The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-07-22
CURIOUS AND INTERESTING.

AGES OF ANrdALs.-A bear rarely e1-
ceeds twenty years dog lives twenty
years fox fourteen or sixteen lions
are ng-ived-Pompey' lived to the
age of seventy. The average age of cats
is fifteen years; a squirrel and hare
seven or eight years; rabbits seven.
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
times live to the age of 100. Stays are
long-ived. Sheep seldom exceed the
age of ten. Cows live about fifteen
years. Cuvier considers it probable
that whales sometimes live 900 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 LOT.
THE CHANGE IN THE FRoG.-Nowhere
in the animal kingdom is there SO favor
able an opportunity for peeping into ma
lures workshop as in the metamor-
phoses of the frog. This animal is a
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
while neck is grooved into the flesh
Its soft lips are hardened into horny
beak. The different organs, one after
another, bud out; then pair of branch
ing gills, and last, long and timber
tail. The worm has become a fish.
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
bleathing apparatus, the initial of a 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 tai, being now supplant-
ed by them as means Of locomotion, is
carried away piecemeal by the absorb
ents, and the animal passes the balance
of its days as an air-breathing and flesh
feeding batrachian.
PECULARITIEs OF DEEP-SEA ANIMALS.
-Deep-sea animals, as a 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 45O 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, rs blind man uses his stick.
There are also abundant hairs on the
animals surface, which are probably
organs of touch. Many deep-sea crns-
tacea, however, have very large eyes,
indeed, evidently for the purpose OF
making use of some small quantity OF
light which must exist in oil depths.
| In the absence of sunlight the only
| 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 a 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 is
the one mainly relied on by most deep
sea animals. Very many are provided
with special organs of touch, such as
long hairs, or, in the case Of fish, enor
mously long fin-rays.