appletons' home 
 y\ reading books 
 
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 ^^:2^^^iS^J^ii-'^S 
 
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 OF THE 
 
 IRew IPorf? State College of agriculture 
 
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uorneri universiiy uorary 
 
 QL 791.B35 
 
 In brook and bayou; or, Life in the still 
 
 3 1924 002 905 192 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002905192 
 
appletons' Ibome IReaMncj Boolis 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D. 
 
 UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 
 
 DIVISION 1 
 
 Natural History 
 
CHART I. 
 
 Arcellae — Fairy Shrimp. 
 
APPLETONS' HOME READING BOOKS 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU 
 
 OR, LIFE IN THE STILL WATERS 
 
 BY 
 
 CLARA KERN BAYLISS 
 
 He liveth best who loveth best 
 All things, both great and small 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1897 
 
Copyright, 1897, 
 By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
INTEODUCTION TO THE HOME EEADING 
 BOOK SERIES BY THE EDITOR 
 
 The new education takes two important direc- 
 tions — one of these is toward original observation, 
 requiring the pupil to test and -verify what is taught 
 him at school by his own experiments. The infor- 
 mation that he learns from books or hears from his 
 teacher's lips must be assimilated by incorporating it 
 with his own experience. 
 
 The other direction pointed out by the new edu- 
 cation is systematic home reading. It forms a part of 
 school extension of all kinds. The so-called " Univer- 
 sity Extension " that originated at Cambridge and Ox- 
 ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by 
 lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted 
 by experts who also lay out the course of reading. 
 The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes 
 a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly 
 number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The 
 teachers' reading circles that exist in many States pre- 
 scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis, 
 commentary, or catechism to aid the members. 
 
 Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential 
 basis of this great movement to extend education 
 
vi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 beyond the school and to make self -culture a habit 
 of life. 
 
 Looking more carefully at the difference between 
 the two directions of the new education we can see 
 what each accomplishes. There is first an effort to 
 train the original powers of the individual and make 
 him self -active, quick at observation, and free in his 
 thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the 
 reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the 
 race, to make the child or youth a participator in the 
 results of experience of all mankind. 
 
 These two movements may be made antagonistic 
 by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as 
 it does the precious lesson of human experience, may 
 be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of 
 conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no 
 stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be 
 memorized without being understood. On the other 
 hand, the self -activity of the child may be stimulated 
 at the expense of his social well-being — his originality 
 may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality. 
 If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to 
 trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions 
 heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre- 
 paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and 
 is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse. 
 
 It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the 
 knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is 
 aggregated from the experience and thought of other 
 people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil 
 with material which he can not use to advantage. 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. yii 
 
 Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no 
 space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of 
 uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity 
 in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not, 
 in this place, fall iato the error of supposing that it is 
 the oral instruction in school and the personal influ- 
 ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac- 
 tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo- 
 retical. The very persons who declaim against the 
 book, and praise in such strong terms the self -activity 
 of the pupU and original research, are mostly persons 
 who have received their practical impulse from read- 
 ing the writings of educational reformers. Very few 
 persons have received an impulse from personal con- 
 tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num- 
 ber that have received an impulse from such books as 
 Herbert Spencer's Treatise on Education, Rousseau's 
 Emile, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude, Francis 
 "W. Parker's Talks about Teaching, G. Stanley 
 Hall's Pedagogical Seminary. Think ia this connec- 
 tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci- 
 ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller, 
 Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin. 
 
 The new scientific book is different from the old. 
 The old style book of science gave dead results where 
 the new one gives not only the results, but a minute 
 account of the method employed in reaching those re- 
 sults. An insight into the method employed in dis- 
 covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian, 
 a sociologist. The books of the writers above named 
 have done more to stimulate original research on the 
 
viii EDITOR'S ESTTRODXTCTION". 
 
 part of their readers than all other influences com- 
 bined. 
 
 It is therefore much more a matter of importance 
 to get the right kind of book than to get a living 
 teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the 
 same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of 
 discovery and the methods employed, is a book 
 which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex- 
 periments described and get beyond these into fields 
 of original research himself. Every one remem- 
 bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, 
 which exercised a wide influence in changing the style 
 of books on natural science, causing them to deal 
 with method more than results, and thus to train 
 the reader's power of conducting origiaal research. 
 Eobinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has 
 stimulated adventure and prompted young men to 
 resort to the border lands of civihzation. A library 
 of home reading should <?ontain books that stimulate 
 to self-activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The 
 books should treat of methods of discovery and evo- 
 lution. All nature is unified by the discovery of 
 the law of evolution. Each and every being in the 
 world is now explained by the process of development 
 to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on 
 all the others by illustrating the process of growth in 
 which each has its end and aim. 
 
 The Home Reading Books are to be classed as 
 follows : 
 
 First Division. Natural history, including popular 
 scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 seriptions of geograpliical localities. The branch of 
 study in the district school course wliich corresponds 
 to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant 
 lands; special writings which treat of this or that 
 animal or plant, or family of animals or plants ; any- 
 thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol- 
 ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this 
 class. 
 
 Second Division. Whatever relates to physics or 
 natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or 
 water or Ught or electricity, or to the properties of 
 matter ; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic 
 or inorganic — books on these subjects belong to the 
 class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so- 
 called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of 
 organic bodies into their inorganic compounds. 
 
 Third Division. History and biography and eth- 
 nology. Books relating to the lives of individuals, and 
 especially to the social life of the nation, and to the 
 collisions of nations in war, as well as to the aid that 
 one gives to another through commerce in times of 
 peace ; books on ethnology relating to the manners 
 and customs of savage or civilized peoples ; books on 
 the primitive manners and customs which belong to 
 the earliest human beings — ^books on these subjects be- 
 long to the third class, relating particularly to the hu- 
 man will, not merely the individual will but the social 
 will, the will of the tribe or nation ; and to this third 
 class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on 
 forms of government and laws, and what is included 
 under the term civics or the duties of citizenship. 
 
X EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in- 
 cludes more especially literature and works that make 
 known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture, 
 painting, architecture and music. Literature and art 
 show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions, 
 and aspirations, and they show how these feelings 
 lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de- 
 partment of books is perhaps more important than 
 any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches 
 a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un- 
 derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to 
 action. 
 
 To each book is added an analysis in order to aid 
 the reader in separating the essential points from the 
 unessential, and give each its proper share of atten- 
 tion. 
 
 W. T. Haeeis. 
 
 Washington, D. C, November 16, 1S96. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In the study of animals, children are com- 
 pelled to begin in the midst of things, and 
 thus they never come to appreciate the signifi- 
 cance of the various phases in the development 
 of life, for the reason that nearly all the works 
 on zoology dismiss the Protozoans and other 
 microscopic animals either with the briefest 
 mention or with no mention at all. 
 
 Yet it is here that we must look for the 
 very sources of things, without some idea of 
 which no one can apprehend the gradual evolu- 
 tion of life in its higher forms nor appreciate 
 any living thing at its true value. 
 
 It is hoped that this little book may aid 
 the child in beginning at the beginning, and 
 obtaining a connected view of the relations of 
 the facts that he will acquire as he advances in 
 the study of animal life. 
 
xii IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 The plates have been prepared to represent 
 not merely the organs but also the actions of 
 these animals, so as to render a microscope un- 
 necessary, although the use of one would add 
 to the interest of the study. 
 
 The author might claim, with truth, to 
 have written this little volume for the purpose 
 of enriching the child's life by teaching him 
 how much more interesting the world is than 
 it ordinarily seems ; and this is one object of 
 the book ; but, to be honest, the real reason 
 for the wi'iting of the book was to please her- 
 self, and because she is fond of these micro- 
 scopic creatures, and would have the boys and 
 
 girls enjoy them with her. 
 
 C. K. B. 
 
 Chicago, February, 1897. 
 
AUTHOR'S mTEODTJCTIOK 
 
 Things known to us are divided into four great king- 
 doms — the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, and the 
 spiritual. In the mineral kingdom there is popularly- 
 supposed to be no life. The mineral grows by accretion, 
 by adding like particles to the outside. It has no power to 
 create new substances. Plants and animals grow by as- 
 similation, by eating and digesting food, by taking par- 
 ticles of matter and transforming them into entirely new 
 substances, and depositing them on the inside. Because 
 they have this power to create new forms of matter, they 
 are said to be alive. 
 
 The lower forms of animals are almost indistinguish- 
 able from plant forms, yet there is a wide difference be- 
 tween the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The very 
 name animal, from animus, mind, shows that the possess- 
 or is allied to the spiritual kingdom. The lowest ani- 
 mal has what the plant has not — volition or power of 
 choosing, if it be only the choice of moving or remaining 
 at rest. 
 
 In this book we have considered a low order of unicel- 
 lular plants, the Desmids and Diatoms, which may be 
 said to have been caught in the act of turning into 
 animals ; yet even here we have found phenomena of 
 marvelous interest and prophecies of greater things to 
 come. 
 
