The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-06-30

as they have one or two eyes or one or
more shells.
All fiat hsh are comprised ia the genus
pieNo notes species Of which are the
founder, halibut, plaice, sole, turbot, dab,
&c. They have their eyes on the right
side.
A sea-snake was cast ashore in Orkney,
which was iifty-iiye feet long, and the cir.
cumference equal to the girth of an DIRK
ney pony.
The Goldfish, or gradus, which supplies
the Catholics with such luxurious repasts
on their fastdays and IN Lent, abounds in
shoals on the coasts and banks Of New
foundland, Cape Breton and Nova Scotia.
They are from IA to 40 lbs. and larger.
Mackerel, &C., pass the winter in the
mud or sand in deep water, and emerge in
the spring.
The air-bladder Of fish enables them to
rise or sink at pleasure; and this power,
and that Of the fms and tail, gives the lar
gest speed many times greater than that
Of any ship.
Aristotle divides shells into three or
ders, uniyalves, of one piece, and biyalves,
and turbinated; and the same arrangement
is still preserved, except that the order is
changed BY Linneus, and the turbinated
are called multivalves; and he divides them
into three genera Of multiyalves, fourteen
Of biyalves, and nineteen of uniyalves.
Latreille has since published another ar
angement in l53 genera, but not more
satisfactory. The best work on British
shells is by Donovan. In univalves, in
some species, the cavity is divided into
chambers, with pipe of communication;
the base is the mouth and opposite is the
apex. The convolutions are called whorls.
The hinge in biyalves is sometimes fur
nished with teeth, it is usually Joined by
strong hgament. They adhere to rocks
by thread-like substance, called the beard
The forming of collections of these natural
triaes is accompanied by the cruel practice
Of plunging the shell in boiling water to
kill the animal, and in some cases, this has
not succeeded, for shells put away as dry
have sometimes been found crawling, and
after considerable lapse of time.
The shell of a sea cookie is the circula-
ting medium of Angola and the neighbor-
ing kingdoms. The cookie are caught on
the shores Of the island Loanda, held by
the Portuguese, who, therefore, make the
people tributary.
Snails shut in box with air close them
selves in their shells, and live in DOR
mant state for months or years and revive
in water at ~ deg.
The snail called heh;r torn,atio is eaten
at Rome by the people during Lent, being
fatteued purposely. When snails attack
fruit, they touch no other till that is gone
hence gardeners never remove them
Their eyes are at the end of each horn.
Lice are found on their bodies, and worms
in their intestines.
A shower Of crabs fell with heavy rain,
10 the summer of 1929, in the yard of the
Poor House at Reigate, and were lively,
weighing two ounces.
The bony scale on the back Of cutie
fish is used for tooth powder and pounce.
This fish squirts black fluid like ink.
The Persian pearl fishery is carried on
at the Bahrin Islands, in the Persian Gulf.
The vessels amount to many hundreds, and
the pearls weigh from ten to fifty grains.
Oysters differ from muscles in being at
tached where they grow. They spawn in
May, like drops of candle grease in water,
which attach and grow for three years.
On the coast of Coromandel they are two
feet in diameter.
Two polypes cut asunder, and Joined at
either end, become one; and one species
may be turned inside out, and live as
before.