Part 9 (1/2)
”A ma.s.s of phosph.o.r.escent creatures,” answered his uncle. ”We will go to the deep pool (this was a quiet little bay close at hand). We shall then be able to fish up a supply for examination.”
On reaching the pool all at first appeared dark, but Mr Nugent and Marshall stooping down, swept the surface with their nets, when wherever they touched the water, it glowed with the most brilliant flashes.
Having filled the bottles, they lifted the water up in the nets, when it looked as if they had got in them a lump of the most glittering gold, or a ma.s.s of molten lead. A still more beautiful appearance was produced when they threw the water up in the air and it came down in glittering showers, like the dropping stars from a firework.
”Glorious! beautiful!” shouted Digby; ”I did not think the sea could produce anything so fine.”
Then they stirred the water about with a long pole, till the whole pool, which had been in tranquillity so dark, became like a caldron of boiling metal. After amusing themselves with the variety of effects to be produced, the party returned homeward.
”What is the use of all that s.h.i.+ning stuff, now, I wonder?” said Digby.
”I am glad to hear you ask the question,” replied his uncle. ”That s.h.i.+ning stuff is called the phosph.o.r.escence of the ocean. It is composed of numberless minute animals, each not larger than a pin's head. Through a microscope we should see that all parts of the animal s.h.i.+ne, but at different times. It emits, as it were, sparks, now from one part of its body, now from another. It is a very beautiful object, especially in southern lat.i.tudes, and that alone may account for its creation; just as birds with gay plumage, and flowers of varied hues and sweet scents, were formed for the benefit of man. It wonderfully relieves, also, on a dark night, the obscurity of the ocean, and its light is so great during storms that it enables seamen the better to perform the duties of the s.h.i.+p. Of one thing you may be certain, that nothing is created in nature without a very adequate object.”
On reaching home, Mr Nugent got out his microscope, and exhibited to Digby the wonders of the creatures they had caught. Power had also brought home a bucketful of water. It contained, among other creatures, a little melon-shaped animal, which Mr Nugent turned into a gla.s.s tumbler. It was smaller than a small hazel nut, of a transparent consistency, and with bands down it like the divisions in a melon.
These bands, when the tumbler was shaded, glittered in the most beautiful way, while the creature moved about in the water, now rising to the surface, and now sinking almost to the bottom. When again brought to the light, it was seen putting forth what Digby called its fis.h.i.+ng lines. These, when it was on the surface, reached to the bottom, and were evidently employed for the object Digby supposed.
”This beautiful little creature is called a Cydippe or Beroe,” observed Mr Nugent. ”Those bands are denominated cilia. See, they are like little paddles. They are the means by which the animal moves. Now look--he has turned his head down, and away he plunges to the bottom; now he rises slowly, like a balloon. I doubt not that there is much enjoyment even in that little ma.s.s of jelly. Wonderful are all G.o.d's works. Who can measure the happiness which exists even in an atom.”
Digby became far more interested than, a few weeks before, he would have thought possible. At the same time he did not take in all the remarks his uncle and Marshall made. He would have found it impossible to describe the curious marine animals they showed him. At the same time the impression left on his mind was beneficial, as he in that way learned to comprehend the fact of the existence of the numberless wonders of nature, and to regard them with interest and respect.
Although he could not manage to recollect a single one of the hard names he heard, he surely was better off than a person who remains ignorant that even such things exist.
The day after the Noctilucae had exhibited their brightness on the sea in so remarkable a degree, a heavy gale sprung up and blew on the sh.o.r.e for some hours with great violence.
”I hope no other s.h.i.+pwreck happened last night,” said Digby, as they got up in the morning.
”I hope not,” answered Marshall. ”We should have heard of it before this. But if you will come down with me to the beach, by and by, we shall find that other floating things have been wrecked, and that the sea has cast them up in great numbers on the sh.o.r.e.”
As soon as lessons were over the boys set out. Digby was now quite eager for anything of the sort. They had not gone far along the beach when Marshall pounced on a dark-looking ma.s.s, which he put into his jar.
”What nasty thing is that?” exclaimed Digby, looking at it with disgust.
”Nasty! no; it is a magnificent Holothuria, or sea-cuc.u.mber. Toby would call it a sea-pudding. It will look very different when it is in my vivarium, let me tell you. It now looks like a great bag, but the outside of that bag is covered with numbers of suckers, by which it is able to crawl about at a rapid rate; while in the inside are its head and intestines, and all its fis.h.i.+ng apparatus.”
”I should like to see it in full action,” said Digby. ”But I say, Marshall, what are all those lumps of jelly? Are they good to eat?
They look as if they would be, boiled a little, perhaps.”
Marshall laughed heartily. ”I doubt if even the Chinese attempt to eat them. If they do, they must eat them raw, for even in the air they very soon dissolve. Those are Medusae, or jelly-fish, or sea-nettles. The first English name they obtain from their appearance, the second on account of the property they possess of stinging; and that you would soon discover if, when you were bathing, one of them got his long arms round you.”
”Arms, surely they have not got arms?” said Digby.
”Indeed they have, and very long arms, too, with which they can catch all sorts of prey. They have mouths and all internal arrangements, and, soft and gelatinous as they appear, they can consume animals of a much higher organisation than themselves. You would not suppose that they could gobble up crabs, yet they can do so without the slightest difficulty. They have also the property of giving forth light. You may see them by thousands floating about near the surface of the water, in shape like small umbrellas, and moving up and down just as if a heart beat beneath. You will find them often in the river when the flood-tide is coming in; and when we go on our trawling expedition we shall see numbers of them.”
Digby, notwithstanding what Marshall had told him, had not quite made up his mind about them; and as he had brought a basket in which to carry curiosities, he put several of them into it.
”Ah, here are some of the things I admire,” exclaimed Digby, picking up a star-fish. ”They are curious.”
”Not more so than many others,” answered Marshall. ”Yet I agree with you, that they are very curious indeed. You would not suppose that they can crawl along at the bottom of the sea at a considerable rate, and that they are the most voracious of marine animals. They have a big mouth in the centre of the lower side; and those star-like arms supply them with food. They progress by means of suckers, with which the whole of the lower part of their bodies is covered. They are the scavengers of the ocean; and it is wonderful the amount of animal food they can consume, which would otherwise tend to putrefy the ocean itself.
Another curious circ.u.mstance about them is, that when one or more of their rays are broken off, fresh ones are produced; indeed, I have seen it stated in print that a single ray has produced the mouth and the other rays, and then that the old ray has fallen off, and that a new star-fish, in its perfect proportions, has been thus reformed.”
”I dare say what you tell me is all true,” said Digby; ”but it is very hard to believe.”