 We have studied the lower animals, single-celled Pro- 
 tozoans, closely allied to plants, almost wholly undifFer- 
 
xiv IN BEOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 entiated in organs or functions, reproducing by spores as 
 the lower plants do, or by cutting oif a piece of them- 
 selves as plants propagate from slips. We have gone on 
 through the Protozoans, finding matter differentiated into 
 muscle, as in the Vorticella ; into eyespots, as in the Eu- 
 glena ; into cilia, into oesophagus, and even into the per- 
 manent legs of the Euplotes — and all this in simple, one- 
 celled animals. 
 
 Higher in the scale of being we find the multicellular 
 worms and Hydrce, the latter with their cells arranged in 
 two layers forming a hollow digestive tube, but still so 
 undifferentiated in function that the two layers can read- 
 ily exchange work and location. The animals still propa- 
 gate by slips ; yet here, in some instances, begins the pro- 
 duction of offspring by eggs, corresponding to the pro- 
 pagation by seed in the Phcenogams or higher plants. 
 Next we find in the Rotifers a distinct reproduction 
 by egg ; a differentiation of matter into mastax, eye, and 
 even brain, as well as into sex. In Crustaceans we 
 have highly specialized animals, with a great number 
 of organs, as gills, legs, antenna?, eyes, hearts, and mouth 
 parts. 
 
 In the Brachionus, redoubling its energy at the pros- 
 pect of food, we have an indication of mind ; in the 
 Canthocamptus blaming its companion and retaliat- 
 ing — is it going too far to say we have psychological 
 phenomena — one mind estimating what is in another ? 
 and that here we catch a glimpse of the spiritual king- 
 dom ? At any rate, when you go a step further and 
 note the hostile attitude of the crayfish, the bee, or the 
 wasp, the moment you appear upon the scene, it will no 
 longer be possible to doubt that you are observing con- 
 duct dictated by an intelligence which is dimly self-con- 
 scious, and which recognizes intelligence and purpose 
 in you. 
 
 In this study, as in all your zoological studies, you will 
 notice : 
 
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XV 
 
 1. That in the beginning, organs as well as animals are 
 much alike ; that differentiation or evolution starts in 
 protoplasm and works up from the general to the special ; 
 that organs of locomotion, sight, respiration, circulation, 
 etc., have not been made "out of hand," but have grown 
 by use, as intellectual faculties do. 
 
 2. That there are in the earliest living things incipient 
 prophecies of organs and faculties to come, and that few, 
 if any, of the prophecies are yet wholly fulfilled even in 
 man ; for instance, there is promise in the Diatom of a 
 unison and harmony of action to which man has not at- 
 tained, and of a mode of locomotion which he has not 
 perfected. 
 
 3. That in addition to the development of physical 
 function there is a slow but continuous progress in men- 
 tal function or intelligence. 
 
 4. When the latter reaches the point manifested in hu- 
 man kind, notice the hints of how man takes up and car- 
 ries forward Nature's work, making new pseudopods, eyes, 
 etc., for himself ; and reflect upon what bearing this has 
 on the proposition that man is Nature's final effort in the 
 animal line. 
 
 This volume treats of but a limited number of the 
 aquatic objects, and there are other fields of research 
 which will be found of absorbing interest. In botany, 
 entomology, crystallography, embryology, and many 
 other departments of science, the microscope is invaluable, 
 and its revelations are an unfailing source of surprise and 
 profit. But the isolated facts to be gathered in this way 
 are comparatively valueless unless their relation to other 
 facts, their place in the continuity of facts, is understood. 
 In other words, it may be of interest to know that an ani- 
 mal has a certain kind of eye or heart, but it is of vastly 
 more interest to know what o'clock that indicates in the 
 gradual evolution of eyes and hearts; for evolution is, 
 after all, the paramountly significant and inspiring truth 
 which science teaches. 
 
xvi IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 Bibliography. — For the beginner in the study of zool- 
 ogy, such works as Stokes's Microscopy for Beginners, 
 the method of observation exemplified in Colton's Zool- 
 ogy and Huxley's The Crayfish, and the classification of 
 Crustacea and Protozoa in the Encyclopcedia Britan- 
 nica, will be found very helpful. For those more ad- 
 vanced, we recommend Kent's Manual of Infusoria, 
 Bronn^ s Klassen und Ordnungen des Thierreichs, and the 
 various works on comparative anatomy. 
 
 The Author. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAOB 
 
 I. — Rhizopods 1 
 
 II. — The whiplashers ^ 27 
 
 III.— CiLIATA 87 
 
 IV. — Protozoan philosophy 81 
 
 V. — Wheel beaeees 91 
 
 VI. — Crustaceans 115 
 
 VII. — The hungry glove- 139 
 
 VIII. — "Plants at the moment of becoming 
 
 animals" . 148 
 
 ix. — wlgglers and minuet dancers . . .159 
 
 X. — Taking vacations 164 
 
 XI. — The greatest joke op all .... 167 
 
 Pronouncing glossary 177 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FIGURE PAOB 
 
 1. — An Amoeba: a, pulsating vacuole; i, nucleus . . 8 
 
 2.— Walking 4 
 
 3. — Twenty minutes for dinner : c, food particles . . 5 
 
 4. — Multiplication by division 11 
 
 5. — 1, Arcella acuminata; 3, arcella vulgaris; 3, arcella 
 
 dentata 14 
 
 6. — 1, Pulsating vacuole ; 3, food in food-vaeuole . . 20 
 
 7. — Clathrulina elegans 34 
 
 8. — Various stages in the development of Euglena viridis : 
 a, red eye spot ; b, pulsating vacuole ; c, nucleus ; 7, 
 
 preparing to form spores 28 
 
 9. — Dallingeria 33 
 
 10. — Dallingeria and family 35 
 
 11. — Vorticella nebulifera, showing development of individ- 
 ual stages A to F (e and F free) .... 40 
 13. — Bell animalcule : a, ciliated disk ; &, rim or lip ; d, oesoph- 
 agus ; 6, funnel ; /, food ; pv, pulsating vacuole . 41 
 13. — Voriicellce : Dividing, budding, coiling, uncoiling, and 
 
 free 43 
 
 14. — Animated calla-lilies 46 
 
 15.— VortioelliB 50 
 
 16. — Ocean-steamer line 52 
 
 17. — 1, Cothurnia ; 2, 3, 4, Vaginicolm 53 
 
 18. — 1, Pyxicola ; 3, Thuricola 57 
 
 19. — Colony of stentors 60 
 
 20. — Parammcium : a, vacuole distributing secretion ; h, vac- 
 uole filling ; c, nucleus ; d, oesophagus ; e, funnel ; 
 
 /, food balls ; g, temporary anus .... 63 
 
 21. — Conjugation 67 
 
 32.— Trachelocerca 70 
 
 xix 
 
XX 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 23. — Amphileptus 
 
 24. — 1, Euplotes harpa ; 2, Euplotes charon 
 
 25. — Flosculuria cornuta (magnified) . 
 
 26. — 1, Plerodina ; 3, a one-legged pedestrian 
 
 27. — Wiieel of tube wheel 
 
 28. — Two-lipped tube wheel . 
 
 29. — Tripod wheel bearer 
 
 30. — Tube wheels : 1, retracted ; e, egg . 
 
 31. — Skeleton wheel bearer 
 
 32. — Stephanoceros eichornii (magnified) 
 
 33. — 1, Rotifer vulgaris; 2, same walking; 3, 
 
 34. — Brachionus .... 
 
 35. — Mouth of Brachionus 
 
 36. — Sword bearer .... 
 
 37. — Vaphnia judex 
 
 38. — Canthocamptus 
 
 39. — Cyclops quadricornis : u,, young 
 
 40.— Hydra; 
 
 41. — Hydra attacking a water flea . 
 
 43. — Desmids ; '\, Closterium . 
 
 43. — Orthosira Dressmri . 
 
 'ki. — Nitzsch ia vivax 
 
 45. — Pinnularia major . 
 
 46. — Stauroneis Phmnicenteron 
 
 47. — Navicula didyma . 
 
 48. — Pleuroaigma formosum . 
 
 49. — Barillaria paradoxa 
 
 50. — Strephuris .... 
 
 51. — Anlophonis .... 
 
 52. — 1 and 6, Zoea of shore crab; 2, Trinema 
 
 young one 
 
 PAGE 
 
 74 
 
 78 
 
 89 
 
 92 
 
 93 
 
 93 
 
 97 
 
 98 
 
 99 
 
 101 
 
 102 
 
 104 
 
 104 
 
 109 
 
 119 
 
 128 
 
 133 
 
 142 
 
 146 
 
 149 
 
 151 
 
 151 
 
 152 
 
 152 
 
 153 
 
 153 
 
 156 
 
 160 
 
 162 
 
 3, (Jerco- 
 
 monas; 4, Stauridia ; 5, Zoea of Stomapod ; 7, 
 
 165 
 
 PULL-PAGE CHARTS. 
 
 I. — Arcell^ — Fairy Shrimp 
 
 II. — Vaginioola 
 
 III. — Matinee by the Merry Coleps Company . 
 IV.— Hydra .... . . . 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 55 
 
 75 
 
 139 
 
LOBOSA. 
 
 DIATOMACEtE. 
 PROTOZOANS. 
 
 Gymnomixa. 
 
 Amoeba. 
 Arcella. 
 
 H— [ntZ^Si: 
 
 Corticata. 
 
 Flagellata — Euglena. 
 
