going out. It was half-low tide. A gray rock lay in the water. The
water was yet about two or three inches above the top of the rock.
On this rock were about twenty stemless barnacles, clean, white, and
acorn-shaped. They were of the size of small acorns. You must know that
barnacles grow. They are of many sizes. Some are the size of a small
glove-button. Others are of the size of a small acorn, or of the end of
your little finger.
[Illustration: A Fishing Party.]
As I looked at these twenty little fishers, the plates of the shells
were opened a little. Out of the top of each shell came a fine little
plume, like five or six tiny feathers.
This plume waved up and down in the water. It seemed to open and shut
gently, as you would open and shut your hand.
Every now and then this little plume was drawn quite back into the
shell. In a minute out it came again and waved as before. What did all
this mean?
It meant that the barnacles were having a fishing party. They were
catching their dinner while the tide was over their shells. Mr. Crab
gets his dinner at low tide, and hides at high tide. Mr. Barnacle
fishes and eats at high tide. At low tide he shuts his shell house and
clings to his place. He is waiting for the tide to come up and cover
him once more.
When Mr. Barnacle opened and shut this fine plume, it was his net, or
his set of lines with which to fish little live creatures from the
water. He tangles his prey (or food) up in his fine plumes.
Among the things he catches are tiny crabs, too small for the naked eye
to see.
When the plume net is full, he draws it into his shell. Then he empties
it into his mouth. After this he puts his plume out of his house once
more, to fish for other things. In the meantime, he feeds on what he
has taken. He has no pantry in which to store things, as Mr. Crab has.
Near this fishing party on the stone, drifted a log. On the under side
of the log were some stem barnacles. They were fishing too. They fished
in the same way, and for the same kind of things.
They opened their shells, pushed out a lovely plume, and this pretty
thing caught food in its meshes.
Does their net never break and need to be mended as the fisherman’s
net does? No doubt, if it does, a new piece will soon grow. What is his
net? It is Mr. Barnacle’s feet. If any of them are lost or hurt others
will come, just as Mrs. Crab gets new legs when some are gone. Notice
these tiny legs. They look very like a cluster of long fingers or toes.
He uses them to fish with. For what else should he use them? He never
walks nor swims.
LESSON XXXV.
A LAST LOOK AT MR. BARNACLE.
It is well to know all you can about barnacles, for you will see them
wherever you go by the seaside.
If you study them, you will not, like the fisherman, believe foolish
things about them, and refuse to believe true things.
Will it not be pleasant to think of what you know of their story? When
you see an acorn barnacle fast to a stone, you can think of the days
when he was young and went sailing about. I wonder if he calls those
days “the good old times!”
When you see a stem barnacle swinging in the water, you can think of
what a good time he is having, fishing with his pretty feet.
The stemless barnacles also have, from their shape, a name which means
_acorn_. You will find the Latin names easy when you are older and
study more.
The acorn shells can live out of water for a few hours at a time. When
the tide is low, many of them are left high and dry. But if they should
be out of water too long, they would die for want of food and water.
Perhaps, also, the dry heat of the air kills them.
If you wish to study them for yourselves, take home a stone, shell, or
stick, with some of them on it. Put it in a bowl of sea-water. Soon
they will open their shells and begin fishing.
Those barnacles which grow fast to living fish, sharks, or whales, bury
their heads and tubes in the skins of these animals. I wonder if the
whales and sharks feel them and do not like them.
The barnacles that make the most trouble are those which fasten upon
the outside of ships. The bottoms of ships are often covered with
barnacles. They make the hull of the ship rough and heavy. That hinders
its motion through the water.
In such a case the ship must be put into a dry dock. There it is
scraped clean. Because of this trouble and waiting, sailors dislike
barnacles. They often say that they wish there were none.
In some parts of the world there is a large kind of barnacles. People
eat these as we eat oysters or mussels.
You need not expect to see the young barnacles swimming about in the
water. They are very tiny creatures, of the shape of an apple-seed. If
you should see them, I think you would never guess what they are.
For a great while people thought barnacles were not worth much study.
They called them “shell fish,” and did not dream what wonders were
hidden in their shell-plate cases. At last, when wise men knocked
at Mr. Barnacle’s house door, and said, “Come out and tell me your
secrets,” they found he was a most interesting little creature.
