The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-07-22
CURIOUS AND INTERESTING.

AGES OF ANIMALs.-A bear rarely ex-
ceeds twenty years; dog lives twenty
years fox fourteen or sixteen lions
are long -ived-Pompey's lived to the
age Of seventy. The average age OF cats
Is fifteen years squirrel and hare
seven or eight years; rabbits seven.
Elephants have been known to live to
the great age of 700 years. Pigs live to
the age Of thirty years the rhinoceros
to twenty. A horse has been known to
Live to the age of sixty-two, but averages
twenty-five to- thirty. Camels some-i
times live to the age of 100. Stays are
long-lived. Sheep seldom exceed the
age of ten. Cows live about fifteen
years. Cuvier considers it probable
that whales sometimes live 1000 years.
The dolphin and porpoise attain the age
of thirty. An eagle died at Vienna at
the age of 104 years. Ravens frequent
ly reach the age of 100. Swans have
been known to live 800 years. A tor
toise has been known to live 107.
TIE CHANGE IN THE FRoe.-Nowhere
in the animal kingdom is there so favor
able an opportunity for peeping into ma
lures workshop as in the imetamor-
phoses of the frog This animal is q
worm when,it comes from the egg, and
remains such the first four days of its;
life, having neither eyes nor ears, nos
trils, nor respiratory organs. It crawls.
1t breathes through its skin. After q
while neck is grooved into the flesh.
Its soft lips are hardened into a horny
beak. The different! organs, oaa after
ing gills, and last, long and timber
Ill Hoo G,L
Three or four days more elapse, and the
gills sink back into the body, while in
their place others come, much more
complex, arranged in vascular tufts, 112
in each. But they, too, have their day,
and are absorbed, together with their
framework of bone and cartilage, to be
succeeded by an entirely different
breathing apparatus, the initial of sec
ond correlated group of radical change.
Lungs are developed, the mouth wild
ened, the horny beak converted into
rows of teeth, the stomach, the abdo-
men, the intestines, prepared for the re-
ception of animal food In place of veg
etable; four limbs, fully equipped with
hip and shoulder bones, with nerves and
blood vessels, push out through the
skin, while the tail, being now supplant-
ed by them as q means of locomotion, is
carriedSaway piecemeal by the absorb
ents, and the animal passes the balance
of its days as an air-breathing and flesh
feeding batrachian.
PEoUIIARrrEs OF DEEP-SEA ANIMALS.
-Deep-sea animals, as rule, have
either no eyes at all or have very large
eyes. As an example may be cited the
crustacean, astacus Zalencus, most close
ly allied to the common cray-fsh which
Prof. Huxley has lately made illus
trious. It is from 450 fathoms. It has
no eyes at all, but one of its nippers is
extraordinarily long and delicate, and
possibly the animal uses it to feel its
way with, ss blind man uses his stick.
There are also abundant hairs on the
animals surface, which are probably
organs of touch. Many deep-sea crus-
: tacea, however, have very large eyes,
indeed, evidently for the purpose OF
making use of some small quantity OF
light which must exist In all depths.
In the absence of sunlight the only
g other source of Light must be phospho-
rescence of certain of the deep-sea ami
mails themselves. No doubt many ami
mails, as in shallow water, emit light in
the deep sea and the deep-sea animals
with eyes probably congregate round
them or grope their way in the gloom
from one bunch to another as they lie
scattered over the bottom, just as we
half-feel, half-see our way from lamp.
post to lamp-post in night fog. Some
lose their way, as we do sometimes, and
get into shallow water, and good many
deep-sea animals have been from time
to time picked up near the shores al
Madeira and elsewhere, and have found
their way into museums as great rari
ties. No doubt the sense Of touch i
the one mainly relied on by most deep
sea animals. Very many are provided
with special organs of touch, such a,
long hairs, or, in the case of fish, enor
mously long fn-rays.