Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-02-20
Marine Animalcula.

Mr.. Darwin relates. in his Natural
lists Voyage Round the World" that, on
the coast of Chile, few leagues north
Of Conception, and, again, a degree
south of Valparaiso, when fifty miles
from land, the ship Beagle passed
through great bands Of discolored water.
Placed In glass, this water showed a
reddish tint, and, examined under the
microscope, was seen to be swarming
with minute animalcula, darling about
with rapldity, and often acquiring a TO-
tary motion, at the conclusion of which
they exploded. The animals were ex-
ceedingly minute, being invisible to the
naked eye, " and covering space equal
to the square of the thousandth Of an
inch" Lheir numbers were infinite"
says DR.. Darwin, for the smallest drop
OF water which [ could remove contain
ed very many. In one day we passed
through two spaces Of water thus strain
ed, one of which alone must have ex-
tended over several square miles.
What incalculable numbers of these
microscopic animals? The color of the
water, as seen at some distance was like
that of river which has flowed through
a red-clay district; but, under the
shade Of the vessels side, it was quite
as dark as chocolate. The line where
the red and blue water joined was dis
tinctly visible.
At the head of the Gulf of California
there has been noted, from the time Of
the early Spanish navigators to the
present day, a body Of similarly discol-
ored water; while at the mouth of the
Gulf there have existed patches of
deeper red, which have given the waters
the name of the Vermilion Sea. During
the survey Of the Gulf and it's shores
by the United States steamer Naragan-
sett, in 1877, an opportunity was afford
ed OF examining these waters and ascer-
tanning the origin of their peculiar tints.
DR.. Thomas II. Streets, u. S. NJ, fur
nlshes an account Of the investigation
IN the pages of the Anl11can Naturalist.
After much careful examination through
the microscope, the same animalcula
were discovered which DR.. Darwin had
seen In the waters off the coast of Chile
in 1885. At first only molecules were
visible in the field of the microscope,
across which small objects darted like a
flash and were gone Finally" saws
DR.. Streets, zone of the little bodies
mentioned above stopped directly in
the centre Of the field of vision. and
commenced rapid rotatory movement,
which presently ceased, and the animal
was quiescent for second or two;
when, 10! rupture occurred, its mole
cular contents oozed out, and it's trans
parent envelope became invisible.
This, then, was the solution of the
mystery.
DR.. Streets describes the animal as
" oval in outline, with a projecting lip at
its broad extremity. fringed with ella.
Ihe rotary movement took place around
the smaller end as pivot, and it ad-
vanced the same end in it's to-and-fro
movement. The envelope is trans
parent and apparently structureless
mem brane, and III its interior are green
ish yellow granules, or bodies with dark
rims and bright centres. These bodies
hoated loosely in the cavity of the ami
NAL, for, when it revolved, they chang
ed their places like pebbles in a revolv-
ing cask. They averaged about the
1-12-OOO of an inch in diameter"
These minute animals have been
known to inhabit the same localities in
the Gulf Of California for more than
800 years, remaining as closely aggre-
gated as a community of individuals
endowed with reason or instinct, and
not exposed to dispensing causes.
The great Colorado River,
at the head of the Gulf constantly pours
into it an immense volume of water,
which has a tendency to carry things
seward, as it does logs and other drift;
yet here is this microscopic animal the
1-1,O0O of an inch long, exposed to the
same influence. but remaining in its
chosen locality for centuries. What
keeps these masses together forever IN
one place, in spite of the circulation Of
the waters on the surface Of the earth7'
How Bancroft Writes History.