LESSON XXXVI.
FLOWERS OF THE SEA.
There are flowers in the sea as well as on the land. Under the waves of
the ocean are fields of green sea-grasses and groves of great sea-weeds
like trees. Diving-men go down to the sea-bottom and walk about. They
often find it hard to move in the tall weeds. The weeds tangle the
men’s feet. The divers feel as you would among the brush and vines of
a great wood. There are splendid sea-plants of all colors,--red, pink,
white, green, brown, purple, yellow, and orange.
[Illustration: An Ocean Garden.]
The leaves of these sea-plants are of many shapes. They are round or
long; they are flat or curly. Some are cut into fine fingers; many are
like fringes; they have spots, dots, or knobs upon them that shine like
silver and gold.
The sea has also another kind of flowers. These are animals or fishes
that look more like lovely flowers than like any other thing. We call
them sea-flowers or animal-flowers. We name some of them after dainty
little plants that grow in the woods in spring.
The name “flowers” which we give to these is only a pretty fancy.
You must know that really they are a kind of animal. It is, then,
flower-animals that we shall now study for a few lessons.
You have read of animals made upon a ring pattern; these flower-animals
are made upon a star pattern.
The pattern on which they are made is very simple (see cut), and yet it
is so built upon and changed that the members of this Family are among
the most lovely of animals.
[Illustration]
These animal-plants have, from their odd and pretty shapes, such names
as the sunflower, the aster, the fern, the crown, the fan, the pen, and
so on. I will now tell you about one of them.
Early one day I went from my door to the beach, which was near, and
there I saw a lovely object.
The water was very still and clear, and floating in it was something
all rose and cream color.
This pretty thing was as large as a very large dinner-plate. It was not
flat, but shaped like half an orange, with the rounded side up. It was
of a fine rose color, and as clear as jelly. It looked much like pink
jelly.
From the centre of the top to the edge went lines of a deeper pink.
There were also dots around the outer edge. This edge seemed to have
a soft full ruffle of cream color about it. Looking closer, I saw that
the under side was not flat. It was shaped like a bell or an open
parasol. It had something which looked like long leaves, and which
opened and shut.
But this was not all that I saw. From the darker lines on the upper
part of the bell ran out long pink arms. These were almost a yard long.
Their edges had full ruffles. They were of a cream color, like soft
lace.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
These long arms hung down in the water, which spread out their pretty
edges. With a soft and gentle motion they waved from side to side.
In my boat I went quietly near this creature. It floated here and
there, spread out in all its beauty. I kept near it to watch it. This
lovely thing was a jelly-fish.
It was easy to see that the creature was of a star pattern, but it had
four, and not five rays. Its plan was like Figure 1. If these rays are
bent down, you will see that they may form the frame of a bell-shape,
like Figure 2. The ends of these four rays often run out into arms,
like Figure 3. All the soft pink-and-cream jelly-like stuff fills up
between the upper part of the rays and gathers into the ruffles along
the edge.
This is the plan on which the jelly-fish is built. His frame is built
of four rays. The four parts between the rays may be again divided and
be eight and not four. Again, there may be sixteen rays instead of
eight. But the plan is the same.
LESSON XXXVII.
THE LIFE OF A JELLY-FISH.
It is from the clear stuff between the rays, the stuff which forms the
bell or disk part, that the jelly-fish has its common name.
It has also another name, which means _nettle_, from the plant called
a nettle. The leaves of this plant can prick and sting your skin, and
make it burn. The fine, long arms of the jelly-fish can sting in the
same way.
The jelly-fish is nearly all water. It is made of flesh as fluid as the
white of an egg. If taken from the water, jelly-fish die in a very
short time. They die by drying up. A very large jelly-fish will dry to
a thin, small skin.
I do not know of any other living creature so soft, or so nearly all
water, as a jelly-fish. And yet these are true animals. They can hear,
see, feel, and, no doubt, can also taste as other animals do.
All along the edge of the bell part you can see some dark dots, which
are the eyes. Some of the jelly-fish have these little eyes bare; that
is, they have no lid or cover over them. These are called bare-eyed
jelly-fish. Others have a little hood like a lid over each eye. Also
along the bell part are little sacs which take the place of ears. The
long arms which droop from the edge of the bell are the feelers. These
are used to touch things with. They wave gently to and fro and help the
fish to move through the water.