 Rhyncho-flagellata. — Noctiluca, 
 
 Peritricha . . . ( Vorticella. 
 
 ( Vaginicoliiiffi. 
 
 Heterotricha.— Stentor. 
 
 CiLIATA . 
 
 Holotricha . 
 
 Hypotricha. 
 
 r Paramcecium. 
 I Trachelocerca. 
 I Amphileptus. 
 t Coleps. 
 
 \ Chilodon. 
 ( Euplotes. 
 
 Vermes, 
 rotifera. 
 
 Crustaceans. 
 
 METAZOANS. 
 
 ' Branchiopod. \ ^aphnia. 
 
 ^ ( isranchipus. 
 
 r Cypris. 
 
 ^ '^^ 'I Canthocamptus. 
 
 [ Diaptomus. 
 
 ACALEPHS — Hydroids. 
 
 xxii 
 
IW BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EHIZOPODS. 
 
 THE SLOWEST THING ON EARTH. 
 
 (Amoeba.) 
 
 Anyone who makes good uke of his eyes 
 knows that there is a multitude of things to be 
 seen everywhere which escape the attention of 
 the careless observer. There are beautiful 
 tints on the flowers, odd shapes among the 
 leaves, curious rocks that look like and m^e 
 petrified animals, wonderful insects, and many 
 other interesting things which he could easily 
 pass unheeded. 
 
 But the keenest-eyed person might stand 
 by a wayside pool without ever guessing what 
 a host of queer people inhabit it. There are 
 more colors and kinds of people in a little 
 stagnant pond than are to be found in all the 
 countries you read about in your geographies. 
 
2 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 You do not see ttem because most of them 
 are so modest and shy that they never allow 
 mortal eye to look upon them except through 
 a powerful magnifying glass. 
 
 They are well worth the trouble of seek- 
 ing, for they are a strange sort of folk when 
 
 Pig. 1. — An Amoeba : a, pulsating vacuole ; A, nucleus. 
 
 you find them, some of them having neither 
 eyes, ears, mouths, hands, nor feet, and yet 
 managing to live very comfortably. 
 
 I want to tell you about one of these head- 
 less races of the pool known as the 
 
 Am(eba Family. 
 
 The first curious thing about them is that 
 they are all ladies. There isn't a man or boy 
 among them. 
 
RHIZOPODS. 3 
 
 They are very domestic and seldom travel 
 abroad. The smallest pond is an immense 
 vi^orld to them, and has many unexplored re- 
 gions like those on your maps around the north 
 and south poles. 
 
 And yet, as you become acquainted with 
 them, you will find these ladies very entertain- 
 ing company. If you dip one up in a drop of 
 water and put her under your microscope, you 
 will be quite fascinated with her; yet all 
 you'll see will be something resembling a tiny 
 spatter of water with a few colored specks in 
 it. But it is alive, and that is why it- fasci- 
 nates you. 
 
 Amoebae are made of protoplasm, a jelly- 
 like substance not unlike the white of an egg. 
 Yet they can move and eat and breathe and 
 rear children, all after a fashion of their own. 
 
 You may see them do all these things with 
 your microscope. 
 
 They have wills of their own, too. And 
 that is the whole secret of their eating and 
 walking without mouths or feet. 
 
 That, I suspect, is the whole secret of being 
 an animal at all, instead of a plant or a rock — 
 to will or want to do things. 
 
 So, when an amoeba wants to take a morn- 
 ing walk, it uses its will power to thrust out a 
 
4 IN BROOK AND BAYOTJ. 
 
 loop or prong of its outer coveiing, and then 
 the granular part of its body flows into it. 
 
 Did you ever before hear of a creature that 
 walked by flowing ? 
 
 When it wishes to take another step, it 
 pushes out another loop and flows into that. 
 
 Pig. 2.— Walking. 
 
 But the amoeba is slower than time — a great 
 deal slower ! 
 
 If you wish to see how much our mode 
 of travel resembles theirs, just watch a baby 
 creeping. Or go up into one of those large 
 city buildings which have an open court in the 
 center, like the Chamber of Commerce or the 
 Masonic Temple in Chicago, and look down 
 over the railing from the upper story upon the 
 people crossing the court on the ground floor. 
 
RHIZOPODS. 5 
 
 They do not look in the least like men. They 
 have no height. They look like black or gray 
 knobs, and their legs seem to be nothing but 
 horizontal protuberances stretching forward at 
 the front and withdrawing at the rear. 
 
 Try it some time. It will make you laugh 
 to see what a queer object a walking man is 
 when viewed perpendicularly ; and that is the 
 way in which you look at the amoeba. 
 
 But you must remember that there is this 
 difference between a man's walk and an 
 
 Fio. 3. — Twenty minutes for dinner : c, food particles. 
 
 amceba's — ^the man's is very much swifter. It 
 would take an amoeba a week to cross the 
 court, small as it is. 
 
6 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 The feet wliicli the amoeba makes when it 
 wishes to travel are called pseudapodia, or 
 " make-believe feet," because they are not real 
 feet and do not remain when made, bnt become 
 part of the body again, and will perhaps be 
 make-believe arms to grasp something the next 
 time they are thrust out. 
 
 Possibly you have heard people in a rail- 
 way carriage, if they are addicted to slang, 
 say, " Let's go out and throw ourselves 
 around some food," when the conductor called 
 " Twenty minutes for dinner." 
 
 That is what the Amoebae do. They throw 
 themselves around their food. Only these 
 leisurely ladies take their time to it. 
 
 As they have no mouths into which to put 
 their food, they manage in this way: When 
 they come in contact wdth a particle of nutri- 
 ment, they make arms to take it, in the same 
 way that they made feet, by bulging out a 
 loop of their clear outer margin and flowing 
 into it. In this manner they flow aroxmd their 
 food, or throw themselves around it, and wrap 
 it up within them. 
 
 No doubt they are delighted whenever 
 they secure a morsel. I once knew a little 
 boy, just leai-ning to feed himself, who took 
 his tiny fork and speared after the morsels on 
 
RHIZOPODS. 7 
 
 his plate, and eacli time lie captured one he 
 laughed and exulted, holding it up and call- 
 ing on all those at the table to rejoice with 
 him over his achievement. He gloated over 
 each mouthful before he ate it. 
 
 And in their demure way the amoebfe exult 
 over every particle of food they find, and con- 
 sider it a delicious tidbit, though it really is 
 only a bit of slimy moss or ooze from the bot- 
 tom of the pond. But they like it, growing 
 and thriving upon it. 
 
 They can not digest it as you do your food, 
 for they have no stomachs except such as they 
 make on demand; but they absorb it as you 
 do the medicines you put on the outside to 
 cure an aching head or a sore throat. 
 
 When they have extracted all the nourish- 
 ment from the moss, they eject the refuse from 
 any part of their bodies, or, to describe the 
 operation more accurately, they roll themselves 
 away from it. 
 
 If you watch an amoeba, you will see a 
 small bubble or opening coming in the granular 
 part of its body. This enlarges until, through 
 the microscope, it looks almost large enough 
 to admit the top of your pencil. Then it 
 closes slowly, though in much less time than 
 was required for its coming. 
 
8 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 This bubble oonies and goes ^vith great 
 regularity. It is ealleil a pulsating vacuole, or 
 " beating emptiness," and is tlie nearest ap- 
 proach to a heart whieh the am(el)a has. 
 
 One moniiug a eonipany of Annelne were 
 holding a festival near tlie edge of the pond. 
 
 They were gathered about the roots of a 
 tree -whicli stood partly iu the water. It 
 was raining, and they \vere unusually lia]tpy, 
 for the waters were roiled, and many particles 
 of food came floating up to be \\'rapped iu 
 their embraces. They had not been as well 
 fed nor as jolly for a long time. The summer 
 had been so hot and the tempei'atui'e had so 
 often risen to one hundred degi'ees that they 
 had been " heat-stift'ejied " most of the time 
 and unable to get al>out or to eat or to enjoy 
 life; for extreme lieat as well as extreme cold 
 renders an amceha stitf aud apparently dead. 
 
 But no\v the sun \\as overcast by clouds, 
 the cool rain A\as falling, and tlu' ladies in the 
 water had quite reco\ered their health and 
 spirits, and ^\■ere very merry for such sedate 
 })eo])le as they. 
 
 But suddenly a flash of lightning came 
 down the tive, splashing the water at its 
 roots into the aii'. And every Amu-ba within 
 
RHIZOPODS. 9 
 
 ten feet of the tree was rolled into a ball and 
 lay motionless as in death. The water seemed 
 to be full of corpses. 
 
 Those nearest the tree were indeed corpses 
 and never wakened more. But those farther 
 away, who had not received so strong a charge 
 of electricity, remained in a trance for awhile, 
 then slowly revived and unrolled themselves, 
 and after a time began to move and eat once 
 more. 
 
 When the Amoebss came to life and found 
 that some of their companions were dead, they 
 felt very sad. They did not weep. How could 
 they, when they had no eyes from which the 
 tears could fall, and no hands to hold their 
 pocket-handkerchiefs ? 
 
 But they were lonesome, and wanted more 
 Amoebae to take the places of those who were 
 dead. 
 
