Part 8

In a specimen of the giant squid which I handled and measured, the long arms were about thirty feet in length. The ends were enlarged with paddlelike organs, and bore a group of suckers. The object of the long arms is to serve as graspers. They are kept near the body, coiled up, and can be shot out with remarkable velocity, grasping a fish like two hands with gigantic arms. They haul the prey to the short arms, when hundreds of sucking disks hold the victim that is now pressed to the remarkable mouth. This lies between the base of the arms, and in color and appearance is almost exactly like the beak of a parrot, with the exception that the under bill fits over the upper (Fig. 118). These bills almost invariably nip the struggling fish over the vertebra or back bone, severing it at once, and ending the struggle. The tongue of the squid is a ribbon with teeth upon it. Such an armament alone is sufficient to attract attention to the animal, but it has still another feature which adds to its interest as a weird and disagreeable creature. The squid has a siphon which terminates in a tube, opening beneath the head. Into this an ink bag opens (Fig. 119). In swimming, the squid rarely if ever rests upon the bottom, but takes in water around the edge of the mantle and ejects it with more or less force from the siphon, and thus the squid is driven along, tail foremost. When alarmed its movements are very rapid. If in danger, the squid pours an inky secretion, which is the sepia of commerce, into the siphon, and the secretion is swept out into the water in a cloud which spreads rapidly, to the confusion of any following enemy.

The squid has a shell, but it is very small, and internal. It is called the pen, and that of some species is the cuttlefish bone of commerce (Fig. 120). In specimens six or seven feet long, taken at Santa Catalina, California, the pen was fifteen inches long and glasslike--a perfect pen in shape. Such is this peculiar creature, and if we add that it can change its color from very dark brown to almost white, adapting it to the color of the bottom over which it rests, we can form some idea of one of the strangest of all animals. They deposit eggs in clusters.

The squids range in size from gigantic specimens seventy or more feet in length to the minute Cranchia, which is luminous at times. Some have no tails, some only the suggestion of a tail, some have very pointed ones, some very broad ones. In specimens of the little Cranchia which I observed the head was very small and the body long in proportion. One form appears to have side winglike fins. The large squids live in the deep sea, and most of the specimens known have been taken from the deep fjords of Newfoundland, which appears to be a favorite locality for them. They doubtless live everywhere in the deep seas, as they are almost invariably found in the stomach of the sperm whale, evidently constituting a favorite food of this giant-toothed whale.

The squids live mainly upon fishes, and are very skillful in taking them, poising like a cat, near the bottom, creeping upon a school of sardines,--all the time simulating the color of the bottom, and almost invisible but for their large, dark eyes standing out,--then suddenly darting tail first into the school, flinging the long arms at the flying fishes, and almost always catching one, which is dragged up to the parrotlike bill and dismembered. In the six and seven foot squids taken at Santa Catalina the stomachs were filled with seaweed, showing that at least some of these animals are vegetarians.

On all tropical shores is found a beautiful coiled shell, the Spirula, with little pearly septa dividing it. I have seen a windrow of these shells a mile long, but never found the animal and shell together, so easily are they disconnected. It is the smallest and the most beautiful of all the cephalopods.