Up in the centre of the under side of the bell is the mouth. It has
over it a little fine frill. Even a jelly-fish, you see, does not wish
to keep its mouth wide open all the time!
Below the mouth, the jelly-fish has fishing-lines or nets, as the
barnacle has. The soft, pretty ruffles move up and down in the water,
and catch things to put into the mouth of the jelly-fish.
It would surprise you to know what large and hard things these soft
jelly-fish can soften and use as food. Fish, crabs, shell-fish, are
caught and eaten by jelly-fish.
There is something in the jelly-fish which can dissolve these hard
things. He often casts out from his mouth-sac the harder and larger
shells and bones. He does this as you would put from your mouth
nutshells or plum-stones.
[Illustration: The Jelly-fish.]
How do the jelly-fish move in the water? They have no swimming-feet as
Mr. Crab has. They have no fins, as the fish has. Some of them move
by spreading out the bell, or round part, of their bodies, and then
drawing it up again. This motion, which is like the rise and fall of
your chest when you breathe, drives them through the water.
Other jelly-fish have a motion more like the opening and closing of
the hands. Some have little oars, paddles, or hairs on the edge of the
disk. Some seem to open and close as you would slowly open and shut an
umbrella.
The swimming-bell of the jelly-fish is often called the umbrella from
its shape. This bell has little fine muscles through it, by which it
can spread out and draw together. You know you have muscles by which
you can move the parts of your body.
On the under side of the swimming-bell, is a flap called the veil. This
flap turns inward, and the little fine muscles spread over it. This
veil is pulled together in the act of swimming, and pushes out the
water from the bell. Then the bell spreads and takes in more water, and
again it is driven out. A boy in swimming parts and pushes the water
back with his arms, the jelly-fish has no arms or legs, but still it
moves about easily.
I told you that jelly-fish could sting. They can also shine. They can
make a fine bright light, something as glow-worms or fire-flies do, but
more steady. From this power, they have been called Lamps of the Sea.
I have seen the ocean bright with them for miles. It looked as if all
the stars had fallen from the sky, and were glowing in the water.
When the jelly-fish shine so, the light is like a ball. It is not in
straight lines, long, or square. It is round, like fire-balls, or balls
of melted iron, or of glass. These balls are sometimes red, or blue, or
white, or green, or yellow.
Jelly-fish differ much in size. Some are so small that you can hardly
see them; some are as large as a split pea. Then some are the size of
a dime, of a dollar, of a plate, and so on, up to the size of a huge
wheel.
As they are of many sizes, so they are of many shapes, as I told you
at first. They are like balls, fans, bells, bottles, plumes, baskets,
cups, flowers.
And now, here is another odd thing to tell you. You know that when
Mr. Barnacle is young he swims about. When he is grown up, he settles
down to stay in one place. The jelly-fish stays in one place, and
grows fast, when he is young, but when he has grown up he swims about
wherever he chooses. I wonder which is the better way! Which way would
you children like best?
[Illustration: Flowers of the Sea.]
Some of the jelly-fishes come from an egg. Some of them come from what
is called a bud. Let us look at them from the bud or from the egg. The
egg at once fastens to some solid thing on the sea-bottom. It grows
into what looks like a plant with stems and branches.
On these branches are little cup-shaped buds. These buds are so many
little jelly-fish growing on one stem. This is the larva state. After a
time, these buds open, and a young jelly-fish breaks from the slender
stem, and at once goes swimming away, as happy as a jelly-fish knows
how to be.
LESSON XXXVIII.
SEA-STARS.
Now we come to another animal who seems to be made on the star plan.
Here you see pictures of him in the water, where he has his home. Is he
not a pretty thing?
The jelly-fish has one of his names from his shape, and another
name from his power to sting. This fish gets one name from his
shape,--star-fish. And he has a long, hard name from his coat. His coat
is a thick, tough skin. It has upon it prickles much like those of a
hedge-hog. Most of them have five rays, or ten, because each single ray
has been made into two, and so on.
All of the star-fish do not keep to the plan of five. The sun-star has
twelve rays. He is of a splendid, bright-red color. These animals seem
to be made on the star plan; the grown-up sea-stars show this shape
most clearly, but it is never perfect; the young ones are two-sided,
not star-like.
