Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-03-13
MonoERs oE rHE So.
Facts About seA-Urchlns, star-Fish an
Other Queer Creatures.

Facts About Sea- -UrchIns, star-Fish 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, ewamp and shore, finding
stimulus every day to his worship of tue
great mystery, reverts 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 a
proper but he is not the only study OF man
kind; and 1t 10 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 it is a fish and has 1900
teet known as the "ambuacral' feet Their
arrangement permits the urchin to progress
in any direction. At the base of each con-
tractile tube there is a sac, acting as =
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 II you blow into 1t,
the sucker at the end i5 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
is violent, to pierce the hardest stones and
to excavate lodging for itself, even in
granite.
The star-fish we know so well is a kim
| dred creature equally amazing The white
part in the center of it is the stomach. At
drst sight it has the appearance of a trans.
parent mass divided into five equal parts,
and yet it grinds with the power of a giz-
zard. Nj. Beaugrand tells of the devasta-
tion committed by star-hshes on a bed of
mussels. They had settled on them by
millions. All the rocks were covered with
them, and from a little way off appeared
quite red. When q star-tish wanted its
breakfast it came dragging along by the
aid of its ambulacral feet and rested its
stomach on the hinge-joint of the shells of o
| mussel. In few minutes, by the action OF
the gastric Juices, the muscles of the hinge
were dissolved, the stomach penetrated be-
tween the shells ofthe mussela and carried on
here q suction so powerful that in brief
| ime 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
It's normal situation, and the star fish made
| \ fresh move to satisfy its appetite. So
| thoroughly was this done that in the course
| Of few days all the mussels in the locality
were exterminated
7 he most depraved of the "corsairs of the
sea" is the hermit crab, whose very her.
| mituge-the shell 1t bears upon its back
| is stolen. It is a shameless parasite, the per-
| sonification of lazness. When still young
| 1t makes its debut by an assassin alton.
| Seeking shell of fitting size it installs it.
self therein, after having devoured the
| rightful owner. Then it sets out to make
its fortune, pillaging ruthessly on all sides,
| When its shell or hermitage becomes toe
small it promptly steals another. II am
acquainted" says M. 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 natural his
tory dealer The claws of this hermit meas
ured more tnan eight Incnes." M. Beau
! grand calls the hermit crab "hypocritical
old fellow"
| A word about the cuttle-fsh 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 a shapeless
head, with two square eyes cleaning like
molten gold. Like the octopus the sepia is
u great destroyer of crabs and small fish,
seizing them with its eight suckers as
they pass. 1t can change its color
like the chameleon and by very simple
method. In the intestines of the skin
| oil hula of
in accordance with the impressions made
on the animal these are expanded or con-
tracted, thus producing the strangest ef
fects. 1t appears also to have the gift of
tears. At any rate it is well supplied with
llchrymal glands. BY contracting its tube
aud ejecting the water contained the cuttle-
fish can rebound with great velocity. Then
there is the thick, black ink it elects In self
protection. The anclents scarcely knew of
any other ink Cuvier, M Beaugrand says,
was the last to put the sepia ink to an i'm
portant use. As a fit whim for a 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 flaments above it's head
until some fish thougbtlessly comes loiter-
ing around the novel bait. Then the capa-
cious nav opens, entombs the victim, and
the game begins again. Market-women
sometimes speculate on the voracity Of the
fishing frogs, and purchase them at q low
price ON the strength Of what they contain.
The fish swallows its prey. gluttonously
without masAcation, and the women often
find in it's stomach smaller fish, little dam
aged. which they sell to unobservant Gus
toners.