Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-03-21
Animals that Hold Fast to Life.

''You will hardly credit it," said a
Staten Island fisherman whom a report
er talked with the other day, .sbut the
head of a turtle will retain a very
marked interest in existence long after
it's body has been served up in soup and
steaks. l believe it is a well-known
fact, but [ only discovered it six months
ago. I found a friend engaged in she'll
ing a small turtle. Now hss said, put
ting the head on the dresser, that will
be alive and active tomorrow morn
ing OF course l laughed at him, but l
agreed to call next day and test his
prophecy. Next morning my friend
asked me to step into the Kitchen. The
head was still on the dresser, and
though it had been separated from the
body for at least sixteen hours, the eyes
were wide open end bright. Take
cara exclaimed my friend, as 1 put my
finger nea the mouth. His warning
came not a second too soon. The head
Of that turtle absolutely jumped at me.
Where its motive power came from /
can not explain, but it movedtwo inches
toward me, and snapped at my finger
with a viciousness that could not have
been surpassed by a cornered rat /
think. it had been holding back it's life,
as men of strong will-power, for fixed
purposes, have been known to do, until
an opportunity offered to avenge the
destruction of its body, for after it had
made the effort its eyes grew fixed and
tilmy, and in an hour it was dead. Next
to the turtle in obstinate persistence IN
living must come the eel. In recognize
ing the extraordinary length of time
through which an eel clings to its being
under the most u%nfavorable circum-
stances, people, I think, overlook the
most unfavorahle condition of all-the
removal of it from the water, a state
of affairs sufficient in itself to produce
death.
II do not believe that cutting an
cells head off or serving his tail the
same way shortens his life much. He
dies because he is out of his element,
and had he been left unmutilated he
would have lived but little longer. OF
course, if you put him in sections on the
frying-pan you place upon him a bur-
den greater than he can bear, and he
dies quickly; but the lesser injuries, af-
fecting only the tail, head or skin, seem
to me to make but little impression.
The fact is, an eel can live an extraor-
dinarily long time out of water. They
habituallv leave it of their own accord
and wander in the fields that slope
down to q creek not far from here. l
have often met in the early morning
cells making their way down to the
creek. They had spent the night in the
meadows in search of worms and were
going back. Whether an eel or any
other fish is capable of feeling acute
pain l a not say. This I a vouch
for: When an eel has been skinned
and beheaded, and seems to be quite
dead, a little salt rubbed on the surface
of the body will be apt to restore life
very quickly. A snake dies quickly
under injuries. The average snake will
not live three minutes after his head is
crushed with a stick. The eye of a wild
bird remains bright for some time after
you have shot it, and is likely to u
q tender-hearted sportsman on his first
cunning expedition a good deal of self
reproach.
II do not know whether clans have
at any time a very self-assertive exist
ence, but that, in captivity, the clam is
able at times to make himself excessive
ly d~isagreeable l have had occasion to
know. Not long ago 1 brought home a
big basket of clans. I placed them in a
dish-pail and left them in the kitchen.
In the middle of the night my wife
aroused me, saying that there were rob
bers in the house. With a pistol in my
hand | wandered from room to room. l
could hear a most extraordinary noise,
like o combination of saving, filing.
grooming and grunting, with an occa-
sional watery gasp. but for the life of
me 1 could not imagine where it came
from. At last I went into the kitchen
and the mystery was solved. Each
clam, with his shell wide open, was
making almost as much noise as a bull
frog in full vigor. l filled the pan with
fresh water, which brought either con-
tentment or death; that is to say, it
quieted them."-M. y. Sun.
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