The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-06
SEA CHILDREN.
CURIOUS STORIES ABOUT THEM
AND THEIR LIVES.
Some Are So Small That Millions of
Them Can Easily Dwell In a Drop
of Water--Ffsh That Walk on Land
and Fish Tint shoot.

very existence would have remained a
secret had it not been for the micro
scope.
These minute creatures are so small
that a drop of water contains many
millions, and drop of water is to them
a complete world.
They are called infusoriae.
They exist everywhere, in salt water
and in fresh, in hot regions and in cold
The great rivers carry enormous guam
titles of them to the sea. In a single
year the river Ganges carries down to
the ocean mass of infusoriae equal
to the size of the largest pyramid.
Their bodies are transparent and of
all kinds of shapes. Some are like a
bell or a flower, or even like mere
grain. The most tiny of all are called
monads. They are mere atoms that
spin about in the water. For a long
time people thought that the infusoria
was a mere transparent cell or bag
that was filled with nothing but water,
but this was found to be a mistake
The creature, instead of being a mere
bag, has four distinct stomachs.. In
deed, some of it's neighbors have as
many as 400. Think of it! Four hun
dred stomachs!
You may imagine how difficult il is
to study the habits and the mechanism
of beings so tiny. Thanks to the mi
croscope. it has been done! Pr1f. T,h-
renberg was 3ne OF many who gave
himself up to this study, and will
tell you how he managed to make his
observations. He put a drop of colored
water on a piece of glass. and beside
it he put another drop that had no
color in It at all. Then--with the point
of a needle-he made a canal between
the two drops. This answered his pur-
pose. BY means of the microscope he
saw the tiny creatures pass from the
colored drops to the clear. He could
distinguish their stomachs full of color
and he could count them, too, through
their transparent sides. He amused
himself with making the experiment
first with red and then with blue.
These tiny creatures multiply in a
variety of ways, some of which are
| very curious. One creature will divide
into two equal parts, each of the parts
being the exact image of the parent.
| Others drop tiny germs. or, in fact,
! eggs, which each in time begins to
| grow and whirls about in the sea a
| perfect creature. But, would you be-
lieve it, minute as these infusoriae are,
there are creatures smaller still, called
| parasites. because they. feed on others,
| who fasten upon them and suck the
| juices of their bodies, one infusoria
| sometimes having fifty parasites living
| on it, l have not told you the most
curious fact of all, however. The infu-
| soria has the power of dissolving itself
into several parts or even into nothing.
Suppose we disturb with a feather the
water in which the little creatures are
| swimming They all efOp WhirIiOer a hOut
! in a moment Then you will see a hol-
| low place come in the tiny body OF
| the infusoria, that is, of course, il you
| lCok through the microscope. The no!
| low place increases little by little, anC
| the entire creature is gradually dis
solved. The feather was dipped in spir-
its of wine. This was what agitated
our little friend SO violently. But add
a drop of pure water before it has had
| time quite to dissolve. Wonder of Won
ders! The creature stops in its work
of self-destruction What is left of its
body begins to swim about as If moth
ing had happened
Neptune's Glove.
Have you ever seen the curious
| sponge called "Neptune's glove?" 1t is
not very handsome to look at when
| alive. 1t is dull black above and a
dirty white beneath. For long time
people could not make UP their minds
whether the sponge was a plant or an
7 animal. 1t has a kind of animal life,
and naturalists have placed it in the
lowest rank of the animal kingdom.
|, When it lives in the sea it has a
horny or stony network of body,
something like a skeleton. This net
work is full of passages. or holes, and
is covered with A jelly-like matter,
which is really the living sponge. In its
life, even, the sponge does not move.
1t remains all it's days in the place to
which it is attached under the water;
all 1t does is to draw water through its
pores or holes and let it flow out again.
This Is the means OF nourishing il, for
| the water is full of particles on which
the sponge may be said to feed.
The little points or buds sometimes
seen sticking to the sides of the sponge
| are little baby sponges beginning to
grow, which at last break away and
move about In the water for a few
days, until they. too, become fixed.
Men dive down to get the finer sponges
as they dive for coral, and when the
sponge is brought out of the water
the living, jelly-like body drops away
and is gone. The skeleton is dried and
becomes an article of commerce. SO
you see your toilet sponge is really
a skeleton.
The PoIyp and Its House.
A little animal found in the sea, in
rivers and In lakes of fresh water, etc,
IL called a Polyp, sometimes a Hydra.
1t is very simple In it's makeup. Its
body is a mere bag, with an opening
at one end crowned with silvery slen-
der threads. This opening is the crea-
| ture's mouth. The threads are its arms
and the bag is rs stomach. The polyp
leads a very merry life. 1t fastens it.
self to some leaf or plant that grows
| in the water and when ii is quite set
tied IL stretches out its arms to find
something 10 eat. 1t can eat more than
you may imagine. 1t often draws In
more than its bag of a stomach can
hold, and, what is funnier still. II will
use one of its arms to keep the food
in it's place. If II did not! do this when
it has swallowed a worm, the worm
would wriggle out of it's mouth. After
the worm is digested, the polyp pulls
out its arm and becomes as lively as
ever. You may think a. worm is too
large for greedy little polyps to han
die. but IL is not so. The polyps crowd
around the worm, no matter how big
it IL, and tie IL up in a network OF arms
until II cannot get away. When the
battle is over. these strange little crea-
lures slip away from each other and
go on alone again, uniting TO help each
other when necessary only. What may
seem still more odd to you is the fact
that II by chance half OF the polyp's
body were cut away, II would go on
eating ftIat the same swalioxrinQ an 4