The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-11-18
OFF FLORIDA KEYS.
A PEEP AT THE WORK OF THE CORAL
POLYPS.
Capturing Crawfsh and Conch-SeeurinG
the white Meat" of the Crawfish-
LOOsening the COnch from It's
She'll Phorescent Phenomena
IFlorida 90. New York 20


submarine garden that denes description.
( Everywhere the bottom was covered with
/ patches Of brown branching coral, among
the innumerable winding channels Of
( which fishes of wondrous hue darted
/ about. Here a shark was suddenly sur
! prised, stirring up the coral sand, or a
/ lazy turtle, perhaps asleep on the surface,
was rudely awakened. darting off with
! bird like tight Soon the banks of branch
| coral gave way TO great heads of astre-e
and meandrina some weighing thou
sands of pounds. the work of millions of
/ coral pOyps.
The polyp is as much an animal as
| man, perhaps not so highly special
lied, vel. very perfect. and quite
examine single pOlyp, we find that it
! is very like an anemOne, in plain
| English, it seems a simple stomach,
numerous tentacles growing from the
upper portion. that connect indirectly
with the stomach. If we could see a sec
ton of the body, we should see it di-
vided into sections by f1eshy partitions
that grow out from the circumference
and seem to hold the stomach in place
! Each of the principal divisions, and
there are six, has little window so that
they all connect, and food that passes
into the mouth comes out at the bottom
of the stomach, and digested, is waited
by ella into these compartments through
the windows and into the hollow armR.
circulation. breathing and eating being
thus accomplished
So much for the coral polyps, or the
anemOne, thousands of the latter of which
peep from the sand and coral as we
drift by.
Some of the heads of astree that we
found here were five feet across, and
leaping overheard | stood upon one that
nd orsrr
tic vase five feet high, so that the water
was only six inches deep over the head,
though six or seven feet alongside A
great bridge of these heads extended along
the reef, and armed with pair of grains
l walked along followed by the boat
Grains on the reef are a two-pronged
spear fitted to long willowy pole, and
The sport, for such it is, began as soon as
the heads were reached. The crawfsh
are great CrustaceanS, resembling Holsters
except that they have no great claws, but
a long pair of serated whips. They are
yellow instead of blue and black,
and out from under every head these
whips waved in great numbers
urging them out far enough to strike
them with the grains-a very easy matter
and as we moved slowly along there
was a continual punch, punch, with no
special care. a Crawf1sh Tapped his tail
high in the air, and was dropped by the
wader into the car or dingy.
In an hour the boat was half full of the
Tapping crustaceans. and was then pushed
over to shoal portion of the reef free
from coral and covered with a growth of
short weed. Here was the home of the
cOnch, the Strombus gigas, the toothsome
mOrsel that is supposed to be eaten by the
Bahamians; The conch is the great pink
tipped she'll so common in curiosity stores
at the north. They are sold by the buShel
at Nantucket Asbury Park, Mount Des-
ert, and other places, some buyers prob
ably thinking them indigenous, to those
particular localities.
The great mollusks were evidently feed
ing on the fiat, and the men waded along,
picking them up every few steps and toss
ing them in the boat, where the skipper
reduced them to plain bait in a manner
skilful and artistic. The moment the
couch is taken up it withdraws its sharp
sabre like Operculum into its pink lined
shell. and eifeCtually closes the entrance
The skipper, however, literally stole in
at the back door, for, taking the shell in
his left hand. with a few sharp blows of
the Ratchet be severed the tip of the cone
from the shell, and with jerk unscrewed
the animal, dropping the shell overheard.
This was done with great rapidity, while
another hand tore the heads from the
Crawtish, and by side blow crushed the
tail, and soon had the white meat clear.
Crawfish Is the best bait on the reef for all
but the special live-ish eaters though it
is so soft that it hardly pays for use in
deep water. The conCh is hard and tough,
and has staying powers that suffice to cap
ture several groupers in succession.
Night overlook us at the work. And
what nights they arel Lying out on
deck, the smoke of pure Havana, that
cost cents, rising directly into the air a
foot or more. where, caught by the warm
easterly trade, it is borne slowly away in |
the direction of Yucatan. The gulf |
stream, that is moving noiselessly by. |
CLEANS with wondrous lights the slight |
swell causing ripples of fire to form about |
the Mystic, that go rolling past, SEEM |
ingly igniting the water all about, and |
giving the dark eXpanse a ghOstly appear !
ance. In nearly all southern waters the |
phosphorescent phenomena can be OBJ |
served, and perhaps one of the most re- /
markable spots is the so-called Lake of |
Fire at Nassau, near the old Waterloo |
place, although in summer the water in !
Havana harbOr is equally brilliant
In the Nassau lake, when the water Is |
taken up in the hand, it seems entirely
made Of globules or spheres of jelly |
like mass endowed with great luminosity. |
To the iaymen these are bugs" or jelly
fishes, etc, but to the scientific the little
masses of protopiasm are endowed with
u more significant interest