The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-01-05
Pre-Adamite Inventions.


When the inventor of the suction pump
first succeeded in bringing water up tube
with strainer a; the bottom to keep. back for
eign matters, he doubtless thought he had done
something new, but his horse had been using
the same device all his days; the long neck
was Il pipe the neirlv-closed lips the stralner,
and the movement o.! the chest by muscular
expansion and contraction, especially OF the
diaphragm, proa"ced the proper vacuum, and
atmospheric ,.vs>ure on the water drove IL up
the tube That mysterious grip upon the fluid
whiC.. ,pok the name OF suction proved to
be no hold at all, and his rare device would
have been pronounced an infringement n the
patent Office on nature.
The boy with his lcan.blower and the say.
age with his shootng-tube, through which he
ieXpels q small feathered arrow or clay bullet
Imay suppose they have Il thing quite unique
in the way Of arms but the calculator fish,
CHAToDoN RosTRATUs,-h used that gun for
ages. An upsuspecting fly sits on grass
blade or willow bougl, bending over the water,
perhaps admiring his own gay wings in that
treacherous mirror jaculator admires them
too, but in a different light; slowly and silent
ly he places himself under the leaf that holds
his game, and bringing his qull.like snout to
the surface, shoots a drop OF water with fatal
precision at the small fowl that drops helpless
lUlo pun ~ lCNGltt l!lt GNCtl-
lent score.
a tsherman's net may seem out of the range
Of animal ingenuity; but ages before the fish.
ermen had woven that subtle snare, II cunning
Annelid had built about him an eel-weir, and
al the mouth Of il set a neatly woven net with
acknowledged mcshes, that was the precise
model of the tisherman's. Its purpose was the
samc-tO catch small fry for the commissariat
iOf the sportsman.
The willy angler who lures his prey by
ttly-handled bait is only pretentiOus copy
ist OF the great clumsy SoPHIUs PIsCAToRIUs,
which may be translated piscatorial loater, for
the great lazy hulk, with no attractions per.
sOnal to win by, and no speed to serve In the
chase, just lies off and gets his living by his
wits. For the beauty of the beast, | will mere
ly say, that one | captured measured four feet
in length by three feet in breadth, with depth
of about ten inches; that his mouth was the
mouth of carpet-bag, across the entire breadth
of him,--or indeed, he is the marine carpet
Dagger, and his open jaws were sufficient to
contain halfbushel of herrings! Around
the external rim Of The jaw is fringe of
plume-like appendages, that seem like the
teathery prorusion from the shells Of serpulG
on the edge Of a rock, which the Sophius pre-
tends to be, as he settles himself in the muddy
or weedy bottom. But over the top of his
head where his eyes and nose are, you find his
fishing -tackle-two long poles, slender and
elastic as whips, on the end of which are two
artificial flies, natural to him, but sham for
the silly fish he feeds on When IA goodly
number Of small fry are drawn by the lure of
the bait alone, and so led on to investigate the
promise of richer food along the margin of
this pseudorock, snap come the great jaws up,
on them, and they are carpet-bagged as thor
NJ, rb l,r thn finances pt a 70 pnn Strnp tn1
'southcrn municipality. Angler, steeltrap, car.
pedagogical claiming to be human inven-
tons, more or less modcrn-have here been
anticipated III the lump by this Sophius, or
loafer of the deep.
But, doubtless, the struttlng sWOrdSman with
his lung, slender blade Of Damascus steel,
claims weapon no beast can antedate; but
let him sit where one oi my neighbors did,
when up through the bottom of Lis boat and
into the very "thwart' he occupied came the
straight, stray twC-edged sword of XIPHIAs
GIADIus, the terrible swordtish, and he would
learn to his dismay that our human gladiators
were only playing with secondhand
weapons after all. A very feeble imitation
too for who, like Niphius, can drive his
sword through ten-inch timber Of live oak,
as may be seen in the museum Of marine GU.
riosiies at Woolwich, If | remember Alright
The deadly enemy of the whale, the sword-tsh
may mistake ship for his victim, in the
blindness of his wrath, and pay for his blum
der by the loss of his weapon.
| The saw-tish-(PRIsTIS ANTIQUNiUM, and u.
cIRRATUs)--has dangerous weapon, which
may have been consciously initiated by the
South Sea savage in his sword Of teak, set
along both edges with sharks teeth though
probably the same savagery, in the low strata
of life was the common origin Of both. Like
the sword of Xiphias, this saw is a bony pro
longation of the tish's snout, with the addition
and aggravation of harder teeth set at regular
intervals along either edge of the blade. In
! p. CIRRATUs the teeth alternate, with one long
and three short ones. As il the poor blubber
| ing whale hod not enough Of trouble with his
own lice and banacles, and the lances and
harpoons of Jack" the giant killer, and the
more civilized style Of the sword of Niphias
! he is set upon with the savage weapon OF the
saw.fish, whose frightful decorations must make
him feel glad when he gets comfortably settled
! in amploil at the domestic board, where the
wicked cease from troubling and the weary
are at rest"
Somr Good POin