The Log of the Sun: A Chronicle of Nature's YearBeebe, William
History
The Log of the Sun: A Chronicle of Nature's Year
Beebe, William
Natural history -- Outdoor books
Shrimps and prawns of many shapes and colours inhabit every pool. One
small species, abundant on the algae, combines the colour changes of a
chameleon with the form and manner of travel of a measuring-worm, looping
along the fronds of seaweed or swimming with the same motion. Another
variety of shrimp resembles the common wood-louse found under pieces of
bark, but is most beautifully iridescent, glowing like an opal at the
bottom of the pool. The curious little sea-spiders keep me guessing for a
long time where their internal organs can be, as they consist of legs with
merely enough body to connect these firmly together. The fact that the
thread-like stomach and other organs send a branch into each of the eight
legs explains the mystery and shows how far economy of space may go. Their
skeleton-forms, having the appearance of eight straggling filaments of
seaweed, are thus, doubtless, a great protection to these creatures from
their many enemies. Other hobgoblin forms with huge probosces crawl slowly
over the floors of the anemone caves, or crouch as the shadow of my hand
or net falls upon them.
The larger gorgeously coloured and graceful sea-worms contribute not a
small share to the beauty of Fundy tide-pools, swimming in iridescent
waves through the water or waving their Medusa-head of crimson tentacles
at the bottom among the sea-lettuce. These worms form tubes of mud for
themselves, and the rows of hooks on each side of the body enable them to
climb up and down in their dismal homes.
Much of the seaweed from deeper bottoms seems to be covered with a dense
fur, which under a hand lens resolves into beautiful hydroids,--near
relatives of the anemones and corals. Scientists have happily given these
most euphonious names--_Campanularia_, _Obelia_, and _Plumularia_. Among
the branches of certain of these, numbers of round discs or spheres are
visible. These are young medusae or jelly-fish, which grow like bunches of
currants, and later will break off and swim around at pleasure in the
water. Occasionally one is fortunate enough to discover these small
jellies in a pool where they can be photographed as they pulsate back and
forth. When these attain their full size they lay eggs which sink to the
bottom and grow up into the plant-like hydroids. So each generation of
these interesting creatures is entirely unlike that which immediately
precedes or follows it. In other words, a hydroid is exactly like its
grandmother and granddaughter, but as different from its parents and
children in appearance as a plant is from an animal. Even in a fairy-story
book this would be wonderful, but here it is taking place under our very
eyes, as are scores of other transformations and "miracles in miniature"
in this marvellous underworld.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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