The familiar devilfish or octopus (Fig. 122) is another form, a bottom lover, found among the rocks, rarely attempting to swim. It has a round, baglike body, often covered with soft, fleshy spines; two fiery green eyes, which always seem to emit a baneful light; eight sucker-lined arms, which can be thrown in any direction, and the beak and ink bag noticed in the squid, but no pen or shell. The octopus lives in dens or crevices in the rocks, and ranges in size from specimens a foot or two across to giants with arms having a radial spread of nearly thirty feet (Fig. 123). These large individuals are found along the Pacific coast from California to Alaska, and when caught generally make a desperate struggle for liberty and display a vast amount of strength. I once kept a number in a tank, which were two or three feet across, and when they had grasped firmly it was almost impossible to wrench them from the glass. They differed much in temper. Some would apparently play with my hand, tapping it with their tentacles, or gripping it gently. Others would crouch like miniature tigers, quivering with rage, and with green eyes shining, would spring upon it and attempt to smother it with their arms--a most disagreeable sensation, especially when it was almost impossible to remove the hand from the uncanny grasp without lacerating their flesh. One large octopus in this family, when it obtained a grip, would hold my hand firmly; hence I concluded that a specimen thirty feet across, similar to those represented by casts in the Yale and National Museums, might easily overcome a man. Yet the octopus is a very timid animal in the open water. I rarely caught them either in Florida or California, unless they were cornered, and they never attempted to bite. But I seized one in the coral, and it wound about my arm so tightly that I was obliged to wrench away twenty or more pounds of branch coral, before I could release it without laceration. When attacked the octopus changes color with great rapidity from black to gray, and when enraged it often has the appearance of a leopard. Then it hurls a cloud of ink into the water, and endeavors to slink away under this cover, gliding through crevices that would seem entirely too small to admit so large an animal.

The octopus swims when forced to do so, using a weblike membrane which is seen to connect the base of the eight arms or by forcing water from its siphon. These arms, when extended, give the octopus a faint resemblance to an umbrella without a handle, and with very long supports. The octopus preys upon very small animals, particularly crabs. I have lain among the bowlders on the shores of the Californian islands and watched the octopus hunting. They selected the flood tide and crept near the shore, moving along slowly, on the watch for a species of Grapsus very common here, a land crab which occasionally enters the water. The crabs crept down to the water's edge, and often entered, and in this moment of incaution were pounced upon by the disagreeable creature so well named the devilfish. Sometimes they were caught at the very edge; a long, livid tentacle would come shooting out of the water like a flame and seize the victim. Despite its struggles, it was soon hauled in, the octopus immediately covering it with its umbrellalike bag, doubtless bringing its nippers into play. I have seen an octopus dash out of water two or three feet and scramble up the dry rocks with remarkable speed after an escaping crab. At these times the octopus can be caught by seizing it quickly, but some experience is required before one can grasp a large octopus and retain the hold, so disagreeable is the sensation of the snakelike tentacles winding about hand and arm. The very appearance of the octopus is like a horrible dream, and so intensely repulsive is the animal that in an actual test not one person in fifty who passed a tank containing an octopus with arms a foot long and a hideous striped body, could be induced to touch the animal, though assured that it was absolutely harmless and would merely squeeze the hand.

While the devilfish is the type of all that is hideous and repulsive in nature, it has a near relative, the paper nautilus, which is a very dainty and beautiful creature. It appears to be an octopus which lives in a shell. The argonaut, as it is called, has eight short arms, the upper pair being largely developed at their tips, forming fanlike or saillike organs. It was formerly believed that these were really sails, held aloft to catch the breeze to blow the fairy argonaut along. So fixed in the public mind was this erroneous belief that illustrations in various works otherwise correct, display the argonaut in this incorrect position. The animal is the female, which, to protect and carry its eggs, is provided with a dainty shell which it secretes, but is not attached to, and would lose were it not for the two large-ended tentacles with which it grasps the beak of the shell (Fig. 124). These arms also bear the shell-making and repairing glands. The argonaut can crawl upon the rocks at the bottom, swim through the water, forced along by its siphon stream, or float calmly at the surface. About nine species are known; generally in some tropical waters. Every year a few are found stranded upon Santa Catalina Island, California.