 Some said it was too soon to think of filling 
 the vacant chairs. But others disapproved of 
 delay, and suggested that there might be im- 
 proved modern methods for replacing their 
 loss. 
 
 " Now I've heard," said one bright Amoeba 
 lady, "that there are strange folk in foreign 
 lands who have fathers and mothers and whole 
 shoals of children in their families. The Snail, 
 
10 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 who is a great traveler, a regular Wandering 
 Jew of a fellow, and who has circumnavigated 
 the Bayou and has gone far out beyond our 
 world to a distant country known as 'The 
 River,' says that in that country are barbarous 
 heathen people, called Fishes, who have fami- 
 lies of that sort, with menfolk at the head of 
 them. 
 
 " But he says, too, that these Fishes have 
 eyes, mouths, fins, gills, scales, and a great 
 many other useless things with which we are 
 not burdened. 
 
 " So, as we are not like them, it might be 
 a risky experiment for us to try to imitate 
 them in our family matters." 
 
 Another said : " The Bible * tells us that 
 when the Creator wanted inhabitants on earth, 
 he split a one-stemmed rhubarb stalk down the 
 middle and it became two people. 
 
 "That was the Creator's way, and it has 
 always been our way, and I think we'd better 
 abide by the traditions of the past and not try 
 newfangled methods." 
 
 So they ate and grew and expanded their 
 bodies till there came a second nucleus and a 
 second " beating nothingness." 
 
 * The Amcebse read the Zend-Avesta, the Parsee Bible. 
 
RHIZOPODS. 
 
 11 
 
 Then, on opposite edges of the body be- 
 tween the two nuclei, there came two indenta- 
 tions which deepened and deepened until they 
 met in the middle. And behold ! there were 
 two creatures instead of one. 
 
 Every time an amceba divides into two, 
 both new beings are born into new life, and 
 
 Pig. 4. — Multiplication by division. 
 
 there is no waste or dead body to leave be- 
 hind. 
 
 When these two divide again, there are 
 four new and perfect animals. 
 
 And this is how it comes to pass that the 
 Amoebae have done a thing which neither fish 
 nor fowl nor man has ever succeeded in doing, 
 though many of the latter have tried. 
 
 Ponce de Leon came to America in the 
 early days after its discovery and hunted all 
 up and down the forests and along the rivers 
 
12 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 for a Fountain of Youth wHcli was said to pre- 
 vent men from growing old. 
 
 Many alchemists have spent their lives try- 
 ing to make an Elixir of Life which should 
 ward off death and keep people forever vigor- 
 ous and young. No man has ever found just 
 this thing. (I will tell you some day how 
 near he has come to it.) But the very first 
 Amoeba that ever lived drank at the fountain 
 and partook of the elixir which keeps the 
 Amoebae from age and death. 
 
 Tills is one of the most remarkable things 
 about these wonderful little beings — that they 
 and their cousins, the Paramoecii, the Bell ani- 
 malcules, and all the one-celled Protozoans, 
 never die. They may be killed or may die 
 from accident, but there is no such thing as 
 natural death among them. They are always 
 cut off in the prime of life, as men prefer to 
 be who have a horror of being sick in bed or 
 dying of feebleness and age. 
 
 So they go on to this day, increasing their 
 numbers by dividing through the middle ; and 
 are always immortal, living forever, unless 
 some dire disaster befalls them. 
 
 By this way of making two out of one you 
 will see that the people in the pond use a 
 
KHIZOPODS. 13 
 
 different aritlimetic from yours. When they 
 want to multiply^ they divide. Their arith- 
 metic says : 
 
 "When any thing or number is divided 
 into two equal parts, each of the parts is called 
 a whole one. Two halves equal two whole 
 ones." 
 
 2Xi = 2 l-^2 = 2. 
 2X1=4 2-^2 = 4. 
 And their algebra says : 
 
 Let « = 1 amoeba, 
 and 2/ = i amoeba. 
 
 Then a? -|- ^z — f = 3. 
 a? — y = J = 1. 
 
 (a? + y) + (a? - y) = 3 + 1 = 4. 
 
 2 a? = 4. So a? = two instead of one amoeba. 
 Oh, you would never get on in their algebra. 
 
 But if you like these little creatures and 
 want them always near you, I will tell you a 
 secret if you'll never reveal it to any of the 
 ladies who call upon me. 
 
 When the ponds are frozen over, a vase of 
 water in which nasturtium slips are growing is 
 their favorite Winter Palace. 
 
 You can put the vase in the drawing-room 
 window and have beautiful flowers all winter, 
 
14 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 and people will admire your " lovely jardi- 
 niere,^^ though they might be horrified if they 
 suspected that it was a menagerie containing a 
 dozen different kinds of living animals. 
 
 II. 
 UNDER A HAT. 
 
 Some of the missionaries who distributed 
 clothing to the naked savages in the tropic 
 countries tell us that the natives were not 
 satisfied with their allotment of garments, so 
 
 / 3 
 
 Pig. 5. — 1, Arcella acuminata ; S, arcella vulgaris ; 3, arcella 
 
 dentata. 
 
 they traded among themselves, and when they 
 came to services on the following day their 
 appearance was most grotesque and astonish- 
 ing. A Avoman would be attired in a man's 
 shirt, or a stalwart man would stalk proudly in, 
 
RHIZOPODS. 15 
 
 wearing, as his only article of apparel, a lady's 
 bonnet. 
 
 Now the Amoebae never wear clothing. But 
 they have some near kinsmen, the Crown 
 Amoebae, or Arcellae, who are much more aristo- 
 cratic, the adults seldom appearing in public 
 without a hat. 
 
 This is their only garment, but it is large 
 enough to cover the whole body when they 
 retract their pseudopodia, or extemporized 
 limbs, and remain at rest. 
 
 They make their hats themselves by exud- 
 ing from their bodies a chitinous substance, 
 which shapes itself into a shell so thin and 
 transparent that the movements of the arcella 
 may be seen through it. These shells or hats 
 are flexible, and sometimes the arcella rolls 
 the brim up or bends it down as girls do with 
 the brims of their flats or sailor hats. 
 
 When seen from above, these hats look like 
 flat disks or plates, with delicate markings and 
 tintings on them. There are browns and 
 greens and yellows, from the darkest to the 
 lightest. 
 
 When these pretty shells lie at rest on the 
 slide of your microscope, you may easily mis- 
 take them for plants or dead matter; but when 
 the tiny plate begins to crawl about, there is 
 
16 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 no mistaking the active will ^y^licll propels it. 
 You know there is a live being underneath, 
 even if you do not see the animal extending 
 its pseudopodia beyond the shell, as you often 
 may. 
 
 A side view shows you the true shape of 
 the shell, as in Chart I, Figs. 1 and 4. 
 
 The arcella itself is exactly like the 
 amoeba in appearance and habits. It walks, 
 eats, and digests in the same way; but it is 
 distinguished by having a hat or house, by 
 t^vo or three nuclei, and by the manner of get- 
 ting offspring. 
 
 Instead of dividing into two, as the amceba 
 does, the arcella increases its family by what 
 is known as " bud fission " — that is, it puts 
 forth pseudopods on which warts or buds ap- 
 pear, and after a time it pinches them off, sev- 
 eral at a time, so that it often has a family of 
 nine children all of an age. Just think what 
 a time there would be of it if they should all 
 catch the measles or whooping-cough ! 
 
 And these are real baljies, not grown-up 
 folks like the new-made Amoebae ; for the 
 young Arcellse have to develop pulsating vacu- 
 oles for themselves, and, like the children of 
 all 2Jrimiti^'e people, they are allowed to go 
 without clothing till they are old enough to 
 
RHIZOPODS. 17 
 
 make it for themselves. Then they make 
 their pretty hats and feel clothed and in their 
 right minds, equipped for the business of life. 
 
 There is another thing which distinguishes 
 them from the Amcsbse. The Amoebae can not 
 swim nor float, but have to crawl on the mud 
 at the bottom of the pool or on sticks and leaves. 
 But the Arcellse have little bladders in which 
 to secrete gas, and Avhen the bladder is filled 
 they can rise to the top or float in the water as 
 an aeronaut does in the air with his balloon. 
 When they wish to sink to the bottom they do 
 as the man in the balloon does, they open a 
 valve and let out the gas. 
 
 Who would have suspected that away 
 down in the mud of the bayou we should find 
 a prophecy of man's latest invention ? Or a 
 little creature who has gone " up in a balloon, 
 boys, up in a balloon " so many times and for 
 so many ages that it is no marvel at all to him 
 or to his fellows ? And they never think of 
 taking their machine to country fairs and aston- 
 ishing the natives with it. 
 
 Nature has been working up the balloon 
 trade for ages past, you see. 
 
 There are three families of the Arcellse — 
 the Acuminata, the Dentata, and the Mitrata 
 — and " by their hats shall ye know them," for 
 
18 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 each family wears its own peculiar hat, as the 
 Scottish clans used to do. 
 
 Only the Scotch called theirs bonnets, and 
 made songs about them, and used them as 
 other people do flags, to distinguish the armies 
 when they go to battle. 
 
 The Scots sang : 
 
 "And it's ho! for the bonnets of bonny Dundee." 
 
 The Arcellse sing : 
 
 " And it's ho ! for the bonnets of bonny Dentatse." 
 
