentacula become much excited.
If this excitement continues, the
tentacula can be seen to fold and
roll themselves up, as shown in
Fig. 50. If we look at the ex-
panded disk, we see that the
eight tentacula attach themselves
to the body, describing a space
perfectly circular, in the middle
of which rises a small mammal,
the summit of which is occupied
by a small slit like two rounded
lips. This is the mouth of the
polyps, the form being very va-
riable, but well represented in
Fig. 50, where the organ under
consideration is displayed.
130
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Fig. 50. Another form of the Coral Polyp.
(Lacaze-Duthiers.)
A cylindrical tube connected with the mouth represents the oeso-
phagus or gullet ; but all other portions of the digestive tube are very
rudimentary. The oesophagus
connects the general cavity of
the body with the exterior, and
looks as if it were suspended in
the middle of the body by certain
folds, which issue with perfect
symmetry from eight points of
its circumference. The folds
which thus fix the oesophagus
form a series of cells, above each
of which it attaches itself, and
supports an arm or tentaculum.
Let us pause an instant over
the soft and fleshy bark in which the polyps are engaged. Let us
see also what are the mutual relations which exist between the several
inhabitants of one of these colonies, how they are attached to one
another, and what is their connection with the polypidom.
The thick fleshy body, soft, and easily impressed with the finger, is
the living part which produces the coral ; it extends itself so as ex-
actly to cover the whole polypidom. If it perishes at any one point,
that part of the axis which corresponds with the point no longer
shows any increase. An intimate relation, therefore, exists between
the bark and the polypidom. If the bark is examined more closely,
three principal elements are recognized a common general tissue,
some spicula, and certain vessels. The general tissue is transparent,
glossy, cellular, and contractile.
The spiculse are very small calcareous concretions, more or less
elongated, covered with knotted joints bristling with spines, and of
regular determinate form (Fig. 51). They refract
the light very vividly, and their colour is that of
the coral, but much weaker, in consequence of
their want of thickness. They are uniformly dis-
tributed throughout the bark, and give to the coral
the fine colour which generally characterises it.
The vessels constitute a network, which ex-
tends and repeats itself in the thickness of the crust. These vessels
Fig 51 . Coralline SpicuU.
(Lacaze-Duthiers.)
COKALLINES.
131
are of two kinds (Fig. 52); the one, comparatively very large, is
imbedded in the axis, and disposed in parallel layers ; the others are
regular and much smaller. They form a network of unequal meshes,
which occupies the whole thickness of the external crust. This net-
work has direct and important connection with the polyps on the one
hand, and with the central substance which forms the axis on the
other. It communicates directly with the general cavity of the body
Fig. 52. Circulating Apparatus for the nutritive fluids in the Coral. (Lacazo-Duthiers.)
of the animal, by every channel which approaches it, while the two
ranges of network approach each other by a great number of anas-
tomosing processes. Such is the vascular arrangement of the coral.
The circulation of alimentary fluids in the coral is accomplished by
means of vessels near to the axis, without, however, directly anasto-
mosing with the cavities containing the polyps which live in the
polypidom ; they only communicate with those cavities by very deli-
cate intermediary canals. The alimentary fluids they receive from the
K 2
132 THE OCEAN WORLD.
secondary system of network, which brings them into direct commu-
nication with the polyps. The alimentary fluids elaborated by the
polyps pass into the branches of the secondary and irregular network
system, in order to reach the great parallel tubes which extend from
one extremity of the organism to the other, serving the same purpose
to the whole community.
When the extremity of a branch of living coral is torn or broken, a
white liquid immediately flows from the wound, which mingles with
water, and presents all the appearance of milk. This is the fluid
aliment which has escaped from the vessel containing it, charged with
the debris of the organism.
What occurs when the bud produces new polyps ? It is only round
well-developed animals, and particularly those with branching ex-
tremities, in which this phenomenon is produced. The new beings
resemble little white points pierced with a central orifice. Aided by
the microscope, we discover that this white point is starred with radia-
ting white lines, the edge of the orifice bearing eight distinctly-traced
indentations. All these organs are enlarged step by step until the
young animal has attained the shrub-like or branched aspect which
belongs to the compound polypidom. The tube is branching, and the
orifices from which the polypi expand become dilated into cup-like cells.
The coral of commerce, so beautiful and so appreciated by lovers of
bijouterie, is the polypidom. It is
cylindrical, much channeled on the
surface, the lines usually parallel to
the axis of the cylinder, the depres-
sions sometimes corresponding to the
body of the animal. If the transverse
section of a polypidom be examined,
it is found to be regularly festooned
on its circumference. Towards its
centre certain sinuosities appear,
sometimes crossing, sometimes tri-
gonal, sometimes in irregular lines,
Fig. 53. Section of a Branch of Coral. -, . ., . . ,
and in the remaining mass are red-
dish folds alternating with brighter
spaces which radiate from the centre towards the circumference (Fig. 53).
In the section of a very red coral, it will be observed that the colour
CORALLINES.
133
is not equally distributed, but separated into zones more or less deep
in colour, containing very thin preparations which crack, not irre-
gularly, but parallel to the edge of the plate, and in such a manner
as to reproduce the festoons on the circumference. From this it may
be deduced that the stem increases by concentric layers being deposited,
which mould themselves .one upon the other. In the mass of coral
certain small corpuscles occur, charged with irregular asperities, much
redder than the tissue into which they are plunged. These are much
Fig. 54. Birth of the Coralline Larvae. (Lacaze-Duthiers.)
more numerous in the red than in the light band, and they necessarily
give more strength to the general tint.
To the mode of reproduction in the coral polyps, so well described
by Lacaze-Duthiers, we can only devote a few lines. Sometimes, ac-
cording to this able observer, the polyps of the same colony are all
either male or female, and the branch is unisexual ; in others there
are both male and female, when the branch is bisexual. Finally, but
very rarely, polyps are found uniting both sexes.
The coral is viviparous ; that is to say, its eggs become embryos
inside the polyp. The larvae remain a certain time in the general
134 THE OCEAN WORLD.
cavity of the polyp, where they can be seen through its transparency,
as exhibited in Fig. 54. Aided by the magnifying powers of the
microscope, coral larvae may here be perceived through the transparent
membranous envelope. From this position they escape from the
mouth of the mother in the manner represented in the upper branch.
The animal then resembles a little white grub or worm, more or less
elongated. The larva is, however, still egg-shaped or ovoid ; more-
over, it is sunk in a hollow cavity, and covered with cilia, by the aid
of which it can swim. Sometimes one of its extremities becomes
enlarged, the other remaining slender and pointed. Upon this an
opening is formed communicating with the interior cavity: this is
the mouth. The larvae swim backwards; that is to say, with the
mouth behind.
It is only at a certain period after birth that the coral polyp fixes
itself and commences its metamorphoses, which consist essentially in
a change of form and proportions. The buccal extremity is diminished
and tapers off, whilst the base swells, and is enlarged it becomes
discoid ; the posterior surface of this sort of disk is a plane, the front
representing the mouth, at the bottom of a depression edged with a great
cushion. Eight mammillations or swellings now appear, corresponding
to the chambers which divide the interior of the disk : the worm has
taken its radiate form. Finally, the mammals are elongated and
transformed into tentacula. In Fig. 55 a young coral polyp is
represented fixed upon a bryozoa,
a name employed by Ehrenberg for
zoophytes having a mouth and anus.
It forms a small disk, the fortieth
part of an inch in diameter, and
having its spicula already coloured
red. Fig. 56 shows the successive
forms of the young polyps in
the progressive phases of their de-
velopment being a young coralline
polyp fixed upon a rock still con-
Fig. 55. Very young Polyps, attached to a . , ,. \- . ., ,
Bryozoa. tracted. Fig. 57 is a similar coral-
line attached to a rock and expanding
its tentacula. Fig. 58 represents a small pointed rock covered with
polypi and polypidoms of the natural size and of different shapes, but
CORALLINES.
135
Fig. 56. A young Coral Polyp fixed upon a
Kock. (Lacaze-Duthiers.)
all young, and indicating the definite form of development which the
collective beings are to assume.
The simple isolated state of
the animal, whose phases of de-
velopment we have indicated,
does not last long. It possesses
the property of producing new
beings, as we have already said,
by budding. But how is the
polypidom formed ? If we take
a very young branch, we find in
the centre of the thickness of
the crust a nucleus or stony
substance resembling an agglomeration of spicula. When they are
sufficient in number and size, these nuclei form a kind of stony plate,
which is imbedded in the thickness
of the tissues of the animal. These
laminee, at first quite flat, assume
in the course of their development
a horse-shoe shape. Figs. 59 and
60 will give the reader some idea
of the form in which the young
present themselves. Fig. 59 repre-
sents the corpuscles in which the
polypidom has its origin ; Fig. 60,
the rudimentary form of the coralline polypidom.
Our information fails to convey any precise notion of the time
necessary for the coral to acquire the
various proportions in which it pre-
sents itself.
Darwin, who examined some of these
creatures very minutely, tells us that
" several genera (Flustrse, Escharae,
Cellaria, Cresia, and others) agree in
having singular movable organs at-
tached to their cells. The organs in
the greater number of cases very closely resemble the head of a
vulture ; but the lower mandible can be opened much wider than a
57. Young Coral Polyp attached to a
Kock and expanded. (Lacaze-Duthiers.)
Fig. 58. A Rock covered with young Polyps
and Polypidom. (Lacaze-Duthiers.)
136
THE OCEAN WORLD.
real bird's beak. The head itself possesses considerable powers
of movement, by means of a short neck. In one zoophyte the head
itself was fixed, but the
lower jaw free ; in another
it was replaced by a tri-
angular hood, with a
beautifully - fitted trap-
door, which evidently
answered to the lower
mandible. In the greater
number of species each
cell was provided with
one head, but in others
each cell had two.
"The young cells at
the end of the branches
Fig. 59. Corpuscles from which Fig. 60. First form of the
originate the Polypidom. Polypidom. (Lacaze-Duthiers.) O f these COralHneS Contain
quite immature polypi, yet the vulture heads attached to them,
though small, are in every respect perfect. When the polypus was
removed by a needle from any of the cells, these organs did not appear
to be in the least affected. When one of the vulture-like heads was
cut off from a cell, the lower mandible retained its power of opening
and closing. Perhaps the most singular part of their structure is,
that when there are more than two rows of cells on a branch, the
central cells were furnished with these appendages of only one-fourth
the size of the outside ones. Their movements varied according to
the species ; but in some I never saw the least motion, while others,
with the lower mandible generally wide open, oscillated backwards and
forwards at the rate of about five seconds each turn ; others moved
rapidly and by starts. When touched with a needle, the beak generally
seized the point so firmly that the whole branch might be shaken."
In the Cresia, Darwin observed that each cell was furnished with
a long-toothed bristle, which had the power of moving very quickly ;
each bristle and each vulture-like head moving quite independently of
each other ; sometimes all on one side, sometimes those on one branch
only moving simultaneously, sometimes one after the other. In these
actions we apparently behold as perfect a transmission of will in the
zoophyte, though composed of thousands of distinct polyps, as in any
COEALLINES. 137
distinct animal. " What can be more remarkable," he adds, " than to
see a plant-like body producing an egg, capable of swimming about
and choosing a proper place to adhere to, where it sprouts out into
branches, each crowded with innumerable distinct animals, often of
complicated organization ! the branches, moreover, sometimes pos-
sessing organs capable of movement independent of the polypi."
Passing to the coral fishing, it may be said to be quite special,
presenting no analogy with any other fishing in the European seas, if we
except the sponge fisheries. The fishing stations which occur are found
on the Italian coast and the coast of Barbary ; in short, in most parts of
the Mediterranean basin. In all these regions, on abrupt rocky beds,
certain aquatic forests occur, composed entirely of the red coral, the most
brilliant and the most celebrated of all the corals, Coralium decus
liquidi! During many ages, as we have seen, the coral was supposed
to be a plant. The ancient Greeks called it the daughter of the sea
(Kopd\\tov KopTj aXo?), which the Latins translated into corraUum or
coralium. It is now agreed among naturalists that the coral is con-
structed by a family of polyps living together, and composing a poly-
pidom. It abounds in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, where it is
found at various depths, but rarely less than five fathoms, or more
than a hundred and fifty. Each polypidom resembles a pretty red leaf-
less under shrub bearing delicate little star-like radiating white flowers.
The axes of this little tree are the parts common to the association,
the flowrets are the polypi. These axes present a soft reticulated
crust, full of little cavities, which are the cells of the polyps, and
are permeated by a milky juice. Beneath the crust is the coral, pro-
perly so called, which equals marble in hardness, and is remarkable
for its striped surface, its bright red colour, and the fine polish of which
it is susceptible. The ancients believed that it was soft in the water,
and only took its consistence when exposed to the air :
" Sic et coralium, quo primum contigit auras
Tempore, durescit." OVID.
The fishing is chiefly conducted by sailors from Genoa, Leghorn,
and Naples, and it is so fatiguing, that it is a common saying in Italy
that a sailor obliged to go to the coral fishery should be a thief or an
assassin. The saying is a gratuitous insult to the sailor, but conveys
a good idea enough of the occupation.
138 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The barks sent to the fishing range from six to fifteen tons ; they
are solid, and well adapted for the labour ; their rig is a great lateen
sail, and a jib or staysail. The stern is reserved for the capstan,
the fishers, and the crew. The fore part of the vessel is reserved for
the requirements of the patron or master.
The lines, wood, and irons employed in the coral fisheries are called the
engine : it consists of a cross of wood formed of two bars, strongly lashed
or bolted together at their centre ; below this a great stone is attached,
which bears the lines, arranged in the form of a sac. These lines have
great meshes, loosely knotted together, resembling the well-known swab.
The apparatus carries thirty of these sacs, which are intended to
grapple all they come in contact with at the bottom of the sea. They
are spread out in all directions by the movement of the boat. The
coral is known to attach itself to the summit of a rock and to develop
itself, forming banks there, and it is to these rocks that the swab
attaches itself so as to tear up the precious harvest. Experience,
which in time becomes almost intuitive, guides the Italian fisher in
discovering the coral banks. The craft employed in the great fishery
have a " patron " or captain, the bark having a poop, with a crew of
eight or ten sailors, and in the season it is continued night and day.
The whole apparatus, and mode of using it, is shown in PL. III.
When the patron thinks that he has reached a coral bank, he
throws his engine overboard. As soon as the apparatus is engaged,
the speed of the vessel is retarded, the capstan is manned by six or
eight men, while the others guide the helm and trim the sails. Two
forces are thus brought to act upon the lines, the horizontal action of
the vessel and the vertical action of the capstan. In consequence of
the many inequalities of the rocky bottom, the engine advances by
jerks, the vessel yielding more or less, according to the concussion
caused by the action of the capstan or sail. The engine seizes upon
the rugged rocks at the bottom, and raises them to let them fall again.
In this manner the swab, floating about, penetrates beneath the rocks
where the coral is found, and is hooked on to it. To fix the lines upon
the coral and bring them home, is a work of unheard-of labour. The
engine long resists the most energetic and repeated efforts of the
crew, who, exposed almost naked to the burning sun of the Mediter-
ranean, work the capstan to which the cable and engine are attached,
while the patron urges and excites them to increased exertion, and
Plate III. Coral Fishing on the Coast of Sicily.
CORALLINES. 139
the sailors trim the sail and sing with a slow and monotonous tone a
song, the words of which improvise in a sort of psalmody the names
of the saints most revered among the seafaring Italian population.
The lines are finally hrought home, tearing or breaking hlocks of
rock, sometimes of enormous size, which are hrought on board. The
cross is now placed on the side of the vessel, the lines are arranged on
the deck, and the crew occupy themselves in gathering the results of
their labour. The coral is gathered together, the branches of the
precious zoophyte are cleansed, and divested of the shells and other
parasitic products which accompany them; finally, the produce is
carried to and sold in the ports of Messina, Naples, Genoa, or Leghorn,
where the workers in jewellery purchase them. Behold, fair reader,
with what hard labour, fatigue, and peril, the elegant bijouterie with
which you are decked is torn from the deepest bed of the ocean !
III. THE PENNATULID^E, OR SEA-PEN.
This curious family received from Cuvier the name of Swimming
Polypi, and from Lamarck that of Floating Polypi. The name of
Pennatulse, by which they are generally known, is taken from their
resemblance to a quill, penna. In the words of Lamarck, " It seems
as if Nature, in forming this composite animal, had wished to copy
the external form of a bird's feather." Our fishermen call it the cock's
comb, which is not inapt, but less expressive of its peculiarities. This
animal is " from two to four inches in length, of a uniform purplish-
red colour, except at the hip or base of the stalk, where it is pale
orange-yellow; the skin is thickish, very tough, and of a curious
structure, being composed of minute crystalline cylinders, densely
arranged in straight lines, and held together by a tenacious glutinous
matter, the cylinders being about six inches in diameter, in length
straight and even, or sometimes slightly curved, and of a red colour,
which communicates itself to the zoophyte." (Johnston.) The animals
by which it is formed constitute colonies, which, however, are only
attached to the rocks by an enlarged basis ; it appears to live generally
at the bottom of the sea ; its root, if we can use the term, buried in
the sands or mud ; its polypiferous portion sallying out into the water.
The agitation of the waves and the fishermen's nets often displace
these aggregates of creation, and then they float at various depths in
the bosom of the ocean.
140 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The stalk of the polypidom is hollow in the centre, having a long
slender hone-like substance, which is white, smooth, and square, hut
tapering at each extremity to a fine point. The polyps, which are
fleshy and white, are provided with eight long retractile tentacula,
beautifully ciliated on their inner edge with two series of short pro-
cesses strengthened with crystalline spicula. The mouth in the centre
of the tentacula is somewhat angular, hounded by a white ligament, a
process from which encircles the base of each tentaculum, which thus
seems to issue from an aperture. The ova lie between the membranes
of the pinnae ; they are globular, of a yellowish colour, and by a little
pressure can be made to pass through the mouth. The polyps are
distributed with more or less regularity in such a manner that one of
the extremities of the common axis is always naked : this part has been
compared to the tubulous part of a feather. The stem, common to the
colony, is a solid central axis, more or less developed, which is covered
with a fleshy fibrous substance, susceptible of dilatation and contraction.
The Pennatulidse comprehend three genera ; namely, those with
polyps on bipinnate wings, having according to Dr. Johnston
Polypidoms plumose, in ..... Pennatula.
Polypidoms virgate, or wand-sLaped . . . Virgularia.
Polypi, unilateral and sessile . . . . )
Polypidom, linear-elongate }
In the genus Pennatula, the polyps are disposed in transverse
rows upon the outer and inner edge, in a series of prolongations in
the form of a feather. These winged species of polypidom are somewhat
scythe-shaped, well developed, and furnished with a great quantity of
pointed spiculae, which are constituted of bundles at the base of the
calyx. The space between the two rows of appendages is sometimes a
tissue, sometimes scaly, sometimes granulous. Of the Pennatula five
species are known, and all of them appear to be gifted with phos-
phorescent properties. We may note among these species Pennatula
spinosa (Fig. 61), which inhabits the Mediterranean, and takes its
name from its colour ; Pennatula phosphorea, which abound in most
European seas, being found in great plenty, clinging to the fishermen's
lines round our own northern shores, more especially when they are
baited with mussels.
P. phospliorea is of a reddish purple, the base of the smooth stalk
pale ; the raches roughened with close-set papillae, and furrowed clown
CORALLINES.
141
the middle ; pinnae close ; polyp cilia uniserial, tubular, with spinous
apertures. (Sibbald.)
Bohadsch says the Pennatulx swim by means of their pinnas,
which they use as fishes do their fins. Ellis says, " It is an animal
that swims about in the sea, many of them having a muscular motion
as they swim along ;" these motions being effected, as he tells us in
another place, by means of the pinnules or feather-like fins, " evidently
designed by Nature to move the ani-
mal backward or forward in the sea."
Cuvier tells us they have the power of
moving by the contraction of the fleshy
part of the polypidom, and also by the
combined action of its polyps. Dr.
Grant says, " A more singular and beau-
tiful spectacle could scarcely be con-
ceived than that of a deep purple P.
plwspliorea with all its delicate trans-
parent polypi expanded, and emitting
their usual brilliant phosphorescent
light, sailing through the still and
dark abyss, by the regular and syn-
chronous pulsations of the minute
fringed arms of the whole polypi ;"
while Linnaeus tells us that " the
phosphorescent sea-pens which cover
the bottom of the ocean cast so strong
a light, that it is easy to count the
fishes and worms of various kinds
which sport among them."
Lamarck, Schweigger, and other
naturalists, however, reasoning from
what is known of other compound animals, deny the existence of this
locomotive power in these zoophytes ; " and there is little doubt," says
Dr. Johnston, " that these authors are right, for, when placed in a
basin of sea water, the Pennatulee are never observed to change their
position ; they remain in the same spot, and lie with the same side up
or down, just as they have been placed. They inflate the body until
it becomes to a considerable degree transparent, and only streaked
Fig. 61, Sea-pen, Pennatula spinosa.
(Edes.)
142 THE OCEAN WORLD.
with intercepted lines of red, which distend at one place and contract
at another ; they spread out the pinnge, and the polyps expand their
tentacula, but they never attempt to swim, or perform any process of
locomotion."
P. mirabilis is common in the east and north coasts of Scotland.
The virgularias differ from the pennatula chiefly in their develop-
ment, relative to the axis of the colony and the shortness of the pinnae,
which carry the polyps ; and in this, that no spiculse enter into the
composition of its softer parts. V. mirabilis is found in the North
Sea, on the coast of Scotland, and as far north as Norway. In Zetland
it is known as the sea-rush. It is abundant in Belfast Lough, but,
from its brittle nature, perfect specimens are difficult to obtain.
" It seems," says Sowerby, " to represent a quill stripped of its
feathers. The base looks like a pen in this as in other species,
swelling a little way from the end, and then tapering. The upper
part is thicker, with alternate semicircular pectinated swellings, larger
towards the middle, tapering upwards, and terminating in a thin bony
substance, which passes through the whole extent, and is from six to
ten inches in length."
In a communication to Dr. Johnston, from Mr. E. Patterson of
Belfast, commenting on Miiller's figure of Virgularia, he tells us
that in the longest specimen he had, no two plumes were precisely
alike so unlike, indeed, that the artist copying one, could not for a
moment hesitate, after raising her eyes from her paper, to look at the
animal, as to which she was copying.
Its short waving and deeply dentated wings are of a brilliant yellow.
The polyps, which appear upon their lobes, are whitish, transparent,
and form a fringe of small diaphanous white stars (Figs. 62 and 63 /.
We may figure to ourselves a slender wand-like and much-elongated
polypidom, carrying only a non-contractile polyp on one side, which
would give us an idea of the Pavonaria, of which we know only one
species, which is from the Mediterranean.
Virgularia mirabilis is undoubtedly one of the finest polypicloms
found in the ocean. 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 bota-
nists, 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
CORALLINES.
143
te
produce the effect of two op-
posing flights of stairs. These
wings are waving, vandyked,
and fringed on their outer
edge, and of a brilliant yel-
low ; the dentature of the
fringe being the lodging of
their pretty little . polyps,
which display occasionally
their gaping mouths and ex-
panded gills. The polyps
are white and semi-transpa-
rent. When they display
their rays, the margin of
Fig. 62. Loose-winped
Virgularia, Virgularu
mirabilis (Lamarck).
Fig. 63. Branch of Virgularia,
enlarged.
each wing presents an edging
of silvery stars.
The Umbellularia have a
very long stem, supported by
a bone (Fig. 64) of the same
length, and terminated at the
summit only by a cluster of
polyps. They have been
found in the Greenland and
other northern seas.
The Veretillum, which in-
habit the Mediterranean (Fig.
65), have a simple cylindrical
body, without branchiae, and
Fig. 64. Umbellularia Greculan-
drea (Lamarck).
144
THE OCEAN WORLD.
a rudimentary polypidom, furnished with very large polyps of a
whitish colour.
IV. THE ALCYONARIA PROPER.
The beings which compose this group have the fleshy polypidom
always adherent, without axis or solid interior stem. They are divided
into four families or tribes. One of these, the Gornularia, are zoo-
phytes, and live in isolation, or gathered together in small numbers on
the surface of a common membraniform
expansion. The Cornularia cornucopia
live on the coast of Naples, C. crassa on
the Algerian coast. Other genera make
their appearance on the coast of Scotland,
of Norway, in the Eed Sea, and in the
Indian Ocean they appear in great num-
bers.
In the Alcyonaria, properly so called,
the polypidom is very thick, of a semi-
cartilaginous consistence, granular, and
rough to the touch.
The genus Alcyonium is numerous in
species and widely dispersed. A. digitatum
is very common on our coasts, and on
many parts of the coast scarcely a stone
or shell is dredged up from deep water
which does not serve as a support to some
one or more species of Alcyonium. It is
known by various popular names by our
sea- side population, such as cow's paps,
from its resemblance to the teats of the
cow dead mans fingers, from the occa-
sional resemblance of its finger-like lobes
to a man's fingers.
The polypidom is a simple obtuse process, the outer skin of which
is tough and coriaceous, studded all over with star-like figures, which
on examination are found to be divided into eight rays, indicating the
number of the polyps enclosed in its transparent vesicular membrane.
It is dotted with minute calcareous grains, and marked with eight
Fig. 65. Veretillum cynomorium
(Lamarck).
CORALLINES. 145
longitudinal lines or septa, 'stretching between the membrane and the
central stomach, which divide the intermediate space into an equal
number of compartments. These lines not only extend to the base of
the tentacula, but run across the anal disk, and terminate in a central
mouth. The tentacula are short, obtuse, ciliate on the margins, and
strengthened at their roots by numerous crystalline spiculae. The
polyp cells are oval, placed just under the skin, and are the termi-
nating points of certain long canals which traverse the whole polypi-
dom. The polyps, which are distributed over the whole surface, can
withdraw into the cavities ; they are, besides, of an extremely vital
sensibility : the least shock impresses itself on the tentacula, the
impulse of a wave even producing contraction; in response, the
animal, which is well developed, sallies out perceptibly, but imme-
diately retires again to hide itself in the cell.
We find on the coast, in the Channel, and in the North Sea,
Alcyonium digitatum, the mass of which is of a reddish white,
ferruginous, or orange ; A. stellatum, found on the shores of the
Mediterranean, is expanded in its upper part, narrow towards its base,
very rough on the surface, and rose-coloured ; A. palmatum is cylin-
drical, branching at the summit, of a deep red, except at the base,
where it is yellow : this is met with in the Mediterranean.
We may note as a type, altogether different from any yet touched
upon, the Nepktys, in which the polypidom is a coriaceous tissue
bristling with spiculae over its whole surface. In N. Chabroli, the
polypidom is squat, with thick spreading arms covered with lobiliform
branches, the tubercular polypidom of which are columnar and obtuse,
the sicula green, and the tentacula of the polyps yellow.
" On a cursory view," says Dr. Johnston, " the polypodium of the
three families embraced appear very dissimilar, and accordingly, by
many recent authors, they have been scattered over the class, and
placed widely asunder. The affinity between them, however, is gene-
rally acknowledged, and had been distinctly perceived by some of the
earliest zoophytologists. Thus Bohadsch found so much in common
in the typical pennatulae and a species of Alcyonium, that he has not
hesitated to describe them as members of the same genus ; and,
although the more systematic character of Pallas prevented him from
falling into this error, if error it can be called, he did not the less
recognize the relationship between the genera or families. Pallas also
L
146 THE OCEAN WORLD.
tells us that his Pennatula eynomorium differs from the Alcyonium
only in this, that the former is a movable and the latter a fixed poly-
pidom ; and he saw with equal clearness the connection which exists
between these genera and the shrub-like Gorgonia. Of the Pennatula
mirabiUs he had doubts whether it was not rather a species of
Gorgonia, until he perceived that the stem was attenuated at each
end, and free ; and of the Sea-pens generally, Ellis remarks that they
are ' a genus of zoophytes not far removed from the Gorgtonias, on
account of their polyp mouths, as well as having a bone in the inside
and flesh without.' ' On the other hand, the Gorgonise seem,' says
Pallas, ' with the exception of their horny skeleton, to be nearly
similar in structure to the Alcyon^a ; but as there are species of
Gorgonia which are suberose internally, and almost of a uniform
medullary consistence, even this mark of distinction fails to separate
the tribes, and we have little left to guide us in arranging these
esculent species excepting their external habits.' "
" With most corallines," says Fredol, " the elementary individual,
in spite of the adhesion established among them, possesses a vital
energy all its own ; it is in some respects quite independent. They
have each its own particular will, which it is difficult to mistake for
a common will ; but it is not thus with the Pennatula. Their asso-
ciation consists of a non-adherent polyp, which moves obscurely,
it is true but still it moves. To what does this lead ? To this :
that the parts which they possess in common, in place of being horny
or calcareous that is, completely inert are fleshy, with contractile
powers ; that is to say, animated. Consequently, the polyp of the
Pennatula are less independent of each other than the coral polyp,
which have a central, perhaps a sensible organ, common to all, which
binds them to each other, giving a certain unity to their acts. The
Coralline polyps have no will ; the Pennatula have."
( 147 )
CHAPTEE YII.
ZOANTHARIA, OB ANIMAL FLOWERS.
" I saw the living pile ascend
The mausoleum of its architects,
Still dying upwards as their labour closed :
Slime the material, but the slime was turued
To adamant by their petrific touch."
MONTGOMERY'S Pelican Island.
THE zoophytes which constitute the class Zoantharia are quite great
personages. Some of them are eighteen or twenty inches long ; at
the same time, others scarcely exceed the eighth part of an inch in
length. They live in all seas, and seem to have existed through many
ages of the earth's history ; they appear at an early geological period,
and they have performed an important part in its formation ; we shall
see that, with great numhers of them, parts cut off from their bodies
continue to live and become new individuals.
The name of Zoantharia was first given to the class by Gray ; but
here we give it a somewhat wider signification, embracing under it the
madrepores and starred stones of Lasueur, who is reminded of a field
enamelled with small flowers when he sees the little polyp of Forties
Astroides in full blow. " But it is only," says Johnston, " when
they lie with their upper disk expanded, and their tentacula dis-
played, that they solicit comparison with the boasts of Flora ; for,
when contracted, the polyp of the madrepores conceal themselves in
their calcareous cups, and the actiniae hide their beauty, assuming the
shape of an obtuse cone or hemisphere of a fleshy consistence, or
elongating themselves into a sort of flabby cylinder that indicates a
state of relaxation and indolent repose."
These zoophytes are flesh-eaters, and consume quantities . truly
L 2
148 THE OCEAN WORLD.
prodigious, of animals such as the crustaceans, worms, and small fishes.
They are all marine, nearly all attached to the same spot for life, and
they live in colonies. Some few are isolated and live by themselves,
either free or attached to the soil. They differ altogether from the
animals belonging to the Alcyonaria by their disposal of, and mode of
multiplying, tentacula. These appendages in the Zoantharia never
present the lipinnate arrangement which is observable in the Alcy-
onaria. They are habitually simple, and, if they present ramifications,
these are only exceptional. In nearly every instance, the tentacles
exist to the number of twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, and even larger
numbers, which form a sort of concentric crown to the animal.
Zoantha thalassanthos (Lesson), which has given its name to the
group, consists of large turf-like tufts of coral attached to a rock. Its
animalcules are packed closely together, and their expanded flower-
like heads have a curious resemblance to a mass of flowers in full bloom.
They are borne on bending root-like stems of pure white, interlacing
one with the other, surmounted by a fusiform or spindle-shaped body,
pediculate and swelling towards the middle, but truncate at the
summit, of a reddish-brown colour, marked with longitudinal stripes
more highly coloured; its consistence is firm and parchment-like.
From the body issues a tube, narrow, muscular, contractile, and red in
colour, terminating at the summit in eight elongated arms or tentacula,
of a pure yellow, traversed by a nervure of the same colour. The
edges of these arms are fringed with fine pinnae, parallel to each
other, of a bright maroon colour, and resembling the barbs of a
feather. According to Lesson, the arms of this Zoantha are kept un-
ceasingly in motion, which produces in the water small oscillating
currents, in the course of which the animalcules on which the polyps
feed are precipitated into the stream leading to their mouths.
The tendency to produce a calcareous polypidom is a property almost
universal with animals of this class. Zoologists are agreed in dividing
them into three very distinct orders namely, the ANTIPATHID^I, con-
sisting of the genera Antipathes, Cirripathes, and Seipathes, in
which the polypidom is of a horny consistence ; the MADREPORID^E, in
which the polypidom is calcareous and stony ; finally, the ACTINHXE,
which produce no polypidom.
ZOANTHARIA. 149
ANTIPATHIIXE.
We need not dwell upon this group, which is comparatively unin-
teresting. They correspond with the family of Gorgonidse among
the Alcyonarta, which they resemble in having the central axes
branching after the manner of a shrub; but the polyps have the
mouth surrounded with a crown of six simple tentacula. The axis is
of a harder and denser tissue than that of the Gorgons, and presents
on its surface small spiniform projections. The polypiferous crust,
with which they are covered, is in general very arenaceous, and is so
easily detached, that it is rare to see in collections anything but the
denuded skeleton of the colony. In A. arborea, the polypidom is fragile
and brittle ; when dry, the branches, always slender and delicate, re-
semble the barbs of a feather. The colour is of a deep black, or rather
bistre and terra de sienna tint. Under a powerful lens, the extremities
of the branches appear to be covered with small spines, and the trunk
is formed of oval and irregular concentric beds, which are the zones
of growth. Its consistence is firm, so that it can be worked up and
converted into chaplets for pearls and other bijouterie : it is known in
commerce as Uack coral.
MADRKPOEHXE.
The Madrepora are better known than their congeners. They are
sometimes, but erroneously, designated corals, since the coral forms no
part of this group.
The Madrepores are remarkable for the calcareous crust which always
surrounds their tissue, and determines the formation of their polypidom.
They are in other respects easily recognized by the star-like structure
of their polypidom, in which may always be distinguished a visceral
chamber, the circumference of which is furnished with perpendicular
laminae or partitions, which are always directed towards the axis of
the body. When sufficiently developed they constitute, by their as-
semblage, a star-like body formed of a great number of rays. The
polypidom is always calcareous. The consolidation of the envelope of
each polyp produces at first a kind of sheath, to which Milne Edwards
has given the name of the wall. The partitions which proceed from
the interior towards the axis of the visceral chamber occupy the sub-
tentacular cells ; the terminal and open portion designated the calyx is
150 THE OCEAN WORLD.
in organic continuity with the polyp, which has retired thither more
or less completely as into a cell.
Milne Edwards remarks that the polypidom of the Madrepora pre-
sent in their structure five principal modifications, due in part to the
fundamental number of which the chambered cells are the multiple,
and in part to the mode of division in the visceral chamber, and finally
to the manner in which its tissue is constituted. M. Edwards avails
himself of this peculiarity of structure in order to divide the Madrepores
into fixed sections ; namely, Madrepores apores, Madrepores perfores,
Madrepores tabules, Madrepores tuberleux, and Madrepores rugueux.
In the group of Aporous Madrepores, the polypidom is perhaps the most
highly organized. We find there a well-developed and very perfect
wall, and a well-developed visceral apparatus. The calyx is neatly
starred ; the number of rays in the earlier stages being six, which soon
afterwards reach from twelve to twenty-four. The cells between the
chambers are sometimes open in all their depth, sometimes more or less
shut up by transverse plates ; these, being independent of each other, are
never reunited in the breadth of the visceral cavity, so that they con-
stitute discoid plates such as we find in tabular and rugose Madrepores.
The animals belonging to this group, which may be characterised as
steUiform or star-like, are very abundant in every sea, and in several
geological formations. They constitute many families, among which
may be noted the MILLEPORINA of Ehrenberg, the polypidom of which
Dr. Johnston describes as " calcareous, fixed, plant-like, branching or
lobed, with cells scattered over the whole surface, distinct, sunk in
little fosses, obscurely stellate, the lamellae narrow and almost obsolete."
(JOHNSTON'S Zoophytes, vol. i. p. 194.) In Turbinolia, the animal is
simple, conical, striped, furrowed externally with larger and smaller ribs,
the mouth surrounded by numerous tentacula, and solidified by a cal-
careous polypidom, which is free, conical, and also furrowed externally ;
attenuated at the base, but enlarged at the summit, and terminating in a
shallow radiated lamellar cup or cell. Several species have been dredged
off the coast of Cornwall, and the west coast of Scotland and Ireland.
T. melletiana is described as coral-white, wedge-shaped, somewhat
compressed, with interspaces or ribs equidistant, smooth, and glossy.
Above, the ribs turn over the edge, and are continued into the centre
of the enlarged cup, forming its lamellae. " That the zoophyte must
have lived for some time after having become a movable thing, is
, ZOANTHARIA. 151
proved," says Dr. Johnston, " by the ribs being continued beyond or
round the point of attachment." The specimen here described was
dredged alive, and Professor Forbes says of it that " it is a most inter-
esting and beautiful species, the more so as it is certainly identical with
Defrance's Turbinolia melletiana, found in both the crag formations."
The Caryophillice (Lamarck), from /capita, a 1 nut, and (f)v\\ov, a leaf,
have the polypidom permanently fixed, simple, striated longitudinally,
and the summit hollowed into a lamellated star-like cup ; the animal,
actinia-like, is provided with a simple, or double crown of tentacula,
projecting from the surface of star-like, cylindrical, cone shaped cells.
Fig. ti6. Caryophillia cyathus (Lamarck).
In C. cyathus (Lamarck) (Fig. 66), which inhabits the Mediterranean,
the polyps are of a greyish colour, the tentacula streaked with black.
The polypidom is erect and upright, sometimes cylindrical, and generally
so firmly attached to the rock as to seem a part of it. The lamellae
are of three kinds : one large and prominent, between every pair of
which there are three, sometimes five, smaller ones, the centre one being
divided into two portions forming an inner series. The lamellse are
arched entire and striated on the sides, whence the margin appears
somewhat crenelated. " It is found," says Mr. Couch, " of all sizes,
from a mere speck to an inch in height. In a very young state, it is
sometimes found parasitical on Alcyonium digitatum, on shells, and
on the stalks of seaweeds ; but as these substances are very perishable,
152 THE OCEAN WORLD.
and offer no solid foundation, large specimens are never found on them.
In its young state the animal is naked, and measures about the fifteenth
of an inch in diameter, and about the thirty-second of an inch in
height. In the earliest state in which I have seen the calcareous
polypidom, there were four small rays, which were free or unconnected
down to the base ; in others I have noticed six primary rays, but in
every case they were unconnected with each other. Other rays soon
make their appearance between those first formed; they are mere
calcareous specks at first, but afterwards increase in size. The first
union of rays is- observed as a small calcareous rim at the base of the
polyp, which afterwards increases in height and diameter with the
age of the animal."
The animals of this interesting polypidom are vividly described by
Dr. Coldstream, in a communication to Dr. Johnston, as he observed
them at Torquay :
" When the soft parts are fully expanded," he says> " the appear-
ance of the whole animal closely resembles an actinia. When shrunk,
they are almost entirely hid amongst the radiating plates. They are
found pendent," he adds^ " from large boulders of sandstone, just at
low- water mark. Sometimes they are dredged from the middle of the
bay. Their colour varies considerably. I have seen the soft parts
white, yellowish, orange-brown, reddish, and of a fine apple-green.
The tentacula are usually paler."
The Caryophillise are sometimes dredged from great depths ; Pro-
fessor Travers dredged one in eighty fathoms, and Dr. Johnston re-
marks that the existence of an animal so vividly coloured at so great a
depth is worthy of remark. " When taken," says the professor, " the
animal was scarcely visible, being contracted; when expanded, the
disk was conspicuously marked by two dentated circles of bright apple-
green, the one marginal and outside the tentacula, the other at some
distance from the transverse and linear mouth. In the dark, the
animal gave out a few dull flashes of phosphorescent light."
In addition, we may mention the assertion of Mr. Swainson, that
C. ramea, common in the Mediterranean, is occasionally found on the
Cornish coast ; but Dr. Johnston thinks it improbable that it could
have escaped the attention of Mr. Couch and Mr. Peach, had it been so.
As belonging to this family, we present here illustrations of Fla-
lellum pavoninum, Lesson (Fig. 67).
ZOANTHAEIA. 153
Of the Occulinae, the animal is unknown, but it is contained in
3
Fig 67. Flabelluin pavoninum (Lessor).
1. Vertical position. 2. Upper edge, with its plates and median thread. 3. Form of the animal.
regular round radiated cells, more or less prominent, and scattered on
the surface of a solid, com-
pact, fixed tree-like coral.
The individuals dispose them-
selves in ascending spiral
lines, and appear to be re-
gularly dispersed on the sur-
face of the several branches.
The typical species, 0. vir-
ginea, formerly known as
the White Coral, although it
differs widely in reality from
the true Coral, both in its
structure and by its star-like
polypiferous cells (Fig. 68),
is found in the Mediterranean
and also in the equatorial
seas. Over the specimen we
see (2) a portion of a branch
magnified, in order that
the reader may appreciate
numerically the form of
polype OVer its Cells. Fj g- C8 - Occulina virginea (Lamarck).
The species formerly named Occulina flabelliformis, and which now
154 THE OCEAN WOULD.
bears the name of Stylaster flabelliformis, which is represented in
Fig. 69. Stylaster flabelliformis (Lamarck).
Fig. 69, will give an excellent idea of these arborescent zoophytes.
ZOANTHARIA. 155
The polypidom is in the form of a fan, with many very unequal
branches; the larger branches are smooth, the middle-sized are
covered with small points. This fine zoophyte is found in the seas
which surround the Isle of Bourbon and the Mauritius, a fine example
of which is to be seen in the collection of the Museum of Natural
History of Paris.
ASTR^ACEA.
How diversified are the forms of aquatic life ! " Nature revels in
these diversities," to paraphrase the saying of one of the ancient kings
of France. Here are animals, the frame of which might have been
-
Fig. 70. Abtrea punctifera (Lamarck).
designed by a geometrician. They are called Star Corals (Astrea).
Their resemblance to the well-known figure was too striking to escape
the observation of naturalists ; but the organization of these creatures
of the ocean is far from being rigorously regular, for Nature rarely
employs perfectly straight lines, giving an evident preference to
circles and waving lines.
The Astrea are inhabitants of the Indian Ocean, where they are
found in a great variety of forms, which has led to their subdivision
into many genera by Messrs. Milne Edwards and J. Haime. The
animals are short, more or less cylindrical, with rounded mouth placed
in the centre of a disk, covered with a few rather short tentacula ; the
cells are shallow, with radiating lamellae in Astrea punctifera (Fig. 70),
forming by their union a many-formed coral, which often encrusts
156
THE OCEAN WORLD.
other bodies. In short, this polyp may be described as a parasite,
for it generally attaches to some other bodies, and it is by no means
unusual to meet with it attached even to shells.
The Meandrina differ from the Astreas in having the surface
hollowed out into shallow sinuous elongated cells, furnished on each
side of the mesial line with hooked lamellae, ending against one or
other of the ridges with separate valleys; the polypidom, which is
calcareous, being fixed, simple, and inversely conical when young, and
globular when old. The animals have each a distinct mouth, and
Fig. 71. Meandrina cerebriformis (Lamarck).
lateral series of short tentacula ; they are contained in shallow cells,
meeting at the base, and forming by their union long and tortuous
hollows. Meandrina cerebriformis (Fig. 71), so called from its
resemblance to the folds of the brain, is a native of the American
The Fungia, so called by Lamarck from their resemblance to the
vegetable Fungi, are too remarkable in their appearance to be passed
ZOANTHAKIA.
157
over in silence. The major part of the species only occur in recent
geological strata. Nevertheless some of the species were very numerous
in the Cretaceous period, and even find representatives in the Silurian
period ; it is this group in which Madrepores of great size are found.
The family, as we have already said, take their names from their
supposed resemblance to the Mushroom. " But," says Peyssonnel,
" there is this difference between terrestrial and marine mushrooms
Fig. 72. Fungia echinata (Milne Edwards).
that the former have leaflets below, and those of the ocean have them
above (Fig. 72). These leaflets are only expansions of the Madre-
pores. Now, although I have not actually examined these petrified
Mushrooms of the sea, I have no reason to doubt but that they are
true genera or species of Madrepores, containing, like others, the
zoophytes which form them. In my travels in Egypt, in 1714 and
1715, I never heard it said that the Nile could produce them." In
this last remark, Peyssonnel makes allusion to the opinion .entertained
by many ancient authors, that the Fungia were productions of the Nile.
The animal is gelatinous or membranous, generally simple, de-
158
THE OCEAN WOELD.
pressed, and oval, with mouth superior and transverse, in a large disk,
which is covered by many thick cirrhiform tentacula ; the polypidom
is rendered solid internally by a calcareous solid deposit of a simple
figure, having a star of radiating, acutely-pointed lamellae above, and
simple rays, full of wrinkles, beneath. There are nine species, mostly
natives of the Indian Seas, which De Blainville arranges in three
.big. 73. .b'ungia agai icitoruiis (Lamarck).
groups, according as they are simple and circular, simple and compressed,
or complex and oblong. In Fungia echinata, represented in Fig. 72,
we have a species which inhabits the Indian and Chinese Seas. It
belongs to the last group, being oblong in form, convex above, and
concave below. The hollow, from which the lamellae or chamber- walls
proceed, are of considerable length ; the toothed partitions are very
irregular, thin and prickly, resting upon their lower edge, in order to
leave the concave portion of the field free to a host of excrescences,
resembling the roof of a grotto studded with small stalactites.
The conformation of the softer parts of this polypus has been
ZOANTHARIA. 159
described by many travellers. The upper portion of the body of the
animal, corresponding to the lamelliform part of the polypus, is fur-
nished with scattered tentacula, very long in some species, and re-
markably short in others. These tentacula appear to terminate in a
small sucker, and the animal seems to recover its position with difficulty,
when overturned. In order to complete our description of these
curious madrepores, we may refer to Fungia agariciformis, repre-
sented in Fig. 73. This remarkable species inhabits the Red Sea and
the Indian Ocean, and is here represented with its polyps.
De Blainville gave the name of MADEEPOK^EA to the second group of
his stony Zoantharia, placing them after the Madrephyllise. The pro-
ducts of this section are generally arborescent, with small, partially
lamelliform cells, which are constantly porous in the interstices of the
walls of the cells, this being its most important characteristic. Thus
the visceral apparatus constitutes the essential part of the polypus,
presenting no side plates, the visceral chamber being open from the
base to the summit, and neither filled with dissepiments, pulpy matter,
nor with plates.
The history of these inhabitants of the deep is extremely obscure,
and will probably always remain so ; the most beautiful of their pro-
ductions are intertropical, and consequently beyond the reach of dis-
criminating observers during the life of the animal. Solander proposed
to divide the genus according to certain characteristics in the growth
of the coral, and De Blainville has rearranged the groups formed by
Lamarck, Lamouroux, and Groldfuss, with special reference to the soft
parts of the animals figured by Lesueur, Quoy, Gaimard, and others,
who have observed them in their native state.
The perforated Zoantharia form three very natural families : the
Eupsammidtz, the Madreporidse, and the Poriiidse. The first have
the solid parts of the polyps, simple or complex, with well-developed
lamellar portions, the central column spongious, walls granular, semi-
ribbed, and perforated. The second are composite, increasing by
gemmation; walls spongy and porous; septa lamellous, and well
developed. In the third the visceral chambers are divided into two
equal parts by the principal septa, which are more developed than the
others, meeting by their inner edge. The Dendrophyllide (Fig. 74)
are conspicuous among the Eupsammidse.
160
THE OCEAN WORLD.
We shall describe three genera, the two first of which belong to the
MADREPORE A, and the last of the family of the Porides.
DendropTiyllia ramea, represented in Figs. 75 and 76, is an elegant
madrepore of the Mediterranean. Its polyp presents a very large
trunk charged with short ascending branches; it usually attains to
about a yard and a half in height. The polyps are provided with a
Fig. 74. Uendroph} Ilia ramea, half natural size (De Blainville).
great number of tentacula, in the centre of which the mouth is placed.
They are deeply buried in the cells, which radiate from numerous
unequally saillant plates. Peyssonnel, who had seen the polyps of
this colony, says : "I may observe that the extremities or summits
of the branching madrepore, the species in question, which in the Pro-
vencal we call Sea-fennel, is soft and tender, filled with a glutinous and
transparent mucous thread, similar to that which the snail leaves on its
ZOANTHABIA.
161
path. These extremities are of a fine yellow colour, five or six lines
in diameter ; soft, and more than a finger's breadth in length. I have
seen the animal nestling in them ; it seemed to be a species of cuttle-
fish or sea-nettle. The body of this sea-nettle must have filled the
centre ; the head being in the middle, surrounded by many feet or
claws, like those of the cuttle-fish. The flesh of this animal is very
delicate, and is easily reduced to the form of a paste, melting almost
under the touch."
The madrepores abound in all intertropical seas, taking a consider-
able part in the constitution of the reefs which form the coral and
Fig. 75. Dendrophylia ramea (De Blainville).
Natural size, with polypi.
Fig. 76. A part magnified.
raadreporic islands so conspicuous in the ocean. The tree -like Den-
dropliyllia (D. ramea, Figs. 75 and 76) have cells of considerable
depth, radiating into numerous lamellae, forming a widely-branch-
ing arborescent coral, externally striated, internally furrowed, and
truncate at the extremities. The animals are actiniform, furnished
with numerous cleft tentacula, in the centre of which is the polygonal
mouth. In the LobophyUia, the tentacula are cylindrical, the cells
conical, sometimes elongated and sinuous, with a sub -circular opening
terminating the few branches of the polyp, which is fixed, turbinate,
and striated. The Plantain Madrepore, M. plantaginea (Lamarck),
is an interesting example, the polyp presenting itself, as in Fig. 77,
in tufts, with slender and prolific branches.
162
THE OCEAN WOELD.
In Madrepora palmata, vulgarly named Neptune's Car, we have
a large and beautiful species, whose expanding branches are flat, round
at the base, and forming in lobes, whose length is often as much
j^iiiijfiji
BPiiili,
Fig. 11. Madrepora plantaginea (Lamarck).
as three feet high, with a breadth of twenty inches, and a thickness
of two to two and a half : this fine madrepore is found in the Caribbean
Sea and among the Antilles.
POEITES.
The Porites are madrepores produced by a pitcher-shaped fleshy
animal, with twelve short tentacula ; the cells are unequally polygonal,
imperfectly defined, slightly radiating by thread-like pointed rays,
with prickles placed at intervals. The polypus is polymorphous or
many-formed, composed of a reticulated and porous tissue, the indi-
viduals forming it being always completely united together. Exter-
ZOANTHAKIA.
163
nally it presents the figure of an irregular trellis-work, more or less
loosely connected in its meshes. As a type of this organization, we
give a figure of the Forked Porites (P. furcata, Fig. 78), of the
natural size. The branches are generally dichotomous, that is, rising
in pairs obtusely lobed. In some of the species the rays are more
fully marked, and resemble a bed of miniature anemones thickly
crowded together, as in Gonispora columna, in which the polypi
Fig. 18. Porites furcata (Lamarck), natural size.
have a central mouth, round which the twelve short tentacula radiate ;
the coral is stony, fixed, branched, or lobed, having a free surface
covered with a great number of regular stars, which are highly
characteristic, and cannot be confounded with those of an astrea or
madrepore.
In the Tabulate Madreporides, the polyp is essentially composed
of a highly-developed mural system. The visceral chambers are
M 2
164
THE OCEAN WORLD.
divided into a series of stages or stories, by perfect diaphragms or
plates placed transversely, the plates depending from the walls and
forming perfect horizontal divisions, extending from one wall of the
general cavity to the other. In order that the reader may form some
idea of the Tabulate Madrepores, one of the polyps known as
millepores is here represented. The millepores were first separated
from the madrepores by Linnaeus, along with a great number of
Fig. 79. Millepora alcicornis (Linn.), one-fourth natural size.
species distinguished by the minuteness of their pores or polypiferous
cells (Fig. 79), represented above, as nearly allied, and perhaps
identical with Dr. Johnston's Cellepora cervicornis, a species found
in deep water on the Devonshire and Cornwall coasts, and, indeed, all
round our west coast. "A single specimen of this millepore is
about three inches in height," says Dr. Johnston, "and somewhat
more in breadth. It rises from a broad flattened base, and begins
immediately to expand and divide into kneed branches or broad seg-
ments, many of which anastomose, so as to form arches and imperfect
ZOANTHAPJA. 165
circles. The extreme segments are dilated and variously cut, some-
times truncate, both sides being perforated with numerous pores just
visible to the naked eye, and arranged in rows ; the pores circular,
and level with the surface on the smooth and newly-formed parts ; but
in the older parts they form apertures of urceolate cells, which appear
to be formed over the primary layer of cells, giving to the surface
a roughish or angular appearance. The orifice is simple, contracted,
with a very small denticle on one side ; the thickness of the branches
varies from one half to two lines ; the interior is cellular ; the new
parts are formed of two layers of horizontal cells, but the older parts
are thickened by cells superimposed on the primary layers."
Millepora moniliformis is a species which attaches itself to the
branches of the gorgons, and forms there a series of little rounded or
lateral lobes. The animal is unknown, the cells very small, unequal,
completely immersed, obsoletely radiate and scattered ; the polypier
fixed, cellular within, finely porous and reticulated externally, extend-
ing into a palmated form.
Of tuberous or wrinkled madrepores, which consist almost entirely
of fossil species chiefly belonging to the Silurian formation, we shall
only note OyatkophyUwn as one of the best known species.
There is no spectacle in Nature more extraordinary, or more worthy
of our admiration, than that now under consideration. These zoo-
phytes, whose history we are about to investigate wretched
beings gifted with a half-latent life only these animalcules so small
and so fragile labour silently and incessantly in the bosom of the
ocean, and, as they exist in innumerable aggregated masses, their cells
and solid axes finish by producing in the end enormous stony masses.
These calcareous deposits increase and multiply with such incalculable
rapidity, that they not only cover the submarine rocks as with a
carpet, but they finish by forming reefs, and even entire islands,
which rise above the surface of the ocean in a manner remarkable at
once for their form and the regularity with which they repeat
themselves.
In noting the Indian and Pacific Oceans, navigators had long been
struck with the appearance of certain earthy bases, which presented
a conformation altogether singular. In 1601, Pyrard de Laval, speak-
ing of the Malouine (now the Falkland) Islands, said: "They are
166 THE OCEAN WORLD.
divided into thirteen provinces, named atollons, which is so far a
natural division in that place, that each atollon is separated from the
other, and contains a great number of smaller islands. It is a marvel
to see each of these atollons surrounded on all sides hy a great hank
of stone walls such as no human hands could huild on the space of
earth allotted to them. These atollons are almost round, or rather
oval, heing each ahout thirty leagues in circumference, some a little
less, others a little more, and all ranging from north to south, without
any one touching the other. There is between them sea channels, one
broad, the other narrow. Being in the middle of an atollon, you see
all around you this great stone bank, which surrounds and protects
the island from the waves ; but it is a formidable attempt, even for
the boldest, to approach the bank and watch the waves as they roll in
and break with fury upon the shore."
Since the publication of Laval's description, many circular isles, or
groups of islands, analogous to these atollons, since called atolls > have
been discovered in the Pacific Ocean and other seas. The naturalist
Forster, who accompanied Cook in his voyage round the world, first
made known the more remarkable characteristics of these gigantic for-
mations. He perfectly comprehended their origin, which he was the
first to attribute to the development of the calcareous zoophytic
polypier.
After Forster, many other naturalists Lamouroux, Chamisso, Quoy,
Gaimard, Ehrenberg, Ellis, Darwin, Couthony, and Dana have fur-
nished Science with many precious lessons on the natural history of
coral islands and madreporic reefs. We can only glance at a few 'of
the more remarkable genera of these interesting creatures.
" Those occupying the same Coral," says Fredol, " live in perfect
harmony ; they constitute a family of brothers, physically united in
the closest bonds of union. They occupy the same dwelling, each
having its separate chamber ; but the power of abandoning it is
denied them. Attached each to its cell, they are driven to trust in
Providence for the food which never fails them ; moreover, what is
eaten by each mouth profits the whole community. Urged on by a
wonderful instinct, the polypes labour together at the same work ;
isolated, they would be weak and helpless ; in combination, they are
strong." M. Lacaze-Duthiers has even demonstrated that Antipatlies
ylaberrima, Gorgonia tiiberculata (Lamarck), Leiopatlies glabemma
COKALLINES. 167
(Gray), and Leiopafhes Lamarckii (Haime), were present on the same
coral, the Gerardia of Lamarck. It is thus recognized that, under
the general denomination of polyps, very distinct genera are found,
some being of the Hydra type, others belonging to the Plumularia.
The first are very common on our coast : they include the Tubularia,
the Campanularia, and the Sertularia.
The Eeed Tubularia (T. indivisa) is remarkably curious : its
numerous stems are horny, yellow, and marked at intervals with
irregular knots, resembling the joints of a straw. Their lower ex-
tremity is tortuous, and apt to adhere to foreign bodies ; the upper
part is nearly upright, and slightly flexuous, the whole resembling
some flowering plant, without leaves or lateral branches. The
Campanularias are altogether different ; the end of the branches
whence the polyps issue are broad and bell-shaped, 0. dichotoma
presenting a stem of brownish colour, thin as a silken thread, but
strong and elastic. The polyps are numerous, a branch eight inches
in height being inhabited by as many as twelve hundred individuals.
The Sertularias have a horny stem, sometimes simple, sometimes
branching, and may easily be mistaken for small plants. Their name
is derived from the Latin sertum, a bouquet ; and, indeed, they can
only be described as trees in miniature, with branches yellow and
semi-transparent, each tree having seven, eight, twelve, or twenty
small panicles, each of which will contain about five hundred animals,
the tree itself containing probably an association of ten thousand.
Occasionally Sertularia argentea is said to afford shelter and employ-
ment for a hundred thousand of these creatures. S.falcata, having
all the grace and elegance of the delicate and slender Mimosa, is now
placed among the Bryozoares.
The minute cells in which the polyps are lodged are not always
arranged in the same manner. Sometimes the cells occupy one side
only; in other instances they occupy both; sometimes they are
grouped like the pipes of an organ, at others they are ranged spirally
round the stem, or arranged at intervals, forming horizontal rings
round it.
The Aleyonaria are very common on some parts of our coast, where
scarcely a stone or shell is dredged up that does not support one or
more specimens known to the fishermen as " cow's paps,*' " dead men's
fingers," and other popular names. This round and lobed fleshy mass
168 THE OCEAN WORLD.
is quite a colony in itself; placed in pure sea water, it very soon pre-
sents certain yellow or grass-like points, which gradually expand and
display themselves in their native transparent and animated coralline.
Each of these polyps have eight dentate petals, in the centre of
which is the mouth ; the body of the polyp is tubular, varying exter-
nally in length, traversed internally throughout its entire mass by a
tissue studded with reddish spiculae, and furrowed with small reed-like
ribbons, common to all the individuals of the association.
Among the Tiibiporidse may be noted Tubipora musica (Linnaeus),
from the Indian Ocean, characterised by its stony tubes, simple,
numerous, straight or flexible, parallel, and slightly radiating, of a fine
purple, and united together at intervals by transverse bands, so as to
resemble the pipes of an organ. The polyp is a brilliant grass green,
according to Peron ; the tentacula furnished on each side with two or
three rows of granulous fleshy papillae, to the number of sixty to
eighty (Lesson).
The Gorgonia is studded with calcareous or siliceous spiculas which
form a crust in drying. This crust is friable, and frequently preserves
the colours more or less brilliant which characterise it. Their cells
are sometimes hollowed out of the plain surface ; sometimes they occur
in the projecting mammals ; these are smooth, rough, or scaly some-
times pendent the one from the other.
These animals attach themselves to solid bodies, sometimes even to
each other, grafting themselves or interlacing each other in all
directions. In colour they are whitish, pure white, yellow, and apple-
green; their shades, passing from olive-brown to deep blue, from
vermilion to violet, and from pale yellow to pearly-grey. Each tube
or cell contains an individual. The cells are more or less deep, accord-
ing to the species. The polyps are composed generally of a hidden
portion more or less tubular, and of a star-like portion more or less
displayed. This latter portion presents from eight to twelve soft and
granulous wattles, susceptible of expansion, like the petals of a flower.
When these appendages are displayed, they often attain twice the
height of the body ; in this state they are nearly transparent, except
towards the extremity. They extend or compress these wattles, dilate
or contract the mouth according to their wants ; but their digestive
tube is firmly soldered to the cell, while the axis which supports the
cells is motionless. What a singular combination is here presented !
CORALLINES. 169
Trees, one-half of which, are animated, growing at the hottom of the
sea; polyps, one-half of which is imprisoned, and riveted to their
person ; their stomachs in the hark, their arms on a branch, their
movements perfect repose !
These minute silent workers are active and indefatigable ; their task
is to separate the salt and other chemical particles from the waters of
the ocean, and, while feeding themselves, secrete and organise the axis
which bears their lodging. They love the warmer regions of the ocean ;
in colder regions, the results of their labours are extremely limited :
the one forms a sward of submarine life, which carpets the rocks ; the
other produces animated stalactites, great shrubs, whole forests of small
trees. The electric cable which unites Sardinia to the Genoese fort
was so encrusted with corals and bryozoares, that certain portions
taken from the water for repairs had attained the size of a small barrel.
The atolls present three unfailing and constant peculiarities.
Sometimes they constitute a great circular chain, the centre of which
is occupied by a deep basin, in direct communication with the exterior
sea, through one or many breaches of great depth. These are the
atolls, described more than two centuries ago by Pyrard de Laval ;
sometimes they surround, but at some distance, a small island, in such
a manner as to constitute a sort of skeleton or girdle of reefs ; finally
they may form the immediate edging or border of an island or continent.
In this last case they are called fringing littorals, or edging reefs. At
the distance of a few hundred yards only from the edge of some of
these reefs, the sea is of such a depth that the sounding-lead has failed
to reach the bottom.
In order to give an idea of the general form of these atolls,
although they are rarely so regular, the reader is referred to PL. III.,
which represents one of these islands of the Pomotouan Archipelago,
in the Indian Ocean. It represents the island of Clermont-Tonnerre,
figured by Captain Wilkes in the American Exploring Expedition.
The exterior girdle of rocks here surrounds a basin nearly circular.
Such is the general form the typical form, so to speak of the coral
isles, of which this is a fair representation.
The zoophytes which form these mineral accumulations belong to
diverse groups, and nowhere have the results of observations made
upon these atolls been more minutely described than in Mr. Darwin's
170 THE OCEAN WORLD.
remarks on the grand Cocos Island situated to the south of Sumatra,
in the Indian Ocean.
No writer, it seems to us, has reasoned on these atolls more compre-
hensively than the author of the " Origin of Species." " The earlier
voyagers," he says, " fancied that the coral-building animals instinctively
built up their great corals to afford themselves protection in the inner
parts ; but so far is this from the truth, that those massiye kinds, to
whose growth on the exposed outer shores the very existence of the
reef depends, cannot live within the lagoon, where other delicately-
branching kinds flourish. Moreover, in this view, many species of
distinct genera and families are supposed to combine for one end ; and
of such a combination ndt a single instance can be found in the whole
of nature. The theory that has been most generally received is, that
atolls are based on submarine craters, but when the form and size of
some of them are considered, this idea loses its plausible character.
Thus, the Suadiva atoll is forty-four geographical miles in diameter in
one line by thirty-four in another ; Bimsky is fifty-four by twenty
miles across ; Bow atoll is thirty miles long, and, on an average, six
miles broad. This theory, moreover, is totally inapplicable to the
Northern Maldivian atolls in the Indian Ocean, one of which is eighty-
eight miles in length, and between ten and twenty in breadth."
The various theories which had been propounded failing to explain
the existence of the coral islands, Mr. Darwin was led to reconsider the
whole subject. Numerous soundings taken all round the Cocos atoll
showed that at ten fathoms the prepared tallow in the hollow of the
sounding rod came up perfectly clean, and marked with the impression
of living polyps. As the depth increased, these impressions became
less numerous, but adhering particles of sand succeed, until it was
evident that the bottom consisted of smooth sand. From these obser-
vations, it was obvious to him that the utmost depth at which the
coral polyps can construct reefs is between twenty and thirty fathoms.
Now, there are enormous areas in the Indian Ocean in which every
island is a coral formation raised to the height to which the waves can
throw up fragments and the winds pile up sand ; and the only theory
which seems to account for all the circumstances embraced, is that of
the subsidence of vast regions in this ocean. "As mountain after
mountain and island after island slowly sunk beneath the water," he
says, " fresh bases would be successively afforded for the growth of the
CORALLINES. 171
corals. I venture to defy any one to explain in any other manner how
it is possible that numerous islands should be distributed throughout
vast areas, all the islands being low, all built of coral absolutely re-
quiring a foundation within a limited depth below the surface."
The Porifes, according to Mr. Darwin, form the most elevated
deposits of those which are situated nearer the level of the water :
Millepora complanata also enters into the formation of the upper
banks. Various other branched, corals present themselves in great
numbers in the cavities left by the Porites and Millepora crossing-
each other. It is difficult to identify species occupying themselves in
the deeper parts, but, according to Darwin, the lower parts of the reefs
are occupied by polyps of the same species as in the upper parts ; at
the depth of eighteen fathoms and upwards, the bottom consists alter-
nately of sand and corals. The total breadth of the circular reef or
ring which constitutes the atoll of the Keeling or Cocos Island varies
from two hundred to five hundred yards in breadth. Some little para-
sitic isles form themselves upon the reefs, at two or three hundred
yards from their exterior edge, by the accumulation of the fragments
thrown up here during great storms. They rise from two to three
yards above the sea level, and consist of shells, corals, and sea urchins,
the whole consolidated into hard and solid rock.
Mr. Darwin's description of a kind of Sea-pen, Virgularia Patagonia,
throws some curious light on the habits of these creatures. " This zoo-
phyte consists of a thin, straight, fleshy stem, with alternate rows of
polypi on each side, and surrounding an elastic stony axis, varying in
length from eight inches to two feet. The stem at one extremity is
truncate, but at the other is terminated by a vermiform fleshy append-
age. The stony axis, which gives strength to the stem, may be traced
at the extremity into a mere vessel filled with granular matter. At
low water, hundreds of these zoophytes might be seen projecting
like stubble, with the truncate end upwards, a few inches above the
surface of the muddy sand. When touched or pulled, they suddenly
drew themselves in with force, so as nearly, or quite, to disappear.
By this action, the highly elastic axis must be bent at the lower
extremity, where it is naturally slightly curved ; and I imagine it is
by this elasticity alone that the zoophyte is enabled to rise again
through the mud. Each polyp, though closely united to its brethren,
has a distinct mouth, body, and tentacula. Of these polyps, in a large
172 THE OCEAN WOULD.
specimen there must be many thousands, yet we see that they act by
one movement. They have also one central axis connected with a
system of obscure circulation, and the ova are produced in an organ
distinct from the separate individuals. For," adds Mr. Darwin, in a
note, "the cavities leading from the fleshy compartments of the
extremity were filled with a yellow pulpy matter which, under a
microscope, consisted of rounded semi-transparent grains aggregated
together into particles of various sizes. All such particles, as well as
separate grains, possessed the power of rapid motion, generally revolv-
ing round different axes, but sometimes progressive."
The description of the Island of Cocos or Keeling is as follows :
" The ring-formed reef of the lagoon island is surmounted, in the
greater part of its length, by linear islets. On the northern, or
leeward side, there is an opening through which vessels can pass to
the anchorage within. On entering, the scene was very curious, and
rather pretty ; its beauty, however, entirely depended on the brilliancy
of the surrounding colours. The shallow, clear, and still water of
the lagoon, resting in its greater part on white sand, is, when illu-
mined by a vertical sun, of the most vivid green. This brilliant ex-
panse, several miles in width, is on all sides divided, either by a line
of snow-white breakers from the dark heaving waters of the ocean, or
from the blue vault of heaven by the strips of land crowned by the
level tops of the cocoa-nut tree. As a white cloud here and there
affords a pleasing contrast to the azure sky, so in the lagoon bands of
living coral darken the emerald-green water.
" The next morning I went ashore on Direction Island. The strip
of dry land is only a few hundred yards in width ; on the lagoon side
there was a white calcareous beach, the radiation from which, under
this sultry climate, was very oppressive. On the outer coast, a solid
broad flat of coral rock served to break the violence of the open sea.
Excepting near the lagoon, where there is some sand, the land is
entirely composed of rounded fragments of coral. In such a loose,
dry, stony soil, the climate of the intertropical regions alone could
produce so vigorous a vegetation. On some of the smaller islets, nothing
could be more elegant than the manner in which the young and full-
grown cocoa-nut trees, without destroying each other's symmetry,
were mingled into one wood. A beach of glittering white sand formed
a border to those fairy spots.
COEALLINES. 173
" The natural history of these islands, from its very paucity, possesses
peculiar interest. The cocoa-nut tree, at the first glance, seems to
compose the whole wood ; there are, however, five or six other trees.
One of these grows to a very large size, hut, from the extreme softness
of its wood, it is useless ; another sort affords excellent timher for
shipbuilding. Besides the trees, the numher of plants is exceedingly
limited, and consist of insignificant weeds. In my collection, which
includes, I believe, nearly the perfect Flora, there are twenty species,
without reckoning a moss, lichen, and fungus. To this numher two'
trees must he added, one of which was not in flower, and the other I
only heard of. The latter is a solitary tree of its kind, and grows
near the beach, where, without doubt, the one seed was thrown up by
the waves.
" The next day I employed myself in examining the very interesting
yet simple structure and origin of these islands. The water being
unusually smooth, I waded over the flat of dead rock as far as the
living mounds of coral, on which the swell of the open sea breaks.
In some of the gulleys and hollows there were beautiful green and
other coloured fishes, and the forms and tints of many of the zoophytes
were admirable. It is excusable to grow enthusiastic over the infinite
number of organic beings with which the sea of the Tropics, so prodigal
of life, teems ; yet I must confess, I think those naturalists who have
described in well-known words the submarine grottoes, decked with a
thousand beauties, have indulged in rather exuberant language.
" I accompanied Captain Fitzroy to an island at the head of the
lagoon ; the channel was exceedingly intricate, winding through fields
of delicately-branched corals. At the head of the lagoon we crossed a
narrow islet, and found a great surf breaking on the windward coast.
I can hardly explain the reason, but there is, to my mind, much
grandeur in the view of the outer shores of these lagoon islands.
There is a simplicity in the barrier-like beach, the margin of green
bushes and tall cocoa-nuts, the solid flat of dead coral-rock, strewed
here and there with great loose fragments, and the line of furious
breakers, all rounding away towards either hand. The ocean, throw-
ing its waters over the broad reef, appears an invincible, all-powerful
enemy ; yet we see it resisted and even conquered by means which at
first seem most weak and inefficient. It is not that the ocean spares
the rock of coral ; the great fragments scattered over the reef, and
174 THE OCEAN WORLD.
heaped on the beach whence the tall cocoa-nut springs, plainly be-
speak the unrelenting power of the waves. Nor are any periods of
repose granted ; the long swell caused by the gentle but steady action
of the trade-winds, always blowing in one direction over a wide area,
causes breakers almost equalling in force those during a gale of wind
in the temperate regions, and which never cease to rage. It is impos-
sible to behold these waves without feeling a conviction that an island,
though built of the hardest rocks let it be porphyry, granite, or
quartz would ultimately yield and be demolished by such an irre-
sistible power. Yet these low, insignificant coral islets stand, and are
victorious ; for here another power, as an antagonist, takes part in the
contest. The organic forces separate the atoms of carbonate of lime,
one by one, from the foaming breakers, and unite them into a symme-
trical structure. Let the hurricane tear up its thousand huge frag-
ments, yet what will that tell against the accumulated labour of
myriads of architects at work night and day, month after month ?
Thus do we see the soft and gelatinous body of a polyp, through the
agency of the viial laws, conquering the great mechanical power of
the waves of an ocean which neither the art of man nor the inanimate
works of Nature could successfully resist."
We have said that madreporic or coralline formations affect three
forms, to which the names of atolls, barrier reefs, and fringing reefs
have been applied. We have spoken of atolls ; we shall now say a
few words on barrier and fringing reefs.
Barrier reefs are formations which surround the ordinary islands, or
stretch along their banks. They have the form and general structure
of atolls. Like atolls, the barrier reefs appear placed on the edge of a
marine precipice. They rise on the edge of a plateau which looks
down on a bottomless sea. On the coast of New Caledonia, only two
lengths of his ship from the reef, Captain Kent found no bottom in a
hundred and fifty fathoms. This was verified at Gambier Island in
the Pacific Ocean, in Qualem Island, and at many others.
According to Mr. Darwin, the barrier reef situated on the western
coast of New Caledonia is four hundred miles long ; that along the
eastern coast of Australia extends almost without interruption for
a thousand miles, ranging from twenty or thirty to fifty or sixty miles
from the coast. As to the elevation of the islands thus surrounded
CORALLINES. 175
with reefs, it varies considerably. The Isle of Tahiti rises six thousand
eight hundred feet above the level of the sea ; the Isle of Maurua to
six hundred ; Aituaki to three hundred ; and Manonai to about fifty
feet only.
Around the Isle of Gambier the reef has a thickness of a thousand
and sixty feet, at Tahiti of two hundred and thirty. Bound the Fiji
Islands it is from two to three thousand.
The fringing reefs immediately surrounding the island, or a
portion of it, might be confounded with the barrier reefs we have been
describing, if they only differed in their smaller breadth ; but the
circumstance that they abut immediately on the coast in place of being
separated by a channel or lagoon more or less deep and continuous,
proves that they are in direct communication with the slope of the
submarine soil, and permits of their being distinguished from the
barrier reefs. The dangerous breakers which surround the Mauritius
are a striking example of the fringing reef. This island is almost
entirely surrounded by a barrier of these rocks, the breadth of which
varies from a hundred and fifty to three hundred and thirty feet ;
their rugged and abrupt surface is worn almost smooth, and is rarely
uncovered at low water. Analogous reefs surround the Isle of
Bourbon ; all round this island the polyps construct on the volcanic
bottom of the sea detached mammalons, which rise from a fathom to
a fathom and a half above the water.
Madreporic coasting reefs present themselves also on the eastern
coast of Africa and of Brazil. In the Bed Sea, reefs of corals exist
which may be ranked among the madreporic coasting reefs, in conse-
quence of the limited breadth of the gulf. Ehrenberg and Hemprich
examined a hundred and fifty stations in the Ked Sea, all of which
had outlying fringing reefs of this description.
It may be asked, With what rapidity are these coral and madreporic
banks formed, so as to become atolls and fringing reef si To answer
this question even approximately is very difficult. On the coast of
the Mauritius, according to M. d' Archaic,* the learned professor of the
Jardin des Plantes, the edge of the reef is produced by Madrepora
corymbosa, M. pocillifera, and two species of Astrea, which pursue
* " Cours de Paleontologie Stratigraphique."
] 76 THE OCEAN WORLD.
their operations at the depth of from eight to fifteen fathoms. At the
base is a bank of Seriatopora, from fifteen to twenty fathoms in
height. At the bottom, the sand is covered with Seriatopora. At
twenty fathoms we also meet with fragments of Madrepora. Between
twenty and forty fathoms the bottom is sandy, and the sounding- rod
brings up great fragments of Caryophylla. According to MM.
Quoy and Gaimard, the Astreas, which, as these naturalists consider,
constitute the greater part of the reefs, cannot live beyond four or five
fathoms deep. Millepora alcicornis extends from the surface to the
depth of twelve fathoms ; the Madrepores and Seriatopores down to
twenty fathoms. Considerable masses of Meandrina have been ob-
served at sixteen fathoms ; and a Caryophylla has been brought up
from eighty fathoms in thirty- three degrees south latitude. Among the
polyps which do not form solid reefs, Mr. Darwin mentions Cellaria,
found at a hundred and ninety fathoms deep, Gorgonia at a hundred
and sixty, Corallines at a hundred, Millepora at from thirty to forty-
five, Sertularias at forty, and Tubulipora at ninety-five fathoms.
According to Dana, none of the species which form reefs namely,
Madrepora, Millepora, Forties, Astreas, and Meandrineas can live
at a greater depth than eighteen fathoms. It is only near the surface
of the water that the zoophytes which produce minerals and form
madreporic banks put forth their powers ; the points most exposed to
the beating of the waves is that which is most favourable to their
growth ; it is there that the Astreas, Porites, and Millepores most
abound.
The proportionate increase of the structures, according to Mr.
Darwin, depends at once upon the species which construct the reefs
and upon various accessary circumstances. The ordinary rate of in-
crease of the madrepores, according to Dana, is about an inch and a
half annually ; and, as their branches are much scattered, this will not
exceed half an inch in thickness of the whole surface covered by the
madrepore. Again, in consequence of their porosity, this quantity
will be reduced to three -eighths of an inch of compact matter. It is,
besides, to be noted that great spaces are wanting ; the sands filling
up the destroyed part of the polyp are washed out by the currents in
the great depths where there are no living corals, and the surface
occupied by them is reduced to a sixth of the whole coralline region,
which reduces the preceding three-eighths to one-sixth. The shells
CORALLINES. 177
and other organic debris will probably represent a fourth of the total
produce in relation to corals. In this manner, taking everything
into account, the mean increase of a reef cannot exceed the eighth of
an inch annually. According to this calculation, some reefs which are
not less than two thousand feet thick would require for their formation
a hundred and ninety-two thousand years.
It is necessary to add, however, that in favourable circumstances the
increase of the masses of coral may be much more rapid. Mr. Darwin
speaks of a ship which, having been wrecked in the Persian Gulf, was
found, after being submerged only twenty months, to be covered with
a bed of coral two feet in thickness ; he also mentions experiments
made by Mr. Allen on the coast of Madagascar, which tend to prove
that in the space of six months certain corals increased nearly three
feet.
We proceed to the theoretic explanation of these curious mineral
formations.
Naturalists and navigators have been much divided in opinion as
to the true origin of these madreporic islands. Most of them have
admitted that these enormous banks are composed of the mineral
spoils and earthy detritus of the madrepores and corals, which, de-
veloping themselves in their midst, or upon the bed of the ocean,
multiplying and superposing themselves, age after age, and genera-
tion after generation, have finally concluded by forming deposits of
this immense extent. The growth of the vast madreporic column
would be finally arrested by the want of water when its summit
approached the level of the sea. It is thus that Forster, Peron,
Flinders, and Chamisso have explained the formation of the atolls
and madreporic reefs. This opinion has also found a supporter, in
our times, in the French admiral, Du Petit Thouars. But he objects,
with reason, that the corals cannot live at the prodigious depth of
sea at which the base of these islets lie. It has therefore been found
necessary to seek for another cause to satisfy the diverse conditions of
the phenomena, and explain, at the same time, the strange circular
arrangement of these islands, which is almost constant, and which it
is essential to keep in view.
Sir Charles Lyell was of opinion that the base of an atoll was
always the crater of an ancient submarine volcano, which, when
M
178 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
crowned with corals and madrepores, would naturally reproduce this
circular wall formed of heaped-up corals.
This theory supposes the existence of volcanic craters in the
neighbourhood of all the coral islands. It is quite certain that these
islands are often found not far from extinct volcanoes, and Sir Charles
Lyell has published a very curious map in connection with the sub-
ject ; nevertheless, the coincidence does not always exist. We have
already remarked on the theory by which Mr. Darwin seeks to
explain the complicated conditions of the phenomena. The expla-
nation proposed accounts for the known facts, as well as the present
appearance of the madreporic islands. The circular atolls and madre-
poric banks which are disposed as a sort of girdle, are principally
formed of porites, mittepora, and astrea, zoophytes which cannot exist
at any great depth in the ocean, but which swarm on the rocks at
some few fathoms only below the limits of the tide. These animals,
by means of their accumulated debris, soon form a sort of coating
round the island, which constitutes the littoral reefs : this marginal
tongue or shoulder, according to Mr. Darwin, is the first stage in the
existence of a madreporic island. At this point the author intro-
duces a geological cause, namely, a great subsiding movement of the
soil, in which the madreporic colony is sunk under the water. It is
evident that after submersion the zoophyte will only continue to
develop itself on the upper surface, and within the limits which its
nature prescribes. The madrepores exhibiting their greatest vitality
at the points most exposed to the fury of the waves, it will be near
the outer edge of the reef that the development will be most rapid.
If the subsidence of the island thus surrounded should still continue,
as mountain after mountain and island after island slowly sink beneath
the water, fresh bases would be successively afforded for the growth of
the corals, and the outer edge elevated by their continual labour, thus
transforming the space into a sort of circular lagune. The madreporic
deposits would thus form an isolated girdle, and the lagune, which occu-
pies the centre, would become deeper and deeper in proportion to the
lowering of the soil. This is the second stage of the madreporic isle.
The existence of the atolls are thus subordinated to two principal
conditions : the progressive subsidence of the shore washed by the
sea, and the existence of coral formed of stony cells, the growth and
multiplication of which are extremely rapid.
CORALLINES. 179
It follows from this that madreporic isles cannot exist in all seas ;
that they only have their birth in the Torrid zone, or at least near
the Tropics, for it is only in these regions where the warmth exists,
so necessary to their development, that the madrepores show them-
selves in greatest abundance.
The great field of madreporic formations, in short, is found in
the warm parts of the Pacific Ocean. It is from this point, as from
a common centre, round which are ranged the series of madreporic
isles and islets, that it will be useful, in concluding this chapter, to
trace their geographical distribution. We borrow the materials for
this from Milne Edwards's tableaux of their distribution in the
principal seas of the world.
It is, as we have said, only in the warm parts of the Pacific Ocean
that the great mass of these islands are found. They give birth
towards the south to the group of atolls known as the archipelago
of the Bashee Islands, the extreme limit of the region being the Isle of
Ducie. A multitude of other islands of the same nature are sparsely
scattered over the sea, up to the east coast of Australia. There
are enormous areas here, in which every single island is of coral for-
mation, and is raised to the height at which the waves can throw up
fragments. The Kadack group is an angular square, four hundred
miles long by two hundred and forty broad. Between this group and
the Low Archipelago itself, eight hundred and forty miles by four
hundred and twenty, there are groups and single islands covering a
linear space of more than four thousand miles. To the north of the
Equator, the archipelago of the Caroline Islands constitutes a very
considerable group of madreporic formation, comprehending upwards
of a thousand, extending in a broad belt over nearly forty degrees of
longitude. On the other hand, all along the coast of the American con-
tinent, round the Galapagos and the Isle of Paques, we find no trace of
them. The reason assigned is, that in these regions a great current of
cold water, flowing from the Antarctic Pole, so much lowers the tempera-
ture of the sea, that the zoophytes no longer possess the requisite vigour.
We still meet with atolls in the Chinese Seas, and madreporic
barrier reefs are abundant round the Marianne and Philippine Islands.
These marginal reefs form also an immense tract, from the Isle of
Timor, along the south coast of Sumatra, up to the island of Nicobar,
in the Bay of Bengal.
N 2
180 THE OCEAN WORLD.
To the west of the Indian Peninsula, the Maldive and Laccadive
Islands form the extremity of another group of atolls, and important
madreporic reefs, which extend towards the south, by the Maldives
and the Chagos Islands ; they consist of low coral formations, densely
clothed with cocoa-nut trees. The Maldives, the most southerly
cluster, include upwards of a thousand islands and reefs ; the Lacca-
dives, seventeen in number, are of similar origin. The Saya de Malha
bank, towards the south-east, constitutes a further group of madre-
poric islets. Finally, the coast of the Mauritius, of Madagascar, of
the Seychelles, and even the African continent, from the northern
extremity of the Mozambique Channel to the bottom of the Red Sea,
are studded with numerous reefs of the same nature. They fail,
however, almost completely, along the coast of the Asiatic continent,
where, among others, the waters of the Euphrates, the Indus, and the
Ganges, enter the sea, and diversify its inhabitants. The western
coast of Africa, and the east coast of the American continent, are
almost entirely destitute of great madreporic reefs, but they abound in
the Caribbean Seas. In the Gulf of Mexico, where the vast fresh-
water current of the Mississippi debouches into the sea, they are
unknown. It is principally on the north coast and upon the eastern
flanks of the chain of West Indian Islands that the madreporic reefs
show themselves in these regions.
The polyps which have produced these vast ranges of islands
would be set down, at first sight, as the most incapable objects in
creation for accomplishing it. In the case of the Pennatulidte, the
case is coriaceous, strengthened with calcareous particles ; the interior
is a fibrous net-work containing a transparent jelly in the squares, and
permeated by a certain number of longitudinal cartilaginous tubes ; the
soft part is uniformly gelatinous, but the skin is also coriaceous, with
a great number of calcareous spicula placed parallel to one another,
adding greatly to its strength and consistency.
The polyps are placed in this external fleshy crust ; their position
being marked by an orifice on the surface, distinguished by eight
star-like rays, which open when the upper portion of the body is forced
outwards, in which state it resembles a cylindrical bladder or nipple
crowned with a fringe of tentacula, which surround the mouth.
Under this orifice is the stomach, occupying the centre of the cylinder.
ACTINIAEIA. 181
The space between this stomach and the outer envelope is divided
into eight equal compartments or cells by as many thin septa, ori-
ginating in a labial rim or lip between the basis of the tentacula, which
descend through the cylinder attached on the one side to the inner
tunic of the body, and on the other to the stomach, which is thus
retained in its position.
The protruding portion of the polyp is very delicate, the internal
viscera being, as it were, enclosed in a bladder formed of two very thin
membranes in intimate union, so transparent as to permit a view of
their arrangement. At the base of the body, where thickest, it coalesces
with the base of the adjacent polyp ; thus constituting the common
cortical portion into which each animal retreats at will, by a process
in many respects resembling that by which a snail draws in its horns.
In the greater number of Asteroids this common portion secretes
carbonate of lime, which is deposited in the meshes of its tissues
either in granules or in crystalline spiculaB, which imparts a solid
consistency to the whole. The inner tissue meanwhile continues
unaltered, being prolonged throughout the polypiferous lining of the
cell, the abdominal cavity, and the longitudinal canals which permeate
the whole polyp, as well as the tubular net-work with which the
space between the canals is occupied. It is among these inner tissues
that the buds or gemmae are generated, by whose increase and evolu-
tion the polyp mass is enlarged, the shape and size depending on the
manner in which the buds are evolved ; for in some, as in the Pen-
natulidas, determinate spots only have the appropriated organization,
while in others, as in Alcyonium, the generative faculty appears to be
undefined and more diffused.
THE ACTINIARIA.
Here we leave the group of polyps which form united families.
The Sea Anemones, of which the Actinia are the type, consist of
Zoanthaires, which produce no corals, that is to say, of polyps
whose covering remains always soft, and in whose interior nothing
solid is produced. This order is usually divided into two families
the Adiniadse, having the tentacles in uninterrupted circles, with no
corallum, and the Minyadinse, having globose bodies, and very short
tentacula.
182 THE- OCEAN WORLD.
The modern aquarium exposes the spectator to many wonderful
surprises. Coiled up against the transparent crystal walls of the basin,
he observes living creatures of the most brilliant shades of colour,
and more resembling flowers than animals. Supported by a solid
base and cylindrical stem, he sees them terminate like the corolla of a
flower, as in the petals of the anemone : these are the animals we call
Sea Anemones curious zoophytes, which, as all persons familiar with
the sea shore may have observed, are now seen suspended from the
rocks, and presently buried at the bottom of the sea, or floating on
its surface. These charming and timid creatures are also called
Actinia, as indicating their disposition to form rays or stars, from the
Greek d/crlv, a ray.
The body of these animals is cylindrical in form, terminating
beneath in a muscular disk, which is generally large and distinct,
enabling them to cling vigorously to foreign bodies. It terminates
above in an upper disk, bearing many rows of tentacles, which differ
from each other only in their size. These tentacles are sometimes
decorated with brilliant colours, forming a species of collarette, consist-
ing of contractile and often retractile tubes, pierced at their points with
an orifice, whence issue jets of water, which is ejected at the will of
the animal. Arranged in multiples of circles, they distribute them-
selves with perfect regularity round the mouth. These are the arms
of this species of zoophyte.
The mouth of the Actinia opens among the tentacles. Oval in
form, it communicates by means of a tube with a stomach, broad and
short, which descends vertically, and abuts by a large opening on the
visceral cavity, the interior of which is divided into little cells or
chambers. These cells and chambers are not all of the same dimen-
sions ; in parting from the cylindrical walls of the body, they advance,
the one increasing, the others getting smaller, in the direction of the
centre. Moreover, they have many kinds of cells, which dispose them-
selves in their different relations with great regularity their tenta-
cula, which correspond with them, being arranged in circles radiating
more or less from the centre.
The stomach of the sea anemones fulfils a multitude of functions.
At first, it is the digestive organ ; it is also the seat of respiration ; and
is unceasingly moistened by the water, which it passes through, imbibes,
and ejects. The visceral cavity absorbs the atmospheric air contained
ACTINIAKIA. 183
in the water ; for the stomach is also a lung, and through the same
organ it ejects its young ! In short, the reproductive organs, the eggs,
and the larvae, are all connected with the tentacles or arms. In the
month of September the eggs are fecundated, and the larvae or embryos
developed. As Fredol says in " La Monde de la Mer," " These animals
bear their young, not upon their arms, but in their arms. The larvae
generally pass from the tentacula into the stomach, and are afterwards
ejected from the mouth along with the rejecta of their food a most
singular formation, in which the stomach breathes, and the mouth
serves the purposes of accouchement facts which it would be difficult
to believe on other than the most positive evidence."
" The Daisy-like Anemones (Sagartia lettis Gosse), in the Zoo-
logical Gardens of Paris," says Fredol, " frequently throw up little
embryos, which are dispersed, and attach themselves to various parts of
the aquarium, and finally become miniature anemones exactly like the
parent. An actinia which had taken a very copious repast ejected a
portion of it about twenty-four hours later, and in the middle of the
ejected food were found thirty-eight young individuals." According
to Dalyell, an accouchement is here a fit of indigestion.
The lower class of animals have, in fact, as the general basis of
their organization, a sac with a single opening, which is applied, as
we have seen, to a great variety of uses. It receives and rejects ; it
swallows and it vomits. The vomiting becomes necessary and habi-
tual the normal condition, in short, of the animal and is perhaps
a source of pleasure to it, for it is not a malady, but a function, and
even a function multiplied. In the sea anemone it expels the excre-
ment, and lays its eggs ; in others, as we have seen, it even serves
the purposes of respiration ; so that the animal flowers may probably
be said to enjoy their regular and periodical vomit.
The sea anemones multiply their species in another manner. On
the edge of their base certain bud-like excrescences may often be ob-
served. These buds are by-and-by transformed into embryos, which
detach themselves from the mother, and soon become individuals in
all respects resembling her. This mode of reproduction greatly re-
sembles some of the vegetative processes. Another and very singular
mode of reproduction has been noted by Mr. Hogg in the case of
Actinia oeillet. Wishing to detach this anemone from the aquarium,
this gentleman used every effort to effect his purpose; but only
184 THE OCEAN WOELD.
succeeded, after violent exertions, in tearing the lower part of the
animal. Six portions remained attached to the glass walls of the
aquarium. At the end of eight days, attempts were again made to
detach these fragments ; hut it was observed, with much surprise, that
they shrank from the touch and contracted themselves. Each of them
soon hecame crowned with a little row of tentacula, and finally each
fragment hecame a new anemone. Every part of these strange crea-
tures thus "becomes a separate being when detached, while the mutilated
mother continues to live as if nothing had happened. In short, it has
long heen known that the sea anemones may he cut limb from limb,
mutilated, divided, and subdivided. One part of the body cut off is
quickly replaced. Cut off the tentacles of an actinia, and they are
replaced in a short time, and the experiment may be repeated in-
definitely. The experiments made by M. Trembley of Geneva upon
the fresh-water polypi were repeated by the Abbe Dicquernare on the
sea anemones. He mutilated and tormented them in a hundred ways.
The parts cut off continued to live, and the mutilated creature had the
power of reproducing the parts of which it had been deprived. To
those who accused the Abbe of cruelty in thus torturing the poor
creatures, he replied that, so far from being a cause of suffering to
them, " he had increased their term of life, and renewed their
youth."
The Actiniadte vary in their habitat from pools near low-water mark
to eighteen or twenty fathoms water, whence they have been dredged
up. " They adhere," says Dr. Johnston, " to rocks, shells, and other
extraneous bodies by means of a glutinous secretion from their en-
larged base, but they can leave their hold and remove to another station
whensoever it pleases them, either by gliding along with a slow and
almost imperceptible movement (half an inch in five minutes), as is their
usual method, or by reversing the body and using the tentacula for the
purpose of feet, as Keaumur asserts, and as I have once witnessed ; or,
lastly, inflating the body with water, so as to render it more buoyant,
they detach themselves, and are driven to a distance by the random
motion of the waves. They feed on shrimps, small crabs, whelks, and
similar shelled mollusca, and probably on all animals brought within
their reach whose strength or agility is insufficient to extricate them
from the grasp of their numerous tentacula ; for as these organs can
be inflected in any direction, and greatly lengthened, they are capable
ACTINIAEIA. 185
of being applied to every point, and adhere by suction with consider-
able tenacity, throwing out, according to Gaertner, of their whole
surface a number of extremely minute suckers, which, sticking fast to
the small protuberances of the skin, produce the sensation of roughness,
which is so far from being painful that it even cannot be called dis-
agreeable.
" The size of the prey is frequently in unseemly disproportion to
the preyer, being often equal in bulk to itself. I had once brought
me a specimen of A. crassicornis, that might have been originally two
inches in diameter, which had somehow contrived to swallow a valve
of Pecten maximus of the size of an ordinary saucer. The shell,
fixed within the stomach, was so placed as to divide it completely into
two halves, so that the body, stretched tensely over, had become
thin and flattened like a pancake. All communication between the
inferior portion of the stomach and the mouth was of course prevented ;
yet, instead of emaciating and dying of atrophy, the animal had availed
itself of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward accident to in-
crease its enjoyment and its chance of double fare. A new mouth,
furnished with two rows of numerous tentacula, was opened up on
what had been the base, and led to the under stomach ; the individual
had indeed become a sort of Siamese Twin, but with greater intimacy
and extent in its unions !"
The sea anemones pass nearly all their life fixed to some rock, to
which they seem to have taken root. There they live a sort of un-
conscious and obtuse existence, gifted with an instinct so obscure
that they are not even conscious of the prey in their vicinity until it
is actually in contact, when it seizes it in its mouth and swallows it.
Nevertheless, though habitually adherent, they can move, gliding and
creeping slowly by successive contractile and relaxing movements of the
body, extending one edge of their base and relaxing the opposite one.
At the approach of cold weather the Actiniadse descend into the
deepest water, where they find a more agreeable temperature.
We have said that the sea anemones are scarcely possessed of vital
instinct ; but they are capable of certain voluntary, movements.
Under the influence of light, they expand their tentacles as the daisy
displays its florets. If the animal is touched, or the water is agitated
in its neighbourhood, the tentacles close immediately. These ten-
tacles appear occasionally to serve the purpose of offensive arms. The
186 THE OCEAN WORLD.
hand of the man who has touched them becomes red and inflamed.
M. Hollard has seen small mackerel, two to three inches long, perish
when touched by the tentacles of the Green Actinia (Comactis viridis
Allman). This is a charming little animal. " The brilliancy of its
colours and the great elegance of its tentacular crown when fully
expanded," says Professor Allman, " render it eminently attractive ;
hundreds may often be seen in a single pool, and few sights will be
retained with greater pleasure by the naturalist than that presented
by these little zoophytes, as they expand their green and rosy crowns
amid the algee, millepores, and plumy corals, co-tenants of their rock-
covered vase."
The toxological properties of the Actinia have been attributed to
certain special cells full of liquid ; but M. Hollard believes that these
effects are neither constant enough nor sufficiently general to con-
stitute the chief function of these organs, which are found in all the
species and over their whole surface, external and internal. Though
quite incapable of discerning their prey at a distance, the sea ane-
mone seizes it with avidity when it comes to offer itself up a victim.
If some adventurous little worm, or some young and sluggish crustacean,
happens to ruffle the expanded involucrum of an actinia in its lazy
progress through the water, the animal strikes it at once with its ten-
tacles, and instinctively sweeps it into its open mouth. TJiis habit
may be observed in any aquarium, and is a favourite spectacle at the
" Jardin d'Acclimitation " of Paris, at noon on Sunday and Wednesday,
when the aquatic animals are fed. Small morsels of food are thrown
into the water. Prawns, shrimps, and other crustaceans and zoophytes
inhabiting this medium, chase the morsels as they sink to the bottom
of the basin ; but it is otherwise with the Actinia ; the morsels glide
downwards within the twentieth part of an inch of their crown
without its presence being suspected. It requires the aid of a pro-
pitious wand, directed by the hand of the keeper, to guide the food
right down on the animal. Then its arms or tentacles seize upon
the prey, and its repast commences forthwith.
The Actinia are at once gluttonous and voracious. They seize
their food with the help of the tentacula, and engulf in their
stomach, as we have seen, substances of a volume and consistence
which contrast strangely with their dimensions and softness. In less
than an hour, M. Hollard observed that one of these creatures voided
ACTINIAEIA. 187
the shell of a mussel, and disposed of a crab all to its hardest parts ; nor
was it slow to reject these hard parts, by turning its stomach inside
out, as one might turn out one's pocket, in order to empty it of its
contents. We have seen in Dr. Johnston's account of A. erassicornis
that when threatened with death by hunger, from having swallowed a
shell which separated it into two halves, at the end of eleven days it,
had opened a new mouth, provided with separate rows of tentacula.
The accident which, in ordinary animals, would have left it to perish
of hunger, became, in the sea anemone, the source of redoubled gas-
tronomical enjoyment.
" The anemones," Fredol tells us, " are voracious, and full of energy ;
nothing escapes their gluttony; every creature which approaches
them is seized, engulfed, and devoured. Nevertheless, with all the
power of their mouth, their insatiable stomachs cannot retain the prey
they have swallowed. In certain circumstances it contrives to escape,
in others it is adroitly snatched away by some neighbouring marauder
more cunning and more active than the anemone.
In PL. IV. are represented the principal species of Anemone usually
observed in the aquarium. Figs. 1, 2, and 3, A. sulcata, is surmised
by Johnson to be the young of A. effoeta (Linn.). It is also quoted as a
synonyme of Anthea cereus, from Drayton's stanza :
" Anthea of the flowers, that hath a general charge,
And Syrinx of the weeds, that grow upon the marge."
Fig. 4, Phymactis Sanctse Helena (Edw.) ; Fig. 5, A. Capensis
(Lesson) ; Fig. 6, A. Peruviana (Lesson) ; Fig. 7, A. Sanctte Cathe-
rine; Fig. 8, A. amethystina (Quoy); Fig. 9, Comactis viridis
(Milne Edwards).
"It is sometimes observed in aquariums that a shrimp, which
has seen the prey devoured from a distance, will throw itself upon the
ravisher, and audaciously wrest the prey from him and devour it before
his eyes, to his great disappointment. Even when the savoury morsel
has been swallowed, the shrimp, by great exertions, succeeds in ex-
tracting it from the stomach. Seating itself upon the extended
disk of the anemone, with its small feet it prevents the approach of
the tentacles, at the same time that it inserts its claws into the
digestive cavity and seizes the food. In vain the anemone tries to
contract its gills and close its mouth. Sometimes the conflict between
188 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
the sedentary zoophyte and the vagrant crustacean becomes serious.
When the former is strong and robust, the aggression is repelled, and
the shrimp runs the risk of supplementing the repast of the anemone."
If the actinias are voracious, they can also support a prolonged
period of fasting. They have been known to live two and even three
years without having received any nourishment."*
Although the sea anemone is said to be delicate eating, man derives
very little benefit from them in that respect. In Provence, Italy, and
Greece, the Green Actinia is in great repute, and Dicquemare speaks of
A. crassicornis as delicate food. " Of all the kinds of sea anemones, I
would prefer this for the table ; being boiled some time in sea water,
they acquire a firm and palatable consistence, and may then be eaten
with any kind of sauce. They are of an inviting appearance, of a
light shivering texture, and of a soft white and reddish hue. Their
smell is not unlike that of a warm crab or lobster." Dr. Johnston
admits the tempting description, and does not doubt their being not
less a luxury than the sea urchins of the Greeks, or the snails of the
Eoman epicures, but he was not induced to test its truth. Eondeletius
tells us, having, as Dr. Johnston thinks, A. crassicornis in view, that it
brings a good price at Bordeaux. Actinia dianthus also is good to
eat, quoth Dicquemare, and Plaucus directs the cook to dress it after
the manner of dressing oysters, with which it is frequently eaten.
Actinia coriacea is found in the market at Kochefort during the
months of January, February, and March. Its flesh is said to be
both delicate and savoury.
With these general considerations, we proceed to note some of the
more remarkable genera and species of these interesting creatures.
Among these, the species represented in PL. IV. are those usually
seen collected in such aquariums as those of the Zoological Gardens of
London and the Gardens of Acclimatization of Paris.
The first section of the Actiniadte, according to Milne Edwards, in-
cludes the Common Actinia, the feet of which are broad and adherent,
the lateral walls soft and imperforate. To this section belongs, among
others, the genera Anemonia, Actinia, and Metridium.
The Green Actinia (A. viridis) has very numerous tentacula, some-
times as many as two hundred, exceeding in length the breadth of the
* " On en a vu vivre deux et meme trois ans, sans reeevoir de nourriture." Vie de$
Animaux, p. 117,
1
ACTIKIAEIA. 189
body, of a fine brownish or olive green, and rose-coloured at the extremity.
The trunk is of a greyish green or brown ; the disk is brown with
greenish rays. This species is plentiful in the Mediterranean and
in the Channel. When attached to the vertical sides of a rock, a
little below the surface of the water, in which position it is often seen
on the shores of the Mediterranean, the tentacles hang suspended as if
the animal had no power to display them in their radiate form ; but
when fixed horizontally in a calm sea, they are spread out in all direc-
tions, and are kept in a state of continual agitation ; its long, mane-
like tentacula, fully expanded, float and balance themselves in the
water in spite of the action of the waves, presenting a most interesting
spectacle as it displays its beauties a few feet below the passing boat.