In many of the fossil deposits are found gigantic shells resembling the wheels of a cart, and enormously heavy. These are ammonites (Figs. 125, 126), and ancestors of the nautilus (Fig. 127), another member of this wonderful family of animals, with feet attached to their heads. It has a shell of radiant pearl, divided, like the little Spirula, by pearly septa or partitions, into rooms or chambers (C) all of which surround a small tube (s) called the siphuncle. This contains a long, fleshy pedicel, hence the nautilus is attached to its shell and can not leave it. The shell chambers are filled with gas, and the animal has the power to change its specific gravity, to float or rise. The nautilus forces itself along by a current from its siphon, and in a general way resembles others of the group. It has no ink bag, and its eye is not the striking object seen in the other forms. It is merely an elevation bearing a minute hole which leads into the globe of the eye, which during the life of the nautilus is filled with water. According to Doctor Hensen, in place of a refracting lens and a cornea, the animal has an arrangement for forming an image on the principle of a pin-hole camera. We might imagine the nautilus easy to capture; but it is very timid and rarely caught. Instead of eight or ten arms the nautilus has ninety-four. The shell is a beautiful object when cleaned and polished, being a vase of pearl of a chaste and elegant design, often copied, and in great demand by native artisans who carve and engrave it, and mount it in gold and silver. The nautilus, aside from its beauty, is a most interesting animal, being the last or almost the last of its race of fifteen hundred species, which have lived in former periods of the earth. Only two are still alive, and these in all probability are doomed to extinction.

XIV. THE CRUSTACEANS

Among all the animals few are more interesting and whimsical than the crabs and lobsters. They have jointed legs, feelers and claws in pairs, living in a shell which they cast like an overcoat when they outgrow it, and have bodies which are made up of hard, tough, limy rings or segments (Fig. 128). The crustaceans are found in all waters, fresh and salt, and on land. They abound in the greatest variety, and range in size from specimens almost invisible to the naked eye to forms with a radial spread of over twenty feet.

During a recent visit to the outlying islands of the Texan coast, I found these extensive regions populated by vast hordes of white or yellowish land crabs, which paraded the beaches and climbed over the dunes in such numbers that the eyes could not be raised without seeing a dozen or more. They were so familiar and tame that several large individuals had burrows by the side of the walk which led from the hotel, and readily took bread thrown to them.

On the keys of the Florida Reef the "spirit crabs," as they are called, are equally common. Pretending to be asleep, I have often watched them cautiously approaching, led by their curiosity to see what strange object this was that had washed ashore. If I remained perfectly quiet, they would gather in dozens, and numbers of little hermits would crawl over me, to drop off at the slightest alarm. In the water were countless other forms.

Wherever we go, from the ocean to the interior, we shall find some members of this interesting family. On almost any seashore we shall find a crab or crayfish, from which some idea of the structure of these animals can be obtained (Fig. 129). We see that there are two distinct regions, the head portion and the tail. The first mentioned is hard and in one general piece; the latter is made up of joints or rings. Everything about this curious animal is jointed. Turning it over (Fig. 130), we see that it has five legs on each side, all jointed. The first pair are large biting claws, and in some species others are biters. Even the eyes are upon stalks and jointed, and about them are two sets of feelers, whips, or antennæ--one large and one small pair--which the animal holds out before it as a blind man does a cane. The mouth is made up of many curious organs for separating and grinding food.

Some idea of the various internal organs of the crustaceans may be obtained in Figure 131. The breathing organs are conspicuous, curled up like plumes on each side of the crayfish and attached to the base of the legs. Water enters the shell under the edge, back of the great claws, and is swept along over them by a little organ called the gill bailer, the gills taking up oxygen from the water, which in turn is absorbed by the colorless blood. The brain is very small, and nerves can be seen passing from it to the various organs. The ears are situated at the base of the small or first antennæ, and are little sacks on the upper side containing a thick fluid in which are floating minute grains of sand. The tail portion is made up of a number of rings or segments, and is provided with small swimmerets. At the extreme end are seen five paddlelike or fanlike organs (Fig. 132), which constitute a most important swimming organ to the lobsters and crayfishes, by the violently flapping of which they dash away backward. In color the crayfish is yellowish brown or greenish. When alive it presents (Fig. 133) an attractive appearance.

