The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1884-11-28
miscellaneous.
Strength and Agility of Animals.

The peculiar construction of some Quadru-
peds presents number of problems which
as yet our greatest comparative anatomists
have not been able to give any solution.
We know of no living thing that will com
pare with the common flea in strength and
agility. A flea, one sixteenth of an inch in
length, can jump distance oftwenty inches.
require a six-foot man to jump 800 times his
length he would have to land /, 920 feet from
where he left the ground.
Our common gray rabbit is one of the best
Jumpers we have 1t is very easy 10 measure
the strides of this nimble little fellsw in a
slight fall of snow. When he is pushed by IL
swift dog his jumps on level ground are about
0 feet clear. In proportion to length, horse,
to jump as far as rabbit would have to clear
Ga feet at jump. There is no quadruped
that has such powerful muscles in his quar-
tiers as the rabbit and none excel him in the
muscles of his loin and back.
The horse, on the contrary, cannot jump
more than 81 feet. Longfellow jumped this
distance in all his great races. No doubt the
great Miss Woodford can and does jump 90
and 81 feet in her best races. Goldsmith
Maid stepped with her hind feet II feet when
she was going at II 2.15 gait
Ii is said that Flying Dutchman, trotter
under the saddle of the olden time, stepped
twenty-five feet. If Mr.. Bonner should
measure the stride of Maud s. he would find
it not less than 30 feet.
The gated horse, next to the galloping
gait, will be found to be the PAGER His
reach is twenty feet when going his best. A
man, taking his size, outjumps horse II is
well known, too, that man Is superior in
strength, endurance and agility to the horse
AS traveller man holds the first pace in the
ranks of all animals that move over the sur
face of the earth
Ground mole excels all other animals in
strength, jaw and shoulder. His business is
to cut roots and dig. He is put together with
reference to the very kind of business WE
find him engaged in If human beings were
organized and adapted to their occupations
have more successful people in the world
than we now have. A battle between male
moles generally ends with the death of both
animals, but such fights are very triflng com
pared with II flea fight. These insects strew
the ground with each others limbs. An ex-
animation by the microscope of flea after u
battle shows what these dimnutve creatures
are capable of doing.
No theory with which we are acquainted
accounts for the force we find in different an
imals But it is shown that size is not the
measure of the quality of force.
In referring to animals of peculiar anato-
mical construction the "'possum" is one of
the most wonderful. He is OF the marsupial
genus-i. G, with false belly or pouch,
wherein to suckle the young and also place
of safety for them. The period of CESSATION
of the 'possum is not known. For the rea-
son that it is claimed that the young ones
are voided directly into the pouch, where
they remain and literally grow on the teats
of the mother We were informed by nat
urallst who made dissection of IL female
'lossum that he found young ones about two
inches long fastened firmly on the teats; 30
attached were they that II dissection had to be
made to get them off. The young ones are
only weaned when there is no longer room
enough for them in the pouch. They then
make their way outside but in case of alarm
or an emergency the little ones crawl inside
of the pouch, and are at once carried off by
the mother