A. dianthus (Ellis), having a number of synonymes, is represented
in PL. Y. Fig. 1 ; its body is smooth and cylindrical ; the disk marked
in the centre with clavate radiating bands; tentacula numerous,
irregular, the outer small, and forming round the margin a thick
filamentous fringe. This species attaches itself to rocks and shells
in deep water, or within low-water mark, to which it permanently
attaches itself, and cannot be removed without organic injury to the
base. When contracted, the body presents a thick, short, sub-cylin-
drical form, about three inches long, and one and a half in diameter,
and about five inches when fully expanded ; the skin is smooth, of an
uniform olive,. whitish, cream, or flesh colour. The centre of the disk
is ornamented with a circle of white bands, radiating from the mouth,
the lamellae running across, the circumference being perceptible
through the transparent skin. From the narrow, colourless inter-
spaces between the lamellae the tentacula originate. "They are
placed," says Dr. Johnston, "between the mouth and the margin,
which is encircled by a dense fringe of incontestable beauty, composed
of innumerable short tentacula or filaments, forming a thick, furry
border." In PL. Y. Fig. 2, we have probably Gaertner's AntTiea cereus,
the body of which is a light chestnut colour, smooth, sulcated length-
wise, with tentacula rising from the disk to the number, in aged
animals, of two hundred. Sagartia viduata Grosse (Fig. 4) has the
body adherent, cylindrical, without a skin, destitute of warts, emitting
capsuliferous filaments from pores; nettling-threads short, densely
armed with a brush of hairs ; tentacles conical. A. picta (?L. IY.
Fig. 6), which Professor Edward Forbes changes to Adamsia palliata,
190 THE OCEAN WORLD.
is described by Mr. Adams, who first discovered it, "as longitudi-
nally sulcated, having the edges of the base crenated ; the lower part
an obscure red, and the upper part transparent white, marked with
fine purple spots ; the outer circumference of the aperture has a
narrow stripe of pink. When expanded, the superior division of
the body seems formed of membrane. From perforated warts placed
without order on the outer coat, issued white filamentous substances
variously twisted together. I have observed," he adds, "similar
bodies ejected from the mouths of all the species of this genus which
have fallen within my notice."
A. mesembryanthemum (Johnston). The A. equina of Lesson
(PL. IY. Fig. 6), known in France as the Cul d'ane, is extremely common
in the Channel on rocks between the tide marks. It attaches itself
chiefly to rocks beaten by the waves and exposed to view at the moment
of reflux. The body is from two to three inches in height, and from an
inch to an inch and a half in diameter ; hemispherical when contracted,
it resembles a bell perforated at the summit, dilated into a cylinder.
When fully extended the tentacula are nearly equal to the height of the
body, of a uniform liver colour, or olive green, and sometimes streaked
with blue, having a greenish line either continuous or in spots, the base
generally of a greenish colour encircled with an azure blue line, often
streaked with red. The tentacula are terminated by a small pore. Its
colour is variable, but generally it is of a violet-red. Sometimes it
preserits round spots of a fine green ; at other times it is only of a
greenish hue ; the edge of the feet have a narrow border of red, with
green and blue beneath.
Metridium dianthus has a' thick body with russet grey skin, the
disk strongly lobed, thin and transparent round the mouth; the
tentacula very numerous, very short, and occupying a broad, strong
zone upon the disk. The mesial lines are whitish and wide apart ;
externally they are closer, papiliform, and brown. This species is
found on stones and shells in the North Sea and in the Channel.
The verrucous, or warty section of the Actiniadte, have the lateral
walls of the body covered with agglutinated tubercles, and well-
developed feet. To this section belong the Coriaceous Cereus, Actinia
crassicornis (Johnston), and A. senilis (Hollar d and Dicquemare), which
seem to vary in habit. Hollard describes them as frequently buried
ACTINIARIA.
191
in the sands on the shore, while Cocks describes them " as attaching
themselves to shells and stones in deep water, or attached on the
littoral to the sides of rocks, in crevices, or on the face of clean stones
in sheltered places." The hody is variegated, green, and red ; the
tentacles thick, short, and greyish, with broad roseate bands.
The Anemones belonging to the fourth
section, or tap-rooted actinia, have the
base small, and terminating in a
rounded point, and the body much
elongated, as in Edwardsia Calimor-
pha (Fig. 80), in which the body
is non-adherent, somewhat worm-like,
having the mouth and tentacula seated
on a retractile column, the lower ex-
tremity inflated, membranous, and re-
tractile.
In the great family of the Actinia-
rians, Milne Edwards forms a special
group of the Phyllactinse. In this
group the polyps are simple, fleshy,
and present at once simple and com-
posite tentacula. Such is Pliylladis
prsetexta (Fig. 81), which is found in Fig ' 80 - Edwarilda Calimorpha (Gosse) '
the neighbourhood of Eio Janeiro. The zoophyte fixes itself upon
the rocks on the sea shore, and covers itself with sand. Its trunk,
of cylindrical form, is of a flesh-colour, with vertical lines, having red
points. The interior tentacles form two simple elongated rows ; the
exterior tentacles are spatulate and lobed, not very unlike the leaves
of the oak.
Another group, that of the Thalassianthidae, is distinguished from
the preceding by having all its tentacula short, pinnate, and branching,
or papilliferous. One species only is known, T. aster, of a slate colour,
which inhabits the Red Sea.
In the last group of Actiniadre, as arranged by Milne Edwards, the
polypes occur in clusters, and are multiplied by buds, rising from a
common creeping, root-like, fleshy base ; they thus present a sort of
coriaceous polypier, as in Zoanthus socialis (Fig. 82). In the British
Channel this species, which Dr. Johnston has named Z. Couchii, after
192
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Mr. Couch, jun., is found along the Cornish coast, on flat slates and
rocks, in deep water, and from one to ten leagues from the shore. It
is very small, resembling, both in shape and size, a split pea. When
living, its surface is plain but glandular, becoming corrugated when
preserved. When semi-expanded, which is its favourite state, it
elevates itself to twice its ordinary height, becoming contracted about
the middle, like an hour-glass. When the creature is fully expanded,
Fig. 81. Phyllactus praetexta (Dana), natural size.
the tentacula become distended and elongated to about the length of
the transverse diameter of the body ; and they are generally darker at
their extremities than towards the base. Like all the Actiniadae, the
present species possess a power of considerably altering their shape ;
sometimes the mouth is depressed, and at others it is elevated into an
obtuse cone. " This is one of the most inactive of its order," says
Mr. A. Couch ; " for, whether in a state of contraction or expansion,
it will remain so for many days without apparent change. In its ex-
panded state a touch will make it contract, and it will commonly remain
ACT1NIAKIA.
193
so for many clays." The trailing connecting-band is flat, thin, narrow,
glandular, and of the same texture as the polyp, sometimes enlarging
into small papillary eminences, which, as they become enlarged, be-
come developed into polyps.
Fig. 82. Zoantbus socialis (Cuvier), natural size.
MlNYADINIANS.
The Minyadinians seem to represent among the Zoanthairia the form
peculiar to the Pennatuk among the Alcyonians. In the case of
Fig. 83. Blue Minyade. Minyas caarnlea (Cuvier), natural t-ize.
these animals, the base of the body, in place of extending itself in a
disk-like form, in order to grapple with the rock and other projections
o
194 TUB OCEAN WORLD.
at the bottom of the sea, turns itself inwards, forming a sort of purse,
which seems to imprison the air. From this results a sort of hydro-
static apparatus, aided by which the animals can float in the water and
transport themselves from one place to another. The Blue Minyade
(Minyas cyanea Fig. 83) will serve as a type of this family ; its
globose, melon-like form is of azure blue, studded with white wart-like
excrescences ; it is flattened at its two extremities in its state of con-
traction, and it has three rows of tentacula, which are short, cylindrical,
and white. The internal organs are of a delicate rose colour. Cuvier
places this species among the Echinodermata, but the observations of
Lesueur and Quoy, who were acquainted with the living animal, place
it among the Actiniadse. Many of the species, which are usually
fixed, are still capable of swimming and of inflating their suctorial
disks ; therefore it is by no means certain that the free habit of Minyas
cyanea is constant,
C 195 )
CHAPTEE VIII.
ACALEPH^E, OR SEA NETTLES.
In nova fert animus mutatis dicere formas corpora." OVID, MET.
THE class Acalephse, from aKaXrifyy, a nettle, so called from the
stinging properties which many of them possess, include a great
number of radiate animals of which the Medusae are the type. They
form the third class of Cuvier's zoophytes. The Acalephse, forming
the first order, are characterised as floating and swimming in the sea
by means of the contraction and dilation of their bodies, their substance
being gelatinous, without apparent fibres.
The great genus Medusa is characterised by having a disk, more or
less convex above, resembling a mushroom or expanded umbrella
the edges of the umbrella, as well as the mouth and suckers, being
more or less prolonged into pedicles, which take their place in the
middle of the lower surface; they are furnished with tentacula, varying
in form and size, which have given rise to many subdivisions, with
which we need not concern ourselves.
The substance of the disk presents an uniform cellular appearance
internally, but the cellular substance being very soft, no trace of
fibre is observable. Taken from the sea and laid upon a stone, a
Medusa weighing fifty ounces will rapidly diminish to five or six
grains, sinking into a sort of deliquescence, from which Spalanzani
concluded that the sea- water penetrated the organic texture of its
substance, and constituted the principal volume of the animal. Those
which have cilia round their margins have also cellular bands running
along their bases, and most of the projectile and extensile tentacula and
o 2
196 THE OCEAN WOULD.
filaments have sacs and canals containing fluids at their roots. Suckers
are also found at the extremities, and along the sides of these tentacles
in several genera are suckers, by which they are able more securely to
catch their floating prey, or to anchor themselves when at rest. The
indications of nerves or nervous system are too slight to be received as
evidence, although Dr. Grant observed some structure which he thought
could only belong to a nervous system, and Ehrenberg thought he ob-
served eyes in Medusa aurita, as well as a nervous circle formed of four
ganglion-like masses disposed round the mouth. But most naturalists
seem to be of opinion that touch is the only sense of which any con-
clusive proof can be advanced.
Here we behold a class of bell-shaped semi-transparent organisms?
which float gracefully in the sea a great family of soft, wandering
animals, constituted in a most extraordinary manner. They look like
floating umbrellas, breeches, or, better still, floating mushrooms, the
footstalk replaced by an equally central body, but divided into diver-
gent lobes at once sinuous, twisted, and fringed, so that one is at first
tempted to take them for a species of root. The edges of the umbrella
or mushroom are entire or dentate, sometimes elegantly figured, often
ciliate, or provided with long filiform appendages which float vertically
in the water.
Sometimes the animal is uncoloured, and limpid as crystal ; some-
times it presents a slightly opaline appearance, now of a tender blue,
or of a delicate rose colour; at other times it reflects the most brilliant
and vivid tints.
In certain species the central parts only are coloured, showing
brilliant reds and yellows, blues or violets, the rest being colourless.
In others the central mass seems clothed in a thin iridescent or
diaphanous veil, like the light evanescent soap-bubble, or the trans-
parent glass shade which covers a group of artificial flowers.
The Acalephae are animals without consistence, imbued with much
water, so that we can scarcely comprehend how they resist the agita-
tion of the waves and the force of the currents ; the waves, however,
float without hurting them, the tempest scatters without killing them.
When the sea retires, or they are withdrawn from their native waters,
their substance dissolves, the animal is decomposed, they are reduced
to nothing ; if the sun is ardent, this disorganisation occurs in the
twinkling of an eye, so to speak.
ACALEPH.E. 197
When the Medusae travel, their convex part is always kept in
advance, and slightly oblique. If they are touched while swimming,
even lightly,, they contract their tentacula, fold up their umbrella,
and sink into the sea. Like Ehrenberg, M. Kolliker thought he dis-
covered visual and auditory organs in an Oceania, and Gegenbauer
thought he detected them in other genera, such as Rhizostoma and
Pelagia. The eyes are said to consist of certain small, hemispherical,
cellulose, coloured masses, in which are sunk small crystalline globules,
the free parts of which are perfectly naked. The supposed auditory
apparatus is seated close to these organs ; they are small vesicles
filled with liquid ; the eyes having neither pupil nor cornea, and the
ears without opening or arch.
But it is in their reproduction that these evanescent beings present
the most marvellous phenomena. At one period of the year the
Medusae are charged with numbers of very minute eggs, of the most
lively colours, which are suspended in large festoons from their
floating bodies. In some cases these eggs develop themselves grafted
to their bodies, and are only detached at maturity. In other cases
the larvae produced bear no resemblance to the mother ; they are
elongated and vermiform, broad at their extremity ; we speak of the
microscopic leeches, which have vibrating cilia, scarcely perceptible, by
which they execute the most lively motions. At the end of a certain
time they are transformed into polyps, and furnished with eight
tentacula. This preparatory sort of animal seems to possess the faculty
of reproduction by means of certain buds or tubercles which develop
themselves on the surface of the body, and also by filaments which
start up here and there, so that a single individual originates a
numerous colony. This polyp is subjected to a transformation still
more remarkable ; its structure becomes complex, its body articulate,
and it seems to be composed of a dozen disks piled one upon the
other, like the jars of a voltaic pile ; the upper disk is convex, and is
separated from the colony after a convulsive effort ; it becomes free,
and an excessively small, star-like Medusa is the result ; every disk,
that is, every individual, is isolated one after the other in the same
manner.
Thus of the sexual zoophytes which propagate their kind according
to the usual laws ; but others engender young which have no resem-
blance to the parent zoophyte at all : in this respect they are neuter,
198
THE OCEAN WORLD.
that is, non-sexual, or agamous. These are produced by budding, or
fissiparity, from individuals like themselves. They can also give
sexual distinctions ; but before this change takes place the creature,
which was simple, is transformed into a composite animal, and it is
from its disaggregation that individuals having sexual organs are
produced, the process being that which has been called alternate gene-
ration. It goes on in a perfectly regular manner, although it is a fact
that the young never resemble their mothers, but their grandmothers.
This great family of Zoophytes Grosse divides into
Discophora, having the body in the form of a circular disk, more or
less convex and umbrella-shaped, moving by alternate COD tractions
and expansions of the disk.
Fig. 84. JCquerea violacea, natural size (Milne Edwards).
Ctenophora, body cylindrical, moving by means of many parallel
rims of cilia set in longitudinal lines on the surface.
Sophonopliora, body irregular, without central digestive cavity like
the others, having sucking organs, and moving by means of a con-
tractile cavity, or by air-vessels.
The Discophora are again subdivided into Gijmnoplithalmata,
having the eye-specks uncovered or wanting, a great central digestive
cavity, circulating vessels proceeding to the margin quite simple or
branched; and Steganoplitlialmata^&vi&g the eye- specks protected by
ACALEPH.E. 199
membranous hoods, or lobed coverings, circulating vessels much
ramified, and united with a net-work. Of the Gymnophthalmata we
have an example in Mquerea violacea (Fig. 84), in which the disk is
slightly convex, glass-like in appearance, and furnished all round with,
very short, slender, thread-like, violet-coloured tentacula ; with circulat-
ing vessels, eight in number, quite simple, and ovaries placed on them ;
peduncle wide, expanding into many broad and long fringed lobes.
Fig. 85. Aurelia uurita (^Lainarck). Cyanea aurita (Cuvier). Oue-third natural size.
The Steganophthalmata include the Medusadas proper, in which the
umbel is hemispherical, with numerous marginal tentacles, eight eyes
covered by lobes, four ovaries, four chambers, four fringed arms, with
a central and four lateral openings. Aurelia aurita (Fig. 85) is here
represented as a type of the group ; it is plentiful in the Baltic, and
has been carefully studied by the Swedish naturalists. Eosenthal has
made its anatomy his special study. Sars has also made it the subject
of observations. In the same group we find the Pelagia cyanella
200 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of Peron, whose body is globose, scolloped with eight marginal ten-
tacles, peduncles ending in four leaf-like, furbelowed arms, united at
the base, having four ovaries, and appendages to the stomach, without
orifices.
The Pelagia, as the name implies, belong to the deep sea. P. noe-
tiluca has a transparent, glass-like disk, of a reddish-brown colour and
warty appearance. It is found in the Mediterranean, about the coast
near Nice, and is still more plentiful on the coast of Sicily, and on the
African coast. Another species, P. panopyra, is very common in the
Atlantic and Pacific, between the Tropics. The naturalist Lesson met
whole banks of them in the equatorial ocean, about the twenty-
seventh degree north latitude and the twenty-second degree west lon-
gitude. During the night, this species emits a brilliant phosphoric
light, and living individuals, which Lesson succeeded in preserving,
exhibited great luminosity in the dark. This medusa is remarkable for
its semi-spherical disk, slightly depressed, umbilicate at the summit,
a little compressed at the edges, and densely bristling on the surface
with small elongated warts, but regularly festooned along the edges.
In colour it is a delicate rose.
The animals which constitute this class of Zoophytes, and, in former
times, so curious and so imperfectly known, were designated Polypo-
medusze, in order to remind us that at one time they were called
Medusse, and at others ranged among the Polyps. It has,' however,
been recently discovered that, shortly after they issue from the egg,
these zoophytes show themselves in the form of polyps, and that, at a
later period, they assume the animal form, to which we give the name
of medusse. These animals are, then, true proteans : hence the very
considerable difficulty of studying them difficulties which have long
reduced naturalists to despair. Even now their history is too obscure
and too complicated to justify us in presenting it, except in its general
features. We shall, therefore, content ourselves here with a descrip-
tion of the best known species of the class only those, namely, which
have particularly attracted the attention of naturalists, and which are,
at the same time, of a nature to interest our readers.
The class of Discophorae may be divided into four orders or families,
namely :
I. THE HYDRAID^E, having single, naked, gelatinous, sub-cylindrical, but very con-
ACALEPH^E. 201
tractile stems, mutable in form, mouth encircled with a single series of granulous fili-
form tentacula.
II. SEIITULARIADJS, plant-like and horny, rooted and variously branched, filled with
semi-fluid organic pulp, the polyps contained within sessile cells disposed along the
sides of the main stem or branchlets, but never terminal.
III. MEDUSAD^. Umbel hemispherical, with marginal tentacula; having eight
eyes covered by lobes, four ovaries, four cells, four fringed arms, a central opening,
and four lateral openings.
IV. SLPHONOPHORA, having the animals double, and bell-shaped, one fitting into the
cavity of the other ; in Dyphyes the animal has a large air-vessel with numerous tenta-
cula ; in Physalla, the animal stretches over a cartilaginous plane.
The true form of the Medusa does not appear in the two first orders.
The Hydraidae are, according to modern naturalists, Discophorse
arrested in their development. They comprehend the single genus
Hydra, of which many species are known, whose habits and metamor-
phoses it will be our object to particularise.
Hydra vulgar is inhabits stagnant ponds and slowly-running waters.
It is of an orange-brown or red colour, the intensity of the colour de-
pending on the nature of its food, becoming almost blood-red when fed
on the small crimson worms and larvas to be found in such places.
M. Laurent even succeeded in colouring them blue, red, and white, by
means of indigo, carmine, and chalk, without any real penetration of
the tissue, the buds from them acquiring the same colour as the mother,
while the colour of the ova retains its natural tint, even when the
Hydra mother has been fed with coloured substances during the pro-
gress of this mode of reproduction. The tentacula, usually seven or
eight in number, never exceed the length of the body, tapering insen-
sibly to a point.
Hydra viridis, the fresh-water polyp, being more immediately
within the sphere of our observation, naturally presents itself to our
notice. It is common in ponds and still waters. It was noticed by
Pallas, who was of opinion that offspring was produced from every part
of the body. De Blainville, on the contrary, was of opinion that offspring
was always produced from the same place ; namely, at the junction of
that part which is hollow and that which is not. Yan der Hoven,
.the Leyden professor, agrees with Pallas, and Dr. Johnston's opinions
accord with Pallas. The green Hydra is common all over Europe, in-
202
THE OCEAN WORLD.
habiting brooks filled with herbage attaching itself particularly to the
duckweed of stagnant ponds, and more especially to the under surface of
the leaf. The animal is reduced to a small greenish tubular sac, closed
at one of its extremities, open at the other, and bearing round this
opening from six to ten appendages, very slender, and not exceeding a
line in breadth. The tubulous sac is the body of the animal (Fig. 87),
Fig. 86. Hydra vulgaris. 1. Hydra with ova and young, unliatd-ed. 2. Hydra of natural size
attached to a piece of floating wood. 3. hgg icady to burst its shell.
The opening is at once its mouth and the entrance to the digestive
canal ; the appendages, the tentacula or arms.
The Hydras have no lungs, no liver, no intestines, no nervous system,
no heart. They have no organ of the senses, except those which exist
in the mouth and the skin. The arms or branches are hollow inter-
nally, and communicate with the stomach. They are provided with
vibratile cells, furnished with a great number of tuberosities disposed
spirally, and containing in their interior a number of capsules provided
ACALEPH^E.
203
each with a sort of fillet. These threads, which are of extreme tena-
city, are thrown out when the animal is irritated by contact with any
strange body. We may see these filaments wrapping themselves round
their prey, sometimes even penetrating its substance, and effectually
subduing the enemy. The green Hydra has thus a very simple
organisation. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to say the animal
Fig. 87. Hydra viridris (TrembleyX 1. Hydra magnified, bearing an embryo ready to detach
itself. 2. Animal, natural size. 3. Bud much magnified. 4. Bud, natural size.
was imperfect, for it possesses everything necessary for its nourishment
and for the propagation of its species.
There are learned men who have composed hundreds of volumes, who
have published whale libraries naturalists and physicists who have
written more than Yoltaire ever penned, but whose names are utterly
forgotten. On the other hand, there are some who have left only
two or three monograms, and yet their names will live for ever. Of
this number is the Genevois, A. Trembley. This writer published in
1741 a " Memoir on the Fresh-water Polyps." In this little work he
204 THE OCEAN WORLD.
recorded his observations on some of these animals of smallest dimen-
sions. He limited himself even to two sets of experiments : he turned
the fresh- water polyp outside in, and he multiplied it hy cutting it up.
These experiments upon this little creature, which few persons had
seen, have sufficed to secure immortality to his name. Tremhley was
tutor to the two sons of Count de Bentinck. He made his observa-
tions at the country-house of the Dutch nobleman, and he had, as he
assures us, " frequent occasion to satisfy himself, in the case of his
two pupils, that we can even in infancy taste the pleasures de-
rivable from the studies of Nature !" Let us hope that this thought,
uttered by a celebrated naturalist, who spoke only from what he knew
himself, may remain engraved on the minds of our younger readers.
Trembley established by his observations, a thousand times repeated,
that Hydra viridis can be turned outside in, as completely as a glove
may be, without injury to the animal, which a day or two after this
revolution resumes its ordinary functions. Such is the vitality of these
little beings, that what was once the outer surface soon fulfils all
the functions of a stomach, digesting its food, while the intestinal
tube expanding its exterior performs all the functions of an outer
surface ; it absorbs and respires. But we shall leave Trembley to relate
his very remarkable experiments. " I attempted," he says, " for the
first time to turn these polyps inside out in the month of July, 1741
but unsuccessfully. I was more successful the following year, having
found an expedient which was of easy execution. I began by giving
a worm to the polyp, and put it, when the stomach was well filled,
into a little water which filled the hollow of my left hand. I pressed
it afterwards with a gentle pinch towards the posterior extremities.
In this manner I pressed the worm which was in the stomach against
the mouth of the polyp, forcing it to open continuing the pinching
pressure until the worm was partly pressed out of the mouth. When
the polyp was in this state I conducted it gently out of the water,
without damaging it, and placed it upon the edge of my hand, which was
simply moistened, in order that the polyp should not stick to it. I
forced it to contract itself more and more, and, in doing so, assisted in
enlarging the mouth and stomach. I now took in my right hand a
thick and pointless boar's bristle, which I held as a lancet is held in
bleeding. I approached its thicker end to the posterior extremity of the
polyp, which I pressed until it entered the stomach, which it does the
ACALEPH^B. 205
more easily since it is empty at this place and much enlarged. 1
continued to advance the bristle, and, in proportion as it advanced, the
polyp hecarne more and more inverted. When it came to the worm,
by which the mouth is kept open on one side, and the posterior part
of the polyp is passed through the mouth, the creature is thus turned
completely inside out ; the exterior superficies of the polyp has become
the interior."
The poor animal would be justified in feeling some surprise at its
new situation disagreeably surprised we may add, for it makes every
imaginable effort to recover its natural position, and it always succeeds
in the end. The glove is restored to its proper form. " I have seen
polyps," says Trembley, " which have recovered their natural exterior
in less than an hour." But this would not have served the purpose
of our experimenter. He wished to know if the polyps thus turned
outside in could live in this state ; he had consequently to prevent
it from rectifying itself, for which purpose a needle was run through
the body near the mouth in other words, he impaled the creature
by the neck.
"It is nothing for a polyp only to be spitted," says Trembley.
It is in fact a very small thing, as we shall see, for thus reversed and
spitted they live and multiply as if nothing had happened.
" I have seen a polyp," says this ingenious experimenter, " turned
inside out, which has eaten a small worm two days after the opera-
tion. I have fed one in that state for more than two years, and it
has multiplied in that condition.
" Having experimented successfully myself, I was desirous of having
the testimony of others capable of forming opinions on the subject.
M. Allamand was persuaded to put his hand to the work, which he
did with the same success I had met with. He has done more,
having succeeded in permanently turning specimens which had been
previously turned, and which continued to live in their re-inverted
state ; he has seen them eat soon after both operations ; finally, he has
turned one for the third time, which lived some days, but perished
without having eaten anything, although it did not appear that its
death was the result of the operation."
We have said that the Hydra viridis has neither brain, nervous
system, heart, muscular rings, lungs, nor liver; the organs of the
senses namely, those of sight, hearing, and of smell have also been
206 THE OCEAN WOELD.
denied them. Nevertheless, they act as if they possessed all these
senses. Oh Nature ! how hidden are thy secrets, and how the pride
of man is humbled by the mysteries which surround thee by the
spectacles which strike his eyes, and which he attempts in yam to
explain !
Trembley states that the fresh-water polyps, having no muscular
ring, can neither extend nor contract themselves, nor can they walk.
If touched, or if the water in which they are immersed is suddenly
agitated, they are certainly observed to contract more or less forcibly,
and even to inflect themselves in all directions ; and by this power
of extension, of contraction and inflection, they contrive to move
from place to place; but these movements are singularly slow, the
utmost space they have been observed to traverse being about eight
inches in the twenty-four hours.
Painfully conscious of his powers of progression, however, he has
found means of remedying it, and the aquatic snail is his steed; he
creeps upon the shell of a Planorbis, or Limnsea, and by means of this
improvised mount he will make more way in a few minutes than he
would in a day by his own unassisted efforts.
The Hydra viridis, although destitute of organs of sight, are never-
theless sensible of light ; if the vase containing them is placed partly
in shade and partly in the sun, they direct themselves immediately
towards the light ; they appreciate sounds ; they attach themselves to
aquatic plants and other floating bodies. Without eyes, without
brain, and without nerves, these animals lie in wait for their prey,
recognize, seize, and devour it. They make no blunder, and only
attack where they are sure of success. They know how to flee from
danger ; they evade obstacles, and fight with or fly before their enemies.
There are, then, some powers of reflection, deliberation, and pre-
meditated action in these insignificant creatures ; their history, in
short, is calculated to fill the mind with astonishment.
Trembley insists much upon the address which the Hydra employs
to secure its prey : by the aid of its long arms, small animals, which
serve to nourish it, are seized, for it is carnivorous, and even passably
voracious. Worms, small insects, and larvae of dipterous insects are
its habitual prey. When a worm or woodlouse in passing its portals
happens to touch them, the polyp, taking the hint, seizes upon the
wanderer, twining its flexible arms round it, and, directing it rapidly
ACALEPH^B. 207
towards its mouth, swallows it. Trembley amused himself by feeding
the Hydra, while he observed the manner in which it devoured its prey.
" When its arms were extended, I have put into the water a wood-
louse or a small worm. As soon as the woodlouse feels itself a prisoner
it struggles violently, swimming about, and drawing the arm which
holds it from side to side ; but, however delicate it may appear, the
arm of the polyp is capable of considerable resistance; it is now
gradually drawn in, and other arms come to its assistance, while the
polyp itself approaches its prey ; presently the woodlouse finds itself
engaged with all the arms, which, by curving and contracting,
gradually but inevitably approach the mouth, in which it is soon
engulfed." Fredol also notices a singular fact. " The small worms,
even when swallowed by the polyp," he says, "frequently try to
escape ; but the ravisher retains them by plunging one of its arms
into the digestive cavity ! What an admirable contrivance, by which
the worms are digested while the arm is respected !"
The food of the fresh-water Hydra influences the colour of their
bodies in consequence of the thinness and transparency of their
tissues; so that the reddish matter of the woodlouse renders them
red, while other food renders them black or green, according to its
prevailing colour !
The multiplication of these creatures takes place in three different
ways : 1. By eggs. 2. By buds, after the manner 'of vegetables.
3. By separation, in which an individual may be cut into two or many
segments, each reproducing an individual.
We shall only say a few words on the first mode of reproduction.
The eggs, according to Ehrenberg, come to maturity in the H. viridis
at the base of the feet, where the visceral cavity terminates. They
are carried during seven or eight days, and determine by their fall the
death of the animal. When the Hydra has laid its eggs, according to
M. Laurent, it gradually lowers itself until it covers them with half
its body, which, spreading out and getting proportionably thin, passes
into the condition of a horny substance, that glues the eggs disposed in
a circle round the body to plants and other foreign substances. She
ends her career by dying in the midst of her ova.
Trembley has studied with great care the mode of reproduction by
budding a process which seems to prevail in the summer months.
The buds which are to form the young polyp appear on the surface
208 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of the body as little spherical excrescences terminating in a point.
A few steps further towards maturity, and it assumes a conical and
finally a cylindrical form. The arms now begin to push out at the
anterior extremity of the young animal ; the posterior extremity by
which it is attached to the mother contracting by degrees, until it
appears only to touch her at one point. Finally, the separation is
effected, the mother and the young acting in concert to produce the
entrance of this interesting young polyp into the world. Each of them
take with their head and arms a strong point of support upon some
neighbouring body ; and a small effort suffices to procure the separa-
tion : sometimes the mother charges herself with the effort, sometimes
the young, and often both.
When the young polyp is separated from the mother, it swims
about, and executes all the movements peculiar to adult animals. The
entrance into life and maturity takes place with these beings at one
and the same moment. Infancy and youth are suppressed in this
little world.
So long as the young polyp remains attached to the mother, she is
the nurse ; by a touching change, the young polyp nurses her in his
turn. In short, the stomach of the mother and her young have
communication; so that the prey swallowed by the parent passes
partially into the stomach of her progeny. On the other hand, while
still attached to the mother, the little ones seize the prey, which they
share in their turn with their parent by means of the communication
Nature has arranged between the two organisms.
In the course of his experiments Trembley states another fact still
more remarkable.
Upon a young polyp still attached to its parent he observed a new
polyp or polypule, and upon this unborn creature was another
individual. Thus three generations were appended to the parent,
who carried at once her child, her grandchild, and great-grandchild.
"In observing the young polyps still attached to their parent,"
says Trembley, " I have seen one which, had itself a little one which
was just issuing from its body ; that is to say, it was a mother while
yet attached to its own parent. I had in a short time many young
polyps attached to their parents which had already had three or four
little ones, of which some were even perfectly formed. They fished
for woodlice like others, and they ate them. Nor is this all. I have
ACALEPILE. 209
Seen a mother-polyp which had carried its third generation. From
the little one which she had produced issued another little one, and
from this a third."
Charles Bennet, the naturalist of Geneva, says wittily, that a
polyp thus charged with all its descendants constitutes a living
genealogical tree.
We have just spoken of turning polyps inside out ! If one of these
creatures is thus operated upon while it bears its young on the surface
of its body, such of them as are sufficiently advanced continue to
increase ; although they find themselves in this sudden manner im-
prisoned in an internal cavity, they re-issue subsequently by the mouth.
Those less advanced at the moment of reversal issue by little and
little from the maternal sac, and complete their career of development
on the newly-made exterior.
The third and most extraordinary mode of reproduction in the
polyps has been discovered by Trembley in the case of the green Hydra.
So surprised was this naturalist at the strange anomalies which sur-
rounded these creatures, that he began to have doubts, and gravely to
ask the question, Was this polyp an animal ? Is it a plant ?
In order to escape from this state of indecision, it occurred to him to
cut a Hydra into pieces. Concluding that plants alone could repro-
duce themselves by slips, he waited the result of the experiment for the
conclusion he sought. On the 25th of November, 1740, he cut a
polyp into sections. " I put,'* he tells us, " the two parts into a flat
glass, which contained water four or five lines in depth, and in such a
manner that each portion of the polyp could be easily observed through
a strong magnifying glass. It will suffice to say that I had cut the
polyp transversely, and a little nearer to the anterior. On the
morning of the day after having cut the polyp, it seemed to me that
on the edges of the second part, which had neither head nor arms,
three small points were issuing from these edges. This surprised me
extremely, and I waited with impatience for the moment when I could
clearly ascertain what they were. Next day they were sufficiently
developed to leave no doubt on my mind that they were true arms.
The following day two new arms made their appearance, and, some
days after, a third appeared, and I could now trace no difference between
the first and second half of the polyp which I had cut."
This is assuredly one of the most startling facts belonging to
210 THE OCEAN WORLD.
natural history. Divide a fresh- water polyp into five or six parts, and
at the end of a few days all the separate parts will be organized, deve-
loped, and form so many new beings, resembling the primitive indi-
vidual. Let us add, that the polyp which should thus have lost five-
sixths of its body, the mutilated father of all this generation, remains
complete in itself; in the interval, it has recuperated itself and re-
covered all its primitive substance.
After this, if a Hydra vulgaris wishes to procure for itself the
blessings of a family, it has only one thing to do : cut off an arm ; if
it desire two descendants, let it cut the arm in two parts ; if three, let
it divide itself into three ; and so on ad infinitum. " Divide one of
the animals," says Trembley, "and each section will soon form a new
individual in all respects like the creature divided." " A whole host
of polyps hewn into pieces," says Fredol, "will be far from being
annihilated." " On the contrary," we may say, in our turn, " its youth
will be renewed, and multiplied in proportion to the number of pieces
into which it has been divided." " The same polyp," says Trembley,
" may be successively inverted, cut into sections, and turned back again,
without being seriously injured."
If a green Hydra is cut into two pieces, and the stomach is cut off
in the operation, the voracious creature will, nevertheless, continue to
eat the prey which presents itself. It gorges itself with the food,
without troubling itself with the loss which it has sustained ; but the
food no longer nourishes it, for it merely enters by one opening, passes
through the intestinal canal, and escapes by the other. It realizes
Harleville's pleasantry of M. de Crac's horse, in the piece of that name,
which eats unceasingly, but never gets any fatter.
All these instances of mutilation, resulting in an increase of life, are
very strange. The naturalists to whom they were first revealed could
scarcely believe their own eyes. Reaumur, who repeated many of
Trembley 's experiments, writes as follows : " I confess that when I
saw for the first time two polyps forming by little and little from that
which I had cut in two, I could scarcely believe my eyes ; and it is a
fact that, after hundreds of experiments, I never couid quite reconcile
myself to the sight."
In short, we know nothing analogous to it in the animal kingdom.
About the same period Charles Bennet writes : " We can only judge
of things by comparison, and have taken our ideas of animal life from
ACALEPH^;. 211
the larger animals ; and an animal which we cut and turn inside out,
which we cut again, and it still bears itself well, gives one a singular
shock. How many facts are ignored, which will come one day to
derange our ideas of subjects which we think we understand ! At
present we just know enough to be aware that we should be surprised
at nothing."
Notwithstanding the philosophic serenity which Bennet recom-
mends, the fact of new individuals resulting from dividing these
fresh-water polyps was always a subject of profound astonishment, and
of never-ending meditation.
SERTULARIAD.E.
All Hydraidse, with the exception of the Hydra and a few other
genera, are marine productions, varying from a few lines to upwards
of a foot in height, attaching themselves to rocks, shells, seaweeds,
and corallines, and to various species of shell-fish. Many of them
attach themselves indiscriminately to the nearest object, but others
show a decided preference. Thuiaria thrya attaches itself to old bi-
valves ; Thoa halecuia prefers the larger univalves ; Antennularia
antennina attaches itself to coarse sand on rocks ; Laomedea geni-
culata delights in the broad frond of the tangle ; Plumularia catherina
attaches itself in deep water to old shells, corallines, and ascidians,
growing in a manner calculated to puzzle the naturalist, as it did
Crabbe, the poet, who writes of it :
" Involved in sea-wrack, here you find a race
Which science, doubting, knows not where to place;
On shell or stone is dropp'd the embryo seed,
And quickly vegetates a vital breed."
Sertularia pumila, on the other hand, loves the commoner and coarser
wracks. " The choice," says Dr. Johnston, " may in part be dependent
on their habits, for such as are destined to live in shallow water, or on
a shore exposed by the reflux of every tide, are, in general, vegetable
parasites ; while the species which spring up in deep seas must select
between rocks, corallines, or shells." There seems to be a selection
even as to the position on the rocks. According to Lamouroux, some
polyps always occupy the southern slopes, and never that towards
the east, west, or north ; others, on the contrary, grow only on these
p 2
212 THE OCEAN WORLD.
exposures, and never on the south, altering their position, however,
according to the latitude, and its relation to the Equator.
The Sertulariadse have a horny stem, sometimes simple, sometimes
so branching that they might readily enough he mistaken for small
plants, their branches being flexible, semi-transparent, and yellow.
Their name is derived from Sertum, a bouquet. Each Sertularia has
seven, eight, twelve, or twenty small panicles, each containing as
many as five hundred animalcules ; thus forming, sometimes, an asso-
ciation of ten thousand polyps. " Each plume," says Mr. Lister, in
reference to a specimen of Plumularia cristata, " might comprise from
four to five hundred polyps ;" " and a specimen of no unusual size
now before me," says Dr. Johnston, " with certainly not fewer cells on
each than the larger number mentioned, thus giving six thousand as
the tenantry of a single polypidom, and this on a small species." On
Sertularia argentea, it is asserted, polyps are found on which there
exist not less than eighty to a hundred thousand.
Each colony is composed of a right axis, on the whole length of
which the curved branches are implanted, these being longest in the
middle. Along each of these branches the cells, each containing a
polyp, are grouped alternately. The head of the animal is conical,
the mouth being at the top surrounded by twenty to twenty-four
tentacles. These curious beings have no digestive cavity belonging to
themselves ; the stomach is common to the whole colony a most
singular combination, a single stomach to a whole group of animals !
Never have the principles of association been pushed to this length
by the warmest advocates of communism.
Certain species belonging to the colony, which seem destined to
perpetuate the race, have not the same regular form. Destitute of
mouth and tentacles, they occupy special cells, which are larger than
the others. The entire colony is composed exclusively of individuals,
male or female. "We have traced Sertularia cupressina through
every stage of its development," say Messrs. Paul Gervais and Van
Beneden. " At the end of several days, the embryos are covered with
very short vibratile cells ; their movement is excessively slow ; then,
from the spheroid form which they take at first, they get elongated,
and take a cylindrical form, all the body inclining lightly sometimes to
the right, sometimes to the left. The vibratile cells fading afterwards,
the embryo attaches itself to some solid body, a tubercle is formed,
ACALEPHJS. 213
and the base extends itself as a disk. At the same time that the first
rudiments of the polyp appear, the disk-like tubercle throws out on
its flanks a sort of bud, and a second polyp soon shows itself; its
surface is hardened; the polyp appears in its turn, and the same
process of generation is repeated; a colony of Sertulariadde is thus
established at the summit of a discoid projection. At the end of fifteen
days the colony, which has been forming under our eyes, consists of
two polyps and a bud, which already indicates a third polyp. The sea-
cypress, as this species is called, is robust, with longish branches de-
cidedly fan-shaped, the pinnae being closer and nearly parallel to each
other. The cells form two rows, nearly opposite, smooth and pellucid.
The branches in some specimens are gracefully arched, bending as it
were under the load of pregnant ovaries which they carry, arranged in
close-set rows along the upper side of the pinnae. They are found in
deep water on the coast of Scotland, and as far south as the Yorkshire
coast and the north of Ireland. The cells, which are the abode of the
polyps, are not always alike in their distribution. Sometimes they
are ranged on two sides, sometimes on one only. Sometimes they are
grouped like the small tubes of an organ, at other times they assume a
spiral form round the stem, or they form here and there horizontal
rings round it."
The Medusae comprehend, not only the animals so designated in
the days of Cuvier under that name, but also the polyps known as
Tubular iadte and Campanulariadas.
If we walk along the sea shore, after the reflux of the tide, we
may often see, lying immovable upon the sands, disk-like, gelatinous
masses of a greenish colour and repulsive appearance, from which the
eye and the steps instinctively turn aside. These beings, whose
blubber-like appearance inspires only feelings of disgust when seen
lying grey and dead on the shore, are, however, when seen floating on
the bosom of the ocean, one of its most graceful ornaments. These
are Medusae. When seen suspended like a piece of gauze or an azure
bell in the middle of the waves, terminating in delicate silvery garlands,
we cannot but admire their iridescent colours, or deny that these
objects, so forbidding in some of their aspects, rank, in their natural
214 THE OCEAN WOELD.
localities, among the most elegant productions of Nature. We could
not better commence our studies of these children of the sea than by
quoting a passage from the poet and historian Michelet: "Among
the rugged rocks and lagunes, where the retiring sea has left many
little animals which were too sluggish or too weak to follow, some
shells will be there left to themselves and suffered to become quite dry.
In the midst of them, without shell and without shelter, extended at
our feet, lies the animal which we call by the very inappropriate name
of the Medusa. Why was this name, of terrible associations, given to
a creature so charming ? Often have I had my attention arrested by
these castaways which we see so often on the shore. They are small,
about the size of my hand, but singularly pretty, of soft light shades,
of an opal white ; where it lost itself as in a cloud of tentacles a
crown of tender lilies the wind had overturned it ; its crown of lilac
hair floated about, and the delicate umbel, that is, its proper body,
was beneath ; it had touched the rock dashed against it ; it was
wounded, torn in its fine locks, which are also its organs of respira-
tion, absorption, and even of love The delicious creature, with
its visible innocence and the iridescence of its soft colours, was left
like a gliding, trembling jelly. I paused beside it, nevertheless : I
glided my hand under it. raised the motionless body cautiously, and
restored it to its natural position for swimming. Putting it into the
neighbouring water, it sank to the bottom, giving no sign of life. I
pursued my walk along the shore, but at the end of ten minutes I
returned to my Medusa. It was undulating under the wind ; really it
had moved itself, and was swimming about with singular grace, its
hair flying round it as it swam ; gently it retired from the rock, not
quickly, but still it went, and I soon saw it a long way off."
Of all the zoophytes which live in the ocean there is none more
numerous in species or more singular in their matter, more odd in
their form, or more remarkable in their mode of reproduction, than
those to which Linnaeus gave the name of Medusa, from the mythical
chief of the Gorgons.
The seas of every latitude of the globe furnish various tribes of
these singular beings. They live in the icy waters which bathe
Spitzbergen, Greenland, and Iceland ; they multiply under the fires
of the Equator, and the frozen regions of the south nourish nume-
rous species. They are, of all animals, those which present the least
ACALEPILE. 215
solid substance. Their bodies are little else tban water, which is
scarcely retained by an imperceptible organic network ; it is a trans-
parent jelly, almost without consistence. " It is a true sea-water jelly,'
says Beaumur, writing in 1701, "having little colour or consistence.
If we take a morsel in our hands, the natural heat is sufficient to
dissolve it into water."
Spallanzani could only withdraw five or six grains of the pellicle
of a medusa weighing fifty ounces. From certain specimens weighing
from ten to twelve pounds, only six to seven pennyweights could be
obtained of solid matter, according to Fredol. " Mr. Telfair saw an
enormous medusa which had been abandoned on the beach at Bombay ;
three days after, the animal began to putrefy. To satisfy his curiosity,
he got the neighbouring boatmen to keep an eye upon it, in order to
gather the bones and cartilages belonging to the great creature, if by
chance it had any ; but its decomposition was so rapid and complete
that it left no remains, although it required nine months to dissipate
it entirely."
" Floating on the bosom of the waters," says Fredol, " the Medusa
resembles a bell, a pair of breeches, an umbrella, or, better still, a
floating mushroom, the stool of which has here been separated into
lobes more or less divergent, sinuous, twisted, shrivelled, fringed, the
edges of the cap being delicately cut, and provided with long thread-
like appendages, which descend vertically into the water like the
drooping branches of the weeping willow."
The gelatinous substance of which the body of the Medusa is formed
is sometimes colourless and limpid as crystal ; sometimes it is opaline,
and occasionally of a bright blue or pale rose colour. In certain species
the central parts are of a lively red, blue, or violet colour, while the
rest of the body is of a diaphanous hue. This diaphanous tissue, often
decked in the finest tints, is so fragile, that when abandoned by the
wave on the beach, it melts and disappears without leaving a trace of
its having existed, so to speak.
Nevertheless, these fragile creatures, these living soap-bubbles,
make long voyages on the surface of the sea. "Whilst the sun's rays
suffice to dissipate and even annihilate its vaporous substance on some
inhospitable beach, they abandon themselves witnout fear during their
entire life to the agitated waves. The whales which haunt round the
Hebrides are chiefly nourished by Medusae which have been trans-
216 THE OCEAN WOULD.
ported by the waves in innumerable swarms from the coast of the
Atlantic to the region of whales. " The locomotion of the Medusae,
which is very slow," says De Blainville, "and denotes a very feeble
muscular energy, appears, on the other hand, to be unceasing. Since
their specific gravity considerably exceeds the water in which they are
immerged, these creatures, which are so soft that they probably could
not repose on solid ground, require to agitate constantly in order to
sustain themselves in the fluid which they inhabit. They require also
to maintain a continual state of expansion and contraction, of systole
and diastole. Spallanzani, who observed their movements with great
care, says that those of translation are executed by the edges of the
disk approaching so near to each other that the diameter is diminished
in a very sensible degree ; by this movement a certain quantity of
water contained in the body is ejected with more or less force, by which
the body is projected in the inverse direction. Kenovated by the
cessation of force in its first state of development, it contracts itself
again, and makes another step in advance. If the body is perpendicular
to the horizon, these successive movements of contraction and dilatation
cause it to ascend ; if it is more or less oblique, it advances more or
less horizontally. In order to descend, it is only necessary for the
animal to cease its movements ; its specific gravity secures its descent."
It is, then, by a series of contractions and dilatations of their bodies
that the Medusae make their long voyages on the surface of the
waters. This double movement of their light skeleton had already
been remarked by the ancients, who compared it to the action of
respiration in the human chest. From this notion the ancients called
them Sea Lungs.
The Medusae usually inhabit the deep seas. They are rarely
solitary, but seem to wander about in considerable battalions in the
latitudes to which they belong. During their journey they proceed
forward, with a course slightly oblique to the convex part of their
body. If an obstacle arrests them, if an enemy touches them, the
umbrella contracts, and is diminished in volume, the tentacles are folded
up, and the timid animal descends into the depths of the ocean.
We have said that the Medusae constitute in the Arctic seas one of
the principal supports of the whale. Their innumerable masses some-
times cover many square leagues in extent. They show themselves
and disappear by turns in the same region, at determinate epochs
ACALEPH2E. 217
alternations which depend, no doubt, on the ruling of the winds and
currents which carry or lead them. " The barks which navigate Lake
Thau meet," says Fredol, " at certain periods of the year with nume-
rous colonies of a species about the size of a small melon, nearly
transparent whitish, like water when it is mixed with a shade of
aniseed. One would be tempted to take these animals at first for a
collection of floating muslin bonnets."
The Medusae are furnished with a mouth placed habitually in the
middle of the neck. This mouth is rarely unoccupied. Small molluscs,
young crustaceans, and worms, form their ordinary food. In spite of
their shape, they are most voracious, and snap up their prey all at one
mouthful, without dividing it. If their prey resists and disputes with
it, the Medusa which has seized it holds fast, and remains motionless,
and, without a single movement, waits till fatigue has exhausted and
killed its victim, when it can swallow it in all security.
In respect to size, the Medusae vary immensely. Some are very
small, while others attain more than a yard in diameter. Many spe-
cies are phosphorescent during the night.
Most Medusadae produce an acute pain when they touch the human
body. The painful sensation produced by this contact is so general in
this group of animals, that it has determined their designation. Until
very recently all the animals of the group have been, after Cuvier,
designated under the name of Acalephae, or sea nettles, in order to
remind us that the sensation produced is analogous to that occasioned
by contact with the stinging leaves of the nettle.
According to Dicquemare, who made experiments on himself in
this matter, the sensation produced is very like that occasioned by a
nettle, but it is more violent, and endures for half an hour. " In the
last moments," says the abbe, " the sensation is such as would be pro-
duced by reiterated but very weak prickings. A considerable pain
pervaded all the parts which had been touched, accompanied by pus-
tules of the same colour, with a whitish point." " The sea-bladder,"
says Father Feuillee, " occasions me, on touching it, a sudden and
severe pain, accompanied with convulsions."
" During the first voyage of the Princess Louise round the world,"
to quote Fredol, " Meyen remarked a magnificent physalia, which
passed near the ship. A young sailor leaped naked into the sea, to
seize the animal. Swimming towards it, he seized it ; the creature
218 THE OCEAN WORLD.
surrounded the person of its assailant with its numerous thread-like
filaments, which were nearly a yard in length ; the young man, over-
whelmed by a feeling of burning pain, cried out for assistance. He
had scarcely strength to reach the vessel and get aboard again, before
the pain and inflammation were so violent that brain fever declared
itself, and great fears were entertained for his life."
Fig. 88. Chrysaora Gaudichaudi.
The organization is much more complicated than early observers
were disposed to think it. During many ages naturalists were inclined
to imagine, with Eeaumur, that the Medusae were mere masses of
organized jelly, of gelatinized water. But when Courtant Dumeril
tried the experiment of injecting milk into their cavities, and saw the
liquid penetrating into true vessels, he began to comprehend that
ACALEPELE. 219
these very enigmatical beings were worthy of serious study the
study of subsequent naturalists, such as Cuvier, De Blainville,
Ehrenberg, Brandt, Makel-Eschscholtz, Sars, Milne Edwards, Forbes,
Grosse, and other modern naturalists, who have demonstrated what
richness of structure is concealed under this gelatiniform and simple
structure in the Medusae ; at the same time they have revealed to us
most mysterious and incredible facts as connected with their meta-
morphoses.
Among the Medusae proper, the most common are Aurelia, Pelagia,
and Chrysaora. In the latter, G. Gaudichaudi (Fig. 88), the disk
is hemispherical, festooned with numerous tentacles, attached to a
sac4ike stomach, opening by a single orifice in the centre of the
peduncle, with four long, furbelowed, unfringed arms. G-audi-
chaudi's chrysaora is found round the Falkland Islands. The disk
forms a regular half- sphere, very smooth, and perfectly concave, form-
ing a sort of canopy in the shape of a vault. The circle which sur-
rounds it is divided into sections by means of vertical lines, regularly
divided, of a reddish-brown colour, which forms an edging to the
umbrella-like disk. Twelve broad regular festoons form this edging.
From the summit of these lobes issue twelve bundles of very long,
simple, capillary tentacles, of a bright red. The peduncle is broad
and flat, perforated in the middle, to which are attached four broad
foliaceous arms.
EHIZOSTOMA.
The Medusae which bear the name of Rhizostoma have the disk
hemispherically festooned, depressed, without marginal tentacles, pe-
duncle divided into four pairs of arms, forked, and dentated almost to
infinity, each having at their base two toothed auricles. Such is
liliizostoma Cuvieri of Peron (Fig. 89), the disk of which is of a bluish-
white, like the arms, and of a rich violet over its circumference. This
beautiful zoophyte is found plentifully in the Atlantic, living in flocks,
which attain a great size. It is common in the month of June on the
shores of the Saint Onge ; in August on the English coast ; and along
the strand of every port in the Channel they are seen in the month of
October in thousands, where they lie high and dry upon the shore,
on which they have been thrown by the force of the winds.
220
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Such also is R. Aldrovandi (Fig. 90), which appears all the year
round in calm weather. It is an animal much dreaded by bathers.
It possesses an urticaceous apparatus, which produces an effect similar
to the stinging-nettle when applied to the skin. If the animal touches
the fisherman at the moment of being drawn from the water, it is apt
to inflame the part and raise it into pustules.
Fig. 89. Rhizostoma Cuvieri.
Cassiopea and Cephea are two other types belonging to the same
group. In Cassiopea Andromeda (Fig. 91), belonging to the first, the
disk is hemispherical, but much depressed, without marginal tentacles
or peduncle, but with a central disk, with four to eight half-moon-
shaped orifices at the side, and throwing off eight to ten branching
arms, fringed with retractile sucking disks. Cephea Cyclophora,
ACALEPH^E.
Peron (Fig. 92), is another very remarkable form of
constituted organisms.
221
strangely-
Having presented to the reader certain characteristic types of
Medusadse, we proceed to offer some general remark upon the organiza-
tion and functions of these strange creatures. We have, in short,
Fig 90. Rhizostoma Aldrovandi.
selected these types because they have been special objects of ana-
tomical and physiological study to some of our best naturalists.
The Medusae have no other means of breathing but through the
skin. We remark all over the body of these zoophytes certain
cutaneous elongations, disposed so as to favour the exercise of the
breathing function. Certain marginal fringes of extended surface, as
well as the tentacle, are the special seats of the apparatus. The
222
THE OCEAN WORLD.
organs of digestion also present arrangements peculiar to themselves ;
the mouth is placed on the lower part of the body, and is pierced at
the extremity of a trumpet-like tube, hanging sometimes like the
tongue of a bell. The walls of the stomach, again, are furnished with
a multitude of appendages, which have their origin in the cavity of
the organ, and which are very elastic. The stomach, furnished with
these vibratile cells, appears to secrete a juice whose function is to
decompose the food and render it digestible.
Fig. 91. Cassiopea Andromeda (Tileaius).
In some of the Medusadse the central mouth is absent altogether.
With the Bhizostoma, for instance, the stomachal reservoir has no
inferior orifice ; it communicates laterally with the canals which
descend through the thickness of the arms, and open at their extremi-
ties through a multitude of small mouths. These are the root-like
openings from which the animals derive their name of Ehizostoma,
from the Greek words pla, root, and O-TO//,<Z, mouth.
The arms of the Ehizostoma are usually eight in number, the free
ACALEPH2E. 223
extremities of eacli being slightly enlarged : in these arms many small
openings or mouths occur, which are the entrances to so many ascend-
Fig. 92. Cephea Cyclophora.
ing canals communicating with larger ones, as the veins do in the
224: THE OCEAN WORLD.
higher animals: the common trunk canal is thus formed, which
directs itself to the stomach, receiving in its way thither all the
lateral "branches.
A very distinct circulation exists in the Medusae. The peripheric
part of the stomach suffers the nourishing liquid which has heen
elaborated in the digestive cavity to pass : this fluid then circulates
through numerous canals, the existence of which have been clearly
traced.
It is also a singular fact, that organs of sense seem to have heen
discovered in these Medusas, which early observers believed to be alto-
gether destitute of organization. " During my sojourn on the banks
of the Ked Sea," says Ehrenberg, in his work on the Medusa aurita,
" although I had many times examined the brownish bodies upon the
edge of the disk of the Medusae, it is only in the month past that I
have recognized their true nature and function. Each of these bodies
consists of a little yellow button, oval or cylindrical, fixed upon a thin
peduncle. The peduncle is attached to a vesicle, in which the micro-
scope reveals a glandular body, yellow when the light traverses it, but
white when the light is only reflected on it. From this body issue
two branches, which proceed towards the peduncle or base of the
brown body up to the button or head. I have found that each of
these small brown bodies presents a very distinct red point placed on
the dorsal face of the yellow head ; and when I compare this with my
other observations of similar red points in other animals, I find that
they greatly resemble the eyes of the Kotifera and Entomostraca.
The bifurcating body placed at the base of the brown spot appears to
be a nervous ganglion, and its branches may be regarded as optic
nerves. Each pedunculated eye presents upon its lower face a small
yellow sac, in which are found, in greater or smaller numbers, small
crystalline bodies clear as water." The presence of a red pigment in
very fine grains is an argument in favour of the existence of visual
organs in these zoophytes, for the small crystals disseminated in the
interior of the organ would no doubt perform the part of refracting
light which is produced by crystalline in the eyes of vetebrated
animals. Moreover, it is found that there are marginal corpuscles
analogous to these brown spots in other species of Medusae. They
are of a palish yellow, or quite colourless, and enclose sometimes a
single, sometimes many calcareous corpuscles. When they are colour-
ACALEPH^. 225
less, some naturalists have rather taken them for ears reduced to their
most simple expression.
The Medusae are not absolutely destitute of nervous system. We
have seen that they have ganglions, and prohahly optic nerves.
Ehrenberg also states that they have ganglions at their base, which
furnish them with nervous filaments.
Without entering further into the details of their delicate and com-
plicated structure, we shall pause briefly on their mode of reproduc-
tion. We shall find here physiological phenomena so remarkable as
to appear incredible, had not the researches of modern naturalists placed
the facts beyond all doubt. " Which of us," says M. de Quatrefages,
" would not proclaim the prodigy, if he saw a reptile issue from an
egg laid in his court- yard, which afterwards gave birth to an indefinite
number of fishes and birds ? Well, the generation of the Medusae is
at least as marvellous as the fact which we have imagined." Let us
note, for example, what takes place with the Eose Aurelia, a beautiful
Medusa, of a pale rose colour, with nearly hemispherical disk, from
four to five inches in diameter, whose edge is furnished with short
russet-brown tentacles ; taking for our guide the eloquent and learned
author of the " Metamorphosis in Men and Animals," M. de Quatre-
fages.
The Medusa, designated under the name of Eose Aurelia, lays eggs
which are characterised by the existence of three concentric spheres.
These eggs are transformed into oval larvae, covered with vibratile
cells, having a slight depression in front. They swim about for a short
time with great activity, much like the infusoria, which they strikingly
resemble in other respects.
At the end of forty-eight hours the movements decrease. Aided by
the depression already noted, the larvae attaches itself to some solid
body, fixing itself to it at this point by the assistance of a thick mucous
matter. A change of form soon takes place : it becomes elongated ; its
pedicle is contracted, and its free extremity swells into a club-like
shape. An opening soon presents itself in the centre of this extremity,
through which an internal cavity appears. Four little mammals have
now appeared on the edge, which are elongated in the manner of
arms. Others soon follow : these are the tentacles of a polyp : the
young infusoria has become a polyp !
The polyp increases by buds and shoots, just like a strawberry
Q
226 THE OCEAN WORLD.
plant, which throws out its slender stems in all directions, covering all
the neighbouring ground.
The young Medusa lives some time under this form. Then one of
the polyps becomes enlarged and its form cylindrical. This cylin-
der is divided into from ten to fourteen superposed rings. These
rings, at first smooth, form themselves into festoons, and separate into
bifurcated thongs; the intermediate lines become channeled. The
animal now resembles a pile of plates, cut round the edges. In a
short time each ring is stirred at the free edge of its fringe : this
becomes contractile. The rings are individualised. Finally, these
annular creatures, obscure in their lives, isolate themselves. When
detached, they begin to swim : from that time they have only to
perfect and modify their form. From being flat, they become concave
on the one side and convex on the other. The digestive cavity the
gastro-vascular canals become more decided ; the mouth opens, the
tentacles are elongated, the floating marginal cirri become more and
more numerous ; and now, after all these metamorphoses, the Medusa
appears : it perfectly resembles the mother.
We have already said that recent researches have led to a separation
of a class of animals from the Sertularia, and to their being united
with the Medusae. Of these creatures we formerly only knew one of
the forms, namely, the polyp form ; or, rather, the first stage of it.
During their earliest days they possess a polyp, furnished with ten-
tacles, and a bell-shaped body. During their medusoid age, they present
a central stomach, with four canals in the form of a cross, and four
to eight tentacles with cirri. The animals constitute the Tubularidse,
comprehending many genera ; among others the Tubularia and Cam-
panularia, in studying which Van Beneden of Lou vain discovered most
interesting facts connected with the subject of alternate generation.
The class of zoophytes ranged among the Tubularia have the power
of secreting an inverting tube of a horny nature, in which the fleshy
body can move up and down, expanding its tentacles over the top.
Others of them give forth buds, each of which takes the form of a
polyp, and these, being permanent, give it a shrub-like or branched
ACALBPH^3. 227
appearance; it is now a compound polyp. The tube is branched,
and the orifices from which the polyps expand usually dilate into
cups or cells. This is the condition of the Tubulari-campanulariadse
groups, which are numerous round our own coast and in the Channel.
The Tubularia are plant-like and horny, rooted by fibres, tubular, and
filled with a semi-fluid organic pulp ; polyps naked and fleshy, pro-
truding from the extremity of every branchlet of the tube, and armed
with one or two circles of smooth filiform tentacles ; bulbules soft
and naked, germinating from the base of the tentacles; embryo
medusiform. " Some modern authors," says Fredol, " assure us that
the tree-like form of these polyps is a degraded and transitory
form of the Medusae. The Medusa originates the polyp, the polyp
becomes a Medusa." Tubularia ramea so perfectly resembles an
old tree in miniature, deprived of its leaves, that it is difficult to
believe it is not of a vegetable origin ; it is now a vigorous tree in
miniature, in full flower, rising from the summit of a brown-spotted
stem, with many branches and tufted shoots, terminating in so many
hydras of a beautiful yellow or brilliant red. T. ramosa, of a brownish
colour and horny substance, rising six inches, is rooted by tortuous,
wrinkled fibres, with flexible, smooth, and thread-like shoots, branching
into a doubly permeate form. In T. indivisa the tubes are clustering ;
its numerous stems are horny, yellow, and from six to twelve inches
in height, about a line in diameter, and marked with unequal knots
from space to space, like the stalk of the oat-straw with the joints
cut off. Their lower extremity is tortuous, attaching itself readily to
shells and stones in deep water, flourishing in deep muddy bottoms,
and upright as a flower, fixed by the tapering root-like terminations of
its horny tube : a flowering animal, having, however, neither flower
nor branch. At the summit of each stem, a double scarlet corolla is
developed of from five to thirty-five petals, in rows, the external one
spreading, those in the interior rising in a tuft ; a little below, the
ovarium appears, drooping when ripe like a bunch of orange-coloured
grapes. After a time the petals of the corolla fade, fall, and die, and a
bud replaces them, which produces a new polyp ; and so on. This
succession determines the length of the stem. Each apparent flower
throws out a small tube, which terminates it, and each addition adds
one joint more to the axis, which it increases in length.
The Campanulariae differ considerably from the above, the ends of
Q 2
228 THE OCEAN WORLD.
their branches, whence the polyps issue, being enlarged into a bell-like
shape, whence their name. 0. dichotoma is at once the most delicate
and most elegant of the species. It presents a brownish stem, thin
as a thread of silk, but strong and elastic. The polyps are numerous :
upon a tree eight or nine inches high there may be as many hundreds.
C. volubilis is a minute microscopic species, living parasitically on
corallines, seaweed, and shelled animals. The stem is a capillary
corneous tube, which creeps and twists itself upon its support, throwing
out at alternate intervals a long slender stalk, twisted throughout or
only partially, which supports a bell-shaped cup of perfect trans-
parency, and prettily serrated round the brim. Dr. Johnston found
the antennae of a crab so profusely infested with them as to resemble
hairy brushes. It is furnished, according to Hassall, with a delicate
joint or hinge at the base of each little cup a contrivance designed,
it is imagined, to enable the frail zoophyte the better to elude the
rude contact of the element in which it lives, by allowing it to bend
to a force which it cannot resist.
The Campanulariae increase by budding, the buds being found in
much the same manner as in the Hydrse. It is a simple excrescence,
which, in due time, takes the form of the branch from which it
proceeds. These buds have their birth at certain distances, and form
a new polyp.
SlPHONOPHORA.
Alongside the Medusae naturalists place certain marine zoophytes
which are equally remarkable for their beauty and for their curious
structure, the latter being so complicated that their true organization
Ipng remained unknown. They were known, until very recently,
under the designation of Hydrostatic Acalephae, or Hydra-medusae.
They are known in our days as Siphonophorae. These inhabitants of
the deep are graceful in form, and are distinguished by their delicate
tissues and brilliant colours. Essentially swimmers, supported by
one or many vessels filled with air true swimming-bladders, more or
less numerous, and of variable form : they float upon the waves,
remaining always on the surface, whatever may be the state of the
sea. They are natural skiffs, and quite incapable of immersion. The
Siphonophorae form four orders or families ; namely, the Dipliydse,
ACALEPH^C. 229
double-bell-shaped animals, one fitting into the cavity of the other ;
Phijsaliadse, having large oblong air-vessels and numerous tentacles
of several forms, long, and pendent from one end of the shell, with a
wrinkled crest ; VileUadss, animals stretching over a cartilaginous
plate with a flat body, an oblique, vertical, cartilaginous crest above,
a tubular mouth below, and surrounded by numerous short tentacles ;
Physophora, consisting of a slender and vertical axis, terminating in
an air-bladder, carrying laterally swimming-bladders, which lose
themselves amongst a bundle of slender white filaments.
VlLELLADJE.
The Vilellse assemble together in great shoals ; in tropical seas and
even in the Mediterranean they may be seen in fine weather floating
Fig. 93. Vilella limbosa (Lamarck).
on the surface of the waves. As described by De Blainville, the body
is oval or circular, and gelatinous, sustained in the interior of the
dorsal disk by a solid sub-cartilaginous frame, provided on the lower
surface of the disk with extensible tentacular cirri. The family
includes four genera ; namely, Vilella, the Holothuria of the Chinese,
which the reader will most readily comprehend from the brief
description we shall give of the Mediterranean Vilella ( V. limbosa
Fig. 93), which has been very minutely examined by M. Charles Yogt,
230 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of Geneva, from whose work on the "Inferior Animals of the
Mediterranean" our details are borrowed. F. spirans, sometimes
called F. Iwibosa, was discovered in the Mediterranean, between
Monaco and Mentone, by Forskahl, who most erroneously took it for
a holothuria. On the upper surface of the animal is a hydrostatic
apparatus, the object of which is to maintain its equilibrium in the
ambient element. This apparatus consists of a shield and a crest,
organs of which M. Yogt gives a very detailed description ; but it is
on the under surface that the principal organs of the Yilella are
exhibited. These are not seen when the animal swims, because
under such circumstances the vertical, oblique crest only is visible.
The lower surface is concave, with a sort of mesial nucleus,
presenting at the extremity of a trumpet-like prolongation, whitish
and contractile, a sort of central mouth, surrounded by tentacular
cirri, the external row being much longer than the internal ones.
This was formerly thought to be the stomach of the Yilella. In the
present day, this appendage is known to be the central polyp around
which are grouped other whitish and much smaller appendages, the
base being surrounded by little yellow bunches. These are supposed
to be the reproductive organs. Between the crest and the shield
numerous free tentacles present themselves, vermiform in appearance,
cylindrical, and of a sky-blue colour, which are kept in continual
motion.
The Yilella is therefore not an isolated individual, but a group or
colony, in which the individuals intended to be reproductive are the
most numerous, and occupy the inferior parts.
The central polyp, by its size and structure, is distinguishable at
the first glance from all the other appendages of the lower surface of
the body. It is a cylindrical tube, very contractile and pear-shaped,
swollen into a round ball, or considerably elongated. Its mouth is
round and much dilated ; it opens in the cylindrical or trumpet part,
which is contained in a sac in the form of elongated fusci, clothed in
the whitish integuments which formed the body of the polyp when
perfect. At the bottom of the sac two rows of openings are observed,
which lead to a vascular network extending over the whole body ; the
membranous parts, while affecting various conditions in their arrange-
ment, are nevertheless in direct communication with all the reproductive
individuals.
ACALEPH^E. 231
It is a general characteristic of all colonies of polypi that the
digestive cavities of the individuals composing them meet and inos-
culate in a common vascular system. The Yilellse present the same
conformation. Only in their case the vascular system is extended
horizontally, this being the essential character of the union of all the
individuals constituting the colony, with the canals common to all, in
which the nourishing fluids circulate, elaborated for all and by all.
It is a true picture of social communism realized by Nature.
The central polyp is alone destined to absorb the food. M. Yogt
has always found in its interior cavity fragments of the shells of
crustaceans, the remains of small fishes ; and he has often seen the
hard parts which resist digestion discharged through the trumpet-
like opening. This central polyp nourishes itself and also all the
others, but is itself sterile.
The tentacles are hollow cylinders, completely closed at the ex-
tremity. These are strong muscular tubes of considerable thickness,
the interior of which is filled with a transparent liquid. They are
enveloped in a strong membrane of a deep-blue colour. The epidermis
is furnished with small stinging capsules, formed of a sac with com-
paratively thick walls. If this sac is compressed under the microscope
it explodes, opening at a determinate part, and throwing out an
apparatus forming a long stiff filament, which is implanted on a conical
channel and surrounded with points. " I know not," says M. Yogt,
" if all this machinery can re-enter the capsule after it has exploded ;
but I presume that the animal can extend itself and withdraw at
pleasure. A tentacle of Yilella sufficiently compressed presents a
surface bristling with these cirri, so as to resemble a brush. The
tentacles themselves are in continual motion, and I have no reason to
doubt that the observation of Lesson, who saw them cover small
crustaceans and fishes, may be perfectly true. These stinging organs
doubtless serve the same purpose as with other animals of the same
class ; namely, to kill the prey which the tentacles have enabled them
to secure." Thus the Yilellse have their javelins, as the Greek and
Eoman warriors had, and a lasso, as the cavaliers of Mexico and
Texas have.
The reproducing individuals form the great mass of the appendages
attached to the under surface of the Yilella. The form of the
individuals is much more varied, inasmuch as they are extremely
232 THE OCEAN WORLD.
contractile. Nevertheless, they have considerable resemblance to the
corolla of a hyacinth.
These reproductive individuals are, then, at the same time nurses.
The Medusas originating by budding in the case of those reproductive
individuals, constitute the sexual state of the VilellaB. They exist, in
short, in two alternate states : the one sexual, producing eggs ; in this
state they are isolated individuals of the Medusadae, which never group
themselves or form colonies : the other aggregate state is non-sexual,
and in it they form swimming colonies, under the special designation
of Vfle&B.
The Vilellae, so called by Lamarck, are found widely diffused in the
seas of Europe, Asia, America, and Australia. One species, V. limbosa,
is often taken on the southern coast of England. The animals are
also met with far at sea, and often huddled together in considerable
masses, old and young together.
Such is a brief account of the strange facts to which the careful
study of the lower class of marine animals initiates us. Naturalists
range along with them the Eataria and Porpita.
The Eataria have the body oval or circular, sustained by a com-
pressed sub -cartilaginous framework, much elevated, having a muscu-
lar, movable, longitudinal crest below, and provided in the middle
with a free proboscidiform stomach and a single row of marginal
tentacular suckers. De Blainville was inclined to consider the very
small animals which Eschscholtz termed Batariae as young and
undeveloped Vilellse. M. Yogt doubts not that the Batariae are
young Vilellae which have acquired, by little and little, the elliptical
form, but that the limb is only furnished at a later period to the re-
productive individuals. These Batarise are engendered, according to
Yogt, by the naked-eyed Medusae born of the Yilellae, and owe their
existence to the eggs produced by these Medusae.
The Porpitae constitute, like the Yilellae, colonies of floating animals
furnished with a cartilaginous, horizontal, and rounded skeleton, but
they are destitute of crest or veil. The body is circular and depressed,
slightly convex above, with an internal circular cartilaginous support,
having the surface marked by concentric striae crossing other radiating
striae, the upper surface being covered by a delicate membrane only.
The body is concave below ; the under surface is furnished with a
ACALEPH.E.
233
great number of tentacles, the exterior ones being longest, and also
with small cilia, each terminating in a globule, which sometimes
contains air ; the interior tentacles are shorter, simple, and fleshy. In
the centre of these tentacula is the mouth, in form of a small proboscis,
leading to a simple stomach surrounded by a somewhat glandular
substance. The editors of the last edition of the " Kegne Animal "
only mention one species P. Gigantea, a native of the Mediterranean
and other warm seas, of a beautiful blue colour. Lamarck gives four
species. De Blainville and others consider with Guvier that they are
only varieties, which Eschscholtz reunites under one species. In
Fig. 94 we have represented P. Pacifica (Lesson), the disk of which is
twelve lines in diameter,
without comprehend-
ing the tentacles. This
disk is finely radiated
on the under surface
with a brilliant argen-
tine nacre. The mem-
branous fold which sur-
rounds it is cut into,
leaving light and per-
fectly straight festoons.
It is of a clear celestial
blue colour, and very
transparent. The ten-
tacles are much com-
pressed, very thin and
cylindrical, of a light
blue, and the glands are of an indigo blue colour. All the repro-
ductive individuals, which are placed in the lower part of the body,
are of a perfect hyaline white.
This beautiful Porpita was discovered by Lesson on the Peruvian
coast, where it occurs in swarms closely packed on the surface of the
sea. " Its manner of life," says Lesson, " is perfectly analogous to
that of the Yilella. Their locomotion on the sea is purely passive, at
least in appearance. Their disk laid flat on the surface upon the
water-line, leaves them to float freely and in a horizontal direction,
the irritable arms hanging all round them."
Fig. 94. Porpita pacifica (Lesson).
234 THE OCEAN WORLD.
PHYSOPHORA.
This family includes the Physophora, properly so called, the Aga-
Fig. 95. Physophora hydrostatica (Forskahl).
Una, and the Stephanomina, for the history of which we are indebted
ACALEPH.E. 235
to the curious observations of M. Yogt. Fig. 95 is a representation of
Physophora hydrostatica, after M. Yogt's memoir. We see that the
animal is composed of a slender vertical axis, terminating in an aerial
bladder, carrying laterally certain vesicles, known as swimming-balls,
which terminate in a bundle of whitish slender threads.
The aerial bladder is brilliant and silvery, punctured with red spots.
The swimming-bladders are encased in a transparent and somewhat
cartilaginous capsule, which is continued into the common median
trunk, the latter being rose-coloured, hollow, and very contractile ; in
short, it presents very delicate muscular fibres, which expand them-
selves on the external fan of the capsule, and is closed on all sides.
The swimming-bladders are of a glass-like transparency, and of a
firm, compact tissue. They are attached obliquely and alternately
upon a common axis, presenting an exterior curvature, a round
opening, furnished with a fine, muscular, and very contractile limb,
and arranged like the iris of the eye. Their power of resistance is
increased by certain horny hollow threads, which are in direct com-
munication with the cavity of the vertical trunk, and have their origin
in a common circular canal.
"The animal," says Yogt, "is enabled to guide itself in any
direction by means of the swimming apparatus or air-bags. These,
on opening, are filled with water, which is again ejected in the
contractile movement, for their movements may be compared to that
of the umbrella of the Medusae. It is the violent expulsion of this
liquid which enables the animal to advance diagonally through the
water, a kind of motion which is the consequence of its organization ;
for where both rows of air-bags are working in the direction of the
axis of the trunk, the organism will incline to the side which works
most, but always in such a manner that the aerial vesicle will be
borne forward."
In its lower parts the trunk expands, becomes flat, and winds
itself in a spiral. It is hollow, and encloses a transparent viscous
liquid, in which very small granules are observed, which appear to be
the result of digestion. This disk is attached to three different sorts
of appendages ; we shall first address ourselves to the tentacles.
These form a crown or bundle of vermiform appendages, of a
reddish colour, over an inch in length, and which are kept continually
in motion : these are formed of a glass-like cartilaginous substance ;
236
THE OCEAN WORLD.
they are conical tubes, closed on all parts except at the point where
the tentacle is attached to the disk. Their cavity is filled with the
granulous liquid already mentioned. On the under surface of the
disk, and to the inside of these tentacles, the polyps and fishing-lines
are attached.
The anterior part of the polyp is formed of a glass-like substance,
which changes its form in the most varied and surprising manner. It
bears a roundish mouth at its summit. In its posterior part the
polyp presents a straight hollow stem, of reddish colour ; but near to
Fig. 96. 1 J . hydrostatica, with a portion of the disk, three polyps, and reproductive clusters attached.
this red stem we find a thick tuft of cylindrical appendages, from the
middle of which springs the extensible and contractile filaments
which Yogt calls the fishing-lines (fil pecheur), and of which he has
given the following very strange account :
" Each of these appendages consists of an assemblage of cylindrical
tubes somewhat resembling and analogous to a filament of confervae.
All these tubes are traversed by a continuous canal, which originates
in the internal cavity of the stem of the polyp. Each fragment of
the line is capable of a prodigious extent of elongation and contrac-
tion ; but where completely drawn back the pieces fold themselves up
ACALEPH^E. 237
somewhat in the manner of a pocket foot-rule. It is to the
combined effect of contraction and the unfolding of the pieces that
these lines owe the marvellous changes of length which they
present." In Fig. 96 are represented the polyps and fishing-lines of
P. hydrostatica, with a portion of the disk and two pairs of repro-
ductive, clusters.
In this figure it will be observed that each fragment or joint has
implanted, near the articulation, a secondary line, which bears the
stinging organ. Each of these filaments consists of three parts : a
straight stem, muscular, contractile, and hollow, the cavity of which
communicates with that of the trunk which carries it ; a middle part,
a sort of tube containing, in a considerable internal cavity, a trans-
parent liquid; finally, an inflated stinging organ, which terminates
the apparatus. This last is egg-shaped, and consists internally of a
hyaline substance of cartilaginous consistence, in the interior of which
we find a great cavity, which opens from within, near the base of the
capsule ; to the inside of this cavity a second muscular sac is attached
all round the opening of the capsule, in such a manner that the
opening leads directly into the cavity of the sac. This cavity conceals
in its interior a long filament usually rolled up in a spiral, as illus-
trated in Fig. 97, where the two urticant capsules of the stinging
apparatus of Physophora liydrostatica are represented, one of them
being a section, magnified by twelve diameters. This spirally
rolled-up filament consists of a large quantity of very small, hard,
sabre-shaped, corpuscular bodies, supported the one against the
other, and having their points turned inwards. These objects Yogt
terms "urticant sabres:" the extremity of the filament consists
of curved corpuscles, larger, of a brownish yellow, very strong,
and with a double point. M. Yogt had also opportunities of
observing the action of these stinging capsules. He has seen them
burst naturally, and he has also obtained artificially the same result.
In the former case the filament issues from the opening left at the
base of the capsule with a sort of explosion. "The use," he says,
" of the fishing-lines becomes evident when we see a Physophora in
repose in a vase large enough for its full development ; then it takes
a vertical position ; the lines elongate themselves more and more, by
unfolding one by one the secondary lines with stinging capsules, and
the Physophora now resembles a flower posed upon a tuft of roots,
238
THE OCEAtf WOELD.
with extremely long and delicate rootlets reaching the bottom of the
vase. But in the case of the Physophora the living roots are in con-
tinual motion. Each line is elongated, foreshortened, and contracted
in a thousand ways. The least movement of the water causes the
stinging capsules to be suddenly drawn up, the lines hauled in most
rapidly being those near the crown of tentacles. This continuous
play of the lines has no other object than to attract the prey destined
Fig. 97. Offensive apparatus of Physophora hydrostatica.
to feed the polyp, and we cannot find any better comparison for
them than the fishing-lines to which they have been compared. The
moment that some small microscopic medusae, larvae, or crustaceans
come within the sphere of those redoubted lines, it is at once sur-
rounded, seized, and led with irresistible force towards the mouth of
this polyp by a gentle and gradual contraction of the line; the
stinging organs, complicated as we have seen them to be in the Phy-
Plate VII. Agalma rubra, three-fifths natural size.
ACALEPH.E. 239
sophora, tlius serve the same purpose as the stinging organs disposed
on the arms of the Hydrae, or on the external surface of the tentacles
and prolific polyps of the Vilellae.
Can therQ be any animal form more graceful than Agalma rubra,
which is reproduced in Plate VII. from Vogt's Memoir ? This
beautiful creature is common in the Mediterranean, on the coast near
Nice, from November till the month of May. Towards the middle
of December Vogt found nearly fifty individuals in the space of an
hour, opposite to the Port of Nice, all following the same current,
a prodigious quantity of Salpse, Medusae, and small Pteropodean
Mollusks accompanying them.
te I know nothing more graceful," says Vogt, " than this Agalma as
it floats along near the surface of the waters, its long, transparent,
garland-like lines extended, and their limits distinctly indicated by
bundles of a brilliant vermilion red, while the rest of the body is
concealed by its very transparency ; the entire organism always swims
in a slightly oblique position near the surface, but is capable of steering
itself in any direction with great rapidity. I have had in my posses-
sion some of these garlands more than three feet in length, in which
the series of air-bags measured more than four inches, so that in the
great vase in which I kept them the column of swimming bags
touched the bottom, while the aerial vesicle floated on the surface.
Immediately after its capture the columns contracted themselves to
such a point that they were scarcely perceptible, but when left to
repose in a spacious vase, all its shrunken appendages deployed them-
selves round the vase in the most graceful manner imaginable, the
column of swimming-bladders remaining immovable in their vertical
position, the air-bags at the surface, while the different appendages
soon began to play. The polyps, planted at intervals along the
common trunk of rose-colour, began to agitate themselves in all direc-
tions, taking a thousand odd forms ; the reproductive individuals, like
the tentacles, were contracting and twisting themselves about like so
many worms ; the tentacles were stirred, the ovarian clusters began to
dilate and contract, the spermatic air-bells agitated the waters with
their umbrellas, like the Medusae ; but what most excited my curiosity,
was the continuous action of the fishing-lines, which continued to
unroll and contract in a most surprising manner, retiring altogether
sometimes with the utmost precipitation. All who have witnessed
240 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
these living colonies detach themselves reluctantly from the strange
spectacle, where each polyp seems to play the part of the fisherman
who throws his line, furnished with baited hooks, withdrawing it
when he feels a nibble, and throwing again when he discovers his dis-
appointment. These efforts continue in full vigour for two or three
days, and I have succeeded sometimes in feeding them with the small
crustaceans which swarm on our coasts."
Of the " personelle " of these colonies a few words will not be mis-
placed. The common axis of the Agalma is a hollow muscular tube, the
length of which may be three feet, and its breadth an eighth or tenth
of an inch ; it is traversed by a double current of granulous liquid ; at
its summit is the aerial vesicle ; beneath are the swimming vessels.
These are disposed along the trunk in a double series, attaining some-
times the number of sixty ; their structure is analogous to the same
organs in the Physophora.
In examining the posterior portion of the trunk, traversing polyps
are observed at intervals, whose base is surrounded by a cluster of
reddish grains, each of which is armed with a line, and with its
surrounding filament, terminating in a tendril of a red vermilion
colour, which is a perfect arsenal of offensive and defensive arms.
There we find " sabres " of divers sizes, and poniards of various forms,
the whole constituting a truly formidable stinging apparatus.
These warlike engines, these arms of attack and defence with which
man surrounds himself, Nature has freely bestowed on these little
creatures with which the ocean swarms in some places. It might be
said that, after having created these graceful creatures to ornament
and decorate the depths of the ocean, the Creator was so pleased with
His work that He furnished them with arms for their protection and
defence against all attacks from without.
Among these creatures we may note the pretty Apolemia contorta
of Milne Edwards (Fig. 98), which also inhabits the Mediterranean,
and particularly the coast of Nice, and is no less admirable in its
structure than Agalma rubra. This elegant species is often met with
in the Gulf of Villafranca, near Nice, and has been figured and
described by Milne Edwards, Charles Yogt, and also by M. de Quatre-
fages, who asks the reader " to figure to himself an axis of flexible
crystals, sometimes more than a metre (forty inches), all round which
are attached, by means of long peduncles or footstalks equally trans-
ACALEPH.E. 241
parent, some hundreds of bodies, sometimes elongated, sometimes flat,
and formed like the bud of a flower. If we add to this garland of pearls
of a vivid red colour, an infinity of fine filaments, varying in thickness,
and give life and motion to all these parts, we have even now only
a very slight and imperfect idea of the marvellous organism." The
Fig. 98. Apolemia contorta, one-third natural size (Milne Edwards).
air-bells in Apolemia contorta consist of a mass having the form
of an elongated egg cut in the middle. They are arranged in a
vertical series of twelves, and the axis which supports them is termi-
nated by the aerial vesicle. This axis is always arranged in a spiral
form, even in its greatest expansion, is of a fine rose tint, and flattened
into the form of a ribbon ; it is marked in all its length with asperities
or hollow dimples, in which the filamental appendages originate.
242
THE OCEAN WOELD.
The nursing polyps have been called poboscidiferous organs by
Mr. Milne Edwards, who has studied them carefully. They are
rendered conspicuous- at a glance by the bright-red colour of their
digestive cavity and their extreme dilatability. At the base of their
stems the very delicate fila-
ments called fishing-lines are
attached, which are furnished
with a multitude of stinging
tendrils of a reddish colour.
These tendrils slightly re-
semble those of the Agalmse,
and the sabre-like weapons
are not wanting.
Between the nursing po-
lyps are placed in pairs the
reproductive individuals, hav-
ing the form of an elongated
tube very dilatable, and closed
at the free end. They have,
then, no mouth ! Milne
Ed wards calls these " vesicular
appendages," and M. Koelliker,
tentacles. The buds arranged
at the base of each prolific
individual vary ; but, accord-
ing to M. Yogt, they are al-
ways there in pairs a male
and female at the base of
each stem. Figs. 99 and 100
represent the colony we have endeavoured to describe, 99 being the
nursing individual of Apolemia contorta magnified twelve times, 100
representing the reproductive pair under the same magnifying power.
Fig. 99. Apolemia contorta,
magnified 12 times.
Fig. 100. Apolemia con-
torta, reproductive
pair, magnified 12 times.
THE DIPHYD^E.
We have seen that the Physophora, the Agalma, and the Apolemia
have for the use of the colony a vast number of swimming vesicles
ACALEPHJ;. 243
and a terminal aerial vesicle. It is much the same in the Prayse
or Diphydse. In this family a great numher of natatory vesicles are
connected with the terminal aerial vesicle, as in Fig. 101, Pray a diphys.
This species is -widely diffused in the sea which bathes the Nicean
coast, but it is very difficult to procure perfect specimens. M. Yogt
Fig. 101. Praya diphys (Blainville).
found fragments more than three feet long which swam on the
surface, and was in its state of contraction not more than a finger's
length. This species has been met with at Porta della Praya and at
San Yago, one of the Cape de Yerde islands.
The colony of the Praya presents two great locomotive bell shaped
masses, between which the common trunk is suspended, and to which
it can retire. This cylindrical trunk, which is thin and transparent,
B 2
244 THE OCEAN WORLD.
carries from space to space certain groups very exactly circumscribed
and individualised. Each of these groups consists of a nursing polyp,
having its fishing-line with a special floating air -bladder, a repro-
ductive hud male or female, and a protecting casque enveloping the
whole.
Another species having a great resemblance to the Praya is
Groleolaria aurantiaca (Plate VIII.), or orange Galeolaria, which is
represented on the opposite page, borrowed from the fine " Memoir of
the Inferior Animals of the Mediterranean," by Carl Yogi Here
we find only two great floating bladders placed at each extremity of
a common trunk, and serving the purpose of a locomotive apparatus
to the whole colony. This trunk carries in like manner polyps
placed at regular intervals forming isolated groups, provided each with
its protecting plates. But there is no special swimming apparatus for
each of these groups. Moreover, each colony is either male or female.
PHYSALIA,
Let us finally note among the SiphonophoraB a zoophyte which has
attracted great attention, and has been described under many names.
Sailors call it the sea-bladder, from its resemblance to that organ ; it
is also known as the Portuguese man-of-war, from its fancied re-
semblance to a small ship as it floats along under its tiny sail.
Naturalists after Eschscholtz call it Physalia utriculus, from the
Greek word <pvo-a\ls, a bubble, and ntriculus from its stinging
powers. It was long thought that the Physalia was an isolated
individual. But, according to recent researches, they form, like the
species already described, an animal republic.
Let us imagine a great cylindrical bladder dilated in the middle,
attenuated and rounded at its two extremities, of eleven or twelve
inches in length, and from one to three broad. Its appearance
is glassy and transparent, its colour an imperfect purple, passing to
a violet, then to an azure above. It is surmounted by a crest, limpid
and pure as crystal, veined with purple and violet in decreasing tints.
Under the vesicle float the fleshy filaments, waving and contorted
into a spiral form, which sometimes descend perpendicularly like so
many threads of celestial blue. Sailors believe that the crest which
Plate Vill.-Galeolavia aurantiaca. (Vugt.)
ACALEPH^E. 245
surmounts the vesicle performs the office of a sail, and that they tell
the navigator "how the wind blows," as they say. With all respect to
the sailors, the bladder-like form, with its aerial crest, is only a hydro-
static apparatus, whose office is to lighten the animal, and modify its
specific gravity. Mr. Gosse thinks otherwise, however.
" This bladder," says Gosse, in his " Year by the Sea-side," " is filled
with air, and therefore floats almost wholly on the surface. Along
the upper side, nearly from end to end, runs a thin edge of membrane,
which is capable of being erected at will to a considerable height,
fully equal at times to the entire width of the bladder, when it repre-
sents an arched fore-and-aft sail, the bladder being the hull. From
the bottom of the bladder, near the thickest extremity, where there is
a denser portion of the membrane, depends a crowded mass of organs,
most of which take the form of very slender, highly contractile
movable threads, which hang down into- the deep to a depth of many
feet, or occasionally of several yards.
" The colours of this curious creature are very vivid ; the bladder,
though in some parts transparent and colourless, and in some
specimens almost entirely so, is in general painted with richest blues
and purple, mingled with green and crimson to a smaller extent,
these all being, not as sometimes described, iridescent or changeable,
but positive colours independent of the incidence of light, and, for the
most part, possessing great depth and fulness. The sail-like, erectile
membrane is transparent, tinted towards the edge with a lovely rose-
pink hue, the colours arranged in a peculiar fringe-like manner.
When examined anatomically, the bladder is found to be composed of
two walls of membrane, which are lined with cilia, and have between
them the nutritive food which supplies the place of the blood. Besides
this, the double membrane is turned in or inverted like a stocking
prepared for putting- on; and thus there is a bladder within a
bladder, both having double walls ; the inner (pneumatocyst) much
smaller than the outer (pneumatophone), and contracted at the point
where it is turned into the almost imperceptible orifice. The inner
sends up closed tubular folds into the crest, which, being arrested by
the membranous walls of the outer sac, give to the sail that
appearance of vertical wrinkles which is so conspicuous."
When it is filled with air the body is almost projected out of the
water. In order to descend it is necessary to compress itself or dispel
246 THE OCEAN WOBLD.
the air, in part, for the centre of gravity in the animal is displaced
according as the air is in the vesicle or in the crest. When the last
is distended it rises out of the water, and hecomes nearly vertical ; in
short, it then becomes a sort of sail. The floating appendages heneath
the body are of divers kinds. Some of these are reproductive indivi-
duals ; some are nurses ; some are tentacles ; finally, there are organs
designated under the name of Sondes by French naturalists ; probes or
suckers, we may call them, forming offensive and defensive arms truly
formidable; for these elegant creatures are terrible antagonists.
Dutertre, the veracious historian of the Antilles, relates the following :
" This * galley ' (our Physalia), however agreeable to the sight, is most
dangerous to the body, for I can assert that it is freighted with the
worst merchandise which floats on the sea. I speak as a naturalist,
and as having made experiments at my own personal cost. One day,
when sailing at sea in a small boat, I perceived one of these little
* galleys,' and was curious to see the form of the animal ; but I had
scarcely seized it, when all its fibres seemed to clasp my hand, covering
it as with birdlime, and scarcely had I felt it in all its freshness (for
it is very cold to the touch) when it seemed as if I had plunged my
arm up to the shoulder in a caldron of boiling water. This was
accompanied with a pain so strange that it was only with a violent
effort I could restrain myself from crying aloud."
Another voyager, Leblond, in his " Voyage aux Antilles," relates as
follows : " One day I was bathing with some friends in a bay in front
of the house where I dwelt. While my friends fished for sardines for
breakfast, I amused myself by diving, in the manner of the native
Carribeans, under the wave about to break ; having reached the other
side of one great wave, I had gained the open sea, and was returning
on the top of the next wave towards the shore. My rashness nearly
cost me my life : a Physalia, many of which were stranded upon the
beach, fixed itself upon my left shoulder at the moment the wave
landed me on the beach. I promptly detached it, but many of its
filaments remained glued to my skin, and the pain I experienced
immediately was so intense that I nearly fainted, I seized an oil
flask which was at hand, and swallowed one half, while I rubbed my
arm with the other : this restored me to myself, and I returned to the
house, where two hours of repose relieved the pain, which disappeared
altogether during the night."
ACALEPH.E. 247
Mr. Bennett, who accompanied the exploring expedition under
Admiral Fitzroy, as naturalist, ventured to test the powers of the
Physalia. " On one occasion," he says, " I tried the experiment of
its stinging powers upon myself, intentionally. When I seized it by
the bladder portion, it raised the long cables by muscular contraction
of the bands situated at the base of the feelers, and, entwining the
slender appendages about my hand and finger, inflicting severe and
peculiarly pungent pain, it adhered most tenaciously at the same time,
so as to be extremely difficult of removal. The stinging continued
during the whole time that the minutest portion of the tentacular
remained adherent to the skin. I soon found that the effects were
not confined to the acute pungency inflicted, but produced a great
degree of constitutional irritation : the pain extended upwards along
the arm, increasing not only in extent but in severity, apparently
acting along the course of the absorbents, and could only be compared
to a severe rheumatic attack. The pulse was accelerated, and a feverish
state of the whole system produced : the muscles of the chest, even,
were affected ; the same distressing pain being felt on taking a full
respiration as obtains in a case of acute rheumatism. The secondary
effects were very severe, continuing for nearly three-quarters of an
hour ; the duration being probably longer in consequence of the time
and delay occasioned by removing the tentacula from the skin, to
which they adhered, by the aid of the stinging capsules, with an
annoying degree of tenacity. On the whole being removed, the pain
began to abate ; but during the day a peculiar numbness was felt,
accompanied by an increased temperature in the limb on which the
sting had been inflicted. For some hours afterwards the skin dis-
played white elevations or weals on the parts stung, similar to those
resulting from the poison of the stinging nettle. The intensity of
the pain depends in some degree upon the size and consequent power
of the creature. After it has been removed from the water for some
time, the stinging property, although still continuing to act, is found
to have perceptibly diminished. I have observed, also, that this irri-
tative power is retained for some weeks after the death of the animal,
in the vesicles of the cables, and even .linen cloth which has been
used for wiping off the adhering tentacles, when touched, still retained
the pungency, although it had not the power of producing such violent
constitutional irritation."
248 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The question has been much agitated, without being positively
resolved, whether the Physalia are venomous or not : if they can kill
or make sick the man or animal which swallows them. Listen to the
opinions of M. Kicord-Madiana, a physician of Guadaloupe, who made
direct experiments with a view to settling the question. "Many
inhabitants of the Antilles," he says, "say that the 'galleys' are
poisonous, and that the negroes make use of them,, after being dried
and powdered, to poison both men and animals. The fishermen of
the islands also believe that fish which have swallowed them become
deleterious, and poison those that eat them, a prejudice which has been
adopted by many travellers, and has even found its way into scientific
books. We can state as the result of direct experiment, that though
the ' galley,' will burn the ignorant hand which is touched by its ten-
tacles, when dried in the sun and pulverized, it becomes mere grains of
dead matter, producing no effect whatever upon the animal economy."
On the other hand, we read in P. Labat's Voyage, vol. ii. p. 31,
" that the becune should not be eaten without some precaution, for
this fish being extremely voracious, greedily devours all that comes
within its reach in and out of the water, and it often happens that it
meets and swallows ' galleys,' which are very caustic, and a violent
poison. The fish does not die, but its flesh absorbs the venom, and
poisons those who eat it." "There is every reason to believe," says
M. Leblond, in the work already quoted, " that the sardine, as well as
many other species of fish, after having ate the tentacles of the ' galley,'
acquires a poisonous quality. Supping at an auberge on one occasion,
with other persons, a becune was served up, of which gastronomers
are very fond, and which is usually perfectly harmless : five persons
partook of it, and immediately afterwards exhibited every symptom of
being poisoned. This was manifested by a burning heat in the region
of the stomach. I bled two of them : one was cured by vomiting ;
one other would take nothing but tea and some culinary oil. The colic
continued during the night, and had disappeared in the morning, but
he entertained so great a horror of water, that during the remainder
of the voyage a glass of it presented to him made him turn pale."
M. Leblond concludes, from Jhis and other facts, that the fishes which
eat the Physalia become a poison, for those who eat them, although it
does not appear that he had any evidence of the fish having ate the
" galley," or any other poison.
ACALEPH^E. 249
" Let us- report our own experiments," continues M. Bicord-Madiana.
" I. I had placed a ' galley ' in the sun, in order to dry and pulverize
it. A nest of ants were there, who devoured the whole of it. Now,
many persons in the islands think that these insects will not touch
venomous fishes.
"II. Another ' galley,' which I had left on the tahle in my
laboratory, was attacked by a number of great flies, who deposited
their eggs there ; these were duly hatched, and the larvae fed on the
decomposed zoophyte.
" III. On the 12th of July, 1823, I saw on the sands in the bay
between Saint Mary and La Goyave, at Guadaloupe, many Physalia
recently cast ashore. Having a dog with me, with the assistance of
my servant, I made him swallow the freshest of them, with all its
filiform tentacles, pushing it down his throat, while my servant held
his mouth open ; five minutes after,, the dog exhibited symptoms of
great pain on the edges of its lips ; it foamed at the mouth and rubbed
it in the sand, or upon the grass, leaping about, passing its paws over
its jaws, and exhibiting every symptom of excessive pain. I mounted
my horse, and, in spite of its sufferings, the poor animal followed me
as it was wont. After twenty minutes, when its sufferings seemed
over,, I had a piece of bread which I gave it, and it ate it with
appetite, swallowing it without any difficulty ; it only seemed to feel
the pain on the edges of its mouth : it was well enough all day, and
had evacuations which gave no indication that the Physalia had any
influence over the digestive organs. Next day, and the day following,
it was as well as usual, exhibiting no signs of inflammation either in
the mouth or throat.
" IV. On the 20th of the same month, I took two ' galleys ' on the
sea-shore and cut them in pieces ; then, with a spoon, I had them
forced down the throat of a puppy, which still sucked its mother ;
this strong dose of Physalia had no effect upon it, the tentacles having
probably been surrounded by the fleshy parts of the animal in dividing
it, so as not to touch the mouth : it seems probable, therefore, that the
internal mucus is capable of subduing the irritation, which is so
distressing when applied to membranes exposed to the external air.
We swallow some things with impunity, which we could not support
in the mouth if the burning substance remained there.
" Y. I have also procured many ' galleys ' since these experiments,
250 THE OCEAN WORLD.
and having placed them in a glass tube, left them to dry and had
them pulverized ; twenty-five grains of this powder administered to a
very young dog produced no deleterious effects. Twice this quantity
administered to a young cat produced no more, nor has this surprised
me ; for, if the fresh animal has no poisonous properties, how can it be
supposed that drying the zoophyte can have increased its poisonous
properties, if it really possesses them ? On the contrary, it is more
reasonable to suppose that, by desiccation, the deleterious principle
from any animal, whether Physalia or Holothuria, should lose in-
finitely in its principle by evaporation, and other changes that heat
and air produce in the process of drying.
" VI. I have had a ' galley ' cut into pieces, and got a fat young
chicken to swallow them. It caused no inconvenience. Three hours
after, I had the chicken killed and roasted ; then I ate it, and made
my servant eat it too. Neither of us experienced any inconvenience
from it, a certain proof that it is not from eating Physalia that the
fish becomes poisonous.
" VII. I put twenty-five grains of powdered Physalia in a little
' bouillon ;' I swallowed the dose without the least fear, and I felt no
inconvenience from it."
After these experiments, which are certainly quite conclusive, what
are we to think of the story related of a certain M. Tebe, the
managing partner of a house in Guadaloupe, who fell a victim to his
cook, who is said, after having sought in vain to poison him with the
rasping of his nails, which he had spread carefully over the roasted
fish daily served up for dinner, determined, seeing that he had
signally failed by other means, to put into his soup a pulverized
Physalia. An hour after his repast, this gentleman appeared in the
burgh of Lamantin, at a little distance from his habitation, and, while
entering the city with some friends, he was seized with violent pains
in the stomach and intestines, racking him as if by the most corrosive
poison. His illness increased until the next day, when he died, under
the most excruciating pains. On examination, the stomach and intes-
tines were found to be violently inflamed and corroded, as if he had
been poisoned with arsenic, and I have no doubt that it was with this
poison, or some other corrosive substance, that M. Tebe really was
poisoned. The negroes never make known the -substance with which
they commit a poisoning ; they confess all but the truth, which they
ACALEPH.E.
251
are sworn never to reveal the means they employ, so far as the
Fig. 102. Phyealia utriculus (Eschscholtz;.
poisoning material is concerned, are never communicated by confession.
252 THE OCEAN WOELD.
The habits of the Physalia are still imperfectly known, but among
the many strange forms of brilliant colour and elegant contour, which
swarm in the warmer parts of the opean, " none," says Gosse, " take a
stronger hold on the fancy of the beholder ; certainly none is more
familiar than the little thing he daily marks floating in the sun-lit
waves, as the ship glides swiftly by, which the sailors tell him is the
Portuguese man-of-war. Perhaps a dead calm has settled over the
sea, and he leans over the bulwarks of the ship scrutinizing the ocean-
rover at leisure, as it hastily rises and falls on the long, sluggish
heavings. of the glassy surface. Then he sees that the comparison of
the stranger to a ship is a felicitous one, for at a little' (Fig. 102)
distance it might well be mistaken for a child's mimic boat, shining
in all the gaudy painting in which it left the toy-shop.
