The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-11-09
Curious Sea Inhabitants,

There Is continual warfare going on
in the deep, constant struggle for the
means Of sustaining lie. The carnlverous
dcvOur the vegctarans 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
bluef1sh to the least of the c.:da.
These last, the sea- worms, are wary, bat
they cannot escape their enemies. If they
were to confine themselves to the bottom,
where they feed and where many of them
grow to the length Of foot or two, they
might in measure escape, though they
would still be u 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 ls marvelous-monster
with hooked jaws at the end of a probos is,
and withal, sides of bluest green that throw
of 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 rest less, particularly at
night; some are round, others fiat some
build tubes of sand and cement, woven
together till they make colony of many
hundred members; the tubes of others are
soft and flexible, and some, when disturbed,
withdraw within their crooked calcarcous
tubes and close the orltice with plug.
One variety Of the scrpulg has three dark
red eyes; another has clusters of eyes on
each tentacle. The amphitlods were accoun-
ted of no great value till 1t was shown by
the Fish Commission that these small crus-
tacea furnish vast amount of food for
both salt and frcsh-water fishes. Indeed,
there is not a creature that swlms or crawls
that does not become the food Of some other
animal. A.beach flea is caught up bya soup
or founder; squlds make terrible havoc
among young mackcrel, and SHARKS and
sling.rays find something appetizing in
the gastcropod.
But we have not room here to dwell OH
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
fine net, and drawing it through the sea-
weed, to gather an infinite variety of ami
NAL life 80 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 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 tail,
which, when not in use, Is drawn up
under the body. This appendge, like the
caudal one of the tadpole, disappears when
| tho creature has no further need of it. So
of the young of the lobster; it has five feet,
while tho 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, tnan that which charac-
terizes the star-tish. Its larva seems COM
plete in itself, aud its movements are active
before 1t presents any of the aspects OF the
parent fish. Even its temporary mouth
does not remain the permanent mouth of
the startish. 1t is the startish that is the
great destroyer of oysters, and there is
nothing more tenacious of life. Tear off
one of its lobcs or arms another will grow
in it's place tear Off two, thrce-all of its
five arms, and it is able to reproduce them
nil