The crustaceans deposit eggs which they carry about with them attached to the swimmerets, and resembling minute bunches of grapes. When first hatched (Fig. 134) the young crustaceans are totally unlike the parent in appearance, passing through several stages before they reach the adult form. When the crustacean grows too large for its shell, what are known as casting hairs appear on the inner side, which push the shell upward.

I have watched this process in the California sea crayfish, and it is generally accomplished at night. The flesh of the animal appears to become very watery and soft at this time. Finally the animal bursts the shell and by a slow and convulsive effort drags the flesh from claws, eyes, swimmerets, and antennæ, and escapes through the upper portion of the division between the head and tail, and presto! we have two animals; one flabby and very nervous, the other the deserted shell, yet seemingly alive. The crayfish is very helpless now, and secretes itself for several days until the new skin hardens, when it appears in a freshly colored coat of yellow and black.

XV. FROM BARNACLES TO LOBSTERS

In strolling along the shore one may often find pieces of wood washed in by the combing waves, which are covered with white and blue-tinted objects, resembling dates (Fig. 135). They have long, fleshy stems, and appear to have a number of plates or shells, and are by many considered shells. Other floating matter will be found covered with small white objects (Fig. 136), and many of the rocks alongshore are so completely encrusted by them that the surface of the rock is concealed. On the backs of whales are found similar objects, often three inches across and two inches high. These are barnacles, cousins of the crabs, which secrete multivalve shells and are anchored to various floating or submerged objects. They are crustaceans which are attached to the bottom by their antennæ.

If the shell of a barnacle is carefully observed, fluffy, feathery objects may be seen coming out with regular motion. These are the feet of the crustacean, which in the barnacles are modified into food catchers, grasping at the minute animals contained in the water. What are called goose barnacles have long stems, and the old writers considered them young geese which grew on trees and finally fell into the water. I have found a goose barnacle in the mouth of a large sunfish, so placed that the barnacle swung clear of the curious teeth of the fish. They are also found on the feathers of penguins in the South Pacific. Every floating timber or wreck at sea is covered with the curious, long-stemmed creatures. The barnacles deposit eggs, and the young are at first free swimming, but soon acquire a shell, seek the bottom, or some floating object, and become fixtures for life.

Many of the crustaceans are so small that but few persons ever see them. Such is Cyclops (Fig. 137), a minute creature seen distinctly only under a microscope, yet swimming in fresh water and readily recognized by its egg pouches, one on either side of the tail. The eggs hatch out into singular little objects, having very little resemblance to the parent. The Cyclops and others are very tenacious of life. When pools and streams dry up and remain so for months, they lie dormant, coming to life again with the return of the water. Many of this group are parasites upon fishes, as the Lernæidæ (Fig. 138), which appear like streamers on the sides of carp and other fishes. These parasites, deeply embedded, live upon the fish.

Some of these minute crustaceans are almost exact in their resemblance to shells, as Estheria which has a bivalve shell. But perhaps the most remarkable creature is Artemis, the brine shrimp (Fig. 139), which lives in brine that would be deadly to almost any other animal. A strange experiment has been made with this little creature; thus if the brine is very strong its form resembles a, but if the brine is diluted, it changes to b, a very different animal, so different that it has been given another name. Many shrimps seem to prefer extreme cold. The Apus (Fig. 140), withstands freezing, and hatches readily in the icy water of the far north. This little creature has forty-seven segments and one hundred and twenty legs. The fairy shrimp is a dainty and beautiful crustacean with a marvelous array of leaflike feet which also serve as breathing organs.

In the summer, while strolling alongshore, one may find that every piece of seaweed or rock when turned over affords concealment to myriads of "sand fleas" which belong to a group of crustaceans having fourteen feet. The sand fleas, true to their name, are remarkable jumpers, darting in all directions and looking very much like an ordinary flea (Fig. 141). They are valuable scavengers, eating all kinds of refuse matter. They have the most bizarre shapes, and many, as Arcturus, resemble twigs or pieces of seaweed, extremely difficult to see and doubtless owe their immunity from attack to this cause. This Arcturus (Fig. 142) is not only a remarkable mimic, but carries its young upon its back. Idotea is a common form about piers, while the little Gammarus may be caught with almost every haul of a very fine net. At times one known as Podocerus builds a singular nest for its better security, and one of the giants of the tribe has eyes so huge that they are made up of facets and entirely cover the head.