" Not unfrequently, one of these tiny vessels comes so close alongside,
that, by means of the ship's bucket, with the assistance of a. smart
fellow who has jumped into the 'chains' with a boat-hook, it is cap-
tured, and brought on deck for examination. A dozen voices are,
however, lifted, warning you by no means to touch it, for well the
experienced sailor knows its terrible powers of defence. It does not
now appear so like a ship as when it was at a distance. It is an oblong
bladder of tough membrane, varying considerably in shape, for no two
agree in this respect ; varying also in size, from less than an inch to
the size of a man's hat. Once, on a voyage to Mobile, when- rounding
the Florida reef, I was nearly a whole day passing through a fleet of
these little Portuguese men-of-war; which studded the smooth sea as
far as the eye could reach, and must have extended for many miles.
They were of all sizes within the limits I have mentioned."
Generally, there is a conspicuous difference between the two extre-
mities of the bladder,, one end being rounded, the other more pointed,
or terminating in a small knob-like swelling or beak-shaped excres-
cence, where there is a minute orifice ; sometimes, however, no such
excrescence is visible^ and the orifice cannot be detected.
" That wonderful river," continues Mr. Gosse, in his nervous, eloquent
style, " with a well-defined course through the midst of the Atlantic
that Gulf Stream brings on its warm waters many of the denizens of
tropical seas, and wafts them to the shores on which its waves impinge.
Hence it is that so many of the proper pelagic creatures are from time
to time observed on the coasts of Cornwall and Devon. The Portu-
ACALEPH.E. 253
guese man-of-war is among them, sometimes paying its visit in fleets,
more commonly in single stranded hulks. Scarcely a season passes
without one or more of these lovely strangers occurring in the vicinity
of Torquay. Usually," he adds in a note, " in these stranded examples
the tentacles and suckers are much mutilated by washing on the shore.
The fishermen who pick them up always endeavour to make a harvest
of their capture, not by selling, but by making an exhibition of them."
The Physalia seem to be gregarious in their habits, herding together
in shoals. Floating on the sea between the tropics in both oceans,
they may be seen now carried along by currents, now driven by the
trade-winds, dragging behind them their long tentacular appendages,
and conspicuous by their rich and varied colouring, from pale crimson
to ultramarine blue. "Certainly," says Lesson, "we can readily
conceive that a poetical imagination might well compare the graceful
form of the Physalia to the most elegant of sailing-vessels, even if it
careened to the wind under a sail of satin, and dragged behind it de-
ceitful garlands which struck with death every creature which suffered
itself to be attracted by its seductive appearance."
If fishes have the misfortune to come in contact with one of these
creatures, each tentacle, by a movement as rapid as a flash of light,
or sudden as an electric shock, seizes and benumbs them, winding round
their bodies as a serpent winds itself round its victim. A Physalia of
the size of a walnut will kill a fish much stronger than a herring. The
flying fish and the polyps are the habitual prey of the Physalia.
Mr. Bennett describes them as seizing and benumbing them by means
of the tentacles, which are alternately contracted to half an inch, and
then shot out with amazing velocity to the length of several feet, drag-
ging the helpless and entangled prey to the sucker-like mouths and
stomach-like cavities concealed among the tentacles, which he saw
filled while he looked on. Dr. Wallach thinks Mr. Bennett must have
been mistaken in what he saw ; " because he has observed that in a
great number of instances the Physalia is accompanied by small fishes,
which play around and among the depending tentacles without moles-
tation. He has in so many cases seen this, and even witnessed the
actual contact of the fishes with the tentacles, with no inconvenience to
the former, that he too hastily concludes that the urticating organs
are innocuous." " Surely," says Gosse, " the premises by no means
warrant such an inference. There is no antagonism between the two
254 THE OCEAN WOELD.
series of facts witnessed by such excellent observers ; the venomous
virulence of these organs has been abundantly proved by many natu-
ralists, myself among the number, and Mr. Bennett to his cost, as
already narrated. We can only suppose that the injection of the
poison is under the control of the Physalia's will, and the impunity of
the bold little fishes is sufficiently accounted for."
Among the Physalia captured on our coast, one was obtained at
Tenby, by Mr. Hughes, who has given a report of the capture, in which
he mentions a circumstance as " normal," which excited Mr. Gosse's
curiosity ; it was said to be accompanied by " its attendant satellites,
two Vilellse. In reply to his inquiries, Mr. Hughes says, " My autho-
rity for the association of the Yilella with Physalia is Jenkins, the
collector of Tenby, who was attending me when it was found. The
Physalia was taken by me first ; and, while I was admiring it, I noticed
that Jenkins continued his search for something. Immediately after-
wards he came up with the Yilella in his hand, at the same time
stating they were generally found with the Portuguese man-of-war.
As I had found him very honest and truthful in his dealings with me,
I accepted his information as correct."
CTENOPHOKA.
We have now reached the last class of polyps ; those, namely, which
Cuvier designates Hydrostatic Acaleplia, and which De Blainville calls
the Ciliobranchid. The body of these polyps presents marginal
fringes furnished with vibratile cilia, which are swimming organs.
Moreover, as these vibratile fringes are inserted directly over the prin-
cipal canal, in which the nourishing fluid circulates, they ought neces-
sarily to concur in the act of respiration, by determining the renewal of
the water in contact with the corresponding portion of the tegumen-
tary membrane.
The class may be divided into three orders or families, namely,
Beroe, CalUanirea, and Cestea.
The creatures belonging to these three orders swarm in the deep
sea ; they often appear quite suddenly, and in vast numbers, in certain
localities.
The Heroes of Forskahl have been studied with great care
ACALEPH^.
255
by Mr. Milne Edwards. They inhabit the Gulf of Naples, and other
parts of the Mediterranean ; the sailors of Provence call them Sea-
cucumbers. The body (Fig. 103), cylindrical in form, is of a pale rose
colour, thickly studded
with small reddish spots,
so numerous as to appear
entirely punctured with
them. It presents eight
blue sides, with very fine
vibratile cilia, which by
their reflection produce all
the colours of the rain-
bow. The substance of the
body is gelatinous, its ap-
pearance glass-like ; its
form varies according as
the animal is in motion
or repose. Sometimes it
swells up like a ball;
sometimes it reverses it-
self, so as to resemble a
bell ; at others it is elon-
gated and cylindrical; at
its lower extremity it pre-
sents a large mouth ; at its
upper extremity is found
a small nipple, having at
its base a spherical point
of a reddish colour, enclosing many crystalloid corpuscles, which
rest upon a sort of nervous ganglion, whose physiological function is
not very well determined. A vast stomach, considering its size,
occupies the whole interior of the body of the Berb'e : the circulation
is also much developed in this zoophyte. The circulating apparatus
contains a moving fluid charged with a multitude of circular, colourless
globules, which flows from a vascular ring round the mouth towards
the summit of the body ; in the interior are eight superficial canals,
which flow under the ciliated sides, and redescend by two much deeper
canals; but the Beroes have no heart. Beroe ovata is a beautiful
Fig. 103. Beros Forskahli (Edwards).
256 THE OCEAN WORLD.
species, seldom exceeding three inches and a half in length, and two
and a half in its larger transverse diameter ; is described by Browne,
in his " Jamaica," as " of an oval form, obtusely octangular, hollow,
open at the larger extremity, transparent, and of a firm gelatinous
consistence ; it contracts and widens with great facility, but is always
open and expanded when it swims or moves. The longitudinal radii
are strongest in the crown or smallest extremity where they rise from
a very beautiful oblong star, and diminish gradually from thence to
the margin, each being furnished with a single series of short, slender,
delicate appendages, or limbs (cilia), that move with great celerity in
all directions, as the creature pleases to direct its flexions, and in a
regular accelerated succession from the top to the margin. It is impos-
sible to express the liveliness of the motions of those delicate organs, or
the beautiful variety of colour which rise from them to play to and
fro in the rays of the sun ; nor is it easy to express the speed and
regularity with which the motions succeed each other from one end of
the rays to the other." "" The grace and beauty which the entire appa-
ratus presents in the living animal," says Gosse, " or the marvellous
ease and rapidity with which it can be alternately contracted, extended,
and bent at an infinite* variety of angles, no verbal description can
sufficiently treat. Fortunately the creature is so common in summer
and autumn on all our coasts, that few who use the surface can
possibly miss its capture. It is worthy of a poet's description, which
it has received :
' When first extracted from her native brine,
Behold a round, small mass of gelatine,
Or frozen dewdrop, void of life and limb ;
But round the crystal goblet let her swim
'Midst her own elements ; and lo ! a sphere
Banded from pole to pole ; as diamond clear,
Shaped as bard's fancy shapes the small balloon,
To bear some sylph or fay beyond the moon.
From all her bands see lurid fringes play,
That glance and sparkle in the solar ray
With iridescent hues. Now round and round
She whirls and twirls ; now mounts, then sinks profound/ "
DEUMMOND.
Besides the Beroe, naturalists place the Cydippa, which is frequently
confounded with the former. The Cydippse are globulous or egg-
shaped, furnished with eight rows of cilia, corresponding with as many
ACALEPILE. 257
sections more or less distinct, and terminated by two long filiform
tentacles issuing from the base of the zoophyte and fringed on the
sides. " It is," says Gosse, " a globe of pure colourless jelly, about as
big as a small marble, often with a wart-like swelling at one of its
poles, where the mouth is placed. At the other end there are minute
orifices, and between the two passes the stomach, which is flat or wider
in one diameter than the other." Cydippe pileus, found abundantly
in the spring on the Belgian coast, is so transparent that it is
scarcely visible in the water, where it seems like living, moving
crystal. C. densa, which abounds in the Mediterranean, is of a
crystalline white, with rows of reddish cirrhi, terminating in two
tentacles, much longer and coloured red; it is about the size of a
hazel-nut, and phosphorescent. Within the clear substance of the
Cydippe, on each side of the stomach, there is a capacious cavity,
which communicates with the surface, and within each cavity is fixed
the tentacle, of great length and very slender, which the animal can
at pleasure shoot out of the orifice and suffer to trail through the
water, shortening, lengthening, twisting, twining, or contracting it into
a tiny ball at will, or withdrawing it into its cavity, short filaments
being given off at intervals over the whole length of this attenuated
white thread-like apparatus, each of which can also be lengthened
or shortened, and coiled individually. These proceed only from one
side of the thread-like tentacle, although, at a casual glance, they seem
to proceed now from one side, now from the other.
CALLIANIEA.
The Callianira form a sort of connecting link between the Beroes
and the Cestidse. Their bodies are smooth and regular, vertically-
elongated, compressed on one side and as if lobated on the other ; in
substance they are gelatinous, hyalin, and tubular, obtuse at both
extremities, with buccal openings between the prolongations of the
side, and two pair of conical appendages resembling wings, capable
of expansion, on the edges of which two rows of vibratory cilia are
ranged. A great transversal opening presents itself at one of the
extremities, a small one at the other. The animal is furnished with
two branching tentacles, but without cilia.
THE OCEAN WOELD.
258
In Cesium, or Yenus's Girdle, as it is vulgarly called, we have a
long, gelatinous, ribbon- like body, fine, regular, and very short, but
much extended on each side, while the edges are furnished with a
double row of cilia ; the lower surface is also furnished with cilia, but
much smaller in size and number. On the middle of the lower edge
is the mouth, opening into a large stomach. This alimentary canal
runs across the middle of its length, and from it extends, as in the
Medusae, a series of gastric canals, which carry the nutriment into all
Fig. 104. Cesium veneris (Lesueur).
parts of the body. There are many species of Cestum ; among them
the best known is C. veneris (Fig. 104), which is found in the Medi-
terranean, particularly in the sea which bathes the coast of Naples
and Nice, where the fishermen call it the sabre de mer sea-sabre.
This curious zoophyte unwinds itself on the bosom of the waters, like
a scarf of iridescent shades. It is the scarf of Venus traversing the
waves, under the fiery rays of the sun, which has coloured it with a
thousand reflections of silver and azure blue.
( 259 )
CHAPTEK IX.
ECHINODERMATA.
" Ultra magis pisces et Echinos sequora celent." Hor. Ep.
IN their " Natural History of the Echinodermata," Messrs. Hupe and
Dujardin divide this vast natural group into five orders or families,
namely: 1, Asteroid as, which includes the true star-fishes; 2, Orinotdas,
stone lilies, calcareous, stem composed of movable pieces ; 3, Opliiurse,
having the disk much depressed, the rays simple, and furnished with
short stems ; 4, Echinidw, comprehending the animals known as sea-
eggs, or sea-urchins, distinguished by their rounded form and absence
of arms; 5, HolotJiuroidse, with soft lengthened cylindrical body,
covered with scattered suckers.
The Echinodermata, from the Greek words e^Iix)?, rough, and Se'/o/m,
skin ; indicating an animal bristling with spines like the hedgehog's.
They are animals sometimes free, sometimes attached by a stem,
flexible or otherwise, and radiating, that is, presenting an appearance
more or less regular in all its parts, after the manner of a circle or
star, its form being globular, egg-shaped, cylindrical, or like a pen-
tagonal plate; or, lastly, like a star, with more or less elongated
branches, which secrete either in all their tissues or only in the in-
tegument very numerous symmetrical calcareous plates of solid matter,
sometimes forming an internal skeleton or regular shell covered with
a more or less consistent skin, often pierced with holes, from which
the feet or tentacula issue; they are frequently furnished with
appendices of various kinds, such as prickles, scales, &c.
The organization of the Echinodermata is the most perfect of all
the zoophytes, serving as a transition between them and animals of more
s 2
260 THE OCEAN WORLD.
complicated frame. They have a digestive and vascular system, and
a muscular system is almost always present ; in short, they have
internal or external respiratory organs, and a rudimentary nervous
system has been detected in many of the species. The nutritive
system is very simple, presenting in most of the family a single
orifice in the centre of the lower surface of the body, destitute of
teeth, performing the functions both of mouth and anus. De Blain-
ville says that " the liver is apparent and rather considerable in the
star-fishes, forming bunches occupying the whole circumference of the
stomach, and extending to the cavities of the appendages where these
exist." The mouth and gullet is admirably adapted for securing the
testaceous mollusks and other substances on which they feed.
Reproduction in the Echinodermata appears to be monoecious.
Ovaries are, as far as is known, the only organs of generation. They
vary in number in different species. The sexes are usually separate :
the young are produced by eggs, the embryo of which undergo im-
portant metamorphoses. Immediately after birth, the young asterise
have a depressed and rounded body, with four club-shaped appendages
or arms at their anterior extremity. When they are a little more
developed, papillae may be observed on the upper surface, in fine
radiating rows : after twelve days the fine rays begin to increase, and
after eight days more two rows of feet, or tentacula, are developed
under each ray, which assist in the locomotion of the animal by
alternate elongation and contraction, performing also the office of
suckers. Like most other zoophytes, they have the power of repro-
ducing parts of their bodies which may have been accidentally
destroyed.
ASTERIAS, on STAR-FISHES.
As to the animal which commonly and sometimes scientifically bears
the name of Star-fish, in walking on the sea-shore at low tide, your
eyes have often seen this strange creature half buried in the sand. It
is so regular and geometrical in its form that it has more the
appearance of being the production of man's hand than of a creation
which breathes and moves. The Divine Geometrician who created it
never realised a -creature more regularly finished in shape, or more
perfectly harmonious in symmetry.
ECHINODERMATA. 261
The star-fish has five perfectly equal arms. They resemble a cross
of honour, which has five branches. The star of the 'brave, the
star of honour these somewhat trivial words recall, nevertheless, the
resemblance which exists between the two objects ; doubtless, man has
here taken Nature for his copy. It must, however, be remarked that,
though five is the general number of lines in the star-fish, this number
is not constant ; it varies with different genera, species, and even with
Fig. 105. A storias rubens (Lamarck).
individuals. The connection of the arms with the disk presents
equally remarkable differences. In the genus Culcita, the disk is so
much developed that it constitutes, so to speak, the entire animal,
whilst the arms form only a slight protuberance upon its circumference.
In the genera Luidia, on the contrary, the disk is reduced to minimum,
whilst the arms are of great length and very slender.
The colours of the star-fish vary greatly; they vary from a
yellowish-grey, a yellow-orange, a garnet-red, to a dark violet, as
their name indicates.
262
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Star-fishes are exclusively and essentially beings of the sea ; they
are never seen in fresh water ; they dwell amongst the submarine
herbage, seeking for sandy coasts; they generally are found at
moderate depths, but there are some species which are found at the
great depth of a hundred and fifty fathoms.
Asterias are met with in almost every sea and under all latitudes,
but they are most numerous and their forms are more richly varied
in the seas of tropical regions. There are about a hundred and forty
species described.
The body of the Asteria is supported by a calcareous envelope com-
posed of juxta-posed pieces at once various and numerous. The
number of these pieces is estimated at more than eleven thousand in
the Eed Sea Star-fish (Asterias rubens, Fig. 105), a species very
Fig. 106. Asterias aurantiaca (Lamarck).
common in Europe. The body of the Asterias rubens is likewise
furnished with spines, granules, and tubercules, the shape, number,
ECHINODERMATA. 263
and disposition of which serve to characterise the genera and the
species.
Another species, Asterias aurantiaca, will give an exact idea of the
general type of animals of this order. This zoophyte, which is repre-
sented in Fig. 106, is common in the northern seas ; it has five rather
long arms, furnished with spines which are of an orange colour hence
its name. When we see one of these animals stranded upon the
shore, it appears to be entirely destitute of all power of progression.
But the star-fish is not always immovable ; it is provided with an
apparatus for locomotion, which appears to serve at the same time the
purposes of respiration ; for nature is not sparing in her gifts to
the least organized beings ; she bestows upon them feet, with respi-
ratory organs, or lungs, which have the power of locomotion.
The muscular system, as already stated, is almost always present
in the Echinodermata, but the organs of locomotion are very various,
the principal being the membranous tubes usually termed feet, or
ambulacra, which issue from the ambulacral apertures ; but besides
these, the rays themselves are movable, and in animals which are free
to move from place to place these are used, for the purpose. Thus in
the common star-fish the rays may be bent towards the upper or lower
surface of the disk, so as to facilitate its advance either in water over
small spaces or up the vertical face of rocks. These ambulacra are
very numerous, disposed in rows along the under surface of the rays ;
thus in A. aurantiaca there are two simple rows of feet attached to
each ray, and the vesicular part is deeply cleft into two lobes ; while
in A. rubens (Fig. 105) there are two double rows on each ray, and
each foot has an undivided vesicle.
Each of these ambulacra consists of two parts, an internal and
generally vesicular portion placed within the body, and a tubular
portion outside, projecting from the surface through an aperture in
the skin or shell, the tube being closed at the extremity, and terminat-
ing in a sucker, usually in the form of a disk slightly depressed in the
centre. The feet are thus muscular fleshy cylinders, hollow in the
centre, and very extensible ; by means of them the animal draws
itself forward. The foot is extended by the contraction of its internal
vesicle, which forces the fluid into the hollow tube, or, where the
vesicle is wanting, by projecting the fluid into the tube by a com-
municating vessel. The tubular part is thus distended and elongated,
2G4 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
and again retracts itself by means of its muscular fibres, by which
action the fluid is forced back into the interior. In progression the
animal extends a few of its feet, attaches its suckers to the rocks or
stones, then, by shortening its feet, it draws its body forward. The
progression of the Asterias is thus very slow, and so regular that only
the closest observation enables the spectator to discover the movement
which produces it. Like the movements of the hands of a watch, the
eye cannot quite follow it. When an obstacle presents itself if, for
example, a stone comes in its way it raises one of the rays in order
to obtain a point of support, then a second ray, and, if necessary, a
third, and thus the animal creeps over the stone with as much ease
as if it walked over the smooth sands. In the same way the animal
creeps up perpendicular rocks, which is accomplished by means of these
ambulacra and suckers. Fredol says : " If an Asteria is turned upon
its back it will at first remain immovable, with its feet shut up.
Soon, however, out come the feet, like so many little feelers ; it moves
them backward and forward, as if feeling for the ground ; it soon
inclines them towards the bottom of the vase, and fixes them one after
the other. "When it has a sufficient number attached the animal turns
itself round. It is not impossible, whilst walking on the sea-shore,
to have the pleasure of seeing one of these star-fishes walking upon
the sand. A day rarely passes without one of them being thrown upon
the strand by the tide, and then abandoned by the retreating waters.
Generally they are left dead; this is not always the case, however;
they are sometimes only benumbed. Place them in a vase full of sea-
water, or simply in a pool on the shore, and you will sometimes see
them recover from this death-like condition, and execute the curious
movements of progression which we have described. The motions of
an Asterias thus saved form a very curious spectacle.
The mouth of this animal is situated on the lower surface of the
disk. At this point the constitutive pieces of the carapace leave a
circular space, covered by a fibrous resistant membrane, pierced at the
centre by a rounded opening. This opening is sometimes armed with
hard papillae, which play the part of teeth. The mouth almost
directly abuts on the stomach, which is merely a globular sac, filling
nearly all the central portion of the visceral cavity.
" Thus," says Mr. Milne Edwards, " in Asteracantliion glacialis
the stomach is globulous, but imperfectly divided into two parts by a
ECHINODEKMATA. 265
fold of its internal membrane ; the first chamber, thus limited, appears
to be more especially devoted to the transformation of the elementary
matter into a liquid paste, which passes, in small portions, into the
upper chamber. This is continued upward through a small intestine,
and communicates laterally with five cylindrical prolongations, which
each divide themselves again into two much elongated tubes, furnished
with a double series of hollow branches, each terminating in a cul-
de-sac." These organs advance into the interior of the rays or arms
of the Asterias.
Imagine, then, an animal bearing digestive tubes in its arms the
same organ serving for digestion and progression. "What lessons in
economy does not the study of nature teach us ! The products of
digestion find an absorbent surface of great extent in the rays of the
Asterias. They ought necessarily to pass rapidly from it into the
circumjacent nourishing fluid.
The star-fishes are very voracious ; they even attack mollusks which
are covered with shells. M. Pouchett mentions having taken eighteen
specimens of Venus intact, each being six lines in length, from the
stomach of one large Asterias which he dissected upon the shores of
the Mediterranean. It is now even said that the star-fishes eat many
oysters.
Ancient naturalists were not ignorant that the star-fish was capable
of eating oysters ; but they believed that they waited for the moment
when the bivalve would open its valves to introduce one of their rays
into the opening. They imagined that having thus put one foot into
the other's domicile, they soon put four, and finished by reaching and
devouring the savoury inhabitant of the shell. Modern observations
have modified the ideas of former naturalists upon this point. In
order to obtain possession of and swallow an oyster, it appears that
the star-fish begins its approaches by bringing its mouth to the closed
edges of the oyster-shell ; this done, with the assistance of a particular
liquid which its mouth secretes, it injects a few drops of an acrid or
venomous liquid into the interior of the oyster-shell, which forces it
to open its valves. An entrance once obtained, it is not long before
it is invaded and ravaged. Professor Kymer Jones gives another
explanation of the transaction. According to this naturalist the
oyster is seized between the rays of his ravisher, and held under his
mouth by the aid of his suckers ; the Asteria then inverts its stomach,
260 THE OCEAN WORLD.
according to the professor, and envelopes the entire oyster in its
inmost recesses, while, doubtless, distilling a poisonous liquid. The
victim is thus forced to open its shell, and becomes the prey of the
enemy which envelopes it.
Whatever may be the modes of procedure employed by the star-
fish, it is now clearly ascertained, however incredible the fact may at
first appear, that it swallows oysters in the same manner as is prac-
tised at the oyster-shop.
This little being, formed of five arms and without any other appa-
rent member, accomplishes a work which man is quite unable to
execute it opens an oyster without an oyster-knife.
If reasoning man had no other means of nourishment than oysters,
and was without a knife to open them, it is very certain that with all
his genius he would be puzzled how to get at the inaccessible and
savoury bivalve so obstinately closed against him. The star-fish de-
vours dead flesh of all kinds ; their sole occupation is to feed themselves,
and they keep up an incessant and active chase after all sorts of corrupt
animal matter. The Asterias thus perform in the bosom of the sea
the same part that certain birds and insects play on shore ; they are
its scavengers, and feed their bodies upon the carcases of animals
which, if abandoned to the action of the elements, would become a
cause of infection.
In the same manner that certain animals render the air healthy,
the Asterias help, on a considerable scale, to keep the sea which shelters
them in a pure and healthy state. Zoologists are not agreed upon
the manner in which respiration operates on the star-fishes. Never-
theless they think that the principal part in this phenomenon devolves
upon the subcutaneous branchiae which in each ray constitute two
double series of bladders. The function of circulation is equally
unknown. The vascular apparatus is sufficiently developed in this
zoophyte, and appears to have for its centre an elongated canal with
muscular walls, which may with justice be honoured with the name of
heart. A little ring surrounding the oesophagus, and from which
issue certain delicate white chords, which are prolonged into the
furrows of the arms, presents us with all that can be designated a nervous
system in the star-fishes. Among organs of sense we may mention, as
the apparatus of touch, the tentacular ambulacra, as well as those
which are disseminated upon the dorsal surface of the disk. The eyes are
ECHINODERMATA. 267
considered to be certain bright red points which are situated at the
extremity of the arms and on the under surface a most singular
position for the organs of sight. The eyes must, besides, be very
imperfect, for they possess no crystalline lens. Ehrenberg insists upon
the existence of eyes in some species, attributing the function to those
red spots, however ; while Eymer Jones attributes the indications in
which this originates to an extremely delicate sense of touch in the
star-fishes. Professor Edward Forbes, while he admits the existence of
ganglions in the nervous system to be extremely doubtful, seems, by
the frequent use of the terms eye and eyelids, to admit that the
specks in question are visual organs ; the weight of authority inclines
therefore to Ehrenberg's view, that if not eyes in the strict sense of
the term, they serve the purposes of vision, modified and adapted to
the wants of the animal.
The star-fishes have distinct sexes, with individual differences ; their
eggs, which are round and reddish, undergo curious phases of develop-
ment. They produce little worm-like creatures, covered with vibratile
hairs, like the infusoria, which, swim about with great vivacity ; these
little creatures are subject to considerable changes. In the year 1835
M. Sars described, under the name of Bipinnaria asterigera, an enig-
matical animal resembling a polyp from the arms at one extremity of
the body, while the other terminated in a tail, furnished with two fins ;
but it was chiefly remarkable as having an Asterias attached to the
extremity which carried the arm. He expressed an opinion, which was
soon placed beyond any doubt, that this bipiiwaria was an Asterias in
its course of development. The egg becomes a sort of infusoria, the
infusoria becomes a ~bipinnaria y and this produces the Asterias. In
short, the Bipinnaria does not become an Asterias by any metamorphoses
analogous to that so well known amongst insects the butterfly, for
example but becomes, so to speak, the foster-mother or nurse to the
Bipinnaria. The larva is large, and it is at the cost of a very small
internal rudiment of this larva that the Asterias is developed : the
Asterias robs the larva of its stomach and intestines, and turns it into
a visceral apparatus for its own use. But the Asterias makes itself a
mouth of any of the pieces most remote from the primitive mouth of
the larva. Thus the Bipinnaria divides itself ; it gives its stomach and
intestines, and keeps its oesophagus and mouth, and it can live several
days after the Asterias is detached from it.
268 THE OCEAN WOELD.
Can any one imagine the existence of a being with only a mouth
and oesophagus, which has neither stomach nor intestines, because
another animal has possessed itself of them for its own use ? The
study of the lower animals abounds in surprises of this kind. It is a
chain of unforeseen facts ; of natural impossibilities ; of realized points
necessarily reversing all notions obtained in the study of beings which
have a higher place in the animal scale. The history of the star-fishes
would be incomplete were we to omit mentioning the most remarkable
traits of their organisation with which naturalists are acquainted.
The animals exhibit in the highest degree the vital phenomena of dis-
memberment and restoration, that is to say, of the faculty of recon-
structing organs which they have lost. These arms, the structure of
which is so complicated, and which protect such important organs,
may be destroyed by accident. The animal troubles itself little at this
mutilation : if he loses an arm it disquiets him but little ; another is
immediately procured. We often see in our collections of Asterias
specimens wanting in symmetry because they have been taken before
the new members which are in process of development have attained
their definite length. Professor Kymer Jones mentions an instance of
redintegration very complete and most curious. This naturalist had an
isolated ray of Asterias which he had picked up ; at the end of five days
he observed that four little rays and a mouth had been produced ; at
the end of a month the old ray was completely destroyed, and this
apparently useless fragment had been replaced by a new being, quite
perfect, with four little symmetrical branches. This faculty of repro-
ducing organs, which we have noted in describing the fresh water
polyps, the sea anemone, &c., exists; also in many other zoophytes,
but in none more strikingly than in the Asterias. But a still more
startling fact remains to be mentioned : one more strange and more
mysterious, for it does not belong to the physical or organic order,
but appears to belong to the moral world. The star-fishes commit
suicide ! Certain of these animals appear to escape from dangers which
menace them by self-destruction. This power of putting an end to
existence we only find on the highest and lowest steps of the animal
scale. Man and the star-fishes have a common moral platform, and it
is that of self-destruction ! This power of dismemberment, however,
seems to be confined to the Opliiocoma and Luidia at least, it is
only carried out to its full extent in these generse.
ECHINODEKMATA. 269
Mysteries of Nature, who can sound your depths ? Secrets of the
moral world, what heing but God has the privilege of comprehending
you? A large species of Star-fish (Luidia fragillissima), which
inhabits the English seas, has this instinct of suicide to a great extent.
The following account by Professor Edward Forbes of an attempt to
capture a Luidia gives a good illustration of its powers. " The first
time that I took one of these creatures," the professor says, " I suc-
ceeded in placing it entire in my boat. Not having seen one before,
and being ignorant of its suicidal powers, I spread it out on a rowing
bench, the better to admire its form and colours. On attempting to
remove it for preservation, to my horror and disappointment I found
only an assemblage of detached members. My conservative endea-
vours were all neutralised by its destructive exertions ; and the animal
is now badly represented in my cabinet by a diskless arm and an arm-
less disk. Next time I went to dredge at the same spot I determined
not to be cheated out of my specimen a second time. I carried with
me a bucket of fresh water, for which the star-fishes evince a great
antipathy. As I hoped, a Luidia soon came up in the dredge a most
gorgeous specimen. As the animal does not generally break up until
it is raised to the surface of the sea, I carefully and anxiously plunged
my bucket to a level with the dredge's mouth, and softly introduced
the Luidia into the fresh water. Whether the cold was too much for
it, or the sight of the bucket was too terrific, I do not know ; but
in a moment it began to dissolve its corporation, and I saw its limbs
escaping through every mesh of the dredge. In my despair I seized
the largest piece, and brought up the extremity of an arm with its
terminal eye, the spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with
something exceedingly like a wink of derision."
The mind remains confounded before such spectacles, and we can
only say, with Mallebranche, " It is well to comprehend clearly that
there are some things which are absolutely incomprehensible."
This is doubtless the reason that in collections of natural history
we rarely find star-fishes, and especially the Luidia, entire ; the
moment the animal is seized by fisherman or amateur, in its terror or
despair it breaks itself up into small fragments. To preserve them
whole they must be killed suddenly, before they have time to be aware
of their danger. For this purpose, the moment they are drawn from
the sea they must be plunged into a vase of cold fresh water ; this saltless
270 THE OCEAN WOELD.
liquid is instant death to these creatures, which in this condition perish
suddenly before they have time to mutilate themselves. The star-fish
is a curious ornament in our natural history collections, hut in this
state they represent very imperfectly the elegance and particular
grace of this curious type. To understand the star-fishes, they must
be seen in an aquarium, where we can admire the form, figure, move-
ments, and manners of these marvellous beings.
The Asterias are the planets of the sea. It may be said that heaven,
reflected during the night on the silvery surface of the ocean, let
fall some of those stars into its depths which decorate the resplendent
vault.
CRINOIDEA.
We quoted the maxim of Linnaeus in the earlier pages of this volume,
that Nature makes no leaps. Nature proceeds by means of insensible
transitions, rising by degrees from one organic form to another. Most
of the animals hitherto described are immovably fixed to some solid
object ; at least, such is their condition in the adult state. We are
about to describe zoophytes free of all fetters ; animals " which walk in
their strength and liberty."
Between zoophytes fixed to the soil, like the corals, gorgons, and
aggregate zoophytes, such as sea-urchins and holothurias, Nature has
placed an intermediate race, namely, the Crino'idea, a class of zoophytes
which are attached to a rock by a sort of root armed with claws,
having a long flexible stem, which enables them to execute movements
in the circle limited only by the length of this stem, just as the ox or
goat in our paddocks is confined by its tether to the space circum-
scribed by the length of its rope.
Let the reader picture to himself a star-fish borne upon the summit
of a flexible stem firmly rooted in the soil, and he has a general
idea of the zoophytes which compose the order of the Crinoidea.
Naturalists of the seventeenth century bestowed the name of stone
lilies on these curious products. This rather poetical name proves
that the conformation of these creatures had at an early period
attracted observation, presenting the naturalist with the most curious
of his lessons. The encrinites raise, as from the dead, a whole world
buried in the abyss of the past. At the present time only two genera
ECHINODERMATA. 271
of these zoophytes exist, whilst in the early ages of the world the
ocean must have swarmed with them. Encrinites ahounded in the
seas during the transition and secondary epoch. It was one of the
most numerous of the animal trihes which inhabited the salt waters of
the ancient world. In traversing some parts of France, we tread
under our feet myriads of these beings, whose calcareous remains form
vast beds of rock. The encrinites gradually disappeared from the
ancient seas ; their species were diminished as the globe became older
or modified in its conditions, so that at the present time only a few
types remain in our seas such as the Comatula of the Mediterra-
nean ; Pentacrinus, the Medusa's-head of the Antilles ; and the Eu-
ropean Pentacrinus all of them very rare, and probably destined
soon to disappear, carrying with them the last reminiscence of the
zoological races of the ancient world : and here lies the real interest
which the Crino'idea presents to the thinking man. The encrinites
most common in the fossil state are Pentacrinus fasciculosus, belonging
to the lias; Apiocrinus rotundus, which is found in the oolite or
Jurassic rocks ; and Encrinus liliformis, which appertains to the
Triassic period. These three fixed zoophytes seem to have existed
in great numbers during an early age of the world namely, the
Silurian period. They attained their maximum of development
during the Devonian age, after which they begin to decrease.
According to M. D'Orbigny, there are thirty-nine genera found in the
palaeozoic rocks, two in the triassic, seven in the Jurassic, five in the
cretaceous, and only one in the tertiary strata. Of all these genera
only one, namely, Pentacrinus, is foufld in the modern epoch to repre-
sent the varied forms of these the first inhabitants of the seas.
The free Crinoidse, that is, those not rooted to the soil by a stem,
of which the Comatula may be considered the type, only appeared at
a later period. They are absent in the palaeozoic and triassic rocks,
but appear to have attained their maximum of development in the
Jurassic period.
The numerous fossilized remains of these curious creations, which
abound in different rocks, attracted the attention of learned men at an
early period. The encrinites were among the earliest objects of
scientific description. As early as the sixteenth century, the celebrated
mineralogist, George Agricola, mentions them under the names of
Entrochites, Trochites, and Astroites. At the same time, and since
p
THE OCEAN WORLD.
that epoch, the Crino'idae, which we know by the name of stone-lilies,
and which characterises the Musclielkalk rocks, have been known under
the name of Encrinus, from ez/, stone, and tcptvov, a lily.
During the eighteenth century the works upon the Crinoidse were
very numerous, though not very correct. They sometimes reported
these organic remains to be vegetable ; sometimes they were beings
allied to the star- fishes; at
others they were the vertebral
column of fishes. Towards the
year 1761, however, Guettard,
one of the most learned natur-
alists of his time, understood
the real nature of these pro-
ductions. He had occasion to
examine a recent Encrinus
sent from Martinique under
the name of Sea-Palm, which
was in reality Pentacrinus
caput Medusas. The com-
parison of the living individual
with the fossil fragment de-
scribed by his predecessors,
and of which he had specimens
in his collections, enabled him
to ascertain the real origin
of the fossil Encrinoidse.
The beautiful fragment which
still exists in the Museum of
Natural History at Paris was
long considered unique, but
it is now known that ten
others exist in different mu-
seums. Since that date the
Crino'idse have been examined
and described by observers such
Fig. 107. Ptntacrmus caput Medusae (Muller). T.,-. , .
as Miller, Forbes, D Orbigny,
and Pictet, and very elaborately by Major Austin.
" The species of fixed Crinoidae actually living are Pentacrinus caput
ECHINODERMATA.
273
Meduste (Fig. 107), and Pentaerinus Europseus (Fig. 108). These
curious zoophytes resemble a flower borne upon a stem, which ter-
minates in an organ called the calyx, but which is, properly speaking,
the head of the animal. Arms, more or less branching, spring from
Fig. 108. Pentaerinus Europteus (Thompson).
this calyx, their ramifications, so formed, consisting of many pieces
articulated to each other. The calyx is supported by a stem, varying
in height, formed of pieces secreted by the living tissues which surround
them. The articulations of this stem are usually very numerous,
T
274 THE OCEAN WORLD.
cylindrical, and present a series of rays striated upon their articulated
faces. In Pentacrinus they are prismatic and pentagonal ; that is, they
present five projecting angles, and on their articulated face a star with
five branches, or, hetter still, a rose with five petals. At the base of
the stem of this animal-plant, in many of the Crinoidae, we find a sort
of spreading root, which is implanted in the rocks, and is capable of
growing by itself, of nourishing the stem, and of producing new ones.
The root and stem of the fixed encrinites seem to indicate that the
animal can only live with the head erect. Their normal condition is
thus quite different from that of any other of the Echinoderms,
almost all of which keep their mouths invariably directed downwards.
The Medusae heads are chiefly found on rocky beds, or in the midst
of banks of corals, at great depths. There, firmly fixed by their
roots, their long stems raise themselves vertically ; then, with expanded
calyx and long-spreading arms, they wait for the prey which passes
within their reach in order to seize it.
The Pentacrinus caput Medusse have, as we have said, been fished
up from great depths in the Antilles. Its very small calyx is borne
upon a stem of from eighteen to twenty inches in height, terminating
in long movable arms, the internal surface of which bears its tentacles
in a groove. In the middle of the arms is a mouth, and at the side
the orifice for the expulsion of the digested residuum.
In the Medusae head and European Pentacrine (P. Europasus,
Fig. 108), the presence of a digestive apparatus has been distinctly
traced. It is a sort of irregular sac, with a central mouth on the
upper surface, and another orifice situated at a little distance from the
mouth, and evidently intended as an outlet for the products of diges-
tion. The arms of these creatures, which are spreading or folded up
according to their wants, are provided with fleshy tentacula, which,
serving at once as organs of absorption and as vibratile cilia, are at the
same time organs of respiration. Such are these curious beings : they
occupy a sort of middle or transition state between animals permanently
fixed to some spot and those capable of motion, representing in our
own times the last -remains of extinct generations. Every type of the
Crinoidse furnished with arms presents incontestable evidence of their
mode of reproduction or redintegration that is, of the power of re-
storing those parts of the body broken or destroyed by accident ; but
as we have already drawn the attention of the reader to this strange
ECHINODERMATA. 275
faculty of renewing organs which many of the zoophytes possess, we
will not here enlarge further upon the subject.
The Crinoidae are not all like the two species which have heen
described. There is an entire family of animals belonging to this
class, namely, the Comatula, which are fixed in their early days, but
separate themselves from the rooted stem in their adult age, and,
throwing off the bonds imposed on their youth, live side by side with
the asterias, with whose company they seem much pleased. The
encrinites and the star-fishes thus live in company, and that at
prodigious depths, and under a body of water which no light can
reach. Imagine the existence of animals which pass their lives in
such eternal funereal darkness. The family of Comatula are found in
the seas of both hemispheres. Their bodies are flat a large calcareous
plate formed like a cuirass upon their backs presenting, besides, cirri
composed of numerous curling articulations, the last of which termi-
nates in a hook. The ventral surface presents two orifices : the one
in the centre corresponding to a mouth, the other evidently intended
for the discharge of the products of digestion. This animal is provided
with five arms, which diverge directly from the centre plate or
cuirass. The branches of these arms have ambulacral grooves, com-
prehending a double row of fleshy tentacles, in the centre of which is
the ambulacral groove, properly so called, clothed with vibratile cilia
over their whole surface. These cilia or hairs guide the current
which drives the various substances on which it feeds, such as the
organic corpuscles of sea-weeds, and microscopic animalcules floating in
the sea, towards its mouth. They are also powerful aids to respiration.
The movements of these curious creatures are very slow, their only
object being to catch the bodies of animals and marine plants, or, by
extending or contracting their arms, to feel their way through the
water to some new locality. Sometimes, also, in order to change their
feeding- ground, the Comatula abandon the submarine forests, herbage,
and sea-wracks, and float through the water, moving their arms with
considerable rapidity in search of a new station.
The Mediterranean Comatula (Fig. 109) is largely diffused on the
European shores of the Mediterranean. Its spreading arms extend
to three or four inches ; its colour purple, shaded, and spotted with
white upon the ventral surface.
T 2
276
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Were a traveller to tell us that lie had seen animals drop their eggs
upon forests of stone ; that these eggs, after executing their pro-
gressive evolutions, finally become individuals in all respects like their
parents, which attach themselves to the soil hy a root like any flower
of the fields, or to the mother stem like the branch of a tree, until in
due course they attained the adult state, when the flexible band which
holds them fixed either to the soil or parent- stem breaks, and the
Fig. 109. Comatula Mediterranea (Lamarck), natural size.
animal, now free, launches itself into the liquid medium, and goes to
live a proper and independent existence ; in listening to a recital so
opposed in appearance to the ordinary laws of Nature, we should be
inclined to tax the narrator of such incredible facts with error or folly.
Nevertheless all these facts are now perfectly established. The being
which presents these marvels has nothing of the fabulous about it. It
is the Comatula Mediterranea ; it lives at the bottom of the sea, the
surface of which is incessantly tracked by our vessels.
ECHINODERMATA. 277
OPHIURAD^E.
The Ophiuras are thus named from two Greek words (o0t9, a
serpent, and ovpa, a tail), from their fancied resemblance to the tail
of a serpent. These zoophytes are met with in almost every sea, but
chiefly in those of temperate regions ; they are very common on every
shore, and have been remarked by fishermen from the earliest times
on account of their singular form, the disposition of their arms, which
resemble the tail of a lizard, and by the singularity of their move-
ments. The general characteristics of this remarkable group of
Echinodermata, as described by Dujardin and Hupe, are as follows.
They are radiary marine animals creeping at the bottom of the sea,
or upon marine plants. In form they present a sort of coriaceous
disk, which is either bare or covered with scales, which contains
all the viscera, and five very flexible simple or branching arms,
each sustained by a series of vertebral internal pieces, naked or
covered with granules, scales, or bristles. Certain fleshy tentacula
thrown out laterally are organs of respiration. The mouth is situated
in the middle of the lower surface of the disk, and opens directly into
a stomach in the shape of a sac ; it is circumscribed by five re-entering
angles corresponding with the intervals of the arms, having a series of
calcareous pieces, which perform the function of jaw-bones. This
mouth is prolonged by five longitudinal clefts, garnished with papillae
or calcareous pieces, which correspond to one of the arms. A series of
calcareous pieces in the shape of vertebras spring from the extremity
of each of these clefts, which occupy all the interior of the arms,
having a furrow in the middle of the ventral surface for the reception
of a nursing vessel ; and laterally between their expansions are certain
cavities, from whence issue certain fleshy retractile tentacula; the
visceral cavity opens by one or two clefts on the ventral surface of
each side of the base of the arms.
The Ophiuradse move themselves by briskly contracting their arms
so as to produce a succession of undulations analogous to those by
which a serpent creeps along. Some of these zoophytes are rather
active ; but others attach themselves by their arms to the branches of
certain other polyps, like the Gorgons, and remain immovable for a
considerable time, waiting their prey somewhat like a spider in the
midst of his web.
278
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The family of Ophiuradae is divided into two great sections : that of
the Ophiura, which comprehends several genera, amongst others that
which gives its name to the family, and that of the Euryalina or
Asterophytes.
The family of Ophiuradae constitute a group distinguished hy their
five simple, articulated, very mobile, and non-ramified arms, which
Fig. 110. Ophiocoma Russei (Lutken), natural size.
are attached to a small disk or shield plate, with flexible thread-like
cirri between the rays. Ophiura natta is very common, and has been
known from very early times in European seas. It is of a greenish
colour, with transverse bands, which become more obscure upon the
arms as the distance from the disk increases. This disk is from six to
seven-eighths of an inch in size, the upper part covered with unequal
plates, in shape like tiles ; the arms are four times the length of the
ECHINODERMATA.
279
diameter of the disk, very slender and tapering. The zoophyte to
which Lamarck gave the name of Ophiura fragile has now its place
among the Ophisthrix, the specific name, indicating a particularity of
structure in all these small creatures derived from their fragile formation.
In short, these heings have so little consistency that they crumble, as
it were, under the touch, and become reduced to pulp under the
slightest pressure. In Fig. 110 we give the representation of an
Ophiura of the natural size, which Lutken has since called Ophiocoma
Fig. ill. Asterophyton verrucosum (Lamarck).
This Echinoderm, which lives in the seas of the Antilles, is
furnished with five very flexible rays, which are armed with from
three to four rows of spines, those on the upper part of the body being
very hard ones ; the body and arms of this creature are of reddish
brown, streaked with a great number of little white lines.
The principal type of the Euryalina is the curious and complex
Asterophyton verrucosum of Lamarck. They include animals remark-
able for the extremely complicated development of their arms the
280 THE OCEAN WORLD.
very multiplied ramifications of these, towards the extremities, being
divided into many thousand very slender appendages, the principal
use of which is doubtless locomotion, but at the same time they con-
stitute a series of living thread-like fillets which seem intended to seize
and close upon the animals which serve as prey to this little flesh-eater.
The Asterophyton verrucosum, which is represented in Fig. Ill, is
yellowish ; its disk about four inches, its arms sixteen to eighteen. It
inhabits the Indian Ocean. Another species, Euryala arbor escens, is
met with on the coasts of Sicily and other parts of the Mediterranean.
Nothing can be more elegant than these animated disks, which
resemble nothing so much as a delicate piece of lace a piece of living
lace moving in delicate festoons in the bosom of the ocean.
The singular shape of the Echinidge, or Sea-urchins, and the spiny
prolongations with which their bodies are covered, has in all ages
attracted the attention of naturalists. Aristotle applied to them the
name e^o?, which signifies urchin. When, however, one sees the
body of one of these animals thrown on the sea shore, it is difficult, at
first, to find a reason for this designation. The body of the sea-urchin
is furnished with a species of spine. It is a sort of shell, nearly
spherical, empty in the interior, its surface presenting reliefs admirable
for their regularity an egg-shell sculptured by Divine hands. In order
to see the urchin with its spines, it is necessary to seize it in the water
at the bottom of the sea, where it rolls and moves its little prickly mass ;
it is then only that the real urchin, the prickly sea-urchin, is to be seen,
bristling with prickles, and strongly resembling, to compare the physical
with the mental, those amiable mortals whose character is so well
depicted in the saying, " Whom they rub they prick."
In his book on " The Sea," Michelet puts the following conversation
into the mouth of a sea-urchin :
" I am born without ambition," says the modest Echinoderm. " I
ask for none of the brilliant gifts possessed by those gentlemen the
molluscs. I would neither make mother-of-pearl nor pearls ; I have
no wish for brilliant colours, a luxury which would point me out ; still
less do I desire the grace of your giddy Medusas, the waving charm of
whose flaming locks attracts observation and exposes one to shipwreck.
ECHESrODERMATA. 281
Oil mother ! I wish for one thing only : to be to be without these
exterior and compromising appendages ; to be thick-set, strong, and
round, for that is the shape in which I should be the least exposed ;
in short, to be a centralized being. I have very little instinct for
travel. To roll sometimes from the surface to the bottom of the sea is
enough of travel for me. Glued firmly to my rock, I could there
solve the problem, the solution of which your future favourite, man,
seeks for in vain that of safety. To strictly exclude enemies and
admit all friends, especially water, air, and light, would, I know, cost
me some labour and constant effort. Covered with movable spines,
Fig. 112. Echinus mamillatus (Lamarck), natural size.
enemies will avoid me. Now, bristling like a bear, they call me an
urchin."
Let us now look a little more closely at the general structure of the
sea-urchins in zoological language, Echinidse.
The body of the sea-urchin is globular in form, slightly egg-shaped,
or of a disk slightly swollen. It consists essentially of an exterior shell
or solid carapace, clothed in a slight membrane furnished with vibratile
cilia. This carapace is formed of an assemblage of contiguous polygonal
plates, adhering together by their edges. Their arrangement is such
that the test or shell may be divided into vertical zones, each springing
282 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
from a central point on the summit terminating at a point of the sphe-
roid diametrically opposite namely, the circumference of the buccal
orifice. These vertical zones are of two kinds, some larger and others
straighter, each zone consisting of a douhle row of plates, the first
charged with movable spines, the second pierced with holes disposed in
regular longitudinal series, from which emerge certain fleshy tentacula,
which, as we shall see presently, serve as feet to the animal. When
armed with these bristling spines, the sea-urchins resemble the hedge-
hogs ; but when the spines are down, they look very much like a melon
or an egg, to which their shape and calcareous nature have sometimes
led to their being compared by the vulgar as well as by the learned.
We shall give a tolerably exact idea of the two different aspects which
the carapace of the urchin presents when the spines are erect and
lowered, by reference to Fig. 112 (Echinus mamillatus), which repre-
sents the animal bristling with spines, and Fig. 113, in which the same
Fig. 113. Echinus mamillatus. Sea Urchin, without spines, natural size.
species is represented after death, when deprived of these weapons of
' defence : and how complicated these defences must be ! It has been
calculated that more than ten thousand pieces, each admirably arranged
and united, enter into the composition of the shell of the sea-urchin, to
which no other can be compared. To abbreviate slightly Grosse's
description of that wonderful piece of mechanism, the sea-urchin : " A
globular hollow box has to be made, of some three inches in diameter,
the walls of which shall be scarcely thicker than a wafer, formed of
unyielding limestone, yet fitted to hold the soft tender parts of an
animal which quite fills the cavity at all ages. But in infancy the
animal is not so big as a pea, and it has to attain its adult dimensions.
ECHINODERMATA. 283
The box is never to be cast off or renewed ; the same box must hold
the infant and veteran urchin. The limestone can only increase in
size by being deposited. Now the vascular tissues are within, and the
particles they deposit must be on the interior walls. To thicken the
walls from within leaves less room in the cavity ; but what is wanted is
more room, ever more and more. The growing animal feels its tissues
swelling day by day, by the assimilation of food. Its cry is, ' Give
me space ! a larger house, or I die !' How is this problem solved ?
Ah ! there is no difficulty. The inexhaustible wisdom of the Creator
has a beautiful contrivance for the emergency. The box is not made
in one piece, nor in ten, nor a hundred. Six hundred distinct pieces
go to make up the hollow case ; all accurately fitted together, so that
the perfect symmetry of the outline remains unbroken ; and yet, thin
as their substance is, they retain their relative positions with un-
changing exactness, and the slight brittle box retains all requisite
strength and firmness, for each of these pieces is enveloped by a layer
of living flesh ; a vascular tissue passes up between the joints, where one
meets another, and spreads itself over the whole exterior surface."
This being so, the glands of the investing tissue secrete lime from
the sea water, and deposit it after a determinate and orderly pattern
on every part of the surface. Thus the inner face, the outer face, and
each side and angle of polyhedron, grow together, and the form charac-
teristic of the individual is maintained with immutable mathematical
precision. The dimensions and shape of these prickles are very vari-
able. In certain Echinidae they are three or four times the diameter
of the body. In the urchin, properly so called, they are only three-
fourths or four-fifths that diameter. They sometimes resemble short
bristles. These defensive weapons have tubercles for supports, which
are arranged on the surface of the animal with perfect regularity. At
the base they present a small head separated by compression. This
head is hollow on its lower face, presenting a cavity adapted to a
tubercle of the shell. Each of the prickles, notwithstanding its
extreme minuteness, is put in action by a muscular apparatus.
In the prickles, or spines and tentacula (ambulacra, feet suckers),
we see the external organs of the Echinodermata. The former
are instruments of defence and progression ; the latter, strange
as it may appear, serve them to walk with. When it is considered
that each of these prickles is put in motion by several muscles, it is
281 THE OCEAN WORLD.
impossible to repress our wonder and surprise at the prodigious
number of organs brought into action in the sea-urchin. More than
twelve hundred prickles have been counted upon the shell of Echinus
esculentus, a representation of which is given in Fig. 1 14. If we add
to this first supply of spines other smaller and in some sort accessary
spines, we shall arrive at a total of three thousand prickles. Each
sea urchin thus bears as many weapons as ten squadrons of lancers.
When it is considered, further, that in each sucker or ambulacra there
Fig. 114. Echinus esculentus (Lamarck), natural size.
exist not less than a hundred tubes, each having an orifice, you will
have a total of four thousand visible appendages upon the body of
an animal of very small dimensions. If it is considered, finally, that
no shell exists more admirably symmetrical, elegant, or more highly
ornamental than the carapace of the urchin, it will readily be admitted
that Nature has been most prodigal in her gifts to one of the humblest
beings in creation a creature which passes its existence in crawl-
ing in obscurity at the bottom of the sea. What elegance of form,
ECHINODERMATA. 285
eternally hidden from the eyes of man, sleeps under the heavy mass of
water; and yet man imagines that everything in Nature has been
created for his use and for his glory.
M. Hupe records a somewhat curious observation in connection with
the spines, which serve as a means of defence to the Echinodermata.
He found a small mollusc, of the genus Stelifera, which had sought
shelter in Leixidaris imperialis, an urchin, native of Australia ; in a
word, the interior of one of these prickles had been hollowed and
enlarged so as to serve as a retreat for this improvised guest.
What unexpected facts does the study of animals present ! Nature
has bestowed a protecting armour upon one little being ; another still
smaller animal discovers this, and places itself for shelter under the
protection of these levelled bayonets ! Numerous anecdotes are told
of them. Thus : a man ignorantly put into his mouth one of these
creatures, with all its prickles, and, being detected, thought himself,
in his pride, compelled to swallow it because he was being looked at ;
immediately his mouth was full of blood. The next day he was in
such a state of suffering that he could neither eat nor drinfi, and for a
long time his life could only be preserved by nourishing injections of
soup, cream, and rice.
Now let us see by what organic mechanism the urchin contrives
to transport itself and walk. The tentacula, or suckers, are hollow
internally, and, as we have said, are provided with small muscles. By
the influx of liquid which they inclose they become inflated through-
out all their prickles, in such a manner that they can attach them-
selves to any solid body, at the will of the animal, by means of their
terminal suckers. Fredol, in " Le Monde de les Mers," thus explains
the urchin's mode of progression. "Let us imagine," he says, "one
of these creatures to be at rest ; all its spines are immovable, and, all
its filaments repose within the shell ; some of these involuntarily
escape ; they extend themselves and feel the ground all round them :
others follow, but the animal is firmly fixed. If it wishes for change
of place, the anterior filaments contract themselves, whilst the hinder
ones loosen their hold, and the shell is carried forward. The sea-
urchin can thus advance with ease, and even rapidity. During his
progression the suckers are only slightly aided by the spines. It can
travel either on the back or stomach ; whatever their posture, they
have always a certain number of prickles, which carry them, and
286
THE OCEAN WORLD.
suckers, with which they attach themselves. In certain circumstances
the animal walks by turning upon itself, like a wheel in motion."
Nothing is more curious than to see a sea-urchin walk upon smooth
sand. But for the colour, it might he mistaken for a chestnut with
its bristling envelopes, the spines serving as feet to put the little round
prickly mass in motion. They have even been observed to form
themselves into a ball, and roll along like a globular fagot of prickles.
One of the most singular organs of
the sea-urchin is its mouth. It is
monstrous. Placed underneath the
body it occupies the centre of a soft
space invested with a thick resisting
membrane : it opens and shuts inces-
santly, showing five sharp teeth (Fig.
115) projecting from the surface, the
Fig.ii5. Buccaiarmatureof Echinus iividus. ed g es meeting at a point, as repre-
sented here, supported and protected
by a very complicated framework, which has received the name of
Aristotle's Lantern (Fig. 116). Fig. 115 represents Echinus Uvidus
in its normal state ; the
other shows the masti-
catory organs, that is to
say, Aristotle's Lantern.
To give the reader a
more complete idea of the
buccal organ in the sea-
urchin, let him glance at
one from the southern
seas, Clypeaster rosaceus,
represented in Fig. 117,
an outline of the entire
animal, the buccal appa-
ratus being placed under the shell, which has been broken in Fig. 116,
so as to lay this organ bare.
The shape of the Clypeaster rosaceus is oval, straighter in front,
and thick and rounded at the edges. It is more common and more
largely distributed than any other living species, and it is supplied
with four or six ambulacra, or feet.
Fig. 116. Masticating apparatus of Echinus lividus.
ECHINODERMATA.
287
I never could understand why the dental framework of the sea-
urchin has been called Aristotle's Lantern, for this formidable apparatus
resembles the front view
of a battery of cannon
more than a lantern. It
consists of a series of
pieces designated by the
names of compass, scythe,
pyramid, and plumula,
which it would serve no
useful purpose to de-
scribe.
We have said that the
mouth of the urchin is
monstrous in proportion
to its size, and the teeth
of proportionate dimen-
sions. As these project
from a very formidable
mouth, one can easily
be assured of the sharp-
ness of their extremities
by intruding his fingers on them. In fact, it is nepessary that
these organs should be singularly powerful, because, as we shall see
farther on, the sea-urchin makes incisions in the solid rock with
them, and hollows out shelter for himself. The strong and sharp
teeth grow at the base in proportion as thpy are used at the points,
as is the case with some of the rodent mammalia. By this means
they are always sharp and in good condition. Five groups of power-
ful muscles are used to work these terrible grinders.
To this formidable mouth is attached an oesophagus or gullet, and
an intestine which extends along the interior walls of the carapace,
describing the circumference of its principal contour.
The regimen of the Echinidae is still imperfectly known ; neverthe-
less, from the presence of shells, fragments of corals, crustaceans,
and even other Echinodermata in their intestinal tube, it is to be
inferred that a certain number of them at least are carnassiers, or
flesh-eaters, while others are supposed on the same evidence to be
Fig. 117. Clypeaster rosaceus (Lamarck).
288
THE OCEAN WORLD.
vegetarians. The organs of respiration of the Echinidae appear to
be certain flattened vesicles in the form of very delicate laminae, which
adhere to the internal sur-
face of the walls of the
body, and float freely in the
liquid with which the vis-
ceral cavity is filled. These
organs, known as the in-
ternal branchias, are in com-
munication with the central
canal and ambulacral tubes.
The heart is spindle-shaped,
tapering above, swelling
below. There are two dis-
tinct vascular systems, one
intestinal, the other cuta-
neous.
Their nervous system con-
sists of a ring, which sur-
rounds the gullet, and is
placed at a short distance
from the mouth. In this ring the nervous trunks have their origin.
In relation to the senses, that of touch is highly developed. Certain
branching tentacula, which surround the mouth, fashioned like
nippers, and the ambulacral tentacles, are its principal organs. They
appear to be altogether destitute of organs of sight. It has some-
times been argued that four or five red points at the summit of
the dorsal face are eyes ; but this opinion has not been maintained,
nor has any crystalline lens been found in these spots to justify it.
Captain de Conde states that he examined a sea-urchin with long
spears in a pool of water, which he tried to catch, when he saw
it direct its flight towards his hand, all its defences being erect.
Surprised at this manoeuvre, he tried to seize it from another quarter ;
its spines were instantly directed to the other side. " I have thought
from that time that the urchin saw me, and prepared to resist my
attack. In order, however, to satisfy myself whether or not the
movement in the water caused by my approach might have produced
the effect described, I repeated the experiment with greater caution.
Fig. 118. Skeleton and Masticating Apparatus.
ECHINODERMATA. 289
But the creature always directed its spines in the direction' of the
object which threatened it, whether it was in the water or out of it."
He satisfied himself that these animals certainly could see, and that
their spines served them as a means of defence.
These wonderful spines, this calcareous envelope, this armour so
marvellously studded, with which nature has so bountifully provided
the Echinidae, appear to have been insufficient, inasmuch as these
very spines, in order to secure the safety of the animal, are gifted with
the power of hollowing a dwelling for themselves out of solid rocks of
the hardest material, such as granite and sandstone. They fix themselves
to its surface by means of their tentacles ; they make an incision by
means of their strong teeth, removing the debris with their spines
as fast as it is produced. When the hole is large enough, they
entrench themselves in it, with their spines and their threatening
pikes levelled to protect them from all external assaults. To
M. Caillaud, the conservator of the museum of Nantes, we are indebted
for an excellent account of the manner in which this buccal appa-
ratus is made to operate. " The Lantern of Aristotle," says this
author, " forms the mandibullary apparatus ; the teeth are five in
number, and they may as well receive the denomination of a series of
saws and picks as of teeth, for they are surprisingly adapted to the
excavation of holes in the hardest rock. These five picks are about
the eighth of an inch long, and they serve the sea-urchin at once as
masticators and excavating implements. In opening the jaws, these
five teeth strike the stone forcibly rather than scrape it." This
property of hollowing their dwelling out of the solid rock appears,
however, to belong to only a small number of the Echinidae ; most of
them are content to hide themselves under the stones, while the
species having the spines slender and the shell very thin bury them-
selves in the sand, with which they cover themselves entirely, leaving
only a small hole to breathe through. The Spatangus, which is
furnished with short thick spines on the under part of its body,
which spread out at the extremity like the channel of a spoon,
proceeds with its mining operations as follows, according to Mr.
Jonathan Franklin. " Figure to yourself, reader, the animal on the
sea-shore. He commences his operations by turning the lower spines
in such a manner as to form a hollow on the sand bank, in which he
sinks by his own weight ; but as he sinks, a great number of the
290 THE OCEAN WORLD.
spines are brought into action, throwing up the sand with increased
activity, while the sand thrown up, returning again, soon covers the
body of the worker, and he has soon buried himself beneath the
surface. In this situation the long hair-like spines situated upon the
back begin to play their part ; they prevent the sand from entirely
covering the . animal by forming a little round hole, through which
water is introduced to the mouth and respiratory organs." The hiding-
place of the sea-urchin is, however, easily detected in the sand by the
hole thus arranged for the respiration of the animal, and the fishermen
think they can predict storms according to the depth of the hole.
The Echinidae are reproduced by eggs, which are red and nearly
microscopic. As it issues from the egg the larva has the appearance
of a very minute fish. It is not at once converted into the perfect
animal, but undergoes a certain metamorphosis analogous to that of
the caterpillar into the butterfly. But, as we have already stated in
treating of the Asterise, it produces, at a certain stage, by some sort
of internal process of generation, a sea-urchin, which, being at first
only an organ of the larva, begins to live an independent life when
the nursing larva has destroyed itself. The manner in which the
urchin unfolds itself at the expense of the larva is quite analogous to
that which the asterias present : it is another case of alternate gene-
ration, of which our space does not permit us to give even a general
outline.
Sea-urchins are found in every sea ; they dwell in sandy bottoms,
and sometimes upon rocky ground. They are caught with wooden
pincers when in shallow water ; when found at the water's edge, they
may be taken by a gloved hand.
The urchin, like the crab, which it also resembles in taste, becomes
red when boiled ; only certain species are comestible, however. In
Corsica and Algeria the Melon-shaped Urchin (Echinus melo) is much
esteemed. In Naples and in the French ports of the Channel the
Echinus lividus is eaten. In Provence the Common Sea-urchin
(Echinus esculentus and Echinus granulosus) are the favourites.
Sea-urchins are eaten raw like oysters. They are cut in four
parts, and the flesh taken out with a spoon; they are sometimes, but
more rarely, dressed by. boiling, and eaten from the shell like an egg,
using long sippets of bread : hence the name of sea-eggs, which they
bear in many countries.
ECHINODEBMATA. 291
Sea-eggs were a choice dish upon the tables of the Greeks and
Bomans ; they were then served up with vinegar or hydromel, with
the addition of mint or parsley. When Lentulus feasted the priest
of Mars the Flamen Martialis this formed the first dish at supper.
Sea-eggs also appeared at the marriage feast of the goddess Hebe.
" Afterwards," says the poet, " came crabs and sea-urchins, which do
not swim in the sea, but content themselves by travelling on the sandy
shore." For my own part, I have only once partaken of sea-urchin,
and it appeared to me to be food fit for the gods ; but perhaps the
circumstances sufficiently explain this dash of culinary enthusiasm.
The Eeserve Eestaurant at Marseilles has not always been the vast
stone edifice we now behold, backed majestically by the mountain, and
fronting the sea on the promenade of the Corniche du Prado. In
1845 it rose quite at the entrance of the port, a small glass cage,
suspended as it were by a magic thread between the heavens and the
sea. From this aerial dwelling, overhanging with unheard-of audacity
the waters which surrounded it on all sides, we gazed on the most
wonderful prospect in the world, and reposed ourselves while enjoying
this intoxicating scene, during which the ships were continually enter-
ing the port, passing under our very feet. It was in this enchanted
palace that sea-urchins were served up, supported by the traditional
bouillabaise.
As I have said, it appeared to me delicious. Was it the Provenfal
dish, the savoury bouillabaise, which contributed to my appreciation
of the humble sea-urchin of the Mediterranean ? Was not the
marvellous view which I enjoyed from the heights of my empyreum of
glass the indirect cause of it ? This is a tender and charming problem
which I love to leave floating in the clouds, half evanescent, of my
youthful recollections.
HOLOTHUEIA.
The ignorant, like you and I, call the Holothuria the Cornechou,
or Sea-cucumber, and perhaps, for two reasons, they are not far
wrong. The term sea-cucumber expresses with wonderful exactness
the shape of the animal, and its habitation, the sea ; and, again, it
would puzzle the most learned to explain the word Holothuria. The
body of this strange creature presents the form of an elongated and
u 2
292 THE OCEAN WORLD.
worm-like cylinder ; its dimensions are so variable that, while some
species are only an inch or two in length, others attain thirty and
even forty. In general, the skin of the Holothuria is thick and
leathery ; it includes muscles, and is armed occasionally with small
projecting hooks or fangs, which enable the creature to hang for a
few seconds on to foreign bodies. From this coriaceous envelope
issue tentacular feet analogous to those described in the sea-urchin
and sea-star.
When we open a Holothuria we find nearly the whole internal
cavity occupied with little white tubes. We know that the fabulous
cucumber spoken of in the "Arabian Nights " was stuffed with pearls
by the talking-bird. With our poor animal this, alas ! is not so.
These are no pearls, but simple prosaical tubes containing the ova.
The mouth opens at the extremity of the body ; it forms a sort of
funnel, and is surrounded, as by a glory, with an elegant circle of
tentacula. In the living animal, when it feels itself in security, these
tentacles expand themselves like the corolla of a flower. When the
fisherman seizes a Holothuria in the water this crown of tentacles
ceases to appear, for the animal has the power of withdrawing it quite
suddenly, and now it resembles nothing so much as a common leech.
If, however, it is preserved in fresh sea- water and left in peace if we
treat it, in short, with the regard due to its elegant crown of tentacula
this elegant ornament will be expanded in all its glory. Immediately
below the mouth is a muscular pharynx, which is contained in a long
intestine, with many convolutions, which terminate in the posterior
part of the body in an orifice whence is thrown from time to time a
little jet of water. The terminal portion of the intestinal canal in
these animals is enlarged, introducing us to a system of numerous
tubes which branch off into the visceral cavity, receiving the water
from without while breathing by its posterior extremity ; the animal
can at will fill this reservoir or eject the water, and it is by these alter-
nate movements of aspiration and its reverse that it renews the oxygen
necessary for respiration. The circulation appears to form a complete
circle, there being no heart or central agent ; but a ring round the
gullet, from which issue five principal nervous chords, represents the
nervous system.
The Holothurias are of separate sexes, and they differ from the sea-
urchins and asterias in this : that their larvae are converted bodily into
ECHINODERMATA.
293
a young Holothuria without losing their organs. The bodies of certain
species are lubricated by an acrid and corrosive liquid : thus H. Oceania,
described by Lesson, which is about forty inches in length, secretes at
the surface of its body an irritating fluid, which produces an intolerable
itching in the finger which touches it. Nor can the inhabitants of the
South Sea Islands look at it without loathing. Fig. 119 represents
Fig. 119. Holothuria lutea (Quoy and Gairnard).
H. lutea, or the Stychopus luteus of Brandt, who describes as its distinc-
tive character three rows of tentacular feet on the ventral surface.
We have spoken of the strange suicidal tendency of the sea-stars :
the Holothuria exhibits the same phenomena, but, having no brittle
envelope like the asterias, it cannot break itself into bits in the pre-
sence of its disconcerted enemy; but kills itself in this manner:
having some cause of grief and trouble such, for instance, as the
294 THE OCEAN WORLD.
attack of an enemy or the pursuit of some fisherman by a sudden
and unexpected movement it ejects its teeth, its stomach, its digestive
apparatus, and reduces itself to a simple empty membranous sac,
.with an unfurnished mouth ; and, as a singular fact, this empty
sac still shrinks and contracts in the hand which grasps it. It must
be admitted that this is a strange mode of evading its enemies : the
soldier rarely throws his arms away in the moment of danger ! But
the Holothurias possess a wonderful recuperative power also ; and it is
probably quite conscious, when it thus empties itself to disappoint its
pursuer, that it can promptly replace the organs which it has volun-
tarily parted with.
Dr. Johnston relates that he had forgotten for some days to supply
a Holothuria with a change of water. The creature, in consequence,
ejected its tentacles, its buccal apparatus, digestive tubes, and a portion
of its ovaries. Still it was not dead, but was sensible to the least
movement, and lived to reproduce all its organs anew.
Not only do the Holothurias eject their organs and afterwards renew
them, but they divide themselves spontaneously into two portions.
Their two extremities are first enlarged ; then their middle parts
gradually become straight, like a thread : finally, this thread breaks,
and each separate part of the animal becomes a perfect Holothuria.
It has been cut into two pieces, and each of these species becomes a
new being.
The habits of these animals are but little known. They inhabit
the seas, and are spread over every latitude. Their very limited
movements consist in a kind of reptation or crawling motion, pro-
duced by the undulations of their bodies or by the contractions of
their feet. Holothurias are generally found in the act of creeping
upon stones or on portions of submarine rock, but always in sheltered
places, for they appear to dread the action of light. They sometimes
find themselves caught by fishermen in their nets. If held in the
hand they contract, their bodies become hard and rigid, and the sea
water with which they are filled is ejected with force. We need not
add that fishermen reject with disdain the Holothurias taken in their
nets ; the sea-cucumber has never been thought worthy of a place
on our tables. Truth is on this side, error on that, is a maxim as
true in morals as in cookery. The sea-cucumber, which Europeans
disdain, is a favourite dish among the Chinese. The fishery, prepara-
ECHINODERMATA. 295
tion of, and transport of these animals to market, plays an important
part in the commerce and industry of the East. One rather large
species, the Holothuria tubulosa, in which, by-the-bye, a singular
parasite fish (Fierasfer fontanesii) lives, is common in the Medi-
terranean. This species is eatable, and much relished at Naples. In
the Ladrone Islands Holothuria guamensis is preferred. But nowhere
is it esteemed of such importance as in the Malayan and Chinese
seas. In these countries, and on most of the shores of the Indian
Ocean, the Holothuria edulis, vulgarly called Trepang, is eaten with
delight. Thousands of junks are annually equipped for the Trepang
fisheries. The Malay fishermen carry to this fishery a degree of
patience and dexterity truly remarkable. Lying down in the fore
part of their vessels, and holding in their hands a long bamboo,
terminating in a sharp hook, their eyes, accustomed to this fishing,
frequently discover the animal at a distance of not less than thirty
yards, as it creeps along the surface of the submarine rocks or corals.
The fisher darts his harpoon at this distance, and seldom misses his
prey. When the water is shallow, that is to say, not more than four
or five fathoms deep, divers are sent down to obtain these culinary
monsters, who seize them in their hands, and in this manner can take
five or six at a time. To prepare the fish and preserve them for
transport to the markets, the Malay and Chinese fishermen boil them
in water, and flatten them with stones. They are then spread out
on bamboo mats to dry ; first in the sun, and then by smoking them.
Thus prepared, they are enclosed in sacks, and shipped to the Chinese
ports, where they are particularly esteemed. This fishery takes place
in the months of April and May.
In his voyage to the South Pole, Captain Dumont d'Urville, in tra-
versing the Chinese seas, had an opportunity of assisting at this fishery,
which he has described very graphically. We quote the passage in
which the French navigator relates what he witnessed at this curious
scene. While the ships were lying quietly at anchor, " we saw," he
says, " entering the bay, four Malay proas, bearing Dutch colours,
which dropped their anchors about a cable's length from Observatory
Islet. The padrones or captains of these vessels soon presented their
salutations, and informed me that they had started from Macassar at
the end of October, with the western monsoon, and that they came to
fish for Holothuria (trepang) along the coasts of New Holland, from
296 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
Melville Island to the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the east wind met
them and assisted their return, when they revisited all the points of
the coast, anchoring in every bay where they hoped to find fish. We
were in the first days of April ; the east monsoon was definitively
established ; the Malay fishermen were returning in their circuit, and,
in passing, they came to exercise their industry in Baffles' Bay. An
hour after their arrival they were all at work, and the laboratory for
the preparation of their fish was established within our view. The
roadstead had no longer the aspect of a vast solitude : wreaths of
smoke crowned the summit of Observatory Island, where, as if by
enchantment, several large sheds had sprung up, while numerous vessels,
supplied with divers, were proceeding to fish for Holothurias, which
were passed immediately to the furnaces erected for curing them. In
the course of my voyage I have often remarked little walls constructed
of dry stones, consisting of several half- circles joined one to the other.
I had often, but vainly, tried to discover the use of these little struc-
tures : I was now enlightened. The Malays arrived. Their boats
were scarcely anchored when several large boilers, in the shape of
a half-sphere, the diameter of which might be about forty inches,
were placed upon the stone walls of which I have spoken, and now
served as improvised furnaces. Near to them are sheds, composed of
four strong posts driven into the earth, supporting roofing covered
with hurdles, on which it is probably intended to dry the Holothurias.
During their sojourn in this bay, the fishermen, having fine weather,
made no use of these sheds, having probably only prepared them as
a precaution.
" A crowd of men actively employed in establishing their laboratories
gave an unaccustomed appearance to the bay, which could not fail to
attract the savage inhabitants of the main land. Very soon, indeed,
we could see them hastening from all sides, and nearly all reached the
little island, either by swimming or wading through the sheet of
shallow water which separates it from the main land. I only saw one
pirogue, made of the bark of a tree badly put together, which gave a
passage to three of these visitors. When night arrived, the Malays
had finished all their preparations ; some of them remained to guard
what they had left on shore, all the others returned to their boats.
" In the interval, a boat from the Astrolabe being wanted to carry
some visitors from the island, I profited by the occasion to visit one
ECHINODEEMATA. 297
of the proas, accompanied by M. Boquemauel. We were received
with much politeness, and even cordiality, by the captain or padrone
of the boats. He showed us over his little ship. The keel appeared
to us sufficiently solid ; even the lines did not want elegance ; but
great disorder seemed to reign in the stowage department. From a
kind of bridge, formed by hurdles of bamboos and junk, we saw the
cabin, which looked like a poultry-house ; bags of rice, packets, and
boxes were huddled together. Below was the store of water, of cured
trepang, and the sailors' berths. Each boat was furnished with two
rudders, one at each end, which lifted itself when the boat touched the
bottom. The craft was furnished with two masts, without shrouds,
which could be lowered on to the bridge at will by means of a hinge ;
they carry the ordinary sail; the anchors are of wood, for iron is
rarely used by the Malays ; their cables are made of ratan fibre ;
the crew of each bark consists of about thirty-seven, each shore-boat
having a crew of six men. At the moment of our visit they were
all occupied in fishing operations, some of them being anchored
very near to us. Seven or eight of their number, nearly naked, were
diving for trepang ; the padrone alone was unoccupied. An ardent
sun darted his rays upon their heads without appearing to incommode
them, an exposure which no European could hold up under. It was
near mid-day, and the moment, as our Malay captain assured us, most
favourable for the fishing. In fact, we saw that each diver returned
to the surface with at least one animal, and sometimes two, in his hands.
It appears that the higher the sun is above the horizon, the more
easily is the creature distinguished at the bottom. The divers were so
rapid in their movements, that they scarcely touched the boat, into
which they threw the animals, before they dived again. When the boat
was filled with them, it proceeded to the shore, and its place was sup-
plied by an empty one. I followed one of these, to witness the process
of curing which they adopted.
" The Holothuria of Baffles' Bay is from five to six inches long and
about two in diameter ; it is a gross fleshy mass, somewhat cylindrical
in form, but no external organ is visible. The mollusc glues itself to
the rocks at the bottom of the sea, and, as it can only move very
slowly, the Malay divers seize it readily. The greatest merit of a
fisherman is to have a practised eye, to distinguish the animal at the
bottom, and to dive directly to the spot where it lies. To preserve
298 THE OCEAN WORLD.
them, the fishermen throw them, while still living, into a cauldron
of boiling sea water, where they are stirred about by means of a long
pole, which is supported upon another pole fixed in the earth, but
having a forked end, which acts as a lever. In this process the tre-
pang gives up all the water it contains, and is withdrawn at the end
of two minutes. A man armed with a large knife now extracts the
entrails, and it is thrown into a second cauldron, having only a small
quantity of water, seasoned with mimosa bark. The object of this
second operation is to smoke the animal in order to preserve it the
better, for the bark is consumed in the process. The trepang is now
placed upon hurdles and dried in the sun. When sufficiently dried, it
is stowed away in the hold of the proa.
" It was about two o'clock in the afternoon when the divers ceased
their labours and came ashore. My tent was soon surrounded. I re-
cognized the captain of the proa among those who had previously
visited me. He approached and examined all the instruments used
in the Observatory with great attention, seeking to discover their use.
I showed him a gun with percussion cap, which astonished him
greatly, especially when I pointed out to him its great superiority over
the flint-lock. He assured me that these arms were still unknown in
the Celebes, his country ; but he failed to convince me of that. He
questioned me as to the places we had visited, and where we were
going. I endeavoured to sketch a map of New Holland, New Zealand,
and New Guinea upon a leaf. He then took my pencil, and added to
it the Indian Archipelago, the coasts of China and Japan, and the
Philippine Islands. Surprised in my turn, I asked him if he had
visited all these places. He replied in the negative ; but added that
he knew their position perfectly, and could easily take his vessel to
any of them. Finally, the interview terminated by his asking for a
glass of arrack. I do not know if this intelligent Malay professed the
Mahometan religion, but I do know that he drank half a bottle of
wine and a quarter of a pint of arrack without being at all the worse
for it. He then offered me some prepared trepang, inviting me to
taste it, which I did ; to me it appeared to resemble the lobster in
taste. My men liked it, and thankfully accepted the captain's offer ;
for my part, I felt an utter repugnance even to taste it.
" According to the account I had from the Malay captain, the price
of trepang in the Chinese markets was fifteen rupees, about thirty shil-
ECHINODERMATA. 299
lings the pekoul, or a hundred and twenty-five pounds. He estimated
his cargo to be worth about a hundred and twenty pounds. The
fishing had occupied him and his crew three months. From the earliest
times this commerce has belonged exclusively to the Malay fishermen,
and it will always be difficult for Europeans to compete with them.
The Malay vessels are equipped on the most economical principle, and
the men are wanting neither in sobriety, intelligence, or activity.
" It was nearly four o'clock when the Malays finished their opera-
tions. In less than half an hour they had embarked their cargo ; the
tents were struck, and, together with the boilers, carried back to the
boats, which were already preparing to set sail. At eight o'clock in
the evening they hoisted sail and left the bay."
Some idea may be formed of the extent and importance of the
Holothuria fishing by the number of ships which it attracts in this
part of the East. Captain King assures us that two hundred vessels
annually leave Madagascar to fish for the sea slug, as it is sometimes
called. Captain Flinders, being on the coast of Australia, learnt that
a fleet of sixty vessels, having a hundred men on board, had left
Madagascar two months previously in the same pursuit.
Among the Holothurias, one particular genus, the Synapta, is
distinguished from others of the family by the absence of the am-
bulacral feet, and by the fact of its uniting both sexes in one indi-
vidual. This remarkable Echinoderm, Synapta duvernea, is repre-
sented in PL. XI. M. Quatrefages, who discovered it in the Channel,
gives the following description of it in his great work, " Le Souvenirs
d'un Naturaliste." (t Imagine," he says, " a cylinder of rose-coloured
crystal, as much as eighteen inches long and more than an inch in
diameter, traversed in all its length by five narrow ribbons of white
silk, and its head surmounted by a living flower, whose twelve tentacles
of purest white fall behind in a graceful curve. In the centre of these
tissues, which rival in their delicacy the most refined products of the
loom, imagine an intestine of the thinnest gauze gorged from one
end to the other with coarse grains of granite, the rugged points and
sharp edge of which are perfectly perceptible to the naked eye.
" But what most struck me at first in this animal was, that it seemed
literally to have no other nourishment than the coarse sand by which
it was surrounded. And then when, armed with scalpel and micro-
scope, I ascertained something of its organisation, what unheard-of
300 THE OCEAN WOELD.
marvels were revealed ! In this body, the walls of which scarcely
reach the sixteenth part of an inch in thickness, I could distinguish
seven distinct layers of tissue, with a skin, muscles, and membranes.
Upon the petaloid tentacles I could trace terminal suckers, which
enabled the Synapta to crawl up the side of a most highly polished
vase. In short, this creature, denuded to all appearance of every
means of attack or defence, showed itself to be protected by a species
of mosaic, formed of small calcareous shield-like defences, bristling
with double hooks, the points of which, dentated like the arrows of
the Caribbeans, had taken hold of my hands."
If one of these Synapta is preserved alive in sea-water for a short
time, and subjected to a forced fast, a very strange phenomenon will
be observed. The animal, being unable to feed itself, successively
detaches various parts of its own body, which it amputates spon-
taneously. A great compression or ring is first formed, and then
the separation of the condemned part takes place quite suddenly.
" It would appear," says M. Quatrefages, " that the animal, feeling
that it had not sufficient food to support its whole body, was able
successively to abridge its dimensions, by suppressing the parts which
it would be most difficult to support, just as we should dismiss the
most useless mouths from a besieged city."
This singular mode of meeting a famine is employed by the Synapta
up to the last moment. After a few days, in fact, all that remains of
the animal is a round ball, surmounted by its tentacles. In order to
preserve life in the head, the animal has sacrificed all the other parts
of its body.
In order to find natural novelties to find unforeseen subjects of
study and reflection, it is not necessary to run over the world or travel
great distances. It is only necessary to visit the banks of the nearest
river, or descend to the sea shore, and leave the sea to reveal a frag-
ment of the marvels which it conceals in its bosom.
( 301 )
MOLLUSOA.
THE class Mollusca pulpy animals forms a grand division which man
has been pleased to make in the animal kingdom, and immediately
below the Vertebrata and above the Anmilosa, which again stand
above the Coelenterata, which includes the polyps, sea-anemones,
hydras, and corals, which last are more highly organized than the
Protozoa.
The Mollusca may be divided into two groups, the Mollusca proper
and the Molluscoida. The mollusc proper, as represented in Fig. 120,
presents the following parts, and is supposed to be bilaterally sym-
metrical. H, is the haemal parts, in which the heart is situated,
commonly called the dorsal part, although the word is used in a
different sense in different divisions of the animal kingdom. In the
Fig. 120. P. C. Mollusca.
same manner the opposite region (N) is not termed the ventral, but
the neural part, in philosophical anatomy. It is the region in which
the great centres of the nervous system are placed. The termination
(a) is the anterior or oval part ; the other end (6), the posterior or
anal part: between these extremities the intestines take a straight
302 ' THE OCEAN WORLD.
course. The neural surface is that upon which the majority of
molluscs move, and by which they are supported, and it is commonly
modified to subserve these purposes by the formation of a muscular
expansion or disk, called the foot. Three regions, in many genera
very distinctly divided from one another, may be distinguished in this
foot : an anterior, the Propodium (p p) ; a middle, the Mesopodium
(m s) ; and a posterior, the Metapodium (m t). In addition to these,
the upper part of the foot, or middle portion of the body, may be
prolonged into a muscular enlargement on each side, just below the
junction of the haemal with the neural region, the Epipodium (e p).
The mass of the body between the foot proper and the part of the
abdomen which bears the epipodium may be termed the mid-body,
or Mesosoma. On the upper part of the sides of the head are two
pairs of organs, namely, the eyes and tentacles. In the haemal region
the integument may be modified and raised up into a fold at the edges,
either in front or behind the anus. When so modified, it is called a
mantle, Pallium. In front of the anus again, the branchiae (f) project
as processes of the haemal region. Among the internal organs, the
heart (u v) lies in front of the branchiae in the haemal regions, the
nervous ganglia (x y z), of which there are three principal pairs, being
arranged around the alimentary canal, which they encircle.
Such is the general type of the class Mollusca, of which, however,
the variations are innumerable. They are all soft-skinned animals,
without either articulated exterior or annular external skeleton. Their
nervous system, being without cerebro-spinal axis, is entirely composed
of ganglions, which are all reunited in the oesophagus without consti-
tuting in any case a lengthened median chain. Their digestive organs
are complete that is, they are provided with two apertures ; their
principal organs are symmetrical and according to a plan, usually
curving, by which their bodies are divided into two parts.
The first series or subdivision, to which Milne Edwards has given
the name of Molluscoida, includes under that term the Bryozoaires,
Ascidians, and Tunicata.
( 303 )
CHAPTEK X.
MOLLUSCOIDA.
THE Bryozoaires, or Polyzoa, as British naturalists prefer to call them,
form the boundary-line which divides the humble mollusc from the
humbler zoophytes. In consequence of this intermediate organi-
zation, these creatures were long considered as polyps ; but De Blain-
ville, Milne Edwards, and Ehrenberg, almost simultaneously began to
separate them from the molluscs, and form them into a separate group.
Subsequent naturalists, while considering the Mollusco'ida as truly and
wholly molluscous, admit that the distinction proposed by the French
naturalists is most important, and should be retained as a primary
subdivision, confining it to those molluscs which have the neural
region comparatively little developed, and the nervous system reduced
to a single or at most a pair of ganglia, and the mouth surrounded,
by a more or less perfect circle of tentacles : an arrangement which,
would include the BracMopoda with the Polyzoa.
Marine plants are sometimes observed to be quite covered with a
velvety parasitic matter, which may at a first glance be mistaken for a
moss. This, however, is simply an aggregation of animalcules, each
of which has its separate cell, which is placed quite contiguous to its
neighbour.
These little creatures are thus entirely distinct. Each cell is
formed by the skin, which has been encrusted by calcareous salts, or
other organic matter, hardened after the manner of a horn. This
kind of shell protects the animal from the attacks of its enemies.
This mode of retreat at the bottom of a protecting shelter is very
frequently adopted in the whole series of molluscs. The oyster shuts
itself up by closing its valves, and the snail retires into its shell. This
assemblage of small cells presented by the Bryozoaires has long been
304 THE OCEAN WORLD.
known as a coral. " We propose," says our author, " with very good
reasons, to call it a Testier, or shell-builder."
This testier, in which each shell has its opening, is furnished with a
naked cushion, dentate, spinous, or protected by an operculum or lid,
and presents itself under every variety of form. It is sometimes an as-
semblage of branching tubes, occasionally a rounded mass of spongy
appearance, and now it presents itself as a flat lamelliform inarticulated
expansion. In some of the marine species the shell of the mussel is
covered as with a fine lace.
It is a remarkable fact that these cells are not always inert. They
seem to enjoy the power of motion. It is well known that the leaves
and branches of the sensitive plant (Mimosa) contract and expand
under the touch of the finger ; the same phenomenon, according to
Mr. Kymer Jones, takes place on touching the cells of certain species
of Bryozoaires. The moment they are touched they quickly incline
themselves ; and the movement is immediately communicated from one
to the other, until all the cells of the community are in motion.
Eeturning to the organization of the little creature which occupies
the cell, it is found that the upper and retractile portion, which is of
extreme delicacy, terminates anteriorly in a circle of long tentacles,
in the centre of which is the mouth. These tentacles are fringed
laterally by a series of vibratile cilia. " When the animal displays
itself," says Fredol, " this circle of microscopic threads of extreme
tenuity first show themselves rising from the summit of the cell ; this
is followed by the upper part of its body, which is more or less flexible ;
the tentacles follow between the threads, pushing them on one side."
These tentacles are furnished on the back with a dozen appendages
like very fine hairs, attached to them nearly at right angles, in addition
to the lateral cilia already spoken of, which play a very important part
in the arrangements of most microscopic animals. At the moment
when the tentacles appear outside the cell, the tunic of the animalcule,
which has the power of expanding or contracting itself, is gradually
unrolled. It soon spreads out its pretty little arms, the appendages and
cilia beginning their rapid vibrations, until the eye, deceived by the
rapidity and regularity of their movements, is dazzled, and the beholder
begins to think that he sees rosy drops of dew waving to and fro,
twisting and untwisting themselves. The corpuscles which float round
the animal are violently agitated, as if they were under the influence of
MOLLUSC01DA. SOS
some strong breeze. Unhappy, indeed, is the fate of the unfortunate
infusoria which chance leads at this moment into the fatal circle.
In many species, observers have discovered a special organ called
the vibracule, which deserves our attention for a moment. It is a
hollow filament, situated at the upper and outer angle of each cell,
filled with a substance which is at once fibrous and contractile, ad-
mitting of some very remarkable movements, which occur regularly,
and generally at very short intervals. At first the filament inclines
itself towards the base, trembles, oscillates, and seems to sink ; pre-
sently it recovers itself, and inclines in the opposite direction, where it
repeats the same operation with the same order and in the same time.
" What are the functions thus performed ?" asks Fredol. " Are they,
we would ask, independent up to a certain point of the will of the
Bryozoaire ? What is their purpose ?" We think he answers, " That
this organ serves the purpose of cleansing, and especially that of
strengthening, the entrance to the cell. It even continues its move-
ment after the animal has been mutilated or killed. The poor sickly
or dead creature continues to be defended by its protecting vibracule."
The prey which is drawn into the vortex by the tentacles and their
appendages enters into the mouth, to which is attached a pharynx,
oesophagus, stomach, and intestines. In the back or haemal region,
not far from the mouth, there is a special opening for this intestine.
Eespiration is provided for in the Bryozoaires by the ciliate appen-
dages which surround the mouth ; they are at once tentacula and
branchiae. The animal presents no other trace of organs of the
senses. A small ganglion and a few fillets constitute all of the nervous
system which can be traced ; neither heart nor blood-vessels have been
found.
The egg, in the case of the Bryozoaires, gives birth to a young
animal covered with hairs on its surface ; it swims about freely until it
has chosen a convenient place in which it can establish the new colony
which it is to originate. But this choice is not made for itself alone ;
the young animal encloses under its hairy envelope two new indi-
viduals, which, young as they are, have already the appearance of
adult Bryozoaires. At first, these only increase the number of the
colony by budding, but in a short time they produce eggs.
From these remarks it will be seen that the animals of the
Bryozoaires are more complex in their form and functions than those
306
THE OCEAN WORLD.
of the coral, and the study of their anatomy confirms this conclusion.
In their case the digestive organs are no longer a simple sac with a
single orifice ; there is a mouth, a pharynx, a gullet, a gizzard, a mem-
branous stomach and intestines, with a special opening. We have
descriptions of some species in which the gizzard seems to be provided
with a certain number of interior teeth forming a wonderful pavement
a living mill for the purpose of grinding the food before it enters
into the second stomach. The organization of this small creature
reveals to our eyes a wonderful amount of combination of admirable
art immeasurably surpassing all that the most perfect human industry
and human genius can accomplish.
After this general view of the organization of the group, we shall
proceed to introduce the reader to some of their more characteristic
species.
Under the leaves of water-lilies (Nymphea), pond-weed (Potamo-
geton), or upon floating fragments of submerged wood, are generally to
be found certain Bryozoaires, animals described by Trembley under the
name of plumed polyps. These are Plumatellde (Fig. 121). These
little diaphanous creatures
constitute colonies which
under the microscope re-
semble small branching
shrubs ; they consist of small
slender tubes grafted one to
the other, and having from
forty to sixty retractile
tentacula, which expand
like the petals of a flower ;
they are furnished with
vibratile cilia, the move-
ments of which serve the
purpose of leading food into
Fig. 121. Plumatella crlstallina magnified (after Koesel). the mouth
Another genus, which is found in ponds in France, and which is also
found in fresh water in Britain, is the Cristatella of Cuvier. " Perfect
specimens of C. muecdo occur from six lines to twenty-four in length by
two or three in breadth," says Sir J. Gr. Dalyel, " of a flattened figure, fine
translucent green colour, and fleshy consistence. Some of the shorter
MOLLUSCOi'DA. 307
tend to an elliptical form, but those of larger dimensions are linear,
with parallel sides, and curved extremities. The middle of the upper
and the whole of the under surface are smooth, the former somewhat
convex, occasioned by a border of seventy or eighty, even up to three
hundred and fifty, individual polypi, dispersed in a triple row, their
number depending entirely on the size of the specimen. Each of
these numerous polypi, though an integral portion of the common
mass, is a distinct animal, endowed with separate action and sensation.
The body rising about a line above a tubular fleshy stem, is crowned by
a head, which may be circumscribed by a circle as much in diameter,
of a horse-shoe shape, and bordered by a hundred tentacula. Towards
one side, the mouth, of singular mechanism, seems to have projecting
lips and to open as a valve, which folds up within, conveying the
particles which are absorbed to the wide orifice of an intestinal organ,
which descends, perhaps, in a convolution below; and returns again,
terminating in an excretory canal under the site of the tentacula."
The inhabitants of the colony are then united in great numbers
under one common envelope ; these are longish filaments of the size
of a swan's feather, re-
minding one of the appear-
ance of the silk thread
known by embroiderers
as chenille. The downy
appearance is produced by
the collection of tentacnla
belonging to this curious
swarm. The filamentous
maSS is the translucent Fig. 122. Cristatella mucedo CCuvier).
row of cells in which these
animalcules are lodged, and to which they retreat when disturbed.
These cells are sometimes free in part, sometimes completely rooted to
the stems of aquatic plants. The tentacles are of a fine transparent
glass colour, the body being of a brown colour. Fig. 122 represents
Cristatella mucedo, which is common both in this country and in
France.
Most naturalists have now agreed to place among the 'Bryozoa
certain species of animalcules which long remained imperfectly known.
Amongst these are the Flustra, the Eschara, and other ascidians.
x 2
308
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The Flustra are marine Bryozoa, whose skin in hardening forms a
thin shell of horny or cellular appearance ; their little cells, more or
less horny, are grouped symmetrically, somewhat like the cells in a
hee-hive. Sometimes they form a crust which covers the algae and
other submarine bodies ; sometimes they form ribbon-like stems. In
Fig. 123. Flustra foliacea (Linnrcus).
some species the cells are only found on one side ; in others they occupy
both. Their orifices are extremely small, and defended by spines
quite microscopic (Fig. 123).
Their tentacles are covered with cilia, always vibratile, disposed in a
straight line, which in their movements produce the effect which a
row of animated pearls might be supposed to produce if rolled
upwards from the base to the summit of the organ.
The Eschara form leaf-like expansions, the entrance to their cells
having also their protecting spines.
The expansions still represent microscopic bee-hives, the inhabitants
of which enjoy at once a common and an independent existence. As
MOLLUSCOiDA. 309
it is with the corals, so it is here ; each eats for the benefit of itself
and for the community. Labour and nutrition for the community,
labour and food for itself.
TUNICATA.
On seeing one of the Tunicata for the first time, a stranger to
zoology would scarcely take them for animals at all. Almost always
attached to submarine rocks, these beings have the form of a simple
sac. Their skin, gelatinous, horny, or rock-like, is at times covered
with marine plants and polyps. They have neither arms, nor feet,
nor head. But then they have a mouth, placed at the entrance of a
digestive tube, and, in connection with the latter, a special opening
intended for evacuations. The mouth is preceded by a great cavity,
the walls of which are covered with vessels ; for this cavity is the seat
of respiration, and is covered with vibratile cilia. Thus the same
canal serves first for respiration, and then, farther on, for digestion :
another instance of the economy of Nature. Another remarkable
instance of circulation is found : they have a heart, but no head.
This heart is the centre of a well-developed vascular system, but
very unlike what usually obtains. The blood which traverses it takes
such a course, that, in the space of a very few minutes, the heart
changes its aurical into ventrical and its ventrical into aurical blood.
At the same time the arteries are changed into veins and the veins
into arteries. The consequence is, that the current which traverses
these canals changes its direction with each contraction of the heart.
Simple as is their organization, the Tunicata have a nervous system.
It is an unique ganglion, connected with divers small fillets. The
organs of sensation present themselves in a very rudimentary fashion.
We find eyes, and, after very minute search, a single ear has
been found. They are propagated by budding, and also from eggs.
The young are subject to some very curious metamorphoses, some
particulars of which will be given farther on.
The Tunicata are divided into Ascidia and Salpa, to which some
naturalists add the Bracliiopoda.
ASCIDIANS.
The Ascidia, from the Greek word aa^iov t leather bottle, have, as
the name indicates, the shape of a bottle or purse. The analogy becomes
310
THE OCEAN WORLD.'
more evident when it is considered that these creatures are habitually
filled with water, which can be expelled by very slight pressure.
The Ascidians are sometimes free, sometimes united to others in a
manner more or less intimate. Hence their division into the three
groups of simple, social, and composite Ascidians.
Simple Ascidians attach themselves, each individual singly, to rocks
and other submarine bodies, and generally at a fixed depth. Ascidia
Fig. 124. Ascidia microcosmus (Cuvier).
micrososmus a Mediterranean species, represented in Fig. 124, may
be quoted as a type of this division of Ascidians. The name of
Microcosmus, or the little world, is probably given from its being in-
habited by quite an animated colony of algae and corals, which dwell
upon its surface, and give it a very peculiar, but not very attractive, ap-
pearance. The flavour of these molluscoids is very strong, which does
not, however, hinder the poorer dwellers on the sea shore from eating
them. The genus Phattusia is another type of the group. Phalhisia
grossularia is of a reddish colour, and about the size of a currant-
berry : it usually lodges itself in the oysters of certain localities. At
Ostend another species, Phallusia ampulloides, is found in prodigious
quantities in the oyster parks, and is parasitic on living lobsters.
Social Ascidians comprehend living Tunicata, connected together
on a common prolongation by the roots, but free and unconnected in
all other respects. Ascidia pedunculata (Fig. 125) may be quoted
as an example.
MOLLUSC01DA.
311
The Composite Ascidians are still more intimately associated together ;
a great number of these little beings live together in a single
mass. Such are the Botryllus and the Pyrosoma.
The Botryllus is a genera
the most interesting of all
the groups under considera-
tion. Only imagine from
ten to twenty individuals,
oval in form, more or less
flattened, adhering by their
dorsal surface to some sub-
marine body, and holding on
by their sides, so as to form
a sort of wheel. " When we
excite one of the branches,"
says Fredol, "a single mol-
lusc contracts itself; when
we touch the centre, they all
seem to contract themselves
(Cuvier). The buccal orifice is
at the outer extremity of the
radius ; but the intestinal
terminations abut on the
common cavity, which occu-
pies the centre of the wheel.
Here we behold certain ani-
Fig. 125. Ascidia pedunculate (Milne Edwards).
mals which eat separately,
but which fulfil together as a community very singular functions a
kind of union and communism of which the moral world presents
no prototype. With our molluscs, in place of two individuals united,
we have a score. We may consider the entire star as one single
animal with many mouths. But then, we have with it a luxury of
organs for the function of intelligence which seeks and chooses, and
parsimony of the organ of stupidity, which neither seeks nor chooses."
While the Botryllus is fixed and adherent, the Pyrosoma, on the
contrary, is perfectly free. The animal colony which constitutes it
floats and balances itself upon the waters, like the sea-pen or the
physalia, of which we have spoken in treating of the zoophytes.
312 THE OCEAN WOULD.
The name Pyrosoma lias been given to these animals in consequence
of their brilliant phosphorescent properties. According to the observa-
tions of Peron and Lesueur, nothing can exceed the brilliant and
dazzling light emitted in the bosom of the ocean by these animals.
From the manner in which the colonists dispose themselves, they
form occasionally long trains of fire ; but it is a singular fact that
this phosphorescence presents the same curious characteristics that
distinguish the cilia of the Beroe; namely, that the colours vary
instantaneously, passing with wonderful rapidity from the most in-
tense red to yellow, from golden colour to orange, to green, or to
azure blue. Yon Humboldt saw a flock of these brilliant living
colonies floating by the side of his ship, and projecting circles of light
having a radius of not less than twenty inches in diameter. He
could see by this light the fishes which followed the ship's track,
during many days, at the depth of from two to three fathoms.
Bibra, a Brazilian navigator, having caught six Pyrosoma, em-
ployed them to light up his cabin. The light produced by these
little creatures was so bright, that he could read to one of his friends
the description he had written of these his living torches.
Three species of Pyrosoma are known; namely, P. elegans,
two or three inches in length, which inhabits the Mediterranean;
P. giganteum, which is found in the same sea. It is a long bluish
cylinder, bristling with tubercles, each of which is the abode of an
animal, a citizen of this moving republic, and is attached to its
colleagues by means of its gelatinous envelope : an alliance imposed
by inexorable Nature a forced species of socialism.
The third species, P. atlanticum, was discovered by Peron and
Lesueur in the Equatorial seas.
These curious Ascidians are so created in rings as to constitute a
long fine cylindrical tube, closed at one end and open at the other.
By the contraction and dilatation of the mass of beings, this great
cylinder swims slowly through the open sea, lighting up the ocean
with its phosphorescent light, shining through the water like a glowing-
fire. Mr. Bennet thus describes one of these pelagic appearances :
" On the 8th of June, being then in lat. 30 S. and 27 5' W. long.,
having fine weather and a fresh south-easterly trade-wind, and the
thermometer ranging from 78 to 84, late at night the mate of the
watch called me to witness a very unusual appearance in the water.
