Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-11-20
KANSAS, "WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 1899.
WONDERS OF The SEA.
Facts About -Urchins, star-Eish q
Other Queer Creatures.

WONDERS OF THE SEA.
Facts About Sea-Urchins, Star-Eish and
Other Queer Creatures.
1t is not surprising that the man of
science, living in q world Of wonders, gaz-
ing always eagerly through the microscope
or telescope, should differ from the common
folk whose eyes look out languidly upon life
through natural or corrective lens. The
naturalist particularly, amid the marvels OF
field, forest, swamp and shore, finding
stimulus every day to his worship of the
great mystery, reverSs to the feelings of
childhood. His supreme sense Of the sub
lime felt in the contemplation of the mere
classified thousands accessible to him
among the infinite millions OF living things
this sense is never jaded. Man may be q
proper, but he is not the only study Of man.
kind and 1t is well for us now and then to
be as little children and listen open-eyed to
the schoolmaster telling the things we once
knew but have forgotten.
There is the sea-urchin to begin with,
says the Chicago Times. 1t looks like q
chestnut-burr and is commonly called the
sea-chestnut, but 1t Is q fish and has 1000
feet known as the sambulacral" feet. Their
arrangement permits the urchin TO progress
in any direction. At the base of each con-
tractlle tube there is sac, acting as q
reservoir of water. II the urchin wishes to
march this sac contracts, the ambulacral
foot is distended with water, something
like the finger of glove If you blow into 1t,
the sucker at the end is fixed on the ground,
the other ambulacral feet repeat the opera
ton, and the urchin is out for walk. This
creature, so fragile in appearance, is never
theless able, on rocky coasts where the surf
iG uiOlapf ~ nio q ho rdo Of
to excavate a lodging for itself. even in
granite.
The star-ish we know so well is kim
dred creature equally amazing. The white
part in the center Of it is the stomach At
first sight it has the appearance OF q trans
parent mass divided into five equal parts,
and yet it grinds with the power of giz-
Zard. Nj. Beaugrand tells of the devasta-
ton committed by star-fishes on a bed Of
| mussels. They had settled on them by
millions. All the rocks were covered with
them, and from little way OF appeared
| quite red. When a star-tish wanted its
breakfast it came dragging along by the
aid OF its ambulacral feet and rested its
stomach on the hinge-ioint of the shells of a
mussel In a few minutes, by the action of
| the gastric juices, the muscles of the hinge
were dissolved, the stomach penetrated be-
| tween the shells ofthe mussel and carried on
there suction so powerful that In brief
time nothing remained OF the mussel. The
foot itself, although so difficult to detach,
shared the same fate as the other parts.
The stomach of the ogre then returned to
its normal situation, and the star-fish made
fresh move to satisfy it's appetite. So
thoroughly was this done that in the course
of few days all the mussels in the locality
were exterminated.
hn 81 . I,aG A.
sea" is the hermit crab, whose very her,
mitage-the she'll it bears upon its back
is stolen. It is a shameless parasite, the per-
sonifcation of laziness. When still young
1t makes its debut by an assassin alton.
Seeking she'll of fitting size it installs it,
self therein, after having devoured the
| rightful owner. Then it sets out to make
its fortune, pillaging ruthlessly on all sides.
| When its shell or hermitage becomes too
| small it promptly steals another. 81 am
acquainted" says NJ Beaugrand, with a
| collection In which there is a hermit that
was found in the tropics and had taken up
his abode in a great helmet shell, such as
| you may see in the window of a natural his
| tory dealer. The claws of this hermit meas
ured more than eight inches" ID. Beau
grand calls the hermit crab a "hypocritical
| old fellow"
A word about the cuttle-fish or sepia
| Figure to yourself bag about three inches
long, surrounded by broad border. From
this gray and gelatinous body short tube
| comes out and above this is q snapeless
head, with two square eyes cleaning like
molten gold. Like the octopus the sepia is
great destroyer Of crabs and small fish,
seizing them with it's eight suckers as
they pass. It can change its color
like the chameleon and by a very simple
| nod Tn hA fnAA -
| there are globules Of various colors, and
in accordance with the impressions made
| on the animal these are expanded or con-
tracted, thus producing the strangest eff
| fects. 1t appears also to have the gift OF
tears. At any rate 1t is well supplied with
| lachrymal glands. By contracting its tube
and ejecting the water contained the cutie
| fish can rebound with great velocity. Then
there is the thick, black ink it elects in self
| protection. The sncients scarcely knew of
| any other ink. Cuvier, NJ. Beaugrand says,
! was the last to put the sepia ink to An i'm
| Yortant use. AS fit whim for scientific
man he made use of it to write his memoir
On Cephalopoda and make the drawings
Another willy and knowing fish is the
! fishing frog. 1t Is very repulsive in ap-
! pearance, with broad body and an enor-
nous mouth, surmounted by two long fila
/ ments terminating above in bright shining
surfaces. The fishing frog, buried In the
| mud, vibrates these flameuts above its head
until some fish thoughtlessly comes loter-
| ing around the novel bait. Then the capa-
| cious nav opens, eutombs the victim, and
| the game begins again. Market-women
sometimes speculate on the voracity of the
fishing frogs, and purchase them at a low
price on the strength Of what they contain.
The fish swallows its prey gluttonously
without mastIcation, and the women often
find in its stomach smaller fish, little DAM
aged, which they sell TO unobservant Gus
toners