Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-11-04
Curious Sea Inhabitants.

SNASS" oSa
There is continual warfare going on
in the deep, constant struggle for the
means OF sustaining'life. The carniver-
Gus 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 bluefish to the
least OF the annelids. These last, the
sea-worms. are wary, but they cannot
escape their enemies. II they were to
contine 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 prey to the soup and
other fish that know how to dig for
them; but they love to swim, particu-
larly at night and in the breeding sea-
son, and then they are snapped up in
countless numbers. They have almost
every variety of forms and their struct-
ure is marvellous monsters with
hooked Jaws at the nd of a probocis
and, withal, sides of bluest green that
throw off an infinite variety of irides-
cent hues. Some of the sea- worms
have scales, others have soft bodies;
some are sluggish and curl themselves
up into balls when disturbed, others are
restless, particularly at night; some are
round, others fiat; some build tubes of
sand and cement, woven together till
they make n colony of many hundred
members; the tubes of others are soft
and flexible, and some, when disturbed.
withdraw within their crooked calcare-
Gus tubes and close the orifce with a
plug. One variety OF the serpule has
three dark red eyes; another has clus-
tiers of eyes on each tentacle. The am
phibods were accounted of no great
value till it was shown by the fish COM
mission that these small crustacea fur
nish n vast amount of food for
both salt and fresh water fishes
Indeed, there is not a creature that
swims or crawls that does not be-
come the food of some other animal.
A beach flea is caught up by a soup or
founder; squids make terrible havoc
among young mackerel, and sharks and
sting-rays find something appetizing in
the gasteropod.
But have not room here to dwell on
the attractions offered by the inverte-
0rate animals on this coast. The rocky
shores abound in varieties differing
from the product of sandy and muddy
bottoms, and the different zones have
their peculiar forms OF animal and vege-
table life, and one has only to sweep the
water with a fine net. and drawing it
through the seaweed, to gather an infin-
ite variety of animal life, so minute and
delicate in form as only to be seen with
the aid of q glass. At the laboratory of
the fish commission. crabs not bigger
than the head OF pin may be seen
swimming in n shallow dish, tiny
forms, almost transparent, but active
and pugnacious when they meet each
other. These minute animals at this
stage are not fully formed, but have a
tail, which, when not in use, is drawn
up under the body. This appendage,
like the caudal one of the tadpole, dis
appears when the creature has no fur
ther need of it. So of the young of the
lobster; i. has FIVE feet, while the alb
dominal segments are fattened out into
tail fin. But perhaps there il no
greater change in the growth OF any of
the crustacea than that which charac-
terizes the star-fish. It's larva seems
complete in itself, and its movements
are active before It presents any aspects
of the parent fish. Even its temporary
mouth does not remain the permanent
mouth of the star-fsh. 1t is the star
fish that is the great destroyer of oys-
tiers. and there is nothing more tenacious
of life. Tear off one OF its lobes or arms
and another will grow in its place; tear
off two, three-nll of its five arms and 1t
is able to reproduce them ALL Corre-
sp0ndence Of The NeD York Post.