MOLLUSCOiDA. 3L3
This was a broad and extensive sheet of phosphorescence extending
from east to west as far as the eye could reach. I immediately cast
the towing-net over the stern of the ship, which soon cleaved through
the brilliant mass, the disturbance causing strong flashes of light to
be emitted, and the shoal, judging from the time the vessel took in
passing through the mass, may have been a mile in breadth. On
taking in the towing-net, it was found half filled with Pyrosoma
ailanticum, which shone with a beautiful pale greenish light. After
the mass had been passed through by the ship, the light was still
seen astern, until it became invisible in the distance, and the ocean
became hidden in the darkness as before this took place.
" The second occasion of my meeting these creatures was in a high
latitude, and during the winter season. It was on the 19th of August,
the weather dark and gloomy, with light breezes from north-north-
east, in lat. 40 30' S., and 138 3' E. long., at the western entrance
to Bass's Straits, and about 8 o'clock P.M., when the ship's wake was
perceived to be luminous, while scintillations of the same light were
abundant all round. To ascertain the cause, I threw the towing-net
overboard, and in twenty minutes succeeded in capturing several
Pyrosoma, which gave out their usual pale green light ; and it was,
no doubt, detached groups of these animals which were the occasion
of the light in question. The beautiful light given out by these
molluscans soon ceased to be seen; but by moving them about it
could be reproduced for some length of time after. The luminosity
of the water gradually decreased during the night, and toward morn-
ing was no longer seen."
The genus Scdpa forms another interesting group of Tunicata.
The Biphora or Salpa (Fig. 12 6) are long transparent threads of the
more delicate tissues, composed of rows of individuals placed side by
side, and grafted, as it were, transversely : ribbons, in which each
animal is grafted end on end to its sister : double parallel chains of
social creatures, sometimes alternate, sometimes opposite ; living chap-
lets, of which each pearl is an individual. Each individual presents
an oblong diaphanous or prismatic body, more or less symmetrical,
and often furnished in front, rarely behind, with tentaculiform ap-
pendages. So great is the transparency, that the various organs may
be observed through the skin as they perform their several functions.
Momus, an ancient philosopher, thought it a subject of regret that
314 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Nature had not thought of piercing the body with an opening suffi-
ciently large for each one to see what was passing in the interior.
The creature which now occupies our attention would surely have
satisfied the demands of our critic : its body is, metaphorically
speaking, a house of glass.
Fig. 126. Salpa maxima magnified (Forsk).
In order to move itself, the Salpa has recourse to a singular artifice.
It introduces water into its body through a posterior opening, furnished
with a valve, which it expels by an anterior outlet situated near the
mouth. It is thus pushed backwards, and swims, as it were, by recoil.
Moreover, it swims with its belly upwards. All the elements of a
chain of Salpas act in concert ; they contract and dilate simultaneously ;
they advance as a single individual. One of them floats on the surface
with the undulations of a serpent, so that among sailors they have
gained the appellation of sea-serpents. These long, living trains
abound in the Mediterranean, principally towards the African coast,
and in the Equatorial seas. They are inhabitants of the open sea,
and live immerged at considerable depths ; but when the nights are
calm they show themselves on the surface. As they spread them-
selves abroad with a strong phosphorescent light, they resemble long
ribbons of fire, unrolling their long waving lines in spite of the waves,
as in Fig. 127. What wonders they see who go down into the great
deep ! What sights are reserved for the navigator who traverses the
Tropical seas during the silence of night !
When a chain of Salpas is drawn from the water, the rings separate,
and they can no longer be made to adhere. The social bond has been
dissolved by a superior force.
Salpas are sometimes met with, isolated and solitary, whose exterior
MOLLUSCOlDA. . 315
conformation differs much from that which is proper to the connected
Salpa; so different, indeed, that it might belong to another type.
Chamisso, Krohn, and Milne Edwards have ascertained that the
Biphora is viviparous, and that each species is propogated hy alternate
Fig. 127. Phosphorescent chain of Salpas on the surface of the sea.
generation, the young creature being unlike its immediate parent.
One of these generations is represented by the solitary individuals, the
other by an aggregation of individuals. Each solitary Biphora en-
genders a new group a chain ; each constituted member of the chain
CD genders a solitary Salpa.
Thus a Salpa is not organized like its mother or daughter, but
rather like its sister, its grandmother, or granddaughter another
example of alternate generation, which has already been discussed in
treating of zoophytes.
Those marine creatures which pass their lives in a forced community
animals which eat, sleep, or rest always in company who abandon
themselves together to the soft caresses of the waves, these colonies,
or, rather, republics of animals, leading constantly the same mono-
tonous existence, reveal to us very strange things : an identical com-
munity of sentiments in a crowd of beings riveted by the same
chain a chain at once physical, intellectual, and moral !
316 THE OCEAN WORLD.
CHAPTEK XL
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA.
"Sigillatitn mortales, cunctum perpetui."
AfULEius.
THE Mollusca proper were divided by Cuvier into five great classes :
I. Lamellibranchiata, or Acephalous Mollusca, often called Conch-
ifera. II. Brachiopoda. III. Gasteropoda. IV. Pteropoda.
V. Cephalopoda.
The name Mollusca indicates the characters which most struck the
ancients : they are soft in Latin, mollis : their flesh is cold, humid,
and viscous. In consequence of their very softness, they are generally
furnished with an apparatus of defence or protection, in the shape of
a calcareous cuirass, called a shell. According to the species this
test is a coat of mail, a buckler, or a tower. The mollusc is thus
armed and defended against all attacks from without, nearly after the
manner of a knight of the middle ages; only the knight was not
quite shut up in his armour, while the mollusc is attached to it by
indissoluble organic bonds. "Such a life and such a habitation!"
says Michelet. " In no other creature is there the same identity
between the inhabitant and the nest. Drawn from its own substance,
the edifice is the continuation of its fleshy mantle. It follows its form
and tints. The architect has communicated its own substance to the
edifice."
The shell of the Mollusca has been variously appreciated by natural-
ists. " We might regard the shell as the bone of the animal which
occupies it," says a celebrated French naturalist ; and then gives ex-
pression to a very different view. " We may say as a general thesis
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA. 317
that testaceous molluscs are animals with whom ossification is thrown
out on the external surface in place of the interior, as in the Mam-
mals, birds, reptiles, and fishes. In the case of the superior animals
the hones lie in the depths of the body ; in the shelled Mollusca the
bones are placed on the superficies. It is the same system reversed."
Other zoologists reject as altogether untenable this assimilative
theory. " The shell which serves as a dwelling and a shelter cannot,"
say these authors, " be considered as a skeleton, because it does not
assume the external form of the animal ; because it does not attach
itself to the organs of locomotion ; and, finally, because it is the pro-
duct of secretion, which increases in proportion to the development
of the body itself." This last opinion appears to us to be the most
acceptable.
However that may be, from the immense variety of form and size,
from the beauty and brilliancy of their colours, the shells of the mol-
luscs are among the most attractive objects of natural history. Nor
is it from their beauty alone that a fine collection of -shells becomes
interesting : a living creature has inhabited the shell, a creature which
in its organization and its life, above all, by its habits, excites in a high
degree our interest, curiosity, and admiration. It has been said that
the shell " is like a medal struck by the hand of Nature to commemo-
rate climates." In short, the waters of different regions of the globe,
whether fresh or salt, are characterized by the presence of particular
shells ; moreover, the comparison of living shells with those which lie
in a fossilized state buried in the depths of the soil is a most important
element of our knowledge touching the origin of the different beds out
of which our globe is constituted.
Thus, we must not shut our eyes to these beings, in appearance so
miserable and obscure, if we would possess a general knowledge of the
animal kingdom. The Creator has endowed them with many won-
derful gifts to embellish their lives, and who would dare to disregard
them ? Who could examine and compare their structure without being
charmed with the study ? Man, who descends into the depths of the
earth in search of the precious metals who dives into the deep in
pursuit of the treasures it conceals who stoops his head over works of
art would surely not refuse to bend himself for a moment to the
sand of the sea, to gather in his hand, to bring nearer to his eyes,
these marvellous works of the Divine Creator !
318 THE OCEAN WOULD.
The true molluscs are divisible into two great classes : tlie Ace-
phalous, or Headless, and those having a head of structure more or
less perfect, which are called Cephalous Molluscs.
The Acephalous or Headless Molluscs are so called from the Greek
a, privative, and Ke^aX^, head. They have no head ; the body is
surrounded by the folds of the skin ; the shell consists of two valves.
Such is a summary description of all the Acephalous Molluscs. They
are sometimes naked, and sometimes enclosed in a shell, whence they
are known as Testaceous Molluscs. They are called bivalves, because
their shell consists of two halves, or valves united by a hinge. They
are sheltered in this double carapace as a book is in its cover.
Although they have no head, they can feed themselves, and they
reproduce their kind. They have friendships and enmities, perhaps
even passions; probably these are not very lively, for most of
them scarcely ever change their place, even to make the least
movement. Many of them remain fixed to the rock on which they
were hatched, and tumultuous sensations are not quite compatible
with immobility.
The bivalves * are found in every sea. The shell of the bivalve is
ovoid, globulous, trigonal, heart-shaped, elongated like a pea-pod, or
flat like the leaves of a tree, having an opening down the ventral side.
In some one valve is flat, the other round and swelling in the centre.
The shell is thus an outer envelope, consisting of two pieces, more or
less corresponding to each other in size and shape (of which the oyster
is an example), formed of carbonate of lime deposited in membranous
cells in its outer layers, the inner layers being composed of thin coat-
tings of lime deposited in the outer surface of the tissue, called the
mantle -leaves. The valves are united to the animal by the insertion
of certain muscles, and by the horny epidermis of the mantle, which
stretches over the edge of the valves. The hinge and ligament which
unite the two valves consist of a dense elastic substance, somewhat
resembling india-rubber ; the hinge is formed of teeth, and cavities into
which the teeth fit. The ligament acts in opposition to certain con-
tractile muscles within, which draw them together, and is placed either
within or without the hinge, or partly both. On separating the valves,
the two leaves of the mantle present themselves. These are thin
* The term bivalve as constituting a class must be taken in a limited sense, for
several genera, as pholas for example, have six or more valves. .
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA. 319
delicate leaves, furnished at the margin with sensitive tentacles and
other organs of sense, and with glands sometimes highly coloured.
The use of these organs is thus described by Mr. Eymer Jones :
" When the animal is engaged in increasing the dimensions of its
abode, the margin of the mantle is protruded and firmly adherent all
round to the circumference of the valve with which it corresponds.
Thus circumstanced, it secretes calcareous matter and deposits it upon
the extreme edge of the shell, when the secretion hardens and becomes
converted into a layer of solid testaceous substance. At intervals this
process is repeated, and every newly-formed layer enlarges the dia-
meter of the valve. The concentric strata thus deposited remain dis-
tinguishable externally, and thus the lines of growth marking the
progressive increase of size may easily be traced."
" While the margin of the mantle is thus the sole agent in enlarging
the circumference of the shell," the professor continues farther on,
" its growth in thickness is accomplished by a secretion of a kind of
calcareous varnish derived from the external surface of the mantle
generally, which, being deposited layer by layer over the whole inte-
rior of the previously existing shell, progressively adds to its weight
and solidity. There is, however, a remarkable difference in character
between the material secreted by the marginal fringe and that fur-
nished by the general surface of the mantle membrane. The former
we have found more or less covered by glands appointed for the pur-
pose, situated in the circumference of the mantle ; but as these glands
do not exist elsewhere, no colouring matter is ever mixed with the
layers that increase the thickness of the shell, so that the latter
always remain of a delicate whitish hue, and form the well known
iridescent material usually distinguished by the name of nacre or
mother-of-pearl." (General Outline, p. 385.)
The process by which shells attain their beautiful markings is thus
described by Mr. Jones : "The external surface is exclusively depo-
sited by the margin of the mantle, which contains in its substance
certain coloured spots, which are found to be of a glandular character,
and to owe their peculiar character to a pigment they secrete, which
is mixed with the calcareous matter ; coloured lines are therefore found
on the exterior of the shell wherever these glandular organs exist.
Where the deposition of colour is kept up throughout the process of
enlargement, the lines are unbroken and perfect ; but where the
320 THE OCEAN WORLD.
coloured matter is furnished only at intervals, spots and patches of
irregular form and increasing in size with the enlargement of the
mantle are the consequence."
Bivalves move about and change from place to place hy means of
an extensible fleshy organ called, from some of its functions, a foot ; in
fact, it has less resemblance to a foot than to a large tongue. It is
a muscular mass, capable of being pushed out from between the mantle
and the valves, and varies much in form ; it is in turn a hatchet, a
ventilator, a pole, an awl, a finger, and a sort of whip. This foot is
simple, forked, or fringed. In some species the tissues are spongy, and
capable of receiving considerable quantities of water. When the organ
swells, it is elongated and stiff; on the other hand, by suddenly ex-
pelling all the water, it gets small and pliable, and can now return to
its shell. This organ is represented in Fig. 128 (Donax trunculus,
Fig. 128. Donax trunculus (Linnaeus).
Linn.), in which it is singularly developed. This bivalve is found
on the sea shore in shallow water; it buries itself almost perpen-
dicularly in the sands. They are so abundant on the French side of
the Channel and on the shores of the Mediterranean, that they form
a considerable portion of the people's food. These bivalves have the
singular power of leaping to a considerable height and then throwing
themselves to a distance of ten or twelve inches a spectacle which
may be witnessed any day at low water. When abandoned by the
retreating tide, they try to regain the sea. If seized by the hand, in
order to drag them out of the sand, aided by their compressed,
branched, and angular feet, they give to their shell the sudden and
energetic movement under which the bounding action takes place.
The shell of the Donax is slightly triangular and compressed ; its
length exceeds its height; it is regular, univalve, unequally lateral,
and its hinge bears three or four teeth on each valve. The action of
these feet is very simple, and is compared by lleaumur to that of
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA. 321
a man placed on his belly, who, stretching out one hand, seizes upon
some fixed object, and draws himself towards it. There is just this
difference, that the movement of the member in the mollusc is
altogether contractile.
Authors have described more than 30,000 species of molluscs, so
that our space only permits us to describe a few families, or rather
types of families.
The arrangement of bivalves now most generally adopted in
England is that of Woodward, as developed in the last edition of his
manual of the mollusca ; it is greatly based on that of Lamarck. We
have adopted his arrangement altered from a descending to an ascend-
ing scale of organisation.
The Conchifera are divisible into two sections, Siphonida, from the
animals having respiratory siphons, and Asiphonida, destitute of them.
The solen may be taken as a type of the first, and the oyster of the
second. The division Siphonida is divided into two sub-sections, those
without and those with a pallial line sinuated. The first family of
this section is the Pholadidae, which includes Teredo, Xylophaga, and
Pholas, animals which possess extraordinary powers of boring ; not
merely as the Solens do, through sand, but through the hardest rocks.
The Teredos are marine animals having a special and irresistible
inclination for submerged wood ; for while wood exposed to the air
becomes a prey to terrestrial animals, so submerged wood is subject to
invasion by aquatic animals, of which the Teredo is by far the most
formidable. The Teredos in the bosom of the ocean perforate the
hardest timbers, whatever be their essence. The galleries bored by
these imperceptible miners riddle the whole interior of a piece of wood,
destroying it entirely, without the slightest external indication of its
ravages. The galleries sometimes follow the grain of the wood ; some-
times they cut it at right angles ; the miners, in fact, change their
route the moment they meet in their way either the furrows followed
out by one of their congeners, or some ancient and abandoned
gallery. By a strange kind of instinct, however multiplied may be
their furrows or tubes in the same piece of wood, they never mingle
there is never any communication between them. The wood is thus
attacked at a thousand diverse points, until it is invaded and its entire
substance destroyed. It is by secret ravages of this kind that the
piles and other submarine constructions upon which bridges are built
Y
322 THE OCEAN WORLD.
are often riddled and perforated. They appear to all outward examina-
tion as solid and perfect as at the moment they were first driven ;
but they yield to the least effort, bringing ruin and destruction on
the edifices they support. Ships have been thus silently and secretly
mined, until the planks crumbled into dust under the feet of the
sailors. Others have gone down with their crews, entirely caused by
the ravages of these relentless enemies, which are terrible from their
unapproachable littleness.
M. Quatrefages, who has minutely studied the organization and
habits of the Teredos in the Port of Saint Sebastian, reports the fol-
lowing fact, which will give the reader some idea of the rapidity with
which these dangerous molluscs pursue their ravages :
" A boat, which served as a passage-boat between two villages on the
coast, went down in consequence of an accident at the commencement
of spring. Four months after some fishermen, hoping to turn her
materials to advantage, raised the boat. But in that short space of
time the Teredos had committed such ravages that the planks and
timbers were riddled and worm-eaten so as to be totally useless."
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, half the coast of
Holland was threatened with annihilation because the piles which
support its dikes and sea-walls were attacked by the Teredo ; and it
proved no contemptible foe. Many hundreds of thousands of pounds
were expended in order to avert the threatened danger. Fortunately, a
closer attention to the habits of the mollusc has brought a remedy to
a most formidable evil ; the mollusc has an inveterate antipathy to
rust, and timber impregnated by the oxide of iron is safe from its
ravages. This taste of the Teredo being known, it is only necessary, in
order to scatter this dangerous host, to sink the timber which is to be
submerged in a tank of prepared oxide of iron clothed, in short, in a
thick cuirass of that antipathy of the Teredo, iron rust. Ships' timbers
are also served with the same protecting coating ; but the copper in
which ships' bottoms are usually sheathed serves the same purpose.
The singular Acephalous Mollusc known to naturalists as the
Teredo navcdis, and popularly as the Ship Worm (Fig. 129), has the
appearance of a long worm without articulations. Between the valves
of a little shell, with which it is provided anteriorly, may be seen a
sort of smooth truncature, which surrounds a swelling projecting pad
or cushion. This cushion is the only part of the body of the animal
PHOLADID^E.
323
which can be regarded as a foot. Starting from this point, all the
body of the Teredo is enveloped by the shell and mantle, which form
a sort of sheath communicating by two syphons with the exterior.
The mantle adheres to the circumference of the
shell. Above, it forms two great folds, which may
both be swollen by the afflux of the blood, and acquire
considerable size. One of these folds placed in ad-
vance, which is called the cephalic hood, is worthy of
attention. The tissue of the mantle is of a greyish
tint, very light, and transparent enough, especially
in the young, to permit of the mass of liver, the
ovary, the branchiae, and the heart being distin-
guished in the interior, even to counting its pulsations.
The syphons are extensible, and attached the one to
the other for about two-thirds of their length, the
upper part being longer and thinner than the lower.
It is by these tubes that the aerated water enters
which feeds and enables the animal to 'breathe. It is
discharged by the second tube, when deprived of its
oxygen, and no longer respirable, carrying with it
the useless products of digestion. This movement is
continuous ; but from time to time the animal shuts
at once the orifices of both tubes, and slightly con-
tracts itself.
The shell, seen on the side, presents an irregularly
triangular form ; it is nearly as broad as it is long ;
its two valves are solidly attached the one to the
other, above and below, by the mantle in such a
manner as only to permit of very slight movements.
It is coloured in yellow and brown lines : sometimes
... . , . * ~ , ' Fig. 129. Teredo navalis
it is quite plain. On the upper edge of the an- (Linnaeus),
terior truncature of the body of the animal is the mouth, a sort of
funnel, flat and slightly bell-shaped, furnished with four labial palpi,
a stomach without any peculiar feature, and a well-developed intes-
tine.
The heart consists of two auricles and a ventricle, wh^ch beat at
very irregular intervals, four or five in the minute. The blood is
colourless, transparent, and charged with small irregular corpuscles.
Y 2
324 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The act of breathing is accomplished in the branchiae, or gills, and
mantle. Nevertheless, the one half of the blood returns to the heart
without passing through these branchiae.
The nervous system is well developed, and consists of a brain,
nervous filaments, and of ganglions, which are distributed in the
mantle, the branchiae, and the syphon tubes.
The adult animal is surrounded by a sort of sheath, consisting of a
solid mucus, which has sometimes been described erroneously as form-
ing part of the animal. The Teredo, shut up in this tube, is limited
in its movements ; when observed in a vase, its motions are slow and
deliberate movements of extension and contraction, by the aid of
which it contrives with difficulty to change its place ; but nothing
indicates a true creeping movement. In a state of nature, according
to M. Quatrefages, the body of the animal is stretched out to three
times its length without diminishing in any respect its proportional
thickness ; the afflux of water penetrating under the mantle, and of
the blood which accumulates in the interior vessels, sufficiently ac-
counting for a phenomenon which at the first glance is very singular.
The Teredo deposits a spherical greenish-yellow egg. Shortly after
fecundation, these eggs are transformed into larvae. At first naked
and motionless, these larvae are soon covered with vibratile cilia, when
they begin to move, at first by a revolving pirouette, afterwards
swimming about freely in the water. When one of these larvae has
found a piece of submerged wood, without which it probably could
not live, the curious spectacle is observed of a being which fabricates,
step by step, and as it requires them, the organs necessary for the
performance of its functions. It begins by creeping along the surface
of the wood by means of the very long feet with which it is furnished.
Then it is observed from time to time to open and shut the valves of
the little embryo shell which partly envelopes it. As soon as it has
found a part of the wood sufficiently soft and porous for its purpose, it
pauses, attacks the ligneous substance, and soon produces a little pore,
or cell, which will be the entrance to the future canal.
Once fairly lodged in this little cell, the young Teredo is rapidly
developed ; it covers itself with a coating of mucous matter, which,
condensing by degrees, assumes a brownish tint, forming a solid
covering, with two small holes for the passage of the syphon tubes.
At the end of three days this covering has become quite solid ; it is
. 325
the commencement of the organized tube, in which the animal is to
be developed. When secured beneath this opaque screen, the little
miner is no longer exposed to observation ; but if his cell is opened at
the end of a few days, it is found that it has secreted a new shell,
larger and more solid than the original one ; it is the shell of the
adult animal.
The young Teredo, which feeds on the raspings of the wood, increases
rapidly ; it passes first from a spheroid form to an elongated shape,
and when its body can no longer be contained in the shell, it projects
beyond the edge, and would find itself naked were it not protected by
its membranous sheath, which adheres to the walls of the ligneous
channel, now the dwelling-place of the animal.
The process by which a creature soft and naked like the Teredo
should break into a solid piece of the hardest wood so quickly, and
destroy it with so much facility, was long a mystery. Until very
recently, the shell was looked on as the implement of perforation.
But in that case the shell should preserve certain traces of its action
upon surfaces so resistant as oak and fir ; but the shell, on the con-
trary, is perfect, with no signs of friction. On the other hand, the
muscular apparatus of the Teredo is not calculated to put the shell
into rotatory action, were the process a boring one. It does not
seem therefore possible to attribute these perforations to a simple
physical action.
Some naturalists have suggested, in explanation of this phenomenon,
that the animal is furnished with the means of secreting a liquid
capable of dissolving the woody fibre. This has been met by the
statement that, in whatever way the wood is attacked, whether the
gallery is excavated with or across the fibre of the wood, the groove
is as exactly and neatly cut as if it had been perforated by the
sharpest tool, and that a corroding dissolvent could not act with this
regularity, but would attack the harder and more tender parts un-
equally. This objection, which M. sQuatrefages opposes to the idea of
a chemical solvent, appears to us to admit of no reply. But, while
opposing unassailable reasons against two theories, the learned author
does not leave us without a very reasonable explanation of a very
puzzling phenomenon. "Let us not forget," he says, "that the
interior of the gallery is constantly saturated with water; conse-
quently all the points of the walls which are not protected by the
326
THE OCEAN WORLD.
tube are subjected to constant maceration. In this state a mechanical
action, even very inconsiderable, would suffice to clear away the bed
of fibre thus softened, and, if this action is in any degree continuous,
it suffices to explain the excavation of the galleries, however extensive
their ramifications. Again, the upper cutaneous folds, especially the
cephalic hood already mentioned, having the power of expanding at
will by an afflux of blood, covered with a thick coriaceous epidermis,
and moved by four strong muscles, seems to me very capable of per-
forming the operation. It appears very probable that it is this hood
which is charged with the removal of the woody fibre, rendering it
incapable of resistance by previous maceration, which may also be
assisted by some secretion from the animal." That the fleshy parts
of the mollusc, acting upon the surface, softened by long maceration
Fig. 130. Pholas dactylus having hollowed out a shelter in a block of gneiss.
in water, is the true boring implement employed by the Teredo, is,
probably, the only explanation the case admits of; at all events, in
PHOLADID^.
327
the present state of our knowledge, the explanation of the learned
naturalist is the most reasonable which can be given.
The engraving (Fig. 130) represents P. dactylus, which has hol-
lowed itself a home out of a block of gneiss. This dwelling is a cell
just deep enough to contain the animal and its shell, as represented
in Fig. 131. To excavate its cell at the bottom of one of these gloomy
retreats seems to be all that the animal lives for. To ascend to the
summit or sink to the bottom of their narrow house makes up all the
accidents of existence to these strange creatures : the hole they dig is
at once their dwelling and their grave ; which is attested both by the
rocks of the past and the present.
In its structure the shell differs notably from other Acephalous
Molluscs, which led Linnaeus to place it with the multivalve shells.
Between the two ordinary valves, in
short, this shell presents certain acces-
sary pieces, smaller than the true
valves, and placed near the hinge, as
represented in Pholas dactylus (Fig.
131), pieces which would not be there
without a purpose.
The shell is equivalve, gaping on
each side, swelling below, very thin,
transparent, and white. The animal
is a thick, white, elongated, fleshy
body ; its mouth opening anteriorly,
throws out a long tube traversed by
two canals or syphons, through one
of which the water necessary for the
respiration of the animal is absorbed, Fig - 131 - Pnolas dactylus (Linnaeus),
and ejected through the other. Through another opening in the
mantle a very thick and short foot is protruded.
There are three ways of accounting for this creature's method of
boring the mechanical, the chemical, and the electric ; the first being
the one generally held. In this case the animal uses its foot as a
boring tool. The second presumes on the Pholas secreting an acid
which corrodes the rock; the third that it possesses a galvanic battery
with similar powers. It is possible that all these three theories may
have a measure of truth. That the foot of the borer is used is clear.
328 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The luminosity which is so characteristic of the animal is in favour
of an electric current, which is almost always accompanied by
chemical decomposition, which would set free the hydrochloric acid of
the sea water. The small size of the entrance to the chambers of the
Pholas is accounted for by the increase of its size during its residence
there. De Blainville thought that a simple movement of the shell
incessantly repeated would suffice to pierce the stone, macerated by
the sea water which passed through the breathing apparatus.
Mr. Eobertson, of Brighton, exhibited the living Pholas in the act
of boring through masses of chalk, and thinks the process entirely
effected by the simple mechanical action of the " hydraulic apparatus,
rasp, and syringe."
" If you examine these living shells," says Gosse, " you will see
that the fore part, where the foot protrudes, is set with stony points
arranged in transverse and longitudinal rows, the former being the
result of elevated ridges, radiating from the hinge, the latter that of
the edges of successive growths of the shell. These points have the
most accurate resemblance to those set on a steel rasp in a black-
smith's shop. It is interesting to know that the shell is preserved
from being itself prematurely worn away by the fact that it is com-
posed of aragonite, a substance much harder than those rocks in which
the Pholas burrows. The animal," Gosse adds, " turns in its burrow
from side to side when at work, adhering to the interior by the foot,
and therefore only partially rotating to and fro. The substance is
abraded in the form of a fine powder, which is gradually ejected from
the mouth of the hole by contraction of the bronchial syphon."
The Pholades are met with on every sea shore, and are plentiful in
the Channel ; on the French coast they are called Dails, and sought for
their fine flavour. As examples of the genus, we may quote Pholas
dactylus (Fig. 131) ; Pholas Candida, found in the Channel and
in the Atlantic Ocean, which lives buried in the mud or in decayed
wood ; Pholas crispata (Fig. 132), also found in the Channel; Pholas
papyracea (Fig. 133); and Pholas melanoura (Fig. 134).
The bodies of many genera of Mollusca have the property of shining
in the dark, but none emit a light more brilliant than that of the
Pholades. Those who eat the Pholades in an uncooked state (which
is by no means rare, for the flavour of the mollusc does not require
the aid of cooking to render it palatable) would appear in the dark as
PHOLADIDJ3.
S29
if they had swallowed phosphorus ; and the fisherman who, in a spirit
of economy, supped on this mollusc in the dark, would give to his
little ones the spectacle of a fire-eater on a small scale.
Fig. 132. Pholas crispata (Linnasus).
The perforations produced in stone hy the Pholades have become
important evidence in a geological sense. In many countries there
Fig. 133. Pholas papyracea (Solander).
Fig. 134. Tliolas melanoura (Sowerby).
were evident signs of a considerable sinking of the earth. But in no
place is the evidence of this so clear as in the monument of high an-
tiquity on the Pozzuolan coast, known as the Temple of Serapis.
In speaking of the culture of oysters by the Komans, we shall have
occasion to mention the disappearance of the Lucrin Lake, and its
replacement by an enormous mountain, the Monte Nuovo. Now,
Pozzuolo is situated at the foot of Monte Nuovo. We need not add
330 THE OCEAN WOELD.
that the whole neighbourhood is volcanic. Pozzuolo touches on the
Solfaterra, on the Lake Avernus, and is not far from Vesuvius ; and in
the hay is the monument of other days, erroneously called the Temple
of Serapis. In reality it was most probably a thermal establishment,
established for its mineral waters, although the world has agreed to
call it a temple.
However that may be, the building has been nearly levelled by the
hand of time, aided by the hand of man ; and the ruins now consist of
three magnificent marble columns of about forty feet high. But the
curious and important fact is, that these three columns, at about ten
feet above the surface, are riddled with holes, and full of cavities bored
deeply into the marble, and these borings occupy the space of three
feet on each column. The cause of these perforations is no longer
doubtful. In some of the cavities the shell of the operator is still
found, and it seems settled among naturalists that it belongs to a
species of Pholas, although M. Pouchet, a naturalist of Rouen, denies
this, "xis far," he says, "as I have been able to judge from the
fragment which I extracted from this temple, which is destitute of
the hinge, it is infinitely more probable that this mollusc is a species
of the genus Corattisphaga" In spite, however, of M. Pouchet's scep-
ticism, the mass of evidence is opposed to his theory.
There are two modes of explaining the fact to which we have called
attention. To enable the stone-boring molluscs which live only in
the sea to excavate this marble, the temple and columns must have
been buried several fathoms deep in sea-water. It is only in these
conditions that the borers could have made an incision, and laboured
at their ease, in the marble column.
But since the same traces of perforation are now visible ten feet
above the surface, it follows that, after being long immersed under water,
the columns have been elevated to their present position. The temple
has been restored to its primitive state, carrying with it, engraved in
marble, ineffaceable proofs of its immersion. Sir Charles Lyell has
consecrated a long chapter to the successive sinking and elevation of
this temple, which proves the fact most conclusively.
Family two, the GastrochaBnidse, is a somewhat heterogeneous one,
as it contains Saxicava and Aspergillum. We have only space for
a short account of the latter, the animal which has received the strange
GASTROCH^N,
331
name of the Watering Pot, and is represented in Fig. 135. It
inhabits a calcareous tube, thick, solid, of considerable length, and
nearly cylindrical, presenting at one extremity an opening fringed with
one or many foliaceous folds in the form of frills,
and at the other extremity a convex disk, pierced
with holes like a watering-pot: whence its name,.
The animal is attached by certain muscles to the
interior of the tube. Chenu, to whom we are
indebted for our information respecting this curious
mollusc, tells us " that the animal which inhabits this
curious shell was first described by Eussell, whose
account of it is deficient in the anatomical details,
which might explain the utility of the holes in the
disk of the central fissure, and of the spiriform tubes
found there." We suppose that this arrangement is
necessary in order to facilitate respiration ; and M. De
Blainville thinks the small tubes are intended for
the passage of the fillets which are necessary to fix
the animal to the body on which it is to live, and
in such a manner as to admit of its movements round
a fixed point.
The animal which inhabits the Aspergillum is
elongated, contractile, and only occupies the upper
part of the tube, but it can stretch itself out
sufficiently for all its wants. Shells of this genus
are very rare, although a great number of species are
known. They are found in the Bed Sea, and in the
seas of Australia and Java. The -shells are generally
of a white or yellowish tint ; some have the tube Fig 135 As p er giiium
covered with a glutinated sand, mixed with small giniferum (Lamarck).
fragments of shells of diverse colours. We know nothing of their
habits, and their singular forms have left naturalists in doubt as to the
place which should be assigned to them in the method of arrangement.
It is only after having recognized the existence of two valves, which
was detected with great difficulty just under the disk, and forming part
of the sheath in which the animal is encased, that it has been decided
to range them with the Tubicola, and with the shells presenting an
arrangement analogous or equally singular. These molluscs are, as
332 THE OCEAN WORLD.
M. Chenu says, little known, rare, and hence much sought for by
collectors. They are exclusively exotic, the most common species
being from Java. It is imported into Europe by the Dutch. Our
third family, the Anatinidae, includes Myochama, Pandora, 'Lyonsia,
Myacites, Pholadomya, Thracia, and Anatina, genera which were more
important in the former than in the present seas ; some, in fact, being
wholly extinct, or represented, as in Pholadomya, by one or two living
species. Our fourth family, the Myacidae, including Gycimeris, is
found only in America ; Panopsea, now principally extinct ; Thetis,
Neaera, Corbula, and Mya, or Graper.
Our fifth family, Solenidae, contains the Solens, which under the
name of " razor-fish " are so abundant on the sandy shores of all parts
of the globe. These molluscs live buried vertically in the sand, a
short distance from the shore ; the hole which they have hollowed,
and which they never quit, sometimes attains as much as two yards
in depth ; by means of their foot, which is large, conical, swollen in
the middle, and pointed at its extremity, they raise themselves with
great agility to the entrance of their hole. They bury themselves
rapidly, and disappear on the slightest approach of danger.
When the sea retires, the presence of the Solen is indicated by a
small orifice in the sand, whence escape at intervals bubbles of air.
In order to attract them to the surface, the fishermen throw into the
hole a pinch of salt ; immediately the sand becomes stirred, and the
animal presents itself just above the point of its shell. It must be
seized at once, for it disappears again very quickly, and no renewed
efforts will bring it to the surface a second time. Its retreat is
commonly cut short by a knife being passed below it ; for it burrows
into the ground with such velocity that it is difficult to capture it with
the hands alone.
This shell has by some been compared to a knife-handle ; by others
to a razor, which has become its popular name. It is a thin, trans-
parent, long, and slender equivalved bivalve, with parallel edges, gaping
and truncated at both extremities. The tints are rose-coloured, bluish-
grey, and violet ; the valves slightly covered with an epidermis of a
greenish brown.
The animal which lives in this elegant dwelling has the form of
an elongated cylinder. Its mantle is closed in its whole length,
and only open at the ends at one side for the passage of the food,
I. Solen siliqua. (Linn.)
II. Solen vagina. (Linn.)
III. Solen ensis. (Linn.)
IV. Solen ensis major. (Lamarck.)
V. So'en amb'guus. (Lamarck.)
VI. Solen legumen.
PLATE XIX. Razor-fish. Solenidae.
TELLINID2E. 333
and at the other for the passage of a tube formed of two syphons
united together. This curious shell, various species of which are
represented in PL. XIX., are known as razor-fish, sabre-fish, and other
names, which in some respects indicate the peculiar form of the shell,
as well as its sharpness.
The Tellinidse, the sixth family in our table, is very important, as
including a vast number of genera and species, of which, as types, we
will particularise Tellina and Donax; but Galatea, Mesodesma,
Semele, Sanguinolaria, Psammobia, and Capsula, are important
genera.
Along the shores of the Channel and in the Mediterranean there
are few bivalves more abundant than the several species of the genus
Donax. They live near the shore in shallow water, burying them-
selves perpendicularly in the sand. They have the very singular
habit, considering their apparent helplessness, of being able to leap
to a certain height and then project themselves ten or twelve inches.
This may often be witnessed in the case of individuals left by the
retreating tide. If seized by the hand, and attempts are made to
disengage them from the sand, they continue to impress on their shell
a sudden and energetic movement, aided by the elasticity of their foot,
which is at once decisive and angular.
Fig. 136. Donax rugosus (Linnaeus). Fig. 137. Donax denticulatus.
The shell of the Donax is nearly triangular in shape, compressed,
longer than it is high, regular, equivalve, not equilateral ; the hinge
with three or four teeth on each valve.
The animal is slightly compressed, and more or less triangular. Its
mantle, which forms two symmetrical lobes enveloping the body, is
open pretty nearly in all its extent, but it is united posteriorly, and
terminates in two syphons or nearly equal tubes, as in Fig. 130,
p. 326. One of these tubes serves the purpose of respiration : it is the
bronchial syplwn. The other, serving the purpose of ejecting the
334
THE OCEAN WORLD.
products of digestion, is termed the anal tube. The tentacles of the
bronchial tube seem to be possessed of exquisite sensibility. When
Fig. 138. Telllna radiata (Linnseus).
touched, the animal draws in its syphon, and only puts it forth anew
when the danger has passed.
The species of Donax are very
numerous, especially in the
Asiatic and American seas.
Among the European species
we may mention Donax ru-
gosus (Fig. 136) and Donax
denticulatus (Fig. 137).
Next to Donax naturalists rank the genus Tellina, which includes
many species of very minute shells, all remarkable for their beauty of
form, and for their brilliant and varied colours. One of these, called
the Eising Sun (Tellina radiata), is represented in Fig. 138. The
Fig. 139. Tellina virgata (Linnaeus).
Fig. 140. Tellina sulplmrea (Lamarck).
Fig. 14] . Tellina donacina (Linnaeus).
Tellinas are found in every sea ; the French coast furnishes many
species : examples, Tellina virgata (Fig. 139) and Tellina sulphur ea
335
(Lamarck) (Fig. 140). In Fig. 141 Tellina donacina is represented
with its two vital tubes, or syphons.
The seventh family, or Mactridse, include Lutraria and Mactra, or
the otter and kneading-trough shells. They are widely distributed ;
there are several British species of both.
The eighth family, Yeneridse, includes Yenus, Cy therea, Meroe, and
Artemis ; beautiful genera, and as such called by Linnaeus and his
followers after heroines of Greek mythology. Petricola, Yenerupis,
Tapes, Lucinopsis, and Trigona, also belong to the family. These
acephalae of size so small,
like their congeners,
inhabit every sea; they
are found in every region
of the globe, more than
a hundred and fifty
species being known.
The shell is elliptic in
form, the valves smooth,
striated, spiny, and lamel-
lous, like those of Cardium
and Donax. Like these,
they bury themeslves in
the sand.
Among the vast number of species, many of them are extremely
rare, and much sought after by collectors in consequence of their great
beauty. In the principal
ports of France, Venus
verrucosa (Fig. 142), and
another species known in
the south of France under
the name of Clovisse, are
eaten there like oysters.
Prepared with fine herbs,
the Clovisse, we have M. Fig ' 143 ' Cytherea * e s ra P hica (Chemnitz).
Figuier's authority for saying, is not to be despised. " We may be
believed also," he says, " if we add that nothing is more delicious than
to eat the living Clovisse torn from the rock of the Phara of Lake Thau,
when the Mediterranean sun of a day in winter is shining down upon us,
Fig. 142. Venus verrucosa (Linnaeus).
336 THE OCEAN WOULD.
the heart rejoicing in manhood's strength." In PL. XVIII. some of
the principal species are represented, along with some of the more
remarkable species of Cytherea. In Fig. 143 we have the elegantly
pencilled shell of Cytherea geograpliica, together with the animal in
its natural connection.
The sub-section we shall now treat of is without the pallial line
sinuated. The Cyprinidae form the ninth family of onr arrangement
of the Conchifera, and contain, Cardia, Cypricardia, Isocardia, Cras-
satella, Astarte, Circe, and Cyprina, which amount together to some
hundred species.
The Cycladidae are our tenth family, and include Cyrenoides, Cyrena,
Pisidium, and Cyclas.
The Lucinidae is the eleventh family, containing Galeomma, Lepton,
Montacuta, Kelia, Diplodonta, Corbis, and Lucina.
In the small family of which we have made the Tridacna the repre-
sentative, as well as in some preceding families, the mantle of the
animal is more or less largely open, but never with such a prolonga-
tion as to form tubes. In the Cardiums, now under consideration, as
well as Donax, Tellina, and Venus, the respiratory organs are some-
what modified, so as to adapt them to the habits of the animal. All
these molluscs live buried in the mud or sand, and two great tubes
issuing from the interior of their bodies bring the atmospheric air into
communication with their respiratory organ namely, the branchial
The twelfth family, Cardiadae, contains the familiar cockles
Cardium which is derived from /capbla, a heart, which they are
supposed to resemble in form, are amongst the most widely-distributed
of shells. The shell is convex, as we see in C. hians (Fig. 144),
somewhat heart-shaped, equivalved, the edges dentate or corrugated,
the hinge furnished with four teeth upon each valve. The accessary
ornaments vary with the species, some being smooth, as in Cardium
Greenlandicum, Chemnitz (Fig. 145) ; others, and by far the greater
number, are furnished with regular sides, generally obtuse, sometimes
in ridges diverging from the point and armed with straight or curved
spines, arranged in the oddest manner, as in Cardium aculeatum
(Fig. 146).
In C. hians (Fig. 144), the mantle has a large opening in front,
fringed anteriorly with papillae in the form of tentacula; the in-
I. Venus plicata. (Gmel.)
II. Venus puerpera. (Linn.)
V. Cytherea zonaria. (Lamarck.)
VI. Cytherea petechialis. (Lamarck.)
VII. Cytherea maculata. (Linn.)
PLATE XVIII. Venus and Cytherea.
CARDIAD^E.
337
habitant of the shell has a very large foot, with a bend or knee near
the middle ; its mouth is transverse and funnel-shaped, and furnished
with a triangular appendage. One of the peculiarities in the organ-
ization of these molluscs is its direct connection with their mode of life.
In short, these molluscs, which most commonly live on the sea shore,
Fig. 144. Cardinal hiuns (Brocchi).
Fig. 145. Cardium Green landicum (Chemuitu).
and bury themselves in the sand to the depth of four or five inches,
are enabled to breathe, to draw water for their nourishment, and also
to throw off the products of digestion, by having the mantle prolonged
into two tubes, the orifices of which reach to the surface of the soil.
Fig. 146. Cardium aculeatum (Linnaeus).
Fig. 147. Cardium ednlis (Linnaeus).
By means of these feet and an extremely curious organ of locomotion,
the Cardiums can at will issue from their holes and re-enter them.
The fishermen of the shore easily recognize the presence of these ani-
mals by the little jets of water which they throw up through the sand?.
338
THE OCEAN WORLD.
These molluscs are found in every sea on the globe, and under all
latitudes. Many of them belong to our own and the French coasts,
where they are eagerly sought for by collectors, as well as for food.
The flesh of the animal, however, is coriaceous, and little esteemed.
The species most common on the littoral of the Atlantic is Cardium
edulis (Fig. 147), its white or fawn-coloured shell being hollowed out
into six and twenty furrows, forming so many corrugated ripples on
its side.
Cardium costatum (Fig. 148) is an exotic species which inhabits
Fig. 148. Cardium costatum (Linuanis).
the coast of Guinea and the Senegal, the shell of which, white and
fragile, is much sought after by collectors.
The thirteenth family of our table, Tridacnidre, consists of only eight
or ten species, but it contains the largest of all, the giant Tridacna.
The historian of the wars of Alexander the Great speaks of oysters
inhabiting the Indian Ocean which were more than a foot long ; these
were probably Tridacna, the shells of which were most likely to be
seen by the Macedonian conquerors. The valves of Tridacna gigas
are sometimes found a yard and a half in length, and weighing five
hundred pounds. Magnificent examples may be seen in the church of
Saint Sulpice, Paris, where they hold the holy water. These beauti-
ful shells were the gift of the Venetian Kepublic to Francis I. Under
Louis XIV., the cure Languet had them presented to the church of
Saint Sulpice, where they are used as fonts for holy water. Another
pair are exhibited in the church of Saint Eulala, at Montpelier, but
much smaller in size. The shells of Tridacna are formed, as repre-
sented in PL. XVII., of three acute angles, festooned on their edges
Mate XVIL Tridacna gigantea. Holy Water Basin in the Church of Saint Sulpice at Paris.
TKIDACNID^B.
330
by broad sides bristling with white scales. The hinges have two
teeth ; the ligament is elongated and external.
The animal of Tridacna is remarkable for its fine colours. Tridacna
safrana is of a beautiful blue round the edges, rayed through a
shade of very pale blue. More in the interior is a row of small moons
of a yellowish green ; the centre is a bright violet, with brownish
longitudinal punctured lines. " We have at this moment before our
eyes," say the travellers Quoy and Gaimard, " one of the most charming
spectacles that can be seen, when at a little depth beneath the
surface a number of these animals display the brilliant velvety colours
and varying shades of their submarine parterres. As we can only
perceive the gaping opening of the valves, we may imagine to our-
selves what is its first aspect." The mantle of the animal is closed
and ample ; its edges are swollen, and reunited in nearly its whole
circumference in such a man-
ner as to leave only three
very small openings two in
the upper part ; the one serves
the purpose of discharging the
products of digestion, the other
gives entrance and exit to the
water necessary for respiratory
purposes. The third opening
is in the lower part of the body,
and free ; it leaves an opening
for the passage of the foot,
which is enormous, and is
surrounded with an ample tuft
of byssoidal fibres.
Aided by this silky tuft, the
animal attaches itself to the
rocks, and suspends its weighty
shell from them. If it is in-
tended to remove those attached
to the sides of the rock, it is
necessary to cut the cords of the tendonous byssus, by which it is held
suspended, with a hatchet.
All the species are inhabitants of the Tropical seas. The Tridacna
z 2
Fig, 149. Tridacna squamosa (Lamarck).
Fig. 150. Tridacna squamosa, on the inside (Lamarck).
340
THE OCEAN WORLD.
giga* is a native of the Indian Ocean. The flesh, though coriaceous,
and by no means of an agreeable flavour, is a great resource to the
poor Indians. The accompanying representations of Tridacna squa-
mosa (Figs. 149 and 150) will convey a general idea of the genus.
Our fourteenth family, Hippuritidae, is entirely fossil ; but the
fifteenth, Chamidae, of which the best example is the rugose genus
Charina, is widely distributed in tropical seas.
The very numerous division of shells called Asiphonidae, possesses
animals without respiratory siphons. The shells we shall now describe
belong to the sixteenth family, Unionidae, which contain Iridina,
Anodon, and Unio.
The pond mussels, Anodon, are found in lakes, rivers, and seas of
almost every region of the globe. Their shells are rounded or oval,
generally very thin, regular, and equivalve, not gaping, the hinges
without teeth, whence their name, from the Greek, oS<Wo?, without
teeth. These shells are nacred inside, and generally smooth.
The Anodon cygnea (Fig. III., PL. XYI.) is broad, deep, and light,
and is sometimes employed for skimming the cream off milk. The
genus is divided into many groups, the principal forms of which are
represented in PL. XYI.
The river mussels, Unio, are, like the Anodon, found in the muddy
bottoms of all countries.
The animal resembles the
Anodon, but the shell pre-
sents a toothed hinge.
The lower face of the valve
is nacrous, but shaded with
purplish violet, copreous,
and iridescent; the an-
terior face is of a green
colour, which varies from
tender to blackish green.
Among the species found
in European seas may be
noted the Ehine mussel,
Fig. i5i. umo nttoraiis (Cuvier). a J ar g e species, the nacre
of which is employed for ornamental purposes. Unio littoralis
(Cuvier), represented in Fig. 151, and the painter's mussel, Unio
II. Anodonta ensiformis. (Spix.)
1. Anodonta angulata. (Lea.)
III. Anodouta cygnea. (Linn.)
IV. Anodjnta magnifica. (Lea.)
V. Anodonta anserina. (Spix.)
VI. Anodonta latomarginata. (Lea.)
PLATE XVI. Anodonta.
UNIONHLE. 341
pictorum (Fig. 152), employed in the arts to contain certain colours.
Those known as the river mussels are leathery, of an insipid taste,
and scarcely eatable : the finest species are found in the great American
rivers.
Mussels, as we have seen, produce pearls of moderate value. Linnseus,
who was aware of the origin of the Pintadine pearls, and of pearls in
general, was also aware of the possibility of producing them artificially
from various molluscs. He suggested bringing together a number ol'
mussels, piercing holes in their shells with an augur in order to pro-
duce a wound, and afterwards leave them for five or six years, to
Fig. 152. Unio pictorum (Linna2us).
give the pearl time to form. The Swedish Government consented to
try the experiment, and long did so in secret ; pearls were produced,
but they were of no value, and the enterprise was abandoned as un-
successful, r
Scottish pearls were much celebrated in the middle ages, and
between the years 1761 and 1784 pearls to the value of 10,000
were sent to London from the rivers Tay and Isla ; " and the trade
carried on in the corresponding years in the present century," says
Mr. Bertram, " is far more than double that amount." The pearl,
according to Mr. Bertram, is found in a variety of the mussel, which is
characterised by the valves being united by a broad hinge, and having
a strong fibrous byssus, with which it attaches itself to other shells, to
342 THE OCEAN WORLD.
rocks, and other solid substances. " The pearl fisheries of Scotland,"
he acids, " may become a source of wealth to the people living on the
large rivers, if prudently conducted." Mr. linger, a dealer in gems
in Edinburgh, having discerned the capabilities of the Scotch pearl
as a gem of value, has established -a scale of prices which he gives for
them, according to their size and quality ; and it is now a fact that
the beautiful pearls of our Scottish streams are admired beyond the
orient pearl. Empresses and queens, and royal and noble ladies, have
made large purchases of these gems ; and Mr. linger estimates the
sum paid to pearl-finders in the summer of 1864 at 10,000. The
localities successfully fished have been the classic Doon, the Forth, the
Tay, the Don, the Spey, the Isla, and most of the Highland rivers of
note. Scottish pearls are much whiter in colour than oriental. What
tint they have is bluish, while those of the East are yellowish. Pink
pearls are produced by several exotic species of Unio.
Our seventeenth family are the Trigoniadae, affording Trigonia, of
which so many occurred in the Jurassic period of Geologic History in
the strata of Europe, but of which two or three are alone left alive in
the seas of Australia.
The eighteenth family, the Arcadse, affords between 200 and 300
species of the families of Leda, Nucula, Pectunculus, and Area.
Of the eighteenth family, Arcadae, we shall only at present instance
Pectunculus.
The genus Pectunculus are abundant on the shores of the Mediter-
Fig. 153. Pectunculus aureflua Fig. 154. Pectunculus delessertii
(Reeve). (Reeve).
ranean and along the Atlantic coast. If we take up at hazard a
handful of shells on any part of the French coast, one-third will consist
ARCADE.
343
of Pectunculus. They are found mixed with Cardium, Venus, Razor-
fish, and Pectens. Their round and robust frame attracts much atten-
tion. They form the first of those charming infantile collections which
are gathered at the mother's feet.
The animal which inhabits this pretty shell is moulded on its curva-
ture ; like the shell, it is round and squat ; it is furnished with a
mouth, large, and thick for its size, and with double branchiae. When
the animal is taken alive, it sometimes exudes a thick mucous liquid
over the shell, which has disgusted many a young collector with his
capture. ,
Among numerous species of Pectunculus we note as worthy of
representation : P. aureflua, Reeve (Fig. 153) ; P. delessertii, Reeve
(Fig. 154); P. pectiniformis, Lamarck (Fig. 155); and P. scriptus,
Born (Fig. 156).
Fig. 155. Pectunculus pectiniformis
(Lamarck).
Fig. 156. Peciunculus scriptus
(Born).
344 THE OCEAN WORLD.
CHAPTEE XII.
ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA continued.
MYTILLLLZE THE MUSSEL.
" Ecce intei' virides jactatur mytilus algas."
Anthologia.
WE shall now consider the nineteenth family or Mytilidae, which
includes Mytilus, Modiola, Lithodomus, and Dreissena.
The well-known shell of the mussel (Fig. 157, Mytilus edulis) is
longitudinal, equivalve, and regular, pointed at the base, with capa-
city to attach itself by a byssus ; the hinge has no teeth, but a deep
furrow, in which the ligament is located. In the genus Mytilus the
Fig. 157. Aiytilus edulis (Lihneeu.-).
byssus is divided to its base. In Modiola it has a common corneous
centre. In Pinna the anus is furnished with a long angular base. In
all these genera the foot is small, its retractile muscles numerous, and
the byssus large. In Lithodomus the byssus is rudimentary ; the
muscles are retractile, equal, and two pairs only. In Unio, Cardium,
and Syria, the foot is large and not byssiferous.
The animal, as described by M. Chenu, is elongate, oval, the lobes
of the mantle simple or fringed, divided at the edge into two leaves,
MYTILHLE. 345
the interior being very short, bearing a fringe of small, cylindrical,
and movable fillets ; the exterior leaf is united to the shell very near the
edge. The opening by which water and food are introduced supplies
the branchiae ' at the same time. The stomach consists of a white
membrane, thin, like opaline, and presenting itself in longitudinal
folds ; the liver is granulous, composed of greenish grains more or
less deep, contained in the meshes of a whitish tissue forming a
thickish bed, which surrounds the stomach, the intestines taking the
direction of the median and dorsal line, and beneath the heart are
received and terminate in a small appendage, floating in the cavity of
the mantle near the hinge. The foot is, perhaps, the remarkable
organ of the mussel : it is small, semi-lunar when not in motion, but
capable of great elongation, resembling thus a sort of conical tongue,
having a longitudinal furrow on its side. It is put in motion by
several pairs of muscles, all of which penetrate and are interlaced with
the tissue ; behind it is the silky byssus. The mouth is large, and
furnished with two pairs of soft palpi, which are pointed and fixed by
their summit. Abdominal masses emanate, and on each side a pair of
nearly equal branchiae. The additional muscles, one anterior and
small, the other posterior, large, and rounded. At the base of the
foot is a gland which furnishes a viscous secretion; this viscous
liquid is organized and moulded in the groove of the foot, and forms a
thread, and originates the byssus ; it is a bundle of hairs, mane, or
thread, which holds on to its shell.
The byssus plays an important part in the organization of the
mussel. While the oyster remains eternally riveted to its rock, until
torn from it by violence, the mussel moves about, and in this motion
the byssus is an active agent. The mussel attaches its byssus to some
fixed object, and drawing upon it, as upon a line, the shell is displaced.
The house is drawn onwards ; the animal is in motion. It takes no great
strides, but a fraction of an inch satisfies its desires ; it is, however, an
advance upon the oyster, and a lesson in mechanics. The mussel
stretches out its foot, and, at the point chosen, it hooks on a hair of
the bys?us ; then, withdrawing the foot suddenly, and hauling on the
thread, the animal and shell are moved forward. Every time it repeats
this motion it seems to attach an additional hair, so that at the end of
the four and twenty hours it has used many inches in length of
cordage. In the byssus of some mussels we find as many as a hundred
346
THE OCEAN WOULD.
and fifty of these small threads, with which the animal anchors itself
most securely to the rock. Aided hy this cordage, the mussel suspends
itself to vertical rocks, holding on a little ahove the surface of the
water, so that the shell is smooth and polished as compared with the
coarse and rugged shell of the oyster.
The mussels, like the oysters, are gregarious, and widely diffused
over all European seas. They ahound on hoth sides the Channel,
their lower price having procured for them the name of " the poor
man's oyster;" but it is infinitely less digestible and savoury than its
congener.
o Q
Fig. 158. Byssus, mantle, and oviduct.
A, right lobe of the mantle; D, rectum; G, branchiae; H, foot; J, posterior muscle; L, superior tube;
o, heart; p, ventricle; Q, auricle; x, pericardium; b, tentacles; d, byssus; e, gland of the byssus; g, re-
tractile muscle of the foot ; h, valves of the mantle ; i, oviduct ; j, orifice of the excretory organ ; k, inter-
nal ditto.
Many of our readers may think that mussels are found on the shore
in a state of nature, of good size, well flavoured, and fit for the table.
Nothing of the kind ! Detached from the rocks and cliffs of the sea,
where it has been growing in a natural state, it is lean, small, acrid,
and unwholesome food ; and it is only when human industry inter-
venes to ameliorate this child of Nature that it becomes palatable and
wholesome food. In order to trace the ameliorative process by which
the coriaceous flesh of the mussel was rendered tender, fat, and even
savoury, we must conduct the reader back into the middle ages.
Some time in 1236 a barque, freighted with sheep and manned by
three Irishmen, came to grief upon the rocks in the creek of Aiguillon,
a few miles from Eochelle. The neighbouring fishermen who came
MYTILID^B. 347
to the relief of the crew succeeded with great difficulty in saving the
life of the master, a man named Walton. Exiled upon the lonely
shore of the Aunis, with a few sheep saved from shipwreck, Walton
at first supported himself by hunting sea-fowl, which frequented the
shore and neighbouring marshes in vast flocks. He was a skilful
fowler, and invented or adapted a peculiar kind of net, which he called
the night net. This consisted of a net some three or four hundred
yards in length by three in breadth, which he placed horizontally,
like a screen, along the quiet waters of the bay, retaining it in its
position by means of posts driven into the muddy bottom. In the
obscurity of the night the wild-fowl, in floating along the surface of
the waters, would come in contact with the net, and get themselves
entangled in its meshes.
But the Bay of Aiguillon was only a vast lake of mud, in which
boats moved with difficulty ; and Walton, having arranged his bird-net,
began to consider what kind of boat would enable him most con-
veniently to navigate the sea of mud. The flat-bottomed, square-
sided boat, known in our rivers as a punt, and on the Norman coast
as an aeon, was the result. Walton's boat had a wooden frame some
three yards long and one in breadth and depth, the fore part of which
sloped down into the water, in the form of a prow, at a slight angle.
In propelling the boat the rower, who occupied the stern of the punt,
knelt on his right knee (as represented in Fig. 159), inclining forward,
with one hand on each edge, and the left leg outside the boat. A
vigorous push with the left foot gave the frail boat an impulse, under
which it rapidly traversed the bay from one point to the other.
The mussels swarmed in the little bay ; and Walton soon remarked
that they attached themselves by preference to that part of the post a
little above the mud, and that those so placed soon became fatter, as
well as more agreeable to the taste, than those buried in the mud. He
saw in this peculiarity the elements of a sort of mussel culture which
might become a new branch of industry. " The practices he intro-
duced," says M. Coste, " were so happily adapted to the requirements
of the new industry, that, after six centuries, they are still the rules
by which the rich patrimony he created for a numerous population
is governed. He seems to have applied himself to the enterprise,
conscious not only of the service he was rendering to his contem-
poraries, but desirous that their descendants should remember him,
348
THE OCEAN WORLD.
for in every instance lie has given to the apparatus which he invented
the form of his initial letter W. After due consideration, Walton
began to carry out his design. He planted a long range of piles
along the low marshy shore, each pair forming a letter Y, the front of
the letter being towards the sea, and each limb diverging at an angle of
forty-five degrees. These posts were driven about a yard asunder ; they
were about twelve feet long, six feet being above water, and interlaced
Fig. 159. Punt or Pirogue of the Marsh.
with branches wattled together, so as to form continuous hurdles,
each about two hundred yards long, which are called louchots. By
the assistance of this apparatus, which intercepted spat which would
otherwise have been swept away to sea by the tide, Walton formed a
magnificent collection of mussels ; but he did not abandon his isolated
piles. These, being without fascines or branches, and always sub-
merged, arrested the spat at the moment of emission."
The advantages of this system of culture adopted by the Irish exile
were so obvious that his neighbours along the shore were not slow to
MYTILID.E.
349
imitate his example. In a short time the whole bay was covered with
similar bouchots. At the present time these lines of hurdles form a
perfect forest in the little creek. About two hundred and thirty
thousand piles support a hundred and twenty-five thousand fascines,
which, according to M. Coste, " bend all the year under a harvest
which a squadron of ships of the line would fail to float." There are
about five hundred of these bouchots in the bay, each from two hundred
to two hundred and fifty yards in length and six feet high.
The isolated piles are without palisades, and are uncovered only at
spring tides. In the months of February and March the spat collected
Fig. 160. Isolated piles covered with the spawn of mussels.
on them scarcely equals in size a grain of linseed ; by the month of
May it will be about the size of a split pea ; in July, a small haricot
bean : this is the moment for its transplantation. In this month the
louchotiers, as the men occupied in this culture are called, launch
their punts and proceed to the part of the bay where these piles are
driven. They detach with a hook the agglomerated masses of young
mussels, which they gather in baskets, and carry them to their
bouchots. These bouchots, that is to say, the piles covered with fascines
and branches, are of four different heights, forming, so to speak, four
stages, according to the age and growth of the mussel. Each stage
receives the mollusc suitable to it. In the first stage of its existence
the mussel cannot endure exposure to the air, and remains constantly
350
THE OCEAN WORLD.
under water, except at the period of spring tides. These are gathered
in sacks made of old matting, or suspended in interstices of the basket-
work. "These immense palisades," says M. Coste, " cover themselves
with black clusters of mussels developed between the meshes of their
tissues." At that time the second rows are cleared away to make
room for younger generations ; the mussels, which no longer dread the
air, are transported to the more advanced bouchots, which remain
above water in all tides, where they stay till they are fit for market,
which usually happens after ten or twelve months of culture on the
more advanced bouchots.
But, in order to prepare for this consummation, they are subjected
Fig. 161. Piles, with basket-work, covered with mussels in a fit state to be gathered in.
to a second and even a third remove. There is no longer any danger
in subjecting them to the air for many hours. From this they pass
to a fourth stage, termed Amont (Fig. 161). From this stage the
full-grown mussel is removed. Under this system of culture the
reproduction, nursing, collecting, and preparing for market, are made
simultaneously. From July to January the mussel trade is in full
operation, and the flesh in perfection. From February to April is
the close season ; their flesh is then poor and leathery. It is also
remarked that those which inhabit the upper rows of the wicker-work
are of a mellower flavour than those on the lower ranks, and that the
intermediate rows are an improvement on those which are buried in
MYTILID^E. 351
the mud, although even these are preferable to mussels gathered on
the sea shore in a state of nature.
M. Coste gives a graphic description of the manner in which this
industry is carried on, " Having supplied the neighbouring villages,"
he says, " for the purpose of supplying the more distant cities, the
bouchotiers land their punts, filled with mussels, which their wives
carry into grottoes hollowed out of the cliffs ; where they clean and
pack them in hampers, baskets, and panniers, for conveyance by carts
or pack-horses. They depart on their respective journeys at night,
so as to reach their markets at La Eochelle, Eochefort, Surgeres,
Saint-Jean-d'Angely, Angouleme, Niort, Poictiers, Tours, Angers, and
Saumur, at an early hour. A hundred and forty horses and ninety
carts make upwards of thirty-three thousand journeys annually to
these cities. Besides this, forty or fifty boats come from Bordeaux, the
isles of Ke and Oleron, and from the sands of Olonne, making an
aggregate of seven hundred and fifty voyages per annum, distributing
the harvest of the little bay at places where horses could not serve
the purpose.
" A bouchot, well furnished, supplies annually, according to the
length of its wings, from four to five hundred charges. The charge
is a hundred and fifty kilogrammes (over three hundred pounds), and
sells for five francs ; a single bouchot thus carries a harvest equal in
weight to a hundred and thirty to a hundred and forty thousand
pounds, equal in value to 100 ; the whole bay probably yielding a
gross revenue of 480,000. This figure, and the abundant harvest
which produces it, gives only a slight idea of the alimentary resources
of the sea shore ; and every part of the coast, properly adapted for
the purpose, could be turned to equal advantage. In the mean time,
the Bay of Aiguillon remains a monument of what one man may
accomplish."
While commending the mussel as an important article of food, we
must not conceal the fact, that it has produced in certain persons very
grave effects, showing that for them its flesh has the effects of poison.
The symptoms, commonly observed two or three hours after the repast,
are weakness or torpor, constriction of the throat and swelling of the
head, accompanied by great thirst, nausea, frequent vomitings, and
eruption of the skin and severe itching.
The cause of these attacks is not very well ascertained ; they have
352
THE OCEAN WORLD.
in turn been ascribed to the presence of copper pyrites in the neigh-
bourhood of the mu?sel ; to certain small crabs which lodge themselves
as parasites in the shell
of the mussel; to the
spawn of star-fishes or
medusfB that the mus-
sel may have swallowed.
But, probably, the true
cause of this kind of poisoning resides in
the predisposition of individuals. The
remedy is very simple: an emetic, ac-
companied by drinking plentifully of
slightly acidulated beverages.
We have now come to the twentieth
family, the Aviculidse, which contains
Avicula, Malleus, Malapgrina, Perna, and
Pinna. The shells of the Hammerheads
(Malleus) have a rough resemblance to
the implement from which they derive
their name. The valves are nearly equal,
blackish, and somewhat wrinkled on the
exterior, often
brilliantly nacred
in the interior.
They are enlarged
to the right and
left of the hinge,
forming prolongations on each side,
which give them the fancied . resem-
blance to the Hammerhead (Fig. 163).
At the same time they grow in a direc-
tion opposite to the hinge, which gives
something approaching the handle of
the implement.
This is the first feature which a
glance at Malleus alba (Fig. 162) con-
veys. The hinge is without teeth,
having instead a deep conical fossette or dimple, for the reception of a
Fig 162. Malleus alba (Lamarck).
Fig. 163. Malleus vulgaiis (Lamarck\
THE PEAKL OYSTER. 353
very strong ligament which acts upon the valves. The animal is
contained in the interior of the shell, its mantle fringed hy very small
tentacular appendages. Only six actually living species of the genera
are known, which are inhabitants of the Indian Ocean, of the
Australian seas, and the Pacific Ocean.
The beautiful diaphanous nacre which embellishes the interior of
so many ornamental cabinets are principally produced by the animal
inhabiting the Meleagrina, a bivalve, sometimes designated the pinta-
dine, or mother-of-pearl shell. This bivalve moors itself to the bottom
of the sea by a strong byssus of a brownish colour. The door-posts
of the shells are irregularly rounded in their young days ; they are
externally lightly foliated, and ornamented with bands of green and
white, which spring from the summit in rays, and afterwards break
off into two or three slightly scattered branches. In old age they
become rugged and blackish. The shell is in its perfection when
about eight or ten years old, their size being then about six inches in
diameter, with a thickness of about an inch and a quarter.
Nacre is the hard and brilliant substance with which the valves of
certain shells are lined in the interior. This substance is white,
silky, slightly azure, and more or less iridescent. Most of the bivalves
are supplied with nacre ; some of them even yield a blue, or blue
and violet pigment. The iridescent Haliotis iris, for instance, is an
emerald-greenish blue of changing colour, with reflections of a purple
violet. Turbo argyrostomus (Linnaeus) presents a mouth of bright
silvery hue, while Turbo chrysostomus appears in all the glory of
gold ; but the Pintadine yields the purest white nacre, as well as the
most uniform, and especially the thickest. This product owes its
brilliant and delicate appearance to the play of light on it in its
highly-polished state. For practical purposes the nacre is separated
from the shell with an instrument ; sometimes all the exterior part of
the shell being dissolved away from the precious substance, leaving
only the naked bed of nacre.
But the most interesting of all the nacre-bearing shells is the pearl
oyster (Meleagrina margaritifera], the exterior, as well as the interior,
of which is represented in Fig. 164. The interior of the shell affords
the most exquisite pearls ; the Esterhazy collection of jewels afforded
many such specimens. This shell is nearly round, and greenish in
colour on the outside ; it furnishes at once the finest pearls, under
2 A
354
THE OCEAN WORLD.
favourable circumstances, and the nacre so useful in many industrial
arts. Fine pearls and nacre have, in short, the same origin. The
nacre invests the whole interior of the shell of Meleagrina margariti-
fera ; being the same secretion which in the pearl has assumed the
_ 164. Meleagrina margaritifera (Linnseus).
Outside of the shell. Inside of the shell.
globular form : in one state it is deposited as nacre on the walls of the
bivalve, in the other as a pearl in the fleshy interior of the animal.
This nacre is therefore at once a calcareous and horny matter, which
the animal secretes, and which it attaches to the interior walls of the
Fig. 165. Meleagrina margaritifera (Linnaeus).
shell during the several periods of its development. Pearls are formed
of the same substance, only in place of being deposited upon the
valves in beds, the material is condensed and agglomerated in small
spheroids, which develop themselves either on the surface of the
THE PEARL OYSTER. 255
valves or in the fleshy part of the mollusc. Between nacre and
pearls, therefore, there is only the difference of the form of deposition.
Fig. 165 represents the pearl oyster with calcareous concretions in
various states of progress.
The finest pearls solidified drops of dew, as the Orientals term
them in the language of poetry are secretions supposed to be the
result of disease in the animal. The matter, in place of being spread
over the surface of the valves in their beds, is condensed either on the
centre of the valves or in the interior of the organ, and forms a more
or less rounded body. The pearls, when deposited on the valves, are
generally adherent ; those which originate in the body of the animal
are always free. Generally we find some small foreign body in their
centre which has served as a nucleus to the concretion, the body
being perhaps a sterile egg of the mollusc, the egg of a fish, a
rounded animalcule, a grain of sand even, round which has been
deposited in concentric layers the beautiful and much-prized gem.
The Chinese, and other Eastern nations, are said to turn this fact in
the natural history of bivalves to practical use .in making pearls and
cameos. By introducing into the mantle of the mollusc, or into the
interior of a living valve, a round grain of sand, glass, or metal, they
induce a deposit which in time yields a pearl, in the one case free,
and in the other adhering to the shell. In some cases they are said
to be produced in whole chaplets by the insertion of grains of quartz
connected by a string into the mantle of a species of Symphynota ;
in other cases, a dozen enamelled figures of Buddha seated have been
produced by inserting small plates of embossed metal in the valves of
the same species.
The pearls are very small at first ; they increase by annual layers
deposited on the original nucleus, their brilliancy and shade of colour
varying with that of the nacre from which they are produced. Some-
times they are diaphanous, silky, lustrous, and more or less irides-
cent ; occasionally they turn out dull, obscure, and even smoky.
The pearl oyster is met with in very different latitudes ; they are
found in the Persian Gulf, on the Arabian coast, and in Japan, in
the American seas, and on the shores of California, and in the islands
of the South Sea ; but the most important fisheries are found in the
Bay of Bengal, Ceylon, and other parts of the Indian Ocean. The
2 A 2
356 THE OCEAN WOULD.
Ceylon fisheries are under Government inspection, and each year,
before the fisheries commence, an official inspection of the coast takes
place. Sometimes the fishing is undertaken on account of the State,
at other times it is let to parties of speculators. In 1804 the pearl
fishery was granted to a capitalist for 120,000 ; but, to avoid im-
poverishing all the beds at once, the same part of the gulf is not
fished every year.
The great fishery for mother-of-pearl Pintadines (Meleagrina mar-
garitifera) takes place in the Gulf of Manaar, a large bay to the
north-east of the island; it commences in the month of February or
March, and continues thirty days, taken collectively, and occupies two
hundred and fifty boats, which come from different parts of the coast ;
they reach the ground at daybreak, the time being indicated by a
signal gun. Each boat's crew consists of twenty hands, and a negro.
The rowers are ten in number. The divers divide themselves into
two groups of five men each, who labour and rest alternately ; they
descend from forty to fifty feet, seventy being the very utmost they
can accomplish, and eighty seconds the longest period the best divers
can remain under water, the ordinary period being only thirty seconds.
In order to accelerate their descent, a large stone is attached to a
rope. According to travellers the oars are used to rig out a stage,
across which planks are laid over both sides of the boat; to this
stage the diving-stone is suspended. This stone is in the form of a
pyramid, weighing about half-a-hundred weight ; the cord which sus-
tains it sometimes carries in its lower parts a sort of stirrup to receive
the foot of the diver. At the moment of his descent he places his
right foot in this stirrup, or, where there is no such provision, he
rests it on the stone with the cord between his toes. In his left foot
he holds the net which is to receive the bivalves ; then, seizing with
his right hand a signal-cord conveniently arranged for his purpose,
and pressing his nostrils with the left hand, he dives, holding himself
vertically, and balancing himself over his foot.
Each diver is naked, except the band of calico which surrounds the
loins. Having reached the bottom, he withdraws his foot from the
stone, which ascends immediately to the stage. The diver throws
himself on his face, and begins to gather all the pintadines within his
reach, placing them in his net. When he wishes to ascend he pulls
the signal cord, and is drawn up with all possible expedition.
PEAEL FISHEKIES. 357
A good diver, we have said, seldom remains more than thirty
seconds under water at one time ; but he repeats the operation three
or four, and, in favourable circumstances, even fifteen or twenty times.
The labour is extremely severe. On returning to the boat they some-
times discharge water tinged with blood by the mouth, nose, and ears.
They are also exposed to great danger from sharks, which lie in wait
for and frequently devour the unhappy divers.
They continue to fish till mid-day, when a second gun gives the
signal to cease. The proprietors wait on shore for their boats, in
order to superintend their discharge, which must take place before
night sets in, in order to prevent concealment and robbery.
In past times the Ceylon fisheries were very valuable. In 1797
they are said to have produced 144,000, and in 1798 as much as
192,000. In 1802 the fisheries were farmed for 120,000 ; but for
many years the banks have been less productive, and are now said to
yield only the sum of 20,000 per annum.
The natives of the Bay of Bengal, those of the Chinese coast, of
Japan, and the Indian Archipelago, all abandon themselves to the
pearl fishery, the produce being estimated to realize at least 800,000.
Fisheries analogous to those of Ceylon take place on the Persian coast,
on the Arabian Gulf, along the coast of Muscat, and in the Eed Sea.
In these countries the pearl fishing does not commence till the
months of July and August, the sea being at that time calmer than
in other months of the year. Arrived on their fishing-ground, the
fishermen range their barques at a proper distance from each other, and
cast anchor in water from eight to nine fathoms deep. The process
is pursued here in a very simple manner. When about to descend
the divers pass a cord, the extremity of which communicails with a
bell placed in the barque, under the armpits ; they put cotton in their
ears, and press the nostrils together with a piece of wood or horn ;
they close their mouths hermetically, attach a heavy stone to their
feet, and at once sink to the bottom of the sea, where they gather
indiscriminately all shells within their reach, which they throw into a
bag suspended round the haunches. When they require to breathe
they sound the bell, and immediately they are assisted in their
ascent.
On the oyster-banks off the Isle of Bahrein the pearl fishery pro-
duces about 240,000 ; and if we add to this the addition furnished
358 THE OCEAN WORLD.
by the other fisheries of the neighbourhood, the sum total yielded by
the Arabian coast would probably not fall short of 350,000.
In South America similar fisheries exist. Before the Mexican
conquest the pearl fisheries were located between Acapulco and the
Gulf of Tehuantepec ; subsequently they were established round the
Islands of Cubagua, Margarita, and Panama. The results became
so full of promise that populous cities were not slow to raise them-
selves round these several places.
Under the reign of Charles Y., America sent to Spain pearls valued at
160,000; in the present day they are estimated to be worth 60,000.
In the places mentioned, the divers descend into the sea quite naked ;
they remain there from twenty-five to thirty seconds, during which
space they can only secure two or three pintadines. They dive in
this way a dozen times in succession, which gives an average of
between thirty and forty bivalves to each diver.
The bivalve is carried on shore, and piled up on mats of Espartero
grass. The mollusc dies, and soon becomes decomposed ; it requires
ten days to be thoroughly disorganized. When in a thoroughly
corrupt state, they are thrown into reservoirs of sea-water, when they
are opened, washed, and handed over to the dealers. The valves
furnish nacre, and the parenchyma the pearls.
The valves are cleansed, 5ind piled up in tuns or casks ; by raising
their external surface plates of nacre are obtained more or less thick,
according to the age of the mollusc.
Nacre of three kinds are distinguishable in commerce : silver-faced,
bastard white, and bastard black. The first are sold in cases of
two hundred and fifty to two hundred and eighty pounds ; they are
brought from the Indies, from China, and Peru. The ships of
various nations import these shells as ballast. The second is delivered
in casks of two hundred and fifty pounds weight ; it is a yellowish
white, and sometimes greenish ; sometimes red, blue, and green.
Pearls form by far the most important product of the animal.
When they are adherent to the valves they are detached with pincers ;
but, habitually, they are found in the parenchyma of the animal. In
this case the substance is boiled, and afterwards sifted, in order to ob-
tain the most minute of the pearls; for those of considerable size are
PEARL FISHERIES. 359
sometimes overlooked in the first operation. Months after the mollusc
is putrified, miserable Indians may be observed busying themselves
with the corrupt mass, in search of small pearls which may have been
overlooked by the workmen.
The pearls adherent to the valve are more or less irregular in their
shape ; they are sold by weight. Those found in the body of the
animal, and isolated, are called virgin pearls, or paragons. They are
globular, ovoid, or pyriform, and are sold by the individual pearl. In
cleaning them, they are gathered together in a heap in a bag and
worked with powdered nacre, in order to render them perfectly pure
in colour and round in shape, and give them a polish ; finally, they are
passed through a series of copper sieves, in order to size them. These
sieves, to the number of twelve, are made so as to be inserted one
within the other, each being pierced with holes, which determine the
size of the pearl and the commercial number which is to distinguish it.
Thus, the sieve No. 20 is pierced with twenty holes, No. 50 with fifty
holes, and so on up to No. 1000, which is pierced with that number of
holes. The pearls which are retained in Nos. 20 to 80, said to be mill,
are pearls of the first order. Those which pass and are retained be-
tween Nos. 100 to 800 are vivadoe, or pearls of the second order ; and
those which pass through all the others and are retained in No. 1000
belong to the class tool, or seed pearls, and are of the third order.
They are afterwards threaded ; the small and medium-sized pearls
on white or blue silk, arranged in rows, and tied with ribbon into a
top-knot of blue or red silk, in which condition they are exposed for
sale in rows, assorted according to their colours and quality. The
small or seed pearls are sold by measure or weight.
In America the bivalve is opened with a knife, like the common
edible oyster, and the pearl is obtained by breaking up the mollusc
between the finger and thumb without waiting for its decomposition ;
nor is it boiled. This is a much longer and less certain process than
that pursued in the East; but the pearls are preserved in greater
freshness by the process for the nacre of the dead shells is less
brilliant than that of those which have been suddenly killed, and at
once separated from the soft parts.
Some few pearls have become historical, from their size and beauty.
A pearl from Panama, in the form of a pear, and about the size of a
360 THE OCEAN WORLD.
pigeon's egg, was presented in 1579 to Philip II., King of Spain : it
was valued at 4000. A Lady of Madrid possessed an American pearl
in 1605 valued at 31,000 ducats.
The Pope Leo X. purchased a pearl of a Venetian jeweller for
14,000. Another was presented to the Sultan Soliman the Great by
-the Venetian Kepublic valued at 16,000. Julius Caesar, who was a
great admirer of pearls, presented one to Servilia which was valued at
a million of sesterces, about 48,000 of our money.
There is no data for the volume or value of the two famous pearls
of Cleopatra ; one of these which the queen is said to have capriciously
dissolved in vinegar and drank Heavens preserve us from such a
draught ! is said by some authors to have been worth 60,000 ; the
other was divided into two parts, and suspended one half from each
ear of the Capitoline Venus. Another pearl was purchased at Califa
by the traveller Tavernier, and is said to have been sold by him to the
Shah of Persia for the enormous price of 180,000.
A prince of Muscat possessed a pearl so extremely valuable not on
account of its size, for it was only twelve carats, but because it was so
clear and transparent that daylight was seen through it he refused
4000 for it.
In the Zozema Museum at Moscow there is a pearl, called the
" Pilgrim," which is quite diaphanous ; it is globular in form, and
weighs nearly twenty-four carats. It is said that the pearl in the
crown of Eudolph II. weighed thirty carats, and was as large as a
pear. This size, besides being indefinite, is more than doubtful.
The shahs of Persia actually possess a string of pearls, each indi-
vidual of which is nearly the size of a hazel nut. The value of this
string of jewels is inestimable.
At the Paris Exposition of 1855, Her Majesty the Queen exhibited
some magnificent pearls ; and on the same occasion the Emperor of
the French exhibited a collection of 408 pearls, each weighing over
nine pennyweights, all of perfect form and of the finest water. The
Eomans were passionately fond of pearls, and they have transmitted
their taste to the Eastern nations, who attach notions of great
grandeur and wealth to the possessor of large and brilliant pearls.
The genus Pinna, so called by Linnaeus, from one of the species
which was so designated from the resemblance of its byssus to the
PINNA.
361
aigrette or plumelet which the Eoman soldiers attached to the helmet.
French naturalists name them jambonneau, from their singular resem-
blance to a dried ham (Figs. 166 and 167), their brown, smoky colour
not a little aiding the resemblance. This shell is fibrous, horny, very
thin and fragile, compressed, regular, and equivalve, triangularly
pointed in front, round or truncated behind. The hinge is linear,
straight, and without teeth; the ligament, in great part internal,
Fig. 166. Pinna rudis (Linnaeus).
Fig. 167. Pinna nigrina (Lamarck).
occupies more than half the anterior half of the dorsal edge of the
shell, forming a straight elongated fossette.
The animal is thick, elongated, with mantle open behind, presenting
a conical furrowed foot, bearing a considerable byssus.
The Pinnds are found in almost every sea, and at various depths ;
they are constantly attached by their byssus, and in a vertical position,
the larger side of their shell being uppermost. They assemble on
sandy bottoms in considerable numbers. The byssus has in all ages
fixed the attention of the Mediterranean fishermen upon these curious
shells. With its tuft of fine silky hairs, six or seven inches in length,
of a fine reddish-brown hue, articles of luxury are formed, which
are often mentioned by the Latin writers. The threads of the byssus,
which are remarkable for their unalterable colour, were formed by both
Greeks and Komans into a fabric to which there is nothing analogous
362 THE OCEAN WORLD.
in the world. The Maltese and Neapolitans still fashion soft tissues
from it, but the stuffs so manufactured are pure objects of curiosity.
Twelve species are described as living in the several seas. Pinna
Fig. 168. Pinna bullata (Swainson). Fig. 169. Pinna nobilis, with its byssus (Linnaeus).
nobilis (Fig. 169), the byssus of which was employed in the ancient
Neapolitan industry, inhabits the shores of the Mediterranean. Pinna
luttata, Swainson (Fig. 168), is also a well-known species.
Our twenty-first family, Ostreidae, contains Lima, Spondylus, Pecten,
Anomia, and the all-important oyster. The common oyster, Ostrea
edulis, is found in all seas. It is unequally valved, modified in shape
by the form of the submarine body to which it happens to be attached.
The lower or adherent valve is concave, always the largest; the
upper one thin, usually flat ; the shell is lamellar, rough externally,
and seems to be composed of broken layers, adhering slightly to each
other, as if the successive layers had been built up from within, and
each succeeding layer was an enlargement upon its predecessor.
The hinge which unites the valves is an elastic toothless ligament
.placed behind the centre, which opens the valves.
OYSTERS. 363
The interior surface of the valves is smooth and white, diaphanous
or pearly towards the centre, but near the hack an oval or rounded
impression may be observed, to which a thick and whitish fleshy body
is attached. This is the central muscle which draws the valves
together, hermetically closing them upon the animal. This muscle
is cut through in the process of opening the oyster.
The animal has no power of locomotion ; its foot is very small and
often wanting, no syphon, but lies with its mouth open, and slightly
attached to the shell. The shell itself is always adherent, as if sol-
dered to the rock or other submarine body, the point of adherence
being near the summit of the lower valve, at the part called the heel.
Let us suppose the oyster opened by the double dissection of the
ligament of the central muscle and of the abductor valves. When
displayed before our eyes, we see in the bottom of the shell a flattened,
shapeless animal, semi-transparent, greyish, and somewhat oval-
shaped. The gastronomist, who seldom sees beyond his nose, thinks
that in spite of its culinary merits the oyster belongs to the lowest
rank of animal existence ; but he deceives himself, and does not know
how complex and delicate is the organization of the humble bivalve.
The animal is enveloped in a sort of smooth, thin, contractile tissue
called the mantle, which folds round it, presenting two lobes, separated
on the greatest part of its circumference, and forming a sort of hood,
the summit of which abuts upon the hinge of the bivalve. The edges
of this mantle are fringed with very small cilia, which the creature
can extend and draw back at pleasure, and which seem to be gifted
with a certain amount of sensibility. It is this mantle which secretes
and deposits the calcareous matter which forms the shell, each plate of
which is an enlargement on the preceding one, until it constitutes a
pyramid of thin convex lamellae.
At the point where the lobes of the mantle meet, near the summit
of the valve, is the mouth of the animal, with its thin membranous
lips. This organ is large and dilatable, and is accompanied by four
flat triangular pieces, by means of which the animal introduces its
food into the stomachal cavity*
A very short gullet is attached to the mouth, which leads to a
pear-shaped stomach. After this stomach comes a slender sinuous
intestine, which, leading obliquely towards the interior, descends a
little, then reascends, passes behind the stomachal cavity, nearly on
364 THE OCEAN WORLD.
a level witli the mouth, crossing its first path in order to reach the
posterior face of the adductor muscle, in the centre of which it
terminates with a free opening. The stomach and intestines are
surrounded on all sides by the liver, which alone constitutes a notable
portion of the mass of organs. This liver is of a blackish colour,
pervaded with a deep yellow liquid, which is the bile. Thus the
stomach and intestines of the oyster are surrounded by the liver ; the
mouth is connected with the stomach, and the intestines open in the
The heart of the oyster is placed under the liver, and is surrounded
closely by the terminal part of the intestines. It is composed, like
the same organ in the superior animal, of two distinct cavities, an
auricle and ventricle. From the ventricle issues a vessel, which is
divided into three distinct canals. One of these carries the blood
towards the mouth and tentacles ; another carries it towards the liver ;
the last distributes the nourishing fluid to the rest of the body. The
blood of the oyster is limpid and colourless; it passes successively
from the auricle of the heart, where it is vivified, into the ventricle,
and from this last cavity into the great vessel of which we spoke,
which distributes it into the interior of the animal.
The oyster thus possesses a true circulation; not that double
system which characterises the mammals, and which includes arterial
and pulmonary action, but a simple circulation, as it exists in fishes
and many other animals. It breathes also in the bottom of the water,
after the manner of fishes, being, like the fish, provided with organs
called gills or Iranchite, whose function is to separate the oxygen dis-
solved in the water from its other ingredients ; these branchiae, which
are placed under the mantle, consist of a double series of very delicate
canals, placed close together, not unlike the teeth of a fine comb.
Having no head, the oyster can have no brain ; the nerves originate
near the mouth, where a great ganglion is visible, whence issues a
pair of nerves which distribute themselves in the regions of the
stomach and liver, terminating in a" second ganglion, situated behind
the liver. The first nervous branch distributes its sensibility to the
mouth and tentacles ; the second, to the respiratory branchiae.
With organs of the senses oysters are unprovided. Condemned to
a sedentary life, riveted to a rock where they have been rooted, as it
were, in their infancy, they neither see nor hear; touch appears
OYSTEKS. 365
to be their only sense, and that is placed in the tentacles of the
mouth.
The mode of reproduction in these creatures is very peculiar. The
oyster unites in itself the functions of both sexes. In the same organ
are found the eggs called spat and the mobile corpuscles intended
to fertilize them.
The eggs are yellowish in colour, and exist in prodigious numbers
in each individual. We are assured that an oyster may carry as many
as two millions of eggs ! Nature always makes ample provision for
the preservation of species ; but in spite of the most ample provision
here displayed, man, in his reckless and wasteful gluttony, has all but
defeated Nature. A tyro can compute how many individuals a bank
of oysters reckoned at twenty thousand would produce, at the rate of
two millions, or eight hundred thousand, as other authorities assert,
from each one annually, and it will amount to an incredible number
in fact, each would multiply itself by millions in three years ; and yet,
thanks to our improvident management, they get scarcer every year.
The spawning season is usually from the month of June to the end
of September : during this season the oysters deposit their eggs in the
folds of the mantle. During the period of incubation the eggs remain
surrounded by mucous matter, which is necessary to their develop-
ment, the whole having the appearance of a thick cream this milky
appearance being due to the accumulated mass of ova surrounded by
the mucus : this mass undergoes various changes of colour while losing
its fluidity, becoming successively yellowish, greyish, brown, and violet,
a condition which indicates the near termination of the embryo state,
for the oysters do not, like many other inhabitants of the sea, leave
their ova ; they incubate them in the folds of their mantle, and only
discharge them when they can live without the maternal protection.
Nothing is more curious to witness than a bank of oysters at the
spawning season. Every adult individual of which it is composed
throws out its phalanx of progeny. A living dust is seen to exhale
from the oyster bank, troubling tKe water and giving it a thick cloudy
appearance, which disseminates itself little by little in the liquid, until
it dissipates and loses itself far from its focus of production. The spat
is soon scattered far and wide by the waves ; and unless the young
oyster finds some solid body to which it can attach itself, it falls an
inevitable victim to the larger animals which prey upon it. In
866 THE OCEAN WORLD.
this its infant state, when it has just left the protection of the parent
shell, the microscope reveals the young bivalve, with its shell perfect,
having an apparatus which is also a swimming pad, ready to
adhere to the first solid body which the current drives it against.
This pad or cushion
(which is repre-
sented in Fig. 170)
is furnished with
vibratile cilia, dis-
posed round the
young shell. Aided
by the powerful ad-
Fig. 1 70. Young Oysters furnished with locomotive organs. -\ i i -j-i
which it is also provided, this cushion is projected through the water
at the will of the young inhabitant, which has every facility for the
purpose : it is even said to swim about near the mother, before final
dismissal from the maternal protection, seeking shelter at the least
alarm between the valves of the parent shell. The pad disappears
after the young oyster has finally attached itself to a permanent bed
of its own.
Before this period of its life arrives, however, many are the dangers
to which it is exposed : its enemies are numerous ; they lie in ambush
for it in every cranny ! It has to guard itself against eddies and
currents, which would drive it out to sea, and mud banks, in which it
would be smothered. Crustaceans, worms, and polyps, with other
equally voracious marine inhabitants, prey upon it. Last, but not least,
come the terrible and multiplied engines of the eager fisherman
and we readily comprehend why the oyster is provided with such
accumulated masses of ova.
If the young bivalve is fortunate enough to escape all the snares
and dangers we have enumerated, it grows rapidly. It is quite micro-
scopic at the period of its discharge from the parent shell ; at one month
it is of the size of a large pea, at the end of six months it is about
three-quarters of an inch, a year after its birth an inch and a half to
two inches, and finally, at the end of three years it has become mer-
chandise ; that is to say, it is in a state to be sent to the parks for
preservation and feeding. In Fig. 171 we see a group of oysters,* of
* We give this illustration as representing the comparative size of the oysters at
OYSTERS.
367
various ages, attached to a piece of wood : A being oysters of twelve to
fifteen months, B fi ve*br six months, c three to four months, D one to
two months, and E oysters twenty days after birth.
Fig. 171. Groups of Oysters of different ages attached to a block of wood.
The species of oysters usually eaten are the common oyster (Ostrea
edulis, Linn.) of our own coasts and the opposite shore, and the
different ages ; but it is necessary to state that the specimens were artificially attached
to the block by means of glue for exhibition. Oysters always attach themselves by
the back of the rounded shell near to the hinge, as stated at p. 363.
368 THE OCEAN WOELD.
horsefoot oyster (0. hippopus, Linn.). On the Mediterranean coast
are the rose-coloured oyster (0. rosacea, Fava&ue), and the milky
oyster (0. lacteola, Moquin-Tandon), besides the small and little-
known crested oyster (0. cristata, Born), and the folded oyster
(0. plicata, Chemnitz). On the Corsican coast is the oyster called
foliate (0. lamellosa, Brocchi).
There are two principal varieties of the common oyster dredged on
the French coast, which differ in size and delicacy of flavour. These
are the Cancale and Ostend oyster. "When the first has been fed for
some time in the oyster park, and has assumed its greenish hue, it is
designated the Marenna oyster, from " the park " so named in the
Bay of Seudre. Of this green colour we shall speak elsewhere.
Who believed Uncle Jack when he told us in our youth of oysters
growing on trees, and oysters so large that they required to be carved
like a round of beef of oysters on the Coromandel coast as large as
soup-plates ? Nevertheless Uncle Jack's stories were true : there are
oysters which require carving, and oysters have been plucked off trees.
In some parts of America they grow very large. Virginia possesses
nearly two million acres of oyster-beds. The sea-board of Georgia is
famed for its immense supplies; the whole coast of Long Island,
extending to a hundred and fifteen miles, is occupied with them, and
all over the States evidence is to be seen of the estimate in which the
favoured bivalve is held by the American people.
Natural oyster-beds are found in bays, estuaries, and other sheltered
sinuosities of the coast, with shelving and not too rocky bottoms,
such places being, according to the natural law of production, favour-
able for the increase of the colony. Such banks abound in every sea.
In France the oyster-beds of Eochelle, of Eochefort, the Isles of Be
and Oleron, the Bay of St. Brieuc, of Cancale, and Granville, are
famous for the quality of their produce.
On the Danish coast there are from forty to fifty oyster-banks,
situated on the west coast of Schleswig ; the best bed lying between the
small isles of Sylt, Amron, Fohr, Pelworm, and Nordstrand. At the
point of Jutland, and opposite Shagen, beds less productive are found.
The great oyster-beds of England extend from Gravesend, in the
estuary of the Thames and Medway, along the Kentish coast on the one
hand, and the estuary of the Colne and other rivers on the Essex coast.
The Frith of Forth is also famous for its oyster-beds, extending from
OYSTERS. 369
Preston Pans far up the estuary of the river ; but, curiously enough,
all these great banks, without exception, have been impoverished, and
all but exhausted, by improvident dredging, in spite of the " close
season " which has always existed.*
" He was a bold man who first ate an oyster," has been said before.
The name of the courageous individual has not been recorded, but
Mr. Bertram, in his " Harvest of the Sea," tells us a legend concerning
him : " Once upon a time," it must have been a long time ago, " a
man of melancholy mood was walking by the shores of a picturesque
estuary, listening to the monotonous murmur of the sad sea-waves,
when he espied a very old and ugly oyster-shell all coated over with
parasites and sea-weeds. It was so unprepossessing that he kicked
it with his foot, and the animal, astonished at receiving such rude
treatment on its own domain, gaped wide with indignation, prepara-
tory to closing its bivalve still more tightly. Seeing the beautiful
cream-coloured layers that shone within the shelly covering, and
fancying that the interior of the shell itself must be beautiful, he lifted
up the aged ' native ' for further examination, inserting his finger and
thumb within the valves. The irate mollusc, thinking, no doubt,
that this was meant as a further insult, snapped its pearly door
down upon his finger, causing him considerable pain. After releasing
his wounded digit, our inquisitive gentleman very naturally put it in
his mouth. ' Delightful !' exclaimed he, opening wide his eyes ;
' what is this ?' and again he sucked his finger. Then the great
truth flashed upon him that he had found out a new delight had, in
fact, achieved the most important discovery ever made. He proceeded
at once to realize the thought. With a stone he opened the oyster's
stronghold, and gingerly tried a piece of the mollusc itself. ' Deli-
cious !' he exclaimed ; and there and then, with no other condiment
than its own juice, with no accompaniment of foaming brown stout
or pale Chablis to wash it down, no newly-cut, well-buttered brown
bread, did that solitary anonymous man inaugurate the first oyster
banquet."
* The cause of the present scarcity of oysters is a much- vexed question. Mr. Frank
Buckland, the greatest living authority on oyster and fish culture, attributes it to
sudden changes of temperature at the critical period when the spat is newly formed,
rather than to over-dredging. ED.
2 B
370 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Another story makes the act of eating the first oyster a punish-
ment. The poetaster also had his views on the suhject :
" The man had sure a palate covered o'er
With brass, or steel, that on the rocky shore
First broke the oozy oyster's pearly coat,
And risked the living morsel down his throat."
And ever since men have gone on eating oysters. Emperors and
poets, princes and priests, pontiffs and statesmen, orators and painters,
have feasted on the favoured bivalve.
Man has made use of the oyster from the most remote antiquity.
Among the debris of festivals which precede by ages the epoch of
written history, oyster-shells are found. On the " midden heaps " of
northern Europe they are often discovered, mingling with other rubbish
and with stone implements, evidently the refuse of very ancient
feasts. We have all read of the classic feasts of the Eomans, which
began with oysters brought from fabulous distances. Yitellius ate
oysters all day long, and the idea prevailed that he could eat a
thousand. Calisthenes, the philosopher, was a passionate oyster eater ;
so was Caligula; Seneca the wise could eat his hundred, and the
great Cicero did not despise the savoury bivalve. Lucullus had sea-
water brought to his villa from the shores of the Campania, in which he
bred them in great abundance for the use of his guests. To another
Eoman, Sergius Grata, we owe the original idea of the oyster-park.
He invented the oyster-pond, in which he bred oysters, not for his
own table, but for profit.
Among modern celebrities whose love of oysters is recorded, we may
mention Louis XI., who feasted the learned doctors of the Sorbonne
once a year on oysters. Another Louis invested his cook with an
order of nobility, in reward for his skill in cooking them. Cervantes
loved oysters, although he satirized oyster dealers. Marshal Turgot
used to eat a hundred or two just to whet his appetite. Eousseau,
Helvetius, Diderot, the Abbe Kaynal, and Yoltaire, are recorded lovers
of oysters. Danton, Eobespierre, and other of the revolutionists,
frequented the oyster salons of Paris. Cambaceres was famous for
his oyster feasts, and it is recorded of the great Napoleon that he
always partook of the bivalve on the eve of his great battles, when
they could be procured.
In short, it has been demonstrated as a gastronomic truth that
OYSTEES. 371
there is no feast worthy of a connoisseur where oysters do not come to
the front. It is their office to open the way by that gentle excitement
which prepares the stomach for its sublime function, digestion ; in a
word, the oyster is the key of that paradise called appetite. " There
is no alimentary substance, not even excepting bread, which does not
produce indigestion under given circumstances," says Keveille-Parise,
"but oysters never." This is an homage which is due to them: "We
may eat them to-day, to-morrow, eat them always, and in profusion,
without fear of indigestion." Dr. Gastaldi could swallow, we are
assured, his forty dozen with impunity quite a bank must he have
eaten. He was unfortunately struck with apoplexy at table before
& pate defoie gras.
Montaigne quaintly says, to be subject to colic, or deny oneself
oysters, presents two evils to choose from, since one must choose
between the two, and hazard something for his pleasure.
England has always been famous for its oysters, and its pearls are said
to have been the chief incentive to Caesar's invasion. It is not, there-
fore, to be supposed that British magnates could be indifferent to the
" native." But the bivalve has perhaps been more celebrated, in prose
and verse, north of the Tweed than south, where silent enjoyment is
more relished than noisy demonstration. Dugald Stewart, Hume,
Cullen, and other Scotch philosophers of the last centuries, had their
" oyster ploys " as an accompaniment to their " high jinks," in the
quaint and dingy taverns of the old town of Edinburgh ; and what the
bivalve has been to modern celebrities let the Nodes Ambrosiante tell.
The oyster may thus be said to be the palm and glory of the table.
It is considered the very perfection of digestive aliment. From Stock-
holm to Naples, from London to St. Petersburg, it is always in re-
quest. At St. Petersburg they cost a paper rouble (nearly one
shilling), and at Stockholm fivepence each. For the last year or
two the English amphitryon must pay from two shillings to half a
crown a dozen for choice natives.
For his daily nourishment a man of middle size requires a quantity
of food equal to twelve ounces of dry nitrogenized substance. Accord-
ing to this calculation, it would be necessary to swallow sixteen dozen
of oysters to make up the necessary quantity. The small proportion
of nutritive matter explains the extreme digestibility of the oyster.
It also explains the immense consumption of them attributed to the
2 B 2
372 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
Emperor Yitellius. The oyster is nothing more than water slightly
gelatinized. Without this Yitellius, all emperor and master of the
world as he was, never could have absorbed twelve hundred oysters
by way of whetting his appetite.
The gourmets were long of opinion that the quadrangular pad
or cushion in the bivalve was the most savoury and exciting part.
Certain distinguished amateur performers adopted and proclaimed
the principle of dividing transversely the body of the mollusc, and
eating the cushion only. Natural history explains this gastronomical
discovery. It recognizes the fact that the bile secreted by the liver is
contained in this substance, that it accelerates while it exhausts the
qualitative surface of the tongue and palate, aiding also the functions
of the stomach.
We have described the organization of the oyster, and we have said
something of the enjoyment it confers. Did it ever occur to the
various Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to con-
sider whether the oyster might not be a very proper object of their
care ? Let us see if we can bridge over the gulf.
We commence operations upon them by dragging them violently from
their own element. We place them out afterwards in water-parks,
more or less briny and unsuitable, filled with villainous green matter,
which presently pervades their breathing apparatus, impregnating,
obstructing, and colouring it ; the oyster swells, fattens, and soon
attains that state of obesity which verges on sickness.
When the poor creature has attained its livid green colour, it
is fished up a second time. Alas ! it is now doomed neither to
return to the sea, to the park, nor to its native rock. It has water
at its disposal only in the very small quantity which it can retain
between its two valves, a quantity scarcely sufficient to keep away
asphyxia. It is shut up in an obscure narrow basket an ignoble
prison-house, without door or window. It seems to be forgotten that
they are animals : they are piled upon the pavement like inert mer-
chandise. The basket is carried by railway ; the animal, shaken out of
existence almost, is at last landed at the door of some oyster-shop ; and
this is the critical moment for the poor bivalve ! It is thrown into
a tub with clean water enough to remind it of its former luxurious
life, when it is again seized by the pitiless master of its fate.
OYSTERS. 373
With a great knife he brutally opens the shell, cuts through the
muscle by which it adheres to the valve, and violently detaches it,
after breaking the hinges. It is now laid out on a plate, exposed to
every current of air, and in this state of suffering it is carried to the
table. There the pitiless gourmet powders it over with the most
pungent pepper, squeezes over the wounded and still bleeding body
the abomination of its race in the shape of citric acid or vinegar, and
then, alas ! with a silver knife which cannot cut, he wounds and
bruises it a second time ; or, worse still, he saws and tears and rends
it from its remaining shell ; he seizes it with a three-pronged fork,
which is driven through liver and stomach, and throws it into his
mouth, where the teeth cut, crush, and grind it, and, while still living
and palpitating, reduced to an inanimate mass, these organs first tritu-
rate it, while our gourmet is drinking its blood, its fat, and its bile.