From their general shape they are called “stars,” from their skins,
“rough or hedge-hog coated.” This skin is really their skeleton: they
have their bones outside like the crabs and some other creatures.
[Illustration: The Ray Family at Home.]
The crab’s skeleton is hard, the sea-star’s is more like a tough skin
filled with little plates or spikes of shelly stuff. Sometimes these
little plates lock together, sometimes they merely lie near each other,
so some of the stars have much softer coats than the others. In the
water these coats are tough and bend like leather. When they are dry
they are brittle. If you want a dead star-fish to bend, drop it into
water.
I will tell you of some kinds of star-fish, and then will tell you how
they grow.
In the picture you see a star-fish with the thin, crooked rays, or
arms. He is called a sand-star, because he likes to lie close to the
sand on the sea-bottom. He is of a sand color.
The one with the curled arms, like plumes, is called the brittle-star.
That is because he breaks so easily. He is a very queer fellow. When
things do not please him, he drops all to pieces. It would be a queer
thing, if, when you feel cross or afraid, you could throw yourself down
and fly to pieces, jerking off your head, your arms, and your legs!
You have heard how crabs can drop off a claw, and then another grows
out. You also know that a spider does not mind much about losing a leg
or two. These facts cause us to feel sure that these creatures do not
suffer pain at the loss of a part of their bodies. If the loss of legs,
claws, or rays caused pain, these animals would not be so ready to drop
them.
There is no other creature that breaks itself so readily and so
entirely as the brittle-star. It will throw off all its rays, and they
will float away in many directions, while the little disk is left alone
to sink or to float.
When the star-fish loses one or more, or even four rays, others will
soon grow. All the animals of this family renew lost parts even more
easily than crabs do.
It is very hard to get a brittle-star out of the water. As soon as it
feels a net or scoop or the upper air about it, or a pail of fresh
water rising gently around it, it breaks into many pieces.
On the end of every ray is a little sharp eye. When you frighten Mr.
Brittle-Star, off swim his legs, every one by itself, and each has its
one eye to look out for it. I never saw anything else so queer; did you?
The strong, prim-looking star-fish, with five points, is called the
cross-star. It is the common, or pattern star-fish. There are many
other kinds. I will tell you in the next lesson of one very pretty
kind. You must go to larger books to learn all that is known about
these strange and lovely creatures.
We will look at the model, or cross-star. Turn the animal over. The
mouth is in the centre of the under side. Do you not find there is a
seam, or groove of the hard skin, all the way down the centre of each
ray? From the mouth a nerve runs down to the point of each of the rays.
Along the centres of the under openings in the rays are set very,
very many little blunt points. These points are like tiny tubes close
together. It is on these that the star-fish can walk or creep on the
bottom of the sea, or over rocks. The star-fish seek their food as they
crawl slowly about.
Star-fish are very greedy. They are always hungry. They make the
fishermen much trouble by eating the fish-bait off their hooks. They
also devour oysters. When they get into an oyster-bed they are as bad
as the drill. When an army of star-fish go to a part of the coast where
oysters grow, the oysters are soon killed.
The star-fish are of many bright and pretty colors. They are green,
brown, gray, red, pink, or with several colors on the same star.
When they are dead, the flesh, which has much water in it, dries away.
The tough shell-like skin is left. You can dry them by pinning them on
a board. Leave them for a few days in the sun and wind. If you do not
pin out the rays, they may curl up.
They look better kept in alcohol, but that is not a good way for
children. I fear the bottles would soon be broken.
LESSON XXXIX.
A SEA-CHANGE.
The star-fish lay a great number of eggs. Let us see what happens to
eggs of one kind. They are not dropped one by one into the water, or
strung on threads like chains.
They stick to the under-side of the parent fish, which settles on the
sand or rocks, resting on its back, and bends up its five rays, like a
basket, to hold and protect the eggs.
You see that in this state the parent can neither walk nor eat. And
although star-fish are both greedy and restless, when they have eggs
to take care of, they patiently lie quiet for ten days, until the eggs
hatch.
In those ten days the parent star-fish cannot eat nor move. But at the
end of ten days, the eggs hatch out the larvæ, and they float away.
Then the star-fish finds that its work is done, and it bends back and
begins to walk, swim, and fish.