 For the Arcellse are just as proud of their 
 headdresses as the Scots were, and consider 
 them a sort of coat of arms by which each in- 
 dividual may proclaim to the world his title to 
 a long line of distinguished ancestors. 
 
 I think the Arcellse never go to war, 
 but when they go abroad to display their 
 clothes there is no doubt but the Accumi- 
 natae think theirs is the most stylish and be- 
 coming hat ; and the Dentat* think theirs is ; 
 and the Mitrata? think tlieii'S is ; else why 
 should they persist in wearing that particular 
 kind and never changing to one of the other 
 styles, since they have the making all in their 
 own hands ? 
 
 And it is no wonder they like their head- 
 dresses, for they are very pretty, and the j)oor 
 
RHIZOPODS. 19 
 
 creature looks so sorry and dejected when he 
 has outgrown his hat and has to crawl out and 
 lie around unclothed till he can make another 
 (Chart I, Fig. 5) ! 
 
 III. 
 
 THE SUN ANIMALCULE. 
 {Actinophrys sol.) 
 
 If you blow soap bubbles from the end of 
 a tube into the air, blowing carefully with fre- 
 quent pauses, you may make, not a single bub- 
 ble, but a baE of small bubbles. 
 
 Now, if you can imagine that out from this 
 globe of bubbles, radiating in all directions, are 
 spines as colorless as the bubbles themselves, 
 and that every moment or two a large bubble 
 bursts and then forms itself again, you will 
 know how the Actinophrys sol looks. 
 
 It is called the sun animalcule because the 
 rays from the ball make it look like the old 
 pictures of the sun. 
 
 You can find it in your Jardiniere and every- 
 where in fresh water, where other microscopic 
 animals live, but its favorite residence is on 
 sphagnum or bog moss. 
 
20 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 A large one is -^ of an incli in diameter. 
 It is very quiet and well behaved. It lias a 
 gently gliding or floating motion, and moves in 
 
 Pig. 6. — 1, Pulsating vacuole ; 2, food in food-vaeuole. 
 
 a circular course when it moves at all. But it 
 remains in one place for long periods of time. 
 
 It can travel, but seldom does. It can eat, 
 but seldom does. It can ^vithdra^v its rays, 
 and flatten itself like an amoeba, but seldom 
 d( les. 
 
 Altli(^ugli it remains so quiet that one has 
 full opportunity for observing it, little is kno'wn 
 of its life history. It is beautiful and nothing 
 more ; and so it lives, and nothing more, re- 
 
RHIZOPODS. 21 
 
 minding one of the question tlie page put to 
 Brutus's wife : 
 
 " What shall I do ? Run to the Capitol, and nothing 
 more ? 
 And so return, and nothing more " ? 
 
 But beauty to be really interesting must be 
 coupled witli energy and vivacity, and the sun 
 animalcule has little of either. 
 
 Yet it is fond of society, and is often seen 
 closely associated with others, their spines in- 
 terlaced, the animacules piled in a heap, some- 
 times to the number of fifteen in one colony. 
 
 The actinophrys multiplies by division, and 
 the colonies are made by successive divisions. 
 
 You will occasionally see some small animal 
 entangled among the spines, struggling to get 
 away. Sometimes it escapes ; but when it 
 does not it sticks fast to the adhesive ray that 
 slowly retracts into the body of the sun animal- 
 cule, which forms a bubble or vacuole to en- 
 compass it. For the actinophrys, like the 
 amceba, throws itself around its food and has 
 no permanent mouth. If one ray is not enough 
 to hold the struggling victim, other rays bend 
 over to assist, and the poor creature is swal- 
 lowed alive, and may be seen to squirm after it 
 is inside its captor. 
 
 After partaking of food the animalcule be- 
 
22 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 comes smoother in appearance, the bubbles be- 
 coming smaller and less prominent. 
 
 This actinophrys is devoid of organs of 
 sense, circulation, respiration, or even diges- 
 tion. Yet it measures its efforts by the neces- 
 sity : One ray does the work if it can ; if not, 
 a second and third and fourth ray comes to its 
 assistance. 
 
 Doesn't this look like an approach to intel- 
 ligence ? 
 
 But the senseless animal does other things 
 Avhich look as if it possessed not only sense but 
 reason. Mr. Carter relates that an actinophrys 
 was in a vessel where there were vegetable 
 cells containing starch particles. One of the 
 cells became ruptured, allowing a trifle of the 
 contents to protrude through the crevice. The 
 actinophrys came, extracted a starch grain, and 
 crept to a distance to devour it. It then re- 
 turned, extracting grains from the interior of the 
 cell, always retiring with each grain, and return- 
 ing again, as if it knew the way back and remem- 
 bered where starch grains were to be found. 
 
 At another iime Mr. Carter saw an actino- 
 phrys station itself close to the ripe spore cell 
 of a plant, and when the cell burst and the 
 young zoospores came out, the actinophrys 
 caught every one of them ; retiring after the 
 
BHIZOPODS. 23 
 
 last one was caught, as if instinctively con- 
 scious that no more remained. 
 
 The actinophrys is afraid of its cousin, the 
 Mistress Amceba, and tries to avoid her, for the 
 amceba tears off bits of the sun animalcule, de- 
 vouring it piecemeal. 
 
 The Vampyrella looks like a reddish-yel- 
 low actinophrys, but it can withdraw and pro- 
 trude its rays with greater celerity. It can 
 pierce a spirogyra cell and extract its contents 
 iu five minutes, or can station itself outside 
 the partition between two cells and suck the 
 contents of both at once. It has been seen 
 to devour the contents of seven cells at one 
 meal, growing very portly in the operation. 
 Probably because it sucks the life-blood of 
 plants, it was named after the vampire, a bat 
 which is supposed to suck the blood of ani- 
 mals and men. 
 
 When it has not eaten too much, the vam- 
 pyrella can squeeze itself into an empty plant- 
 cell and emerge in a long train, which gathers 
 itself up again into a rounded body. When 
 it reproduces, it " hatches " into three or four 
 animals, which begin to protrude their rays 
 before they are out of the shell or cyst. 
 
24 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 IV. 
 {Clathrulina elegans.) 
 
 If you find one of these sun animalcules 
 living in a glass house on the top of a glass 
 stem, like a flower on a stalk, you may know 
 it to be the Clathrulina elegans. 
 
 Fig. 7. — Clathrulina elegans. 
 
RHIZOPODS. 25 
 
 The beautiful crystal house has many win- 
 dows, through which the clathrulina protmdes 
 fine rays, which act as arms. When hungry, it 
 reaches out and brings its food in through the 
 windows. It never uses these raylike pseudo- 
 podia for feet, because it has stretched out one 
 into a stem, and has fastened itself so that it 
 can travel no more. 
 
 This, and the actinophrys, the arcella, and 
 the amoeba are all called rJiizopods — rhizo, 
 meaning root ; pod, meaning foot — because the 
 pseudopodia of the arcella and amoeba are like 
 coarse,- fleshy roots, and the rays of the two 
 former are like fine, threadlike roots. But the 
 clathrulina is the most truly " root-footed " of 
 all, because it has transformed one of its rays 
 into a genuine root stalk. 
 
 Both the sun animalcule and the clathru- 
 lina multiply by division. But the young 
 clathrulina finds itself a prisoner in the beau- 
 tiful glass house ; and it says : 
 
 " I mean to make my escape somehow, and 
 since there are no doors I'll just climb out at 
 the window." 
 
 So out it goes, though it has to squeeze 
 itself into a long string of colorless protoplasm 
 in getting through. 
 
 But it soon rounds up into a ball of bub- 
 
26 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 bles, and lives free like an actinoplirys until it 
 gets over its childish pranks, when it puts out 
 a ray, takes root, and wanders no more. 
 
 You have heard of the man who founded 
 his house on a rock, so that it withstood all the 
 tempests, and of the one who founded his on 
 sand, so that it washed away ? 
 
 The clathrulina's house has a foundation 
 less firm than the shifting sands, for it is built 
 upon the fragile rootlets of the duckweed. 
 
 And the storms come and the floods rise 
 and the waves beat vehemently upon that 
 house, and it sways in the bayou, and some- 
 times it stands, but when it falls, great is the 
 ruin thereof. 
 
 And when it begins to crack, the little 
 clathrulina thinks an earthquake has come ; 
 and, though it never left its house before, it 
 rushes out colorless and affrighted to die in 
 the great watery highway, crushed amid the 
 wreck and debris of the flood. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WHIPLASHEES. 
 
 {Flagellata.) 
 I. 
 
 There are some little chaps in tlie green 
 scum of the pools who ride along by simply- 
 flipping their whiplashes. 
 
 The whiplash is called a flagellum (which 
 means whiplash), and the animals themselves 
 are called Flagellata because they have the 
 flagellum. 
 
 When one of them is going on a journey, 
 it keeps the lash pointed ahead and thrown 
 into curves or undulations, which pull against 
 the water as a bird's wings do against the air, 
 thus drawing the animal forward. The lash is 
 exceedingly flexible, and when the creature is 
 at rest the lash twists about, reaching back 
 over or back under the body, as if searching 
 for something it has lost, or guarding the body 
 from the attack of some enemy. 
 