We have said that oysters have no head, no arms that they are
without eyes (although that is disputed), without ears, and without
nose ; that they do not stir that they never cry !
Agreed, perfectly agreed ; but all these negatives do not prevent its
being sensible to pain. Two eminent Germans, Herren Brandt and
Eatzeburg, have proved that they possess a well-developed nervous
system, and if they possess sensation they must suffer. "Can an
animal with nerves be impassible ?" asks Yoltaire. " Can we suppose
any such impossible contradiction in Nature ?"
There is consolation, however, for all concerned. Let the humani-
tarian fishermen, oyster-dredgers, merchants, and consumers, console
themselves with the vast difference between the helpless imperfect
mollusc and the higher classes of animals. In the case of the former
we swallow the animal, scarcely thinking of its animal nature. It is
the denizen of another element, lives in a medium in which we cannot
exist, presents, itself in a form, so to speak, degraded an obscure
vitality, motions undecided, and habits scarcely discernible. We may
therefore see the oyster mutilated, mutilate them oneself, grind them,
and swallow them, without emotion or remorse.
A learned naturalist dwelling on the sea-shore possessed himself one
day of a dozen oysters. He wished to study their organization ; he
turned them, and turned them again, examined their several parts
inside and out. He made drawings of and described them, and, having
satisfied himself that he had exhausted Science in observing, he
374: THE OCEAN WOULD.
swallowed them ; the interesting bivalves had lost nothing of their
excellence, and the examination did not prejudice the consummation.
Oyster fishing is pursued in a very different manner in different
countries. Bound Minorca, divers, with hammers attached to the
right hand, descend to the depth of a dozen fathoms, and bring up in
their left hand as many of the bivalves as they can carry, two fisher-
men, usually associating for the purpose, diving alternately until the
boat is filled. On the English and French coasts the dredge is
employed, as represented in PL. XII. This operation is necessary
to keep down vegetation, which would stifle the oysters ; the engine is
of iron, and is very heavy. It is thrown overboard, and descends to
the bottom of the sea, which it ploughs and scrapes up, detaching the
oysters, and throwing them into a net attached to the dredge. In this
process oysters, large and small, are torn from their native bed, some
going into the net, but a larger number, old and young, are torn from
their native bed, and buried in the mud. It would be difficult to
imagine a more destructive process ; and when the habits of the oyster
are considered, it is evidently one admirably contrived to, destroy the
race.
In France oyster dredging is conducted by fleets of thirty or forty
boats, each carrying four or five men. At a fixed hour, and under the
surveillance of a coastguard in a pinnace bearing the national flag, the
flotilla commences the fishing. In the estuary of the Thames the
practice is much the same, although no official surveillance is observed.
Each bark is provided with four or five dredges, resembling in shape
a common clasp purse. It is formed of network, with a strong iron
frame, as represented in Fig. 172, the iron frame serving the double
purpose of acting as a sucker, and keeping the mouth open, while
giving it a proper pressure as it travels over the oyster-beds. When
the boat is over the oyster scarp, the dredge is let down, and no more
attractive sight exists than that presented by the well-appointed
Whitstable boats on one side of the estuary, or the Colne boats on the
other, as they wear and tack over the oyster-beds, bearing up from
time to time to haul in the dredge, and empty its contents into the
hold. The tension of the rope is the signal for hauling in, and very
heterogeneous .are the contents sea- weeds, star-fishes, lobsters, crabs,
actinia, and stones. In this manner the common oyster fields on both
OYSTERS. 375
sides of the Channel were ploughed up by the oyster dredger pretty
much as the ploughman on shore turns up a field. The consequence
was that, twenty years ago, the French beds were totally exhausted,
and France had to look to foreign countries for its oyster. Oyster
farms which had employed fourteen hundred men and two hundred
boats were reduced to two hundred men and twenty boats. Similar
results from over-dredging would have followed, no doubt, on this side
the Channel had the mollusc not been protected by the company and
private proprietors who held the oyster-beds in the large estuaries.
This state of things in France led to some important discoveries in
Fig. 172. Dredge employed in Oyster fisheries.
the science of oyster culture, which have produced important changes
there.
The name of Sergius Grata has already been mentioned as a culti-
vator of oysters. He lived in the fifth century before our era, and
according to Pliny he first attempted parking oysters at Baia in the
times of the orator Lucius Crassus. He was the first to recognise the
superior flavour of the oysters of the Lucrin Lake, the Avernus of the
poets, probably for trade reasons of his own, for then, as now, Eeveille-
Parise remarks, writing on the subject, " tradesmen speculated on the
weaknesses of human gourmandism." But Sergius really created a
new industry, which is still practised in thousands of places much as
he left it. As a proof of the perfection to which Sergius had brought
376 ' THE OCEAN WOULD.
oyster culture, his contemporaries said of him, in allusion to the
hanging banks which he invented, that if he had been prevented from
raising oysters in the Lucrin Lake, "he would have made them
grow on .the house-tops." The traveller who visits this celebrated
lake finds only a miry puddle. The precious oysters placed there by
Catiline's grandfather are replaced by a host of miserable eels, which
leap in the mud; vile mountains of ashes, coal, and pumice-stone,
which was thrown up in a night like the mushroom, having reduced
the once celebrated lake into the state described.
Rondeletius also speaks of a fisherman who understood the art of
oyster culture.
The Neapolitan Lake Fusaro the terrible Acheron of the poets is
a great oyster-park, in which Art is made effectually to aid Nature in
the multiplication of its products. This famous oyster-bank, which
is represented in PL. XIII., lies in the neighbourhood of Baia and
Cumse. It forms one of the most interesting spots in that beautiful
bay. In the month of February, 1865, M. Figuier tells us he
traversed its celebrated coast, seated himself on the banks of the
historical lake, and tasted the produce of this curious manufacture of
living beings, whose origin dates from the Roman period.
Lake Fusaro was in ancient times a place of evil report : Virgil
immortalized it as the mythological Acheron ; but its landscape had
nothing of the sadness and desolation which accords with the sojourn
of the dead. It is a salt pond, shaded with a girdle of magnificent
trees. It is about a league in circumference, and about a fathom in
depth at its deepest part ; its bottom is muddy and black, like the rest
of this volcanic region.
It will be understood, from what has been said, that the chief
obstacle to the reproduction of oysters is the absence of any solid
body to which the young spawn can attach itself, and the means of
shelter from animals which prey upon them. The fishermen living on
the shores of Lake Fusaro have long realized this, and provided
against it by warehousing, as it were, in the lake near the sea, the
oysters ready to discharge their spawn, while retaining the young
generations captive in the protected basins, where they are sheltered
from various causes of destruction to which oysters are exposed in the
open sea.
Upon the bottom of the lake, and on its circumference, the proprie-
OYSTEES.
377
tors of Fusaro have constructed hillocks here and there, with stones
heaped up, artificial rocks, raised sufficiently to shelter the depots
from mud and slime. Upon these rocks they deposit the young
oysters gathered in the Gulf of Tarentum. Each of these rock-works
is surrounded by a girdle of piles, driven close to each other, and
raised a little above the surface of the water, as represented in Fig. 173.
Fig. 173. ArtiGcial Oyster-bank in Lake Fusaro.
Other piles are distributed in long lines, and bound to each other
by a cord, from which are suspended fagots of young wood. In the
spawning season the oysters which have been deposited on the arti-
ficial rocks discharge the myriads of young fry which have been
nurtured in the folds of their mantles. The fagots suspended from
the piles arrest the germ before it is driven away by the waves, much
as a swan attaches itself to the first shrub which comes in the way.
By these precautions the riverains of Fusaro have provided for the
preservation of the young fry, besides removing many of the natural
enemies of the young oyster.
In other places the piles are distributed in long lines and bound
together by strong cords, from which fagots of brushwood are sus-
pended, on which the young spawn lay hold, as in Fig. 174.
By means of these arrangements the pregnant oyster deposits its
spawny progeny in quiet repose ; the young germs are intercepted by
the fagots and hurdles suspended between the piles, where the young
378
THE OCEAN WOKLD.
oysters develop themselves under the favourable conditions of repose,
temperature, and light. When the fishing season arrives, the piles
and fagots which surround the beds are removed, and the oysters are
gathered suitable for market. The oysters thus selected for sale are
packed loosely in osier baskets and sunk, while waiting for purchasers,
into a reserve or park. This park is established on the shores of the
lake. It is constructed of piles which support a gangway provided
with hooks, from which the baskets filled with living oysters are
suspended, ready for sale.
Some twenty years ago the oyster-beds of France had become
totally exhausted under the open system of dredging ; and circum-
Fig. 174. Pillars with cords attached iu Lake Fu&uro.
stances having brought the protective system pursued at Fusaro under
the notice of M. Coste, a learned academician, to whom France is
indebted for the restoration of the bivalve, M. Coste reported to the
Emperor in 1858 that at Kochelle, Marennes, Kochefort, at the Isles
of Ke and Oleron, where there had formerly been twenty- three oyster-
beds, there were now only five, and these in danger of being destroyed
by the increase of mussels ; that at the Bay of St. Brieuc, so naturally
suited for oyster culture, the beds were reduced to three ; that even on
the classic oyster grounds of Cancale and Granville, it was only by the
most careful administration that decay was prevented, while the in-
creasing numbers of consumers threatened altogether to destroy an
OYSTERS. 379
industry essentially necessary for the support of a maritime popula-
tion.
The impulse given by this report has been productive of the most
satisfactory results in France. All along the coast the maritime popu-
lations are actively engaged in oyster culture. Oyster parks, in imita-
tion of those at Fusaro, have sprung up. In his appeal to the Emperor,
M. Coste suggested that the State, through the Administration of
Marine, and by means of the vessels at its command, should take steps
for sowing the whole French coast in such a manner as to re-establish
the oyster-banks now in ruins, extend those which were prosperous,
and create others anew wherever the nature of the bottom would per-
mit. The first serious attempt to carry out the views of the distin-
guished academician was made in the Bay of St. Brieuc. In the
month of April in the same year in which his report was received,
operations commenced by planting three millions of mother-oysters
which had been dredged in the common ground; brood from the
oyster grounds of Cancaie and Tre'quiers were distributed in ten
longitudinal lines on tiles, fragments of pottery, and valves of shells.
At the end of eight months the progress of the beds was tested, and
the dredge in a few minutes brought up two thousand oysters fit for
the table, while two fascines drawn up at random contained nearly
twenty thousand, from one to two inches in diameter. Two of these
fascines exposed to public view at Beni and Patrieux excited the
astonishment of the maritime population.
This result encouraged M. Coste to pursue his experiments upon a
greater scale, and he now proposed to bring the whole littoral under a
regulated system of oyster culture. In the roads of Toulon and in
Lake Thau, which touches this port, the same system was put in
force by the Administration of Marine as had already been done in the
Bay of Arcachon and in the Isle of Ke. In these localities oyster
culture assumed gigantic proportions. Associations were formed for
the purpose of prosecuting them and forming oyster-parks.
These exertions roused the curiosity of foreign nations. Van
Beneden, a distinguished naturalist of Louvain, and M. Eschrecht of
Copenhagen, visited France to study the arrangements for oyster cul-
ture. M. Coste demonstrated that parks could be established on all
places visited by the tide, and under his advice the Bay of Arcachon
is now transformed into a vast field of production, which increases
380 THE OCEAN WORLD.
every day, giving the happiest presages of an abundant harvest.
Already twelve hundred capitalists, associated with a similar number
of fishermen, occupy a surface of nine hundred and eighty-eight acres,
which emerge at low water. In this bay the State has organized two
model farms for experimental purposes, in which tiles, fascines, and
valves of shells are laid down with other appliances, to which the
young oysters may attach themselves. These expedients have been so
successful that the park, which has cost about 114, is now estimated
to be worth about 80 00 in money, with a total of five million oysters,
large and small. The Isle of Re, which was originally surrounded by
a muddy bottom ill adapted for oyster culture, has been totally
changed, so that in two years four leagues of foreshore have been
turned into a rich and profitable oyster-bed ; twelve hundred parks
are in full activity, and two thousand others are in course of construc-
tion, the whole forming a complete girdle round the island.
Every one has heard of the green oysters of Marennes, the preserva-
tion, amelioration, and ripening of these oysters, so to speak, repre-
senting a very considerable branch of industry in France. In order to
give the reader some idea of its importance, we shall give here a brief
summary of M. Coste's voyage of exploration on the French littoral.
The parks at Marennes, in which the oysters are placed in order to
acquire the green colour which characterises them, are basins stretch-
ing along both banks of the Seudre for many leagues. They are
locally known as claires, and differ from the oyster-parks of other
countries in this particular that, while the ordinary parks are so
arranged as to be submerged at every return of the tide, the basins of
Marennes are so arranged that they can only be submerged at spring
tides ; that is, at the new and full moon, when the waters rise beyond
the ordinary level.
The basins or claires occupy from two hundred and fifty to three
hundred square yards of superficies; two sluices permit of the en-
trance and withdrawal of water at will, so as to maintain it at the level
most convenient to the industrial wants of the place, or to empty it
altogether when it is necessary to cleanse the basin, pave the bottom,
and furnish it with a fresh supply of oysters.
When these necessary works are completed, advantage is taken of
the first spring tide to fill the basin. When the tide begins to ebb,
the sluices are closed, so as to retain sufficient water in the basins ;
OYSTERS. 381
and while thus shut up, salt held in solution is deposited, and qualities
analogous to those of marine bottoms are produced, purged by
cleansing processes of all products offensive to the bivalves.
When the basin has been filled with sea-water for the necessary
time, and the bottom is sufficiently impregnated, it is emptied and left
to dry ; and now, the soil being prepared, it only remains to furnish it
with oysters of a mellow and ripe age, in order to give them their
green hue. Towards the month of September, at low water, the whole
sea-side population of Marennes go to gather oysters on the pavement
left uncovered by the ebbing tide, or by using a dredger in the deeper
parts of the claires where the water still remains. A temporary
magazine for the reception of the oysters thus gathered is erected on
the banks, which the water revisits twice a day. The young are
reserved for cultivation on the parks or claires ; the fullest are sold
for consumption in the neighbourhood ; but the quantity of oysters
raised at Marennes is insufficient to supply the demand. About a third
of the provision intended for the claires comes from the coasts of
Brittany, of Normandy, and La Vendee. " These foreign oysters,"
says M. Coste, "never attain the fine flavour of those bred in the
locality. It is necessary to keep them for a long time in the claires
before they are sufficiently ameliorated, and, even when they become
green, they retain traces of their primitive nature, remaining hard, in
spite of the new qualities imparted to them by cultivation ; a certain
bitterness remains, which is easily distinguished by the true amateur ;
it is the same with indigenous adult oysters. When they are taken at
this stage of their existence the colouring does not succeed with
them ; it is only, so to speak, the false brand used to give a specula-
tive value to the merchandise. It is not enough that the mollusc
should have a fine flavour ; it must have the peculiar taste. It is not
enough that it has the green hue ; it is necessary that these qualities
should pervade it from the earliest age, and that the culture of the
claires should continue to the end." It is thus necessary that the
oysters for the claires of Marennes should be selected when from
twelve to eighteen months old, that the shells should be well-formed,
and free from all foreign bodies adhering to the surface. Being thus
carefully picked out, the oysters are distributed over the bottom of the
claires with a shovel, and afterwards so arranged by the hand that
they may not touch each other when they increase in size ; that they
382 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
do not embarrass each other by the movements of their valves ; and
that nothing should interfere with the regularity of their forms.
The young colony reposes under a sheet of water from twelve to
eighteen inches deep, which is, as we have said, only renewed at
spring tides, which reach the level. Nor are the oysters abandoned
to themselves in these privileged beds while they are growing and
ripening. They are objects of continual care and of special manipula-
tion. The spring tides visit the claires charged with mud, which, if
deposited in the motionless basins, would act as a mortal poison to
the young mollusc; hence the necessity of transporting them from
one claire charged with mud into others free from such accumulations ;
and this is a process in constant operation until the animals are finally
gathered for consumption. Oysters deposited in the claires aged
eighteen months should remain two years before they are ready for
use ; but three and even four years are required to give them the full
degree of perfection which characterises the best products of the
Marennes oyster-parks.
Oysters placed in the reservoirs in an adult state become green, it is
true, in a very few days, but they never attain the exquisite flavour of
those which have been bred in the parks, and have undergone the
costly manipulation described from their earliest years.
The question arises, What is the colouring principle which is here
in operation ? The green colour is not general ; it is shown princi-
pally on the branchiae, upon the labial feelers and intestinal canal ;
it is rather undecided ; and the colouring matter appears to differ
chemically from all other known pigments of green colour. Must it
be attributed to the soil of the claire ? This is its most probable
origin. But many naturalists insist that the colouring matter proceeds
from an infusorial animalcule, the green-coloured Yibrion. Others
have hazarded the opinion that it is a disease of the liver in our
unfortunate bivalve which produces the colour. Bile secreted in
excess by a diseased liver would give a green hue to the parenchyma
of the respiratory organs of an animal rendered sick by the excep-
tional treatment to which it has been subjected. Of these three
opinions, says M. Figuier, the first, as we have said, presents the
greatest appearance of probability.
The system of oyster farms, which has worked admirably for the
OYSTERS. 383
companies themselves, has proved of doubtful utility, so far as the
oyster-eating public is concerned, as the following sketch of the Whit-
stable oyster farms will show. The oyster farm at Whitstable is
co-operative in the best sense of the term, and has been in operation
for many years. The Company possesses large oyster 'grounds, and a
fine fleet of boats kept for the purpose of dredging and planting the
beds ; it is established under the Joint Stock Companies Act, but
there is no other way of entrance into it but by birth, as none of the
free dredgermen of the town can hold shares. When a man dies his
interest in the Company dies with him, but his widow, if he leaves
one, obtains a pension. The affairs of the Company are managed by
twelve directors, who are called " the jury."
1 ' The layings at Whitstable," to summarise Mr. Bertram, " occupy
about a mile and a half square ; and the oyster-beds have been so
prosperous as to have obtained the name of the ' happy fishing
grounds.' Whitstable lies in a sandy bay, formed by a small branch
of the Medway, which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the main-
land. Throughout this bay, from the town of Whitstable at its
eastern extremity to the old town of Faversham, which lies several
miles inland, the whole of the estuary is occupied by oyster farms, on
which the maritime population, to the extent of three thousand people
and upwards, is occupied ; the sum ' paid for labour by the various
companies being set down at 160,000 per annum, besides the em-
ployment given at Whitstable in building and repairing boats, dredges
and other requisites for the oyster-fishing. The business of the
various companies is to feed oysters for the London and other markets,
to protect the spawn or floatsome, as the dredgers call it, which is
emitted on their own beds, and to furnish, by purchase or otherwise,
the new brood necessary to supply the beds which have been taken
up for consumption."
We have hinted above that in oyster, as in other fisheries, a wasteful
spirit of extravagance has hitherto prevailed. It appears, however,
that no rule can be laid down even as to the particular year in which
the oysters will spawn, much less where it will be carried to ; for,
although the artificial contrivances adopted by Sergius Grata for saving
the spawn are perfectly well known to the parties interested here, they
have not hitherto been imitated ; the practice of the companies and
private owners of oyster-layers being to purchase their young brood
384 THE OCEAN WORLD.
from the dredgers and others who fish along the public foreshore and
open grounds on the Kent and Essex coasts, and even as far north as
the Frith of Forth. The little hay of Pont, for instance, on the Essex
coast, which is an open piece of water sixteen miles long and three
broad, free to all, and which formerly yielded considerable supplies to
Billingsgate, now gives employment to a hundred and fifty boats, each
with crews of three or four men, who are wholly employed in obtaining
young brood that is, oysters from eighteen months to two years old,
which they sell to the oyster farmers. The result is, that the oyster
farms have become a vast monopoly. By tacit consent they agree to
feed the market at some eight pounds sterling per bushel ; they pay the
dredger one-fourth of that sum ; and as the common fishing grounds are
thus rendered mere nurseries of young brood, the lover of the bivalve
must reconcile himself to pay a monopoly price for the precious morsel.
The system pursued at Whitstable, and other oyster-parks in the
estuary of the Thames and Medway, is most efficient. The oysters
reared in them, called " natives," in contradistinction to those called
" commons," which are bred in their natural beds, are justly considered
to be very superior in flavour, although they are a mixed breed, being
brought from every quarter to augment the stock.
The Thames, or " native " system, is as follows : Every year each
layer is gone over and examined by means of a dredge, successive
portions being done day by day, till it may be said that each individual
oyster has been examined ; the young brood is detached from its bed,
the double oysters are separated, and all kinds of enemies killed.
During three days in each week dredging is pursued for " planting ;"
that is, for transference from one bed to another more suitable for
their growth or fattening, and for the removal of the dead or sickly
oysters and mussels. On the other three days dredging for market
takes place, when the more mature beds are dredged, and as many
are lifted as are required. Not only is this constant dredging of the
beds themselves necessary, but the public beds immediately outside
require the same care to keep them in a fit state, and free from
enemies.
The same story of over-fishing and improvidence extends round onr
whole coast. The far-famed Pandores obtained at Preston Pans, near
Edinburgh, once so cheap, are becoming scarce and dear. The brood
is caught and barreled for export to Holland and other places, especially
PECTENS. 385
the Thames oyster farms. English buyers pick the grown oysters for
Manchester and other large provincial markets,, and the Corporation of
Edinburgh, the Duke of Buccleuch, and other proprietors of the fore-
shore, have just interfered in time to prevent the total destruction of
the trade, when the wild song of the Cockenzie dredgerman might
have been left to charm some future antiquary, as it is now said to
charm the oyster into the dredge with its refrain :
" The herring it loves the merry moonlight,
The mackerel it loves the wind ;
But the oyster it loves the dredger's song,
For it comes of a gentle kind."
The Scallop-shell (Pecten) is round, nearly equal-sided, resting on
the right valve, which is more convex, and marked with radiating ribs.
Linnasus made the mistake of confounding with the Ostrea a great
number of shells, which, by their channeled edges and surfaces,
strongly reminded one of the arrangements of the teeth of a comb,
whence their name of Pecten. They were well known to naturalists
long before the time of Linnaeus, under the name of Pilgrims' shells,
a name which came into use from the practice which prevailed among
pilgrims in the middle ages we know not why of ornamenting
habits and bats with the valves of some of the species.
The shell of the Pecten is in general nearly circular, more or less
elongated, and terminated towards the summit in a straight line,
forming a sort of triangular appendage called the ear, to which the
hinges are attached. The valves are very regular, but with no
resemblance to each other. In some species, the shell of which is
closely shut, the lower valve is more or less convex than the upper
one. In others, both valves are convex. The hinge is without teeth,
and the ligament, which is intended to close the shell, is inserted into
a triangular depression or dimple. The retractile muscle is unequal,
and nearly central. The valves are not nacred inside, and are formed
on their exterior surface of numerous fluted channels, which spring
from a lobe more or less pointed at the summit, diverging towards the
circumference. The edges are sometimes smooth, as in the Watered
Pecten (P. pseudamussium, Fig. 175), but more frequently they are
formed in strips or scales, as in the Smooth-shelled Pecten (P. glaber,
Fig. 176). Upon the whole, however, the Pectens are very variable,
but always elegant in form ; the colours are frequently lively and
2 c
386 THE OCEAN WORLD.
brilliant. In PL. XIY., some of the most striking forms are repre-
sented, as in Fig. I., the Ducal Mantle (Pecten pallium), an inhab-
itant of the Indian Ocean, remarkable for its elegant form, its twelve
radiating stripes, diverging towards the circumference, the horizontal
furrows of its salient scales, and the striking distribution of its white
spots upon a bed of red and brown marble ; Fig. II., the Purple Pec-
ten ; Fig. III., the Coral Pecten ; Fig. IV., the Tiger Pecten ; Fig. V.,
the Foliaceous Pecten ; and Fig. VI., the Northern Pecten.
Fig. 175. Pecten pseudamussium (Chenu). Fig. 176. Pecten glaber (Linnaeus).
The animal which inhabits the Pecten shell has the general form
of the oyster, differing however from it in a remarkable manner.
The edges of the mantle are furnished with multiplied fringes of simple
tentacles, between which we find other tentacular appendages a little
thicker, each terminating in a sort of small pearl, vividly coloured, to
which is attached a nervous thread, which has been taken for an eye.
Another difference : the branchiae, in place of being connected by a
striated lamina, as is the case in the oyster, are cut into parallel capil-
lary filaments, forming a free and floating fringe, and the mouth is
surrounded by salient many-cleft lips.
While the oyster shell is completely fixed to its bed, the Pecten is, on
the contrary, perfectly free, and shifts from place to place, moving in
the water even with a certain amount of agility ; by smartly closing its
half-opened valves and forcibly expelling the water, it moves backward
by a sort of reaction ; this action, repeated many times, compels the
animal to move almost in spite of itself, and enables it to avoid danger,
or directs its steps towards the spot it wishes to reach. Some
I. Pecten pallium. (Linn.)
II. Pecten purpuratus. (Lamarck.)
III. Pecten foliaceus.
IV. Pecten tigris. (Lamarck.)
V. Pecten nodasus. (Linn.)
VI. Pecten islandicus. (Chemnitz.)
PLATE XiV.-Pectinidfe.
SPONDYLUS.
387
naturalists even assert that, when raised to the surface, the Pecten
half opens its shell in such a manner that the upper valve serves the
purpose of a sail.
The Pectens, of which a
hundred and seventy-six
species are described, are in-
habitants of every known sea.
Twenty species belong to
Europe, among which we
may mention P. opercularis,
represented in Fig. 177;
P. gldber, and P. nivea.
Fig. 178 represents the
White-mantled Pecten (P.
plica, Linn.) of the Indian
Ocean, and Fig. 179, the
Concentric Pecten (P. Japo-
nica) of the Japan seas.
Among the Ostreadae the shells of Spondylus are distinguished for
their variety of form and the brilliant colours with which they are
Fig. 177. Pecten opercularis (Linnseus).
Fig. 178. Pecten plica (Linna;us).
Fig. 179. Pecten Japonica (Gmellin).
decorated. This makes them much sought after by amateur collectors,
and procures for them a high price. The shell of Spondylus is solid
and thick, with unequal adherent valves, nearly always bristling with
spines, forming a very peculiar kind of ornamentation to the valves ;
the hinges have two very strong teeth. The animals which inhabit
this shell resemble the oyster in many respects, but they still more
2 c 2
388 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
closely resemble the Pectens. The edges of the mantle are provided
with two rows of tentacles, the exterior row being, many of them,
furnished at their extremities with coloured tubercles. As examples,
we note several species of these bivalves for representation. Spon-
dylus regius (PL. XV. Fig. I.) is, perhaps, the most remarkable for
its immense spines. Spondylus radians, Lamarck (Fig. III.), is noted
for its elegant form. Spondylus avicularis (Fig. IV.) shows remark-
able inequality in the valves. Spondylus imperialis, Chenu (Fig. II.),
has long projecting spines, like feet, and the Scaly Spondylus
(S. crassisquama, Fig. V.) is covered with scales arranged like so
many roofing-tiles.
Like oysters, the genus Spondylus is frequently found firmly rooted
to rocks and other submarine bodies, and, oftener still, heaped one upon
the other, like herrings in their barrel.
These animals belong essentially to the seas of warm countries.
We find them, however, occupying considerable space in the Mediter-
ranean, where (Fig. VI.) the Ass-footed Spondylus (S. geederopus]
abounds.
But the most remarkable species of all is assuredly Spondylus regius
(PL. XV. Fig. I.). This species is a native of the Indian Ocean, and
there scarcely exist three fragments of this rare shell in the museums
of Europe. M. Chenu relates in one of his books an anecdote which
would prove if any proof were necessary how far the desire of a
collector to obtain possession of some rare and costly specimen will
carry him in order to attain his object. " M. E ," says M. Chenu,
" was Professor of Botany to the Faculty of Paris, and was, as some
times happens, more learned than rich; he wished, on the invitation
of a stranger, to purchase one of these shells at a very high price,
which might be from 3000 to 6000 francs ; the bargain was made,
and the price agreed upon ; it was only necessary to pay. The money
in the professor's hands made only a small part of the sum the merchant
was to receive for his shell, and he would not part with it without pay-
ment. M. E ,now consulting his desire to possess the shell more
than his weak resources, made up secretly a parcel of his scanty plate,
and went out to sell it. Without consulting his wife he replaced his
silver plate by coverings of tin, and ran to the merchant to secure his
coveted Spondylus, which he believed to be S. regius.
" The hour of dinner arrived, and we may imagine the astonish-
11. Spondylus imperialis. (Chemn.)
III. Spondylus radians. (Lamarck.)
IV. Spondylus avicularls. (Lamarck.)
V. Spondylus crassisquama. (Lamarck.)
VI. Spondylus gaaderopus. (Linn.)
PLATE XV. Spondylus.
SPONDYLUS. 389
ment of Madame K , who could not comprehend the strange meta-
morphosis of her plate. She delivered herself of a thousand painful
conjectures on the subject. M. E , on his part, returned home
happy with his shell, which he had committed to the safe custody of a
box placed in his coat pocket. But, as he approached the house, he
paused, and began for the first time to think of the reception he
might meet with. The reproaches which awaited him, however, were
compensated when he thought of the treasure he carried home.
Finally, he reached home, and Madame E 's wrath was worthy of
the occasion ; the poor man was overwhelmed with the grief he had
caused his wife; his courage altogether forsook him. He forgot
his shell, and, in his trepidation, seated himself on a chair without
the necessary adjustment of his garment. He was only reminded of
his treasure by hearing the crushing sound of the broken box which
contained it. Fortunately, the evil was not very great two spines
only of the shell were broken ; but the good man's grief made so great
an impression on Madame E , that she no longer thought of her
own loss, but directed all her efforts to console the simple-minded
philosopher."
The variation in the number and direction of the spines is a striking
feature in Spondylus. When the whole lower surface adheres to
branches of coral, a very frequent occurrence, they are confined to the
upper valve, but when a part only of the valve, the whole surface
becomes covered.
Having finished our short sketch of the Conchifera, we shall now
treat of the singular group, Brachiopoda,* which some place nearer to
the Gasteropoda than the Pteropoda, giving them, in fact, their place.
It is out of the province of this work to enter into the physiological
arguments of such a question. The days of the Brachiopoda or
* The Bracldopoda may be thus tabulated :
Family.
I. Lingulidte, containing Lingula and other fossil genera.
TI. Discinidx, containing Siphonolreta and Discina.
III. Craniadss, containing Crania.
IV. Productidx, containing Chonetes and Productus, fossil.
V. Orthidse, containing Calceola, Davidsonia, Strophomena, and Orthis.
VI. Rliynconellidx, containing Atrypa, Pentamerus, and Rhynconella.
VII. Spiriferidx, containing Uncites, Retzia, Athyris, and Spirifera.
VIII. Terebratulidce, containing Thecidium, Agriope, Terebratella, and Tere-
bratula.
390 THE OCEAN WORLD.
short-footed animals are past. Of the 1842 * species formerly known, a
few types of a small number of genera only are left, numbering in all
102. The Terebratulicbe are best represented; there were once 300
or 400 species; there are now not more than 67 in the seas of
the world. The difference between the past and the present is
especially striking, when we compare the recent and fossil species of
Europe. Among no other class of shells has there been such a
wholesale extinction of species. The great family of Spiriferae are
wholly extinct, and of 400 Ehynconella only four are now living.
The curious Crania, Discina, and Lingula are still living, and are
mostly found in the seas of the southern hemisphere.
* Woodward's Manual, p. 135.
( 391 )
CEPHALOUS MOLLUSCA.
CHAPTEE XIII.
GASTEROPODA.
WE shall now consider the Gasteropoda, which is divided into four
orders. Firstly, Nucleobranchiata, animals which float on the surface
of the ocean : they are Diaecious, or in separate sexes, and the nervous
system is widely distributed in the body, the shell, in Carinaria, for
instance, covering only a very small portion of the body. The first
family of this order is Atlantidse, of which the types are the fossil
Bellerophon and the recent Atlanta.
The second family is Firolidae, the types of which are Carinaria and
Firola. Carinaria or glass nautilus is shaped like the bonnet-cap shell,
Pileopsis. It is as transparent as glass; and although now very
common, was formerly one of the most highly-prized shells by collec-
tors. The second order of Gasteropoda is Opistho-Branchiata, and is
divided into two sections, the Nudibranchiata, and the Tectibran-
chiata. The Nudibranchiata have no shell except in the larva state ;
they mostly live at the bottom of the sea on rocky shores, but a small
number swim on the surface. They are remarkable for their variety
of form and vivid colouring, being the most beautiful of all molluscous
animals ; they may truly be called the caterpillars of the sea, for their
branchiae remind us of the spines with which many lepidopterous
larvae are covered.
The first family is Elysiadae, types Limapontia and Elysia.
The second is Phyllirhoidae, type Phyllirhoe.
392 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The third is ^Eolidse, types Glaucus and
The fourth is Tritoniadse, types Scyllaea and Tritonia.
The fifth is Doridse, types Idalia and Doris, the curious sea-lemon.
The first family of the second division, Tectibranchiata, is Phyl-
lidiadse, types Diphyllidia and Phyllidia.
The second family is Pleurobranchidse, types, Umbrella, in form
resembling a limpet, and Pleurobranchus.
The third family is Aplysiadse, types, Dolabella and Aplysia.
The fourth family is Bullidse, types, Scaphander, Acera, and Bulla.
The fifth family is Tornatellidse, types, Tornatina and Tornatella.
The third order is the Pulmonifera, and the fourth is the Prosobran-
chiata ; we shall speak of them in the next chapter.
In this family we reach a group of Gasteropods much more
numerous, both in species and in special types, which respire by the
aid of branchiae, or gills. Cuvier divides them into many orders,
based chiefly upon their respiratory organs.
The Tectibranchiata have the gills attached either to the right side
of the body or upon the back, arranged in the form of leaflets, more
or less divided, but not symmetrical, and nearly covered by the mantle.
Bulla and Aplysia are the two principal genera of the group, and
may be considered as the type of two small families.
The Aplysise were known to the ancients under the name of sea-
hares (Lepus marinus), from some fancied resemblance to the terres-
trial hare. They were objects of profound horror, inspired either by
their singular form, or from an acrid, caustic, and inodorous liquid
which they secrete. A magic influence was attributed to them ; they
were supposed, for instance, to have influence over the female heart.
It is not easy, however, to explain the evil renown acquired by an
animal which is known to be gentle and even timid. They are naked
and fat, somewhat resembling the Limnaea in their oval, elongated
form, their thickness in the dorsal region, and their posterior locomo-
tion. Their head, which is very indistinct, is furnished with four
tentacles, the anterior two of which are the largest, and somewhat
resemble the ears of a hare. The eyes are found at the base of the
posterior tentacles. These characters are observed in Aplysia depilans
(Fig. 180). Aplysia inca shows also the same arrangement (Fig. 181).
In this family the mollusc is much more important from its volume
than from its internal, rudimentary, and horny shell, which is con-
GASTEEOPODA.
393
tained in the branchial shield. In Fig. 182 we have the small and
thin cartilaginous shell which exists in the interior of the animal.
Fig. 180. Aplysia depilaus
(Lin).
Fig. 181. Aplysia inca (D'Orbigny).
Fig. 182. Shell of
Aplysia inca.
The Aplysise are found nearly in every region of the globe, not only
upon the shores of the Continent, but on every island shore. They
commonly inhabit sandy and muddy shores of small depths, or even
the rocky recesses, or under shelter of the stones which have fallen
from the cliffs. Their eggs consist of those long filaments which are
discharged in immense numbers, and which fishermen call sea-worms.
They feed upon certain algae, with which the bottom of the sea is
covered ; but they eat, also, small marine animals, such as the naked
molluscs, annelids, and crustaceans.
We are the less astonished to see the Aplysiee so gluttonous when
we learn how liberally Nature has accorded to them organs of masti-
cation, trituration, and digestion. Their mouth is formed of thick
and muscular lips ; a very long oesophagus or gullet succeeds, and
this oesophagus does not communicate with a single stomach, but
with four one enormous membranous crop, an exceedingly muscular
gizzard, with two accessary pockets, one of which terminates in the
form of a sac. The gizzard has thick walls, and is furnished on the
internal wall with cartilaginous quadrangular pyramids, the summits
of which intertwine. This apparatus is intended to bruise the food
when it reaches the third stomach. It is also armed with little
hooks, the curvature of which is directed towards the entrance of the
gizzard.
The genus Bulla differs materially from the Aplysiae. They have
a well-developed shell, the form of which is elegant ; they are delicate
in structure ; their brilliant colours, consisting of red, black, or white
394 THE OCEAN WOULD.
bands, separated by many varied tints, cause these little molluscs to
be much sought after for ornamental collections. The shell itself is
oval or globulous, rolled up in a scroll, smooth, spotted, very thin and
fragile, with a concave spiral, umbilicate, open in all its length, with
a straight, wide, and cutting edge.
Obtuse at its two extremities, neither the head of the animal nor
the tentacles are very apparent. The gills are placed under the back,
Figs. 183 and 184. Bulla ampulla (Linnseus).
a little to the right and behind ; its stomach, which alone*fills a great
part of the cavity of the body, presents the peculiarity, already noted
in the Aplysia, of being furnished with bony pieces, evidently intended
to grind the food.
The Bullae can swim with facility in deep water, but they evidently
prefer the shallows and a sandy bottom, feeding upon smaller mol-
Fig. 185. Bulla oblonga Fig. 186. Bulla aspersa Fig. 187. Bulla nebulosa
(Adams). (Adams). (Gould).
luscs. They are found in every sea, but they abound chiefly in the
Indian Ocean and Oceania. Some species, however, such as Bulla am-
pulla (Figs. 183 and 184), the shell of which is shaded grey and
brown, and the Water-drop (Bulla hydratis), inhabit European seas.
Bulla oblonga and Bulla aspersa (Adams), and Bulla nebulosa
GASTEROPODA. 395
(Gould), represented in Figs. 185, 186, and 187, are also well-known
species.
We take leave of our little friends the Headless Mollusca or
Acephalte, and direct our attention to those molluscs to which Nature
has been more generous, and furnished with a head. This head, how-
ever, is still carried humbly ; it is not yet os sublime dedit ; it is drawn
along an inch or so from the ground, and in no respect resembles the
proud and magnificent organ which crowns and adorns the body of the
greater and more perfectly organized animals.
The organization of the Cephalous Mollusca present three principal
types, which has led to their being divided into three classes, after
their more salient characteristics of form and locomotive apparatus ;
namely, Gasteropoda, Pteropoda, and Cephalopoda.
In the class Gasteropoda (from jao-rrjp, belly, 7701)9, gen.7roo9, foot)
the locomotive apparatus consists of a flattened muscular disk, placed
under the belly of the animal, aided by which it creeps. The Snail
(Helix), the Slug (Limax), and the Cowrie, (Cyprea), are types of
this class.
In the Pteropoda, from irrepov, wing, and TTOVS, foot, the locomotive
apparatus assumes the form of wings, or membranous swimming-
fins, placed on each side of the neck. The Hyalea and Clio are types
of this class.
In the Cephalopoda, from Ke^aXrj, head, and TroO?, foot, the locomo-
tive apparatus consists of arms, or tentacles, which surround the mouth
in numbers more or less considerable. The Cuttle-fish (Sepia), and
the Poulpes (Octopoda) are types of this last class.
The Molluscous Gasteropoda have the organs of respiration formed
for aerial respiration, or for respiration under water.
This physiological arrangement involves important differences in
internal organization in these molluscs, and renders it convenient to
divide them inta two secondary groups ; namely, Pulmonary Gastero-
pods, which breathe in .the air, and by a species of lung, and Non-
pulmonary Gasteropods, which breathe in the water, by means of
branchia3 or gills.
396 THE OCEAN WORLD.
CHAPTER XIV.
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS.
THE Pulmonary Gasteropods comprehend those molluscs which,
as we have said, live in the air and breathe the natural atmosphere.
The respiratory organ is a cavity in the walls of which the blood-
vessels form a complicated network. The air enters this cavity
through an orifice, which the animal opens and shuts at will a species
of lung, in short, which is placed upon the back of the animal. They
are both terrestrial and aquatic animals. In the latter case, they must
come to the surface of the water in order to breathe, like the phocas
and cetacea among the Mammifera.
The Pulmonifera, the second order of Gasteropods, comprehends
those animals which live in and breathe the air.
It is divided into four sections ; the Operculata, or animals whose
shells are closed by an operculum, and the In- Operculata, or animals
without operculum.
Operculata is divided into two families ; first, Aciculidsc, types, Geo-
melania and Acicula ; and second, Cyclostomidae, types, Pupina and
Cyclostoma. Cyclostoma is perhaps the best known ; the mouth is
circular, the name being derived from cyclos, circle, and stoma, mouth.
The second section, In-Opercula, contains five families.
First, Auriculidse, types, Conovulus and Auricula.
Second, Limnseidse, types, Planorbis, Physa, and Limnaea.
Third, Oncidiadse, types, Vaginulus and Oncidium.
Fourth, Limacidse, types, Testacella and Limax.
Fifth, Helicidae, types, Clausilia, Pupa, Achatina, Bulimus,
Succinea, Yitrina, and Helix.
397
LOQHDDJ&
The Limnseidae, Aquatic Pulmonary Gasteropods, is the second
family of the series. They belong to the group that come to the
surface of the water to breathe, as do the cetacea and phocas among the
Mammifera. The Limndea, Planorbis, and PTiysa are the principal
members of this group.
Limnsea lives in great numbers in the stagnant waters of all
countries, particularly of temperate climates. It cannot remain long
under water, being compelled frequently to rise to the surface in order
to breathe atmospheric air. It is even observed, by a mechanism not
very well understood, to turn itself upside down, in such a manner as
to present itself feet uppermost, and to move slowly along in this
position, creeping, as it were, through the water. It is difficult to
comprehend how the movable liquid bed upon which the animal
operates can offer resistance enough to permit of its creeping as if it
were on a solid resisting body ; it seems to produce the movement
with the assistance of its foot, which is broad and thick, and shorter
than the shell.
Limnsea has a large flat head, from each
side of which issues a triangular contractile
tentacle, carrying at its base and on the
inner side an extremely small dot, or eye.
The most considerable part of the body,
comprehending the visceral mass, is spiral,
and is contained in a thin diaphanous shell
(Fig. 188), the turns in the spiral of which
are generally elongated, the last turn being
larger than all the others. The interior of this
is occupied by the respiratory cavity, which
communicates outwardly by an opening
analogous to that which exists in the snails.
This opening dilates and contracts in such a
manner as to receive the air in the cavity, and
exclude water when the animal feeds itself
under the water. The mouth is a transverse slit between two rather
thin lips, and is armed with small canine teeth. When the animal
Fig. 188. Limnjea stagnalis
(Linnseus).
398 THE OCEAN WORLD.
sallies from its shell, it has the appearance of a short trumpet.
In its interior is a roundish, thick, and fleshy tubercle, not un-
like the tongue of a paroquet. The true tongue, however, which lies
at the bottom of the slit, is flat, oval-shaped, and supported by a
cartilaginous or bony pedicle.
Limnsea, aided by this very complicated buccal apparatus, is enabled
to feed itself with vegetable substances, such as the leaves of aquatic
plants, which it cuts and bruises with its teeth. They are very active
in the season, reproducing towards the end of spring. At this period
little oval or semi-cylindrical masses are frequently found adhering to
floating bodies, glittering and transparent as crystal. These are
agglomerations of the eggs of Limneea. When winter sets in, the
Limnsea of our climate fall into a state of torpor, and sink, more or
less deeply, into the mud of the lakes, marshes, rivers, or brooks, which
they inhabit.
They are of great utility, both to feed fishes and aquatic birds,
and also as scavengers of the decaying vegetation of brooks.
Planorbis has an organization analogous to Limnsea, of which it is
the faithful companion in stagnant waters. Their shells (Fig. 189)
are thin, light, and disk-like in form, rolled round its plane in such a
manner as to render all the turns of the spiral visible from above as
well as below ; it is concave on both sides, with an oval, oblong-shaped
opening, and with an operculum or lid. The animal is conformable
to the shell in shape. The visceral mass forms a very elongated cone,
which unwinds itself absolutely, according to
the spiral turns of the shell. The foot, or
abdominal locomotive mass, is short, and very
nearly round. The head is sufficiently dis-
tinct, and furnished with two very long
filiform, contractile tentacles, having at their
base, and on the inner side, a small organ,
Fig. ie9. pianorbis corneus which looks like an egg. The mouth is
armed in the upper part with cross-cutting
teeth, and in the lower part with a tongue, bristling with a great
number of hooked excrescences.
In habits Planorbis resembles Limnaea : it creeps like it on the
surface of solid bodies, and swims in the water with the foot upwards
and the shell down. It feeds on similar substances, and its eggs are
LIMACID^. . 399
collected in gelatinous masses also. It passes the winter in a state of
torpor, buried in the mud of the rivers it inhabits.
The principal species is Planorbis corneus (Fig. 189) which is
common in the rivers of England and France.
Another group of molluscs, which occupy our fresh rivers,
and swim with the shell down and feet up, is represented
by Physa castanea (Fig. 190). The genus Phi/so, have
an oval, oblong, or nearly globular shell, very thin, smooth,
and fragile, opening longitudinally, narrow above, with the F1g- 190>
right edge sharp ; the last turn of the spiral being largest oSSe*
Of all. (LamarckX
The animal appears to be intermediate in form between Planorbis
and Limnsea : it is oval in form, and unrolls itself like the Limnaea,
but its tentacles, in place of being triangular and thick like the latter,
are elongated and narrow, like those of Planorbis. These little
inhabitants of fresh water swim with facility, the feet upwards, the
shell below, and like Limnsea, they feed on vegetables.
The fourth family, Limacidse, containing Testacella and Limax,
are terrestrial pulmonary molluscs, entirely naked, or having only a
very small shell. The Limax varies very considerably in appearance,
in consequence of its extreme contractibility. When seen creeping
along on the surface of the soil, it has nearly the form of a very
elongated ellipse, at one extremity of which is the head ; the surface
of the body in contact with the earth is flat, the other convex. Towards
the anterior extremity, and upon the middle of the back, a portion
of the skin projects as if it were detached from the body, and is
ornamented with transverse stripes of various convolutions. This
part is named the cuirass, or buckler, under which the animal can
hide its head.
The mouth is a transverse opening in the front of the head ; above
are two pairs of tentacles, or horns, immensely retractile, cylindrical,
and terminating in a small button ; the lower tentacles are the shorter ;
the upper present at their summit a black point, as in Helix, which
have sometimes been mistaken for the eyes.
Upon the right side of the cuirass, and hollowed in the thickness
of its edge, which is large and contractile, whose function it is to give
access to atmospheric air, it abuts on an internal cavity, also large,
and is intended to promote respiration. The outer skin, or epidermis, is
400 THE OCEAN WORLD.
rayed in brownish furrows, its surface covered with a viscous glutinous
substance, which permits of the animal creeping up the smoothest
surfaces, locomotion being produced by the successive contraction and
extension of the muscular fibres of the feet.
The internal organization of the Limax is analogous to that already
described in the snails. The taste and smell in the Limaceans
differ only very slightly from those organs in Helix. They are, like
the snails, deaf, and nearly blind. They love humid places ; they
lodge themselves in the holes of old walls, under stones, or half-
decomposed leaves, in the crevices of the bark of old trees, and even
underground, coming forth only at night and in the morning ; especi-
ally after soft showers in spring and summer. In the garden, after
one of these soft showers, many of these little creatures are sure to be
met with in the more shaded alleys.
The Limax is mostly herbivorous. They seek, above all, for young
plants, fruits, mushrooms, and half-decayed vegetables. They are
very voracious, and cause great ravages in gardens and young planta-
tions, and many are the devices of the watchful gardener to destroy
them. Lime and salt are their abomination ; ashes and fine sand
they avoid. They dislike the noonday sun, and the gardener knows it ;
he arranges little sheltering tiles, or planks of wood and stone, under
which they retire, where they are surprised to their destruction.
Fig. 191. Limax rufus (Linnaeus).
There are thirty known species of Limax. Some are remarkable
for their very striking colours. Limax rufus (Fig. 191) is common in
woods, and well known for its large size and its colour of rich yellow-
ish red ; it is known all over Europe, from Norway to Spain.
Among the Limaceans nearly destitute of shells we find Tesiacella
HELICID.E. 401
haliotidea (Fig. 192), which is provided with a very small shell placed
at its posterior extremity, just over the pulmonary cavity. This shell
becomes more important in
Vitrina, already spoken of as
forming the point of transition
between Liniax and Helix. Fig>m Testacella haliotidea (Draparnaud) .
This passage from Limaceans
entirely destitute of shells to those furnished with a very small shell,
as in Testacella, is very exactly indicated by Nature. Limax rufus,
spoken of above, presents, under the posterior part of the cuirass, calca-
reous, unequal, isolated granulations, which are, so to speak, the
elements, as yet internal, of a shell which is on the point of being
built. Other species in the same genus present under the cuirass a
little rough, imperfect scale, which seems to be produced by a great
number of these calcareous granulations, which show themselves in an
isolated state in Limax rufus.
The Helicidae is the fifth family we shall now consider.
It is only necessary to witness the snail as it creeps along the
gravel walks of a garden, or in the damp alleys of a park, in order to
see that it is a being of higher organization than the headless molluscs.
The common snail (Helix aspersa) goes and comes ; it roams and
saunters after its own peculiar manner, searching for its food or its
pleasure ; it has a head and two prominent tentacles, which feel and
seem to express their sensations ; it has nerves", a brain, a strong
mouth, and a well-formed stomach.
Without possessing a high order of intelligence, the snail is by no
means imbecile ; it knows very well how to choose a tree the fruit of
which is agreeable to it. A fine cluster of grapes, a succulent pear,
which the horticulturist devours with his looks, and hopes to devour
otherwise, is sure to be the identical fruit which will be chosen by our
enlightened depredator, the snail.
The body of the snail is oval, elongated, convex above, flat below.
The convex or upper surface of the body is rugged, in consequence
of the existence of numerous tubercles projecting slightly, and sepa-
rated by irregular furrows ; its anterior is terminated by an obtuse
head, its posterior more flat and less pointed. All the flat portion,
thick, soft, and upon which the animal moves itself by a creeping
motion, bears the name of the foot. The head is not really very
2 D
402 THE OCEAN WORLD.
distinct, especially in the upper part, but the organs with which it
is provided are prominent. These organs are in reality tentacles,
although they are more popularly known as horns, especially among
children those charming ignoramuses who have been taught to
repeat the well-known stanza
" Snail, snail, come out of your hole,
Or else I'll beat you black as a coal "
which finds its counterpart in all European languages. There are
two pair of these tentacles or horns ; one pair quite in front and
above, and another smaller and less forward. The first are distin-
guished by their size, and also by a black spot or point at their
extremity, which is sometimes erroneously said to be the eye of the
snail.
These tentacles differ in many respects from the same organs in
other molluscs; they are retractile, and can be drawn altogether
within the animal into a sort of sheath, by the contraction of a muscle.
At the anterior extremity of the head we find a sort of plaited opening,
which is the mouth : it is of moderate extent, closed in front by two
lips, and armed with two shear-like organs of horny consistence, one
of them being a sort of rasp, which occupies the plate of the buccal
cavity, and may be called a tongue ; the other is a median jaw,
placed transversely in the membranous walls of the palate, terminating
in a free edge, armed with small teeth. This cutting blade, however,
executes no movement ; but the lingual organ, pressing all alimentary
matter forcibly against its lower edge, effects their mastication, and
enables it to dispose of fruit, tender leaves, mushrooms, and other
substances easily divided.
At the bottom of the mouth is an oesophagus, or gullet, to which
succeeds a stomach of moderate size. The intestine lies in folds round
the liver, which is divided into four lobes, and terminates in a special
orifice.
The little lung of the snail is placed in a cavity, vast for its size,
just above the general mass of the viscera, and occupies all the last
spiral turn of the cavity.
The mechanism of respiration is as follows : The animal inhales the
air into its lung by forcibly dilating the pulmonary orifice, which lies
HELTCID^B. 403
in the largest spiral turn of the shell. In order to expel the air
respired by the lung, it withdraws its hody into the narrower part of
the shell, where it gathers itself up completely, even to its head and
feet, and hy this compression of all its little heing it expels the air
which fills it. These respiratory movements, however, are not regular,
but succeed each other only at certain intervals. Life would be too
hard for the poor snail were it passed in such violent efforts as would
be necessary if it respired as the larger animals do. In its case the
breathing is intermittent and imperfect ; it is merely a rough attempt,
as it were, at respiration, which becomes perfect in some of the higher
branches of the animal kingdom.
The snail has a heart, consisting of a ventricle and auricle, con-
nected with a well-developed arterial vascular system, while the venous
system is imperfect. In short, the blood only returns from the various
parts of the body to the respiratory apparatus, after traversing lacunae,
or air-cells, existing between the several organs.
The blood of the snail is of a pale rose colour, slightly tinted with
blue. It has a rudimentary brain, composed of a pair of thick
ganglions, situated above the oesophagus, which are in connection
with another pair of ganglions placed below, which, together, form a
sort of collar, or ring. From this ring springs a great number of
nervous cords, which are distributed to the mouth, the tentacles, the
lung, and the heart. The skin, in those parts covered by the shell,
exhibits great sensibility; it receives a considerable quantity of
nervous filament, so that the sense of touch ought to possess extreme
delicacy.
The tentacles, the skin of which is so fine and so sensitive, are the
organs of touch. Other functions are sometimes attributed to them ;
the anterior tentacles are sometimes considered to be the organs of
smell. This, at all events, is certain, that the snail is very sensible
of strong odours, and is easily attracted by many plants the odour of
which pleases it.
The black points which terminate the first pair of tentacles have
been considered as eyes : but the existence of a visual organ in the
snail is not quite certain. They are quite insensi ie to sudden
changes of light ; they always travel in the dark, and never recognize
obstacles placed before them. We may add that the pnail is destitute
of all organs of hearing. No noise appears to affect it, at least till
2 D 2
404 THE OCEAN WORLD.
the noise is so near as to agitate the air which immediately surrounds
it. Indeed, the snail few has senses ; the poor creature is at once
blind, deaf, and dumb.
The snails are male and female in the same individual, or herma-
phrodite. Their eggs are roundish, heavy, and of a whitish colour.
The animal deposits them on the soil in little irregular heaps ; at other
times it deposits them one after the other, like the grains of a chaplet,
in holes which it digs in the soil, or in the natural excavations created
by moisture. The eggs are even found in the hollows of old trees ; in
fissures of walls or rocks.
When the young Helix issues from the egg, it is already provided
with an extremely thin membranous shell. The timid and tender
youth is conscious of its weakness and full of humility. It rarely
trusts itself out of the obscure hole in which it was hatched ; when
it does, it is only at night, dreading the desiccating air, and, above
all, the sun's rays, even with the house it always carries with it for
shelter.
This calcareous and velluted house is spiral, which the animal has
the inappreciable advantage of transporting without fatigue. It is
light, and sometimes quite disproportionate to the body of the animal,
which it covers only in that part which contains the viscera and respi-
ratory organs. The form of the shell is generally much variegated.
Some are flattened, others are orbicular or globose ; in some the spiral
is very pointed. The edges of the shell are sometimes simple, sharp,
and pointed ; others, on the contrary, thick and inverted, presenting
an edging of great solidity.
The spire is generally rolled up from right to left. A helix shell,
the spiral of which follows the inverse direction, that is, from left to
right, is a rarity much sought after by amateurs.
The ancients held snails in especial esteem for the table. The
Eomans had many species served up at their feasts, which they dis-
tinguished in categories according to the delicacy of their flesh.
Pliny tells us that the best were imported from Sicily, from the
Balearic Isles, and from the Isle of Capri, the last dwelling-place of
the aged Tiberius; The largest came from Illyria. Ships proceeded
to the Ligurian coast to gather them for the tables of the Roman
patricians. The great consumption led to the establishment of parks
HEL1CID.E. 405
(Cochlearia, Yarro ; Cochlearum vivaria, Pliny), in order to fatten
the animals, as is now done with oysters. They were fed for this
end upon various plants mixed with soup ; when it was desired to
improve the flavour a little wine and sometimes laurel leaves were
added. These parks were formed in humid shady places surrounded
by a foss or a wall. Pliny has even transmitted to us the name of
the inventor of the Coehlearias, a certain Fulvius Hispinus. Addison
describes with details one of these establishments kept up by the
Capuchins at Fribourg in Switzerland, in imitation of the ingenious
Roman gourmet we have named.
Among the Eomans, snails were served at the funeral repast.
Certain heaps of their shells, which are found in the cemetery of
Pompeii, are the remains of those funeral festivities with which the
inhabitants of the buried city honoured the tombs of their friends and
relations.
The practice of eating snails had fallen into disuse in Europe
when, in the seventeenth century, John Howard, the philanthropist,
began to collect them with the view of reintroducing them as human
food. He chose Helix Varronis, which was probably the species culti-
vated by the Eomans ; it surpasses all those of Europe in size, and
was found plentifully in the district of Bagnes, in the Yalois. Howard,
having procured the species from Bagnes, found their increase so
rapid that the crops were likely to be devoured by the swarms of
molluscs thus brought together, and steps were at once taken to
destroy them. In other parts of Europe the snail continues to be
sought for as an article of luxury. They are consumed at Vienna in
great numbers during Lent, supplies being brought from the Swiss
canton of Appenzell. At Naples a soup made from Helix nemoralis
is sold publicly to the strange population with which the streets of
that city swarm, for the king's pavement is their bed-chamber, dining-
saloon,'and work-room. In France, snails are a valuable resource to
the poor in the southern departments.
The flesh of all snails is not alike in a culinary point of view.
Amateurs class as first in quality Helix vermicula, called at Mont-
pelier the Little Hermit, because it buries itself so deeply in its
shell. Helix aspersa (Figs. 193, 194, 195) is thought to be more
tender and delicate. In Provence a species is called tapada, that is,
" closed," from the cretaceous deposit with which it closes its shell.
406
THE OCEAN WORLD.
In the north of France, and round Paris, Helix pomatia is the
favourite culinary snail (Fig. 196). This is the species which is
Fig. 193. Helix aspersa (Miillei).
used as a speaking sign-board over the doors of the wine-shops and
small restaurants in the neighbourhood of the Halles, at Paris. Its
Fig. 194. Helix aspersa (Miiller).
Fig. 195. Helix aspersa
(Var. Scaiaris).
shell is globose and tun- shaped, very solid, marked with irregular
transverse stripes of a brownish rust colour, with bands, often nearly
effaced, of a deeper tint, and of the same colour. The animal is large,
of a yellowish grey, and covered with elongated irregular tubercles.
Besides Helix pomatia, according to Moquin-Tandon, they eat in
the north of France Helix sylvatica and H. nemoralis ; at Montpelier,
as we have already said, H. aspersa and H. rhodostoma ; at Avignon,
also, these, along .with H. vermicula, are favourites. In Provence,
Helix Pisana, with H. aspersa and melastoma, are preferred. At Boni-
facio, Helix aspersa, H. vermicula, and, more rarely, H. rhodostoma ;
HELICID^E.
407
and in other localities the smaller species and young individuals of the
larger kinds are employed for feeding poultry.
Fig. 196. Helix pomatia (Linnams).
Certain species are also employed for feeding ducks. Thus, in the
neighbourhood of Montpelier, ducks are fed upon Helix variabilis and
H. rhodostoma. Some fishes, especially the young salmon, are very
partial to the flesh of snails.
This very important genera is very numerous in species, which are
distributed in groups according to the form of the shell ; that is, whether
Fig. 197. Helix Mackenzii
(Adams).
Helix undulata
(Ferussac).
Fig. 199. Helix translucida
(Linnaeus).
it be globulous, as in Fig. 197, tun-bottomed, as in Fig. 198, plain or
biform, as in Fig. 199, or truncated, as in Figs. 200 and 201. These
figures will give the reader some idea of the multiplied and elegant
forms which the shells of Helix sometimes assume.
408
THE OCEAN WOELD.
In connnection with the snails (Helix), we shall note some kindred
genera which our space only permits us to name. Such is the genus
Figs. 200 and 201. Helix Waltoni (Reeve).
Bulimus, the European species of which are numerous ; some of them
very small, others of medium size ; of these, Bulimus sultanus (Figs.
Fig. 202. Helix citrina (Linnams).
Fig. 203. Helix Stuart ia (Sowerby).
204 and 205). In Figs. 206 and 207, the Berry Pupa (P. wva), as
an example of another genus, is represented.
Figs. 204 and 205. Bulimus sultanus (Lamarck).
Yet another typical species may be noted, which is found ahnn-
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS.
409
dantly amid the grass and shrubs near brooks round Paris and else-
where. It is Succinea putris, presenting a small, thin, diaphanous
shell of a pale amber yellow, marked with close and very fine longi-
tudinal stripes (Fig. 208). The Achatina zebra of Chemnitz is a
Figs. 206 and 207. Pupa uva.
great snail, which devours shrubs and trees in Madagascar (Fig.
209). Finally, Vitrina, the shell of which is very small and very
thin in some species so small, indeed, in Vitrina fasciaia (Fig. 210),
that the animal cannot fully enter the shell occupies a point of transi-
tion between Helix and Limax.
Fig. 208. Succinea putris
(Linnaeus).
Fig. 209. Achatina zebra
(Chemnitz).
Fig. 210. Vitrina fasciata
(Ed. and Soul).
In the Pectinibranchial Gasteropods the gills are composed of
numerous leaflets cut like the teeth of a comb, and attached, on one
or many lines, to the upper part of the respiratory cavity. They
constitute the most numerous order of Cephalous Molluscs, compre-
hending nearly all the univalve spiral shells, and many others which
are simply conical. They inhabit the sea, rivers, and lakes, and are
410 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of all sizes. The most remarkable genera which we shall describe
belong to the family of Troehoidw and Buccinoidse.
The fourth order of Gasteropods, Prosobranchiata, which includes
the Pecteni Branchiata, is distinct in the sexes, has the branchiae
pectinated, and the mantle forms a vaulted chamber over the back of
the head. It is divided into two sections and twenty-one families.
The first section, Holostomata, contains the sea-snails. The first
family we shall treat of is the Chitonidte, containing Chitondlus and
Chiton.
The Chitons are very singular creatures, desti-
tute of eyes, of tentacles, and without jaws ; they
bear upon their back in place of a shell a cuirass
composed of imbricated and movable scales. They
have the power of elongating and contracting
themselves like the snails. They roil themselves
up into a ball like the woodlouse. They adhere
with great force to the rocks, preferring those
places most exposed to the beating waves. Chiton
maanificus (Fig. 211) is widely distributed.
Fig. 211. Chiton magnificus J J V b ' J
(Deshayes). The second family, Dentaliadie, affords the
curious Dentalium, or tooth shell.
The Pateliidfe, or Limpets, constitute a very numerous family, dis-
tinguished at once by the form and structure of the animal, and by
that of the shell. Linnaeus called it Patella, i. e., a deep dish or knee-
cap.
The shells of the Patellidae, our third family, are univalve, oval, or
circular, non-spiral, but terminating in an elliptic cone, concave and
simple beneath, non-pierced at the summit, entire and inclined an-
teriorly. They are smooth, or ornamented on the sides with ridges
radiating from the summit, and often covered with scales ; the edges
are frequently dentate. The colours much varied. The interior is
very smooth, and remarkable for the brilliancy and lustre of its tints.
The head of the animal is furnished with two pointed tentacles
or horns, having an eye at the external base of each. The body is
oval and nearly circular, conical, or depressed. The foot is in the
form of a thick fleshy disk. Certain lamellar branchiae are arranged
in series all round the body.
The Limpets dwell upon the sea-shore, in the parts alternately
PULMONAEY GASTEROPODS. 411
covered and uncovered by the waves. They are almost always
attached to rocks, or other submerged bodies, to which they adhere
with great tenacity. If the common Limpet (Patella vulgata) is
alarmed before any attempt is made to dislodge it, no human force,
pulling in a direct line, can remove it, and it can sustain without
being crushed a weight of many pounds. It holds on by the great
quantity of vertical fibres of the foot, which in raising the median
part forms in the centre a sort of sucker. It is the celebrated experi-
ment, of the Magdeburg cups which these little molluscs realise by
their vital action.
These animals bury themselves in the chalky rocks to the depth
of two or three lines ; when they are dispersed, they are observed
constantly to return to the same place. Their movements are, besides,
extremely slow; the advance of the Limpet being only perceived
by watching the slow upheaval of the shell above the plane of its
position. It is supposed, from the mouth being armed on its upper
edge with a large semi-lunar, horny, cutting tooth, and in its lower
part from having a tongue furnished with horny hooks, and from
their inhabiting in great numbers places covered with marine plants,
that their food is chiefly vegetable.
Fig. 212. Patella caeruleu (Lamarck). Fig. 213. Patella umbella (Gmel.).
The poorer inhabitants of the coast eat limpets when they have
nothing else, but their flesh is singularly coriaceous and indigestible.
They are found in every sea; but are, however, found to be
larger as well as more numerous, and much richer in colour, in
Equatorial seas, and especially in the southern hemisphere, than in
European seas. They attain, in fact, their maximum of development
here ; for in the Straits of Magellan species are found as large as a
slop-basin, which the natives use for culinary purposes.
The common Limpet is thick, solid, oval, and nearly circular,
412
THE OCEAN WOELD.
generally conical, and covered with a great number of very fine stripe '.
Its colour is of a greenish grey, uniform above, and of a greenisk
yellow inside. It is abundant in the Channel and on Atlantic coasts.
The Blue Limpet, Patella cserulea (Fig. 212), from St. Helena,
has an oval shell, broadest behind, moderately thick, depressed,
flattened, covered with angular wrinkles, and dentate on the edge.
It is of a spotted green outside and of a fine glossy blue within.
Other very elegant species are Patella uinbella (Fig. 213), from
the African coast. Patella granatina (Fig. 214), the ruby-eyed
Fig. 214. Patella granatina (Linnaeus).
Fig. 215. Patella barbata (Lamarck).
Limpet from the Antilles; Patella larlata, the bearded Limpet
(Fig. 215) ; and the long spined Limpet, Patella longicosta (Figs. 216
and 217).
The fourth family, Calyptrseidse, types Pileopsis and Calyptrdea, was
Figs. 216 and 217. Patella longicosta (Lamarck).
classed by the older conchologists with Patella. Pileopsis Hungaricus,
the Hungarian bonnet shell, is rather abundant on some parts of the
British coast.
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS. 413
The fifth family, Fissurellidse, contains Parmophorus, the duck's-
bill-limpet of Australia, and Fissurella, the key-hole-limpet, which is
remarkable for the opening of the apex of the shell.
The sixth family, Haliotidse, contains lanthina, Scissurella, and
Hatiotis.
The attention of naturalists has long been directed to a curious
mollusc known under the name of lantliina communis (Fig. 218) ;
its body is globular, and it presents an opening in front without con-
tracting itself in order to form the head, which
is long and trumpet-shaped, terminating in a
large buccal opening, furnished with horny
plates, and covered with little hooks ; and two
conical tentacles, slightly contracted, but very
distinct, each bearing at their external base a
' Fig. 218. lantliitia communis
long peduncle. The foot is short, oval, divided (Lamarck),
into two parts : the anterior, concave and cupshaped ; the posterior,
flat and fleshy. It is this foot, which bears a vesiculous mass like foam,
which gives its peculiar character to the pretty mollusc. The mass
consists of a great number of small bladders, which combine to keep the
animal on the surface of the water. The shell is light, transparent,
violet-coloured, and very much resembles the shell of the Helix. The
lanthinas inhabit the deep sea, and often form bands of very great
extent. Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard have seen legions of lanthinas
driven by the current. They have sailed during many days through
these wandering tribes, which would be the sport of every gale if they
could not, by drawing their heads within their shells and contracting
their natatorial vesicles, diminish their volume and increase their
weight at will, so as to sink quietly to the bottom of the water
till the tempest was over. The lanthina possesses a liquid of a dark
violet colour, which is believed by many naturalists to have been one
of the purple dyes known to the ancients, if not the purple of Tyre :
it is very common in the Mediterranean.
Haliotis, the ear-shell, is remarkable for its brilliant colours, and
for a line of singular perforations in many of the species.
The seventh family, Turbinidte, contains Trochus, Turbo, ProteUa,
Monodonta, and DelpJiinula.
The genus Trochus are found in all seas, and near to the shore in
the clefts of rocks, especially in places where seaweeds grow luxuri-
414
THE OCEAN WORLD.
antly. Some of these thick, cone-shaped shells are extremely beautiful,
being richly nacred inside, and remarkable for the beauty and diver-
sity of colour exhibited. G enerally smooth, the great spiral is, never-
Fig. 219. Trochus niloticus (Limisous).
Fig. 221. Trochus inennis (Gmel.).
Fig. 220. Troclnjs virgatus (Gmel ).
Fig. 222. Trochus Cookii (Chemnitz).
Fig. 223. Trochus imbricatus (Gmel.). Fig. 224. Phorus couckylitphorus (Borfu).
theless, sometimes edged with a series of regular spines. The form is
conical, the spiral more or less raised, broad and angular at the base ;
the opening entire, depressed transversely, and the edge disunited in
the upper part.
The animal which inhabits this shell is also spiral ; its head is fur-
nished with two conical tentacles, having at their base eyes borne on
a peduncle ; its foot is short, round at its two extremities, edged or
PULMONARY GASTEEOPODS.
415
fringed in its circumference, and furnished with a horny operculum,
circular and regularly spiral.
The family is divided into many sub -genera. Among the Trochi,
properly so called, we may notice Trochus niloticus (Fig. 219), T. vir-
gatus (Fig. 220), T. inermis (Fig. 221), and T. Cookii (Fig. 222).
The genus Turbo are very generally diffused, being found on every
Fig. 225. Turbo margaritaceus
(Linnaeus).
Fig. 226. Turbo argyrostomus (Linnaeus).
Fig. 227. Turbo marmoratus (Linnaeus), Fig. 228. Turbo undulatus (Chemnitz).
shore, where they cling to rocks beaten by the waves. About fifty
species are known, some of them large shells, others very small.
Turbo margaritaceus (Fig. 225) is large, thick, and weighty, round-
bellied, and deeply furrowed ; in colour it is yellow, or rust-coloured,
marked by square brown spots. Turbo argyrostomus, the Silver-
mouthed Turbo (Fig. 226), is still larger, with protecting spines on the
416
THE OCEAN WOULD.
,top of its larger spiral. Turbo marmoratus (Linnaeus), the Marbled
Turbo (Fig. 227), is the largest shell in the group. It is marbled,
green, white, and brown, outside, and superbly nacred within. The
Gold-mouthed Turbo is so named from its nacre being of a rich
golden yellow. The Wavy Turbo (T. undulatus), (Fig. 228), vulgarly
known as the Australian Serpent's Skin. The shell is white, orna-
mented with longitudinal waving flexible lines of spots of green, or
greenish- violet. Turbo imperial** (Fig. 229), from the Chinese seas,
is green without, and brilliantly nacred within ; it is vulgarly known
as the paroquet.
The Turbos are found in the North seas, in the Channel, and on
the Atlantic coast. The animal is eaten in nearly all the sea-ports
of the Channel.
Rotella Zealandica,
from the Indian Ocean,
whose shell, represented
in Fig. 230, presents
the most lively colours, Fig. 230.
Zealandica.
lorms one 01 a genus
by no means numerous in species.
Near to the Troclii and Turbos in
the system are the Monodonta.
The Monodonta are elegantly-
marked shells, belonging to the seas
of warm countries. M. Australis
(Fig. 231) is a native of Australian
seas. M. Idbia (Fig. 232) is a small
brown shell, with white spots, which
is very common on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Fig. 229. Turbo imperialis (Gmel.).
Fig. 231. Monodonla
Australis (Lamarck).
Fig. 232. Monodonta labia
(Lamarck).
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS.
417
The eighth family is Neritidse, of which we give as types, Pileolus
and Nerita. The hoof-shells, or Nerites, are numerous and pretty, and
in external form approach Turbo.
Of the Delpliinula only a small num-
ber of living species are known. They
are natives of the Indian Ocean, and
remarkable for their numerous spines and
the asperity of their shell (Fig. 233).
The ninth family, Paludinidse, con-
tains Ampullaria, the idol snail of India,
and the widely distributed Paludina. Fig - 233 ' M P" Mta >P herula < Kienpr ).
Our tenth family, Ltttorinidte, contains Solarium, and the peri-
winkles, Littorina and PJiorus, example, P. Conchyliophorus
(Fig. 224).
The genus Imperator belongs to the Turbinidte, and as examples
of it we may instance the Spurred Trochus, Imperator stetta, which
is studded with radiating spines (Fig. 234), and Imperator stellaris
(Fig. 235) ; they are natives of the Australian seas. Imperator
Fig. 231. Imperator stella (Lamarck).
Fig. 235. Trocbus stellaris ((Jmel).
imperialis, vulgarly called the Eoyal Spur, and Troclms or Eotella
Zealandica (Fig. 230), the New Zealand Spur, the spiral turns of
which are sculptured in descending furrows, and studded with im-
bricated scales, which form a projecting edging round the margin of
the shell, and give it a radiating form. This species is of a violet
brown above and white below, and is still rare in collections.
The Sun-dial (Solarium}, recognized by its deep umbilicus, wide
and funnel-shaped, in the interior of which may be seen the little
crenated teeth which follow the edge of every turn of the spiral up
2 E
418
THE OCEAN WORLD.
to the top. In most collections of these pretty shells we find the
Staircase -shell (Solarium perspecticum) of Lamarck, from the Indian
Fig. 236. Solarium perspecticum. Fig. 237. Solarium perspecticum.
Ocean (Figs. 236, 237), the diameter of which is sometimes two inches
and a half. The Australian Sun-dial (S. variegatum,
Linnaeus, Fig. 238) is another species frequently
seen in collections : it is as much variegated above
as below, of a white and rusty brown. The minute
trellised Sun-dial, which is only ten lines in diameter,
comes from the coast of Tranquebar.
The eleventh family, Turritellidse, types Vermetus and Turritella,
Fig. 238. Solarium
variegatum.
Fig. 239. Turritella
replicata (Linnaeus).
Fig. 240. Turri-
tella angulata
(Sowerty).
Fig. 241. Turritella
sauguinea (Reeve),
Fig. 242. Turn-
tella goniostoma.
Fi?. 243. Turri-
tel'a terebellata
(Lamarck).
PULMONAEY GASTEROPODS.
419
which last is a numerous family, being found in every sea. All these
shells, as their name indicates, represent a winding pyramid, ter-
minating in a sharp point, some of them having fluted spirals, others
rounded, angular, or flat, and some of them elegantly pencilled.
Figs. 239 to 243 represent some of the varied forms they assume.
The twelfth family, Melaniadse, types, Paludomus and Melania,
fresh-water genera.
The thirteenth family, Cerithiadae, types, Aporrhais and Ceri-
tliium.
Cerithium is a marine shell, which is found in muddy bottoms, on
Fig 244. Cerithium
fasciatum (Brug.).
Fig. 245. Cerithium
aluco.
Fig. 246. Cerithium giganteum
(Lamarck).
ships, and more frequently at the mouths of rivers, but rarely beyond
the point to which the tide reaches. The genus is numerous in
2 E 2
420 THE OCEAN WOBLD.
species. Such are Cerithium fasciatum (Fig. 244) and Cerithium
aluco (Fig. 245).
The Giant Cerithium, Cerithium giganteum (Fig. 246), is the liv-
ing analogue of a magnificent fossil species belonging to the tertiary
formation. The single known example of this species belongs to the
Delessert Museum at Paris. A manuscript note by Lamarck, attached
to this specimen, relates that this shell was first brought to Dunkirk
in 1810 by an Englishman, one of the crew of an English ship.
The English sailor had drawn it up from the bottom of the sea with
the sounding-lead from a bed of rocks off the coast of Australia.
The fourteenth family, Pyramidellidte, contains Chemnitzia and
Pyramidella, extremely pointed shells.
The fifteenth family, Naticidse, contains Lamellaria and Natica ;
the last of which is found in most seas.
The second section of the Prosobranchiata is termed Siphono-
stomata, which are characterized by a spiral imperforate shell, the
animal of which has sometimes a horny operculum, and is furnished
with an elastic trunk, the margin of the mantle acting as a siphon.
They are carnivorous.
The first family is the Cypreeidse, containing the well-known
Cyprsea and Ovulum.
The Cowries, or Cypr&a, are brilliant, smooth, and polished, oval-
shaped, or oblong convex, with edges rolling inwards and longitudinal
openings, narrow, arched, dentate on both edges, and notched at the
extremities. The spiral, placed quite posteriorly, is very small, and
often hidden by a calcareous bed of a vitreous appearance.
It is now known that the form and colouring of the shells vary
very considerably, according to the age of the animal : so much so,
indeed, that the same species examined at various stages of its growth
would almost seem to belong to species and even to genera essentially
different.
The young cowries are thin, conical, elongated ; with conspicuous
spiral, and large openings. The right edge soon becomes thicker,
and folds itself inwardly ; the opening is narrowed ; finally, the
spiral is unfolded in successive folds from the right edge, and by
successive deposits of the vitreous matter we have spoken of the
opening is gradually contracted, its extremities hollowed out, its edges
disconnected, and the shell, until now only shaded in pale tints,
Adults.
Cypraea Scottii. (Broderip.) II. Cypraea Scotti. (Brodirip.)
Young.
III. Cypraa. Broderip.)
IV. Cypraea mappa.
VII. Cypraea tigris. (Linn.)
V. and VI. Cyprtea histrio. (Linn.)
VIII. and IX. Cypra>a argus. (Linn )
PLATE XXII. Cypiseadfe.
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS. 421
assumes its most brilliant colours, disposed in bands or spots, as exhi-
bited in PL. XXII., in which Figs. I. and II. are the adult shells,
and Fig. III. the young shell, of Cyprsea Scottii.
The animal which inhabits this shell is elongated, and is provided
with a well-developed mantle, furnished on the inside with a band of
tentacles ; it is able to fold itself up in its shell in such a manner as
to be enveloped all round. The head is provided with two very long
conical tentacles, each having a very large eye, in which a pupil and
iris can be distinguished. The foot is oval, elongate, and without
operculum, and is well represented in Cyprsea tigris (Fig. 247). The
cowries are found at a little distance from the shore, generally in
clefts of the rocky bottoms ; but sometimes they bury themselves in
the sand. They are timid, shun the light, and only leave their re-
treats to creep about in search of food, which appears to be exclu-
sively animal. These magnificent molluscs are natives of every sea.
One small creature lives in the British Channel ; another and much
larger species is found in the Adriatic ; but the Indian Ocean is the
home of the largest and finest species of these shells.
Fig. 247. Cypraea tigris (Linnceus). Fig. 248. Cyprsea cocci-
nella (Lamarck).
As objects of curiosity and ornament these shells have been much in
request in all ages. The inhabitants of the Asiatic coast make brace-
lets, collars, amulets, and head-dresses of them, and use them to orna-
ment boxes and harness. In New Zealand the chiefs carry a rare and
choice species, suspended from the neck, as a badge of their rank or
sign of distinction. This is Cyprsea aurantium. In some parts of
India and Africa a very small species of Cowrie passes as current
money. These shells are, indeed, extremely numerous, and we can
only find room for very brief descriptions of a few of the best known
among them.
The Waving and Zigzag Cowries, whose native country is unknown,
422
THE OCEAN WORLD.
are beautifully ornamented with waving and broken lines, as we see
them in Figs. 249 to 252.
The New Zealand Cowrie, of which we have spoken above, is nearly
Figs. 249 and 250. Cypraaa undata (Lamarck).
Figs. 251 and 252. Cyprsea zigzag
(LinnjEus).
globular, of a uniform orange colour above, and white below ; the
teeth of the opening are of a bright orange. The shell is rare, and
much sought after.
The Money Cowrie, Cyprtea moneta (Figs. 253 and 254), is a
little oval shell, depressed, flat below, with very thick edges and
slightly waving. It is of a uniform yellowish white colour, sometimes
citron-yellow above and white below. There are usually twelve teeth
Figs. 253 and 254.
Cypraea moneta (Linnaeus).
Fig. 255. Cypraaa Madagascar iensis (Gmel.).
(1 and 2).
in the opening. It comes from the Indian Ocean, the Maldivian Isles,
and the Atlantic Ocean.
This shell, so common in collections, is gathered by the women on
the . shore of the Maldivian Isles, three days after the full moons and
before the new moons ; it is afterwards transported to Bengal, to
India, and Africa, where, as we have already said, it is used by the
negroes and other natives as money.
The Madagascar Cowrie, Cyprsea Madagascar iensis (Fig. 255),
and the Granular Cowrie, Cyprtea nucleus (Figs, 259 and 260), are
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS.
423
beautifully marked species, having the general appearance of the
Cowrie.
Fig. 256. Cypraaa
capenois (Gray).
Figs. 257 and 258. Cypraea testudinaria (Linnaeus).
The species most abundant in the Channel is the little CoccineUa,
already mentioned; it is very small, oval, tun-bellied, the opening
Figs. 259 and 260. Cyprasa nucleus
(Linnaeus).
Fig. 261. Cypraea pantherina (Sol.).
dilated in front with smooth transverse stripes of greyish, tawny, or
rose-colour, with or without spots.
Cyprsea mappa (PL. XXII., Fig. IV.) is oval-shaped, swelling
below its sides, well-rounded, ornamented with small white spots
424
THE OCEAN WORLD.
below, with a dorsal branching line above; the interior is violet
colour, with thirty-six teeth on one side, and forty-two on the other.
It belongs to the Indian Ocean.
The Harlequin Cowrie, Cyprsea histrio (Figs. Y. and VI.), from
the coast of Madagascar, is ornamented with white spots very closely
arranged, and much circumscribed above, with black spots upon the
sides. The under side is violet.
A' very fine species, which is very common in collections, is found
in the Indian Ocean, from Madagascar to the Moluccas the Tiger
Cowrie, already figured with its inhabitant. This shell (Fig. VII.)
Fig. 262. Natural size of Ovulurn oviformis (Lamarck).
is large, oval, tun-bellied, thick, and convex, of a bluish white, orna-
mented with numerous broad, black, round spots, much scattered, and
a straight dorsal line, brown above, and very white below.
It has generally twenty-three teeth on each edge, quite
white. Somewhat resembling the Tiger Cowrie is the
Cyprsea panther ina (Fig. 261), which is perhaps a
variety of the same species. Another remarkable species
is Cyprsea argus, as represented in PL. XXII. (Figs.
Fig 263. Natural VTTF flTlfl IX ">
size of ovuium v ii i . ana i A. )
The genus Ovuium, so called from their egg-shaped
form, occupy a place near the cones in some systems. The shell is
highly polished, white or rose-coloured, oblong or oval, convex, atten-
uate, and acuminate at the extremities without apparent spiral, the
PULMONAKY GASTEROPODS.
425
edges milled within the long, narrow, and curved opening, with teeth
upon the left edge, and with a few ripples on the right edge. The
Ovula are inhabitants of the Indian Ocean and Chinese Seas. Some
few species, however, belong to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
The three species represented in Figs. 262, 263, and 264, present very
singular contrasts of form and size.
Fig. 264. Ovulum volva (Linnseus).
The second family, Volutidse, contains Mitra and Voluta.
MlTRA.
The Mitres are so called from their resemblance to the bishop's
mitre. They are natives of warm climates, such as the Indian Ocean,
the Australian Seas, and the Moluccas. The shell of the Mitra is
long, slender, and spiral, the spire
ending in a point at the summit ;
the opening is small, narrow, and
triangular, and notched in front.
The inhabitant of the shell has the
peculiarity of projecting from its
mouth a sort of cylindrical trunk,
which is long, very extensible as
well as flexible, and probably pre-
hensile, the use of which is only the
subject of surmise. Mitra episco-
palis (Fig. 205), from the Indian
Ocean, is white, ornamented with
square spots of a fine red, and
capable of high polish.
Mitra papalis (Fig. 266) has
dentiform folds round the opening,
which also crown each turn of the Fig> 2 65. Mitra epis- Fig. 266. Mitr
spiral ; the spots are smaller, and copall:
(Lamarck).
426 THE OCEAN WOULD.
much more numerous and varied in form than those of If.
copalis.
In the genus Valuta, from volvere, to turn, the shell is oval, more
or less tun-bellied. A spiral rising, slightly mammelate, the opening
large, the edges notched, without channel ; the columellar edge is
lightly excavated and arranged in oblique folds. The right edge is
arched, thick, or cutting, according to the species.
The animal has a large head, provided with two tentacles. The
mouth terminates in a thick trunk furnished with hooked teeth. The
foot is very large, furrowed in front, and projecting from all parts of
the shell, hut without operculum. The Volutse live on the sands
near the shore ; sometimes they are found high and dry, left by the
retreating tide. Their shells, of various forms, are ornamented with
the most lively colours, the surface covered with irregular lines, the
tint of which is generally in strong contrast with that of the ground.
Among the more remarkable species illustrated in PL. XXIII., we
may note : Fig. I., Valuta undulata ; Fig. II., Valuta cymlium ; Fig.
III., Voluta delessertii ; Fig. IV., Valuta musica ; Fig. V., Valuta im-
perialis ; Fig. VI., Voluta scapha ; and Fig. VII., Voluta vexillum.
The third family, Conidte, contains Pleurostoma and Conus.
The genus Conus is especially rich in species, as well as numerous in
many individuals. They are much sought after by collectors, many being
rare, and so command high prices. The shells belonging to this group
present a very remarkable uniformity of shape, at the same time that
the colours are very fine, and much varied in design. The shell is
thick, solid, inversely conical, wreathing spirally from the base to the
apex, the spiral being generally short, the last turn constituting alone
the greater part of the surface of the shell. The opening extends
nearly along its whole length, occupying all the height of the last
whirl. It is always narrow, its edges quite parallel ; the columella
presents neither fold nor curvature ; the right edge is plain, sharp, and
thin, detached from the front of the last spiral by a sloping hollow,
more or less deep.
The animal which inhabits the Conus shell creeps upon a foot,
elongated, narrow, truncate in front, furnished behind with a horny
rudimentary operculum, altogether insufficient to cover the opening.
The head, which is large, is elongated into a little snout, or muzzle,
at the base of which rises on either side a conical tentacle, having an
111. Vlouta Delessertii. (Petit.) JV. Voluta musica. (Linn.) V. Voluta imperialis. (Lumaick.)
VI. Voluta scapba. (Gmel.) VII. Voluta vexillum. (CLeni.)
PLATE XXIIL Voluta.
I. Conus imperialis. (Linn.) II. Conus geographus. (Linn.) III. Cor.us tessellatus. (Born)
IV., V., an-1 VI. Conus ammiralis. (Linn.)
VII. Conus nobilis. (Linn.) VIII. Conus textile. (Linn.) IX. Conus gloria maris. (Chemn.)
PLATE XXI Conne.
PULMONAKY GASTEROPODS. 427
exterior eye upon its anterior extremity. At the extremity of the
muzzle is the mouth, which is armed within with numerous horny
hooks, inserted in the tongue. A cylindrical syphon, reversing itself
in the shell, serves the purpose of carrying water to the "branchiae or
gills. The shells inhabit the seas of warm countries, especially those
lying between the Tropics, where they affect sandy coasts, with a depth
of ten to twelve fathoms of water.
Among the species bearing a spiral crown, we may mention the
rare Conus cedonulli, of which several varieties are known, which come
from the South .American Seas and the Antilles.
Conus hebraica, from the shores of Asia, Africa, and America, is a
common species. It is white with black spots, which are nearly
square, arranged in transverse bands.
In PL. XXI. we have represented some interesting species. Conus
imperialis (Fig. I.) is a fine species, of white colour, with bands of a
greenish yellow or tawny colour, ornamented with transverse, cord-
like, articulated lines of white and brown. One of the largest species
is Conus geograplius (Fig. II.), which sometimes attains the length
of six or seven inches ; it is shaded white and brown.
Among the non-crowned species, we have represented in Fig. III.
Conus tessellatus, common in the Indian Ocean. Its anterior part is
violet in the interior. The spots with which it is surrounded are of a
fine red or scarlet, or, in short, a red lead colour upon a white ground.
Conus ammiralis, of which three varieties, Figs. IV., Y., and VI.,
are natives of the seas which bathe the Moluccas ; they are beautifully
marked varieties, of a brownish citron colour, marked with white spots
nearly triangular, with tawny bands painted in very fine tracery.
This species has been, and is still, much sought after by collectors,
and presents many varieties besides those represented.
Among the shells, which seem almost ready to become cylindrical,
may be noted Conus nobilis (Fig. VII.), a rare shell of yellowish colour
approaching citron, ornamented with white spots. The golden drop,
Conus textile (Fig. VIII.), is yellow in colour, ornamented with waving
longitudinal lines of brown, and white corded spots edged with tawny
colour. The glory of the sea, Conus gloria maris (Fig. IX.), is
white in colour, banded with orange, and reticulated with numerous
triangular white spots edged with brown. This is a native of the
East Indies, and one of the most beautiful shells of the whole group.
428
THE OCEAN WOELD.
The fourth family, Bvccinidaz, contains numerous genera, as
examples of which we may instance Oliva, Harpa, Cassis, Purpura,
Nassa, Terebra, Hburna, and Buccinum.
Oliva is so named from their resemblance in form to the olive.
Their nearly cylindrical shell is slightly spiral, polished, and brilliant
as the Cowries ; its opening is still long and narrow, strongly notched
in front, its edge columellar, swollen anteriorly into a kind of cushion,
and striped obliquely in all its length.
These Molluscs belong to the seas of warm countries, where they fre-
quent the sandy bottoms and clear waters. They creep about with much
agility, reversing themselves quickly when they have been overturned ;
they live upon other animals, and are flesh-eaters. They are, in fact,
taken at the Isle of Tranu by using flesh as bait. The colours of the
shell are very varied, and sometimes fantastically streaked. Oliva
erythrostoma (Fig. 267) is ornamented externally with flexual lines of
Fig. 267. Oliva Fig. 268. Oliva por-
erythrostoma (Lamarck). pkyria (Linnasus).
Fig. 269. Oliva iri-
sans (Lamarck).
Fig. 270. Oliva Peru-
viana (Lamarck).
a yellowish brown, with two brown bands, combined with the fine
yellowish tint of gold colour within. Oliva porphyria, from the
Brazil coast (Fig. 268), presents lines of a reddish brown, regularly
interlaced with spotted large brown marks, upon a flesh-coloured
ground. Oliva irisans (Fig. 269) is painted in zigzag lines, close
and brown, edged with orange-yellow, and with two zones of darker
brown, and reticulated. Oliva Peruviana (Fig. 270) is furrowed with
regularly spaced bands.
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS.
429
In the casque, Cassis, the shell is oval, convex, and the spiral of con-
siderable height. The longitudinal opening narrow, terminating in
front in a short channel, which becomes suddenly erect towards the
back of the shell, as in Cassis glauca (Fig. 271), a fine shell from the
Fig. 271. Cassis glauca (Linnaeus). Fig. 272. Cassis rufa (Linnaeus).
Fig. 273. Cassis canaliculata
( Brugieres).
Moluccas. The columella is folded or toothed transversely, as in
Fig. 272 (Cassis rufa) ; the right edge thick, furnished with a sort
of pad externally, and dentate within. This shell is from the Indian
Figs. 274 and 275. Cassis Madagascariensis (Lamarck).
Ocean, and is of a fine purple colour, varied with black above ; the
edges of the opening being of a coral red colour, the teeth alone being
white.
430 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
The head of the animal is large and thick, furnished with two
conical elongated tentacles, at the base of which are the eyes. The
mantle is ranged outside the shell, falling
back upon the edges of the opening, and
terminating at its anterior extremity in a
long cylindrical channel, cloven in front,
and passing by a hollow at the base into the
bronchial cavity. The foot is large, and
furnished with a horny operculum.
These animals keep near the shore, in
shallow water. They walk slowly, and often
sink themselves into the sand, where they
prey upon small bivalves. They are not
numerous in species; but specimens from
the Indian Ocean are often large and beau-
tifully marked. The shells of the less marked
species are frequently used in India as lime, and employed as mortar,
under the name of Chunam.
Our space only permits us to mention, among the more curious,
Cassis canaliculata (Fig. 273), two varieties of Cassis Madagas-
cariensis (Figs. 274 and 275), and the curious Cassis undaia
(Martini), Zebra (Lam.), or Zebra-marked Casque (Fig. 276).
PUBPUBA.
The Purpuras have a classical name and history, having furnished
the Greeks and Eomans with the brilliant purple colouring matter
which was reserved for the mantles of patricians and princes. The
Purpura is an oval shell, thick pointed, with short conical spiral, as in
Purpura lapillus (Fig. 277). In some it is tubercular or angular, the
last turn of the spiral being larger than all the others put together.
The opening is dilated, terminating at its lower extremity in an
oblique notch. The columellar edge is smooth, often terminating in
a point ; the right edge often digitate, thick internally, and folded or
rippled.
The animal presents a large head, furnished with two swollen
conical tentacles, close together, and bearing an eye towards the
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS. 431
middle of their external side. Its foot is large, bilobate in front, with
a semicircular horny operculum.
The Purpuras inhabit the clefts of rocks in marine regions covered
with algae. On occasions they bury themselves in the sand. They
creep about by the help of their foot in pursuit of bivalves, which they
open by means of their short snout. They are found in all seas ; but
the larger species and greatest numbers come from warm regions,
more especially from the Australian seas.
The Purpura of the ancients was not, as is generally thought, a
vermilion red, but rather a very deep violet, which at a later period
came to have various shades of red. The secret of its preparation
was only known to the Phoenicians, that being most esteemed which
came from Tyre. An English traveller, Mr. Wilde, has discovered on
the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, near the ruins of Tyre, a
certain number of circular excavations in the solid rock. In these
excavations he found a great number of broken shells of Murex trun-
culus. It is probable that they had been bruised in great masses by
the Tyrian workmen for the manufacture of the purple dye. Many
shells of the same species are found actually living on the same coast
at the present time.
Aristotle, in his writings, dwells upon the purple. He says that
this dye is taken from two flesh-eating molluscs inhabiting the sea
which washes the Phoenician coast. According to the description
given by the celebrated Greek philosopher, one of these animals
had a very large shell, consisting of seven turns of the spiral,
studded with spines, and terminating in a strong beak ; the other had
a shell much smaller. Aristotle named the last* animal Buccinum.
It is thought that the last species is recognized in the Purpura
lapillus (Fig. 277), which abounds in the Channel. Keaumur and
Duhamel obtained, in fact, a purple colour from this species, which
they applied to some stuffs, and found that it resisted the strongest
lye. The genus Murex is supposed to have been 'the first species in-
dicated by Aristotle.
Up to the present time, the production of the purple remains a
mystery. It was long thought this fine dye was furnished by the
stomach, liver, and kidneys; but M. Lacaze-Duthiers has demon-
strated that the organ which secretes it is found on the lower surface
of the mantle, between the intestines and the respiratory organs, where
432
THE OCEAN WORLD.
it forms a sort of fascia, or small band. The colouring matter, as it
is extracted from the animal, is yellowish ; exposed to the light, it
becomes golden yellow, then green, taking finally a fine violet tint.
While these transformations are in progress a peculiarly pungent
odour is disengaged, which strongly reminds one of that of assafcetida.
That portion of the matter which has not passed into the violet tint is
soluble in water ; when it has taken that tint it becomes insoluble.
The appearance of the colour seems provoked rather by the influence
of the sun's rays than by the action of the air. The matter attains
its final colour, in short, in proportion to the power of the sun's
rays.
It is a question how far the colour evolved under the solar rays
remains indelible. It is known that the contrary is the case with the
colouring matter of the cochineal insect, which changes very quickly
when exposed to the sun. It is probably the remarkable resistance
it opposes to the rays of the sun which recommended it to the ancients.
The patricians of Eome, and the rich citizens of Greece and Asia
Minor, loved to watch the magical reflections of the sun on the
glorious colour which ornamented their mantles.
But to return to our
humble shells. Pur-
pura lapillus (Fig. 277)
is a thick shell, oval
acute, with conical spiral,
generally of a faded or
yellowish white, zoned
with brown, and more
or less spotted.
Purpura patula (Fig.
278) is very common in
the Philippines, and is
one of the handsomest
species ; its geographical
distribution has been a subject of much coEtroversy.
Purpura consul (Fig. 279) is one of the large shells, and of a
fine salmon colour, with brown bands and a corona of spines.
The Buccinums resemble the Purpura in many respects. Their
shell is oval or conical, much notched in front. They inhabit every
Fig. 27 7* Purpnra la-
pillus.
Fig. 278. Purpura patula.
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS.
433
sea, especially those of Europe. The animal has a small flat head,
furnished with lateral tentacles or horns, bearing the eyes upon an
Fig. 279. Purpura consul.
Fig. 280. Buccinum
senticosum (Linnaeus).
Fig. 281. Buccinum undatum
(Linneeus).
external swelling, situated near their central length. We need only
refer to Fig. 280, Buccinum senticosum, and Buccinum undatum
(Fig. 281), for their general form, the well-known whelk of our
markets.
The Harpas are shells of the Indian
Ocean, richly enamelled within, and orna-
mented externally with slightly oblique
longitudinal stripes in gay colours, with
finely-sculptured forms in the intervals ;
spiral very small, and opening large.
Among the more attractive species are
Harpa ventricosa (Fig. 282), Harpa
imperialis (Fig. 283), and Harpa artieu-
laris (Fig. 284).
The fifth family, Murieidse, contains
Fusus, Pijrula, Triton, and Murex.
The Murex, or Rock Shells, include a
large number of species, all remarkable
for their bright colours and somewhat fantastical and varied forms.
They are found in all seas, but become larger and more branching in
the seas of warm regions. The shell is oval, or rather oblong, the
2 r
Fig. 282. Harpa ventricosa (Lamarck).
434
THE OCEAN WOKLD.
spire more or less elevated, its surface generally covered with rows
of spines, or tubercular ramifications. The opening, which is oval, is
Fig. 283. Uarpa imperialis (Lamarck).
Fig. 284. Harpa articularis
(Lamarck).
prolonged in a straight canal, often of very considerable length, as
in Fig. 286 (Murex haustelhim) ; the external edge is often smooth
or rippled, the columellar edge sometimes callous.
The head of the
animal is furnished
with two horns or
tentacles, ocular upon
their external side, the
mouth elongated in
the form of a trunk.
The foot is large and
round, and furnished
with a horny oper-
culum.
Among the species
with long slender tube,
covered with spines,
one of the most notable
is Murex tenuispina
Fig. 235. Murex temiispina (Lamarck).
Ocean and the Moluccas.
Fig. 286. Murex haustel-
lum (Linnzeus).
(Fig. 285), which is a
native of the Indian
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS.
435
Among the strong-tubed species with long canal and no spines,
from the same regions, is Murex liaustellum (Fig. 286).
Among the short-tuhed species, furnished with foliaceous and jagged
fringes, is Murex scorpio (Fig. 287).
One more typical
species may be noted,
namely, Murex erina-
ceus (Fig. 288), which
is found on all the
coasts of Europe, and
especially in the
Channel. Other species
worthy of notice are
found in the Mediter-
ranean and the Adri-
atic, some of them,
according to Cuvier Fig. 2S7. Murex scorpio Fig. 283. Mures erinaceus
and de Blainville,
species which furnished the true Tyrian purple of the ancients;
but our space prevents us from dwelling on them.
Fig. 289. Triton variegatum (Lam.). Fig. 290. Triton lotorium (Linn.). Fig. 291. Trito-j anus (Lam.).
The Tritons are ranged beside the genus Murex in the system.
2 p 2
436
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Their shell is irregularly covered with scattered swelling excrescences,
not, as in Murex, in longitudinal rows, but scattered all over the
surface. About one hundred species of Triton are known. They
inhabit many seas, but more especially those in warm countries.
Triton variegatum, vulgarly called the Marine Trumpet (Fig. 289),
is a very large shell, which even attains a length of sixteen inches ; it
is enamelled with great elegance in white, red, and tawny-brown.
They come from the Indian Ocean, where they are very common.
Triton lotorium (Fig. 290) is of a reddish brown externally and white
within. The Triton anus (Fig. 291) is of a whitish colour, spotted
with red.
The genus Fusus, or spindle shells, is distinguished by the elegance
Fig. 292. Fusus proboscidiferus (Lam.).
Fig. 293. Fusus pagodi
(Lesson).
Fig. 294. Fusus colus.
of its form rather than by the brilliancy of its colours. They are
spindle-shaped, spire many-whorled, canal long, operculum egg-shaped.
PULMONARY GASTEROPODS. 437
Among the more remarkable species may be noted Fusus prolos-
cidiferus (Fig. 292J, Fusus pagodus (Fig. 293), and Fusus colus
(Fig. 294).
The sixth family is Strombidse, of which we give as types,
Rostellaria, Pteroceras, and Strombus. Strombus is a marine shell,
belonging to Equatorial seas, of whose habits and manners very little
is known. It is probable that they are long-lived, for their shells,
when found perfect, have acquired a very considerable thickness and
weight. They are even found encrusted in the interior with numerous
layers of soft earthy sediment, and covered externally with small corals
and other marine productions. Strombus gigas is represented in Figs.
295 and 296.
Fig. 295. Strombus gigas (Lionseus), with the animal.
Some species of Strombus attain great size, and are placed as orna-
ments in halls and dining-rooms. In some of them the opening is
brilliantly shaded, and those are chiefly sought after to decorate
grottoes in gardens, or for collections of shells, where, from their
size, they necessarily occupy a prominent place.
These shells are tun-bellied, terminating at their base by a short
canal, notched or truncated ; the right edge gets dilated with age ;
simple on one wing, lobed or cuneated in the upper part, and pre-
senting in its lower part a groove or cavity separated from the canal
or from the notch at the base. But these shells are not merely
ornamental, for some of the streets of Yera Cruz are said to be paved
with Strombus gigas.