Many of the larvæ, when they first come from the egg, have no rays,
and do not look one bit like star-fish. They look like wee specks of
barrels, with little hairy hoops, and a plume of hairs on one end.
The larva can swim; the hairs help it through the water. Slowly it
begins to change its shape and to lose its loop of hairs. All it wants
is to swim and to grow. When no larger than a flaxseed it looks like
the grown-up star-fish.
A most curious thing is the lily-star egg, which fastens upon a coral,
or something firm and hard. Then it takes as fast hold as the barnacle
on the rock.
It shoots up a stem, and on the top of the stem grows a cup like a
lily-bell. It does not look like a star-fish, but like a lovely lily.
Fine plumes are waving from its cup.
Some kinds of star-fish have larvæ that take other shapes. I cannot
tell you about them all. But only the feather-star grows fast to some
object for the larval state. In that state they do not look at all like
the parent. Finally, like the jelly-fish, they change their shape, get
loose, and swim off to see the water-world. Then they are like their
parents.
[Illustration: Water Babies.]
Now let us look again at our star-fish. The little things like tubes
on the under-side are each one set in a grove. They are full of fluid,
and each has a tiny sucker. The star-fish can move them. They not only
serve for feet, but for hands, to catch, and hold, and kill his prey.
Most of the star-fish are dull and slow of motion. There is one kind
which moves quickly. It is called the Snake’s-tail-Star, from the shape
of the rays, which are long and thin.
There is one of these animals often found on the coast of the Southern
states, which has all the space between the rays filled up with a hard,
stony, or shell-like matter. So the shape of this animal is not like
a star. It is like a flat box with five sides. There are some little
loop-holes quite through this hard box. On the middle of the top is
the pattern of a five-pointed star-fish, like a picture! It is not a
star-fish, but an urchin.
In this Radiate, the disk spreads out, so as to include, or shut in,
the rays. On the one hand, there are some star-fish that have the disk
very small. They seem to be all rays and no disk.
People who have studied star-fish divide them into six families. I have
told you about all but the fifth. The fifth family are of such a queer
shape that they are called cucumbers--Sea-Cucumbers. The Chinese like
to eat them, and ships are sent out to fish for them. They grow in the
shallows, near the islands in tropic seas. We have some also on our
coasts.
LESSON XL.
THE STAR-FISH WITH AN OVERCOAT.
There is a very pretty star-fish called the Sea-Egg, or Sea-Urchin.
This creature has not five points or rays; it is in the shape of a
ball, somewhat flattened.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
Do you say, “Can this belong to the Star-fish Family, when it has no
rays?” Well, let us see. Let Figure 1 represent our Ray pattern. Bend
the rays up, and the plan looks like Figure 2. Then bend them until
the tips touch, and you have the form of Figure 3. The cover of this
star-fish, called the sea-urchin, is not tough and skin-like; it is
hard and shell-like.
If you look at it, you will see that it has up and down it lines of
knobs and dots set in double rows. You will find five double lines of
large knobs, and as many lines of small dots between the larger ones.
Do not think that you can see these marks as soon as you find a
sea-urchin. By no means! The sea-urchin wears a fine thick overcoat,
which hides his shell.
[Illustration: Well Dressed.]
I knew a boy who found a number of sea-eggs lying on the beach. He
cried out, “Oh! look at all the chestnut burrs in the water!” The
sea-egg when it is alive looks much like a chestnut burr, ripe, but not
open. It is covered all over with thorns or prickles like the burr,
and the water gives it the dark brown color.
Now let us look into this matter. You have read that a cross-star-fish
has along the under edges of its rays many little tubes full of
something like water. He can move them, and upon them he walks.
[Illustration: Undressed.]
The sea-urchin has hard, sharp spines, which cover all the shell, and
look like a rough coat. In the pictures you see the urchin with his
shell bare, with his shell half bare, and with his full overcoat of
quills. When the shell is bare, you will see upon it little lines of
points or knobs. These are very pretty, but they are for use, rather
than for beauty.
On every tiny knob is placed a spine, and the urchin can turn and move
his spines, in all directions, just as easily as you can move your arm
at the shoulder-joint.
When the urchin is alive, the quills stand out all about him. After he
is dead, the quills drop off.
Between the rows of knobs are five double rows of holes, like
pin-pricks. Out of these grow such little suckers as I told you the
star-fish had.