One of these crustaceans, Limnoria, is among the most destructive of all animals to the work of man. On the Pacific coast they vie with the teredo, and on the coast of southern California are the chief aggressors, the life of a prepared pile being less than two years. The little creatures completely perforate it, so that the wood literally falls in pieces, being so closely filled with circular borings that the entire interior of the pile seems to have disappeared.

One of the most beautiful of all the crustaceans, in my estimation, is the mantis shrimp, or Squilla (Fig. 143), which I have kept alive. It is found in deep and shallow water, and is a most remarkable creature both in shape and color. Its head is ornamented with beautifully tinted antennæ, vivid blues, greens, and yellows predominating. Its claws are sharp pointed, and deadly weapons when used against its prey. The finlets are richly tinted and in such rapid motion that they appear to be a mass of revolving wheels, so that the Squilla resembles some strange product of the imagination rather than a living animal. Its young are even more remarkable.

One of the best-known groups of crustaceans is represented by those with ten feet, of which the common lobster (Fig. 144) is a familiar example. In this instance the first pair of legs are developed into enormous biting claws; yet when the lobster sheds its skin all the flesh in the large claws is drawn through the very small joint. The lobster is a product of the colder waters of the North Atlantic, not being known on the Pacific slope, although attempts have been made to introduce it there. South of Long Island Sound it is very rare, and despite the stringent laws for its preservation, is rapidly being exterminated. Lobsters are caught in traps, called lobster pots, which are lowered into the kelp and seaweed. Twenty years ago the annual catch for the state of Maine was nearly fifteen million pounds, valued at $250,000. It is far less to-day. The lobster sometimes attains a weight of fifty pounds; but specimens weighing four or five pounds are now rare, due to overcatching, and the destruction of the undersized young. The color of the animal when alive is a dark green. The familiar red hue is the result of cooking. The eggs of the lobster are laid in March, and are masses of green spheres which are carried about by the female attached to her swimmerets.

In southern waters and on the Pacific coast, the place of the lobster is taken by the crayfish, or spiny lobster (Fig. 145). The resemblance to the lobster is almost exact with this exception: instead of large biting claws, the latter are but slightly larger than the ordinary claws, ending with a sharp point, while the antennæ or feelers are enlarged to an extraordinary degree, becoming highly serrated and defensive organs in every sense. The Florida crayfish is a rich reddish yellow, mottled color, while the California form is a greenish yellow. On the Florida Reef almost every coral branch or coral head hides a crayfish, the whips being seen waving to and fro. This is their day retreat, but at night they wander forth to feed in the luxuriant pastures of Algæ, or seaweeds, of various kinds found in the lagoons. By going out early in the morning, before sunrise, I have often surprised the crayfishes, the bottom being covered with them, massive fellows weighing eight or ten pounds. They are not so delicate in flavor as the lobster, but are very valuable as bait. The lobster and the Pacific crayfish are both canned, the industry being an important one.

The prawns (Fig. 146) and shrimps are well known and valuable members of this group, swarming in the same waters, and among the most graceful of the tribe. Many are absolutely transparent, the large black eyes alone being seen. The chameleon shrimp is noted for its rapid changes of color, green, brown, and reddish hues following each other over its crystallike body. In the deeper waters marvelous shrimps have been found, nearly all a dazzling red. Some of the East Indian shrimps are giants two feet in length. In England horses are employed to catch shrimps. A large dragnet is set in shallow water to which the horse is fastened, the fisherman, mounted, driving the animal over the shallow flats, hauling the nets inshore.