The animal which inhabits this shell presents a distinct head, pro-
vided with a trunk or snout, and with two tentacles or horns, each
438
THE OCEAN WORLD.
bearing a large and vividly-coloured eye. The foot is compressed and
divide 1 into two portions, the posterior one, which is the longest, bear-
ing a horny operculum. In the eagle-winged Stromlus, represented
Fig. 296. Shell of Strombus gigag. Fig. 297. . Strombus gallus (Linn.).
in Figs. 296 and 297, these several peculiarities are well developed.
This shell is large, turbinate, distended in the middle, with an acutely-
pointed spiral studded with conical tubercles, the right edge very
Fig. 298. Strombus luhuanus
(Linnzeus).
Fig. 299. Slrombus can-
cellatus (Lamarck).
Fig. 300. Strombus thersites (Gray).
broad, rounded off below. The opening is of a vivid rose purple fading
into white. It is a native of the Antilles.
Strombus gallus, or the angel-winged (Fig. 297), veined with
PULMONAKY GASTEKOPODS. ' 43<)
stripes of white and red, comes from the coasts of Asia and America.
Strombus luliuanus (Fig. 298) is fawn-coloured, marked with white,
and externally the right edge is red and striped ; inside the columella
is shaded purple and black.
Strombus cancellatus, the trellised Strombus (Fig. 299), is small
in size and white in colour. Strombus thersites is also represented
(Fig. 300).
PTEROCEBAS.
The Pteroceras, from Tnepov, wing, and /cepas, horn, in many respects
resemble the Strombi. They are distinguished from them chiefly in
this, that the right edge developes itself with age in long and slender
digital spines more or less numerous, the numbers of which vary
Fig. 301. Pteroceras Scorpio Fig. 302. Pteroceras millepeda
(Linnaeus). (Linnasus).
according to the species. The Pterocerse are found in the seas of
both hemispheres, their vulgar denomination being sea-spiders or
scorpions. A glance at the illustrations (Fig. 301, Pteroceras scorpio ;
Fig. 302, P. millepeda; Fig. 303, P. chiragra; and Fig. 304,
P. lamlis) will satisfy the reader as to the general correctness of this
designation.
The genus Pteroceras, whose remarkable form is so well calcu-
lated to excite our admiration, has yet another attraction : the colour-
440
THE OCEAN WOULD.
ing of the shell exhibits many shades, which are particularly varied
towards the opening, where it is generally distinguished by great
Fig. 303. Pteroceras chiragra (Linnceus).
Fig. 304. Pteroceras lambis (Linnaeus).
freshness and brilliancy, which, added to its other characters, render it
the most interesting of all the Gasteropods.
( 441 )
CHAPTEK XY.
MOLLUSCOUS PTEROPODS.
" Natura non facit saltus."
THE position of the Pteropoda is somewhat unsatisfactory. Their
organization in some respects places them below the level of the
Gasteropods; hut yet the general feeling amongst naturalists has
been to assign them a place between the Gasteropods and the most
highly organized of the molluscs, the Cephalopods. The number of
genera and species is less than that of the other great classes of
molluscs.
There are three principal Families of Pteropods. First, the Cliidse,
containing Cymodocea, Pelagia, Pneumodermon, and Clio. Second,
Limacinidae, containing Macgillivrayia, Cheletropis, Spirialis, and
Limacina. Third, Hyaleidse, containing Tiedemannia, Cymbulia,
Eurybia, Theca, Cleodora, and Hyalea.
The principal characteristic of the Pteropoda is a membranous
expansion situated on the right and left side of their head, from
which they take their name of Pteropoda, from Trovs-Tnepos, winged
feet.
The wings or flappers with which they are provided enable them
to pass rapidly through the water, reminding us strongly of the
movements of a butterfly, or other winged insect, and like them, their
motions are long continued. They advance in this manner in a
given direction, while the body or the shell remains in an oblique or
vertical position.
These little molluscs may be seen to ascend to the surface very
suddenly, turn themselves in a determinate space, or rather swim,
without appearing to change their place while sustaining themselves
at the same height. If anything alarms them they fold up their
442 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
flappers, and descend to such a depth in their watery world as will
give them the security they seek. They thus pass their lives in the
open sea far from any other shelter, except that yielded hy the gulf
weed and other algae. In appearance and habits, these small and
sometimes microscopic creatures resemble the fry of some other forms
of mollusca. They literally swarm both in Tropical and Arctic seas ;
sometimes so numerous as to colour the ocean for leagues. They are
the principal food of whales and sea-birds in high latitudes, rarely
approaching the coast. Only one or two species have been acci-
dentally taken on our shores, and those evidently driven thither by
currents into which they have been entangled, or by tempests which
have stirred the waters with a power beyond theirs. Dr. Leach states
that in 1811, during a tour to the Orkneys, he observed on the rocks
of the Isle of Staffa several mutilated specimens of Clio lorealis.
Some days after, having borrowed a large shrimp-net, and rowing
along the coast of Mull, when the sea, which had previously been
extremely stormy, had become calm, he succeeded in catching one
alive, which is now in the British Museum.
"In structure," Mr. Huxley tells us, "the Pteropods are most
nearly related to the marine univalves, but much inferior to them.
Their numerous ganglia are concentrated into a mass below the
oesophagus ; they have auditory vesicles containing otolithes, and are
sensible of light and heat, and probably of odours, although at most
they possess very imperfect eyes and tentacles. The true foot is
small or obsolete ; in Cleodora lanceolata (Fig. 309) it is combined
with the fins ; but in Clio it is sufficiently distinct, and consists of two
elements or spirals ; the superior portion of the foot supports an
operculum. The fins are developed from the sides of the mouth or
neck, and are the equivalents of the side-lappets (Epipoda) of the sea-
snails. The mouth of Pneumodermon is furnished with two sup-
porting miniature suckers ; these organs have been compared to the
dorsal arms of the cuttle-fishes ; but it is doubtful whether their
nature is the same. A more certain point of resemblance is the
ventral flexure of the alimentary canal, which terminates on the under
surface near the right side of the neck. The Pteropods have a
muscular gizzard armed with gastric teeth, a liver, a pyloric caecum,
and a contractile renal organ opening into the cavity of the mantle.
The heart consists of an auricle and a ventricle, and is essentially
PTEROPODOUS MOLLUSCS. 443
opisthobranchiatic, although sometimes affected by the general flexure
of the body. The venous system is extremely incomplete. The
respiratory organ, which is little more than a ciliated surface, is either
situated at the extremity of the body, and unprotected by a mantle,
or included in a branchial chamber with an opening in front. The
shell when present is symmetrical, glassy, and translucent, consisting
of a dorsal and a ventral plate united, with an anterior opening for
the head, lateral slits for long filiform processes of the mantle, and
terminated behind in one or three points ; in other cases it is conical
or spirally-coiled, and closed by a spiral operculum. The sexes are
united, and the orifices situated on the right side of the neck.
According to Vogt, the embryo Pteropod has deciduous vola like
the sea-snails, before the proper locomotive organs are developed."
The Pteropods seem to be eminently sociable and gregarious,
swarming together in great numbers ; they present some analogical
Figs. 305 and 306. Hj alea gilbosa (Rang.). Figs. 307 and 308. Hyalea longirostris (Lesueur).
resemblances to the Cephalopodse ; but permanently they represent
the larval stage of the sea-snails. De Blainville divides the group
into two sections, Thecosomata and Gymnosomata, the first including
the HyaleidsB and LimacinidsB ; the second contains one family, the
Cliidse. The Hyaleidae have small horny shells, very thin and
transparent, globulous, or elongated, open anteriorly, cloven on the
sides, and truncate at the posterior extremity. Their globular body
is formed of two parts, the one including the head, bearing two very
strong tentacles, and two large fins or flappers in the form of wings,
springing from each side of the mouth.
These molluscs are small, and generally of a yellowish-blue or violet
colour. They are inhabitants of the deep sea, and rarely seen out of
what sailors call " blue water." They plough the waves with great
rapidity by the aid of their powerful fins. Certain winds throw
them sometimes in great numbers on the shores of the Mediterranean.
444
THE OCEAN WOKLD.
These little creatures, so inoffensive, and which live together in vast
numbers, seem to be an easy and ready-prepared prey, which the
great marine animals may swallow by thousands. Twenty species of
Hyalea are described as actually living in the Atlantic and Australian
seas. Of these Hyalea gibbosa (Figs. 305, 306) and Hyalea longi-
rostris (Figs. 307, 308) are here represented.
The great flappers of Hyalea tridentata are yellow, marked at their
base with a fine violet spot. Its shell, plain above, convex beneath,
Fig. 309. Cleodora lanceolata (Lesueur).
Fig. 310. Cleodora compressa (Ej'doux
and Souleyet).
is cloven on the side. The superior part is longer than the inferior,
and the transverse line which unites them is furnished with three
teeth. This shell is yellow, and nearly translucent. "When the
animal swims, two expansions of its mantle issue
from the lateral clefts in the shell.
Cleodora lanceolata is a delicate and graceful
creature ; its body, of gelatinous appearance, has
a distinct head, with its fins near the neck,
notched in the form of a heart (Fig. 309) ; its
ciwdora ouspidata posterior part is globulous, transparent, and lumi-
nous even in the dark. The animal which in-
habits it sometimes shines through the shell like a light placed inside
a lantern. This shell is triangular, as in Cleodora cuspidata (Fig.
311), thin, vitreous, and fragile, terminating in a long spine at the
base.
Fig. 311.
( 445 )
CHAPTEK XVI.
CEPHALOPODOUS MOLLTJSCA.
" Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens." VIKGIL.
THE highest class of Molluscs is the Cephalopoda, which has been
divided by Professor Owen into two Orders, Tetrabranchiata, or
animals having four branchiae, and the Dibranehiata, having two
branchiae. The first Family of the Tetrabranchiata, having the
Ammonitidae, contains the fossil Turrilites and Ammonites. The
second Family, Orthoceratidte, contains the fossil Gomphoceras and
Orthoceras. The third Family, Nautilidte, contains Nautilus.
The name Cephalopoda, as already stated, is taken from the posi-
tion of the feet, which are inserted in the anterior part of the head :
in Greek /ce<j>a\}], head, and Tiovs-TroSbs, foot.
The Cephalopodous Molluscs are indeed highly organised for
Molluscs, for they possess in a high degree the sense of sight, hearing,
and touch. They appear with the earlier animals which present them-
selves on the earth, and they are numerous even now, although they
are far from playing the important part assigned to them in the early
ages of organic life upon our planet. The Ammonites and Belemnites
existed by thousands among the beings which peopled the seas during
the secondary epoch in the history of the globe.
This great class is otherwise divided into two orders : Tentaculiferous
Ceplialopods, those furnished with strong fleshy tentacula, and Aceta-
luliferous, or sucker-bearing.
TENTACULIFEROUS CEPHALOPODS.
In place of bearing simple suckers (Acetabula), like the last order of
Cephalopods, this group is furnished with true organs of prehension,
446
THE OCEAN WORLD.
or tentacles. They differ from the first group chiefly in their more
numerous arms, which are quite tentaculiferous, having neither suckers
nor capsules, and hy having an external shell. The numher of living
species is extremely limited ; for this group of animals belongs pecu-
liarly to the earlier ages of our globe, is gradually becoming extinct,
and presents in our days only some rarer species, when we compare
them with the prodigious numbers of these beings which animated the
seas of the ancient world. In fact, the only living type of the order
is ^the nautilus, which has a singular resemblance in form to the
argonaut.
The shell of this mollusc has a regularly convoluted form, the last
whorl being equal to all the others. It is divided internally into
numerous cells, formed by transverse partitions, concave in front and
perforated towards the centre, and forming a kind of funnel, which
gives passage to a respiratory siphon.
In the last cell of the
shell (Fig. 312) is the ani-
mal, covered by its mantle,
which covers the walls of
the cells. When it con-
tracts itself it is protected
by a sort of triangular and
fleshy hood. Numerous
contractile tentacles, re-
entering into the sheath,
Flg 3,2. N,m,, S p,. mP u,,, s( Lin n! eu S ), sh w 1 n B t h sm. some of them furnished
terior of the lower cell, to which the animal is fixed. ^fa numerOUS lamellae,
surround the head, which is, besides, scarcely distinguished from the
body. The head bears two great projecting eyes, planted upon a
peduncle.
Like Sepia and Octopus, the mouth of the Nautilidse is armed with
mandibles, fashioned like the parrot's beak ; the branchiae are four in
number. The circulating system consists of a ventricle and auricle,
and the locomotive tube is protected in its whole length. The shell
is sscreted by the outer edge of the mantle, while its posterior ex-
tremity fashions the walls of the cells, which indicate the successive
growth of the individual.
The siphon, which traverses all the chambers, receives and protects
CEPHALOPODS.
447
the ligament, by the aid of which the Cephalopocl is retained in the
last chamber of the shell.
Fig. 313 is the same section, with the last cell empty, and with
the perforations through which
the siphon passes.
The NautilidoB are inhabi-
tants of the Indian Ocean and
the sea round the Molucca
Islands. In swimming, their
head and tentacles are pro-
jected from out of the shell.
In walking on rocks they
drag themselves along the Fjg 313 Nautilus pompilins (Linnjeus) , showlng the
ground, the body upwards, lower cel1 and tbe P ariition s iviu s passage to the sipbon.
the head and tentacles beneath. They betake themselves frequently
to miry cavities frequented by fish. It is a much more common occur-
rence to find the empty than inhabited shells of the Nautilus at sea.
This, probably, arises from its exposure to the attacks of crustaceans
and other marine carnivora.
This seems to be proved by the
mangled appearance of the edges
in the empty shells thus met
with.
The Pearly Nautilus, Nautilus
pompilius (Fig. 314), is so com-
mon on the Nicobar coast that
the inhabitants salt and dry its
flesh, and store them as pro-
visions. Its shell attains about
eight inches in its greatest
height. This shell is still used by the Hindoo priests as their conch or
shell, with which they summon their devotees to worship. It is nearly
round, smooth, transversely blazed in its posterior part, and entirely
white anteriorly. A very fine nacre is yielded by this mollusc, which
is much used in ornamental cabinet-work. The Orientals make drink-
ing-cups, on which they engrave designs and figures, which form grace-
ful objects. Similar vases were formerly shaped in Europe, which found
their way into great houses. In our days they are generally consigned
Fig. 314. Shell of Nautilus pompihus (Li<maeus).
448 THE OCEAN WORLD.
to cabinets of curiosities and the shops of dealers in articles of
virtu.
Owen's second order, Dibranchiata, contains six families ; the
first is Spirulidse, containing the curious Spirula, that little gem
amongst oceanic shells. The second .family is Sepmdte, containing
Belemnosis and Sepia. The third is BelemnitidsB ; the fourth, Teu-
tliidffi ; the fifth, Qciopodidss ; and the sixth, Argonautidde.
ACETABULIFEROUS CEPHALOPODA.
To this group belong the cuttle-fish, squids, and argonauts, among
existing species, and the Belemnites among the fossil species. Some
of these creatures are large, and essentially flesh-eaters, or carni-
vorous ; and, if we may believe all that has been written respecting
them, very formidable ones. Listen to Michelet, while he paints the
warlike humour of these inhabitants of the deep: "The Medusae
and Molluscs," says this popular author, "are generally innocent
creatures, and I have lived with them in a world of gentle peace.
Few flesh-eaters among them ; those even which are so, only kill to
satisfy their wants, living for the most part on life just commenced
on gelatinous animals, which can scarcely be called organic. From
this world grief was absent. No cruelty and no passion. Their
little souls, if mild, were not without their ray of aspiration towards
the light, and towards what comes to us from heaven, and towards
that love, revelling in that changing flame which at night is the
light of the deep. It is now, however, necessary to describe a much
graver world : a world of rapine and of murder ; from the very
beginning, from the first appearance of life, violent death appeared ;
sudden refinement, useful but cruel, purification, of all which has
languished, or which may linger or languish, of the slow and feeble
creation whose fecundity had encumbered the globe.
"In the more ancient formations of the old world we find two
murderers a nipper and a sucker. The first is revealed to us by the
imprint of the trilobite, an order now lost, the most destructive of
extinct beings. The second subsists in one gigantic fragment, a beak
nearly two feet in length, which was that of a great sucker or cuttle-
fish (Sepia). If we may judge from such a beak, this monster, if the
other parts of the body are in proportion, must have been enormous ;
CEPHALOPODS. 449
its ventose, invincible arms, of perhaps twenty or thirty feet, like
those of some monstrous spider. The sucker of the world, soft and
gelatinous ! it is himself. In making war on the molluscs he remains
mollusc also ; that is to say, always an embryo. He presents the
strange, almost ridiculous, if it was not also terrible, appearance of an
embryo going to war ; of a foetus furious and cruel, soft and trans-
parent, but tenacious, breathing with a murderous breath, for it is
not for food alone that it makes war : it has the wish to destroy.
Satiated, and even bursting, it still destroys. Without defensive
armour, under its threatening murmurs there is no peace ; its safety
is to attack. It regards all creatures as a possible enemy. It throws
about its long arms, or rather thongs, armed with suckers, at random."
Such is the somewhat exaggerated picture which the eloquent
historian and poet draws of the Molluscous Cephalopod, and it must
be admitted that there is a basis of truth in this, as well as in the
more recent one painted by Victor Hugo, in his eloquent book, " Les
Travailleurs de la Mer." Where, however, there is so much of the
fictitious floating about, it will be our endeavour to eliminate facts only.
FAMILY OF THE SEPIAD^:.
The body of the cuttle-fish (Sepia) is thus a very singular struc-
ture, somewhat reminding us of certain species of polyps. We find
a body or abdominal mass, hand ahead, separated by compression,
sufficiently marked. The body is covered by the mantle, which has
the form of a sac opened only in front by a transverse cleft. The
head has a projecting and well-developed eye on each side ; it is
surmounted by a sort of fleshy funnel, which is divided by four pairs
of tentacles. At the bottom of this tentacular funnel is the mouth ;
and from the anterior opening in the mantle a tube issues, which is
wide at its base.
The Sepiadse have eight arms rising from the crown of the head
armed with four rows of suckers, two long slender tentacles with
broadly-expanding ends, and stalked suckers ; eyes moving in their
sockets, and body broadly ovate in Sepia.
If we study the general aspect of the animal more closely, we find
that the tentacles which serve at once as organs of locomotion for
swimming, for creeping, and as prehensile organs for seizing and
450 THE OCEAN WORLD.
retaining its prey are conical, very long, and all of the same form.
Each of them has towards its axis a longitudinal canal, which encloses
a great nerve, which is also surrounded with muscular fibres, arranged
in rays. The suckers, already described, occupy all the internal
surface of the eight tentacular arms, which are arranged in two rows,
having the form very nearly of a semi-spherical capsule. Of these
suckers, each arm of the cuttle-fish carries about two hundred and
forty, the total number being nearly a thousand. The mouth we
have already described, in Dr. Roget's words : " The teeth move
vertically, much as the cutting edge of the two blades of a pair of
scissors move upon each other, tearing the prey by. the assistance of
their hooked terminations."
The tongue is covered on its upper part by a thick horny bed,
bristling in the centre with a series of recurving teeth, while its edge
is armed with three other erect teeth, which are slender and hooked.
The oesophagus is long and slender. At the abdomen the gullet
expands into a sort of frill, to which succeeds a gizzard, with strong
fleshy walls ; and, finally, a very short intestine, which directs itself
forward, terminating on the median line of the body. Towards the
anterior parts is a cavity, of which a few words must be said. It
occupies the free space comprised between the exterior surface of the
abdomen and the internal face of the mantle ; and here the respi-
ratory organs, namely, the tranchite, are lodged. Here, also, are the
reproductive and excretory organs.
The branchiae, which are two in number, are voluminous, but short,
tufted, and leaf -like. The branchial cavity can dilate and contract
itself alternately. It communicates externally by two openings : ths
one, fashioned into a cleft, receives, while the other, which is pro-
longed into a tube, serves to eject, the water, and becomes a powerful
organ of locomotion.
The inspiration of the animal is thus made by a cleft in the mantle,
and expiration by the tube : the renewal of the respirable liquid acts
as a sort of sucking and forcing pump, at the surface of the lamellar
branchials. The cuttle-fish, in short, will be at no loss to reply to
the question of the Don Diego of Corneille
" Rodrique, as-tu du cceur ?"
for they have three hearts. The two first are placed at the end of
CEPHALOPODS. 451
the branchiae. With each beat of the pulse the venous blood is
brought from all parts of the body, and propelled through each gill
or branchiae. Vivified by respiration in the internal tissue of the
branchiae, it is carried by the veins into the third heart, situated upon
the median line of the body ; and now the regenerated fluid is again
distributed throughout the rest of the economy.
Not to oppress the reader with anatomical details, we "shall just
remark that the gaze of the cuttle-fish is decided and threatening.
Its projecting eyes and golden-coloured iris are said to have something
of fascination in them. The animal seems able even to economise the
power of its glance, being able to cover its eyes from time to time by
contracting the skin which surrounds them, and bringing the two
translucent eyelids with which it is furnished closer together.
The cuttle-fishes are essentially aquatic and marine animals. We
find them in every sea in all parts of the world ; but they are most
formidable in warm countries. They have a great predilection for the
shore. During their youth they associate in flocks ; but with age
they fly from association, and retire into the clefts and hollows of the
rocks. The old cuttle-fish is only found in rugged and rocky places,
bristling with naked, pointed rocks, which have been worn by the
waves, but generally in places only a few feet below the level of low
water. " How often," says D'Orbigny, " have we not observed the
cuttle-fish in his favourite retirement ! There, with one of his arms
cramped to the walls of its dwelling, it extends the other towards the
animals which pass at its gate, embraces them, and by its power
renders useless all their efforts to disengage themselves."
If we observe a cuttle-fish when it is what may be called walking,
either on land or at the bottom of the sea, it will be seen to walk on
one side, its head downwards, its mouth touching the ground, the
arms extended and grappling some supporting object, and drawing
the body forward ; at the same time the arms at the opposite side are
contracted and folded up, so as to assist by a contrary movement.
On shore the movement of these animals is very slow. On the other
hand, they swim very rapidly, assisted by all their arms, and aided
by the water ejected from the locomotive tube, their movement being
most frequently backwards, the body first, the six superior arms
placed horizontally, the two others brought together above: the
first help to sustain them in their horizontal position, the last to
2 G 2
452 THE OCEAN WORLD.
guide them, ^inclining to the right or left as the animal changes
its direction.
The cuttle-fishes feed on crustaceans, fishes, and also on shelled
molluscs every kind of animal, in fact, which comes within their
reach ; so that it is readily taken by means of the flesh of fish or
crustaceans, in which a strong hook is concealed. They live for five
or six years, and reproduce by eggs, which are large, and generally
found in clusters, known to fishermen under the name of sea-grapes.
Like the zoophytes, they possess the property of redintegration,
already described, being able to reproduce any arm that may be
destroyed. There is another singular peculiarity which the cuttle-
fish shares with man. Under the influence of strong emotion the
human face becomes pale, or blushes, and in some individuals it is
said to become blue. This has always been supposed to be an attribute
of humanity ; but the cuttle-fish shares it with our race. Yielding to
the impressions of the moment, the cuttle-fish suddenly changes
colour, and, passing through various tints, it only resumes its familiar
one when the cause of the change has disappeared. They are, in
fact, gifted with great sensibility, which reacts immediately upon
their tissues, these being extremely elastic and delicate. Sudden
changes of colour are produced changes which far exceed the same
phenomena in man. Under the influence of passion or emotion man
is born to blush, but under no sort of excitement does he cover him-
self with pustules ; this the cuttle-fish does : it not only changes
colour, but it covers itself with little warts. " Observe a cuttle in a
pool of water," says D'Orbigny, " as it walks round its retreat it is
smooth, and of very pale colour. Attempt to seize it, and it quickly
assumes a deeper tint, and its body becomes covered on the instant
with warts and hairs, which remain there until its confidence is
entirely restored."
The following fact is abbreviated from the " Natural History and
Fishery of the Sperm Whale." Mr. Beale had been searching for
shells among the rocks in Bonin Island, and was much astonished to
see at his feet a most extraordinary-looking animal, crawling back
towards the surf which it had just left. It was creeping on its eight
legs, which, from their soft and flexible nature, bent considerably
under the weight of its body, so that it was just lifted by an effort
above the rocks. It appeared much alarmed, and made every attempt
CEPHALOPODS. 453
to escape. Mr. Beale endeavoured to stop it by putting his foot on
one of its tentacles, but it liberated itself several times in spite of all
his efforts. He then laid hold of one of the tentacles with his hand,
and held it firmly, and the limb appeared as if it would be torn
asunder in the struggle. To terminate the contest, he gave it a
powerful jerk; it resisted the effort successfully, but the moment
after the enraged animal lifted a head with large projecting eyes, and
loosing its hold of the rocks, suddenly sprang upon Mr. Beale's arm,
which had been previously bared to the shoulder, and clung to it with
its suckers, while it endeavoured to get the beak, which he could now
see, between the tentacles, in a position to bite him. Mr. Beale
describes its cold slimy grasp as . extremely sickening, and he loudly
called to the captain, who was also searching for shells, to come to his
assistance. They hastened to the boat, and he was released by killing
his tormentor with a boat-knife, when the arms were disengaged bit
by bit. Mr. Beale states that this Cephalopod must have measured
across its expanded arms about four feet, while its body was not bigger
than a large hand clenched. It was the species called the rock-squid
by whalers.
These formidable and curious Cephalopods, the MaXa/aa of Aris-
totle, Mollia of Pliny, and Cephalophora of De Blainville, have the
mantle, according to Cuvier, united beneath the body, thus forming
a muscular sac which envelopes the whole viscera. The body is soft
and fleshy, varying much in form, being sub -spherical, sub-elliptical,
and cylindrical, the sides of the mantle in many species extending
into fleshy fins. The head protrudes from the muscular sac, and is
distinct from the body ; it is gifted with all the usual senses, the eyes
in particular, which are either pedunculate or sessile, being large and
well developed. The mouth is anterior and terminal, armed . with a
pair of horny or calcareous mandibles, which bear a strong resemblance
to the bill of a parrot, acting transversely, one upon the other. Its
position is the bottom of a sub-conical cavity, forming the base of
numerous fleshy tentacular appendages which surround it, and which
are termed arms by some writers. These appendages in the great
majority of living species are provided with suckers, acetabula (cupping-
glass-like appendages), by means of which the animal moves at the
bottom of the sea, head downwards, or attaches itself to its prey.
These suckers are armed or unarmed with a long, sharp, horny claw.
454 THE OCEAN WORLD.
In the unarmed acetabulum, the mechanism for adhesion is well
described by Dr. Roget : " The circumference of the disk," says this
writer, " is raised by a soft and turned margin ; a series of long
slender folds of membrane covering corresponding fascicula of muscular
fibre converge from the circumference towards the centre of the
sucker, at a short distance from which they leave a circular aperture ;
this opens into a cavity which widens as it descends, and contains a
cona of soft substance rising from the bottom of the cavity, like the
piston of a syringe. When the sucker is applied to the surface, for
the purpose of adhesion, the piston, having previously been raised
so as to fill the cavity, is retracted, and a vacuum produced, which
may be still further increased by the retraction of the plicated portion
of the disk." Here we have an excellent description of the apparatus
for holding on. When the animal is disposed to let go his hold,
according to Professor Owen, " the muscular arrangement enables
the animal to push forward the piston, and thus in a moment destroy
the vacuum which retraction had produced."
In the case of the armed Cephalopods (Onyclioteutliis), Professor
Owen remarks, "that there are circumstances in which even the
remarkable apparatus described by Dr. Eoget would be insufficient to
fulfil the offices in the economy of Nature for which the Cephalopod
was created, and that in species which have to contend with the agile
mucous-clad fishes more powerful organs of prehension are superadded
to the suckers, so that in the calamary the base of the piston is, he
remarks, enclosed in a horny hoop, the outer and anterior margin of
which is developed into a series of sharp curved teeth, which can be
firmly pressed into the flesh of a struggling prey by the contraction
of the surrounding transverse fibres, and can be withdrawn by the
action of the retracting fibres of the piston. " Let the reader," the
professor adds, " picture to himself the projecting weapon of the horny
hoop developed into a long, curved, sharp-pointed claw, and these
weapons clustered at the expanded terminations of the tentacles, and
arranged in a double alternate series along the internal surface of the
eight muscular feet, and he will have some idea of the formidable
nature of the carnivorous cephalopod." The professor notices another
structure which adds greatly to the prehensile powers of the
uncinated Cephalopods. " At the extremities of the long tentacles a
cluster of small, simple, unarmed suckers may be observed at the base
CEPHALOPODS.
455
of the expanded part. When these latter suckers are applied to one
another, the tentacles are firmly locked together at that part, and the
united strength of both the elongated peduncles can be applied to
drag towards the mouth any resisting object which has been grappled
by the terminal hooks. There is no mechanical contrivance which
surpasses this structure ; art has remotely imitated it in the fabrica-
tion of the obstetrical forceps, in which either blade can be used
separately, or, by the interlocking of a temporary blade, be made to
act in combination." Cyc. of Anat.
The third Family, Belemnitidse, contains Belemnitella and Belem-
nites, and other genera of less importance ; they are all now extinct,
although once numerous as species.
The cuttles, Sepia (Fig. 315), have the
body fleshy and depressed, continued into a
sac, and bordered on all its length on both
sides with a wing or narrow fin, the larger
short and flat, broader than it is long, with
two large eyes, covered by an expansion of
the skin, which becomes transparent over a
surface equal to the diameter of the iris,
and furnished with inferior contractile eye-
lids.
This head is surmounted by ten tenta-
cular arms or feet, eight of which are short
and conical, and two long- and slender, ter-
minating in a sort of spatula. These arms Fig ' 315 ' Sepia mcinalls t^ 1 "^
are all armed with suckers, and are perfectly retractile. They sur-
round a mouth armed with two horny jaws not unlike the beak of a
parrot.
The skin of the cuttle-fish presents in one vast hollow, occupying all
the extent of the back, a great calcareous part, the form and structure
of which is quite characteristic of this genus. It is known as the
cuttle-bone (Fig. 316). This bone is used for many purposes;
among others, it is used in a powdered state as a dentifrice. It is
sometimes suspended in the cage with captive birds, that they may
whet their beaks on it, and collect phosphate of lime for the formation
and repair of their bones. The osselet is oval or oblong, some pro-
vided with a slightly salient point. The .upper part is surrounded
450 THE OCEAN WORLD.'
with a horny or cretaceous margin, and presents in the centre a
combination of spongy cells.
Most of the Cephalopods secrete a blackish, inky fluid, to which
some allusion has been made, but the
uses of which, in the economy of the ani-
mals, is imperfectly known. The cuttles
have considerable quantities of this liquor,
which is contained in a sort of sac or
ink-purse, placed low down in the abdo-
men. When the animal is pursued or
threatened with danger it discharges a
jet of the fluid, which renders the water
thick and muddy, and permits it to escape
in the obscurity from its pursuers. It
appears that the cuttle-fish avails itself
of this stratagem when left accidentally
ashore. It is related of an English
officer, that, having dressed for dinner.
Fig. 316. In- Fig. 317. Sepia tuber- .
ternal bone of culosa (Lamarck). and having SOm.6 time to Spare, he prO-
Sepia officinalis. ji n V f ,
ceeded along the shore on his favourite
search for objects of natural history. He reached a hollow rock in which
a cuttle-fish had established its quarters ; he soon detected the animal,
which looked at him for some time with its great prominent eyes ;
in short, they watched each other with fixed attention. This mute
contemplation came to a sudden and unexpected termination by the
discharge of a voluminous jet of inky fluid, which covered the officer,
which was the more unfortunate, since he was in his summer dress of
white trousers.
The ink of the cuttle-fish is a favourite pigment, used in water-
colour painting under the name of sepia. It is truly indestructible ;
and the hard and black substance found in the sac of fossil species of
cuttle-fish when diluted with water produces a brilliant sepia. This
property of the inky fluid was well known to the Romans, who used it
in making ink. It was long supposed to be the chief ingredient in
China ink; but a recent traveller, Mr. Seebold, who has visited
the manufactory, and investigated the subject, has revealed the true
process by which it is prepared.
The cuttle-fish affects the sea-shore ; they are along-shore molluscs.
CEPHALOPODS. 457
The flattened form of their bodies is favourable to a coasting life, by
permitting them to rest easily on the bottom. Still they do not
remain all the year round upon the coast. The cold in temperate
regions, and the opposite reason in warm regions, leads them to with-
draw from the shore, to which they only return in the spring. They
are rarely seen in the Channel in winter, but with the vernal sun
they appear in large shoals. What is the mechanism by which
these animals are moved? When the cuttle-fish wishes to swim
rapidly and backwards, they advance in the water by means of the
locomotive tube, sending back the ambient liquid. When they wish
to approach a prey slowly in order to seize it, they swim by the aid
of their fins and arms. In order to swim backwards, they contract
the arms provided with tentacles, and spread out horizontally the
arms without tentacles.
The cuttles are flesh-eaters, and tolerably voracious. They feed
themselves upon fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans. They are true
aquatic brigands, who kill not to feed themselves, but for the sake of
killing ; and Nature, by a just equilibrium, applies to them the lex
talionis. They fall victims, in their turn, to the vengeful jaws of the
porpoises and dolphins. Such is the terrible law of Nature : some
must die that others may live. Michelet gives us a glimpse of the
manner in which the dolphins dispose of the cuttle-fish in his
" Livre de la Mer." " These lords of the ocean," he says, " are so
delicate in their tastes that they eat only the head and arms, which
are both tender and of easy digestion. They reject the hard parts,
and especially the after-part of the body. The coast at Koyan, for
example, is covered with thousands of these mutilated cuttle-fish.
The porpoises take most incredible bounds, at first to frighten them,
and afterwards to run them down ; in short, after their feast, they
give themselves up to gymnastics."
In the spring the cuttle-fishes deposit their eggs, but without
abandoning them. On the contrary, they exhibit a truly maternal
care, taking much trouble to attach them to some submarine body,
in which position the temperature of the water serves to hatch the
eggs. Sepia officinalis, for example, chooses, at the moment of laying,
a stem of Fucus, a foot of Gorgonia, or some other solid submarine
body not less in dimensions than the little finger, and there it firmly
attaches its eggs, which are pear-shaped, that is, pointed at one
458 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
extremity, while a long laniere of a gelatinous nature, flat and black
in appearance, with which they are provided, surrounds the solid
body like a ring. Each female lays and attaches in this manner
from twenty to thirty eggs, which are clustered together somewhat
like a bunch of fine black grapes (Fig. 318). About a month after
this the eggs are hatched.
The colours of Sepia officinalis vary considerably; but in general
it may be remarked that the males are ornamented with deeper
colours than the females. Transverse bands of a blackish brown
Fig. 318. Sepia officinalis (Linnaeus).
furrow their backs, and diminish their breadth. Outside of these
bands are small spots of a vivid white : very near the edge there
is a white border, accompanied inside with a second edging of a
beautiful violet. The median and anterior parts of the body are
spotted here and there ; beneath, a whitish tint with reddish speckles
prevails.
The cuttle-fishes are found on every shore, and wherever they are
found they are eaten, for their flesh is savoury. They are usually
fried or boiled. They form an excellent bait for large ground-fish,
such as dog-fish, rays, and congers, which are fond of their flesh.
Thirty species are known, and they are chiefly characterised by the
arrangement and form of the cupules of the arms. Sepia officinalis
is common on the shores of the ocean from Sweden to the Canaries,
and in all parts of the Mediterranean.
The fourth family, Teuthidse, contains Loligopsis, Cranchia, and
Loligo.
The Calmars were described by Aristotle under the name of
re/<t9, and by Pliny under that of Loligo, which is still retained as
the generic name. Their popular name of Calmar (calamar in old
CEPHALOPODS.
459
French) is taken from their resemblance to certain species of ink-
holders. Oppian, who endowed the argonaut with wings, believed that
the calmar also could take to the air, in order to avoid his enemies.
Nevertheless, he was much puzzled how to give the form and
functions of a bird to a fish. Themistocles, by way of insult to the
Eretrians, likened them to calmars, saying they had swords and no
hearts. Athenaeus, a Greek physician before Galen, dwelt upon the
nourishing properties of the flesh of the calmar.
Common enough in temperate regions, the calmars abound in the
seas of the Torrid zone : they are gregarious, and live in numerous
shoals, their bands taking every year the same direction, their emi-
gration proceeding from temperate to warm regions nearly the same
course as that followed by the herrings and pilchards.
The calmars, like the cuttles, propel themselves backwards through
the water with great velocity, driving back the water by means of
their locomotive tube, moving with such vigour and promptitude that
they have been known to throw themselves out of the water, falling
on the shore or on the deck of a vessel. They only appear momen-
tarily on the shore, and only sojourn there to deposit their eggs,
which are gelatinous in substance, about the level of the lowest tides.
The body in the calmars is longer than in the cuttle-fish, cylindrical
Fig. 319. Loligo vulgarls, with its
pen, or internal bone (I^amarck).
Fig. 320. Loligo Gahi
(D'Orbigny).
in shape, and terminating in a point, having two lateral fins, which
occupy the lower half or third of its body.
In the common calmar, Loligo vulgar is (Fig. 319), and the Loligo
4GO THE OCEAN WORLD.
Gahi (Fig. 320), we have two extreme forms represented, both taken
from the magnificent work of MM. D'Orbigny and Ferussac, on the
Cephalopodes acetdbulifores. These molluscs are whitish-blue and
transparent, covered with spots of bright red. The osselet is
lanceolate that of the male elongated and somewhat resembling a
feather, that of the female much broader and more obtuse. Their
head is short, furnished with two large projecting eyes ; the mouth
is surrounded with ten arms, provided with suckers, two of these
being much longer than the others, having peduncles or foot-stalks.
The internal bone of the calmar differs much from that of the
cuttles ; it is thin, horny, transparent, and somewhat resembling a
feather, from a portion of which the barbs have been removed. Their
food consists chiefly of small fishes and molluscs. With the greater
fishes and cetaceae they carry on constant war. They are caught and
used for various purposes ; along the coast they are eaten ; the fisher-
men use them as bait, especially in fishing for cod.
It is no easy task to separate the real from the fabulous history of
the Cephalopods. Aristotle and Pliny have alike assisted, by their mar-
vellous' relations, to .throw that halo of wonder round it which the light
of modern science has not altogether dispelled. Pliny the Ancient
relates the history of an enormous cuttle-fish which haunted the coast
of Spain, and destroyed the fishing-grounds. He adds that this
gigantic creature was finally taken, that its body weighed seven
hundred pounds, and that its arms were ten yards in length. Its
head came by right to Lucullus, to whose gastronomical privileges be
all honour. It was so large, says Pliny, that it filled fifteen amphorae,
and weighed seven hundred pounds also.
Some naturalists of the Kenaissance, such as Olaus Magnus and
Denis de Montfort, gave credit which they are scarcely justified in
doing to the assertions of certain writers of the north of Europe, who
believed seriously in the existence of a sea-monster of prodigious size
which haunted the northern seas. This monster has received the
name of the Kraken. The Kraken was long the terror of these seas ;
it arrested ships in spite of the action of the wind, sails, and oars,
often causing them to founder at sea, while the cause of shipwreck
remained unsuspected. Denis de Montfort gives a description and
representation of this Kraken, which he calls the Colossal Poulpe, in
which the creature is made to embrace a three-masted ship in its vast
CEPHALOPODS. 461
arms. Delighted with the success which his representation met with,
Denis laughed at the credulity of his contemporaries. " If my Kraken
takes with them," he said, " I shall make it extend its arms to both
shores of the Straits of Gibraltar." To another learned friend he
said, "If my entangled ship is accepted, I shall make my Poulpe
overthrow a whole fleet."
Among those who admitted the facetious history of the Kraken
without a smile, there was at least one holy bishop, who was, more-
over, something of a naturalist. Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen,
in Norway, in one of his books assures us that a whole regiment of
soldiers could easily manoeuvre on the back of the Kraken, which he
compares to a floating island. " Similior insulae quan bestise," wrote
the good Bishop of Bergen.
In the first edition of his " System of Nature," Linnaeus himself
admits the existence of this colossus of the seas, which he calls Sepias
microcosmos. Better informed in the following edition, he erased the
Kraken from his catalogue.
The statements of Pliny respecting the Colossal Poulpe, like those
of Montfort about the Kraken, are evidently fabulous. It is, how-
ever, an undisputed fact that there exists in the Mediterranean and
other seas cuttle-fish a congenerous animal of considerable size. A
calmar has been caught in our own time, near Nice, which weighed
upwards of thirty pounds. In the same neighbourhood some fisher-
men caught, twenty years ago, an individual of the same genus nearly
six feet long, which is preserved in the Museum of Natural History
at Montpellier. Peron, the naturalist, met in the Australian seas a
cuttle-fish nearly eight feet long. The travellers Quoy and Gaimard
picked up in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Equator, the skeleton of a
monstrous mollusc, which, according to their calculations, must have
weighed two hundred pounds. M. Eung met, in the middle of the
ocean, a mollusc with short arms, and of a reddish colour, the body of
which, according to this naturalist, was as large as a tun cask. One
of the mandibles of this creature, still preserved in the Museum of the
College of Surgeons, is larger than a hand.
In 1853 a gigantic cephalopod was stranded on the coast of Jut-
land. The body of this monster, which was dismembered by the
fishermen, furnished many wheelbarrow loads, its pharynx, or back
part of the mouth, alone being as large as the head of an infant.
462 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
Dr. Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, who published a description of this
creature under the name of Architeuthis dux, shows a portion of the
arm of another cephalopod, which is as large as the thigh-bone of a
man. But a well-authenticated fact connected with these gigantic
cephalopods is related by Lieutenant Bayer, of the French cor-
vette Alecton, and M. Sabin Berthelot, French Consul at the Canary
Islands, by whom the report is made to the Academie des Sciences.
The steam-corvette Alecton was between Teneriffe and Madeira when
she fell in with a gigantic calamary, not less according to the account
than fifteen metres (fifty feet) long, without reckoning its eight for-
midable arms, covered with suckers, and about twenty feet in circum-
ference at its largest part, the head terminating in many arms of enor-
mous size, the other extremity terminating in two fleshy lobes or fins of
great size, the weight of the whole being estimated at four thousand
pounds ; the flesh was soft, glutinous, and of reddish-brick colour.
The commandant, wishing in the interests of science to secure the
monster, actually engaged it in battle. Numerous shots were aimed
at it, but the balls traversed its flaccid and glutinous mass without
causing it any vital injury. But after one of these attacks the waves
were observed to be covered with foam and blood, and, singular thing, a
strong odour of musk was inhaled by the spectators. This musk odour
we have already noticed as being peculiar to many of the Cephalo-
pods.
The musket-shots not having produced the desired results, harpoons
were employed, but they took no hold on the soft impalpable flesh of
the marine monster. When it escaped from the harpoon it dived
under the ship, and came up again at the other side. They succeeded
at last in getting the harpoon to bite, and in passing a bowling hitch
round the posterior part of the animal. But when they attempted to
hoist it out of the water the rope penetrated deeply into the flesh,
and separated it into two parts, the head with the arms and tentacles
dropping into the sea and making off, while the fins and posterior
parts were brought on board : they weighed about forty pounds.
The crew were eager to pursue, and would have launched a boat,
but the commander refused, fearing that the animal might capsize it.
The object was not, in his opinion, one in which he could risk
the lives of his crew. PL. XXIV. is copied from M. Berthelot's
coloured representation of this scene. " It is probable," M. Moquin
Plate XXIV. Gigantic Cuttle-fish caught by the French Corvette Alecton, near Teneriffe.
CP;PHALOPOI>S. 463
Tandon remarks, commenting on M. Berthelot's recital, " that this
colossal mollusc was sick or exhausted by some recent struggle with
some other monster of the deep, which would account for its having
quitted its native rocks in the depths of the ocean. Otherwise it
would have been more active in its movements, or it would have
obscured the waves with the inky liquid which all the Cephalopods
have at command. Judging from its size, it would carry at least a
barrel of this black liquid, if it had not been exhausted in some recent
struggle."
" Is this mollusc a calmar ?" asks the same writer. " If we might
judge from the figure drawn by one of the officers of the Alecton
during the struggle, and communicated by M. Berthelot, the animal
had terminal fins, like the calmars ; but it has eight equal arms, like
the cuttle-fish. Now the calmars have ten, two of them being very
long. Was this some intermediate species between the two? Or
must we admit, with MM. Crosse and Fisher, that the animal had lost
its more formidable tentacles in some recent combat ?"*
The fifth family, Octopodidse, contains Eledone, Octopus, Pinnoc-
topus, CirroteutTiis, Philonexis, and Scsergus.
The Octopoda, without tentacles, have eight long arms, united at the
base by a web ; the suckers in
two rows, which are sessile;
the eyes fixed ; shell, two short
stiles enclosed in the mantle ;
the body united to the head by
a broad neck-band ; no side-
fins; shell internal and rudi-
mentary in the British species ;
body oval, warty, and without
fins, in Octopus ; small and
oblong, arms tapering and
webbed, and suckers in a single
row, in Eledone (Fig. 321).
In his great work, Professor FI& 321< Eledone - Octopus vulgarls ( Lamarck )-
Owen proposes to divide the Cephalopods into two groups, which he
* Is it necessary to say that even this account apparently so well authenticated,
not to speak of the representation drawn on the spot should be taken " cum grano
""ED.
464
THE OCEAN WORLD.
calls Dibranchiata, characterised by the presence of two branchiae,
which would bring together all the naked Cephalopods, including
Sepia, Loligo, Octopus, Kassia, and Ommastrephos ; and Tetrdbran-
chiata, having four branchiae, to which the Nautilus, and most of the
fossil Cephalopods, such as
the Ammonites, belong. Most
of the first group are repre-
sented in the British seas, but
the second are altogether
absent.
The Decapoda are of all
sizes. Dr. Grant describes
the body, or mantle, of Sepi-
ola vulgaris, found on our
coast, as measuring about six
lines in length, and as much
in breadth, while the head
Fig. 322. octopus macropus (Risso). measures four lines in length,
and, from the magnitude of the eyes, must be equal in breadth with
the body. In Onyclioteuihis, distinguished for its uncinated suckers,
they are found of the size of a man. In Cook's first voyages, the
naturalists to the expedition, " Banks and Solander," to quote Professor
Fig. 323. Octopns brevisses
(D'Orbigny).
Fig. 324. Octopus horrldus (D'Orbigiiy).
Owen's account, "found the dead carcase of a gigantic species of
this kind floating in the sea between Cape Horn and the Polynesian
Islands, in 30 44' S. lat., and 110 10' W. long. It was surrounded
by sea birds, which were feeding on its remains. From the parts of
CEPHALOPODS. 465
this specimen which are still preserved in the Hunterian Museum,
and which have always strongly excited the attention of naturalists, it
must have measured at least six feet from the end of the tail to the
end of the tentacles."
In the genus Eledone the arms are reunited at their hase by a very
short membrane, with only a single row of suckers. The two best-
known species of this group inhabit the Mediterranean. The one is
Eledone mosehatus, known in Italy under the name of Muscardino,
from the strong odour of musk which it emits, even after death and
desiccation ; the other is Eledone cirrhosus, a small species, bluish-
grey on the back, and whitish under the belly.
The habits of Eledone mosehatus have been carefully studied by
M. Yerany. The able naturalist of Nice preserved many of these
animals during a month, in a great aquarium, noting their habits.
When in a state of tranquillity, the Eledone clung to the sides of the
glass tank in which it was kept. Its head is then inclined forwards,
with the sac hanging behind ; the locomotive tube, turned upwards,
presents the orifice between the arms. In this state the animal is
yellowish in colour, its eyes dilated, its inspirations regular. But if
irritated, a remarkable change takes place : its body assumes a fine
maroon colour, and it is covered with numerous tubercles ; the eye
becomes contracted, a column of water is forcibly ejected from the loco-
motive tube at the aggressor, and the respiration becomes precipitate,
jerky, and irregular. The creature would take a strong inspiration,
and, having collected its force, suddenly throw a jet of water to a
distance of more than three feet. This state of passion, which the
slightest touch is sufficient to produce, endures for half an hour or
more. When it ceases, the animal resumes its form and primitive
colours ; but the least shock impressed on the water is sufficient to give
it a deeper tint, which passes like a flash of lightning over the skin of
this singular proteus.
The Eledone sleeps by day as well as by night, attaching itself in
its sleep to the walls of its prison, leaving its arms to float around, the
two inferior ones extending backwards, and the sac inclining over
them ; its eyes are then contracted, and in part covered by the eye-
lids. Its respiration is regular and slow, and any ejection of water
very rare ; its colour is then of a livid grey, and vinous red below,
with whitish spots, while the brown spots have now entirely dis-
2 H '
466
THE OCEAN WORLD.
appeared. While still asleep, it is watchful and attentive to all the
dangers which could surprise it. The extremities of the arms floating
round its hody are ready to announce the approach or contact of any
other object. Even the most delicate touch is perceived immediately,
and it shrinks from the hand which seeks to approach. Under every
circumstance the Eledone exhales a strong odour of musk, which it
preserves long after death.
When the Eledone swims, which it rarely does unless pressed by
some urgent necessity, it carries the sac in advance, the arms floating
behind the six upper ones being on a horizontal line, the two others
approaching each other below. Thus arranged, it presents, in conse-
quence of its flattened form, a very large resisting surface to the
water, its progress being due to the alternate dilatation and contraction
of the body, which expels the water through the locomotive tube, and
by reaction produces a rapid and jerking movement. Sometimes the
arms aid the movement ; the eyes of the animal are then much
dilated, and its colour a clear livid yellow, finely shaded with red, and
covered with bright spots.
Fig. 325. Pinnoctopus corolliformis (D'Orbigny).
Fig. 326. Cirrotheutis Mulleri (Eschricht).
It is a singular fact that the creature notably changes colour under
any exertion, so that the animal at rest and in motion are two different
beings. When walking under water the tube is directed behind, its
arms are spread out, the head is raised, and the body slightly inclined
CEPHALOPODS. 467
forward ; its mantle is then of a pearly grey, and the spots take the
tint of wine lees. When at rest the shades disappear.
The Pinnoctopus (Fig. 325), another genera of this family, have
the body oblong, with lateral expansions, as represented in the ac-
companying figure.
In Cirrotlieutis the arms are completely united in their whole ex-
tent by a thin membrane furnished with cirri, which alternate with
certain suckers arranged in one row. Only one species of this genera
is known as an inhabitant of northern seas, which is represented in
Fig. 326.
The sixth family, Argonautidte, contains only Argonauta.
The Argonauta, or Paper-nautilus. Floating gracefully on the
surface of the sea, trimming its tiny sail to the breeze, just sufficient to
ruffle the surface of the waves, behold the exquisite living shallop. The
elegant little bark which thus plays with the current is no work of
human hands, but a child of Nature : it is the Argonaut, whose tribes,
decked in a thousand brilliant shades of colour, are wanderers of the
night in innumerable swarms on the ocean's surface.
The marine shell which Linnaeus called the Argonaut enjoyed great
renown among the ancient Greeks and Komans. It was the subject
of graceful legends ; it had inspired great poets ; it occupied the
attention of Aristotle, who called it the Nautilus and Nauticos, and
of Pliny, who called it Pompylius. Few animals, indeed, have been
so celebrated, so anciently known. The Greek and Koman poets
saw in it an elegant model of the ship which the skill and audacity of
the man constructed who first braved the fury of the waves ; in the
words of the poet, " armour of triple oak and triple brass covered
the heart of him who first confided himself in a frail bark to the
relentless waves :"
" UK robur et aes triplex
Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem tnici
Commisit pelago ratem
Primus "
Horace, I. Car. iii. 1. 9.
To meet the Pompylius was, according to the superstitious Eoman,
a favourable presage. This little oceanic wanderer, in spite of the
capricious waves, was a tutelar divinity, who guarded the navigator
in his course, and assured him of a happy passage. Listen to -the
2 H 2
468 THE OCEAN WORLD.
immortal author of the first Natural History of Animals, the philo-
sophical Aristotle. "The Nautilus Polyp," says the learned his-
torian, " is of the nature of animals which pass for extraordinary, for
it can float on the sea ; it raises itself from the bottom of the water,
the shell heing reversed and empty, hut when it reaches the surface it
readjusts it. It has hetween the arms a species of tissue similar to
v 1
that which unites the toes of web-footed birds. When there is a little
wind, it employs this tissue as a sort of rudder, letting it fall into the
water with the arms on each side. On the approach of the least
danger it fills its shell with water, and sinks into the sea."
Pliny gives it the name of Pompylius, and, after the example of
Aristotle, explains how it navigates, by elevating its two first arms, a
membrane of extreme- tenuity stretching between them, while it rows
with the others, using its median arm as a rudder. The Greek
poet, Oppian, who lived in the second century of our era, and to whom
we are indebted for Poems on Fishing (Halieutica) and the Chase
(Cynegetica)., says of it : " Hiding itself in a concave shell, the Pom-
pylius can walk on land, but can also rise to the surface of the water,
the back of its shell upwards, for fear that it should be filled. The
moment it is seen, it turns the shell, and navigates it like a skilful
seaman : in order to do this, it throws out two of its feet like antennae
between which is a thin membrane, which is extended by the wind
like a sail, while two others, which touch the water, guide, as with
a rudder, the house, the ship, and the animal. If danger approaches,
it folds up its antennae, its sail, and its rudder, and dives, its weight
being increased by the water which it causes to enter the shell.
As we see a man who is victor in the public games, his head circled
by a crown, while vast crowds press around, so the Pompylius have
always a crowd of ships following in their track, whose crews no
longer dread to quit the land. fish justly dear to navigators ! thy
presence announces winds soft and friendly :. thou bringest the calm,
and thou art the sign of it."
Oppian carried his admiration a long way. That the Argonaut is
an animated skiff is agreed on all hands ; but, in making it almost a
bird in according to it at once the faculty of gracefully navigating
the sea and floating in the atmosphere as an inhabitant of the regions
of a i r h e wa g passing the limits permissible to poetic license.
But the properties of the Nautilus has not alone struck the ima-
CEPHALOPODS.
469
gination of the Greeks and Eomans ; it also attracted the attention
of the Chinese, who call it the boat-polyp. Bumphius informs us,
that in India the shell fetches a great price (Fig. 327). Women
Fig. 327. Shell of Argonauta argo (Linnaeus).
consider it a great, a magnificent ornament. In their solemn fetes
dancers carry one of these shells in the right hand, holding it proudly
above their heads. Nor did it require the dithyrambic praises with
which the ancients have surrounded
it to recommend it to the admi-
ration of modern naturalists.
Without exaggerating the graceful
attributes with which it is gifted,
it is at once one of the most curious
objects in Nature.
Its body (Fig. 328) is ovoid in
form, and it is furnished with eight
tentacles, covered with a double row
of suckers. Of these tentacles, six
are narrow and slender, tapering
to a point towards the extremity,
while two of them expand toward
the extremity in the form of wings
or sails. These are all folded up when in a state of repose. The
470 .THE OCEAN WORLD.
body itself is contained in a thin, white, and fragile univalve shell,
which is oval, flattened on the exterior, but rolled up in a spiral in
the interior, the last turn of the shell being so large as to give it
something of the form of an elegantly-shaped shallop. Singularly
enough, the body of the animal does not penetrate to the bottom of
the shell, nor is it attached to it by any muscular ligament ; nor is
the shell moulded exactly upon it, as is the case with most other
testaceans.
What does all this imply ? Is the Argonaut a parasite ? a fraudu-
lent disinheritor ? a vile assassin, who, having surprised and killed
the legitimate proprietor of the shell, has installed itself in its place,
and in the proper house of its victim ? Such crimes are not without
example in the natural history of animals witness the proceedings
of the curious hermit crab, whose proceedings we shall glance at in
a future chapter. The parasitic character of the Nautilus was long
conceded by naturalists ; but recent facts have corrected this opinion.
We have collected their shells, of all dimensions and of all ages,
inhabited always by the same animal, whose size is always propor-
tioned to the volume of the shell. More than that, it is now known
that in the egg of the Nautilus the rudiments of the shell exist.
M. Chenu tells us, that under the microscope Professor Duvernoy
discovered a distinct shell contained in the embryo. Sir Everard
Home asserts the contrary ; and no opportunity presented itself for
the complete solution of the question, until Poli was placed by the
King of Naples in a position to solve it. The piscina of Portici was
placed at his disposal. He witnessed the curious mechanism by
which the egg is expelled from the uterus, having a shell, and satisfied
himself, by following their development day by day, that the si jell
existed in the embryo, and grew with the animal. He satisfied
himself also that the opinion enunciated by Aristotle, that at no point
did the animal adhere to the shell, was perfectly true.
Finally, in the curious series of experiments carried on by Madame
Power, in the port of Messina, the fragments of the frail bark of the
mollusc, which were broken off in taking it, were restored in a few
days, having been reproduced. It is, therefore, quite demonstrated
that the Nautilus, like other testaceous molluscs, itself secretes and
constructs its shell its diaphanous skiff. The reader, however, must
not flatter himself that he can witness with his own eyes from the
CEPHALOPODS.
471
shore, in our narrow channel, the charming picture of the Nautilus
painted by poets and natural historians : they never come near the
shore. They are timid and cautious creatures, dwelling almost always
in the open sea. They live in families, some hundreds of miles from
the shore ; and it is during the night, or at most in the fading light
of sunset, that they assemble together to pursue their gambols on the
surface of a tranquil sea.
However reluctant we may be to destroy the marvellous fictions of
ancients and moderns, we are compelled to declare that there is no
truth in the often-repeated statement that the Nautilus uses its pal-
mated arms as oars or sails. In order to swim on the surface, it
Fig. 329. Argonauta papyracea, as it swims by means of its locomotive tube.
comports itself as all other Cephalopods do. It uses neither oars nor
sails, and the palmate arms only serve to envelop and retain its hold
on its frail shell. Its principal apparatus of progression is the
locomotive tube with which it is furnished, in common with all Cepha-
lopods, and which is in the Nautilus very long. Aided by this
apparatus, it ejects the water after it has served the purpose of
respiration, and, in doing so, projects itself against the liquid, as it
were. While it advances through the water under this impulse, its
pendent arms, elongated and reunited in bundles, extend the whole
length of the shell. Fig. 329 shows the
position of the different parts of the
animal when it thus breasts the waves.
These arms are also powerful aids when
the animal creeps on the ground at the
bottom of the sea.
When the animal is disturbed it re-
tires Completely into its Shell. From Fig> 330< Argonauta papyracea in its
that moment, the equilibrium being
changed, the shell is overturned, and the animal is nearly invisible.
If frightened, it entirely submerges itself, and sinks to the bottom.
472 THE OCEAN WORLD.
These little beings share with other Cephalopods the strange faculty
of changing colour under the influence of some vivid impression ; hut
their graceful and delicate organization redeems them from the charge
we have brought against the cuttles. The Nautilus can blush, turn
pale, and show through its transparent shell its body changing in
sudden shades; but it never exhibits those bristling, unpleasant
tubercles, the hideous inheritance of the larger and coarser Cephalo-
pods the tyrants of the sea.
The male Argonauts are very small, often not a tenth part of the
size of the females, which alone possess the shells.
The Nautilus carries its egg in the shell, and the little ones are
also hatched in this floating cradle. Four species are at present
known : the species described by Aristotle and Pliny, and the more
ancient naturalists ; namely, A. argo, or papyracea (Figs. 327 and
329), which are inhabitants of the Mediterranean as well as the
Indian Ocean and the Antilles. Two others, A. tubercula, belonging
exclusively to the Indian Ocean, and A. laittant, which is met
occasionally in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
The nautilus belongs to the section of Octopoda, and the class of
Acetabuliferous Cephalopods, having, as the name indicates, eight
feet, from o/crco, eight, and TroO?, foot ; at the same time the body
is entirely fleshy, and without fins. The genera of cuttles (Sepia)
and Calmars (Loligo) belong to another section of the same class ;
namely, the Decapoda, because they have ten feet and a sort of
internal osselet, with fins, &c.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOLLUSC A.
WE have thought it better to treat this subject in a separate chapter,
for its vast and complicated nature renders it otherwise difficult to
handle, except in a space which would exceed the limits of this work.
The different genera of the organic world are peculiar to, or most
frequent in, certain localities, and even species and varieties have their
limits. This habit pervades the entire range of organisms, from the
lowest plants to man, whose qualities are to a great extent the type
of the locality he inhabits. The geography of the Mollusca is perhaps
the best known to science. The labours of Mr. Louis Agassiz,
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOLLUSCA. 473
Dr. Sclater, and Professor Edward Forbes, have done much towards
giving us a clear idea of zoological geography. Climate alone is
insufficient to account for the distribution of animals : some higher
cause rules here. But while we admit this, still we must acknowledge
that climate exerts considerable influence in modifying the qualities of
species.
The distribution of the Mollusca may be considered from three
points of view. First, as regards geography; second as regards
depth ; and third as regards time ; the last belongs to geology.
We shall now survey the principal divisions of the ocean; the line
of demarcation being drawn, not by latitude or longitude, but by
genera and species.
The Mollusca of the Arctic seas are well known to show consider-
able analogy with those of the later Tertiary periods of Europe.
Hence the great interest connected with their comparison, as it affords,
provided we are satisfied with this line of argument, a proof that
an Arctic climate formerly existed in temperate regions. It is the
northern Drift of which we are speaking. Even when species are
found living in Britain identical with those of the Arctic regions, still
there is often a difference in the form or size of British and Arctic
specimens ; certain species, such as Cyprina Islandica, being com-
paratively small in the south of Britain, larger in Shetland, and
attaining their greatest size in Iceland.
The countries included in the Arctic molluscan province are Lapland,
Iceland, Greenland, the west coast of Davis' Straits, and Behring's
Straits. About two hundred species are enumerated by the various
Arctic voyagers, as found in these seas ; of these about one-half are
peculiar to these seas, and the other half are either found living
in the temperate regions of Europe, or in their so-called glacial
strata.
The Boreal province includes the North Atlantic, from Nova Scotia
to Iceland, and from thence to Faroe, Shetland, and the Norway
coast.
The number of species is very large ; and more than one-half are
common both to Scandinavia and the North American coast, while a
great number also are found on the British coast.
The province called Celtic by Professor Edward Forbes embraces
the coasts of Britain, Sweden, and Denmark.
474 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Our British, mollusca are about seven hundred in number ; those
bearing shells are above five hundred. Of these about thirty are
peculiar to Britain. The shells of the Baltic are identical with those
of this province.
The Lusitanian province stretches from Madeira and the Canaries
to the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and includes also the Mediterranean.
But as one might expect, on close examination, the Mollusca in so
large an area differ so widely that we are forced to admit the existence
of great divisions.
The number of species found on the coast of Madeira by Mr.
McAndrew was one hundred and fifty-six, of which forty-four per
cent, were identical with British species, and eighty-three found near
the Canaries.
The shells of the Mediterranean are six hundred in number, but it
is probable that more extensive dredging will result in great accessions
being made to this list. A very small number of species only are
identical with those now found in the West Indies.
Nine genera are peculiar to the Mediterranean.
In the character of its shells, the Black Sea resembles the Mediter-
ranean, but does not contain much more than a tenth of the number
of its species. The number of shells found on the Spanish and Por-
tuguese coasts is much smaller than one would expect, and can only be
attributed to the scanty explorations that have been made. As we
might expect, the number of species identical with those of Northern
Europe is much greater on the Atlantic than on the Mediterranean
coast of Spain.
The sea of Aral, and the Caspian, contain a few peculiar species ;
but they have been so little explored, that it is premature, we think,
to form them into a province. The proportions of salt contained in
these seas is much less than in the ocean.
The west of Africa affords a considerable number of fine shells ;
the species most numerous being those of Murex, Conus, and
Clavatula.
The south African province contains four hundred species; the
characteristic genera are Terebratella, Chiton, Patella, Trochus,
Fissurella, Cyprsea, and Conus. A large number of these species are
not found elsewhere.
The Indo-Pacific province stretches from Australia to Japan ; the
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOLLUSCA. 475
greater part of the east coast of Africa ; the Ked Sea ; Persian Gulf ;
the Asiatic coast, and the islands of the Indian Archipelago.
The molluscs of the Bed Sea remind us of those of India ; the per-
centage of those found also in the Mediterranean being much less.
The shells of the Persian Gulf are but little known ; one species, the
brindled cowry (Cypvtea princeps), has been sold for fifty pounds.
The seas of New Zealand and Australia have been formed into a
province. As might be anticipated, their mollusca have little in
common with those of the rest of the globe.
The Japonic province includes the coast of Japan and the Corea.
The Aleutian province, the centre of which may be taken to be the
Aleutian islands, shows great analogy with the Boreal province of
the west, a considerable number of the shells being identical a fact
especially interesting when we consider that very few species are
found common to both the south-eastern and south-western coasts of
America.
The Californian province is very distinct from that of Panama;
the most numerous genera found there, are Chiton, Acmsea, Fissurella,
Trochus, and Purpura.
The marine shells of Panama are upwards of thirteen hundrea ;
the region included stretches from the Gulf of California to Peru.
For our knowledge of this province we are much indebted to the
researches of Dr. P. P. Carpenter, who has catalogued six hundred
and fifty-four species, as found at Mazattan.
The Peruvian province contains a long list of species, and extends
from Callao to Valparaiso.
The Magellanic province includes the extreme south of America
and the Falkland Islands. Many genera, the species of which are
usually small, here reach an enormous size, and afford, in many cases,
the chief animal food consumed by the quadrupeds and human
population of that wild and desolate coast.
The Patagonian province extends from St. Catharina to Point Melo
on the east coast.
The number of species found also in the Falkland Islands is very
Fmall ; but a large number are identical with Brazilian species ; yet
the majority are peculiar.
The Caribbean province extends from Brazil to the West Indies,
and includes, also, the northern coast of South America and the Gulf
476 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
of Mexico ; -a total -of fifteen hundred species is enumerated by Pro-
fessor Adams as belonging to the province.
The Transatlantic province, or that on the coast of the United
States, does not afford a large number of species, only two hundred
and thirty being known ; of these, only fifteen are found in Europe.
The study of the terrestrial and fresh- water mollusca affords even
better grounds for their division into provinces; but we shall not
enter into it here, as it belongs to the Land World.
We shall now say a few words on the depth of the sea, or ocean, in
which Mollusca are found.
The observations of Milne Edwards, Audonin, and Professor Edward
Forbes, have led to the division of the sea into four zones.
The deep sea Coral zone, from fifty to one hundred fathoms ; the
Coralline zone from fifteen to fifty fathoms ; the Laminarian zone,
which stretches from fifteen fathoms to low water ; and the Littoral
zone, between high and low water marks. The great stronghold of
Crania, Thetis, Neaera, Yoldia, Dentalium, and Scissurella, is in the
deep sea Coral zone; while Buccinum, Fusus, Pleurotoma, Natica,
Aporrhais, Philine, and Velutina, which are among the most ravenous
and predatory of molluscs, are found in the Coralline zone. They
attack the bivalves, whose shells among the relics of former seas, as in
those of the present, show evidence of an assault and a murder.
The principal genera of the Laminarian zone are the Nudibranchiata,
Aplysia, Trochus, Nacella, Kissoa, and Lacuna, which feed so much on
the seaweed of this region.
The Littoral zone, which being accessible as the tide recedes, is
best known, affords Cardium, Mytilus, Tellina, Solen, Trochus, Patella,
Littorina, and Purpura ; or in plain English, cockles, mussels, razor-
fish, limpets, periwinkles and tingles ; species which are the first to
attract our attention, and which are so much used for food.
( 477 )
CHAPTEE XVII.
THE CRUSTACEA.
" Multa tamen Isetus tristia pontus habet."
OVID.
THE animals of this class, as regards organisation, must be placed
higher in the scale than the Arachnidae, or spiders ; hut they are
beneath the Mollusca, although as regards affinity, the Mollusca in
their lower division the Molluscoida more approximate to the Polyp
class than, to the Crustacea.
The Crustacea is the highest division of articulate- animals with feet ;
they breathe by means of gills, and have no stigmata, or air-passages,
as in insects. The name signifies a hard crust or covering, with
which the animals are protected. This consists of layers of carbonate
of lime with one of pigment, generally, but not always, on the surface.
The general outline of these animals is peculiar ; unlike insects, they
are not divisible into head,. thorax, and abdomen; many species truly
have no head at all ; but a pair of eyes point to the seat of intelligence.
Most of these animals have two compound eyes ; but a few, like some
insects, have both simple and compound eyes. The mouth is situated
in the under part of the anterior of the body : in some cases they have
jaws, as in crabs ; in others suckers only.
Passing over the vast numbers of beings which inhabit the debatable
ground the Annelids, which were for ages confounded with the worms,
because of their resemblance in form; a form which might be declared
forbidding, but, as Aristotle has well said, Nature, in her domain,
knows nothing low, nothing contemptible ; the sea-leeches, whose con-
dition was an impenetrable mystery to Pliny, " Omnia incerta ratione,
et in naturae majestate abdita ;" and the singular cirripedes, one species
of which, the barnacle (Anatifa Itevis), was thought by old Gerard,
478 THE OCEAN WOELD.
the herbalist, and in his day by many others, to be the egg from
which the barnacle goose was produced passing over these ocean
tribes, we reach the Crustaceans the Insects of the Sea ; of greater
size, force, and voracity than any land insect with which we are
acquainted. They are armed, also, at all points ; for, in place of the
coriaceous tunic, they are clothed in calcareous armour, both hard and
strong, and bristling with coarse hairs, spiny tubercles, and even
serrated spines.
The Crustaceans have nearly all of them claws, formidably hooked
and toothed, which they employ as pincers, both in offensive and
defensive war. They have been compared to the heavily-armed knights
of the middle ages at once audacious and cruel ; barbed in steel from
head to foot, with visor and corslet, arm-pieces and thigh-pieces
nothing, in fact, is wanting to complete the resemblance.
These marine marauders live on the sea-coast, among the rocks, and
near the shore. Some few of them frequent the deep waters, others
hide themselves in the sand or under stones, while the common crab
(Carcinus moenas, Leach) loves, the shore almost as much as the salt
water, and establishes itself accordingly under some moist cliff over-
hanging the sea, where it can enjoy both.
One of the necessary consequences of the condition of these animals,
enclosed in a hard shell, is their power of throwing it off. The solidity
of their calcareous carapace would effectually prevent their growth,
but at certain determinate periods Nature despoils the warrior of his
cuirass ; the creature moults, and the calcareous crust falls off, and
leaves it with a thin, pale, and delicate tunic. In this state the Crus-
tacean is no longer worthy of its name its skin has become as vulner-
able as that of the softest mollusc ; but it has the instinct of weakness
it retires into lonely places, and hides its shame in some obscure
crevice, until another vestment, more suitable for resistance, and adapted
to its increased size, has been restored.
The Crustacean has not a vertebral column. The covering of the
Crustacean consists of a great number of distinct pieces, connected
together by means of portions of the epidermis which have not yet
become hardened, in the same way as the bones in the skeleton of the
vertebrata are connected by cartilages, the ossification of which only
takes place in old age. The covering of the Crustacean consists of a
series of rings varying in number, the normal number of the body-
CRUSTACEANS. 479
segments being twenty-one. Each ring is divisible into two arcs
one upper, or dorsal, the other lower, 'or ventral ; and each arc may
present four elementary pieces, two of which are united in the mesial
line from the tergum, or back ; the lower arc is a counterpart of this,
while the others form the two side, or epimeral, pieces. The skin,
therefore, performs the functions of a skeleton, so that the Crustaceans,
as was said by Geoffrey Saint Hilaire, like the molluscs, live inside
and not outside the bony column. The analogue of the Crustacea
amongst vertebrata is to be found amongst Sturgeonidse, whose hard,
immovable bony case encloses a softer skeleton ; agreeing in its
characters with that of the higher divisions of vertebrata, although
not possessing the solidity of bone.
The Crustaceans vary greatly in colour ; some are of a dark, iron-
grey, with a dash of steel-blue, like metal weapons forged for combat ;
a few of them are red, or reddish-brown ; others are of an earthy
yellow, or of a livid blue.
"The integument," according to Milne Edwards, "consists of a
corium, or true skin, and epidermis, with a pigmentary matter, which
colours the latter. The corium is a thick, spongy, and vascular mem-
brane, connected with the serous substance which lines the parietal
walls of the cavities, as the serous membrane lines the internal cavities
among the vertebrata." This pigment is less a membrane than an
amorphous matter diffused through the outer layer of the superficial
membrane, which changes to red in the greater number of species in
alcohol, ether, acids, and water at 212 Fahr.
The calcareous crust of the animal is thick, and in the dorsal region
capable of great resistance ; their members are also of remarkable hard-
ness ; but in the smaller species the shell is often thin, and of that
crystalline transparency which permits of its digestion and circulation
being observed. Many species, which are quite microscopic, contri-
bute colour to the sea red, purple, or scarlet : such are Grimothea
D' Urvillei and G. gregarea.
Before the year 1823, it was not generally supposed that this class
of animals was subject to change of shape from the larva condition,
and during its progressive development ; but about this time, and for
some years following, certain able microscopic experiments clearly
demonstrated that a minute nondescript kind of animal called the
Zoea Taurus, was nothing more nor less than the young of a kind
480
THE OCEAN WOKLD.
of Prawn as wlien extracted from the egg. Mr. Yaughan Thomson,
by many successive observations, and under the fire of much adverse
criticism, satisfactorily established the truth of metamorphic change
in many genera, and, in particular, in regard to the common crab
(Cancer pagurus) ; having succeeded in hatching the ova of this
species, the product of which were fine Zoeas. That there are varia-
tions in the channel of this law of change has been admitted, but that
generally a metamorphosis exists, analogous to that of insects, in the
various genera of Grustacea, with hardly an exception, has been clearly
established.
The recorded observations of the eminent naturalist we have men-
tioned, Mr. Thomson, as well as those of Mr. Couch, of Penzance,
Mr. Milne Edwards, and particularly those of the last mentioned, the
Fig. 331. Zoea Taurus.
learned author of perhaps the best work extant on the Crustacea, are
referred to as treating most lucidly on this interesting subject.
CRUSTACEANS.
481
As an illustration of this metamorphosis, we give figures of the
Zoea Taurus in two states, viz., Fig. a, in the first stage ; and second,
Fig. I, as the animal appeared on the fourth day after the first micro-
scopic examination, and when it resolved itself into a kind of prawn.
The drawings appear in Mr. Bell's " History of British Stalk-eyed
Crustacea," and were taken by that gentleman from the work of a
Dutch naturalist, named Slabber, who made the original observation
in the year 1768, and published the result in 1778, from which
time the subject had been allowed to fall asleep until revived by Mr.
Thomson.
Among the sea-spiders, which have no neck (Cephalotlwrax), the
head gradually disappears in the breast, but the belly remains distinct ;
the middle of the body is compressed, the shape narrow and graceful.
Among the Crusta-
ceans which have
neither neck nor
shape, the head, the
breast, and the belly
form only one mass,
often short, squat,
athletic, and difficult
to take, as in Pisa
ietraodon (Fig. 332),
the four-horned spi-
der-crab.
Many of these ani-
mals have a powerful
tail, consisting of a
certain number of
ciliated paddles, which it uses in swimming to beat the water, and
to confuse its enemies.
The Crustaceans, so far as they are aquatic, respire by means of
Iranchise, or gills. In the larger species these branchiae are lamellous,
or with filaments, whose supports are traversed by two canals, one of
which leads the blood into the general economy, the other directs it
towards the heart. These organs are enclosed in the body. In the
smaller species the branchiae often appear exteriorly, hanging in the
water like a fungus. Sometimes these are at once swimming and
2 i
Fig. 332. Pisa tetraodon.
482 THE OCEAN WORLD.
breathing organs ; in other cases the animal has no special organs of
respiration.
Nearly all the Crustaceans are strong, hardy, and destructive,
forming a horde of nocturnal hrigands merciless marauders, who recoil
from no trap in which they can lie in wait for their prey. They fight
a I entrance not only with their enemies, hut often among themselves,
either for a prey or for a female, sometimes for the sake of the fight.
The miserable creatures struggle audaciously with their claws. The
carapace generally resists the most formidable blows ; but the feet,
the tail, and, above all, the antennae, suffer frightful mutilation.
Happily for the vanquished, the mutilated members sprout again
after a few weeks of repose. This is the reason for the many Crus-
taceans met with having the talons of very unequal size : the smaller
are those lost in battle replaced. Nature has willed that the Crus-
tacean should not long remain an invalid. They soon return cured
of their wounds. "We have seen lobsters," says Moquin-Tandon,
" which have in an unfortunate rencounter lost a limb, sick and
debilitated, reappear at the end of a few months with a perfect limb,
vigorous, and ready for service. Nature, how thou fillest our souls
with astonishment and wonder !"
On the Spanish coast there is a species of crab, known, singularly
enough, by the name of Boccaccio ; it is caught for its claw, which is
considered excellent eating. This is cut off, and the mutilated animal
is thrown into the sea, to be taken at some future time when the claw
has reappeared.
Crustaceans are nearly all carnivorous, and eat eagerly all other
animals, whether living or dead, fresh or decomposed. Little think they
of the quality or condition of their food. It is amusing to witness the
address and gravity with which the common crab, when it has seized
an unfortunate mussel, holds the valve open with one claw, while with
the other it rapidly detaches the animal, carrying each morsel to the
mouth, as one might do with the hand, until the shell is entirely
empty. The crab does not kill its prey directly, like the lobster ; it
is swallowed also, but with greater appreciation.
M. Charles Lespes surprised upon the shore at Koyan a shoal
of crabs at their repast. This day they seem to have dined in
common, and " God knows the enjoyment," as the good Fontaines said.
They were in rows, every head turned to the same side, and nearly
CRUSTACEANS. 483
on end on their eight feet. They seized the small objects on the
shore, which were carried to the mouth, each hand in its turn in
regular order: when the right hand reached the mouth the left
was on the ground. Let us just figure to oneself a company of
disciplined soldiers messing together at the same table !
The Long-horned Corophius (Coropliium longicorne), remarkable for
its long antennae, knows perfectly well how to cut the byssus by which
the mussels suspend themselves, in order that the bivalve may fall on
the weeds among them. Other Crustaceans, also great oyster- eaters,
have the cunning or instinct to attack the mollusc without exposing
themselves to danger. When the bivalve half opens its shell to enjoy
the rays of the sun or take food, the evil-disposed Crustacean slips a
stone between the valve. This done, it devours the poor inhabitant of
the shell at its leisure.
The Corophius, respecting whom this question is hazarded, are
extremely numerous on the shores of the Atlantic towards the end of
summer and autumn. They make constant war upon certain marine
worms. Off the coast of La Kochelle they may be seen in myriads
beating the muddy bottom with their long antennae in search of their
prey. Sometimes they meet one of these Nereida or Arenicola many
times their own size, when they unite in a body to attack it. In the
oyster beds of La Eochelle they are useful friends to the oyster by
destroying these enemies, although they do not hesitate to attack the
mollusc when it comes in their way. During the winter the mud of
the bouchots gets piled up in unequal heaps, and when the warm
season returns, it has become hard and unfit for the cultivation of the
mollusc. It is necessary to level and dry these mud-heaps a process
which would be both difficult and costly. Well, the Corophia charge
themselves with the task. They plough up annually many square
leagues covered with these heaps. They dilute the mud, which is
carried out by the ebbing tide, and the surface of the bay is left
smooth, as it was in the preceding autumn.
We have said that the Crustaceans do not even respect each other ;
the larger of the same species often devour the smaller. Bam con-
cordia fratrum ! Mr. Eymer Jones relates that . he had on one
occasion introduced six crabs (Platycarcinus pagurus) of different size
into an aquarium. One of them, venturing towards the middle of the
reservoir, was immediately accosted by another a little larger, which
2 i 2
484 THE OCEAN WORLD.
took it with, its claws as it might have taken a biscuit, and set ahout
breaking its shell, and so found a way to its flesh. It dug its crooked
claws into it with voluptuous enjoyment, appearing to pay no attention
to the anger and jealousy of another of its companions, which was still
stronger and as cruel, and advanced towards them. But, as Horace
says and he was not the first to say it "No one is altogether happy
in this lower world ":
" Nihil est ab omni parte beatum."
Our ferocious Crustacean quietly continued its repast, when its com-
panion seized it exactly as it had seized its prey, broke and tore it in
the same fashion, penetrating to its middle, and tearing out its
entrails in the same savage manner. In the mean time the victim,
singularly enough, did not disturb itself for an instant, but continued
to eat the first crab hit hy bit, until it was itself entirely torn to pieces
by its own executioner a remarkable instance at once of insensi-
bility to pain and of cruel infliction under the lex talionis. To eat
and to be eaten seems to be one of the great laws of Nature.
Though essentially carnivorous, the Crustaceans sometimes eat
marine vegetables. Many even seem to prefer fruit to animal food.
Such is the robber- crab (Birgus latro) of the Polynesian Isles, which
feeds almost exclusively on the cocoa-nut. This crab has thick and
strong claws ; the others are comparatively slender and weak. At first
glance it seems impossible that it could penetrate a thick cocoa-nut
surrounded by a thick bed of fibre and protected by its strong shell ;
but M. Liesk has often seen the operation. The crab begins by
tearing off the fibre at the extremity where the fruit is, always choosing
the right end. When this is removed, it strikes it with its great claws
until it has made an opening ; then, by the aid of its slender claws,
and by turning itself round, it extracts the whole substance of
the nut.
The Crustaceans have eyes of two kinds simple and compound :
the first are sessile and immovable, and very convex ; the other borne
on a short calcareous stem or peduncle, and formed of a number of
small eyes symmetrically agglomerated the reunion of all the micro-
scopic cornea of a composite eye, resembling in shape a cap formed of
facets. It is said, for instance, that the eye of the lobster consists
of 2500 of these little facets. The simple eyes are mi/opus, or short-
CRUSTACEANS. 485
sighted the compound eyes for more distant but perfect sight. They
appear to have a strong sense of smell. Many of them cannot swim,
but walk with more or less facility at the bottom of the water. It is
said, for instance, that the cavalier of the Syrian coast, Oxypoda
cursor (Fabricius), is named from the rapidity with which it traverses
great distances.
Many systems have been proposed by different writers for the
arrangement of the Crustacea. That proposed by Mr. Milne Edwards
recommends itself, being founded on anatomical examination and
actual experiment made by himself and M. Audouin. He divides
them into two great divisions : I. "Those in which the mouth is
furnished with a certain number of organs adapted for the prehension
or division of food. II. Those in which the mouth is surrounded by
ambulatory extremities, the bases of which perform the part of jaws.
The first includes the MAXILOSA or MANDIBULATA, again divided
into Decapoda, having branchiae attached to the sides of the thorax,
and enclosed in special cavities. The Decapoda are divided into :
1. BRACHYURA, namely, the Crabs. Cancer, Porlunus, Grapsus y
Ocypode, and Doippe, belong to this group. 2. ANOMOURA, including
Droma, Pagurus, Porcellana, and Hippa. 3. MACROURA, including
the Lobsters, Astaeus, Palsemon, the Craw-fish, Palinurus.
Stomatopoda, with external branchiae, sometimes rudimentary,
sometimes none. Thoracic extremities prehensile, or for swimming
generally, six or eight pairs. This division includes Mysids, Phyllo-
soma, Squilla, &c.
The Cirripedia, or barnacles, are a very important division of
Crustacea ; they are found in all seas, and attach themselves to almost
every object in the sea; from the immovable rock to the moving
animal ; from the little Tunicata to the great turtle, or the whale.
The goose barnacles, Anatifa, have a flexible peduncle. The
Balanoidea, or sea acorns, like oysters, are rooted to the spot on which
they rest in their infant days; without the power, like the goose
barnacle, of swaying to and fro like a pendulum, be their resting-
place what it may.
One of the most remarkable animals of this class of Crustacea is the
Limulus Moluccanus the Molucca crab. They are distinguished by
a long serrated spine, which looks most formidable. They are in great
request in the mirkets of Java. Linnaeus thought that the fossil
436 THE OCEAN WORLD.
trilobites were closely allied to the Limulus. Latreille, on the con-
trary, classed them near the mollusc, chiton. The tail of Limulus so
strikingly resembles that of many Trilobites, that the most common
observers may perceive an affinity.
CRABS AND CEAW-FISH.
Crabs and lobsters may be regarded as the chiefs or lords of the
Crustacean tribes. The crabs have very large claws and smooth
backs ; the last have small claws and the back covered with spines.
Tiberius Caesar had the face of a poor fisherman scratched by the
rugged shell of a craw-fish.
Lobsters, especially, have an amazing fecundity, and yield an im-
mense number of eggs, each female producing from 12,000 to 20,000
in the season. The crab is also very prolific. These eggs are, in the
lobster, arranged in packets, which are attached to the lower surface
of the tail, to which they are connected by a viscous substance. The
manner in which the female lobster disposes of her burden is curious
and interesting. Whether she bends or stands erect she is able to
hold it obscurely or expose it to the light. Sometimes, according to
Coste, the eggs are left immovable, or simply submerged ; at others
they are subjected to successive washings by gently agitating the
false claw which shelters them from right to left. When first exuded
from the ovary the eggs are very small, but they seem to increase
during the time they are borne about under the tail, and before they
are committed to the sand or water they have attained the size of
small shot. The evolution of the germ is in progress during six
months. At the moment of exclusion the female extends the tail, im-
presses upon the eggs an oscillating motion, in order to destroy the
shell and scatter the larvae, delivering herself in two or three days of
her entire burden (Coste). " As the young lie enclosed within the
membrane of the egg," says Couch, " the claws are folded on each
other, and the tail is flexed on them as far as the margin of the shield.
The dorsal spine is bent backwards, and lies in contact with the dorsal
shield, for the young when it escapes from the egg is quite soft ; but
it rapidly hardens and solidifies by the deposition of calcareous matter
on what may be called its skin."
As soon as born, the young Crustaceans withdraw from the mother
CRUSTACEANS.
487
and ascend to the surface of the water, in order to gain the open sea.
They swim in a circle ; but this pelagic life is not of long duration ;
they quit it after their fourth moult, which takes place between the
thirtieth and fortieth day, at which time they lose the transitory organs
Fig. 333. Palinurus vulgaris. a, left outward jaw-foot.
of natation which they have hitherto possessed. After this they are
no longer able to maintain themselves on the surface, but drop to the
bottom. Henceforth they are condemned to remain there, and such
walking as they can exercise beaomes their habitual mode of progres-
488
THE OCEAN WORLD.
sion. As they increase in size they gradually approach the shore,
which they had for the moment abandoned, and return to the places
inhabited by the parent Crustaceans.
The form of the larvae differs so much from that of the adult, that
it would be difficult, except on the clearest evidence, to determine the
species from which they proceed. Former naturalists considered the
embryo cray-fish (Palinurus) to belong to a distinct genera, which
they designated Pliyllosoma. It is now known, however, that these
are the young of the higher forms of Crustaceans -undergoing meta-
morphosis. In the various forms of Macroura the metamorphosis is
less decided than in the Bracliyura. In the fresh- water cray-fish no
change whatever takes place. Dissatisfied with the uncertainty of
former experiments,
Mr. Couch undertook
a series of observa-
tions, which are
recorded in the
proceedings of the
Cornwall Polytechnic
Society, in which he
established the fact
that metamorphosis
takes place in the fol-
lowing genera : Can-
cer, Xanthb, Plum-
nus, Carcinus, Port-
unus, Maja, Gralathea,
Hornarus, and Palinurus. " Metamorphosis has been demonstrated,"
says Dr. Bell, " in no less than seventeen genera of the Brachyurous
order of Decapoda, in which it is most decided and obvious ; in Lep-
topodia, Majacea, Cancer, Portunidse, Pinnoteres, and Grapsus. In
the Anomourous order it is seen in the Pagurus, Porcellana, and
Galathea; and in the Macrouran order in Homarus, Palinurus,
Palaemon, and Crangon."
The swimming of these creatures is produced by flexions and
expansions of the tail, and by repeated beating motions of the claws,
the tail acting as a sort of vibratile oar; aided by which they maintain
themselves in the water and facilitate their progress. As the shell
Fig. 334. Pottunus variegatus, male,
a, external antenna; b, exttrnal jaw-foot ; c, tail or abdomen.
CRUSTACEANS. 489
becomes more solid they get less active, and finally return to the
bottom to cast their shell and assume a new form.
According to the observations of M. Coste, the young lobster casts
its shell from eight to ten times in the first year, from five to seven in
the second, three to four times the third, and two or three times the
fourth year. In the fifth year they attain the adult state. Whence
Fig. 335. Corystes Cassivelaunus, male.
it follows, that the small lobsters served at our tables have changed
their calcareous vestment something like twenty-one times, and are
now clothed in their twenty-second habit.
The crabs are numerous in species and various in size. The long-
clawed crab (Corystes Cassivelaunus) of Pennant and Leach (Fig. 335)
490 THE OCEAN WORLD.
is remarkable for its long antennae, which considerably exceed the
body. The jaw-feet have their third joint longer than the second,
terminating in an obtuse point, with a notch on its interior edge ;
eyes wide apart, borne upon large peduncles, which are nearly cylin-
drical and short ; anterior feet large, equal, twice the length of the
body, and nearly cylindrical in the males ; in the females (Fig. 336)
about the length of the body, and compressed, especially towards the
hand-claw. The other feet terminate in an elongated nail or claw,
which is straight-pointed and channeled longitudinally : carapace
Fig. 336. Corystes Cassivelaunus, female.
oblong-oval, terminating in a rostrum anteriorly truncated and bordered
posteriorly ; the regions but slightly indicated, with the exception of
the cordian region, the branchial or lateral regions being very much
elongated.
Latreille gives the name of Corystes, which signifies a warrior
armed, to this genus of Crustaceans, from /copvs, a helmet, but it is
perfectly inoffensive. Pennant had already conferred the name of
Cassivelaunus, the chief of the Ancient Britons, for the singular
CRUSTACEANS. 491
reason, according to Gosse, that the carapace, which is marked by
wrinkles, bears, in old males especially, the strongest and most
ludicrous resemblance to the face of an ancient man. Pennant's well-
known sympathy with his British ancestry certainly never led him to
caricature the grand old British warrior, as Mr. Gosse surmises. On
the contrary, he saw in the Crustacean a creature armed at all points,
and he named it after the hero of his imagination.
In this species the surface of the carapace is somewhat granulous,
with two denticles between the eyes, and three sharp points directed
forward on each side. The male has only five abdominal pieces, but
the vestiges of the separation of the two others may be clearly re-
marked upon the outer mediate or third piece, which is the largest of
all. The length of the antennae is remarked on by Mr. Couch, in
his Cornish Fauna. " These organs," he says, " are of some use
beyond their common office of feelers ; perhaps, as in some other
Crustaceans, they assist in the process of excavation ; and, when
soiled by labour, I have seen the crab effect their cleaning by alter-
nately bending the joints of their stalks, which stand conveniently
angular for the purpose. Each of the long antennae is thus drawn
along the brush that fringes the internal face of the other, until both
are cleared of every particle that adhered to them." On the other
hand, Mr. Gosse suggests that the office of the antennae is to keep a
passage open for ejecting the deteriorated water after it has bathed
and aerated the gills. " I have observed," he says, " that, when kept
in an aquarium, these crabs are fond of sitting bolt upright, the
antennae placed close together, and pointing straight upwards from the
head. This is doubtless the attitude in which the animal sits in its
burrow, for the tips of the antennae may often be seen just projecting
from the sand. When the chosen seat has happened to be so close to
the glass side of the tank as to bring the antennae within the range
of a pocket lens, I have minutely investigated these organs without
disturbing the old warrior in his meditation. I saw on each occasion
that a strong current of water was continuously pouring up from the
points of the antennae. Tracing this to its origin, it became evident
that it was produced by the rapid vibration of the foot-jaws drawing
in the surrounding water, and pouring it off upwards between the
united antennas, as through a tube. Then, on examining these organs,
I perceived that the form and arrangement of their bristles did indeed
492
THE OCEAN WORLD.
constitute each antennae a semi-tube, so that when the pair were
brought face to face the tube was complete."
Among the numerous genera of Bracliyurous Crustaceans, Grapsus
is distinguished by its less regularly quadrilateral form ; the body
nearly always compressed, and the sternal plastron but little or not at
all curved backwards ; the front strongly recurved, or, rather, bent
downwards ; the orbits oval-shaped and of moderate size ; the lateral
edges of the carapace slightly curving and trenchant ; the ocular
pedicles large, but short : their insertion beneath the front and the
cornea occupies one-half of their length.
Fig. 337. Pagurus Bernhardus. 1, out of the shell ; a, right jaw-foot ; 6, in the shell.
The Hermit or Soldier Crab (Pagurus 'Bernhardus, Fabricius,
Fig. 337) is, perhaps, the oddest and most curious of Crustaceans. It
differs from most other Crustaceans in this : in place of having the body
protected by a calcareous armour, more or less thick and solid, it has
CRUSTACEANS. 493
only a cuirass and head-piece to protect the head and hreast ; all the
rest of the body is invested in a soft yielding skin; and this, the vul-
nerable part of the hermit crab, is the delicate morsel devoured by the
gourmet. Nor is our somewhat evil-disposed Crustacean ignorant of the
perfectly weak and defenceless state of its posterior quarters. Prudence
or instinct makes it seek the shelter of some empty shell, of a shape
and size corresponding to its own. When it fails to find one empty,
it does not hesitate to attack some living testacean, which it kills
without pity or remorse, and takes possession of its habitation without
other form of process. Once master of the shell (Fig. 337), it intro-
duces itself, stern foremost, and installs itself as in an entrenchment,
where it is established so firmly that it moves about with it more or
less briskly, according to its comparative size.
The Pagurians belong to the Anomourous family of Crustaceans, of
which there are several genera, and a considerable number of species,
the animal economy of which has been ably commented upon by
Mr. Broderip. " Their backs," he says, " are towards the arch of the
turbinated shell occupied by them, and their well-armed nippers
and first two pairs of succeeding feet generally project beyond the
mouth of it. The short feet rest upon the polished surface of the
colurnella, and the outer surface of their termination, especially that
of the first pair, is in some species most admirably rough-shod, to give
' the soldier ' a firm footing when he makes his sortie, or to add to the
resistance of the crustaceous holders at the end of his abdomen, or tail,
when he is attacked, and wishes to withdraw into his castle. On
passing the finger downwards over the terminations of these feet, they
feel smooth ; but if the finger be passed upwards, the roughness is
instantly perceived. The same sort of structure (it is as rough as a
file) is to be seen in the smaller caudal holders." In another species
of Pagurus, from the Mauritius, which was nearly a foot in length,
he found a great number of transverse rows, armed with acetabula, or
suckers ; these were visible without the aid of a glass, which must
very much assist the hold of the Pagwrus.
During the feeding and breeding-time, the hermit throws out his
head and feet, and especially his great claws, and feels his way with
his two antennae, which are long and slender. When he walks he
hooks on with his pincers to the nearest body, and draws his shell
after him, as the snail does his. But the undefended parts of the
494 THE OCEAN WOELD.
body always remain under cover. At low water the hermits spread
themselves over the rocky shore, and the spectator thinks he sees a
great numher of shells which move in all directions, with allurements
different from that which belongs to their essentially slow and
measured race. If they are touched they stop suddenly, and it is soon
discovered that their shell is the dwelling of a crustacean, not a
mollusc. The animal lives alone in its little citadel, like the hermit
in his cell or the sentinel in his box. Hence the name of hermit
and soldier.
When our crustacean outgrows its borrowed habitation, it sets out
in search of -another shell, a little larger, and better suited for its
increased size.
The hermit often avails itself, as we have said, of empty shells
abandoned by their owners; when the tide retires these seldom fail
them, and the hermit may be seen examining, turning, and returning,
and even trying its new domicile. It glides slowly along on its abdomen,
which is large and somewhat distorted, sometimes in one shell, some-
times in another, looking defiantly all round it, and returning very
quickly to its ancient lodging if the new one does not turn out to be
perfectly comfortable, often trying a great number, as a man might
try many new clothes before suiting himself. In its successive removals
the little sybarite chooses a hermitage more and more spacious,
according to its taste or caprice in colour or architecture. The cunning
little creature chooses its mansion, now grey or yellow, now red or
brown, globular or cylindrical, in the form of a spiral or of a tun,
toothed or crenulate, with trenchant edge or pointed terminations ;
but, as a rule, our crustacean Diogenes houses itself in spirals of con-
siderable length, as in Cerithium, Buccinum, or Murex.
The hermit is very timid ; at the least noise it shrinks into its
shell and squats itself, without motion, drawing in its smaller claws
and closing the door with its larger ones, the latter being often covered
with hairs, tubercles, or with teeth. In short, our prudent cenobite
clings so closely to the bottom of its retreat, that we might pull it to
pieces without getting it out entire ; its tail is transformed into a sort
of sucker, by the aid of which it attaches itself firmly to the walls of
its habitation. It is at once strong and voracious, eating with much
relish the dead fishes and fragments of molluscs and annelids which
come in its way. Nor does it hesitate to attack and devour living
CRUSTACEANS. 495
animals. When introduced into an aquarium, it has sometimes thrown
it into the utmost disorder by its insatiable rapacity. It has been
possible sometimes to preserve harmony among many individuals in-
habiting the same reservoir; but this has been owing rather to
the impossibility of their attacking each other, in consequence of
cunningly-devised barricades, than to their mildness of character or
love of their neighbour. These animals, in short, are very quarrel-
some. Two hermits cannot meet without showing hostility ; each
extends his long pincers, and seems to try to touch the other, much
as a spider does when it seeks to seize a fly on its most vulnerable
side ; but each, finding the other armed in proof, and perfectly pro-
tected, though eager to fight, usually adopts the better part of valour,
and prudently withdraws. They often have true passages of arms,
nevertheless, in which claws are spread out, and displayed in the
most threatening manner ; the two adversaries tumbling head over
heels, and rolling one upon the other, but they get more frightened
than hurt. Nevertheless, Mr. Gosse once witnessed a struggle which
had a more tragic end. A hermit crab met a brother Bernhard
pleasantly lodged in a shell much more spacious than his own. He
seized it by the head with his powerful claws, tore it from its asylum
with the speed of lightning, and took its place not less promptly,
leaving the dispossessed unfortunate struggling on the sand in con-
vulsions of agony. " Our battles," says Charles Bonnet, " have rarely
such important objects in view : they fight each other for a
house."
A pretty little zoophyte, the Cloak Anemone (Adamsia palliata\ loves
to live with the hermit, and exhibits sympathies almost inexplicable.
In aquariums this anemone attaches itself almost always to the shell
which serves as the dwelling of the Crustacean ; and it may be looked
upon as certain that where the hermit is there will the anemone be
found. These two creatures seem to live in perfect and intelligent
harmony together, for Mr. Gosse's observations establish the existence
of a cordial and reciprocal affection between them. This learned and
intelligent observer describes the proceedings of a hermit which re-
quired a new habitation ; he saw it detach, in the most deliberate but
effective manner, its dear .companion, the anemone, from the old shell,
transport it with every care and precaution, and place it comfortably
upon the new shell, and then with its large pincers give to its well-
496 THE OCEAN WORLD.
beloved many little taps, as if to fix it there the more quickly. Another
species of Bernhardus makes a companion of the mantled anemone.
" And we are assured," says Moquin-Tandon, " that when the crab
dies its inconsolable friend is not long in succumbing also."
" Is there not here much more than what our modern physiologists
call automatic movements, the results of reflex sensorial action?" says
Grosse. " The more I study the lower animals, the more firmly am
I persuaded of the existence in them of psychical faculties, such as
consciousness, intelligence, skill, and choice ; and that even in those
forms in which as yet no nervous centres have been detected."
LOBSTERS.
In a dietary, as well as commercial sense, the lobster far excels the
crab ; like the latter, they have an amazing fecundity, each female
producing from twelve to twenty thousand eggs in a season ; and wisely
is it so arranged, otherwise the consumption would soon exhaust
them.
In France the size of the marketable lobster is regulated by law,
and fixed at twenty centimetres (eight inches) in length ; all under
that size are contraband. Every year the inhabitants of Blainville
proceed to Chaussey to fish for lobsters. They are taken in baskets
in the form of a truncated cone, the mouth of which is so arranged
that the animal can enter, but cannot get out. The numbers caught
by each fisherman and his family in a season may be estimated at a
thousand or twelve hundred, which realise to the family thirteen or
fourteen hundred francs, the season lasting about nine months.
Lobsters are collected all round our own coast for the London
market. On the Scottish shore they are collected and kept in per-
forated chests floating on the water, until they can be taken away to
market. From the Sutherland coast alone six to eight thousand
lobsters are collected in a season. This process goes on all round the
coast, and as far as Norway, whence an enormous supply of the finest
lobsters are obtained, for which something like 20,000 per annum is
paid, all these contributions being conveyed to the Thames and
Mersey in welled vessels. But these old-fashioned systems are being
rapidly superseded by the construction of artificial storing ponds, or
basins. Of these ponds Mr. Kichard Scovell has erected one at
CRUSTACEANS. 497
Hamble, near Southampton, in which he can store with ease fifty
thousand lobsters, which will keep in good condition for six weeks.
Mr. Scovell's tank is supplied from the coasts of France, Scotland, and
Ireland, where fine lobsters abound. He employs three large and
well-appointed smacks, each of which can carry from five thousand to
ten thousand. On the coast of Ireland alone, it is said, ten thousand
fine lobsters a week might be taken.
The Lobster (Homarus) is found in great abundance all round our
coast ; frequenting the more rocky shores and clear water, where it is of
no great depth, about the time of depositing its eggs. Various are the
modes in which they are taken ; cone-shaped traps made of wicker-
work, and baited with garbage, are perhaps the most successful.
These are sunk among the rocks, arid marked by buoys. Sometimes
nets are sunk, baited by the same material. In other places a
wooden instrument, which acts like a pair of tongs, is used for their
capture.