 4 27 
 
28 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 One of the marine species, called Noetic 
 luca (liglit of the night), shines at night like 
 glowing phosphorus, making the sea look like 
 
 Fia. 8. — Various stages in the development oi Euglena viridis: 
 a. red eye spot ; b, pulsating vacuole : c, nucleus ; 7, preparing 
 to form spores. 
 
 fire, and jcausing the superstitious sailors to feel 
 eerie and grewsome. 
 
 This phosphorescence is a curious substi- 
 tute that Nature has provided in the absence 
 of other light ; for down in the deep sea, liv- 
 ing in the cold, dark waters where the rays of 
 the sun can not penetrate, are myriads of crea- 
 tures which are obliged to light their own path- 
 
THE WHIPLASHERS. 29 
 
 way by the pliospliorescent lamps they carry 
 with them, as men who work in dark mines 
 light their way by lamps worn upon their caps. 
 
 The prettiest of the fresh-water species are 
 the red and the green euglena, which look like 
 slender willow leaves with the flagellum for a 
 leaf stalk. 
 
 But you will know at once that the object 
 at which you are looking is not a leaf, because 
 it can change its course, and does not drift 
 aimlessly, but has the movement of a creature 
 which is goi7ig somewTiere. So potent is will- 
 power even in this incipient stage that it trans- 
 forms this leaf from an inert thiTig into a pur- 
 poseful heing. 
 
 There is one species of these animals, prob- 
 ably the Astasia, which is colorless, and has a 
 square, notched posterior, and a body so lim- 
 ber that it can be rolled back upon itself so as 
 to resemble an irregular ball. 
 
 The Euglena triqueta is three-sided, and 
 ends in a stiff point instead of a flagellum. 
 Its body is not flexible, so it has to go tum- 
 bling along in the water like a leaf blown by 
 the wind. 
 
 The red, or Evglena sanguinea, is bright 
 crimson, and, when abundant, gives the water 
 a reddish tinge. 
 
30 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 The Euglena viridis is of a beautiful green 
 color, with a crimson eye-spot near the base 
 of the flagellum. When seen in shoals it makes 
 the water appear green. 
 
 Both these varieties have flexible bodies. 
 They double and twist as readily as the lash 
 or filament ; but when traveling they move 
 smoothly, revolving on their long axes. They 
 have pulsating vacuoles near the anterior bor- 
 der, and nuclei near the middle. 
 
 The green euglena retains its shape and 
 color if it dries on the slide of the microscope, 
 but the crimson eye-spot fades. When one of 
 them becomes aged, since he has no hair to lose 
 color by turning gray, he loses the color of 
 his eye. 
 
 Have you noticed that this is the first 
 semblance of an eye with which you have met 
 among these microscopic animals ? This is Na- 
 ture's fii'st ex]3eriment in eye-making, and it 
 does not seem to be very siiccessful, for this 
 spot is not a true eye. It is probably no more 
 than an organ which can distinguish light from 
 darkness, as you, with closed eyes, can tell 
 when you pass from shade into sunlight. It is 
 the prophecy of an eye ; for somehow, in the 
 loAver forms. Nature is always giving us a hint 
 of what she is going to do by and by, just as, 
 
THE WHIPLASHEBS. 31 
 
 in the higher forms, she is always recapitulat- 
 ing what she has already done, causing each 
 higher animal, in the earliest period of its 
 existence, to resemble various types of lower 
 animals. 
 
 The Flagellata live in water, yet they can 
 survive a long drought. "When the water in 
 the pond dries, they roll into a ball, as the 
 amoeba does when it receives a charge of elec- 
 tricity, and seem to exude a shell or coat as the 
 cabbage worm does when it rests befoi-e chang- 
 ing into a butterfly. 
 
 These small creatures can endure more heat 
 than man can. If the thermometer registers 
 112°, the papers are filled with accounts of 
 sunstrokes. But the temperature must be 180° 
 F. before the Euglena News can publish such 
 items, and must be 70° higher still before the 
 race becomes extinct and the last euglena man 
 is dead ; for the spores survive greater heat 
 than the adults. 
 
 These Flagellata are getting up in the world 
 as compared with the Amoebae. The interior 
 of their bodies, like that of the amoeba, is a 
 soft substance called sarcode ; but they have 
 a mouth which stays in one place at the base 
 of the flagellum, so they always know where to 
 find it — and that, you'll admit, is a great con- 
 
32 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 venience ; the flagellum is a permanent organ, 
 wMcli doesn't shrink back into the body ; then, 
 too, they have three or foui' ways of increasing 
 their numbers : 
 
 1. They multiply by long division — i. e., by 
 dividing along the length of the body — which 
 process is called longitudinal fission. When 
 they do this, the division begins in some of 
 them by the division of the flagellum, which 
 is an amusing process. They fasten it by the 
 free end, and then wriggle or vibrate it until it 
 sjjlits into two shreds. 
 
 2. They multiply by short division — i. e., 
 by dividing aeros.'< the long axis. This is called 
 transverse fission. 
 
 3. They break up into spores or seeds of 
 animals (7, 8, Fig. 10). 
 
 When an animal is about to form spores, 
 it withdraws all its organs of locomotion and 
 prehension, becoming round and quiescent. 
 The outer part becomes a sack or cyst, within 
 which numerous small bodies form and grow 
 until the cyst wall breaks and the spores or 
 germs of new animals fly out. 
 
 This method of reproduction allies the ani- 
 mal with the plant. 
 
THE WHIPLASHERS. 
 
 33 
 
 II. 
 
 Some parents have a child's picture taken 
 every year so as to keep a series of photographs 
 which shall be a record of his changing fea- 
 tures and growth through life. 
 
 Figs. 9 and 10 show a series of pictures, 
 giving the life history of a flagellate monad 
 whose name is Dallingeria Drysdali. 
 
 This is a wee little thing about ^^g-g- of an 
 inch in length, which travels gracefully and 
 
 Fig. 9. — Dallingeria. 
 
 swiftly, ordinarily seeming very serious and 
 demure. 
 
 But every little while it appears to feel the 
 need' of some gymnastic exercise. So it anchors 
 
34 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 itself by the free ends of its posterior flagella, 
 and, by coiling them up tight, draws itself 
 back ; then, by uncoiling, it suddenly springs 
 forward ; again it coils and draws back and 
 again springs forward ; repeating this jumping 
 process over and over again, seeming to think 
 it no end of fun. 
 
 The Dallingeria divides by longitudinal 
 fission, splitting the anterior flagellum into 
 two, in from one half to one minute. The 
 whole process of division occupies not more 
 than seven minutes, and is repeated at intervals 
 of a few moments ; so the Dallingeria need not 
 be lonesome. If one boy tires and will not 
 play the jumping game any longer, the other 
 can make himself a new companion in seven 
 minutes. 
 
 After repeated divisions of this sort our 
 little monad makes a great departure from its 
 ordinary customs of life. 
 
 Some of the individuals have changed their 
 appearance by absorbing the two lateral fla- 
 gella, enlarging the nucleus, and forming a 
 granular band across the middle of the body 
 (5, Fig. 9). One of these individuals comes 
 swimming up to our little monad as it springs 
 about coiling and uncoiling its flagella, and 
 immediately the two love and wed and go 
 
THE WHIPLASHERS. 
 
 35 
 
 sailing out into the west together (6, Fig. 
 
 10). 
 
 In four or five hours the trailing flagella of 
 the one and the anterior flagella and nuclei of 
 
 "//«^, 
 
 '" 
 
 cO'.o'' 
 
 0°° t 
 
 ^^;p"^W^/^r^^^ — 
 
 Pig. 10. — Dallingeria and family. 
 
 both have disappeared, the two are one, and 
 look like a sack from which fine flour is issu- 
 ing (7, Fig. 10). The particles of this fine flour 
 increase in size until in about four hours they 
 are seen to be perfectly formed flagellate 
 monads (8, 9, 10, Fig. 10). 
 
 The godfathers of these little creatures, 
 Messrs. Dallinger and Drysdale, after whom 
 they are named and who first introduced them 
 to the public, have, with true paternal fond- 
 
36 IN BEOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 ness, left many more pbotograplis of them and 
 a much fuller account of the incidents of their 
 childhood than can be given here. But what 
 has been given may fairly be taken as a brief 
 genealogy of the old and distinguished Flagella 
 Family. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CILIATA. 
 
 You have seen the amoeba traveling by 
 means of pseudopodia ; the arcella by means 
 of pseudopods and miniature balloons ; the 
 sun animalcule by means of spines ; and the 
 Flagellata by means of delicate whiplashes. 
 
 The fish uses fins for feet ; the tadpole, a 
 posterior rudder ; the leech uses suckers ; the 
 bird has wings to tread the air; the snake 
 walks with its ribs, setting them forward alter- 
 nately on either side as a boy does his feet ; 
 and when you come to the animal Man, he has 
 a great variety of feet or organs of locomotion 
 besides his two legs : for what is a sleigh, or a 
 carriage, or a boat, or a bicycle, or a railroad 
 car, but another kind of pseudopod which 
 man has extemporized to expedite his progress ? 
 All these are locomotor pseudopodia invented 
 to enable man to walk faster. 
 
