The weekly Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1872-1887, 1875-05-22
Animal Wonders.

In each grain Of sand there are mar.
vcls; i'll every drop of water world.l In
that great spectacle called Nature, overy
thing has its marked place and distinct
rote;. and in thnt great drama called life,
There prcsidcS law rs harmonious as that
which rules the movement Of the: stars,
Each hour removes by death myriads of
existences, and each hour produces lcgions
Of new lives. The highest rs we'll as tho
lowest created organism consumes carbon
and water to support life and its duties.
and 1t is not unintcrcsting to glance mt
the food, the habits and the ways and
means, peculiar to some of the Inferior
animals. From their petrificd elections
we know what such fossilized reptiles as
the piesiusaurus, etc, are, and may somo
day bo able to discover the fish and
crustacca they hunted down. Animals,
when not living by their own respectable
ehorts, are either parasites or depeudents;
many would seem to have positive trades,
or are connected with branches of indus.
try. These are miners. masons, carmen
tiers, paper manufacturers, and weavcrs,
laccmakcrs even, all working first for
themselves, and next to propagate their
kind. The miners dig into the earth,
form natural arches and supports, remove
the useless soil: such as the mole, chin
chilla Of Peru, the badger, the lion ant,
as we'll as certain worms and moluses
The masons build huts and places accor-
ding to oil the rules Of architecture, rs
the bees aud tropical ants; there arc fish
that construct boats that the waves never
can upset, and Agassiz has drawn attcn-
tion to fish which builds its nest on tho
floating scawccd in tho middle of the
ocean, and deposits therein its eggs. Tho
wasps of South America fabricate q sort
Of paper or pasteboard. Spiders arc
wcavers instead of lacemakcrs; one spe-
cics conducts n diving bell, palace of
lace. When the astronomer has need of
the most delicate thread for his telescope,
he applies to tiny spider. When the
naturalist desires to test his microscope,
he selects a certain shell of sea insect,
so small that several millions of them in
water could not be visible to the naked
eye, and yet no microscope has yet been
sufficiently powerful to reveal the bcauti-
full variegated designs on tho atomic
shells! Aristotle remarked, md lie has
since been corroboratcd, that variety of
pl0ver enters the crocodile's mouth, picks
the remnants of food of the animals
tongue and from between its teeth. Tho
living toothpick is necessary, as tho
tongue of the crocodile is not mobile.
The Mexican owl, when enjoying siesta,
puts itself under the guard of a kind rat,
that gives the alarm on the approach of
danger. Parasites are everywhere, de-
pend on no particular condition of tho
body, and are us abundant in persons of
the most robust rs of the most debilitatcd
health. They arc Mt home in the muscles,
in tho henrt, in tho vcntrislcH t,f the i5rit5,,
in the ball of the eye. They are gene
rally either in the form of leaf or rib
bon, and are not necessarily, Hs was onco
supposed, confined to special animal.
Tho parasites of fish have been detected
living on the intestincs of birds; anl
there are some that, for the purpose If
development, must pass into the economy
of a second auimal.-lScicatifc American.