Mr. Pennant, the naturalist, paid great attention to the lobsters,
and their habits are well described in a letter from Mr. Travis, of
Scarborough. " The larger ones," he says, " are in their best season
from the middle of October to the beginning of May. Many of the
smaller ones, and some few of the larger individuals, are good all the
summer. If they are four and a half inches long from the top of the
head to the end of the back shell, they are called sizeable lobsters ; if
under four inches, they are esteemed half size, and two of them are
reckoned for one of size. Under four inches they are called pawks,
and these are the best summer lobsters. The pincers of one of the
lobster's large claws are furnished with knobs, while the other claw is
always serrated. With the former it keeps firm hold of the stalks of
submarine plants ; with the latter it cuts and masticates its food very
dexterously. The knobbed or thumb claw, as the fishermen call it, is
sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right side, and it is more
dangerous to be seized by the serrated claw than the other.
There is little doubt that the lobsters cast their shell annually, but
the mode in which it is performed is not satisfactorily explained. It
is supposed that the old shell is cast, and that the animal retires
to some lurking-place till the new covering acquires consistence to
contend with his armour-clad congeners. Others contend that the
process is one of absorption, otherwise, if there were a period of moult,
2 K
498
THE OCEAN WORLD.
it would be shown by their shells. The most probable conjecture is
that the shell sloughs off piecemeal, as it does in the cray-fish. The
greatest mystery of all, perhaps, is the process by which the lobster
withdraws the fleshy part of its claws from their calcareous covering.
Fishermen say the lobster pines before casting its shell, so as to permit
of its withdrawing its members from it.
The female lobster does not seem to cast her shell the same year
in which she deposits
her ova, or, as the fisher-
men say, " is in berry."
When the ova first ap-
pear under the tail, they
are small and very black,
but before they are ready
for deposition they are
almost as large as ripe
elderberries, and of
a dark-brown colour.
There does not seem to
be any particular season
for this act, as females
are found in berry at all
seasons, but more com.
monly in winter. In
this state they are found
to be much exhausted,
and by no means fit for
the table.
The generic name,
Astacus of Fabricius, is
now confined to the
crawfishes, which have
a depressed rostrum, one
Fig. 338. Nephrops Norvegicus. ^^ Qn ^ ^ and
the last ring of the thorax movable. The lobsters (Homarus) have
the eyes spherical, two rings of the thorax being soldered together.
The Norway Lobsters (Nephrops Norvegicus, Fig. 338) have the
eyes uniform, and the two last rings of the thorax movable.
CRUSTACEANS.
499
The last is one of the most beautiful of the larger Macrourans. Its
general tint is pale flesh colour, with darker shades in parts, its
pubescence light brown. This is generally considered a northern
species, but Mr. Bell states that he has received specimens from the
Mediterranean. It is found plentifully on the coast of Norway, on
the Scottish coast, and in the Bay of Dublin. It is considered the
most delicate of all the Crustaceans.
Before concluding this chapter, we perhaps should not omit brief
notices of the common prawn (Palsemon serratus) and the shrimp
(Crangon vulgar is), as types of an extensive variety of form of
Fig. 339. Crangon vulgaris. a, Anterior foot or claw.
Crustacea, which inhabit all seas, and which perform important func-
tions as regards the sanitary state and economic condition of the waters
of the ocean. These small animals are the scavengers of the sea
they pick up and devour all dead matter, leaving (it may be) a clean
skeleton, without a shred of fibre behind. In this respect they
2 K 2
500 THE OCEAN WORLD.
resemble the ants on land, doing their work always thoroughly and
effectively. We need hardly mention, what is so well known to
every reader, that prawns and shrimps are amongst the most esteemed
delicacies at our table, and as articles of food occupy no mean place
on the fish-stall. At Billingsgate alone, it is hardly credible the
immense quantities which arrive and are daily consumed in the
Metropolis by all classes of the community. The shrimp, which
although the smaller crustacean, is perhaps the finest flavoured of
the two, is sold in much larger quantities than its more aristocratic
congener, the prawn. The fishery of these savoury comestibles gives
occupation not only to regular able-bodied fishermen, who devote
themselves to this branch, but also to large numbers of women and
children, who with their baskets and small nets may be seen
plying their vocation in a multitude of well-known localities on our
coasts, especially on the southern and south-eastern shores. To the
habitues of Hastings, Southampton, Bognor, &c., there is not a more
picturesque or familiar marine picture than to behold a troop of little
shrimpers, in their grotesque and somewhat outre equipments, wading
patiently knee deep all in a row, as they push before them their
pole nets.
Without giving a detailed technical and anatomical description,
which our space will not permit of, we may observe that the common
prawn (Palasmon serratus) is about four or five inches long, with a
rounded carapace, which is jointed and furnished at the head with
numerous long antennae, the eyes being large and round. The tail *
is broad and flat, the caudal laminae of which are furnished with long
hairs on the terminal margins. The animal is also furnished with
several pairs of feet, very slender, and ordinarily bent within them-
selves.
The colour is light grey, spotted and lined with purplish shades.
In the water, however, prawns are almost transparent, from the
nearly entire absence of carbonate of lime in the carapace ; they are
thus very beautiful objects in the marine aquarium, moving as they
do like shadows in the water.
When prawns are boiled, they become of a delicate pink colour,
thus adding beauty to the dainty morceaux.
Like most other kinds of Crustacea, the prawn is much larger in
tropical climates. On the coast of South America, for instance, they
CRUSTACEANS. 501
attain a size of nine or ten inches in length, three of them being
considered quite sufficient for a meal.
The London market is chiefly supplied with prawns from the Isle
of Wight and Hampshire coast.
Like the prawn, the shrimp has many varieties. The common
shrimp (Crangon vulgar is) is about two and a half inches long,
from the eye to the extremity of the tail. It is also furnished with
a rounded articulated carapace, with two antennae. The eyes are
prominent, marked, and near each other ; the tail flat, laminated, and
hirsute. The shrimp is not very unlike the prawn in general appear-
ance, but is of a much less complex and finished structure.
In colour it is greyish brown, clotted all over with dark brown.
In this species heat does not improve the colour.
This variety is one of the most abundant of all coast Crustacea,
swimming about and laying on the sands (which they closely resemble
in colour) in immense shoals. Sometimes they are also found in deep
water, but the margin of the sea is their favourite habitat. It may
be added, that large quantities of the smaller palaemonidab are caught
with and sold as shrimps. Shrimps are in spawn all the year
through, and cast their shells during the three months of spring.
The Entomostraea of Milne Edwards, or the Lophyropoda of
Latreille, have no suctorial mouth or mandibles capable of mastication ;
their maxillae are lamellose, and they have never more than ten
swimming feet, and have from one to two eyes on stalks, and live in
fresh water. There are two principal genera; the Copepoda of
Edwards, and the Ostracoda. As a type of the first, we may mention
Cyclops vulgaris (Leach), which, true to its name, has but one eye.
But the genus Pontia of the same family has two. As a type of the
second order, Ostracoda, we will specify the numerous family of the
Cyprides, whose animals are enclosed in a bivalve shell, which causes
their remains in Secondary strata to be classed with bivalve molluscs.
502 THE OCEAN WORLD.
CHAPTEK XVIII.
FISHES.
BEFORE speaking of the habits of the principal kinds of fishes, it is
desirable to glance at their organization, and upon the manner in
which they execute their physiological functions.
Fishes are intended to live always* in water, and this circumstance
has impressed its seal upon their organization. Nevertheless, their
forms are very varied ; they are generally oblong, compressed laterally.
They have no neck, the head being merely a prolongation of the
trunk. In the majority of instances, the body is covered with scales,
generally a thin bony substance developed out of the skin and over-
lapping each other, like the tiles of a roof.
Nothing is more remarkable than the variety and brilliancy of
colour in fishes ; they present almost every gradation, from golden or
silver, and other dazzling colours, mingling with shades of blue, green,
red, and black.
Fishes are essentially formed for swimming (Fig. 340), and all their
members are adapted for this purpose. The anterior members, which
correspond with the arms in man and the wings in birds, are attached
to each side of the trunk, immediately behind the head, and form the
pectoral fins. The posterior members occupy the lower surface of the
body, and form the ventral fins. The latter, which are always over
the ventral line, may be before, beneath, or behind the former. Fishes
possess, besides, fins in odd numbers. The fins which erect themselves
on the back are called the back or dorsal fins, those at the end of the
tail are the caudal fins ; finally, there is frequently another attached
* The exceptions to these are the Doras, or flat-headed Hassar of India, which
marches overland in large droves ; the Swampines of Carolina (Hydrargyra); and
the Perca Scandens, which in Tranquebar not merely walks over level ground, but
climbs trees.
FISHES.
503
to the lower extremity of the body, which is called the anal fin.
These fins are always nearly of the same structure, consisting gene-
rally of a fold of the skin, supported by slender, flexible, cartilaginous
or osseous rays, connected by a thin membrane.
Fig. 340. Skeleton of the Common Perch.
a, the inter-maxillary bone ; b, the maxillary bone ; d, the gills ; c, the under jaw ; /, the inter-oper-
culuni ; g g, the vertebral column ; h, the pectoral fin; i, the ventral fin ; k and I, the dorsal fins ; m, the
anal fin ; n, the caudal fin.
The muscles which bind together the vertebral column are so
much developed in fishes as well as others of the superior animals,
that they constitute in them alone the principal part of the body. The
caudal, dorsal, and anal fins act as outlying oars ; the pectoral and
ventral fins assist in progression, at the same time that they help to
maintain the equilibrium of the animal and guide and direct its move-
ments, which are generally astonishing from their rapidity.
F/'g. 341. Swimming bladder of the Carp.
An organ, which belongs properly to fishes* (Fig. 341), and which is
usually considered as their chief aid in swimming, is a large bladder
situated within the body, between the dorsal spine and the abdomen.
This is usually called the swimming bladder. According to the
* Some fish, as tho Chondropterygii, have no swimming bladder. ED.
504
THE OCEAN WORLD.
volume this bladder assumes, the animal can increase or diminish the
specific gravity of its body; that is, it can remain in equilibrium
Fig. 342. Anatomy of the Carp.
In", tbe branchia?, or gill openings ; c, the heart; /, the liver ; vn, swimming bladders ; ci, intestinal canal ;
o, the ovarium ; u, urethra ; a, anus ; o' t oviduct.
or ascend or descend in the bosom of the waters ; it is, moreover,
remarked that it is very small in those species which swim at the
bottom of the water, and Mr. Gosse says there is some reason for
FISHES.
505
considering it to be the first rudimentary form of the air-breathing
lung.
Immediately behind the head, two large openings are observed in
most fishes ; these are the gill-openings. Their anterior edge is mobile,
and they are raised or lowered to serve the purposes of respiration ;
under this species of covercle are the gills, or branchiae. These usually
consist of many rows of thin membranous plates, hung on slender
arches of bone, placed on each side of the head, usually protected by a
bony plate made up of several pieces, called the gill-covers. The
breathing is produced by water taken in at the mouth, which passes
over the gill-membranes, and is ejected through an orifice at the hind
margin of the gill-covers. During the contact of the water with the
gills, the blood which circulates in these organs, and which communi-
cates to them the red colour by which we recognize them, combines
chemically with the oxygen of the air which the water holds in solu-
tion when it flows freely at the ordinary temperature in presence of
the air. The blood is thus oxygenized, or made fit for respiration.
The heart in fishes is placed between the inferior parts of the
branchial arch, and consists of a ventricle and an auricle (Fig. 342).
It corresponds with the right half of the heart in the Mammifera and
birds, for it receives the venous blood from all parts of the body and
sends it to the gills. From
this organ the blood is de-
livered into one great artery,
which creeps along the verte-
bral column.
The eye in fishes is gene-
rally very large we may even
say enormous relative to the
size of the head and with-
out true eyelids ; the skin
usually passes over the ocular
globe, and becomes from this
point so transparent that the
luminary rays traverse it.
This light covering is all the eyelid belonging to fishes. The inte-
rior of the eye is covered by the membrane called clioroid, the thin
external leaf of which, in consequence of the presence of innumerable
o
C !.....
Fig. 343. A Fish's Eye.
t, crystallized pupil; ee', cornea; mm', choroid; ft, pos-
terior chambers ; c, optic nerve.
506 THE OCEAN WORLD.
microscopic crystals, presents the appearance of a gold or silver-coloured
coating, which gives to the iris that extraordinary brilliancy which
belongs to the fish's eye. The crystalline lens is voluminous, spherical,
and diaphanous. When the fish is cooked, the crystalline lens con-
stitutes that opaque and hard white substance which often comes
under the teeth in eating fish of a certain size. Cuvier suspected,
what anglers now know to be true, that those
active chasseurs of the deep saw far and very
clearly.*
If fishes have great eyes, they have, on the
other hand, very small ears. This organ, it is
Fig. 344. Teeth of the Bream. f oun(ij hag no ex t er i or opening. It forms a cavity
in the interior of the cranium, which is far from presenting the com-
plicated structure of the ear in mammifers
and birds. In spite, however, of the imperfect
structure, fishes are sensible to the least
noise. In consequence, silecce is a rigorous
law with the fisherman.
The dimensions of the mouth and teeth
Fig. 345. Teeth of the Carp. ^ ^ yariable ^ figheg . thege organg ^
in proportion to their voracity, which in many of these beings is
very great. The form and development of the buccal pieces are also
very various. Some species are toothless, but in most fishes the
* Dr. Fripp's theory of the properties of the fish's eye is very plausible.
1st. That the fish's eye in its normal state is arranged for the vision of near objects,
and that the great refractive power of a prolate spheroid lens, such as exists in the
fish, is adequate to the production of a picture at short focal distances, even with rays
of light passing through so dense a medium as water.
2nd. That there is no accommodation of the fish's eye for extended limits of vision.
3rd. That the passive state of the fish's eye, being that in which it is enabled to
see objects near and at moderate distance, no active or physiological change for
accommodation of sight for distant objects takes place or seems necessary.
The dioptric arrangement, being the reverse of that which obtains in animals where
"accommodation" is observed, and in whom the passive state is that of vision, arranged
for distant objects, while the active state is that of vision accommodated at will for
near objects.
4th. That the vascular distribution of the choroid vessels has no relation to any
movement of the lens or change of its shape, but is arranged to meet the changes of
static condition of the circulating fluid, and of dynamic force exerted by the heart
under varying pressure from without ; and that by such an arrangement, protection to
the delicate tissues of the eye is afforded by a compensating balance between the
tension of the blood within the vessels and the external pressure exerted upon them.
FISHES. 507
teeth are very numerous. They are sometimes attached, not alone to
the two jaws, but also to the palate, to the tongue, and upon the
interior of the branchial arch, and even in
the back mouth, that is to say, upon the
ospharyngeal, which surrounds the mouth
of the oesophagus.
The form of their teeth is very variable rig. 346. Teeth of the Trout.
both in arrangement and position : some
are in the form of an elongated cone, either straight or curved.
When small and numerous, they are com-
parable to the points of the cards used
in carding wool or cotton. Sometimes
they are so slender and dense as to re-
semble the piles of velvet, and often,
from their very minute size, their pre-
J ^ Fig. 347. Teeth of the Gold-fish Dorada.
sence is more easily ascertained by the
finger than the eye. In some members of the Salmonidse, for instance,
we find a row of teeth on the bone that forms the middle ridge of the
palate, which is called the vornex. On each side of this is another row
on the palatine bones, and outside these is a third pair of rows on
the upper jaw-bones. Some fishes have flat teeth, with a cutting edge
in front of the jaws, like a true incisor ; others have them rounded or oval,
adapted to bruise or crush the various substances on which they feed.
The oesophagus connected with the mouth is short in fishes ; the
stomach and intestines vary in form and dimensions. Digestion is very
rapid with these beings. Most of them feed on flesh, but there are a
few where the mouth is without teeth, which feed on vegetables.
The growth of fishes is slow or very rapid, according to the abun-
dance of food ; they can suffer a very long fast, but in that state they
become diminutive in size, and finally perish of exhaustion. At certain
seasons an irresistible impulse brings the two sexes together. Many
species whose ordinary appearance is dull and unsightly now shine in
the most brilliant colours. The female soon after lays her eggs, the
number of which passes all imagination. Nature seems to have accu-
mulated in the body of each female myriads of eggs a wise provision,
which is rendered necessary by the numerous causes of destruction
which threaten them in their native element. The eggs, abandoned
by the females to the mercy of the waves, are fecundated after being
508 THE OCEAN WORLD.
deposited by the milt of the males. Such is a very brief summary of the
organization of fishes, which have been briefly described as vertebrate,
cold-blooded animals, breathing by means of gills ; living in water,
moving through the water by means of their fins, and reproducing
their kind by means of eggs, or spawn. And now a few words on
their classification.
Fishes naturally divide themselves into two series, according to the
composition of their internal skeleton. This is usually osseous ; never-
theless, a whole group of them constantly retain the cartilaginous or
fibro-cartilaginous state. With some this frame presents even less
power of resistance, and remains membranous.
It is precisely upon this peculiarity of structure that we found the
great division of the class of fishes into two great groups of CARTILA-
GINOUS and OSSEOUS fishes, the first being again subdivided into three
orders : namely, I. Cyclostomata, II. JSelachia, III. Sturiona. The
second into four orders: I. Plectognatliii, II. Lophobranchii, III.
Malacopterygii, IV. Acantliopterygii. Agassiz's system of classifica-
tion of fish, founded on the form of the scales, is perhaps better suited
than this to the palaeontologist, but the one given above, founded as it
is principally on the internal parts of the animal, is better suited to
the zoologist. Agassiz's orders are the Ctenoid, type, Chromis,
Placoid, Ganoid, and Cycloid.
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES.
Cartilaginous fishes are generally animals of considerable size, their
structure ranging from ordinary fishes to eels. They are chiefly sea-
fishes, only a few species being river-fishes. Naturalists divide them
into two orders ; namely, those having the gills free on the outer
edge (the gilled Chondropterygeans), and those having these organs
fixed on both edges. The first order comprehend three families : I.
Cyclostomata, or Eels, Lampreys, &c., in which the mouth forms a
sucker; II. Selachians, including Kaias and Sharks, in which the
mouth is furnished with jaws ; III. Sturiona, or Sturgeons, which
have the gills free.
I. CYCLOSTOMATA.
The first are characterised by the singular conformation of the
mouth, which is formed for suction. The body is elongated, naked,
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 509
and viscous, reminding us of serpents in their external form; they
have neither pectoral nor ventral fins ; their vertebrae are reduced to
simple cartilaginous rings, scarcely perceptible one from the other,
traversed by tendons, and covered by a second and more solid series of
rings, which surround the soft cartilaginous spine. Their gills, in
place of presenting the comb-like appearance of other fishes, have
something of the form of a purse. The lampreys may be considered
as the type of this family.
The Lampreys (Petromyzon) are cylindrical, with seven gill-openings
on each side of the neck, forming two longitudinal lines ; mouth round,
armed with many teeth. The Sea Lamprey, P. marinus (Fig. 348),
Fig. 348. The Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus).
belongs to the Mediterranean ; it is also found in the German Ocean,
and the friend who supplies this note has caught it with cockle bait
in the South Esk, Forfarshire. In the spring it ascends the rivers,
where it is sometimes caught in abundance. Full-grown it is about
three feet long, marbled brown upon yellow ; the dorsal fins are sepa-
rated by long intervals ; its mouth is circular and surrounded by a
fleshy lip, furnished with cirri, having a cartilaginous plate for sup-
port ; it is provided on its internal surface with many circular rows of
strong teeth, some single, the others double.
The Lamprey feeds on worms, molluscs, and small fishes ; its mouth
is a powerful sucker, by the aid of which it attaches itself to fishes
510 THE OCEAN WORLD.
often of great size, and sucks them like a leech. It is taken by hook
and line, and speared by a sort of barbed harpoon, like the trident of
the mythological Neptune, which is thrown, javelin fashion, at the
animal when seen at the bottom of the water ; the flesh is fat and
delicate. In the twelfth century one of our kings, Henry I., surfeited
himself at Elbeuf by partaking too largely of the Lamprey. The
river-lamprey resembles the above in its general conformation, but
is much smaller, and differs in the armature of the mouth, having only
a single circular row of teeth. It is blackish above, silvery beneath,
and is common in the markets of London and Paris, being frequently
taken in the Seine. A smaller species, about ten inches in length,
never leaves the fresh waters. It resembles the last species in colour,
but its two dorsal fins are continuous ; it is found in most European
rivers and brooks. In some of the English rivers they are frequently
taken in the eel-pots, weighing two and three pounds. They frequent
stony bottoms, where they find small animals on which they feed. In
its larva state it was long considered to be a distinct species of Am-
moccetes ; it is now, however, ascertained that it only acquires its
perfect form at the end of its second or third year.
II. SELACHIA.
The Selachians include a great number of cartilaginous fishes, vary-
ing much in form, including the rays, dog-fish, skate, torpedo, hammer-
fish, sharks, and saw-fish ; they have pectoral and ventral fins. On
each side of the neck, on the lower surface, are five gill-openings, in
form of a slit to each gill. Many of the species have two Hlow-lioles
in the upper part of the head. The order is divided into Raiadse and
Squalidse.
BAIAD^E.
Of the KAIAD.E there are several genera, and many species. In
Cephaloptera the head is truncated, with large, lateral eyes. In
Myliobates it is projecting, the pectoral fins extending like wings.
In Trygon it is enclosed by the pectorals. In the Skate (Raia) the
body is rhomboidal, tail without spine, but two small dorsals near the
top. In the Torpedo the body is nearly round, the tail short and
fleshy, with two dorsals and a caudal fin.
The White Ray, Raia latis (Fig. 349), reminds us of the lozenge
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES.
511
shape, the point of the muzzle forming the lower angle, the longest ray
of each pectoral forming the lateral angles, while the summit of the
tail forms the last angle ; the whole surface seems flat, but a swelling is
distinguishable towards the head, on the upper surface, which hears,
as it were, the contour of the body, properly so called, namely, the
three cavities of the head, the throat, and the belly, which occupy the
centre of the lozenge, beyond which the pectoral fins extend. These
Fig. 349. The White Ray (Raia batis).
fins, though covered with a thick skin, permit the cartilaginous rays,
with their articulations, to be very distinctly seen.
The head of the white ray, which terminates in a muzzle slightly
pointed, is attached behind to the cavity of the breast. The mouth,
placed in the lower part of the head and far from the extremity of the
muzzle, is elongated ; its edges are cartilaginous, and furnished with
many rows of hooked and pointed teeth ; the nostrils are placed in
front of the mouth. The eyes, which open in the upper part of the
head, are half projecting, and protected in part by a continuation of
512
THE OCEAN WORLD.
the soft, elastic, and retractile ^skin which covers the head. Imme-
diately hehind the eyes are two blow- holes, which communicate with
the interior of the mouth. The animal is able to open and close
these holes at pleasure, by means of an extensible membrane, which
acts as a sort of valve. Through these holes it ejects the superabundant
water beyond what is necessary for respiration. In its general colour
the animal is ashy grey on its upper surface ; white, with rows of
black spots, below.
Its tail is long, flexible, and slender, acting at once as a rudder and
a weapon of offence or defence. When lying in ambush, nearly buried
in mud at the bottom of the sea, and it has no desire to change its
Fig. 350. The Lump-fish (Raia clavata).
position, a rapid and sudden stroke of this formidable weapon, armed
with hooked bones on its upper surface, arrests its victim by wounding
or killing it, without disturbing the mud or seaweed by which it is
covered. This species sometimes attains a very Considerable size, and
their flesh is firm and nourishing ; but the larger specimens rarely
approach inhabited shores, even when the female desires to lay her
These eggs have a very singular shape, differing from almost
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES.
513
every other fish, and particularly from those of all other osseous
fishes. They are quadrangular, a little flat, each of the four corners
terminating in a small cylindrical beak a kind of pocket formed of a
strong and transparent memhrane.
The Lump-fish, E. clavata (Fig. 350), so called in consequence of its
armature, inhabits every European sea ; sometimes it attains the length
of twelve feet, and, being 'excellent eating, is much sought after by
fishermen. It is frequently seen with the skate in European markets.
A ray of great curving spines occupies the back and extends to the
end of the tail; two similar spines are above, and two below the
point of the muzzle. Two others are placed before, and three behind
the eyes. Each side of the tail is furnished with a row of shorter
spines ; the whole surface, in short, bristles with larger or smaller
spines, justifying the name of buckler-fish ; for these are not
Fig. 351. The Cramp-fish (Torpedo marmorata).
given by way of ornament, but defence. The colour of the upper
surface is generally brown, with whitish spots. The tail, which
exceeds the body in length, presents towards the end two small
dorsals, terminating in a caudal fin.
Kay-fish of all kinds are inhabitants of the deep sea, but they
change according to the seasons. While stormy weather prevails,
they hide themselves in the depth of the ocean, where they lie in
ambush, creeping along the bottom. But they do not always live at
the bottom. They rise occasionally to the surface far from the shore,
eagerly chasing other inhabitants of the deep, lashing the water with
their formidable tails and fins, springing out of the water, and making
it foam again under their gambols.
2 L
514 THE OCEAN WORLD.
When pursuing their prey the rays employ their great pectoral fins,
which resemhle wings, and are aided hy a very delicate and mohile
tail ; they heat the waters in order to fall unexpectedly upon their
prey, as the eagle swoops down upon its victim. It may thus be called
the king of fishes, as the eagle is the king of birds.
The Cramp-fish, Torpedo marmorata (Fig. 351), has considerable
analogy with the Eaia. Its flattened body forms a roundish disk, beyond
wilich its rays form large pectoral fins ; but the humeral girdle which
carries them, carries also, in a great hollow, a most singular organic
apparatus, which possesses, the property of producing violent electrical
commotions. This apparatus is placed in the interval between the
end of the muzzle and the extremity of the fin, and completes the
rounded disk of the body. The mouth is small, the slit crosswise ; the
jaws bare ; the teeth in squares of five. The eyes are small ; behind
them are two star-like spout-holes. On the lower surface of the breast
are two rows of small transverse slits, openings of the gill pouches,
like those of the rays. The tail is thick, short, and conical, carrying
part of the ventral, and terminating in a sort of caudal fin. On the
back are two small, soft, and adipose fins. The skin is smooth ; its
colour varies with the species; generally it is reddish-brown, with
eye-like spots of a deep blue in the centre ; sometimes azure, and sur-
rounded by a great brownish circle ; the spots being five or six. These
curious fishes are found in the Channel and on the shores of the
Mediterranean.
The electrical effects produced on the fisherman who seizes them
were noted from early times; but Bedi, the Italian naturalist of the
seventeenth century, was the first who studied them scientifically.
Having caught and landed one of them with every precaution, " I
had scarcely touched and pressed it with my hand," says the Italian
naturalist, " than I experienced a tingling sensation, which extended
to my arms and shoulders, which was followed by a disagreeable
trembling, with a painful and acute sensation in the elbow joint,
which made me withdraw my arm immediately."
Eeaumur also made some observations upon the Torpedo. "The
benumbing influence," he says, " is very different from any similar
sensation. All over the arm there is a commotion which it is impos-
sible to describe, but which, so far as comparison can be made, re-
sembles the sensation produced by striking the tender part of the
CAKTILAGINOUS FISHES. 515
elbow against a hard substance." Eedi remarks, besides, that the pain
and trembling sensation resulting from the touch diminishes as the
death of the Torpedo approaches, and that it ceases altogether when
the animal dies.
In the seventeenth century, the fishermen affirmed that the sensa-
tion was even communicated through the line by which it was caught,
and even by the w r ater. Eedi does not deny this phenomenon, neither
does he confirm it. He states that the action of the animal is never
more energetic than when it is strongly pressed by the hand, and
makes violent efforts to escape. Neither Eedi nor Eeaumur, however,
could explain the cause of the strange phenomenon. It was reserved
for Dr. Walsh, a fellow of the Eoyal Society of London, to demon-
strate the fact that the power was electrical in its nature. This he
did by numerous experiments, which he made in the Isle of Ee. The
following are some of his experiments.
He placed a living torpedo upon a clean wet towel ; from a plate he
suspended two pieces of brass wire by means of silken cord, which
served to isolate them. Eound the torpedo were eight persons, stand-
ing on isolating substances. One end of the brass wire was sup-
ported by the wet towel, the other end being placed in a basin full of
water. The first person had a finger of one hand in this basin, and a
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 complete chain was established between the eight
persons and 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 com-
municated 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 were
slightly projecting in their natural state, and seemed to be drawn within
their orbits, while the other parts of the body remained immovable.
If only one of the two organs of the torpedo is touched it happens
2 L 2
516 THE OCEAN WORLD.
that, in place of a strong and sudden shock, only a slight sensation is
experienced a numbness, or start, rather than a shock. The same
result followed with every experiment tried. The animal was tried
with a non-conducting rod, and no shock followed ; glass, or a rod
covered with wax, produced no effect ; touched with a metallic wire, a
violent shock followed. Melloni, Matteucci, Becquerel, and Breschet
have all made the same experiments with the same results Matteucci
having ascertained that the shock produced by the torpedo is com-
parable to that given by a voltaic pile of a hundred to a hundred and
fifty pairs of plates.
The organ which produces this curious result is formed like a half-
moon; it is double, and placed on each side of the mouth of the
respiratory organs. It consists of a multitude of small prisms arranged
parallel the one to the other and perpendicularly to the surface ;
twelve hundred and sixty-two of these prisms have been counted in
one of the two organs of a torpedo, three feet in length. Without
entering into the anatomical descriptions which have been given by
Stannius, Max Schultze, Breschet, and others, we may mention here
that all the small parallelopipedes, which enter into their structure, are
separated one from the other by walls of cellular tissue, in which are
distributed the vessels and nerves. The nervous threads which each
apparatus receives are divided into four principal trunks. According
to modern authors, the electricity is elaborated in the brain under the
influence of the will. It is afterwards transferred by means of the
nervous threads into the principal organ, where it serves the purpose
of charging the numerous little voltaic piles which constitute the organ
of commotion.
It is, nevertheless, necessary to receive our comparisons of the
apparatus of the torpedo with the voltaic pile of our laboratories with
caution. The apparatus resembles a good conducting body, which
is capable of being strongly electrified ; it is sufficient to touch one
of the surfaces in order to receive the shock. But if the little prisms
composing it were charged like our voltaic piles, it would be necessary
to touch both their surfaces in order to receive the shock. No perfect
analogy can therefore exist between this natural apparatus and the
scientific instrument named after Yolta.
It is possible by the aid of heat to restore the extinct or suspended
electrical functions of the torpedo. Ketained in a tank of sea-water
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 517
a yard in height by a third of that in diameter, and at 22 Centi-
grade in temperature, a torpedo preserved its faculties during five
or six hours ; another, which remained during ten hours in a very
small quantity of sea- water at a temperature of 10 to 11 Cent.,
and which seemed dead, revived a little when placed in water
at 20 Cent., and gave shocks during an hour. If held firmly
hy the tail, and pressed both above and below by a platinum rod
to gather the true electricity, the animal contracts itself violently ;
but its movements are not always accompanied by electrical dis-
charges, which demonstrate that the jets of electrical matter are not
the result simply of the muscular contractions, but that they are
subject to the will of the animal, and evidently given for resisting its
enemies, and benumbing its prey. How wonderful and varied are
the resources which Nature grants to her creatures in order to secure
their existence !
SQUALID^:.
This family approaches more to the Eaias than any other fish ; but
all the species have a lengthened body, merging into a thick tail,
pectorals moderate in size, gill-openings on the sides of the neck,
and not beneath the body, as in the Kaia ; eyes lateral ; and the rough-
ness of their skin is a protection from their enemies. The family
comprehends the Sharks, Dogfishes, Hammerheads, and Saw -fish.
Fig. 352. The Shark (Uarcharius vulgari-s).
The sharks are said to attain the length of twenty and even thirty
feet ; but its size is not its worst attribute. It has received, besides,
strength and terrible arms. Ferocious, voracious, impetuous, and in-
518 THE OCEAX WORLD.
sitiable, spread over almost every climate, an inhabitant of every sea,
and recently not seldom seen on our own shores, the shark rapidly
pursues every fish, which fly at its approach ; and threatens with its
wide gullet the unfortunate victims of shipwreck, shutting them out
from all hope of safety.
The body of the shark is long, and its skin is studded with small
tubercles: this skin becomes so hard, and takes so high a polish,
that it is employed for various ornamental purposes. This resisting
power protects the shark from the bites of every inhabitant of the sea,
if there be any daring enough to approach it with that view.
The back and sides of the Shark, Carcharius vulgaris (Fig. 352),
are of an ashy brown ; beneath it is faded white. The head is flat,
and terminates in a muzzle slightly rounded. Its terrible mouth is in
the form of a semicircle, and of enormous size ; the contour of the
upper jaw of a shark often yards length being about two yards wide, and
its throat being of a proportionate diameter to this monstrous opening.
When the throat of the animal is open we see beyond the lips, which
are straight and of the consistence of leather, certain plates of teeth,
which are triangular, dentate, and white as ivory. If the shark is an
adult it has in the upper as in the lower jaw six rows of these
murderous arms, an arsenal ready to tear and rend its victim. These
teeth take different motions according to the will of the animal, and
obedient to the muscles round their base, by means of which it can
erect or retract its various rows of teeth ; it can even erect a portion
of any row, while the others remain at rest in their bed. Thus this
far-seeing tyrant of the ocean knows how to measure the number and
power of the arms necessary to destroy its prey : for the destruction of
the weak and defenceless one row of teeth suffices ; for the more for-
midable adversary it has a whole arsenal at command.
The eyes of the shark are small, and nearly round ; the iris of a
deep green, the eyeball, shaped in a transversal slit, is bluish ; its
scent is very subtle ; its fins are strong and rough.
The pectoral fins are triangular, and much larger than the others,
extending on each side, and giving powerful aid in swimming. The
caudal fin is divided into two very unequal lobes, the upper extending
in a sloping direction to twice the length of the other. This tail is
possessed of immense power, and is capable of breaking the limb of a
robust man by a single stroke.
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 519
During the hot season the male and female seek each other ; they
approach the coast roving in company, forgetting their ferocity for the
time. The eggs are hatched at several periods in the ovary, from
which the little ones issue two or three at a time.
The shark, as soon as born, becomes the scourge of the sea. He
seizes all that come near him. He eats the cuttle-fish, molluscs, and
fishes ; among others, flounders and cod-fish. But the prey which has
the greatest charm for him is man ; the shark loves him dearly, but
it is with the affection of the gourmand. It even manifests, according
to some authors, a preference for certain races. If we may believe
some travellers, when several varieties of human food comes in its way,
the shark prefers the European to the Asiatic, and both to the negro.
Still, whatever may be the colour, he seeks eagerly for human flesh,
and haunts the neighbourhood where it hopes to find the precious
morsel. He follows the ship in which his instinct tells him it is to
be found, and makes extraordinary efforts to reach it. He has been
known to leap into a boat in order to seize the frightened fishermen ;
he throws himself upon the ship, cleaving the waves at full speed, to
snap up some unhappy sailor who has shown himself beyond the
bulwarks. He follows the course of the slaver, watching for the
horrors of the middle passage, ready to engulf the negroes' corpses as
they are thrown into the sea. Commerson relates a significant fact
bearing on the subject. The corpse of a negro had been suspended
from a yard-arm twenty feet above the level of the sea. A shark was
seen to make many efforts to reach the body, and it finally succeeded
in seizing it, member by member, undisturbed by the cries of the
horror-stricken crew assembled on deck to witness the strange spec-
tacle. In order that an animal so large and heavy should be able to
throw itself to this height, the muscles of the tail and posterior parts
of the body must have an astonishing power.
The mouth of the shark being placed in the lower part of the head,
it becomes necessary to turn itself round in the water before it can
seize the object which is placed above him. He meets with men bold
enough to profit by this conformation, and chase this formidable and
ferocious creature. On the African coast the negroes attack the shark
in his own element, swimming towards him, and seizing the moment
when he turns himself to rip up his belly with a sharp knife. This
act of courage and audacity cannot, however, be said to be shark-fishing.
520 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The fishing operation is conducted as follows : Choosing a dark night,
a hook is prepared hy burying it in a piece of lard, and attaching it
to a long and solid wire chain ; the shark looks askance at this prey,
feels it, then leaves it ; he is tempted by withdrawing the halt, when
he follows, and swallows it gluttonously. He now tries to sink into
the water, but, checked by the chain, he struggles and fights. By-and-
by he gets exhausted, and the chain is drawn up in such a manner as
to raise the head out of the water. Another cord is now thrown out
with a running knot or loop, in which the body of the shark is caught
about the origin of the tail. Thus bound, the captured shark is soon
hoisted on deck, as represented in PL. XX Y. On the quarter-deck of
the ship he is put to death, not without great precaution, however, for
he is still a formidable foe, from his terrible bites and from the still
dangerous blows of his tail. Moreover, he dies hard, and long resists
the most formidable wounds.
Captain Basil Hall gives a spirited sketch of the appearance and
capture of one of those dreaded fishes ; a capture in which the whole
ship's company, captain, officers, young gentlemen inclusive, shout in
triumphant exultation as the body of the shark flounders in impotent
rage on poop or forecastle.
" The sharp-curved dorsal fin of a huge shark was seen rising
about six inches above the water, and cutting the glazed surface of
the sea by as fine a line as if a sickle had been drawn along it."
' Messenger, run to the cook for a piece of pork,' cried the captain,
taking the command with as much glee as if an enemy's cruiser had
been in sight. ' Where's your hook, quartermaster ?' ' Here, sir,
here,' cried the fellow, feeling the point, and declaring it was as sharp
as any lady's needle, and in the next instant piercing with it a huge
junk of pork weighing four or five pounds. The hook, which is as
large as one's little finger, has a curvature about as large as a man's
hand when half closed, and is six or eight inches in length, while a
formidable line, furnished with three or four feet of chain attached
to the end of the mizen topsail halyard, is now cast into the ship's
wake.
" Sometimes the very instant the bait is cast over the stern the
shark flies at it with such eagerness that he actually springs partially
out of the water. This, however, is rare. On these occasions he
gorges the bait, the hook, and a foot or two of the chain, without any
Plate XXV. Shark Fishing.
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 521
mastication, and darts off with the treacherous prize with such pro-
digious velocity that it makes the rope crack again as soon as the
coil is drawn out. Much dexterity is required in the hand which
holds the line at this moment. A bungler is apt to be too precipitate,
and jerk away the hook before it has got far enough into the shark's
maw. The secret of the sport is to let the monster gulp down the
whole bait, and then to give the line a violent pull, by which the
barbed point buries itself in the coat of the stomach. When the hook
is first fixed, it spins out like the log line of a ship going twelve
knots.
" The suddenness of the jerk with which the poor devil is brought
up often turns him quite over. No sailor, however, thinks of hauling
a shark on board merely by the rope fastened to the hook. To pre-
vent the line breaking, the hook snapping, or the jaw being torn
away, a running bowline is adopted. This noose is slipped down the
rope and passed over the monster's head, and is made to join at the
point of junction of the tail with the body ; and now the first part of
the fun is held to be completed. The vanquished enemy is easily
drawn up over the taffrail, and flung on deck, to the delight of the
crew."
The flesh of the shark is leathery, of bad taste, and difficult to
digest. Nevertheless, the negroes of Guinea feed upon it, but not
until it has been made tender and eatable by long preservation. In
many parts of the Mediterranean coast small sharks are taken from
their mother's belly and eaten. The under part of adult sharks is
also eaten by the fishermen after the bad parts have been removed.
In Norway and Iceland this part of the animal is dried in the air
during the most part of the twelve months. The Icelanders also use
the fat of the animal ; the liver of one of them, according to Pontop-
pidan, will furnish a great quantity of oil.
We have thus, with the care it deserves, painted the portrait of the
shark. The original is by no means beautiful ; but, frightful as it
may be, our description would be incomplete if we did not add that
divine honours have been granted to this monster of the waters. Man
worships force ; he knows the hand which crushes, the teeth which
rend. He respects the master or the king who strikes, and he
venerates the shark. The inhabitants of several parts of the African
coast worship the shark ; they call it their joujou, and consider its
522
THE OCEAN WORLD.
stomach the road to heaven. Three or four times in the year they
celebrate the festival of the shark, which is done in this wise.
They all move in their hoats to the middle of the river, where they
invoke, with the strangest ceremonies, the protection of the great
shark. They offer to him poultry and goats, in order to satisfy his
sacred appetite. But this is nothing ; an infant is every year sacri-
ficed to the monster, which has been reared for the purpose from its
birth ; it is feted and nourished for the sacrifice from its birth to
the age of ten. On the day of the fete it is bound to a post on a
sandy point at low water ; as the tide rises, the child may utter cries of
horror, but it is abandoned to the waves, and the sharks arrive. Tho
mother is not far off ; perhaps she weeps, but she dries her tears and
thinks that her child has entered heaven through this horrible gate.
The Dog-fish, Acantliias vulgar is (Fig. 353), which sometimes
Fig. 353. The Pickled Dog-fish (Acanthias vulgaris).
attains the length of between three and four feet, is exceedingly
voracious. It feeds upon other fish, of which it destroys great quan-
tities ; it does not hesitate to attack the fishermen, and especially
bathers in the sea. It places itself in ambush, like the Eaias, in
order to attack its prey. The flesh of the dog-fish is hard, smells of
musk, and is rarely eaten ; but the skin becomes an article of com-
merce, and is known as sliagrin, being, like the skin of the shark,
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 523
used for making spectacle-cases and for other other ornamental
purposes, for which its green colour and high polish recommend it.
There is a smaller species than the preceding, which haunts rocky
shores, where it lies in wait for its prey. Its spots are larger and
more scattered, and its ventral fins are nearly square. It feeds on
molluscs, crustaceans, and small fishes.
The Hammerhead, Zyg&na malleus (Fig. 354), is chiefly distin-
guished by the singular conformation of its head, which is flattened
horizontally, truncate in front, and the sides prolonged transversely,
giving it the appearance of the head of a hammer. The eyes of this
Fig. 354. The Hammerhead (Zygana malleus).
fish are placed at the extremity of the lateral prolongations of the
head ; they are grey, projecting, and the iris is gold-coloured. When
the animal is irritated, the colours of the iris become like flame, to
the horror of the fishermen who behold them.
Beneath the head and near to the junction of the trunk is the
mouth, which is semicircular, and furnished on each jaw with three
or four rows- of large teeth, pointed and barbed on two sides.
The most common species in our seas is long and slender in the
body, which is grey, the head blackish. It usually attains the length
of eleven or twelve feet, weighing occasionally nearly five hundred
524 THE OCEAN WORLD.
pounds. Its boldness and voracity, and craving for blood, are more
remarkable than its size. If the hammerhead has not the strength
of the shark, it surpasses it in fury ; few fishes are better known
to sailors in consequence of its striking conformation. Its voracity
often brings it round ships even in roadsteads, and near the coast.
Its visits impress themselves on the memory of the sailor, and he
loves to relate his hairbreadth escape from the meeting.
The saw-fish is distinguished from all other known fishes by the
formidable arm which it carries in its head. This weapon is a pro-
longation of the muzzle, which, in place of being rounded off or
reduced to a point, forms a long, strong, straight, sword-like termina-
tion, flat on both sides, but on the two edges it is furnished with
numerous strong teeth of considerable length, which are prolongations
of the hard, bony substance which forms the muzzle forming, in
short, a sword-blade deeply toothed on each edge.
Thus armed, the saw, or sword-fish, as it is sometimes called, the
length of which is from twelve to fifteen feet, fearlessly attacks the
most formidable inhabitants of the sea. With its threatening weapon,
sometimes two yards in length, it dares to measure its strength with
the whale. All fishermen who visit the northern seas assert that the
meeting of these ocean potentates is always followed by a combat of
the most singular kind, in which the activity of the sword-fish is a
match for the formidable strength of the whale. Occasionally it
dashes itself with such force against the sides of a ship, that its sword
is broken in the timber. In the British Museum the blade of a
sword-fish may be seen which was thus implanted in the timber of
a ship.
III. STUBIONA.
In the second division of cartilaginous fishes, or sturgeons, the gills
are free, as in the ordinary fishes. In the sturgeon the gill-openings
are a single, very wide orifice, with an operculum, but without radi-
ating membrane. They are fishes of great size, living in the sea, but
ascending the larger rivers in the spawning season. Our space only
permits us to notice, the Chimaera and Sturgeon.
The naturalists Clusius and Aldrovandus compared the fish, to which
they gave the name of Chimaera arctica, to the chimaera, a monster of
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES.
525
mythological antiquity, which is represented with the body of a goat,
the head of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and a gaping throat which
vomited flames. The strange form of this fish, the manner in which it
moves, the different parts of its muzzle, its mode of showing its teeth,
its ape-like contortions and grimaces, its long tail, which acts with
such rapidity, reminding one not a little of a reptile, are well calcu-
lated to strike the imagination. At a later period mediaeval naturalists
were contented to see in it a fish with a lion's head, and as the lion
was then regarded as the king of animals, so the chimaera became the
Herring king.
The king of the herrings (Fig. 355) is from five to six feet in length,
Fig. 35. The Arctic chlmaera.
of a general silvery colour, spotted with brown. It inhabits the North
Sea, living on molluscs and crustaceans ; occasionally, as if to justify the
title which has been given it, levying heavy contributions upon the
herrings. Another species, C. antarctica, is found in the southern
hemisphere, which greatly resembles, in its conformation and habits,
the northern species. In both the end of the muzzle terminates in a
cartilaginous appendage, which projects forward, curving afterwards
over the mouth. This extension assimilates to a crest.
526
THE OCEAN WORLD.
The sturgeons (Acipenser) are among the largest fishes known. On
ihis account, as well as from their exterior conformation, they approach
the Squalidse. Their muscles, however, are less firmly knit, their
flesh more delicate, and their muscular strength consequently infinitely
smaller. Neither is their mouth armed with so many rows of teeth.
Moreover, they are less voracious, and their habits are not at all
ferocious.
The sturgeons are sea-fishes which periodically ascend the larger
rivers. Several species are known in Europe. They abound in the
Black Sea and Sea of Azof, but they are chiefly known as frequenting
the Yolga and the Danube. The enormous consumption of caviare
in Russia leads to a deadly pursuit of the common sturgeon in all the
great European rivers, and this species is in a fair way of disappearing
altogether.
The Common Sturgeon, Acipenser sturio (Fig. 356), abounds in the
Fig. 356. The Common Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio).
North Sea and the Mediterranean, and occasionally it appears in the
Thames, the Khirie, the Seine, the Loire, and the Gironde. It is
usually about two yards to seven feet long, but has been known to
attain the length of ten or twelve feet. Its general colour is yellow,
CAKTILAGINOUS FISHES. 527
with a white helly. It is rendered remarkable hy the number and form
of the osseous plates or scales, which cover the body like so many
bucklers. Upon the back and belly are no less than twelve to fifteen
of these rough bony plates, relieved by projections, which are pointed in
the young, and soften down with age. On each side is a row of thirty
to thirty-five of these triangular plates, separated from each other by
considerable intervals. The head is broad at the base, gradually con-
tracting towards the point, and terminating in a conical muzzle. The
mouth is large and considerably behind the extremity of the muzzle,
and its jaws, in place of teeth, are furnished with cartilages. Between
the mouth and the muzzle are four slender and very elastic barbs, or
wattles, like so many little worms. It is pretended that these wattles
attract small fishes to the jaws of the animal, while it conceals itself
among the roots of aquatic plants.
In the sea the sturgeon feeds on herrings, mackerel, cod-fish, and
other fishes of moderate size. In the rivers it attacks the salmon
which ascend them about the same time. Mingling with them, how-
ever, it seems a giant. It deposits its eggs in great quantity, which
are gathered and made into caviare. Its flesh is delicate, and in
countries where they are caught in quantities it is dried and preserved.
The rivers which enter the Black and Caspian seas contain, besides
the common sturgeon, many other species of the same genus, the
flesh of which is even more delicate and recherche than the common
sturgeon. Among the ancients this fish was held in unusual esteem.
In Borne, in the time of the emperors, we read of sturgeons borne in
triumph to the sound of instruments, and laid upon tables fastidiously
covered and decorated with flowers.
The Great Sturgeon, which sometimes exceeds a thousand pounds,
is only found in the rivers which flow into the Caspian and Black seas.
The Yolga, the Don, and the Danube produce the largest species.
We are indebted to the Kussian naturalist Pallas for the informa-
tion we possess respecting the mode of taking the sturgeon in the
Yolga and other Asiatic rivers. Stakes are placed across the river,
leaving just sufficient space between each pile to permit . the animal
to pass. Towards the centre this dike forms an angle opposed to
the current, and, consequently, opposed to the fish which ascend the
river towards the summit of this angle. At this point there is an
opening which leads into a kind of enclosure, consisting of fillets
528 THE OCEAN WORLD.
towards the end of winter, and of osier-hurdles during summer. The
fishermen estahlish themselves upon a sort of scaffold placed over the
opening. When the fish is engaged in the reservoir, the men upon
the scaffold drop a gate, which prevents his return to the sea. The
movable bottom of the chamber is now raised, and the fishes easily
taken, as represented in PL. XXYI.
The fishermen are informed during the day of the approach of the
sturgeons to the great enclosure by the movement they communicate
to cords suspended to small floating substances in the water. During
the night the sturgeons enter the enclosure, agitating by their move-
ments other cords arranged round the hurdles. The agitation com-
municated to the cord is sufficient to shut the gates behind ; they are
thus imprisoned by the dropping of the gate, which in falling sounds
a bell to wake the watching fisherman on the scaffold, should. he be
asleep. The sturgeon-fisheries of the Volga are thus admirably organ-
ized. Gmelin describes with some minuteness the sturgeon-fishing,
during the winter, in the caverns and hollows of the river-banks near
Astrakhan, in the estuary of the Volga. A great number of fisher-
men are assembled there with their boats. The flotilla approaches
the retreats to which the fishes have betaken themselves, the nets
are skilfully arranged all round them, and all at once the whole mass
of fishermen join in a great cry, at which the frightened fishes rush
from their concealment and throw themselves into the nets spread for
them.
The size of the fish, the nourishing properties of its flesh, its healthy
and agreeable taste, and the immense quantity of eggs produced, have
a wonderful power in exciting the commerce and industry of the in-
habitants of these countries. In order to give some idea of the abun-
dance of the eggs of the sturgeon, it is stated that the weight of two
ovaries equalled nearly a third of the weight of the whole animal ; in
other words, these ovaries weighed nearly eight hundred pounds in a
female whose weight was two thousand eight hundred pounds.
It is with these eggs chiefly, but not altogether, that caviare is pre-
pared ; and the article is more or less relished according to the state of
the eggs. The display of caviare, as exhibited at the Universal Expo-
sition of Paris during the year 1867, will remain to those who have
visited it one of the most lasting recollections.
Plate XXVI Sturgeon Fishing on the Volga.
( 529 )
CHAPTEE XIX.
OSSEI, OR BONY FISHES.
UNDER this denomination is comprehended many of the fishes which
are most familiar to us. They are characterized, as we have said else-
where, as a group of animals having a solid skeleton. They are
divided into six orders ; founded, however, it is necessary to add, on
characteristics of little organic importance, and the names bestowed
upon them are of a most barbarous description. These names are,
I. PlectognatJii, namely, fishes in which the upper jaw is attached to
the cranium, from TrXe/cro?, interlaced, and <yvd6os, jaw.
Afterwards those in which the upper jaw is movable, and the gills
arranged in circles, like rounded hoops. These are, II. the Loplw-
Irancliii, from A,o<o?, crested, or aigrette, and Ppdv^ia, gill.
In the other orders the gills are arranged in a comb-like form.
These are divided into two great groups. In the first, the rays of the
fins are soft, except occasionally the first of dorsal or pectoral fins.
These are, III. the Malacopterygians, from pdXaKos, soft, and
Trrepvyiov, finned the third group of osseous fishes. In a later group
the fish have bony rays to the anterior dorsal fins, some osseous rays,
and the anal fin and generally one of the ventral fins. These are,
IV. the Acanthopterygians, from a/cav0a, spiny, and Trrepuyto/z,
finned, which form the last group of bony fishes.
I. PLECTOGNATHI.
From their organization the fishes of this order establish the passage
from cartilaginous to the osseous fishes. Their skeleton, which remains
2 M
530
THE OCEAN WORLD.
for some time more or less soft, becomes finally hard. The chief cha-
racteristic of the order is that the maxillary is firmly attached to the
side of the intermaxillary hone which forms the jaw, and the arch of
the palate is united to the skull in such a manner as to be motionless.
The operculum and rays of the gills are hidden under a thick skin,
which leaves externally only a small branchial slit. These fishes
have no true ventral fin, and have only vestiges of side fins.
This order comprehends two natural families characterized by the
armature of their jaws. They are the Gymnodonta and the Sdero-
dermata.
Fig. 357. The Globe-fish (Orthagoriscus), aLd Sun-fish (Tetrodon).
In the family of Gymnodonta the jaws have no apparent teeth,
but they are furnished with a species of beak in ivory, which repre-
sents them. The Sun-fish, Tetrodon (Fig. 357), belong to the
family.
The Globe- fish are so named from their large head and bony salient
jaws, which are each divided in front by a sort of vertical slit in two
portions, which simulate two teeth. These four portions of bony jaw,
which project beyond the lips, somewhat resemble the hard and dentate
jaws, of the turtle. Their anterior part is sometimes prolonged, like the
OSSEOUS FISBES. 531
mandibles of the beak of the parrot. They are perfectly arranged to
crush the shells of the molluscs, as well as the resisting envelope of
the crustaceans on which they feed. The skin of these fishes bristles
with small slightly-projecting spines, the number of which compensate
for their brevity, which repel their enemies, and even wound the hand
that would grasp them. They enjoy, besides, a singular faculty ; they
can inflate the lower part of their body, and give it an extension so
considerable that it becomes like an inflated ball, in which the real
shape of the animal is lost. This result is obtained by the introduction
of an immense quantity of air into the stomach when it wishes to
ascend to the surface. The species of globe-fish are numerous. Some
of them are common in the Nile, where they are frequently left ashore
during the annual inundations.
The Globe-fish (Orthagoriscus mola), in the upper part of the en-
graving, is easily distinguished from the Tetrodons by its compressed
spineless body ; being very round in its vertical contour, it has been
compared to a disk, and more poetically to the moon whence its
popular names to the great circular surface of which the dazzling
silvery white disk bears some resemblance. But it is especially during
the night that it justifies the name given to it. Then it shines brightly,
from it own phosphorescent light, at a little distance beneath the sur-
face. On very dark nights the globe-fish is sometimes seen swimming
in the soft light which emanates from its bodj^, the rays rendered
undulating by the rippling of the water which it traverses, so as to
resemble the trembling light of the moon half-veiled in misty vapours.
When many of these fishes rove about together, mingling their silvery
trains, the scene suggests the idea of dancing stars. The moon-fish
is common in the Mediterranean, and sometimes reaches the markets
of Paris. It is about thirty inches in length, and its weight is con-
siderable. Its flesh is fat and viscous, and by no means pleasant
to eat.
The Diodons (Fig. 358) only differ from the globe-fish in the form
of their bony jaws, each forming only one piece. They seem to have
two teeth, whence their name, from /?, two, obovs, teeth. They differ
also in their spines, which are much larger than those of the globe-fish.
These fishes may be said to be the hedgehogs and porcupines of the
sea. Like the globe-fish, they can erect their spines and inflate their
bodies.
2 M 2
532
THE OCEAN WOULD.
They are numerous in species Diodon pilosus, represented in
Fig. 358, being typical of the others.
Fig. 358. Diodon pilosus.
The Sclerodermes are distinguished by their conical or pyramidal
muzzle, terminating in a little mouth armed with true teeth ; their
Fig. 359. The File-Gsh (BalLtes)..
skin is generally stiff and covered with hard scales. The File-fish,
Balistes and Coffers, are selected for notice. The File or Eudder-fish
OSSEOUS FISHES.
533
(Fig. 359) have the body compressed ; the jaws are furnished with
eight teeth, arranged in a single row on each jaw, and covered with
true lips ; the eyes are nearly level with the skin ; the mouth is small,
and the body enveloped in very hard scales, which are connected in
groups and distributed into compartments more or less regular, and
strongly connected by means of a thick skin. The animal is thus
protected by a sort of cuirass and casque very difficult to penetrate.
With the exception of one species, the Balistes are inhabitants of
Tropical seas. They are generally brilliantly coloured; they herd
together in great numbers, and in their gambols produce curious com-
binations of brilliant colouring in the Equatorial seas. Their flesh is
Fig. 360. The Coffer, or Ostracion.
held in slight estimation, and at certain 'periods of the year is even
said to be dangerous.
The Coffers, or Ostracions (Fig. 3GO), are without scales, but covered
with regular osseous compartments, which are so jointed the one to
the other that the body is, as it were, enclosed in a kind of box or
long coffer, which only reveals the external organs of locomotion
namely, the fins and a portion of tail. In some the body is triangular,
in others quadrangular, with or without spines.
These singular fishes are found in the Indian Ocean and in the
American seas. They are of moderate size, and are much prized in
the United States as food.
534
THE OCEAN WORLD.
II. LOPHOBBANCHII.
The Lophobranchii comprehend a 'few types, but are numerous in
species. Here the gills are divided into small round tufts, and
arranged in pairs along the branchial arches ; a structure quite
peculiar, of which we have no examples in any other fishes. These
gills are enclosed under a large cover, or operculum, attached on all
sides by a membrane, which leaves only a small hole for the escape of
water which has served the purposes of respiration.
These little cuirassed fishes consist of two genera, Syngnatlms and
Hippocampus. The Syngnathes, or pipe-fishes, possess a very curious
Fig. 361. The Trumpet Pipe-fish (SyngnatLus).
organic peculiarity. Their bodies are long, slender, and slightly
tapering, covered with plates set lengthwise, without ventrals ; the
skin, in swelling, forms under the belly or under the tail, according to
the species, a pouch into which the eggs glide to be hatched, and
which is afterwards a shelter for the young. Most of the species are
strangers to European seas, but some few are found in the Channel.
The Trumpet Pipe-fish (Fig. 361) has the head small, the muzzle
long, nearly cylindrical, slightly raised at the end, and terminating in
a very small mouth without teeth. The animal is about twenty inches
long ; its skin is of a yellowish colour varied with brown. It lives in
OSSEOUS FISHES.
535
the Atlantic and Mediterranean, where it is largely used by the
fishermen in baiting their hooks. It is found in great abundance in
the Atlantic between the Equator and the Western Isles.
The Sea Horse (Hippocampus) is a small creature about the size of
the engraving (Fig. 362) ; its head has a singular resemblance to that
of the horse. The rings which constitute the integument of the body
and tail have a close resemblance to the rings of some caterpillars.
This curious combination of forms originated the name, Hippocampus,
from rTTTTo?, horse, Ka^nro^, fish, adopted in very ancient times
to designate this creature. It is found in the Atlantic, round the
Fig. 362. The Sea-horse (Hippocampus).
coast of Spain, the south of France, in the Mediterranean, and in the
Indian Ocean. Mr. Lukis, who raised two females in captivity,
describes their habits as follows: "When they swim," he says,
" they preserve a vertical position, but their tail seems on the alert to
seize whatever it meets with in the water, clasping the stem of the
rushes. Once fixed, the animal seems to watch attentively all the
surrounding objects, and darts on any prey presenting itself with
great dexterity. When one of them approaches the other, they
interlace their two tails, and it is only after a struggle that they can
separate again, attaching themselves by the lower part of the chin
536 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
to some rush in order to release themselves. They have recourse to
the same manoeuvre when they wish to raise the body, or when they
wish to wind their tail to some new object . Their two eyes seem to
move independently of each other, like those of the chameleon. The
iris is bright and edged with blue."
The sea-horses have the pectoral fins so formed as easily to sustain
the body, not only in the water, but even in the air ; they are, in fact,
winged fishes, and probably originated the famous winged courser of
mythology, after which they are sometimes named. They rarely
exceed four inches in length ; the body is covered with triangular
scales, commonly of a bluish colour. They live on worms, fishes'
eggs, and fragments of organic substances which they find in the far
land at the bottom of the sea.
III. MALACOPTERYGII.
The principal character of the fishes of this order is that the rays of
the fins are soft, except sometimes the first ray of the dorsal or
pectorals. They inhabit either sea or fresh water, and include fishes
of the utmost importance as human food, such as the herring, the cod,
the salmon, carp, pike, and many others. Modern naturalists, follow-
ing Cuvier, subdivide them into three orders : 1. Apoda, without
ventrals ; 2. &ub-branchiati, ventrals under the pectorals ; 3. Abdo-
mindles, having ventrals behind the pectorals.
1. APODA.
A single family composes this order, which comprehends great
numbers both in genera and species ; they are anguilliform or snake-
like, elongated in form, the skin thick and soft, and have no ventral
fins. In this order are included the Ammodytes, Gymnotes, Murtenas,
and Anguilla, or eels.
The Ammodytes have the body elongated and serpent-like, having
a continuous fin extending along the greater part of the back, with
another at the opposite side, and a third or forked fin at the end of
the tail. The muzzle is also long ; the lower jaw longer than the
upper. A. lancea (Fig. 363) buries itself in the sand; hence it is
called the sand-eel ; it hollows out a burrow for itself in the sand with
its muzzle to the depth of fifteen or twenty inches, where it hunts out
OSSEOUS FISHES.
537
worms, on which it feeds, while it shelters itself from the jaws of
many voracious fishes, which eagerly pursue it Tor its delicate flesh.
In appearance the Ammodytes lancea is silvery blue, brighter on the
lower parts than on the upper, the radiating fins on the abdomen
being alternately white and bluish in colour.
Fig. 363. The Lance (A. lancea;.
The gymnotes are long, nearly cylindrical, and also serpent-like,
the tail being long in comparison to the other parts of the body.
Beneath the tail is a long swimming fin, the only locomotive organ,
Fig. 364. The Gymnotus Electricus, or Electrical Eel.
and it is this nakedness of the back which confers its designation of
yvfivbs, naked, VQOTOS, l>ack.
The Gymnotes are fresh-water fishes of South America, where they
attain a great size. There are several species, but the most remark-
538 THE OCEAN WORLD.
able, from its singular physical properties, is the Electrical Eel, Gym-
notus electricys (Fig. 364). These properties enable the gymnotus
to arrest suddenly the pursuit of an enemy, or the flight of its prey, to
suspend on the instant every movement of its victim, and subdue it
by an invisible power. Even the fishermen themselves are suddenly
struck and rendered torpid at the moment of seizing it, while nothing
external betrays the mysterious power possessed by the animal.
The electrical properties of the gymnotus were reported for the
first time by Van Berkal. The astronomer Eicher, who had been
sent to Cayenne in 1671 by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on
the Geodesic Survey, first made known the singular properties of the
American fish. " I was much astonished," says this author, " to see a
fish some three or four feet in length, and resembling an eel, deprive of
all sensation for a quarter of an hour the arm and neighbouring parts
which touched it. I was not only an ocular witness of the effect pro-
duced by its touch ; but I have myself felt it, on touching one of these
fishes still living, though wounded by a hook, by means of which some
Indians had drawn it from the water. They could not tell what it
was called ; but they assured me that it struck other fishes with its
tail in order to stupefy them and devour them afterwards, which is
very probable when we consider the effect of its touch upon a man."
The observations of Eicher made little impression at the time on
the savants of Paris, and matters remained in this state for seventy
years, when the traveller Condamine spoke in his " Voyage en
Amerique " of a fish which produced the effects described by Eicher.
In 1750 a physician named Ingram furnished some new views
respecting this fish, which he thought was surrounded by an electric
atmosphere. In 1755 another physician, the Dutch Dr. Grarnund,
writes : " The effect produced by this fish corresponds 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."
Many experiments followed these ; but we are indebted to Alexander
von Humboldt for the first precise account of this very curious fish.
The celebrated naturalist read to the Institute of France an important
memoir upon the electrical eel from Bonpland's observations, the sub-
stance of which we shall give here.
. OSSEOUS FISHES. 539
In traversing the Lianas of the province of Caracas, in order to
embark at San Fernando de Apure on his voyage up the Orinoco,
M. Bonpland stopped at Calabozo. The object of this sojourn was to
investigate the history of the gymnotus, great numbers of which are
found in the neighbourhood. After .three days' residence in Calabozo
some Indians conducted them to the Cano de Bera, a muddy and
stagnant basin, but surrounded by rich vegetation, in which Clusia
rosea, Hymenoea courbaril, some grand Indian figs, and some magni-
ficent flowering odoriferous mimosas, were pre-eminent. They were
much surprised when informed that it would be necessary to take
thirty half-wild horses from the neighbouring savannahs in order to
fish for the gymnotus.
The idea of this fishing, called in the language of the country
enibarbascar con caballos (intoxicating by means of horses), is very
odd. The word Ijarbasco indicates the roots of the Lacquinia, or any
other poisonous plant, by contact of which a body of water acquires
the' property of killing, or, at least, of intoxicating or stupefying the
fishes. These come to the surface when they have been poisoned in
this manner. The horses chasing them here and there in a marsh
has, it seems, the same effect upon the alarmed fishes. While our
hosts were explaining to us this strange mode of fishing, the troop
of horses and mules had arrived, and the Indians had made a sort of
battue, pressing the horses on all sides, and forcing them into the
marsh. The Indians, armed with long canes and harpoons, placed
themselves round the basin, some of them mounting the trees, whose
branches hung over the water, and by their cries, and still more by their
canes, preventing the horses from landing again. The eels, stunned by
the noise, defended themselves by repeated discharges of their batteries.
For a long time it seemed as if they would be victorious over the
horses. Some of the mules especially, being almost stifled by the fre-
quency and force of the shock, disappeared under the water, and some
of the horses, in spite of the watchfulness of the Indians, regained the
bank, where, overcome by the shocks they had undergone, they stretched
themselves at their whole length. The picture presented was now
indescribable. Groups of Indians surrounded the basin ; the horses
with bristling mane, terror and grief in their eyes, trying to escape
from the storm which had surprised them ; the eels, yellow and
livid, looking like great aquatic serpents swimming on the surface of
540 THE OCEAN WORLD.
the water, and chasing their enemies, were objects at once appalling
and picturesque. In less than five minutes two horses were drowned.
An eel, more than five feet long, glided under one horse, discharged
its apparatus through its whole extent, attacking at once the heart,
the viscera, and the plexus of the nerves of the animal, probably
benumbing and finally drowning it.
When the struggle had endured a quarter of an hour, the mules
and horses appeared less frightened, the manes became more erect, the
eyes expressed less terror, the eels shunned in place of attacking them,
at the same time approaching the bank, when they were easily taken by
throwing little harpoons at them attached to long cords, the harpoon,
sometimes hooking two at a time, being landed by means of the long
cord. They were drawn ashore without being able to communicate
any shock.
Having landed the eels, they were transported to little pools dug in
the soil, and filled with fresh water; but such is the terror they
inspire, that none of the people of the country would release them
from the harpoon a task which the travellers had to perform them-
selves, and receive the first shock, which was not slight the most
energetic surpassing in force that communicated by a Leyden jar
completely charged. The gymnotus surpasses in size and strength all
the other electric fishes. Humboldt saw them five feet three inches
long. They vary in colour according to age, and the nature of the
muddy water in which they live. Beneath, the head is of a fine yellow
colour mixed with red ; the mouth is large, and furnished with small
teeth arranged in many rows.
The gymnotus makes its shock felt in any part of its body which
is touched, but the excitement is greater when touched under the
belly, and in the pectoral fin. The gymnotus gives the most frightful
shocks without the least muscular movement in the fins, in the head,
or any other part of the body. The shock, indeed, depends upon the
will of the animal, and in this respect differs from a Leyden jar, which
is discharged by communicating with two opposite poles. It happens
sometimes that a gymnotus, seriously wounded, only gives a very
weak shock, but if, thinking it exhausted, it is touched fearlessly
and at once, its discharge is terrible. Indeed, the phenomena depend
so much upon the will of the animal, that, according to Yon Humboldt,
if it is touched by two metallic rods, the shock is communicated some-
OSSEOUS FISHES. 541
times by one, sometimes by the other wand, though their extremities
are close together.
The experiments already related in connection with the torpedo were
repeated here. If we place ourselves upon an isolated support, and
take hold of a metallic rod, a shock is received; but no shock is
received, on the other hand, if the fish is touched with a glass rod,
or one coverecj, with wax. Humboldt and Bonpland repeated this
experiment many times, with decisive results. The electric organ
has been carefully described by these observers. The organs extend
from under the tail, occupying nearly one-half of the thickness. It
is divided into four longitudinal bundles of muscles, the upper ones
large, the two smaller below, and against the base of the anal fin.
Each bundle consists of many parallel membranous plates, placed
closely together and very nearly horizontal. These plates abut in one
part on the skin, in another, on the mean vertical plane of the fish.
They are united to each other by an infinity of smaller plates, placed
either vertically or transversely. The smaller prismatic and trans-
versal canal, intercepted by these two orders of plates, are filled with
gelatinous matter. All this organic apparatus receives many nerves,
and presents, in many respects, an arrangement nearly analogous to
that of the torpedoes.
The Sea-Eels (Mursena Helena) are serpent-like fishes, of cylin-
drical form and delicate proportions, but strong, flexible, and active,
swimming in waving, undulating movements in the water, just as
a serpent creeps on dry land. The muraenas have no pectoral fin ; the
dorsal and anal fin are reunited in the tail fin. A branchial opening
is observable on each side of the body. The sea-eels are numerous in
species. Mur&na Helena (Fig. 365), which is an inhabitant of the
Mediterranean, has only a single row of teeth upon each jaw. It
attains the length of forty to fifty inches. It loves to bask in the
hollows of rocks, approaching the coast in spring-time. It feeds on
crabs and small fishes, seeking eagerly for polyps. The voracity of
these fishes is such that when other food fails they begin to nibble at
each other's tails.
The sea-eels are caught with rod and line, or by lines and ground-
bait, but their instinct is such that they often escape. When they
have swallowed a hook they often cut the line with their teeth, or
they turn upon it and try, by winding it round some object, to strain
542 THE OCEAN WORLD.
or break it. When cauglit in a net, they quickly choose some mesh
through which their body can glide.
Those who have studied the classics will remember the passionate
love with which the Eoman gourmet regarded these fishes. In the days
of the Empire enormous sums were expended in keeping up the ponds
which enclosed them, and the fish themselves were multiplied to such
an extent that Caesar, on the occasion of one of his triumphs, dis-
tributed six thousand among his friends. Licinius Crassus was cele-
brated among wealthy Eomans for the splendour of his eel-ponds.
They obeyed his voice, he said, and when he called them they darted
towards him in order to be fed by his hands. The same Licinius
Crassus, and Quintus Hortensius, another wealthy Kornan patrician,
Fig. 365. The Sea-Eel (Mursena Helena).
wept the loss of their muraenas on one occasion, when they all died in
their ponds from some disease. This, however, was only a matter
of taste, passion, or fashion; sometimes, however, accompanied by
cruelty and gross corruption.
It was thought among the Komans that muraenas fed with human
flesh were the most delicately flavoured. A rich freedman, named
Pollion, who must not, however, be confounded with the orator
of the name, had the cruelty to order such of his slaves as he
thought deserving of death, and sometimes even those who had done
nothing to excite his anger, to be thrown to them. On one occa-
sion, when he entertained the Emperor Augustus, a poor slave who
attended had the misfortune to break a precious vase ; Pollion im-
mediately ordered him to be thrown to the eels. But the indignant
OSSEOUS FISHES.
54J
emperor gave the slave his freedom, and, in order to manifest his in-
dignation with Pollion, he ordered his attendants to hreak every vase
of value which the freedman had collected in his mansion.
In the present day sea-eels are little esteemed in a gastronomic point
of view. Nevertheless they are still sought for on the coast of Italy,
and the fishermen avoid with great care the hites of their sharp teeth.
The Eels (Anguilla) have pectoral fins, under which are the gill-
openings on each side ; the dorsal and anal fins extending up to the
tail, mingling with this last, which terminates in a point at the extre-
Fig. 366. The Common Conger (Conger vulgaris).
mity. The eels are divided into two groups : 1. The Eels (Anguilla),
properly so called; and, 2. The Congers. The first inhabit most
European rivers, except in the spawning season, when, according to
some naturalists, they betake themselves to the sea. During the
greater part of their existence, therefore, they have no connection with
tjie ocean. The Congers, on the other hand, are fishes of great size,
which inhabit the seas of warm countries, as well as those of Northern
Europe. The type of this family is the Common Conger, Conger
vulgaris (Fig. 366), which differs from the true eels chiefly in the dorsal
fins, which commence very near to the pectorals ; and also in their
544 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Tipper jaw being longer than their under one. They attain the thick-
ness of a man's leg, and are sometimes two yards in length. The
conger-eel is frequently found in salt marshes, but its flesh is held in
little esteem.
2. SUB-BRANCHIATI.
The fishes of this order are characterised by vertical fins being
attached under the pectorals, and immediately suspended to the
shoulder bone. Exclusively marine fishes, they inhabit every region
of the globe. The order comprehends three families : I. Discobo-
lidde ; II. Pleuronectidse, or flat fishes ; III. the Gadidte.
i. DISCOBOLUS.
The family of Discobolidse consists of a small number of species
characterised by their ventral fins being discoform, as in the sea-snails
Fig. 367. The Sea-Snail (Liparis).
(Liparis), in which the lengthened mucous body is without scales, but
with one long dorsal fin ; the pectoral and ventrals forming one disk,
as in Fig. 367, or the Suckers (Lepidog aster), where the pectorals and
ventrals form two disks.
In the Lump-fish, Cy dopier is (Fig. 368), the disk formed by the
ventrals forms a sort of sucker, by which the fish attaches itself to the
rocks ; while the Ecliineis is remarkable for the disk-like sucker with
which it is provided.
The Echineis remora is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, and
abounds in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It is furnished with a
OSSEOUS FISHES. 545
flat disk, which covers its head, as represented in Fig. 369, which is
Fig. 368. The Lump-fish (Cyclopteus).
formed of a number of transverse and movable cartilaginous plates.
Aided by this organ, it attaches itself firmly to rocks, and even to
Fig. 369. Echineis remora.
ships and larger fishes, such as the Dog-fish (Acanfhius) , which it
2 N
516 THE OCEAN WOELD.
meets with in its wanderings. Its adhesion to those objects is so
strong that the strength of a man fails to separate them. It invariably
attaches itself to the dorsum and flank of the shark, and sometimes
weighs a pound and a quarter. " I have found," writes a friend, " as
many as seven on one shark." It is never solitary, and makes long
voyages on this monstrous animal locomotive, and that without fatigue
or danger, for its enemies are kept at a distance by the formidable
monster which carries it.
II. PLEURONECTID.E.
The Flat-fishes (Pleuronectidse) have the body flat and greatly
compressed, but in a direction different from that of the Eaias and
other analogous beings. In the case of the Eaia the body is flattened
horizontally, while in the Pleuronectidae they are compressed laterally.
The head of fishes of this order is not symmetrical ; the two eyes are
placed on the same side ; the two sides of the mouth are unequal.
To these peculiarities of structure we shall return when we come
to observe the several types more clearly. In inaction, as in motion,
the flat-fishes are always turned upon their side, and the side turned
towards the bottom of the sea is that which has no eye. This habit of
swimming on their side is that to which they owe their name of
7T\evpa, side, and z^ro?, swimmers.
Their chief organ of natation is the caudal fin, but they are distin-
guished from all other fishes by the manner in which they use this
oar. When turned upon their side this organ is not horizontal, but
vertical, and strikes the water vertically up and down. They advance
through the water but very slowly, compared to the motion of other
fishes. They ascend or descend in the water with greater promptitude,
but they 'cannot turn to the right or left with the same facility
as other fishes. This property of rising or sinking in the water with
facility is the more useful to them, inasmuch as the greater part of
their existence is passed at the greatest depths, where they draw
themselves along the sands at the bottom of the sea, and often
hide themselves from their enemies. Among the Plewonectidse,
soles, turbot, flounders, and plaice may be noted.
Soles (Solea) have the body oblong, the side opposite to the edges
generally furnished with shaggy, soft hairs ; the muzzles round, nearly
always in advance of the mouth, which is twisted to the left side,
OSSEOUS FISHES. 547
and furnished with teeth on one side only, -while the eyes are on the
right side. The dorsal fin commences about the mouth, and extends
up to the caudal or terminal fin. The Common Sole, Solea vulgaris
(Fig. 370), is plentiful in the Channel, along the Atlantic coasts, and
especially in the Mediterranean. It is brown on the right, and
whitish on the opposite side. Its pectoral fins are spotted black ; the
scales rugged and denticulate ; its size seems to vary according to the
Fig. 370. The Common Sole (Solea vulgaris).
coast it frequents. Off the mouth of the Seine soles are sometimes
taken eighteen and twenty inches in length. There are several modes
of taking them, but for commercial purposes it is taken by the trawl-
net. When the ground-hook is employed it is baited with fragments
of small fish. Every one knows the delicate flavour of the flesh of the
sole, which, however, varies greatly in different localities, those of the
Channel Islands being particularly choice.
The Turbot, Rhombus maximus (Fig. 371), resembles in its general
form a lozenge, whence its name of rhombus. Its under jaw is more
2 N 2
543
THE OCEAN WORLD.
advanced than the upper jaw, and is furnished with many rows of
small teeth. Its fins., are yellow, with brownish spots. The left side
is marbled brown and yellow ; the right side, which is the inferior,
white with brownish spots and points. The true turbot is the special
delight of the epicure, and fabulous sums are said to have been given
at different times by rich persons in, order to secure a fine turbot.
The fish used to be taken largely on our own coasts, but now we have
to rely upon more distant fishing-grounds for a large portion of our
supply large quantities coming from Holland. The turbot spawns
Fig. 371. The Turbot (Rhombus maximus).
during the autumn, and is in fine condition during spring and early
summer. Mr. Yarrell says that it spawns in spring. Dr. Bertram
doubts this, although he is not quite sure of it, inasmuch as " there
will, no doubt, be individuals of the turbot kind, as there are of
all other kinds of fish, that will spawn all the year round." The
turbot abounds on our west coast, round Torbay, and off the mouth of
the Seine and the Somme, from whence comes most of the fish con-
sumed in London and Paris. The flounders, plaice, and halibut form
an important section of the Pleuronectidae.
OSSEOUS FISHES.
549
The Flounders and Plaice (Platessa) inhabit the northern seas of
Europe. They have their eyes placed on the right side ; ilhe dorsal
as well as the anal fin extending from over the eyes to the caudal
both stretching out to a point towards the centre, giving a rhombic
form to the fish. In Platessa the jaws are furnished with a single
row of obtuse teeth.
The Common Plaice, P. vulgaris (Pig. 372), attains the length of
ten or twelve inches ; it is brown above, spotted with red or orange.
On the eye-side of the head are some osseous tubercles. The body,
which is somewhat lozenge-shaped, is smooth.
Fig. 372. The Common Plaice (Platessa vulgaris).
The Flounders (P. flesus) are fresh-water fishes of small size,
abundant in the Thames and many other rivers ; they are only second
in importance to the soles and turbot among the Pleuronectidae ; the
numbers of brill, flounders, dab, and plaice required being close upon
a hundred million for the supply of London alone.
The usual mode of capturing flat-fish is by means of a trawl-net,
but many varieties of these may be caught with a hand-line. "A day's
sea-fishing," says Dr. Bertram, in his " Harvest of the Sea," " will
be chequered by many little adventures. There are various minor
monsters of the deep that will vary the monotony of the day by occa-
sionally devouring the bait. A tadpole fish, better known as the sea-
devil, or angler, may be hooked ; or a visit from a hammer-headed shark,
550
THE OCEAN WORLD.
or a pile-fish, will add greatly to tlie excitement; and if the ' dogs'
should be at all plentiful, it is a chance if a single fish be got out of
the sea in its integrity. So voracious are these Squalidae, that I have
often enough pulled a mere skeleton into the boat, instead of a plump
cod of ten or twelve pounds weight."
The Dab, P. Umanda (Fig. 373), is very common in the markets of
Paris, where it is held
in great esteem. It
takes its name Liman-
da from the hard and
dentate scales on its
body. The Platessa
have the jaws furnished
with a single row of
obtuse teeth ; the dorsal
fin only extends in front
to a line with the eye,
leaving an interval
between it and the
caudal. The form of
the body is rhomboi-
dal, as in the turbot,
and the eyes are
usually on the right
side. The flounder,
Fig. 373. The Dab (Platessa limanda). the plaiC6, and the
dab, are all examples of this group of fishes.
The Halibut, Hippoglossus vulgaris (Fig. 374), is a large fish,
inhabiting the seas of Northern Europe and Greenland, where it is
occasionally caught measuring seven feet, and weighing from three
to four hundred pounds. A fish of this species was brought to
Edinburgh market in April, 1828, measuring seven feet and a half
in length and three feet broad, weighing three hundred and twenty
pounds. The body of the halibut is more elongated than that of the
plaice or flounder, the jaws and pharyngeans being armed with strong
and pointed teeth.
Great quantities of this fish are caught on the Greenland and
Norway coasts, and other northern regions. According to Lacepede,
OSSEOUS FISHES.
551
the natives fish for this with an implement which they call gangnaed.
It is composed of a hempen cord five or six hundred yards in length,
to which are attached some thirty smaller cords, each furnished with
a barbed hook at its extremity. The larger cord is attached to floating
planks, which act as trimmers, indicating the place of this formidable
engine of destruction.
The Greenlanders usually replace the hempen cords by thongs of
whalebone or narrow bands of shark's skin. At the end of twenty
tig. 374. The Halibut (Hippoglossus vulgaris).
hours these lines are drawn home, and it is not at all unusual to find
five or six large halibut caught on the hooks. PL. XXVIII. represents
the native mode of fishing for halibut in the Greenland Seas.
Another mode of capturing this and other flat-fish is to spear them
on their sandy beds. "No rule can be laid down," says Dr. Bertram,
" for this method of fishing. It is carried on successfully by means of
a common pitchfork, but some gentlemen go the length of fine spears
made for the purpose, very long, and with very sharp prongs. Others,
552 THE OCEAN WORLD.
again, use a three-pronged farmyard graip, which has heen known to
do as much real work as more elaborate single points contrived for
the purpose. The simplest directions I can give is just to spear every
fish they see." M. Figuier adds, .as a caution, that before attacking
these fishes, body to body, it is necessary to wait till they are somewhat
exhausted, otherwise they might overturn both bark and fisherman.
The Greenlanders cut the animal up, and salt the pieces ; then expose
them to the air, in order to dry them preparatory to a long voyage.
In its fresh state the halibut is not very delicate, and is hard and
difficult of digestion ; however, its great size renders it a valuable
prize. We may add that, notwithstanding its great size, the halibut
has deadly enemies in the dolphins, as well as in the birds which prey
upon fishes on the shore. It is itself a voracious fish, devouring
crabs, cod-fish, and even the Raiadse, not even sparing its own species ;
they attack each other, nibbling at the tail or fins.
III. GADID^E.
The Gadidae embrace the whole of the Linnsean genus Gadus.
They are found mostly in the seas >of cold or temperate regions in
both hemispheres, and are the objects of pursuit for which the great
fisheries of Europe and America are established. They are known by
the position of the ventral fin under the throat, and by the pointed
character of those fins. The body is long and slightly compressed ;
the head well proportioned. Their fins are soft, and their scales are
small and soft. The jaws and front of the as vomer have unequal-
pointed teeth of moderate size, and disposed in several rows. The
gill-covers are large, and consist of seven rays. Most of the species
have the dorsal fin, and contain two others besides a fin behind the
vent, and a distant caudal fin. The stomach is large, and the intestine
long. The air-bladder large and strong, and in some cases notched on
the margin. The flesh of most of the species yields white, healthy,
and agreeable food, easily separable into flakes when cooked, and easy
of digestion. The family includes the several genera : MORRHUA,
to which belongs the Common Cod-fish, If. callarias ; the Haddock,
M. deglefinus. The MERLANGUS, or Whiting, M. vulgar is, and M.
albus ; the Coal-fish, M. carbonarus ; and the Pollack, M. pollachius.
The MERLUCIUS, or Hakes. The LOTA, or Ling, L. molva.
OSSEOUS FISHES.
553
MOTELLA, or Eock Ling, and Silver Gade, M. argenteola ; and other
genera of less importance.
The head of the Cod (Morrhua callarias) is compressed ; the eyes
placed on the side, close to each other, and veiled by a transparent
membrane, a conformation which, according to Lacepede, enables the
animal to swim on the surface of the water in northern regions in
the midst of mountains of ice and under banks covered with snow,
without being dazzled by the brilliant light ; but this opinion is un-
supported by any other naturalist of note.
Fig. 375. Ike Cod-fisu (Alorrhua callarias).
The jaws of the cod-fish are unequal, and among the rows of teeth
with which it is armed many are mobile, and can be hidden in their
cavities, or raised, according to the will of the animal The dorsal
fins, three in number, are in clusters, as in Fig. 375 ; anal fins are
two ; pectoral fins narrow, and terminating in a point ; caudal fin
slightly forked. Its colour is of an ashy grey, spotted with yellow on
the back ; white and sometimes reddish beneath.
The cod-fish is provided with a vast stomach, and is very voracious,
feeding on fishes, crabs, and molluscs. It is so gluttonous and indis-
criminating, that it will even swallow pieces of wood and other similar
objects. This is essentially a sea-fish : it is never seen in fresh-water
554 THE OCEAN WORLD
streams or rivers, remaining during the greater part of the year in the
depths of the sea. Its habitual sojourn is in the portion of the
Northern Ocean lying between the fortieth and sixty-sixth degrees of
latitude.
In the vast range thus frequented by the cod, two large spaces are
pointed out which it seems to prefer. The first extends to the coast
of Greenland, and the other is limited by Iceland, Norway, the
Danish coast, Germany, Holland, and the east and north coast of
Great Britain and the Orkney Isles, comprehending the Doggerbank,
Vellbank, and Cromer coast, together with salt-water lakes and arms
of the sea, such as the Gairloch, Portsoy, and the Moray Firth, which
indent the west coast of Scotland, and attract considerable shoals of
cod-fish.
The second range, less generally known, but more celebrated among
sailors, includes the coast of New England, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia,
and, above all, the island of Newfoundland, on the south coast of
which is the famous sand-bank called the Great Bank, having a
length of nearly two hundred leagues, with a breadth of sixty-two,
over which flows from ten to fifty fathoms of water. Here the cod-
fish swarm, for here they meet shoals of herrings and other animals,
on which they feed. Such is, according to Lacepede, the geographical
distribution of the cod-fish.
The English, French, Dutch, and Americans give themselves up to
the cod-fishery on the bank of Newfoundland with . inconceivable
ardour. This island was discovered and visited by the Norwegians in
the tenth and eleventh centuries, long before the discovery of America;
but it was only in 1497, after the discoveries of Columbus, that the
navigator, John Cabot, having visited these regions, gave it the name
by which it has since been known, and called attention to the swarms
of cod-fish which inhabited the- surrounding sea. Immediately after,
the English and some other nations hastened ta reap these fruitful
fields of living matter. In 1578, France sent a hundred and fifty
ships to the great bank, Spain a hundred and twenty-five, Portugal
fifty, and England forty.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, England and her
colonies, with the French, cultivated the cod-fishery.
From 1823 to 1831 France sent three hundred and forty-one ships,
with seven thousand six hundred and eighty-five men, which carried
OSSEOUS FISHES. 555
into port over fifty million pounds of fish, an avefage of about six
millions annually. Two thousand English ships of various sizes,
manned by thirty thousand seamen, are now employed in this im-
portant branch of industry.
On the coast of Norway, from the frontiers of Eussia to Cape
Lindesnass, the cod-fishery is an important branch of trade, in which
a maritime population of twenty thousand fishermen are employed,
with five thousand boats.
The cod is taken either by net or line. The net is chiefly employed
at Newfoundland. The net used is rectangular, and furnished with
lead at the lower edge, and cork buoys on the upper edge. One of
the extremities is fixed on the coast ; the other is carried seaward,
following a curve taken by the boats, and the fish are attracted by
drawing upon both extremities of the net ; and by one stroke many
boat-loads are sometimes taken.
The modern cod- smack is clipper-built, with large wells for carrying
the fish alive, its cost being about 1500. The crew usually consists
of ten to twelve men and boys, including the captain. The line is
also used for taking cod and haddocks. " Each man," says Bertram,
" has a line of fifty fathoms in length, and attached to each of these
lines are a hundred ' snoods/ with hooks already baited with mussels,
pieces of herring, or whiting. Each line is laid ' clear,' in a shallow
basket, and so arranged as to run freely as the boat shoots ahead.
The fifty-fathom line with a hundred hooks is in Scotland called a
' taes.' If there are eight men in a boat, the length of the line will
be four hundred fathoms, with eight hundred hooks, the lines being
tied to each other before setting. On arriving at the fishing-ground,
the fishermen heave overboard a cork buoy, with a flagstaff about
six feet in height attached to it. This buoy is kept stationary by a
line, called the ' pow end,' reaching to the bottom of the water, where
it is held by a stone or a grapnel fastened to the lower end. To the
1 pow end ' is also fastened the fishing line, which is then paid out as
fast as the boat sails, which may be from four to five knots an hour.
Should the wind be unfavourable for the direction in which the crew
wish to set the Hue, they use the oars. When the line or ' taes ' is all
out, the end is dropped and the boat returns to the buoy. The 'pow '
line is hauled up with the anchor and fishing line attached to it. The
fishermen then haul in the line, with the fish attached to it. Eight
556 THE 'OCEAF WOBLD.
hundred fish might be taken, and often have l)een, by eight men in a
few hours by this operation ; but many fishermen say now, that they
consider themselves fortunate when they get a fish on every fifth
hook on an eight-lined ' taes '-line."
Hungry cod-fish will seize almost any kind of bait, and this is used
either fresh or salted. The fresh bait is furnished by the herring,
whiting, and capelan, a little fish which in the spring descends from
the North Sea in shoals, pursued by the cod-fish. In the terror
caused by the innumerable bands of their enemies, the capelans spread
themselves in all the seas round Newfoundland in masses so thick that
the waves throw them ashore, and they accumulate occasionally in
heaps upon the sandy beach.
The principal fishery for capelan intended for bait takes place on
the coast of Newfoundland. The inhabitants of these regions carry
their booty to the fishermen, who make Saint-Pierre their rendezvous,
with whom they find ready purchasers.
The schooners, with a fair provision of bait, leaving Saint-Pierre
and other ports, take a north-easterly direction towards the great
bank, and, having chosen their fishing-ground, cast anchor in fifty or
sixty fathoms, and forthwith the crews give their sole attention to the
lines ; some of them watch the lines, which are raised every instant,
the captured fish removed, and the hooks re-baited ; others suty'ect the
captured fishes to a first preparation for preserving them ; they are
opened, the entrails removed, and the fish split in two, and piled one
on the other, and covered with salt. This labour goes on as long as
the fishing lasts. The sailor is on deck night and day, covered with
oil and blood, and surrounded with all sorts of offal and fish-like
smells. But this alone is insufficient. Boats, manned by crews of two
or three sailors, are continually moving about, attending to the more
distant lines, or " taes," which radiate round the ship in all directions.
One portion of the cod caught is despatched to Europe in a fresh
state, without other preparation than the salting which they receive
on the deck of the schooner. But much the greater portion are
carried on shore and subjected to further preparation. Saint-Pierre
and Miquelon Islands, which are granted to the French fishermen on
condition that no fortifications are erected on them, is resorted to for
the purpose by the French fleet; St. John's, the capital, by the
English. The Comte de Grobmeau gives an animated picture of the
OSSEOUS FISHES. 557
whole process of curing the cod-fish in the " Tour du Monde for 1863."
" The French houses which pursue this branch of trade," he says,
" belong principally to the Ports of Granville and St. Breuc ; and the
crews of their ships consist of two, very distinct elements ; the smaller
portion, being specially raised among the fishermen properly so called,
they form the aristocracy on. board ; to these are added a larger number
of mere labourers, who are landed on the arrival of the vessel at her
port. Their functions are limited to receiving the fish from the boats,
opening it, washing off the glutinous matter in the eJiauffant, putting
the liver apart, and laying out the split fish between the layers of
salt; finally, subjecting it to the different phases of .the drying
process on the strand.
" The chauffant is a shed raised upon piles, standing one half in the
water and one half on shore ; it is constructed of planks and posts,
through which the air is suffered to circulate freely, but covered in with
some of the ship's sails. Here the process of separating the intestines
from, the. body of the fish, and the salting process are carried on, in the
midst of an atmosphere charged with all manner of disgusting smells,
for the labourer is by no means delicate, and never thinks of removing
the disgusting impurities which he is creating. There he stands, knife
in hand, tearing and cutting out intestines, and separating vertebrae,
his only care being to avoid cutting himself, which, is the chief danger
he runs, in the midst of odours sufficient to produce suffocation.
'* Connected with the platformon which this rough operation is per-
formed is a cauldron, sunk in the earth, to, receive the oil pressed out
of the liver. This cauldron is surmounted by a roof some nine feet in
height, in the form of an inverted cone. Here the oil which flows
from the open way above* is suffered to remain, after which it. is drawn
off into casks.
" The drying sheds, formerly of wood, are now constructed of stone,
and in places well exposed to the sun, and especially to the wind,
artificial or otherwise. The sun, it is said, does not. dry, but scorches ;
the wind, on the other hand, marvellously fulfils the purpose, and in
order to avoid the one and court the other, an apparatus has been in-
vented, consisting of long movable branches, which can be inclined
so as to bring the wind directly upon the row of cod, in connection
with the sun's rays, which are, indeed, not very formidable in this
foggy region."
558 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The cod-fisli thus dried at Newfoundland are forwarded for con-
sumption to all parts of the world ; but only a small part of the
products of the fishery are thus prepared. More than half the pro*
duce of the French fleet are sent to France merely salted, by ships
which carry salt, bringing back fish in return to Kochelle, Bordeaux,
and Cette, where the process of curing is completed. In our home
fisheries, to abbreviate slightly Dr. Bertram's account, the greater
part of the cod taken are eaten fresh, but considerable quantities of
the cod and ling taken on the coast are sent to market cured. The
process pursued is very simple : .they are brought on shore quite fresh,
and are at. once split from head to tail, and by copious washings
thoroughly cleansed from all particles of blood ; a piece of the back-
bone is cut away ; they are drained, and afterwards laid down in long
vats, where they are covered with salt, and kept under heavy weights.
By-and-by the fish are taken out of the vats ; they are once more
drained, and carefully brushed, to remove any impurity, and bleached
by being spread out singly on the sandy beach, or on the rocks ; when
thoroughly bleached, they are collected into heaps technically called
steeples, and when the Uoom, or whitish appearance, comes out on the
fish, they are ready for the market.
The cod is one of our best-known fishes, and was at one time much
more plentiful and cheap. It is a deep-water fish, found in all
northern seas, and in the Atlantic, but never in the Mediterranean.
It is extremely voracious, greedily eating up the smaller denizens of
the ocean. It grows to a large size, and is very prolific, as most fishes
are. A cod-roe has been found more than once to be half the gross
weight of the fish, and specimens of the female cod have been caught
with upwards of eight millions of eggs. The fish spawn in mid-
winter : but here our information ceases ; when it becomes reproductive
is unknown. Dr. Bertram thinks that it is at least three years old
before it is endowed with breeding power.
The growth of the cod is supposed to be very slow. Dr. Bertram
quotes the authority of a rather learned fisherman of Buckie, who had
seen a cod which had got enclosed in a large rock pool, and he found
that it did not grow at a greater rate than eight to twelve ounces per
annum, though it had abundance of food.
On our own coast two modes of fishing are in common use : one by
deep-sea lines, on each of which hooks are fastened at distances twelve
, OSSEOUS FISHES. 559
feet apart by means of short lines six feet long, called on the Cornish
coast " snoods." Buoys, ropes, or grapnels, are fixed to each end of the
long line, to keep them from entanglement with each other. The
hooks are haited with capelan, lance, or whelks, and the lines are
shot across the tide about the time of slack water, in from forty to
fifty fathoms, and are hauled in for examination after six hours.
An improvement has been introduced upon this mode of fishing by
Mr. Cobb. He fixes a small piece of cork about twelve inches above
the hook, which suspends the bait, and exhibits it more clearly to the
fish by the motion of the wave. The fishermen, when not engaged in
hauling, shooting, or baiting the long lines, fish with hand-lines,
holding one in each hand, each armed with two hooks, kept apart by
a strong piece of wire. A heavy weight attached to the lower end of
each line keeps it steady near the ground, where the fish principally
feed. Enormous quantities of cod, haddock, whiting, and coal-fish,
with pollack, hake, ling, and torsk, are taken in this way all round
our coast. Of cod-fish alone four hundred to five hundred and fifty
have been taken in ten hours by one man, and eight men have taken
eighty score of cod in one day, fishing off the Doggerbank in five and
twenty fathoms water. Latterly the Norfolk and Lincoln, and even
the Essex, coasts, have yielded a large supply of fish, which are caught
as described, and are stowed in well-boats, in which they are carried
to Gravesend, whence they are transhipped into market-boats,
and sent up to Billingsgate by each evening tide ; the store-boats
not being allowed to come up higher, as the fresh water would kill
the fish.
The Haddock (Morrhua seglefinus) is common in our markets ; it
is much smaller than the cod, but in other respects not unlike it. It
frequents the same localities, and is caught with long lines baited
usually with mussels ; the old fish keep close in shore, and are only
got with herring bait. In the village of Findhorn, Morayshire, large
numbers of haddocks are dried and smoked with the fumes of hard
wood and sawdust. Hence the term " Finnan baddies," an article in
such request at a Scottish breakfast. The village of Findhorn affords
a very small portion of the haddocks sold as such, but the true " Fin-
nans " are supposed to have the finest flavour.
The Whiting, Merlangus vulgaris (Fig. 376), by some amateurs
considered the most delicate of all the Gadidse, is plentiful all round
560
THE OCEAN WORLD.
our coast. It spawns in March, and the eggs are quickly hatched. It
prefers a sandy shore, and is usually found some miles from the coast.
It is a small fish, rarely exceeding twelve inches long, and seldom reach-
ing two pounds in weight. The whiting is long in the body, clothed
with very small, thin, and round scales ; its dorsal fins are, like the cod,
Fig. 376. The Whiting (Merlangus vulgaris).
three in number ; it is without barbellary appendage ; its upper jaw
projects over the lower ; it is of a silvery white, sometimes relieved by
an olive tint, which is contrasted upon the back by the blackish tint
which distinguishes the pectoral and caudal, fins, and by a black spot
which some individuals have at the junction of the pectorals with the
body.
The whiting, inhabits the seas which wash the whole European
coast, often approaching the shore in shoals, and are taken annually
in great numbers,
3. ABDOMINALES.
The fishes belonging to this order have the ventral fins under the
abdomen placed behind, and not attached to the bones of the shoulder.
It is much the most numerous and important of the great division of
the Malacopterygeans. It includes most of our fresh-water fishes, a
OSSEOUS FISHES. 561
great number of marine species, and many like the salmon, which
betake themselves to the rivers in the spawning season to deposit
their ova. We shall limit our remarks to the species which are
essentially marine, such as the Salmonidte, the Clupeadse, and a few
others.
SALMONID^E.
The fishes of this family are graceful in shape, and have the body
clothed in scales ; they have two dorsals, the first with soft rays, fol-
lowed by a second, which is smaller, formed without rays, and adipose
that is, formed simply of a skin filled with fatty matter, unsupported
by osseous rays. They inhabit the seas of temperate and northern
regions ; ascending the rivers at certain seasons, and, in some in-
stances, living exclusively in the great rivers and watercourses. They
are found even in the most elevated mountain brooks. The grayling
or shad, guiniad, sprat, trout, and the salmon, the type of the family,
belong to the group.
Adult Salmon.
The genus Salmo includes three species, namely, Salmo solar,
8. croixj and S. trutta, the trout. Of these, S. salar (Fig. 377) has
2 o
562
THE OCEAN WORLD.
the body long, the muzzle roundish, but more so in the ma 7 e than in
the female, the upper jaw provided with a fossette, into which the
point of the lower jaw penetrates ; the hack is a slaty Hue, the sides
and lower part of the hody of a silvery diaphanous white, with great
hlack spots scattered round the upper part of the head, round the
upper edge of the eye, and over the operculum or covering. Some
brownish irregular spots, variable both in form and size, are sprinkled
over the sides. In other respects their colours are subject to variations
according to circumstances. Before assuming the characters here
indicated, however, the salmon has passed through three stages, each
of which is marked by peculiarities worthy of being noted. The
young salmon (Fig. 378) is greyish and striped with black. At the
Fig. 378. The Young Salmon.
end of a year it has acquired a fine metallic hue. " The other parts,"
raccording to Mr. Blanchard, " are of a dazzling steel-blue ; eight or
ten large spots of the same brilliant blue cover it as with a silvery
mantle on the sides; between these spots a reddish, or, rather,
brightish-rusty iron colour prevails ; a black spot is usually observable
in the middle of the operculum. The belly is of a fine diaphanous
blue in the parr "(Fig. 379).
Dr. Bertram gives a very clear and intelligible account of the early
days of the salmon, which was at one time veiled in mystery. " The
spawn, deposited by the parent fish in October, November, and
December, lies in the river till about April or May, when it quickens
into life. I have already described the changes apparent in the
OSSEOUS FISHES.
563
salmon's egg, from the time of its fructification till the birth of the
fish. The infant fry are of course very helpless, and are seldom seen
during the first week or two of their existence, when they carry about
with them, as a provision for food, a portion of the egg from whence
they emanated. At that time the fish is about half an inch in size,
and presents such a singular appearance that no person seeing it
would ever believe that it would grow into a fine grilse or salmon.
About fifty days is required for the animal to assume the shape of a
perfect fish ; before that time it might be taken for anything else than
a young salmon. At the end of two years it has changed into a
smolt. After absorbing its umbilical bag, which it takes a period of
twenty to forty days to accomplish, the young salmon may be seen
about its birthplace, timid and weak, hiding about the stones, and
Fig. 379. Salmon, or Parr, a year old.
always apparently of the same colour as the surroundings of its
sheltering place. The transverse bars of the parr, however, speedily-
become apparent, and the fish begins to grow with considerable
rapidity, especially if it is to be a twelvemonth smolt, and this is very
speedily seen at such a place as the Stormontfield ponds. The
young fish continue to grow for a little more than two years before
the whole number make the change from parr to smolt, and seek the
salt water. Half the number of any one hatching begin to change
at a little over twelve months from the date of their coming to life.
