Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1880-11-11

There is a continual warfare going on
in the deep, constant struggle for the
means of sustaining hfe The camlverous
| devour the vegetarians, and the mud eaters
swallow both animal and vegetable forms;
and this runs all the way down the scale
| from the shark and the equally ravenous
| bluetish 10 the least of the anne.ids.
These last, the sea-worms, are wary, but
| they cannot escape their enemies. II they
| were to confne themselves TO the bottom,
where they feed and where many of them
grow TO the length of foot or two, they
might in q measure escape, though they
would still be a prey to the soup and
other fish that know how to dig for them :;
| but they love to swim, particularly at night
and in the breeding season, and then they
are snapped up in countless numbers. They
have almost every variety of forms and
their structure Is marvelous-monsters
with hooked jaws at the end of Il probOs is,
and withal, sides of bluest green that throw
| off an infinite variety of irridescent hues.
| Some of the sea- worms have scales, others
have soft bodies some are sluggish and
curl themselve up into balls when dis
turbed, others are restless, particularly at
night some are round, others fiat; some
build tubes of sand and cement, woven
together TIL they make a colony of many
hundred members; the tubes of others are
soft and flexible, and some, when disturbed,
withdraw within their crooked calcareous
tubes and close the orIfice with a plug.
One variety of the serpule has three dark
red eyes another has clusters of eyes on
each tentacle. The amphifods were sccoun-
| ted of no great value till 1t was shown by
| the Fish Commission that these small crus-
tacea furnish q vast amount of food for
both salt and fresh-water fishes. Indeed,
| there is not a creature that swIms or crGwls
that does not became the food Of some other
animal A beach flea is caught up bya soup
| OF founder; sqmds make terrible havoc
among young mackerel, and sharks and
sting rays find something appetizing In
the gasteropod.
But we have not room here to dwell on
the attractions offered hy the invertebrate
ANIMALS on this coast. The rocky shores
abound in varieties differing from the pro-
ducts of sandy and muddy bottoms, and
the different zones have their peculiar
forms of animal and vegetable life, and
one has only TO sweep the water with a
fine net, and drawing it through the sea-
weed, to gather an infinite variety of ami
NAL life, so minute and delicate in form as
only to be seen with the aid of glass. At
the laboratory of the Fish Commission,
crabs not bigger than the head of pin
may be seen seen swimming in a shallow
dish, tiny forms, almost transparent, but
active and pugnaclous when they meet
each other. These minute ANIMALS at this
stage are not fully formed, out have a tail,
which, when not in use, Is drawn up
under the body. This appendge, like the
caudal one of the tadpole, disappears when
the creature has no further need of it. So
of the young of the lobster; il has five feet,
while the abdominal segments are flat
tened out into a tail Tin. But perhaps there
is no greater change in the growth of any
| of the erustacea, than that which Charac-
terizes the star-tish. Its larva seems COM
plete in itself, and its movements are active
before II presents any of the aspects of the
parent fish. Even its temporary mouth
does not remain the permanent mouth of
the starfish. 1t is the stariish that is the
great destroyer of oysters, and there is
nothing more tenacious of life. Tear off
one of its lobes or arms another will grow
J in its place; tear of two, three-all of its
five arms, and it is able TO reproduce them
all