 But of all the odd things which have been 
 
 37 
 
38 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 used in traveling, there is nothing odder than 
 that which we are about to investigate. It is 
 nothing else than very short, fine hairs. 
 
 We are now to study a large class of ani- 
 mals, including the bell animalcule, paramoeci- 
 um, stentor, vaginicola, and many more, which 
 are all known as Ciliata, because they joropel 
 themselves by fanning the water with cilia or 
 short hairs. 
 
 The Ciliata knew how to "feather" be- 
 fore man ever handled an oar, and they were 
 the inventors of the " back stroke " ; for many 
 of them can travel backward as readily as for- 
 ward by reversing the action of their cilia. 
 
 Some of them use cilia to assist in swallow- 
 .ing their food, having a funnel or oesophagus 
 lined with haii'S which carry the food down 
 with the currents of w^ater. 
 
 These animals are an advance upon the 
 foregoing ones ; for these all have a perma- 
 nent mouth orifice, and a permanent jJace to 
 eject waste food ; their vacuoles are better de- 
 veloped ; and gome even have a dental arma- 
 ture or experiment in the direction of teeth. 
 
 Nature is beginning to differentiate or set 
 aside portions of protoplasm for special uses, 
 and to keep organs ready-made instead of hav- 
 ing to make them every time they are needed. 
 
CILIATA. 39 
 
 Hence these Ciliata have a funnel always 
 ready to receive food, and they keep hands to 
 secure food and feet with which to travel 
 always in stock, in the shape of cilia. 
 
 ( Vorticellm.) 
 
 Men go fishing with flies and worms, but 
 the Ciliates go fishing with these invisible hairs. 
 And this is the way they do it : They keep 
 these cilia falling down one after another in a 
 circle. Round and round they go, dropping 
 and picking themselves up again so fast that 
 you can scarcely see them. This creates a whirl- 
 pool or vortex in the water, which catches the 
 particles of food in its eddies, and carries them 
 do-\vn the whirlpool into the little animal's 
 throat. It is because they make this vortex 
 that some are called Vorticellce. 
 
 These are also called bell animalcules, be- 
 cause they are shaped like a bell, or a dainty 
 china cup. 
 
 They are the dearest little creatures in the 
 world — so shy, so pretty, so graceful, so charm- 
 ing. You are not a complete, all-around boy 
 
40 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 or girl if you are not exceedingly pleased the 
 first time you see a live bell animalcule. 
 
 PiQ. 11. — VoriiceUanehuUfera. shn-wing development of individ- 
 ual stages A to F (E and F free). 
 
CILIATA. 
 
 41 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 Lift a slip of nasturtium from your ja?'- 
 diniere and carefully clip off a rootlet. Put 
 it on your slide 
 with a drop of 
 water, and you 
 are likely to see 
 a score of Vorti- 
 cellcB attached to 
 the root : some 
 with their beau- 
 tiful cups ex- 
 panded at the end 
 of long, thread- 
 like stems ; some 
 with the stem 
 coiled into a 
 spiral, resting 
 against the root. 
 
 They are 
 transparent and 
 colorless except 
 
 for the food balls; Pia- 13.— Bell animalcule: a, ciliated 
 
 disk ; 0, rim or lip ; a, cesopnagus ; 
 
 but you can see c, funnel ; /, food ; po, pulsating vao- 
 
 the cilia fanning 
 
 the water to make the whirlpool, and you wUl 
 notice that when mosses or small animals are 
 caught in the outer waves they go around in 
 a circle, sometimes making their escape, when 
 
42 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 they have made one circuit, and sometimes 
 going round and round till they disappear in 
 the funnel shown in Fig. 12. 
 
 From the funnel they go into the oesopha- 
 gus, thence into the body ; and when the nu- 
 triment is extracted they are thrown out again 
 <d flie funnel. 
 
 If coloring matter enters the body it is 
 excreted by the vacuole. A little carmine or 
 aniline blue mixed with the water on the slide 
 will make all these microscopic animals more 
 beautiful, and will aid in discovering the opera- 
 tions which are carried on by the body. 
 
 Fig. 12 represents a bell animalcule six hun- 
 dred times its natural size. Think of all this 
 ciliating and swallowing, digesting and excret- 
 ing going on in a creature only one six-hun- 
 di-edth the size of the picture — a creature too 
 small and ethereal to be seen at all by the un- 
 aided eye ! 
 
 Yet this minute being has the sense of 
 touch developed to a remarkable degree, and 
 when any other animal brushes against it even 
 lightly, it disappears so suddenly that you won- 
 der where it has gone, until aou see it lifting 
 the budshaped head from the mosses and tim- 
 idly creeping out again. 
 
 When fi-ightened it closes its house by 
 
CILIATA. 
 
 43 
 
 withdrawing the ciliaiy disk, folding the cilia 
 in upon it, contracting the rim, and coiling the 
 stem. But the whole thing is done in the 
 twinkling of an eye. When the danger is 
 
 Fig. 13. — Vorticellm : Dividing, budding, coiling, uncoiling, 
 and free. 
 
44 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 passed it reverses this order, unfolding again 
 like a bud in tlie sunshine. 
 
 The stem of the vorticella contracts hy 
 means of a muscle situated in the interior of 
 it, which responds instantly as if at the defi- 
 nite command of the will. This is the first 
 pronounced case of differentiation of matter 
 into muscular fiber. 
 
 The bell animalcule multiplies by longi- 
 tudinal fission, as shown by Fig. 13. The 
 whole animal parts down to the stem, one 
 or both new animals floating away. 
 
 Another mode of reproduction among them 
 is the putting out of little buds of animals 
 (3, Fig. 18). _ 
 
 The vorticella does something which man 
 is trying to imitate. 
 
 You read in the papers that a certain man 
 in Illinois was going to die, or appear to die, 
 and a crop of barley was to be raised on his 
 grave. When the barley ripened his friends 
 were to open the grave, and he was to waken 
 from his trance and be alive again. 
 
 Another man, in Ohio, went into a hyp- 
 notic sleep and lay buried in a cellar for two 
 months, at which time his friends dug him up 
 and rubbed him into life ; so said the Chicago 
 Inter-Ocean. 
 
CILIATA. 45 
 
 You all know how Dr. Tanner lived forty 
 days without food. 
 
 The vorticella can do all these and more. 
 Whenever a famine comes in Vorticel-land the 
 inhabitants close their houses, incase them- 
 selves in cysts, and remain unnourished in- 
 definitely. Or when there comes a drought, 
 and the water in the pools evaporates, the little 
 creatures huddle together in the deepest hol- 
 lows, eating and playing as happy as ever till 
 the last drop is gone. Then they go into a 
 trance or hypnotic sleep, lying in hypnocysts, 
 parching in the hot sun for months. But when 
 the rains come and the pond refills, out they all 
 come trooping, as bright and lively as though 
 they felt much refreshed, seeming to say by 
 their actions, " Oh, it's a great lark to play Rip 
 Van Winkle ! " 
 
 Sometimes as they lie encysted in the dry 
 bed of a pond, old ^olus, the wind giant, 
 comes along and catches them up with the 
 dust and bears them captive in his arms as he 
 flies through space, depositing them at last on 
 roofs to be carried into cisterns, or in horse 
 troughs, or in eaves clogged with leaves, where 
 they waken from their trances, come out of 
 their cases, grow new stems, and begin to turn 
 about in all directions, exploring the new world 
 
46 
 
 IN BROOK ANT) BAYOU. 
 
 in which they find themselves. And if they 
 had eyes there is no doubt that in them would 
 be that wondering look which is in the eyes 
 of new babies as they turn their gaze about the 
 
 Fio. 14. — Animated calla-lilies. 
 
 four- walled world in which they lie puzzling 
 over the strange environment into which they 
 have come. And when you see these little 
 bells you will smile at them as you do at the 
 babies, and say : " Blessings on your little fuzzy 
 heads ! Where did you come from ? " 
 
CILIATA. 47 
 
 There are known to be fifty varieties of 
 Vorticellae. Some live solitarj^, each on a stem 
 of its own ; others live in colonies or villages 
 on brancMng treelike stems. In some of these 
 the individual can close Ms house without 
 alarming the rest of the village, or the entire 
 community can close up at once. Others, as 
 the epistylis, have a rigid stem, and only the 
 individual can contract. 
 
 When these people live in colonies, you 
 perceive that there must be something like 
 co-operative housekeeping, for, though each 
 does his own fishing, he must do it where the 
 company is located. There are some colonies, 
 as on Steamer No. 2, Ocean Line, where the 
 empty stems seem to indicate that some way- 
 ward member of the family has broken his 
 tether and has gone off to set up in business 
 for himself. 
 
 Fig. 14 shows a colony of ten calla-lily- 
 shaped beauties that I found fishing together. 
 They at no time recoiled singly, but occa- 
 sionally all sank at once in great precipitation 
 upon the main stem. 
 
 After a while they decided that the fishing 
 was poor, so they all massed together and emi- 
 grated to parts unknown. 
 
 Later they were found living in opulence 
 
48 IN BEOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 in a new country, and in an hour or two they 
 had again colonized a new territory. 
 