And thus there is the extraordinary anomaly of fish of the same
hatching being at one and the same time parr of half an ounce in
2 o 2
564 THE OCEAN WORLD.
weight, and grilse weighing four pounds. The smolts of the first
year return from the sea, while their brothers and sisters are timidly
disporting in the breeding shallows of the upper streams." A late
sea-going smolt explains the anomaly of a spring salmon.
It thus appears that, in its first stage, the Young Salmon (Fig. 378)
is called a parr : during the second it is a smolt, namely, a parr plus
a jacket of silvery scales. While they continue in the state of parr
they lead a secluded life, totally unable to endure salt water, which
would kill them. When they have become smolts the fish betake
themselves in bands to the sea. The sea-feeding being favourable,
and the fish strong enough for the salt water, a rapid growth is the
consequence. After that they disappear, spreading themselves over
the wide world of the ocean. At the end of two months of a life
mysterious and so far unknown, these fishes reappear in the rivers,
returning to their native pools ; but how changed ! Quantum
mutaii ! The smolt, which has lived in the river two or three years,
and only attained the length of six or eight inches, returns at the
end of two months' sojourn in the sea, weighing three to four, and
after six months, ten or twelve pounds. It is now a grilse.
After depositing their eggs the grilse remain some time in the
fresh water, when they again go to the sea. This second sojourn, of
about two months, is sufficient to send it back weighing from six to
twelve pounds. It is now an adult salmon. Each new visit to the
sea brings the salmon back increased in size in proportion to the
duration of the voyage. In the month of March, 1845, the Duke of
Athole took a salmon in the Tay after it had deposited its eggs ; he
marked it by attaching a metal label to it. It weighed ten pounds.
The same individual with its metal label was again fished up after five
wfeeks and three days' absence. It now weighed twenty-one pounds,
having in the meantime travelled forty miles down the river to the
sea. This fish must, however, have made a long sea run during these
thirty-eight days and its seeking up the river again.
In most circumstances, according to Mr. Blanchard, to whom we
are indebted for much information relative to the development and
migration of these fishes, salmon of various ages, which have neverthe-
less sojourned in the sea as grilse, adult salmon, and others inter-
mediate between them, whose first sojourn at sea has extended to eight
or ten months, ascend the rivers together in an order no less varied,
OSSEOUS FISHES.
565
the older individuals heading the column, the youngest bringing up
the rear.
When the period for depositing their eggs approaches, a male and
female pair off, as it were ; seeming to choose, by a common accord,
a retired place in which to spawn. Here both male and female
employ themselves in hollowing out a nest in the strand, some eight
or nine inches deep, wherein the female deposits her eggs, which the
male fertilizes by shedding a milky fluid over them, sheltering the
eggs afterwards by a covering of sand.
The salmon only ascends the rivers to spawn. They eagerly return
afterwards to salt water. When enjoying themselves in the water
they swim slowly, floating near the surface ; but in pursuit of any
object, or if threatened with danger, they dart out of the water with
extraordinary promptitude. The tail is, in fact, a true oar moved by
powerful muscles ; a low waterfall is to the salmon no serious ob-
stacle when it is impelled to ascend to its breeding-place. Curving
its vertebral column, it forms itself into a sort of elastic spring ; the
arc of which being suddenly un-
bent, strikes the water with great
force with the tail, and in the
rebound it leaps to the height of
several yards, clearing waterfalls
of considerable height. If it falls
without accomplishing its object,
it repeats the manoeuvre until it is
at last successful. It is especially
when the leader of the band makes
a successful leap that the others, ac-
quiring new spirit from its example,
throw themselves upwards until
their emulation is rewarded by
success.
Some of the British waterfalls
are celebrated for their salmon leaps.
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland have
each their celebrated leaps ; in
Pembrokeshire, Argyleshire, and at
Ballyshannon, in county Donegal, and at Leixlip. The cataract of
566 THE OCEAN WORLD.
Leixlip is upwards of twenty feet high, and the country people make
a holiday in order to see the salmon clear its height. These acrobat
fishes frequently fall before they finally succeed, and it is not un-
usual for the people to place osier baskets to trap them in their
fall. At the cataract of Kilmorack, in Inverness-shire (Fig. 380),
the inhabitants living near the river have a practice of fixing
branches of trees on the edge of the rocks. By means of these
branches they contrive to catch the fishes which have failed in their
leap ; it is even asserted that sportsmen have been known to kill them
on the wing, as it were, in their leap. But the exploit, attributed to
Lord Lovat by Dr. Franklin, is perhaps the nearest approach to the
fabulous which we have met with.
Having remarked that great numbers of salmon failed in their
efforts to surmount the Falls of Kilmorack, and that they generally
fell on the bank at the foot of the fall, Lord Lovat conceived the idea
of placing a furnace and a frying-pan on a point of rock overhanging
the river. After their unsuccessful effort some of the unhappy salmon
would fall accidentally into the frying-pan. The noble lord could
thus boast that the resources of his country were so abundant, that
on placing a furnace and frying-pan on the banks of their rivers, the
salmon would leap into it of their own accord, without troubling the
sportsman to catch them. It is more probable, however, that Lord
Lovat knew that the way to enjoy salmon in perfection is to cook it
when fresh from the water, and before the richer parts of the fish
have ceased to curd. The principal salmon found in the market are
Tweed, Tay, North Esk, Spey, Skye, Norwegian, and above all
Severn, said to be the best which comes to market, neither of which
must be confounded with the imported American variety the origin
of the prevalent cheap London kipper and the Cape, or red -mouthed
variety. Cape and Americans are at once distinguished by their flesh
boiling a blanched white. Tweed salmon are more varied ; and this
river, famous in song, is also noted for its production of the greatest
proportion of bull-trout. The Tay yields the largest grilse and
salmon, but the Spey follows fast in her wake ; Tay fish sometimes
weigh sixty pounds. The minor Scotch rivers produce smaller but
superior fish. Skye and West-coast grilse are short, thick, and
small-headed, and proportionally more abundant. Trout are numerous ;
sea-bull, burn, or loch, and the so-called herring-trout, are the varieties
OSSEOUS FISHES. 567
usually met with. The whitling of the Tweed, grayling of Tay, and
tinnock of North and South Esk, are young sea and bull-trout,
abounding in March and April, when a sportsman will land fifty or
sixty daily, weighing from one quarter to a pound. Trout flesh
varies in colour from a clear white to a dark red; the North Esk
red trout is most esteemed. The best run from a pound and a half
to three pounds. The burn-trout is always red, and has been killed
as heavy as thirty pounds. The herring-trout, never found in
English rivers, and only caught on our coast by herring-trawlers, is
a special favourite : may it not be the whitling of the French rivers ?
In all other species colour varies with locality, and cannot be ac-
counted for.
We have seen how rapidly the young salmon increase in size in
the sea. During this stage of existence the salmon, being a carni-
vorous fish, rapidly develops itself from the grilse to the adult state.
From a careful analysis made by Dr, Wilson Johnston of the Bengal
army, it appears that there is no recorded instance of healthy salmon
partaking of herring or sand-lances ; the tape-worm and other con-
ditions of perverted appetite persisting in all. Tape-worm is most
common in the hybrid Norwegian, and explains the reason why
Clupeadse are sometimes found in their stomachs. Should the fish
not be charged with spawn, it will shortly return to sport among
the dancing waves; but if matured for breeding, at which period
the female shows a dirty brown hue, and the male a black,
they mate, choose a spot for the salmon nest, and there deposit
myriads of ova. The longer a salmon continues in the river the
duller their colour becomes ; the flavour is greatly depreciated ; so
that Izaac Walton's statement, that " the further they get from
the sea they be both fatter and better," is dead against our daily
experience.
During the period of river residence salmon never feed. It avails
not to argue that fear acts as an emetic and empties the stomach;
the incontestable fact remains that the entire gastro-intestinal tract
ab ore ad ano is in ninety-nine per cent, devoid of any trace of food.
Juvenile experience on the part of the fish, recurring as a phantasm,
causes them to snap at a shining artificial minnow or a gaudy fly,
but they never rise out of the water ; the bait must dip to them, and
when hooked they shake the intruder as a terrier does a rat. If salmon
568 THE OCEAN WORLD.
never feed in fresh water, what is the rationale of their existing there ?
Well, the superabundant store of fat deposited in the areolar tissue
appears to furnish a material which is functionally homologous to the
fatty supply stored hy the Asiatic and African doornba sheep, which is
drawn upon to sustain life-action, when neves, avalanches, or a heavy
snow-fall imprisons the herbage out-crop. That continued muscular
exertion can be sustained without special fatigue on non-nitrogenous
diet, Fick and Wislicensus have proved by the recent ascent of the
Faulhorn: it is moreover notorious that the chamois hunter and
the Hindoo runner prefer fats and saccharoids. Is there any show
of reason, then, why the salmon should not maintain its fresh-
water muscular tear and wear by a stock of non-nitrogenous fatty
material? -That such is the true philosophy of salmon river life is
borne out by the following facts :
1st. So 0on as the exhausting secretions of the milt and roe take
place the spent fish turn seaward to recruit.
2nd. The digestive secretions are not eliminated in the absence of
food ; the most recent experience of physiology finds its echo here.
Your boxer trains on meat or nitrogenous aliment, but enters the
list on hydro-carbons (fats, saccharines, and amylaceous substances).
The salmon get into condition by immediately appropriating the
albumen of the echinodermal ova, enter their life-struggle of wintry
months in river water with an incorporated stock of potential calorific
aliment, convertible, as occasion demands, into organic muscular
mechanical effort.
The British rivers in which the salmon abound are the Severn, the
Wye, the Tweed, the Tay, the Don, and the Dee, with many of their
tributaries, and in Ireland, the Shannon. Besides these, many of the
watercourses of lesser note adjoining the coast have been renowned
for their salmon fisheries. Some of the Scottish rivers, especially, are
famous for the size and quality as well as numbers of salmon. In
days not very distant from ours, farm servants made it a condition of
their hiring that salmon should not be served to them more than
three days in the week. These times are changed. In the districts
in which this condition was the most stringently insisted on, the pro-
prietors derive a princely revenue from this source alone. The Tay
fisheries yield a revenue of seventeen thousand pounds per annum.
The Spey, for its length the richest in Scotland, produces twelve
OSSEOUS FISHES. 569
thousand pounds per annum. The river is only a hundred and
twenty miles from its source to the sea, and its picturesque banks are
celebrated in a local ballad, which says, not very harmoniously, that
" Dipple, Dundurcus, Dandaleith, and Dulocq,
Are the bonniest haugks of the run of the Spey ;"
but there's " no standing water in the Spey !" The river drains
thirteen hundred miles of mountains, many of whose bases are more
than a thousand feet above the level of the sea. The Tweed, which
has been " poached " and plundered, by its proprietors using unfair
implements, until there was scarcely a fish in its upper waters, is
slowly recovering under legislative enactments, and its rental is now
seven thousand five hundred pounds.
Salmon abounds in the Loire and its affluents, but is much more
rare in the Seine and Marne. They enter the Ehine and the Elbe,
and most of the great rivers of the north of Europe. In France
they were formerly found in the rivers of Brittany, and in the
Gironde. They are now very rare in these rivers. The coast of
Picardy is well furnished, but they are rare in Upper and Lower
Normandy. In Norway, especially in the district of Drontheim, the
salmon fishery is conducted on a large scale on the sea-shore as well
as in the interior waters. The Baltic is rich in salmon. Considerable
fisheries are carried on in the waters of the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia,
as well as in the waters of Swedish Laponia. The takes vary every year ;
in 1860 being much above the average throughout Great Britain^
or as in 1772, when the fish were so scarce in the Tweed, that it
was believed they had gone off the coast. They invariably go to
leeward with the wind, and have been caught a hundred miles off
land. Salmon are in condition at various periods of the year,
apparently not depending on the latitude of the rivers. Thus
the Tay is one of the earliest rivers, while the North and South Esk
are the latest, yet they debouch within a few miles of each other.
It is the opinion of Mr. Joseph Johnston of Montrose (whose acknow-
ledged fifty years' practical experience carries weight with it in all fishery
parliamentary committees) that the Stormontfield ponds, by artificially
rearing the parr, render them more helpless when they commence
river life on their own account. As a natural result, the death-ratio is
enormously increased cui bono ? especially when the parr have only
570 THE OCEAN WOELD.
the option of leaving, and are not compelled to go out. We must,
therefore, receive Dr. Bertram's narrative, much as we respect his
authority, with some reserve. A seed will not grow, nor will a parr
ever become a grilse, unless under given conditions : it is therefore an
easy matter to explain the anomaly of a parr passing seaward
becoming a four- pound grilse, while its twin-brother remaining in the
breeding-pond is conditionally developed as only a half-ounce samlet,
yet none the less a dwarfed grilse the possibility of growth existing
all the while, although it was not actively evoked by physical
surroundings.
The modes of procedure in salmon fishery are very various. Spearing
with tridents, and liestering with a weighted hook by torch-light,
" burning the water," as the Scotch have it, as well as trammel, wear,
and cruive-wear fishing, are now prohibited. Legal fishing in rivers
is confined to row nets, and fly and bait rod fishing, fixtures being
illegal since 1810. Wear shot; a larger and heavier row-net placed
at the meeting of the waters ; stake, fly, and bag-nets are used in the
open sea. The latter is most in vogue, the former being almost super-
seded by the fly. Fixtures on the sea coast were held to be legal in
Lord Kintore's case by House of Lords in 1828, and continued so till
the passing of the recent Act. By this act all legal modes of fishing
are in action from the first of February to the fourteenth of September,
a period, however, now curtailed by twenty-eight days, netting being
illegal from Saturday to Monday in each week. It remains to be seen
whether the gourmet will enjoy his salmon better after its Sabbath
rest ; perhaps its ragout will then haunt him as it did Talleyrand's
abbe, who, instead of the mea culpa of the Confiteor, iterated, u Ah !
le bon saumon ! ah ! le bon saumon !"
A bag-net is composed of three chambers ; the first, which is the
widest, is at the entrance. The next is the doubling, and is one inch
to the mesh narrower than the outer. The last is the fish court,
where the fish by a simple and ingenious contrivance are prevented
from finding the door by which they entered. It is partly floated
by corks and partly by an empty cask on the head or principal
riding rope. It is set in the sea by ropes attached to anchors,
one anchor rope to the head of the net and one on each wing at the
entrance of the bag. The bag-leader is a separate net held by a rope
and anchor on the land side, and is fastened to the bag net. The
OSSEOUS FISHES. 571
principle of fishing is this : the tide makes a curve on the leader of the
bag, in this curve the fish swim into the net. Bags are adapted
for any kind of coast, and six or seven are run out to sea end on.
Fly nets are the same as bags in principle, but slightly altered so
as to adapt them for being fixed to stakes driven into the sand
instead of being moored by rope and anchor ; they are always used
where the tide ebbs. Stake nets are expensive, and seldom used
now-a-days. When in fishing trim they are, however, more deadly
than fly nets : their chambers are three times as large, but the
principle of fishing in bag and stake nets is identical, leaders being
used in all. It is noteworthy that trout are never caught in these
leaders.
ESOCLD^l.
This family includes the Pike, which, being a fresh-water fish, need
not now occupy our attention ; it includes also the singular genus
Stomias, and the Flying-fish, Exocoetus.
The Stomias have a body much elongated, the muzzle being very
short, the mouth very deeply cleft, the opercula reduced to small
membranous laminae ; the maxillarius fixed to the cheek ; the inter-
maxillary palatine and maxillary bones are rather sparingly furnished
with teeth, and those are long and hooked. Similar teeth are observ-
able on the tongue. The ventral fins are placed far back, and the
dorsal fin is placed opposite the anal fin, on the hinder extremity of
the body.
Only two species of this genus are known : the one of the Mediter-
ranean, Stomia loa (Fig. 381), the other of the Atlantic Ocean, S.
larbatus, so called from the long barbula on the chin. Both species
are black in colour, with numerous small silvery spots on the ab-
domen. The body of 8. boa is thin, compressed, covered with little
thin scales of blackish blue, much spotted on the back and abdomen,
a little brighter on the sides the head, in some respects, recalling
that of a serpent.
Flying is so much associated in our minds with the usual denizens
of the air, that the idea of flying-fishes seems to be a contradiction.
Nevertheless, some fishes possess that power, the fins being transformed
into wings, which they are enabled to raise for a few seconds. These
572
THE OCEAN WOKLD.
wings, however, are neither long nor powerful, for they rather act the
part of a parachute than wings. The distinguishing characteristic of
the Exocoetus, or flying-fish, is the pectoral fins, nearly the length of the
body, the head flattened above and on the sides, the lower part of the
body furnished with a longitudinal series of carinated scales on each
side, the dorsal fin placed above the anal, the eyes large, and the jaws
furnished with small pointed teeth.
Fig. 381. Stomiaboa.
The Flying-fishes (Fig. 382) in their own element are harassed by
attacks of other inhabitants of the ocean, and when under the excite-
ment of fear they take to the air, they are equally exposed to the
attacks of aquatic birds, especially the various species of gulls. We
have said that, in their leap from the water, their fins sustain them
rather as parachutes than wings, with which they beat the air.
Mr. Bennett's description is pretty clear on this point. "I have
never," he says, " been able to see any percussion of the pectoral fins
during flight ; and the greatest length of time I have seen this volatile
fish on the fly has been thirty seconds by the watch, and the longest
flight, mentioned by Captain Basil Hall, has been two hundred yards,
but he thinks that subsequent observation has extended the space.
The usual height of their flight, as seen above the surface of the
water, is from two to three feet, but I have known them come on board
OSSEOUS FISHES.
573
at the height of fourteen feet and upwards. And they have been well
ascertained to come into the chains of a line of battle ship, which is
considered to be upwards of twenty feet. But it must not be sup-
posed that they have the power of raising themselves into the air after
having left their native element ; for on watching them I have often
seen them fall much below the elevation at which they first rose from
the water ; nor have I ever in any instance seen them rise from the
height to which they first sprang, for I conceive the elevation they
take depends on the power of the first spring."
Fig. 382. The Flying-fish (E. exiliens).
The most common species is E. volitans. Its brilliant colouring
would seem designed to point it out to its enemies, against whom it is
totally defenceless. A dazzling silvery splendour pervades its surface.
The summit of its head, its back, and its sides, are of azure blue ; this
blue becomes spotted upon the dorsal fin, the pectoral fin, and the
tail. This fish is the common prey of the more voracious fishes,
574 THE OCEAN WORLD.
such as the shark, and the sea-birds ; its enemies abound in the air
and water. If it succeeds in escaping the Charybdis of the water,
the chances are in favour of its coming to grief in the Scylla of
the atmosphere if it escapes the jaws of the shark, it will probably
fall to the share of the sea-gull. The dolphin is also a formidable
enemy to the much-persecuted flying-fish. Captain Basil Hall gives
a very animated description of their mode of attack.* He was in a
prize, a low Spanish schooner, rising not above two feet and a half out
of the water. " Two or three dolphins had ranged past the ship in all
their beauty. The ship in her progress through the water had put
up a shoal of these little things (flying-fish), which took their flight
to windward. A large dolphin which had been keeping company
with us abreast of the weather gangway at the depth of two or three
fathoms, and as usual glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner
detected our poor dear friends take wing than he turned his head
towards them, darted to the surface, and leaped from the water with a
velocity little short, as it seemed to us, of a cannon-ball. But though
the impetus with which he shot himself into the air gave him an
initial velocity greatly exceeding that of the flying-fish, the start
which his fated prey had got enabled them to keep ahead of him for a
considerable time. The length of the dolphin's first spring could not
be less than ten yards, and after he fell we could see him gliding like
lightning through the water for a moment, when he again rose, and
shot upwards with considerably greater velocity than at first, and of
course to a still greater distance. In this manner the merciless
pursuer seemed to stride along the sea with fearful rapidity, while his
brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun quite splendidly. As he
fell headlong in the water at the end of each leap, a series of circles
were sent far over the surface, for the breeze, just enough to keep
the royals and topgallant studding-sails extended, was hardly felt as
yet below.
" The group of wretched flying-fishes, thus hotly pursued, at length
dropped into the sea; but we were rejoiced to observe that they
merely touched the top of the swell, and instantly set off again in a
fresh and even more vigorous flight. It was particularly interesting
to observe that the direction they took now was quite different from
the one in which they had set out, implying but too obviously that
* "Lieutenant and Commander," by Captain Basil Hall. Bell & Daldy, London.
OSSEOUS FISHES. 575
they had detected their fierce enemy, who was following them with
giant steps along the waves, and was gaining rapidly upon them.
His pace, indeed, was two or three times as swift as theirs, poor little
things ! and the greedy dolphin was fully as quick-sighted ; for when-
ever they varied their flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the
tenth part of a second in shaping his course so as to cut off the chase ;
while they, in a manner really not unlike that of the hare, doubled
more than once upon the pursuer. But it was soon plainly to be
seen that the strength and confidence of the flying-fish were fast
ebbing; their flights became shorter and shorter, and their course
more fluttering and uncertain, while the leaps of the dolphin seemed
to grow more vigorous at each bound. Eventually this skilful sea-
sportsman seemed to arrange his springs so as to fall just under the
very spot on which the exhausted flying-fish were about to drop. This
catastrophe took place at too great a distance for us to see from the
deck what happened ; but on our mounting high on the rigging, we
may be said to have been in at the death ; for then we could discover
that the unfortunate little creatures, one after another, either popped
right into the dolphin's jaws as they lighted on the water, or were
snapped up instantly after."
THE CLUPEAD.E.
Of this family the herring is the graceful, useful, and well-known
type, to which also the pilchard, the shad, and the anchovy belong. The
Clupea have the body longish and compressed, especially at the belly,
where it comes to an edge ; it is clothed with large scales, forming
towards the belly a saw-like edge, which is very thin and easily
removed. One dorsal fin without spinous rays,, and one ventral, both
placed near the middle of the body, are its locomotive charac-
teristics.
The Herring, Clupea liarengus (Fig. 383), is too well known to require
description ; its appearance is beautiful ; but we shall only remark
here that its back, which in the fish after death is of an indigo bluish
colour, is green during life ; the other parts vary considerably in their
colours and markings, sometimes representing written characters,
which ignorant fishermen have considered to be words of mystery.
576
THE OCEAN WOULD.
In November, 1587, two herrings were taken on the coast of Norway,
on the bodies of which were markings resembling Gothic printed
characters. These herrings had the signal honour of being presented
to the King of Norway, Frederick II. This superstitious prince
turned pale at sight of this supposed prodigy. On the back of these
innocent inhabitants of the deep he saw certain cabalistic characters,
which he thought announced his death and that of his queen. Learned
Fig. 383. The Herring (Clupea harengiis).
men were consulted. Their science, as reported, enabled them to read
distinctly words expressing the sentiment, " Yery soon you will cease
to fish herrings, as well as other people." Other savants were assem-
bled, who gave another explanation ; but in 1588 the king died, and
the people were firmly convinced that the two herrings were celestial
messengers charged to announce to the Norwegian people the ap-
proaching end of the monarch.
This fish abounds throughout the entire Northern Ocean in im-
mense shoals, which are found in the bays of Greenland, Lapland, and
round the whole coast of the British Islands. Great shoals of them
occupy the gulfs of Sweden, of Norway, and of Denmark, the Baltic
and the Zuyder Zee, the Channel, and the coast of France up
to the Loire, beyond which they never appear to be found. But the
OSSEOUS FISHES. 577
finest herrings are caught on Loch Fyne, on the west coast of
Scotland.
The herrings are gregarious fishes, and live in great shoals closely
packed together ; shoals to he counted not hy hundreds, but by thousands
and tens of thousands, in many a shore and bay. It was the favourite
theory, not very long ago, that herrings emigrated to and from the
arctic regions. It was asserted, by the supporters of this theory, that
in the inaccessible seas of high northern latitudes herrings existed in
overwhelming numbers, an open sea within the arctic circle affording
a safe and bounteous feeding-ground. At the proper season vast
bodies gathered themselves together into one great army, which, in
numbers exceeding the powers of imagination, departed for more
southern regions. This great Heer, or army, was subdivided, by some
instinct, as they reached the different shores, led, according to the
ideas of fishermen, by herrings of more than ordinary size and sagacity,
one division taking the west side of Britain, while another took the
east side, the result being an adequate and well-divided supply oi
herrings, which penetrated every bay and arm of the sea round our
coast, from Wick to Yarmouth. Closer observation, however, shows
that this theory has no existence in fact. Lacepede denies that those
periodical journeyings take place. Valenciennes also rejects them. It
is true that the herrings have disappeared in certain neighbourhoods
in which they were formerly very plentiful ; but it is also certain that,
in many of the fishing stations, fish are taken all the year round.
Moreover, the discovery that the herring of America is probably a
distinct species from that of Europe (which, smoked, is known as the
" Digby Chick ") is against the theory. In short, there is a total
absence of proof of their pretended migrations to high northern
latitudes ; and recent discoveries all tend to show that the herring is
native to the shores on which it is taken.
" It has been demonstrated," says Dr. Bertram, " that the herring
is really a native of our immediate seas, and can be caught all the year
round on the coast of the three kingdoms. The fishing begins at the
island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, in the month of May, and goes on as
the year advances, till in July it is being prosecuted off the coast of
Caithness ; while in autumn and winter we find large supplies of
herrings at Yarmouth ; there is a winter fishery in the Firth of Forth.
Moreover, this fish is found in the south long before it ought to be
2 P
578 THE OCEAN WORLD.
there, according to the emigration theory. Ifc has heen deduced, from
a consideration of the annual takes of many years, that the herring
exists in distinct races, which arrive at maturity month after month.
It is well known that the herrings taken at Wick in July are quite
different from those caught at Dunbar in August and September ;
indeed I would go further, and say that even at Wick each month has
its changing shoal, and that as one race appears for capture another
disappears, having fulfilled its mission. It is certain that the herrings
of these different seasons vary considerably in size and appearance ;
localities are marked by distinctive features. Thus the well-known
Loch Fyne herring is essentially different from that of the Firth of
Forth ; and those differ again, in many particulars, from those caught
off Yarmouth. In fact, the herring never ventures far from the shore
where it is taken ; and its condition, when it is caught, is just an
index of the feeding it has enjoyed in its particular locality. The
superiority of flavour of the herring taken in our great iand-locked
salt-water lochs is undoubted. Whether or not resulting from the
depth and body of water, from more plentiful marine vegetation, or
from the greater variety of land food likely to be washed into these
inland seas, has not yet heen determined, but it is certain that the
herrings of our western sea-lochs are infinitely superior to those
captured in the more open sea." " Moreover," he adds, " it is now
known, from the inquiries of the late Mr. Mitchell and other
authorities on the geographical distribution of the herring, that
the fish has never been noticed as being at all abundant in the arctic
regions."
The herring feeds on small crustaceans, fishes just hatched, and even
on the fry of its own species. On the other hand, its enemies are the
most formidable inhabitants of the ocean ; the whales destroy them by
thousands, but man, above all, carries on a war which threatens to
be on"e of extermination. In fact, the herring-fishery has been to
certain nations the great cause of their prosperity. It was the founda-
tion of Dutch independence. Silk manufacture, coffee, tea, spices,
which are productive of great commercial movements, address them-
selves only to the wants of luxury or fashion. The produce of the
herring fishery, on the contrary, is one of necessity to the people ;
and Holland would have languished and quickly disappeared, with its
fictitious territory, if the sea had not added to its commercial industry
OSSEOUS FISHES. 579
this inexhaustible mine of wealth. That vast field it has worked with
persevering ardour. Struggling for an existence, it has conquered.
Every year numerous vessels leave the coast of Holland for this pre-
cious marine harvest. The herring fishery is, for the Dutch people,
the most important of maritime expeditions. It is with them known
as the " great fishery." Whaling is known as the " small fishery."
The great fishery is a golden mine to Holland ; it is, besides, a very
ancient occupation with ourselves. We find it flourishing in the
twelfth century ; for, in 1195, according to the historians, the city of
Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk, was obliged to furnish the king
with twenty-four thousand herrings. We also find mention made of %
the herring fishery in a chronicle of the Monastery of Evesham in the
year 709.
Towards the year 1030 the French sent vessels into the North Sea
from Dieppe for this fishing, nearly a century before the Dutch made
the attempt ; but as early as the thirteenth century that enterprising
people employed two thousand boats in this industry. The Danes,
Swedes, and Norwegians also threw themselves into this trade at an
early period. The French, Danes, and Swedes furnish at the present
time only sufficient for home consumption. The monopoly of foreign
trade belongs to the English, Dutch, and Norwegians. " The
quantity of herrings gathered every year by our neighbours beyond
the Channel," says Moquin-Tandon, "is truly enormous. In Yar-
mouth alone four hundred ships, of from forty to sixty tons, are
equipped, the largest being manned by twelve men. The revenue
derived from this fleet is about seven hundred thousand pounds. In
1857 three of these fishing-boats, belonging to the same proprietors,
carried home three millions seven hundred and sixty-two thousand
fishes."
Since the beginning of this century the Scottish fishermen have
emulated the zeal of the English. In a paper communicated to the
British Association in 1854, Mr. Cleghorn, who has paid great atten-
tion to the subject, states " that there are nine hundred and twenty
Wick boats engaged in the fishing, and that the produce was ninety-
five thousand six hundred and eighty barrels " in one week alone, this
being, however, a falling off of sixty-one thousand barrels from the
previous year. The cause of this immense falling off was ascribed to
a storm which had swept along the coast at the height of the
2 P 2
580 THE OCEAN WORLD.
season; but Mr. Cleghorn was inclined to ascribe it mainly to
over-fishing, which had gradually diminished the number of herrings
captured.
The boats employed by the French and Dutch in the herring
fishery are about sixty tons burden. They generally depart for the
Orkney and Shetland isles. They afterwards betake themselves to
the German Ocean, and fish the Channel in November and December.
These boats carry up to sixteen hands, according to their size.
Arrived at their fishing ground, they cast their nets, as seen in
PL. XXIX.
The lines of the Dutch fishermen are five hundred feet in length,
'composed of fifty or sixty different nets. The upper parts of these
nets are supported by empty barrels or cork-buoys, the lower edge
being weighted with lead or stones, which are kept at a convenient
depth by shortening or lengthening the cords by which the buoys are
attached. The size of the mesh of the nets is such that the herrings
of a certain size are caught in it by the gills and pectoral fins. If the
first mesh is too large to hold them they pass through, and get caught
by the next or succeeding mesh, which is smaller. The herring-fishery
is regulated by Act of Parliament, and the legal mode of capture is by
means of what is called a drift-net. The- drift-net is made of fine twine,
marked with squares of an inch each to allow for the escape of the
young fish. The nets are measured by the barrel bulk, a net measuring
fifty feet long by thirty-two deep, and each holding half a barrel. The
drift is composed of many separate nets fastened together by means of
a back rope, and each separate net of the series is marked off by a
bladder or empty cask. The process is that described by Dr. Bertram
in an article published in the " Cornhill Magazine." The writer had
made his arrangement for a night at the herring fishery under the
auspices of Francis Sinclair, a very gallant -looking fellow, who sails
his own boat from Wick, and takes his own venture. Bounding over
the waves with a good capful of wind, they had left the shore and
beetling cliffs far behind them ; they reached their fishing ground,
where they tacked up and down, eagerly watching for the oily
phosphorescent gleam which is indicative of herrings. " At last, after
a lengthened cruise," he says, " our commander, who had been silent
for half an hour, jumped up and called to action. ' Up, men, and at
them !' was the order of the night. The preparations for shooting
OSSEOUS FISHES. 581
the nets at once began by lowering sail. Surrounding us on all
sides was to be seen a moving world of boats ; many with sails down,
their nets floating in the water, and their crews at rest Others were
still flitting uneasily about, their skippers, like our own, anxious to
shoot in the right place. By-and-by we were ready ; the sucker goes
splash into the water ; the l dog,' a large inflated bladder to mark the
far end of the train, is heaved overboard, and the nets, breadth after
breadth, follow as fast as the men can pay them out, till the immense
train is all in the water, forming a perforated wall a mile long and
many feet in depth ; the ' dog ' and the marking bladder floating and
dipping in long zigzag lines, reminding one of the imaginary coils of
the great sea-serpent. After three hours of quietude beneath a
beautiful sky, the stars
1 The eternal orbs that beautify the night '
began to pale their fires, and, the gray dawn appearing, indicated that
it was time to take stock. We found that the boat had floated quietly
with the tide till we were a long distance from the harbour. The
skipper had a presentiment that there were fish in his net ; and the
bobbing down of a few of the bladders made it almost a certainty, and
he resolved to examine the drifts. By means of the swing rope the
boat was hauled up to the nets. ' Hurrah !' exclaimed Murdoch of
Skye ; ' there's a lot of fish, skipper, and no mistake.' Murdoch's
news was true ; our nets were silvery with herrings so laden, in fact,
that it took a long time to haul them in. It was a beautiful sight to
see the shimmering fish as they came up like a sheet of silver from the
water, each uttering a weak death-chirp as it was flung into the
bottom of the boat. Formerly the fish were left in the meshes of the
net till the boat arrived in the harbour ; but now, as the net is hauled
on board, they are at once shaken out. As our silvery treasure
showers into the boat we roughly guess our capture at fifty cranes a
capital night's work."
But there is a reverse to this medal. Wick Bay is not always
rippled by the land-breeze as on this occasion. " The herring fleet
has been more than once overtaken by a fierce storm, where valuable
lives have been lost, and thousands of pounds worth of netting and
boats destroyed, and the gladdening sights of the herring fishery have
been changed to wailing and sorrow."
582 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The Yarmouth boats are decked vessels of from fifty to eighty tons,
with attendant boats, costing about one thousand pounds, and having
stowage for about fifty lasts ; nominally, ten thousand, but, counted
fisherwise, thirteen thousand, herrings, besides provision for a five or
six days' voyage. Leaving a hand or two in charge of the vessel, the
majority of the crew are out in the smaller boats, fishing.
The Dutch herring fishery is usually pursued during the night.
When the nets are in the water the boat is left, as we have seen in
Dr. Bertram's excursion, to drift in the meantime. Each boat is
furnished with a lantern, which serves the double purpose of attract-
ing the shoals of fish, and preventing collisions with other boats.
The herring fishery is extremely capricious in its results ; one or two
boats have been known to carry into port the whole takings of a night.
Valenciennes witnessed the capture of a hundred and ten thousand
herrings in less than two hours. The nets are hauled in when
moderately charged with fish by the crew ; but it is often necessary to
have recourse to the capstan in the process. Some of the hands are
stationed to detach the fish from the nets ; others detach the nets
from the buoys ; while others again fold up and stow away the nets
for future use.
On the coast of Norway the electric telegraph is applied to the
herring fishery, being employed to announce to the inhabitants of the
fishing towns the approach of the shoals of fish. In the fiords of
Norway, where the produce of the herring fishery is the principal
means of existence to nearly the entire population, it often happened
that the fish made its appearance at the most unexpected times, and on
some parts of the coast the shoals could only be met by one or two
boats. Before the boats from the bays and fiords could take part in
the fishery, the herrings had deposited their spawn and returned to the
open sea.
To prevent these disappointments, often repeated with great loss
to the fishermen, the Norwegian government established, in 1857, a
submarine electric cable, along the coast frequented by the herrings,
of a hundred miles, with stations on shore at intervals conveniently
placed for communicating with the villages inhabited by the fishermen.
As soon as a shoal of herrings is known to be in the ofiing and they
can always be perceived at a considerable distance by the wave they
raise a telegram is despatched along the coast, which makes known
OSSEOUS FISHES. 583
in each village the approach to the bay in which the herrings have
established themselves.
This important branch of industry ha's only assumed its real
character since the fourteenth century, and its sudden and prodigious
extension is due to the discovery of a simple Dutch fisherman, George
Benkel, who died in 1397. To this man Holland owes much of its
wealth. He discovered, in short, the art of curing the herring so as
to preserve it for an indefinite time. From that moment the herring
fishery assumed an unexpected importance, and became the source of
much wealth to Holland and its industrious and enterprising people.
Two hundred years after his death the Emperor Charles Y. solemnly
ate a herring on Benkel's tomb; it was a small homage paid to
the memory of the creator of a new industry which had enriched
his native land.
The Shad (Alosa), which have the body round and more plump
than the herring, are still more distinguishable by the arrangement of
their teeth. More than twenty species of this genus are known, vary-
ing considerably in size. They inhabit the seas which wash the
coasts of Europe, Africa, India, and America. One species is the
Common Shad, Alosa communis (Fig. 384), which is found in the
Channel, the North Sea, and all round our coast. It is of a silvery
tint generally, greenish on the back, with one or two black spots
behind the gills. The shad approaches the mouths of rivers and
great estuaries, and habitually ascends them in the spring for the
purpose of depositing its ova, and is found at this season in the
Ehine, the Seine, the Garonne, the Volga, the Elbe, and many of our
own rivers. In some of the Irish rivers the masses of shad taken in
the seine-net have been so great that no amount of exertion has been
sufficient to land them. It sometimes attains a very considerable
size, weighing as much as from four to six pounds. The shad taken
at sea are less delicate in their flesh than those caught in fresh water.
The habits of the shad are very imperfectly known. Two species are
found on the British coast, namely, the Twaite Shad of Yarrell
(Alosa finta), which ia about fourteen inches in length, brownish-
green on the back, inclining to blue in certain lights, the rest of the
body silvery white, with five or six dusky spots on each side arranged
longitudinally. The jaws are furnished with distinct teeth ; the tail
deeply forked.
584 THE OCEAN WORLD.
The second species, the Common or Allice Shad (A. Communis), is
considerably larger, sometimes attaining twelve and even fifteen inches
in length, having only one spot on each side of the hody near the
head ; the jaws without teeth, the scales small in proportion. This
species is plentiful in the Severn, but rare in the Thames.
Fig. 384. The Allice Shad (Alosa communis).
The shad is found in the Severn and Thames in considerable
quantities about the second week in July. They reach the fresh
water about May, deposit their spawn, and return to salt water in
July. Their scales are large.
The Sprat (C. SpraMus) has been the subject of a great controversy,
like the parr one party contending that it is the young of the
herring ; another, that it is a distinct species. Pennant, Yarrell, and
many eminent naturalists adopt the first view : yet its specific charac-
ters, according to Pennant, are " greater depth of body than the young
herring, gill-covers not veined ; teeth of the lower jaw so small as to
be scarcely sensible to the touch ; the dorsal fin placed far back, and
the sharp edge of the abdomen more acutely serrated than in the
herring." Like the herring, they inhabit the deep water during the
summer, following the shoal to the sea-shore in autumn. The sprat
fishing commences in November and continues during the winter
months, when they are caught in such numbers that in some localities
they have been used as manure.
OSSEOUS FISHES.
585
In support of the individuality of the sprat, the serrated belly and
relative position of the fins are dwelt upon, together with the instance
detailed hy Mr. Mitchell, the Belgian consul at Leith, who exhibited
a pair of sprats, having the roe and milt fully developed.
On the other hand, the abundance of the sprat has been adduced
as a reason for its being the t young herring. In addition to this,
anatomists declare their anatomy shows no difference but size. " As
to the serrated belly," says Bertram, " we may look on that as we do
on the back of a child's frock, namely, as a provision for growth."
If this is so, Dr. Bertram supplies material at once for thought and
legislation. " The slaughter of sprats," he says, " is as decided a
case of killing the goose with the golden eggs as the grilse slaughter
carried on in our salmon rivers." But Mr. Bertram here overlooks
a fact of which any one may convince himself, namely, that young
herrings are caught without the serrated belly ; nay, the curer's
purchase is regulated by the sprat's rough, and the herring's smooth
belly.
The Pilchard, Clupea pilehardus (Fig. 385), sometimes called the
Fig. 385. The Pilchard (Clupea pilchard us).
gipsy herring, visits our coasts all the year round. It was at one time
thought, as the herring was, to be migratory, but, like that fish, it is
now found to be a native of our own seas, and a constant inhabitant
of our shores. It has been known to spawn in May, but the usual
time is October, and authorities like Mr. Couch think it breeds only
once a year. Its visit to shallow water causes immense excitement ;
586 THE OCEAN WORLD.
persons watch night and day from the lofty cliffs along the Cornwall
coast, and the watchers (locally called " huers ") signal the boats at
sea beneath them the moment they see indications of the approach of
a shoal. Mr. Wilkie Collins gives an animated picture of the " huer :"
" A stranger in Cornwall, taking his first walk along the cliffs in
August, could not advance far without witnessing what would strike
him as a very singular and even alarming phenomenon. He would see
a man standing on the extreme edge of a precipice just over the sea,
gesticulating in a very remarkable manner, with a bush in his hand,
waving it to the right and to the left, brandishing it over his head,
sweeping it past his feet ; in short, acting the part apparently of a
maniac of the most dangerous description. It would add considerably
to the stranger's surprise if he were told that the insane individual
before him was paid for flourishing the bush at the rate of a guinea a
week. And if he advanced a little, so as to obtain a nearer view of
the madman, and observed a well-manned boat below turning carefully
to the right and left, as the bush turned, his mystification would
probably be complete, and his ideas as to the sanity of the inhabitants
would be expressed with grievous doubt.
" But a few words of explanation would make him alter his opinion.
He would learn that the man was an important agent in the pilchard
fishery of Cornwall, that he had just discovered a shoal swimming
towards the land, and that the men in the boats were guided by his
gesticulations alone in their arrangements for securing the fish on
which so many depend for a livelihood."
The pilchard, the young of which is believed to be the sardine of
commerce, where its place is not usurped by the sprat, is sometimes
taken in the Channel, on the coasts of Brittany and Cornwall, and
in the Mediterranean, and on the coast of Sardinia, whence its
commercial name. In Brittany floating-nets are employed. The
fishing is conducted in boats, each carrying five men ; hundreds
of these boats may sometimes be seen engaged at the same time
three or four leagues from the coast, the nets being only drawn
when they are fully charged, when the fish are arranged bed
upon bed in osier baskets, each boat returning habitually to port
when it has secured twenty-five thousand fishes. The fishery ex-
tends over five or six months, the produce being about six hundred
millions of sardines.
OSSEOUS FISHES. 587
The Basque fishermen employ a net in the form of a sack, with
rings at each corner.
On the coast of Cornwall, as we have hinted, it is one of the staple
industries, and pursued systematically. Where they come from, and
whither they go, seems alike unknown. All that is certain is, that
they are met with in shoals swimming past the Scilly Islands as early
as July. In August the inshore fishing hegins, and they appear on
various parts of the coast as far north as Devonshire and the south
coast of Ireland up to October and November ; no doubt those which
have escaped the innumerable nets spread for them.
" The first sight from the cliffs of a shoal of pilchards," says Mr.
Collins, in the work already quoted, " is not a little interesting. They
produce on the sea the appearance of the shadow of a dark cloud,
which approaches until you can see the fish leaping and playing on
the -surface by hundreds at a time, all huddled close together, and so
near the shore that they can be caught in fifty or sixty feet of water.
Indeed, when the shoals are of considerable magnitude, the fish behind
have been known literally to force the fish in front up to the beach,
so that they could be taken in baskets, or even with the hand.
" With the discovery of the first shoal, the active duties of the look-
out, or huer, on the cliffs begin. Each fishing village places one or
more of these men on the watch all round the coast. He is, therefore,
not only paid his guinea a week while he is on the watch, but a per-
centage on the produce of all the fish taken under his auspices. He
is placed at his post, where he can command an uninterrupted view of
the sea, some days before the pilchards are expected.
" The principal boat used is, at least, of fifteen tons burden, and
carries a large net called the * seine,' which measures a hundred and
ninety fathoms in length, and costs a hundred and twenty pounds
sometimes more. It is simply one long strip from eleven to thirteen
fathoms in breadth, composed of very small meshes, and furnished all
along its length with cork at one edge and lead at the other. The
men who cast this net are called ' shooters,' and receive eleven
shillings and sixpence a week, and one basket of fish out of every
haul.
" As soon as the ' huer ' discerns a shoal he waves his bush. The
signal is conveyed to the beach by men and boys watching near him.
The ' seine '- boat, accompanied by another, to assist in casting the
588 THE OCEAN WOKLD.
net, is rowed out to "where he can see it ; then there is a pause and
hush of expectation. Meanwhile the devoted pilchards press on a
compact mass of thousands on thousands of fish swimming to meet
their doom. All eyes are fixed on the ' huer ;' he stands watchful
and still, until the shoal is thoroughly emhayed in water which he
knows to be within the depth of the ' seine.' Then, as the fish hegin
to pause in their progress, and gradually crowd closer and closer to-
gether, he gives the signal, and the ' seine ' is cast or ' shot ' over-
board.
" The grand object is now to enclose the entire shoal. The leads
sink one side of the net perpendicularly to the bottom, the corks buoy
the other to the surface of the water. When it has been taken all
round the shoal, the two extremities are made fast, and the fishes are
imprisoned within an oblong barrier of netting. The art is how to let
as few of the pilchards escape as possible while the process is being
completed. Whenever the ' huer ' observes that they are startled, and
separating at any particular point, he waves his bush, and thither the
boat is steered, and there the net is shot at once ; the fish are thus
headed and thwarted in every direction with extraordinary address
and skill. This labour completed, the silence of intense expectation
that has hitherto prevailed is broken there is a shout of joy on all
sides the shoal is secured.
" The ' seine ' is now regarded as a great reservoir of fish. It may
remain in the water a week or more ; to secure it against being
moved from its position, in case a gale should come on, it is warped by
two or three ropes to points of land in the cliff, and is at the same
time contracted in circuit by its opposite ends being brought together
and passed lightly over its breadth for several i'eet. While these
operations are being performed, another boat, another set of men, and
another net, are approaching the scene of action.
" The new net is called the ' tuck ;' it is smaller than the ' seine ;'
inside which it is to be let down, for the purpose of bringing the fish
close to the surface. The men who manage this net are called
* regular sewers.' The boat is first of all rowed inside the seine-net,
and laid close to the seine-boat, which remains stationary outside.
To its bows one rope at the end of the tuck-net is fastened. The
tuck-boat now slowly makes the inner circle of the seine, the smaller
net being dropped overboard, and attached to the seine at intervals
OSSEOUS FISHES. 589
as she goes. To prevent the fish from getting hetween the two nets
during the operation, they are frightened into the middle of the
enclosure by beating the water with oars, and stones fastened to ropes.
When the ' tuck' has at length travelled round the whole circle of
the ' seine,' and is securely fastened to the seine-boat at the end as it
was at the beginning, everything is prepared for the great event of
the day hauling the fish to the surface.
" Now all is excitement on sea and shore ; every little boat in the
place puts off, crammed with idle spectators ; boys shout, dogs bark,
and the shrill voices of the former are joined by the deep voices of the
'seiners.' There they stand, six or eight stalwart, sun-burnt fellows,
ranged in a row in the seine-boat, hauling with all their might at the
' tuck '-net, and roaring out the nautical ' Yo, heave ho !' in chorus.
Higher and higher rises the net ; louder and louder shout the boys
and the idlers ; the ' huer,' so calm and collected hitherto, loses his
self-possession, and waves his cap triumphantly. ' Hooray ! hooray !
Yoy hoy, hoy ! Pull away, boys ! Up she comes ! Here they
are !' The water boils and eddies ; the ' tuck '-net rises to the surface ;
one teeming, convulsed mass of shining, glancing, silvery scales ; one
compact mass of thousands of fish, each one of which is madly striving
to escape, appears in an instant. Boats as large as barges now pull
up, in hot haste, all round the nets, baskets are produced by dozens,
the fish are dipped up in them, and shot out, like coals out of a sack,
into the boats. Presently the men are ankle-deep in pilchards ; they
jump upon the benches, and work on till the boats can hold no more.
They are almost gunwale under before they leave for the shore."
In the process of curing, the scene becomes doubly picturesque, but
this is shore-work, with which our space forbids us to deal.
" Some idea of the almost incalculable multitude of pilchards caught
on the Cornwall shores," says Mr. Collins, " may be gathered from
the following data : At the small fishing cove of Trereen six hundred
hogsheads were taken in little more than a week, during August,
1850. Allowing two thousand four hundred fish only to each hogs-
head (three thousand would be the highest calculation), we have a
result of one million four hundred and forty pilchards caught by the
inhabitants of one little village alone, on the Cornish coast, at the
commencement of the season's fishing."
The Anchovy (Engmulis) is chiefly taken in the Mediterranean,
590 THE OCEAN WORLD.
and is much sought after for its delicate flavour when salted and
cured. It is a small, slender fish, ahout four to four and a half inches
in length ; head pointed, mouth very wide, gill-openings large, ab-
domen smooth ; when living it is greenish on the hack, silvery
heneath ; after death it changes to a bluish black. The fishery which
gives the most abundant results takes place on the shores of the
Mediterranean, principally on the coast of Sicily, the isles of Elba,
Corsica, Antibes, Frejus, Saint-Tropez, and Cannes. They are also
taken on the Dalmatian coast, and in the neighbourhood of Bagusa.
The anchovy is only fit for food after being preserved and salted.
The process of curing commences by throwing it into a strong brine ;
then, the head and entrails being removed, they are arranged in rows
in barrels or boxes of tin, in alternate layers of salt and fish ; finally,
after some days of exposure, they are hermetically closed and despatched
to market. Those prepared on the Provenpal coast were formerly
carried to the fair of Beaucaire, whence they found their way all over
France, and to many parts of Europe. Now, the anchovies cured at
Marseilles, and other Provenpal ports, are sent direct to the various
markets of Europe.
THE ACANTHOPTEBYGEANS
include the Perch family, which is altogether a fresh-water fish, and,
however interesting in itself, foreign to our present purpose. It
includes also the cat-fish, which is also known as the bar, and more
commonly the wolf- fish, in Bas-Languedoc and Provence. It is
common in the Mediterranean, and in many of the great rivers which
empty themselves into it. The Cat-fish (Fig. 386) has the appearance
of an elongated perch ; its colour, in the adult state, is of a uniform
silvery hue, marked with brown and yellow spots in the young.
The Weevers (Trachinus), forming another division of this family,
are characterised by their very compressed head and the strong spines
of the operculum. They are elongated in shape, with short muzzles ;
they have a habit of burying themselves in the sand, and are for-
midable to fishermen, from the dangerous wounds they inflict with
their spines. Trachinus communis (Fig. 387) is widely diffused in
the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The genus Uranoscopus are so named from the position of their
OSSEOUS FISHES.
591
eyes, which are directed towards the sky, from ovpavbs, the heavens,
and crtfoTreo), I regard. From this peculiar arrangement, they can
Fig. 386. The Cat-fish.
only see above them. They are closely connected with the cat-fish.
Uranoscopus vulgaris (Fig. 388) belongs to the Mediterranean, and
is remarkable for its thick cubical head and erect spiny dorsal fins.
Fig. 387. The Weever-fish (Trachinus communis).
The Mullets (Mullus) have the body thick and oblong, the profile
592
THE OCEAN WOKLD.
of the head approaching the vertical line ; scales large, two dorsal
fins, widely separated the rays of the first spinous, of the second,
flexible ; two cirri at the lower jaw. Two species are known, hoth
inhabitants of our west and south-west coasts : the Striped or Bed
Mullet (Mullus surmuletus), rare as British, and the Eed Mullet
(II. barbatus). The first is a fine bright vermilion red, with three
dominating yellow lines ; the throat, breast, ventral, and lower surface
of the tail are white, slightly tinged with rose ; the fins have their rays
more or less red, the iris of the eyes a pale gold colour, just touched
with red; the head bears two barbels. This beautiful fish is plentiful
Fig. 383. Uranoscopus vulgaris.
in the Mediterranean and sometimes in the Channel, common in the
gulfs of Gascony, and is frequently served on the table at Bordeaux
and Bayonne, where it is known as the barbel ; its flesh is a little
flaky, of an agreeable flavour, but less esteemed than the red mullet.
The Eed Mullet (Mullus larbatus) is clothed in brilliant colours of
bright red, mingling with silvery tints upon the side and belly ; it
presents fine indistinct reflections, but none of the yellow lines which
occur in the preceding species. It is to its brilliant colouring that
the red mullet owes much of its celebrity. When we add that its
flesh is white, firm, and agreeable to the taste, the estimation in which
it was held by the ancients is sufficiently explained. With the Komans
the mullet was an object of luxury on which they expended fabulous
OSSEOUS FISHES. 593
sums ; they cultivated the fish in their fish-ponds not only as a delicacy
of the table, but for the beauty of form and colour. This fierce love
of beauty, however, too often approached to cruelty. Seneca and
Pliny both give us to understand that the rich patricians of Eome
gave themselves the barbarous pleasure of seeing the mullet expire
under their eyes, in order to witness the various shades of purple,
violet, and blue which succeed each other from cinnabar red to the
palest white, as the animal gradually loses its strength, and expires
by a slow and cruel death. The great rival of Cicero, the advocate
Hortensius, who attracted crowds of people to the Forum by his
eloquent and elegant discourses, had an inordinate passion for this
kind of enjoyment. These little inhabitants of the waters were led
by a small canal which was carried under the festive table, and his
great enjoyment was to witness the agonies of the unhappy fish just
taken from its native element and carried to the table, palpitating
with its dying convulsions, as it perished beneath his eyes, he in the
meanwhile enjoying a sumptuous banquet. The possession of these
poor creatures had, in short, become the rage, a furious passion, and
their price soon became excessive. A fish of three pounds produced
a considerable sum to the fortunate fisherman, while one of four and
a half pounds was simply ruinous, says Martial. Asinius Gelius
purchased one for eight thousand sesterces (upwards of sixty pounds).
Under Caligula, according to Suetonius, three mullets cost thirty thou-
sand sesterces (about two hundred and forty pounds). Although it is
no longer the object of ferocious enjoyment on the one hand, or pro-
digal expenditure on the other, it is still much sought after, both for
its beauty of colour and excellent table qualities. It is found in many
seas, but particularly in the Mediterranean, where li is taken all
round the coast, usually in muddy bottoms ; it is fished for both by
line and net.
The Gurnards (Trigla) are remarkable for the singular manner in
which the head is mailed and cuirassed ; the operculum and shoulder-
bones are armed with spines, having trenchant blades, which give
them a disagreeable, even a hideous, physiognomy, and has procured
them various names, such as sea-frog, sea -scorpion, sea-devil, and
sundry other equally significant names. With this forbidding appear-
ance, however, the gurnards are among the most resplendent inhabit-
ants of the sea. Nothing can exceed the beauty of their markings ;
2 Q
594
THE OCEAN WORLD.
but the brilliancy with which Nature has gifted them is their misfor-
tune ; it betrays them to their enemies, which are found in the air as
well as in the water, and without their prodigious fecundity this
species would long since have disappeared.
Twelve species of Trigla are known. In the British seas the com-
monest species is the Grey Gurnard (Trigla gurnardus), a silvery-
grey fish, more or less clouded with brown and speckled with black. A
rare species with us, but very common in the Mediterranean, is the Bed
Gurnard, Trigla pini (Fig. 389). It is of a fine bright rose-red colour,
Fig. 389. The Red Gurnard ( i'rigla piui).
paler beneath and more vivid about the fins, of which there are two
distinct dorsal and one ventral. Beneath the pectorals are three
detached rays ; both jaws and front of the lower palate are armed with
fine velvety teeth. The Perlon, or Sapharine Gurnard (T. hirundo),
is a large and handsome fish, remarkable for the lively green and blue
hues of the inner surface of its large pectoral fins.
The Flying Gurnard (Dadylopterus volitans) somewhat resembles
OSSEOUS FISHES. 595
the Triglas, but differs in having the fin-rays of the pectorals con-
nected by membranes, by which it is enabled to support itself some
time in the air, like the flying-fish ; the pectorals, when extended,
forming a sort of parachute (Fig. 390), which sustains it when it
leaps out of the water. Several species are known.
Fig. 390. The Flying Gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans>
All nature seems to conspire against these singular creatures, while
they have been gifted with the double power of swimming and flying.
The flying-fish only escapes from the Bonitas, and other voracious
fishes which pursue it on the bosom of the sea, to expose itself to the
attacks of the inhabitants of the air. A crowd of sea-fowl, such as
frigate-birds, the albatross, and the gulls, carry on a bloody war with
them when they venture on flight. Enemies thus pursue the unhappy
fish whatever element it betakes itself to. Nevertheless it passes from
one element to the other with an energy which frequently defeats
the attacks of its enemies. When it leaps from the sea to the height
of five or six feet, it sustains itself for several hundred feet, changing
its direction. In its flight it may be compared to that of the flying
dragon ; the popular name given to it is said to be derived from the
grunting noise they make on being taken out of the water.
2 Q 2
596 THE OCEAN WORLD.
LABYRINTHIFORM PHARYNGEANS.
In the fishes of this order the superior pharyngeal bones are divided
into numerous and irregular little leaflets, which intersect the cellules
situated under the operculum, which again serve to retain a certain
quantity of water. This water preserves the gills, however, when the
animal is dry, which permits them to live on shore, where they
frequently contrive to creep over great distances in search of water.
The genus Anabas, from ava/3alva), to ascend, possess this pecu-
liarity of organization in a remarkable degree; it enables them to
leave the rivers and marshes and little watercourses of Borneo and
Java, and other islands of the Indian Archipelago, and creep through
the herbage or along the ground by means of the inflexions of their
bodies, the dentation of their opercules, of their spines and fins. This
fact, although only recently known to modern naturalists, was well
known to the ancients, and has been recorded by Theophrastus.
The family' of the Scomberoides is the most important group in the
order, comprehending some of the fishes most useful to man, from their
size, the excellence of their flesh, and their abundance. The Tunny
(Thynnus, Cuv.), the Mackerel (Scomlier sconibrus), and the Bonita
(Tliynnus pelamys) , have yielded, from the remotest antiquity, immense
resources as human food, both in the fresh and preserved state.
The tunny, while resembling the mackerel in many respects in its
general form, is rounder, and attains a much. larger size, being some-
times found eight and nine feet in length, and weighing three to four
hundred pounds. The upper part of the body is a bluish-black ; the
belly is grey, with silvery spots. These fishes sometimes present
themselves in the Atlantic, but in the Mediterranean they are very
abundant. At some periods of the year they approach the coast in
innumerable shoals, and in numerous serried ranks, forming a vast
battalion, which conceals itself under the waves, and only betrays
itself on the exterior by the motion of the sea, caused by such vast
numbers travelling rapidly through the water. In many localities the
shoals of tunnies show themselves in the spring, pursuing their way
towards the east, and in the autumn we find them pursuing an oppo-
site direction. We see the same thing on the coast of Provence.
Upon the coast of La Ciotat a first fishing takes place from the
OSSEOUS FISHES. 597
months of March to July, and a second again from July to October.
But at other points of the coast they arrive at the same time from
very different directions ; nevertheless, in some places they are only
winter visitors.
The tunny-fishing goes back to the remotest antiquity. The
Phoenicians, the first navigators known, carried it on on the coast of
Spain. In our days the fishing is carried on with great activity on
the coasts of Provence, of Sardinia, and Sicily.
The fishing is generally carried on by the tunny-net, but in
Provence it is fished with an enclosed net called the madrague.
The tunny-net consists of a combination of nets, which is quickly
cast into the sea in order to head the tunnies at the moment of their
passage. When the sentinels, posted for the purpose, as in the pil-
chard fishery, have signalled the approach of a shoal of tunnies and
its direction, by the indications of a flag which points to the spot
occupied by the finny tribe, the fishing-boats are immediately directed
to the designated spot, and ranged in curved lines, forming with
the light floating net a half circular enclosure, turned towards the
shore, the interior of which is called the garden. The tunnies thus
enclosed in this garden, between the coast and the net, become agitated
with terror. As they advance towards the shore they press upon the
enclosure, or rather a new interior enclosure is formed with other nets
held in reserve. In this second enclosure an opening is left, through
which the tunnies have to pass. In continuing thus to diminish the
space by successive enclosures, each occupies a smaller diameter, in
which the fish are enclosed in about a fathom and a half of water. At
this moment a species of seine-net is thrown into the garden. This net
is hauled into shallow water by force of arms, and the small tunnies
are taken by the hand, the larger by hooks. The boats are charged
with them, and they are carried ashore. A single day's fishing will
sometimes produce as many as sixteen thousand tunnies, each from
twenty to five and twenty pounds weight.
When the park,- in place of being established for a single fishery,
is a permanent construction in the sea, it is called, in Provence, a
madrague. The madrague is a vast enclosure. The netting which
forms the partitions of its chambers are sustained by buoys of cork on
the surface, and kept down by heavy stones and other weights on the
lower edge, and maintained in this position by cords, one extremity
598 THE OCEAN WORLD.
of which is attached to the net, and the other is moored to an anchor.
The madrague is intended to arrest the shoals of tunnies at the
moment when they abandon the shore in order to return to the open
sea. For this purpose a long alley or run is established between the
sea-shore and the park or madrague. The tunnies follow this alley,
and, after passing from chamber to chamber, betake themselves at last
to the body of the park.
In order to force them into the madrague they are pressed towards
the shore by means of a long net, which is extended in their rear
attached to two boats, each of which sustains one of the upper angles
of the net. When the fishes come to the last compartment, the
fishermen raise a horizontal net, which makes a sort of plate of this
compartment, in which the fishes are gradually raised to the surface
of the water. This operation occupies the whole night.
In the morning the tunnies are collected in a very narrow space,
and at varying distances from the shore ; and now the carnage com-
mences. The unhappy creatures are struck with long poles, boat-
hooks, and other weapons. The tunny- fishing presents a very sad
spectacle at this its last stage ; fine large fish perish under the blows
of a multitude of fishermen, who pursue their bloody task with most
dramatic effect. The sight of the poor creatures, some of them wounded
and half dead, trying in vain to struggle with their ferocious assailants,
is very painful to endure. The sea, red with blood, long preserves
traces of this frightful carnage, of which an illustration is attempted
in PL. XXXI.
The flesh of the tunny is much esteemed, being firm and wholesome.
It is called the salmon of Provence. " For our part," says M. Figuier,
" we put it far above the salmon. Nothing is comparable to the fresh
tunny thrown into a hot frying-pan, and sprinkled with vinegar and
salt. When properly cooked, nothing can be more firm or savoury. In
short, nothing of the kind can rival, or even be compared, with the
tunny, as we find it at Marseilles and Cette."
The tunny is greatly celebrated among the Greeks and other
inhabitants on the shores of the Mediterranean, of the Propontus, and
the Black Sea. The Eomans attached great value to certain parts of
this fish, as the head and the lower part of the belly. The neigh-
bouring parts were in little esteem with them. They cut them into
pieces and preserved them in vases filled with salt. They are now
OSSEOUS FISHES. 599
preserved with oil and salt after being cooked ; this preparation is in
great request at Cette, Montpellier, and Marseilles. With a pot of
marine tunny, preserved in the vinegar of Lunel, a household is
pretty well prepared for any event.
The Mackerel (Scomber scombrus) is too well known to require
minute description. Who has not admired these fishes, with their steel-
blue back, and changing iridescent sides of gold and purple and green,
relieved by fine waving lines of deeper black, as they appear on the
market-stalls, or as they are emptied in the early morning from the
fishing-boat? The head is blue above, with black markings, the
rest of the body being heightened with iridescent shades of gold and
purple.
There are two species of mackerel that of the Atlantic and of the
Channel, which has no swimming-bladder, Scomber scombrus (Fig. 391),
Fig. 391. The Mackerel (Scomber scombrus).
and the mackerel of the Mediterranean, Scomber colias, which has the
swimming-bladder, and which is a very rare fish in our seas.
The mackerel is common to all European seas : being the Veirat of
the Bay of Languedoc ; the Aurion of Provence ; the Bretal in some
parts of Brittany ; the Hacarello of the modern Komans ; the Scombro
of the Venetians ; the Lacesto of the Neapolitans ; the Cavallo of the
Spaniards; the well-known Mackerel of our own shores, and the
Makril of the Swedes ; it is found on the coast of North America,
and as far south as the Canary Islands. It is a wandering, unsettled
fish, supposed to be migratory, but individuals are always found on
our coast. They are supposed to remain during the winter in the
600 THE OCEAN WORLD.
North Sea, and afterwards on the coast of Scotland and Ireland in
January and February, on their way to the Atlantic. Here their
great army is divided into two : one branch passes along the Spanish
and Portuguese coasts, while the other enters the Channel. In May
they appear on the coasts of England and France. In June they
reach Holland. In July one portion of them returns to the Baltic,
while another skirts the coast of Norway on its way to winter
quarters.
Lacepede estimated that this migration, which is so regular, and its
stages so rigorously indicated, was irreconcilable with a great number
of very precise observations ; and he arrived at the conclusion that the
mackerel passes the winter at the bottom of the sea, more or less
remote from the coast, which they again approach in the spring.
At the commencement of the fine season they advance towards the
shore which best agreed with them, showing themselves often on the
surface, like the tunny, traversing the sea in courses more or less direct
or sinuous, but never following the periodical circle which has been so
ingeniously traced out for them.
Mr. Milne Edwards also remarks that, if these legions of fishes
ascended from the Polar seas, they ought to visit the Orkneys before
they appeared in the Channel, and enter the Mediterranean later in
the season ; but he is assured that they appear at the Orkneys late in
the season. It appears, in short, that there are different varieties
which haunt the several neighbourhoods in which they abound.
The largest mackerel are taken at the entrance of the Channel,
but they are considered less delicate than the smaller fishes. The
shoals of mackerel, it appears, never enter the Gulf of Gascony, but
they abound along the shores of Brittany up to the North Sea. It is
about the month of April that they begin to be met with, but they are
still small and without milt or roe. In the months of June and July
the fish is in its most perfect state. Towards the end of September
and October mackerel of the same year's birth are taken ; finally, in
November and December, the fishermen still fish them, and send
them to market, but this is an irregularity, and the fishermen of
Lowestoft and Yarmouth take their great harvest in May and June ;
in the Firth of Forth, and on the north coast of Scotland, at a few
weeks later.
As mackerel are very voracious, they greedily devour all sorts of
OSSEOUS FISHES. 601
bait, but they are chiefly taken by the drift-net. The drift-net is
twenty feet deep and a hundred and twenty feet long, well buoyed at
the upper edge, but without weights at the bottom. The meshes,
made of fine twine tarred to a reddish colour for preservation, are
calculated to admit the head of the fish and catch it by the gills, so as
to prevent its withdrawal. A fleet of mackerel-boats dragging these
large nets, which are extended vertically in the sea, or float between
the two tides, is well represented in PL. XXXII.
The flesh of the mackerel is fat and high flavoured. Among the
ancients a liquid was extracted from this fat called garum, which was
considered a very nourishing preparation. The price of this liquid was
very high; in modern measures it was valued *at about sixteen
shillings the pint. It was acrid, half putrefied, and very nauseous,
but it had the property of rousing the appetite and stimulating the
digestive organs. Garum played the part of a condiment at a period
when the exciting array of Indian spices was unknown. Seneca
charges it, as we do pepper and other hot spices taken in excess, with
destroying the stomach and health of gourmands. This garum is
spoken of by the traveller Pierre Belon, writing in the sixteenth
century, as being held in great estimation at Constantinople in his
time. Eondelet, the author of a very remarkable book published in
1554, who ate garum at the table of William Pellicier, Bishop of
Maguelonne, thought he could trace the liquid not to the mackerel,
but to one of the Sparo'ides (Sparus smaris).
The mackerel possesses phosphorescent properties which cause it
to shine in the dark, especially after death, when decomposition has
commenced.
The mackerel is not only voracious, but, in spite of its small size,
it has the hardihood to attack fishes much larger and much stronger
than itself. It is even said that they love human flesh. According
to the naturalist bishop, Pontoppidan, who lived in the sixteenth
century, a sailor belonging to a vessel which had cast anchor in one
of the Norwegian ports, when bathing one day in the sea, was
assailed by a shoal of mackerel. His companions came to his relief ;
the eager band were repulsed with great difficulty, but not till it was
too late : the unfortunate sailor was so exhausted that he died a few
hours after. By a natural law of compensation the ubiquitous mackerel
is surrounded by numerous enemies ; the larger inhabitants of the ocean
602
THE OCEAN WORLD.
eagerly devour them. Certain fishes, in appearance very weak, such
as the muraena, fight them with great advantage.
Closely connected with the mackerel and other Scombridse, we
have the Bonita of the Tropics. This is a fish of considerable size,
celebrated by its pursuit in great shoals of the flying-fish, of which
we have already spoken. The Bonita (Thynnus pelamys) is not
unlike the mackerel in shape, but less compressed, and upwards of
twenty-five to thirty inches long. It is occasionally found on our
coast, but only as an accidental visitor, for its true home is the
Fig. 392. The Sword-fish (Xiphias gludius).
Tropics. It is a beautiful fish of a fine blue colour, with short pectoral
fins and four longitudinal bands on each side of the belly. It is easily
harpooned from the dolphin-striker, and appears to have the power of
generating electricity. Any one grasping the living fish is violently
shaken as in palsy, " agitans," so much so that the most resolute son
of Neptune cannot control his speech ; every attempt culminates in
an unintelligible spasmodic sputter. The instant the bonita is
dropped, the muscles resume their routine action.
The Sword-fish, Xiphias gladius (Fig. 392), so called from the
OSSEOUS FISHES. 603
upper jaw being elongated into a formidable spear or sword, was
known to the ancients, and has borne the name which recalls its
salient characteristic from very early times. In short, it is recog-
nized at a glance from its organic structure, and from the resemblance
of its prolonged horizontal and trenchant muzzle to the blade of a
sword. With the ancients it was H^tas, and Gladius ; with the
moderns it is the Sword-fish, the Dart, the Spece spada, and lEspadon
epee.
This fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean
and Atlantic, in company with the tunny, from five to six feet in
length. Its body is lengthy, and covered with minute scales, the
sword forming three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a
single long dorsal fin ; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the
mouth toothless, the upper part of the fish bluish-black, merging into
silver beneath. It seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards
and against all the arm with which Nature has furnished it ; it darts
with the utmost fury upon the most formidable moving bodies ; it
attacks the whale; and there are numerous and well-authenti-
cated instances of ships being perforated by the weapon of this power-
ful creature.
In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom of
a ship which had just returned from the tropical seas, found the lance
of a sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They declared
that, to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and form to the
same depth, would require eight or nine blows of a hammer weighing
thirty pounds. From the position of the weapon it was evident that
the fish had followed the ship while under full sail ; it had penetrated
through the metal sheathing, and three inches and a half beyond, into
the solid frame.
The sword-fish has obstinate combats with the saw-fish, and even
the shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a
vessel he takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy. But this
terrible jouster, this Paladin of the abyss, often becomes himself the
prey of a most contemptible enemy. A miserable little parasite, the
Pennatula filesa, penetrates its flesh, and almost drives it mad with pain.
The flesh of the young sword-fish is white, compact, and of ex-
cellent taste ; that of adults resembles the tunny. It is the object of
a fishery of some importance in the Straits of Messina. The fisher-
604
THE OCEAN WOELD.
men of Messina and Reggio join in this fishery with a great number of
boats, carrying brilliant flambeaux, while one of the crew is stationed
at the mast-head to announce the approach of the sword-fish. At a
given signal the boats rush on to attack them with the harpoons
(Fig. 393). During this fishery the sailors sing a peculiar melody,
but without words.
Fig. 393. Fishing for Sword-fi&h in the Straits of Messina.
The family of Pediculate Pectorals is so named from the fishes of
which it is composed bearing their pectoral fins on a species of arm
which forms a prolongation of the carp bone ; it includes the Frog-
fish, remarkable for the excessive circumference of the head and
shoulders as compared with the rest of the body, the immense opening
of a jaw, armed with pointed teeth, and the cutaneous jagged stripes
of various lengths with which it bristles at many points. Its skin
is soft, smooth, and without scales or other asperities ; the members
which support the pectorals, and other peculiarities, combine to
render it a hideous and forbidding object, well calculated in ignorant
and superstitious times to frighten the multitude. The remains
of this fish, prepared in such a manner as to be transparent,
OSSEOUS FISHES.
605
and rendered luminous by a lamp enclosed in its interior, has
often helped to deceive and frighten the timid by its fantastic
appearance.
The Frog-fish, Lophius piscatorius Linn. (Fig. SGI), which
Fig. 394. The Frog-fish (Lophius piscatorius).
attains the length of five or six feet, lives in the sand, or sunk in the
mud, leaving the long and movable filaments with which the head is
furnished to float in the water ; the shreds which terminate them act
as natural bait when they float about in different directions, from their
resemblance to worms and other living creatures. The fishes which
swim above them, and which they see very well by the assistance of
their two eyes placed on the summit of the head, are attracted by
these deceitful decoys. When the prey arrives near to the enormous
jaws, which are almost always wide open, it is engulfed and torn to
pieces by its strongly-hooked teeth.
This manner of lying in ambush, and fishing, as it were, with a hook
and line for fishes which its conformation does not permit it to pursue,
has acquired for it the name of the frog-fish, which is sometimes given
to it. It is found more or less in all parts of the Mediterranean and
606
THE OCEAN WOELD.
in many parts of the Atlantic, being frequently taken both in the
Gulf of Gascony and in the Channel.
The family of Ldbridss comprehends : I. The Wrasse (Lcibrus), a
genus of fishes decked in the most lively colours; for the yellow,
green, blue, and red, forming bands of spots, give the body the appear-
ance of being enriched with brilliant metallic reflections. II. The
Julis, of Eisso, the Mediterranean species of which is remarkable
for its fine violet colour, relieved on each side by an orange band.
Of the Ldbridds we represent here, as a type of the family, the
adult Green and Bed Labrus (Fig. 395), varieties of the commonest
Fig. 395. Adult Green and Red varieties of Labrus communis.
species, called the sea-parrot, the body of each being oblong, clothed
with large scales : a dorsal fin, frequently with membranous append-
ages, thick fleshy lips, and large conical teeth ; cheeks and gill-covers
clothed with scales ; gill-covers smooth at the edges ; three spines in
the anal fin. In Julis the cheeks and gill-covers are without scales ;
in other respects they resemble Labrus.
OSSEOUS FISHES. 607
Among the acanthopterygeous fishes we shall only notice the
singular family of Fistulariadte, or Pipe-fishes, so called from the
extreme elongation of the fore part of the head, forming a tube, at the
extremity of which is the mouth. Of this family, Fistularia tabacaria
(Fig. 396) may he considered the type. The tube of the muzzle is
Fig. 396. The 1'ipe-fish (Fistularia tabacaria).
long and flat, and from the caudal fin springs a terminal filament
nearly as long as the body. This species of pipe-fish is common at
the Antilles ; it attains the length of about three feet, but its flesh is
leathery and insipid. It feeds upon crustaceans and small fishes,
which it drags from the interstices of the rocks and stones by means
of its long and taper pipe.
We close our abbreviated history of the Ocean and such of the in-
habitants with which it swarms as seems most likely, from their
habits and other peculiarities, to interest the readers, conscious of its
many imperfections. Where every creature which moves and breathes
in the watery world is so full of interest, it will not surprise the
reader to learn that one of the editor's chief difficulties has been that
of selection, his most painful task that of rejecting the vast mass of
interesting matter he had necessarily to pass in review.
We have shown in the first chapter of this work that nearly three-
fourths of the surface of the earth is bathed by the sea. Struck with
608 THE OCEAN WORLD.
this vast extent of ocean, a witty French writer says, " One is almost
tempted to believe that our planet was specially created for fishes."
They are, indeed, a very important part of creation ; they form, as it
were, a bond uniting the vertebrate to invertebrate animals. They
have a more complicated organization than any of the other oceanic
inhabitants (except the Cetaceae), as they are also the most numerous,
the most varied in form, and by far the most brilliant in colour, and
the most active in their movements.
Pliny, the naturalist, describes ninety-four species of fishes. Lin-
naeus has characterised four hundred and seventy-eight. The natu-
ralists of the present day know upwards of thirteen thousand, a tenth
of which are fresh -water fishes.
( 609 )
INDEX.
Abdominales, 560.
Acalephse, or Sea Nettles, 195.
Acanthopterygians, 590.
Acclimatizing sponges, 80.
Acephalous Mollusca, 316.
Acetabuliferous Cephalopods, 448.
Achatina zebra, 409.
Actiuiaria, 181.
dianthus, 189.
^Equerea violacea, 198.
Agalma rubra, 239. Its graceful appear-
ance, ib. Its interior, 240.
Alcyonaria, 119.
proper, 144.
Alcyonium digitatum, 144, 151.
Allice Shad, 584.
Alternate generation in the Biphora, 315.
Alveolina oblonga, 95.
Ambulacral appendages, 263.
Amcebse diffluens, 86.
princeps, 86.
Ammodytes lancea, 537.
Anabas, 596.
Analysis of sea water, 15, 18.
Anatomy of the Carp, 504.
Anchovy (Engraulis), 589.
Ancient trilobite, 448.
Animalcules, their action, 10.
Antarctic Ocean, 3. Discoveries, 44, 50.
Antipathidse, 148, 149.
Apiocrinus pentacrinus, 271.
Aplysia depilans, shell and animal, 393.
Apoda, 536.
Apolemia contorta, 241. Parts magnified,
242.
Aporous Madrepores, 150.
Appearance of the sea, 60.
Aquarium, the, 66.
Arctic Ocean, 9.
Argonauta, fables concerning it, 467. Aris-
totle's description, ib. Oppian's descrip-
tion, 468. His mistakes, ib. Eumphius,
469. Keal history, 470. Madame Power's
experiments, ib. Locomotive organs,
471.
Argonauta argo, shell and animal, 469.
papyracea, animal and shell, 471.
Aristotle's Lantern, 287, 289.
Ascidia microcosmus, 310.
pedunculata, 311.
Ascidians, simple, social, and composite, 310.
Aspergillum vaginiferum, 331.
Asteracanthion glacialis, 264.
Asterias, 260.
aurantiaca, 263.
rubens, 261.
Asterophyton verrucosum, 279.
Astrea punctifera, 155.
Atlantic Ocean, 2.
Atmospheric currents, 29.
Atolls and Atollons, 166.
Aurelia aurita, 199.
Azoic rocks, 61.
Bacterium termo, 108.
Baffin's Bay discovered, 44.
Baltic Sea, 6.
Barentz's discoveries, 44.
Barren reefs, 173.
Beale's adventure with a Cuttle-fish, 452.
Bed of coral, 128.
Behring's Straits, 44.
Berb'e Forskahli, 255.
Berfchelot's representation of the capture of
a Cephalopod, 462.
Biphora, 313.
Birth of coralline larvae, 133.
Bivalves, how united, 318.
Blue minyade. 193.
Bonitas, 595, 602.
Bonpland's account of the Electrical Eel,
539.
Boring Pholades, 326.
Botrillus, 311.
Branch of Virgularia magnified, 143.
Branchial infusoria, 107.
Breathing in Molluscs, ?05.
Brooke's sounding apparatus, 5.
Bryozoare Polyps, 134. Their organiza-
tion, 305.
2 K
610
INDEX.
Buccinum senticosum, and B. undatum,
433.
Bnlimus sultanus, 408.
Bulla ampulla, B. oblonga, and B. nebu-
losa, 394.
Cabot's discoveries, 43, 554.
Calmar, the, 458.
Callianira, 257.
Campanularise, 228.
Cancale Oysters, 368.
Cape Horn, 2.
Race, 8.
Carcharius vulgaris (the Shark), 517. Its
description, ib. Destructive habits, 518.
Immense power, 519. Its flesh coarse,
521. Superstitious devotions to, 521, 522.
Cardium hians, and C. Greenlandicum,
337.
aculeatum and C. edulis, 337.
costatum, 338.
Carnivorous Cephalopods, 454.
Cartilaginous fishes, 508.
Caryophillia cyathus, 151.
Cassidulina, 92.
Cassiopea Andromeda, 222.
Cassis glauca, C. rufa, C. canaliculata, and
C. Madagascariensis, 429.
undata, 430.
Cat-fish, 591.
Celebrated Oyster eaters, 370.
Cephalopodous Mollusca, 445.
Cephalous Mollusca, 391.
Cerithium fasciatum, C. aluco, and C.
giganteum, 419.
Cestidse, 258.
Chancellor's discoveries, 43.
Chart of the Atlantic, 7.
Charybdis, whirlpool of, 42.
Chimsera arctica, 524.
Chiton magnificus, 410.
Chrysaora Gaudichaudi, 218.
Ciliate Infusoria, 111.
Circulating tubes in the Coral, 131.
Circulation of the ocean, 23.
Cirrotheutis Mulleri, 466.
Classic feast on the Corniche du Prado, at
Marseilles, 291.
Cleodara cuspidata, 444.
lanceolata and C. compressa, 444.
Clupeadse, 575.
Clypeaster rosaceus, 287.
Cocos Island, 170, 172.
Cod curing, 556.
fish (Morrhua callarias), 553.
fisheries, 554.
Coffres (Ostracion), 533.
Colour of the sea, 11. Local causes of,
13. Effects of animalcules, ib. Algse
of rivers, 14.
Comatulse, 275.
Comatula Mediterranea, 275.
Complicated organization of a polyp, 137.
Condylostoma patens, 113.
Conger Eels (Anguilla conger), 543.
Contents of a drop of water, 97.
Conus, principal forms of, 426.
Cook's discoveries, 44, 50.
Coral and living polyps, 129.
fisheries, 137.
islands, 21.
Coralline spicula, 130.
Corallines, 119.
Cornularia cornucopia, 144.
Corpuscles from which young polyps ema-
nate, 136.
Corystes Cassivelaunus, male, 489. Female,
490.
Cothurnia pyxidiformis, 112.
Crabs, their habits, mode of attacking
cocoa-nuts, 484. Travelling Crabs, 485.
Propagation, 486.
Cramp-fish (Torpedo marmorata), 514.
Crinoidea, 270.
Cruelty to Oysters, 372.
Crustaceans, 477. Their organization, 478.
Breathing apparatus, 481. Destructive
habits, 482.
Crystatella mucedo, 307.
Ctenophora, 198, 254.
Cultivation of Oysters, 375.
Currents of the ocean, their causes, 23, 27,
28. Bifurcation of currents, 33.
Cuttle-fish, 449. Described, 455. Its pig-
ments, 456. Habits, 457.
Cyclones, 32.
Cyclopteris, 544.
Cyclostoma, 508.
Cydippa pilens, 257.
Cypraea, principal forms of, 420.
capensis, C. testudinaria, C. nu-
cleus, and C. pantherina, 423.
coccinella, 421.
tigris and animal, ib.
undata, C. zigzag, C. moneta, and
C. Madagascariensis, 422.
Cytherea, principal forms of, 335.
geographica, ib.
Dab (Platessa limanda), 550.
Dactylopora cylindracea, 95.
Darwin's observations at Terra del Fuego,
167.
theory of coral islands. 21.
theory of subsidence, 170.
Daughter of the sea, 137.
Da vis's discoveries, 43.
Dead men's fingers, 144.
Death in the ocean, 62.
Decapoda, their organization, 464.
Decomposition of Infusoria, 97.
De Haven's search for Franklin, 58.
INDEX.
611
Delphinula sphserula, 417.
Dendrophylla ramea, 160. Magnified, 161.
Density of salt water, ]6.
Dentalina communis, 92.
Depth of the sea, 1.
Depths of oceanic storms, 63.
Diodon pilosus, 532.
Diphydse, 242.
Disaster of the San Francisco, 32.
Discobolidas, 544.
Discophora, 198.
Distribution of land and water, 1.
Dog-fish (Acanthias vulgaris), 522.
Donax trunculus, 320.
rugosus and D. denticulatus, 333.
Dredge employed in Oyster fishing, 375.
Dujardin's discoveries, 85.
D'Urville's voyages, 44, 51. Adelia's Land,
53.
Dykes of Holland undermined, 322.
Early animal life, 61.
Echineis remora, 544, 545.
Echinodermata, 259.
Echinoidse, 280. Armament, ib. Ske-
leton and masticating apparatus, 288.
Echinus esculeutus, 284.
mamillatus, without spines, 282.
with spines, 281.
Edible Snails, 405.
Edwardsia calirnorpha, 191.
Effects of hurricanes, 40.
Eggs of Sepia oflicinalis, 457.
Electrical Eel, 537.
Electrical properties of the Cramp-fish, 514.
Organs described, 518.
Eledone moschatus, its habits, 465.
Encrinites, or Stone-lilies, 270.
Encrinus liliforrnis, 271.
Enderby's Land, 44.
Equinoctial currents, 30.
Eschara, 307.
Esocidse, 571.
Euglenia yiridis, 111.
European pentacrinus, 273.
Euryalina, 279.
Evaporation, 17. Its effects on the sea, 18.
Exocoetus exiliens, 573."
Expanding Coral, 135.
Experiments on the Physalia, 249.
Exuberance of life in the ocean, 62.
Fabularia discolithes, 95.
Falkland Islands, 165.
Fan Gorgon, magnified, 122,
Faujasina, 91.
File-fish (Balistes), 532.
First Oyster-eater, 369.
Fishes, their organization, 502. Locomo-
tive apparatus, ib. Swimming bladder,
503. Breathing apparatus, 505. Sight,
ib. Propagation, 507. Classification, 508.
Fish's eye, 505.
teeth, 506.
Fishing for Coral, 137.
Electrical Eels with horses,
539.
Halibut, 551.
Sponges, 78.
Flabellum pavoniuum, 153.
Flat fishes, their organization, 546. Spe-
cial properties, ib.
Flight of the Flying-fish, 573.
Flounders (Platessa fiessus), 549.
Flustra foliacea, 308.
Flux of the waves, 37.
Flying-fish, 571, 573.
Gurnard, 595.
Fog-banks, 26.
Foraminifera, 87.
Franklin's discoveries, 47.
Fringing reefs, 174, 175.
Frog-fish (Lophius), 605.
Fungia agariciformis, 159.
echinata, 158.
Fusus proboscidiferus, F.'pagodus, and F.
colus, 436.
Gadidae, 552.
Galeolaria aurantiaca, 244.
Gathering of the waters, 11.
Generation of Star-fishes, 267.
Geographical distribution of Oysters, 368.
Gigantic Cephalopod stranded on the coast
of Jutland, 461.
Globe-fish, 530.
Gorgonia flabellum, 121.
verticellata, 123.
Gorgonidse, 121.
Gosse's description of the Sea-urchin, 282.
Gulf of Mexico, 9.
Stream, 32.
Gurnards (Trigla), 594.
Gymnotus, its electrical properties, 538.
Effect of its shock, '540.
Haddock (Morrhua aeglefinus), 559.
Halibut, 551.
Hammerhead (Zygaena malleus), 523.
mollusc, 352.
Harpa imperialis, and H. articularis, 434.
ventricosa, 433.
Harpooning Holothuria, 295.
Helix citrina, and H. Stuartia, 408.
Hermit Crab, 492.
Herring, the, 575. Fisheries, 576. Habits,
577. Scotch fisheries, ib. Dutch fish-
eries, 578. A night at the herring
fishery, 580. Norwegian fisheries, 582.
Holothuria lutea, 293.
fishery, 295.
Humboldt's researches, 538.
Hyalea gibbosa, and H. longirostris, 443.
612
INDEX.
Indian Ocean, 2.
Industrial occupation on the sea-shore, 65.
Inequalities of the sea-basin, 9.
Infusoria, 97. Their numbers, ib. In the
Ganges, ib. Species, ib. In blocks of
ice, 98. Reproduction, 103.
Infusorial parasites, 105.
Isis corolloidis. 124.
hippuris, 125.
Jan May en's Island, 44.
Kane's, Dr., discoveries, 25, 49.
Kerguelen Island, 44.
Kraken, marvellous stories concerning,
460.
Labridse, 606.
Labrus communis, ib.
Labyrinthiibrm Pharyngeans, 596.
Land and water, 1.
Legend of the first mussel-fisher, 347.
Sea-urchin, 282.
Life in the ocean, 60.
Limax rufus, 400.
Limpets, 410.
Lobsters, 496.
Loligo vulgaris, and L. Gahi, 459.
Lophius piscatorius, 605.
Lophobranchii, 534.
Luidia fragillissima, 269.
Lumbricus terrestris, 114.
Lump-fish (Cyclopteris), 537.
(Raia clavata), 503.
Lunar tides, 35.
Lymnea stagnalis, 397.
Lymaeans, 397. Their habits, ib. Or-
ganization, 398.
Mackerel, 599. Do they migrate ? 600.
M'Clintock's discoveries, 48.
M'Clure's discoveries, ib.
Madrepoildse, 159.
Madrepore plantaginea, 162.
Madrague, a combination of nets, 597.
Maelstrom whirlpool, 42.
Malacopterygii, 536.
Malleus alba, 352.
vulgaris, ib.
Mantle in Molluscs, its uses, 319.
Marenna Oysters, 368.
Masticating apparatus, 288.
Mean depth of the sea, 1-3.
Meandrina cerebriformis, 156.
Mediterranean Sea. 6.
Medusadse, 195, 213.
Medway Oyster-beds, 368.
Meleagrina margaritifera, 353.
Metamorphoses in Infusoria, 106.
Microscopic forms of life, 62.
Millepora alcicornis, 164.
Milne Edwards's study, 65.
Minyadinians, 193.
Mitra episcopalis and M. papalis, 425.
Molluscoi.la, 303. Organization, 304.
Generation, 305.
Mollusca, 301. Their characteristics, 315,
Monade Lentille, 109.
Monodonta Australis, and M. labia, 416.
Monsoons, 33.
Montfort, Denis de, on the Kraken, 460.
Moon-fish (Orthogoriscus mola), 530.
Mounts Erebus and Terror, 55.
Mullet (Mullus), 591. A Roman luxury,
592.
Muraena, 541.
ponds, a passion with Roman
patricians, 512.
Murex scorpio, and M. erinaceus, 435.
tenuispina, and M. haustellum, 434.
Muschelkalk rocks, 272.
Mussels, 344. Organization of, 345. Habits,
ib. Localities, 346.
Mussels of Aiguillon Bay, 347.
Mussel-pile^ in Aiguillon Bay, 349.
with basket-work, ib.
punt of Aiguillon, 348.
Mutilation of Infusoria, 107.
Mytylus edulus, 344.
Nacre, its composition, 353.
Nadir points, 36.
Nautilus pompilius, section with animal
and without, 446.
Nephtys, 145.
New Caledonia, 174.
Noctiluca railiaris, 96.
Nummulites, 93.
Nurnmulitis lenticularis, 92.
Rouaulti, 94.
Occulifla flabelliformis, 153.
Octopus brevisses, and O. horridus, 464.
macropus,
vulgaris, 463.
Olaiis Magnus on the Kraken, 460.
Oldhamia, 61.
Oliva ery throstoma, O. porphyria, 0. irisans,
and O. Peruviana, 428.
Operculina, 92.
Ophiocoma Russei, 278.
Opliiuradse, 277.
Organization of Foraminiferse, 96.
Infusoria, 100.
81.
Star-fishes, 260.
Ossei, or Bony fishes, 529.
Ostend Oysters, 368.
Ostreadse (the Oyster), 362.
Oyster (Ostrea), 362. Its organization,
ib. Reproduction, 365. Incubation,
ib.
INDEX.
613
Oyster beds of France, 378.
beds on Lake Fusaro, 376, 378.
claires of Marennes, 380.
cultivation, 375.
eaters, 370.
farms at Whitstable, 383.
fishing 374.
of different ages, 366.
packing system, 378.
Ovulum oviformis, and 0. cornea, 424.
volva, 425.
Pacific Ocean, 3.
Pagurus Bernhardus, 492.
Pulinurus vulgaris, 487.
Pallas on Alcyonia, 145.
Pandore Oyster beds, 384.
Paramecium aurelia and its parasites,
105.
Bursaria, 112.
Parr, or young Salmon, 563.
Parry's discoveries, 46.
Patella cserulea, P. umbel la, 411. P. grana-
tina, and P. barbata, 412.
longicosta, ib.
Paulin's submarine apparatus, 65.
Pearl fisheries, 255. Value of, 257.
Oyster, 253.
Pearly Nautilus, 447.
Pecten glaber, 386.
Japonica, 387.
opercularis, ib.
plica, ib.
pseudamussium, 386.
Pectenidae, 385.
Pelagia noctiluca, 200.
Pelagic plants and animals, 61.
rivers, 30.
Pennatula spinosa, 141.
Pennatulidse, 139.
Pentacrinus, 271.
caput Medusae, 272.
Europseus, 273.
fasciculosus, 271.
Pectunculatis aureflua, 342.
delessertii, ib.
pectiniformis, 343.
scriptus, ib.
Perforated madrepores, 150.
Peyssonnel's discoveries, 126.
Phallusia grossularia, 310.
Pholades, or borers, 328.
Pkolas crispata, 329.
papyracea, and P. melanoura, ib.
Phosphorescence of the sea, 12. Causes
of, 13.
Phosphorescent chain of Salpse, 315.
Phyllactis prsetexta, 192.
Pbysa castanea, 399.
Physalia, 244. Its poisonous properties,
248.
Physical properties of water, 24.
Physophora hydrostatica, 234.
Pilchard.-", 585. Cornwall " huers,"
pilchard fishery, 586.
Pinna bullata and P. nobilis, 362.
rudis and P. riigrina, 361.
Pinnoctopus corolliformis, 466.
Pintadine pearls, 353.
Pipe-fish (Syngnatlms), 534.
Pipe-fishes (Fistularia), 607.
Plaice (Platessa vulgaris), 549.
Planorbis corneus, 398.
Pleuronectidae, 546.
Plumatella cristallina, 306.
Polar seas, 43. Expeditions to, ib.
Polyp and branch, 131.
Polypidom, 144.
and Polypi defined, 116.
Polypifera, 116.
Polypiferous crust in Gorgons, 149.
Pomotouan Archipelago, 169.
Porites, 162.
astroides, 147.
furcata, 163.
the
Porpita pacifica, 233.
Porpitse, 232.
Portion of the disk of Physophora hydro-
statica, 236.
Portunus variegatus, 488.
Poulpe : Marvellous stories of the ancients
concerning, 460. Mandibles preserved
in the College of Surgeons, 461.
Praya diphys, 243.
Primitive generation, 106.
Principal forms of Anodon, 340.
species of Sea-anemones, 187.
Propagation of Infusoria, 104.
of Sea-urchins, 290.
Protozoa, 71. Leuwenhoek's discoveries,
ib.
Pteroceras, their origin, 439.
chiragra, and P. lambis, 440.
scorpio, and P. millepeda, 439.
Pteropoda, 441. The organization, wings,
or flappers, ib.
Pulmonary Gasteropods, 396, 409.
Pupa uva, 409.
Pure water, 15.
Purpura, its reputation with the ancients,
431.
consul, 432.
lapillus and patula, 432.
Pyrosoma, 312.
Raiadse, 510.
Rarefaction in Polar seas, 59.
Rataria, 232.
Ravages of the Teredo, 321.
Ray-fish, 513.
Recuperative powers of Holothuria,
293.
614
INDEX.
Red Sea Corals, 175.
Reflux of tides, 35.
Reign of law, 61.
Rhizopods, 83.
Rhizostoma Aldrovandi, 221.
Cuvieri, 220.
Rock covered with young Coral Polyps,
> 135.
Roman indifference to life, 542.
Rose aurelia, 225.
Ross's (Sir James) discoveries, 44, 45, 51.
Rotation of the earth, 36.
Rotella Zealandica, 416.
Rudimentary forms of life, 61.
Rugous madrepores, 148.
Sagartia viduata, 189.
Salmonidae, 561.
Salmon leaps, 565. Falls of Kilmorack,
ib. Anecdote of Lord Lovat, 566.
Salpa maxima, 314.
Saltiness of the sea, 16. Its source, 21.
Salt water at the Poles, 19. At the
Equator, ib.
Salt-water lakes, 16.
Sarcoda, 100.
Sargasso Sea, 31.
Saw-fish, 524.
Scallop-shell, 385.
Scomberoides, 596.
Scoresby's account of the Polar seas, 56.
Scottish 'pearls, 341.
Scylla and Charybdis, 42.
Sea Anemone, 182. Organization, 183.
Toxicological properties, 186.
Cucumber, 291.
Eel (Munena Helena), 542.
Eggs, 291.
Horse (Hippocampus), 535.
Lampreys, 509.
Level, 10.
Mussels, 344.
Nettles, 195.
Palm, 272.
Pen, 139-144.
Slug, 407.
Snail (Liparis), 544.
Urchins, 281.
water, its components, 15.
Section of a Coral branch, 132.
of Atlantic Telegraph, 8.
Seine Net, 588.
Selachians, 510.
Sepia (Cuttlefish), 449. Its suckers, ib.
officinalis, 455.
tuberculosa, and bone of S. offici-
nalis, 456.
Sertulariadse, 211.
Shad, the (Alosa), 584.
Shallow water, its temperature, 25.
Shark (Carcharius vulgaris), 517.
Shark-fishing, 520.
Shell of the Mollusca, 316. Is it a skele-
ton? 317. How built up, 318. Shell of
the Slrombus, 438.
Ship-worm and its ravages, 321. Its
organization, 322. Reproduction, 324.
Its boring hood, 326.
Siderolites calcitrapoides, 94.
Silver in the sea, 21.
Siphonophora, 228.
Skeleton Echinus, 288.
Skeleton of the Perch, 503.
Smolt, 564.
Snails : form and characteristics, 401.
Their organization, 402. Breathing,
ib. Circulation, ib. Sight, 403. Re-
production, ib. Shell, ib. Their repu-
tation with the Classics, 404.
Solarium perspecticum, and S. variegatum,
418.
Solar-lunar tides, 37.
Soles (Solea vulgaris), 547.
Sophonopnora, 198.
Spearing Halibut, 551.
Spey Salmon, 568.
Spherical form of the earth, 10.
Spiroloculina, 92.
Spondylus, various, 387.
Spongia, half natural size, 75.
Spongia, 82. Their generation, ib. Or-
ganization, 74. Localities, ib. Varieties
of, 80.
Spontaneous division of Infusoria, 104.
generation, 105.
Squalidse, 517.
Star-corals (Astrea), 155.
Star-fishes, 260. Their
267. Dismemberment,
propensities, ib.
and Oysters, 266.
metamorphosr?,
268. Suicidal
Stentor Mulleri, 114.
Stinging apparatus of Physophora hydro-
statica, 238.
tentacles of Physalia, 247.
Stomach of Infusoria, 102.
Stomia boa, 571.
Strombus gigas, shell and animal, 437.
Stone lilies, 276.
Stormontfield fish-ponds, 563.
Straits of Gibraltar, 34.
Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio), 526.
fishing in the Volga, 527.
Sturiona, 524.
Stylaster flabelliformis, 154.
Sub-branchiata, 544.
Submarine currents, 33.
Subsidence, theory of coral islands, 178.
Suckers, or Star-fishes, 264. Suicidal ten-
dency of Star-fishes, 269.
Surbinolia, 148.
Swimming bladder, 503.
INDEX.
615
Sword-fish (Xiphias), 602. Warlike habits,
603. Fishing, ib.
Symphynota, 355.
Synapta duvernea, 299.
Siiccinea putris, 409.
Tabulate madrepores, 163.
Teeth of the Bream, 506.
Carp, ib.
. Gold-fish, 507.
, Trout, ib.
Tellina radiata, 334.
sulphurea, and T. donacina, ib.
virgata, ib.
Temperature of the sea, 24.
Tentacles of Molluscs, 302.
Tentaculiferous Cephalopods, 445. Their
suckers (Acetabula), ib.
Teredo navalis, its ravages, 322, 325.
Testacella haliotidea, 401.
Textilaria, 92.
ThalassianthidsB, 191.
Thames Oyster beds, 368.
Thermal lines of sea temperature, 23.
Thynnus pelamys (the Bonito), 596, 602.
Tidal wave, 39. Its height in different
seas, 40. Of the Atlantic, 25.
Tides, 35.
Torpedo marmorata, 514.
Trachinus communis, 590.
Trade- winds, their origin, 30.
Trembley's discoveries, 72.
Tridacna gigas, 338.
squamosa, 339.
Triton variegatum, T. lotorium, and T.
anus, 435.
Trochus inermis, T. Cookii, and T. imbri-
catus, 414.
niloticus, and T. virgatus, 414.
stellaris, 417.
Tubelaridse, 226.
TubiporinsB, 120.
Tubipora musica, ib.
Tubulous madrepores, 150.
Tunieata, 309.
Tunny fish (Thynnus), 596.
fishing, 597.
net, ib.
Turbo imperialis, 416.
margaritaceus and T. argyrostomus,
415.
undulatus, 415.
Turbot (Rhombus), 548.
Ultima Thule, 43.
Umbellularia Greenlandica, 143.
Unio littoralis, 340 ; and U. pictorum, 341.
Uranoscopus vulgaris, 592.
Urbulina universa, 92.
Uses of salt in the sea, 23.
Vastness of the oceanic fields of observa-
tion, 64.
Vegetable life, ib.
Venus verrucosa, 335.
Veretillum cynomorium, 144.
Vetrina fasciata, 409.
Vibracule in molluscs, 301.
Vibrioni baguetta, 1 08.
Vilelladse, 229.
limbosa, ib.
Virgularia, 142.
mirabilis, ib.
Volvox globator, 101.
Walsh's, Dr., experiments with the Tor-
pedo, 515.
Water, 1.
Water-lilies, 304.
Watering-pot, the, 331.
Waves off Cape Horn, 41.
Weddell's discoveries, 44, 51.
Weight of the waters of the sea, 11.
of equatorial waters, 28.
Weevers (Trachinus), 590, 591.
Whence comes the salt of the sea? 21.
Whirlpools, 42. Scylla, ib. Charybdis, ib.
White Ray (Raia batis), 511.
Whiting (Merlangus vulgaris), 559, 560.
Whorled Gorgon, magnified, 1 24.
Wilkes's expedition, 44, 51.
Willoughby's discoveries, 43.
Winds, 39. Effect on tides, ib.
Wrasse (the), Labrus, 606.
Young Oysters, 366.
Polyp attached to a rock, 135.
Zenith points, 36.
Zoantharia 147, 159.
Zoanthoa thalassanthos, 148.
Zoanthus socialis, 193.
Zone of Calms, 30.
Zoophytes, 69. Its derivation, 70.
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