 When one of the solitary Vorticellse be- 
 comes tired of its dwelling place and desires to 
 "go West and grow up with the country," it 
 closes its house just as it does when fright- 
 ened. Then it breaks camp — in rare instances 
 carrying the stem with it, trailing through 
 the water. But usually a second circle of 
 cilia appears near the posterior or stem end, 
 and the vorticella breaks loose, leaving the 
 stem coiled and useless. Then it backs out 
 and turns round, sailing with the posterior 
 part foremost, just as you back a boat out and 
 turn it around in order to row with the pointed 
 end against the stream. 
 
 When it reaches the far country which, 
 though the goal of its aspirations, is but a 
 neighboring island of moss, it cuddles down 
 into the moss, seeming to attach itself by this 
 last band of cilia until it has time to grow a 
 new stem. 
 
 Then the cilia appear at the other ex- 
 tremity, and what tvas the anterior part when 
 attached before is again the anterior or mouth 
 part of the body. 
 
 The books and the scientists say that when 
 a bell animalcule is preparing to move, it " loses 
 
CILIATA. 49 
 
 its anterior cilia and rim, and develops pos- 
 terior cilia ; and that when it breaks away the 
 anterior part becomes posterior and the mouth 
 closes, never to open againP 
 
 In other words, they would lead you to be- 
 lieve that when the vorticella moves it stands 
 on its head till it moves again — that it is a 
 sort of patent, reversible, double-action creature 
 which can turn feet into head and head into 
 feet at pleasure. 
 
 But the vorticella itself seems to have 
 different ideas of things, and protests against 
 the statement that it " loses its rim and an- 
 terior cilia"; 1, 1', 1', Fig. 15, shows one of 
 them in three stages of preparation for travel. 
 2, shows one traveling with ioth circles of cilia 
 present, the scientists to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 The same Fig., 3, 3', 3", 3'", shows one 
 which rowed up to some moss, attached itself, 
 and, within two hours and a half, grew a stem 
 twice its length, and displayed the posterior 
 cilia again as if prepared to begin its migrations 
 anew. So, if it really stood on its head the 
 second time it was attached, it was only two 
 hours and a half before it turned another 
 somersault and opened its first mouth again. 
 
 Now, No. 2 or No. 3 is a frail and delicate 
 
50 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 r. 
 
 
 Fui. 15. — Vorticelltr. 
 
 creature, and a scientist is a great and powerful 
 man ; but if No. 2 or No. 3 chooses to enter 
 into a contest with the great scientist, you may 
 
CILIATA. 51 
 
 be sure the little one will come out ahead. 
 That's a way of little bodies whose mouths 
 can't be closed. 
 
 And if, as I suspect, the Vorticellse have 
 decided to have an anterior or prehensile band 
 of cilia and also a posterior or locomotor 
 band, and to keep the cilia concealed or ab- 
 sorbed into the body like true pseud opodia 
 when not in use — if they have decided to do 
 this, they'll do it ; and it's useless for the scien- 
 tists to argue the matter with them. They will 
 go right along having their own way, looking 
 so sweet and amiable and playing so gracefully 
 that you will never know their pretty ways 
 are only a cloak to hide a deep-laid plot to 
 confound the scientists. 
 
 As the bell animalcule sails fi'ee, it assumes 
 a great variety of shapes, some of which are 
 only apparent ones, caused by its rolling over 
 in the water and presenting different sides to 
 view. Sometimes it seems round ; sometimes 
 almost square ; sometimes it looks like a basin 
 or kettle ; and sometimes like an old-fashioned 
 entailed hat. 
 
 They keep up a lively fanning of the water 
 with their cilia as they travel. 
 
 But some of them are too cute to work 
 their own laborious passage in this way. Those, 
 
52 
 
 IN BROOK ANB BAYOU. 
 
 especially, who live in colonies on branched 
 stems like to travel far and fast ; so they at- 
 tach themselves to some larger animal which is 
 a swift sailer, like a cyclops or the larva of 
 
 some insect, and are thus transported ^^■ithout 
 effort on their part. 
 
 You see they had their ocean-steamer lines 
 and Great Easterns long before we had. 
 
 Can you hear them sing as they sail — 
 
 Oh, a life on the ocean wave, 
 A home on the rolling deep ? 
 
CILIATA. 
 
 53 
 
 II. 
 
 IN A GOBLET. 
 ( Vaginicola.) 
 
 There are some of the Ciliata that live 
 in crystal vases. These vases are longer than 
 those of the bell animalcule, and the animal 
 within is very elastic and can extend itself to 
 twice the length of its inclosing case or house ; 
 
 11 3 4 
 
 Pig. 17. — 1, Cothurnia; 2, 3, 4, Vaginioolm. 
 
 or it can contract so as to lie at the bottom of 
 the vase. 
 
 These are the Vaginicola and Cothurnia. 
 The vase in which they live is called a lorica. 
 They are attached only at the bottom of the 
 
54 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 lorica, being free on the sides. Botli they and 
 the lorica are transparent ; and the only way in 
 which you can distinguish the vaginicola from 
 the cothurnia isthat the vase of the former is 
 sessile while that of the latter is attached by a 
 short stem, and is sometimes tinged with brown. 
 
 When the cothurnia is frightened it tipn 
 its house over, by bending the stem or pedicle, 
 at the same time that it contracts into it to 
 escape the danger. 
 
 Both these animals are of niuch the same 
 nature as the bell animalcule. They are trans- 
 parent, have pulsating vacuoles and crown of 
 cilia, and procure food in the same manner by 
 creating currents in the water. The chief dif- 
 ference is that these can stretch like rubber 
 and the bell animalcule can not ; and these 
 look like flowers in a vase instead of flowers 
 on a stem. 
 
 They do not need to leave their houses to 
 procure food. They can sit at their doors and 
 lish, or can even remain halfway down in 
 the lorica and pi'oduce the currents and secure 
 the food. 
 
 Two animals often live in one case, and 
 look very cunning, fishing together or cuddling 
 on the floor of their house ; for they can be 
 distinctly seen through the lorica. 
 
CHART II 
 
 Vflnri nirnlfl 
 
CILIATA. 55 
 
 You may watch them gradually lengthen 
 their bodies until they lean far out over the 
 top of the vase, in their eagerness to secure 
 choice morsels. Then, when they are thus ex- 
 tended, if you tap the slide, they vsall spring 
 back and hide in the bottom of the vase, trying 
 to make believe they are not at home. 
 
 They are like the two little children left 
 in charge of the house, who scampered under 
 the bed when a stranger tapped at the door, 
 and who, when he rapped again, timidly sang 
 out, " We're all gone ! " 
 
 I have seen a bell animalcule and a vagini- 
 cola play Pussy- wants-a-corner (1,2, Chart II). 
 
 The former was anchored near the latter in 
 such position that every time it recoiled on its 
 stem it hit against the vaginicola's house, caus- 
 ing it to recoil also. When the bell animalcule 
 uncoiled and set its whirlpool in motion again, 
 out would come the vaginicola and set its whirl- 
 pool going, which jarred and alarmed the bell 
 animalcule. Back it would spring, tapping at 
 the vaginicola's door on the way, and under 
 the bed the vaginicola would dart. Thus they 
 kept going, each probably thinking the other 
 very rude to plague it in that way, when all it 
 wanted was to attend quietly to its own fishing 
 without molesting anybody. 
 
56 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 The young of the Vaginicolm come from 
 true buds and swim about freely for awhile, 
 settling down at length and forming a lorica in 
 which to dwell ; for, like the arcella and clathru- 
 liua, they have to build their own dwellings. 
 Animals, you see, are like people : some are 
 " born with a silver spoon in their mouths " — that 
 is, with a fortune already provided ; and some 
 are born destitute and are obliged to take care 
 of themselves and build their own houses. 
 
 If you examine minutely all the members of 
 the vaginicolan family you may spy out one of 
 Nature's secrets which she never breathed to 
 anybody until long after she made these proto- 
 zoans. You have already noticed that Nature 
 was beginning to make loricas, into which the 
 animals could retreat in times of danger. Now 
 the secret you may discover is that she already 
 had in mind a strong, hard house, like the snail's, 
 into which the owner could withdraw, closing 
 the door heJiind him to bar out intruders ; and, 
 while she was working among these Vagivicoloe, 
 she was experimenting on just such a house as 
 this. You will tind the snail's house closed se- 
 curely by the horny operculum he draws into 
 the opening ; and the Pyxicola has a similar 
 operculum to close his vase. Attached to the 
 side of its lorica the Thuricola has a valve 
 
CILIATA. 
 
 57 
 
 which closes when the animal shrinks down 
 into its case, as the lid closes over the nest of 
 the trapdoor spider. Think of spiders and pro- 
 
 1 cj- ^-J^^ z 
 
 Pig. 18. — 1, Pyxicola; 2, Thuricola. 
 
 tozoans having actual doors which swing on 
 hinges ! " 
 
 Who knows of what else beside spiders and 
 snails Nature was thinking when she made the 
 thuricola ? She may have been revolving in her 
 mind schemes concerning an animal called Man, 
 who should have a lorica of brick or stone with 
 an electric bell to ring open the valve. 
 
 But we are prying too far into Nature's 
 
58 IN BUOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 plans, and must go back into the protozoan 
 world where she is at work, and where one 
 morning No. 3, Chart II, appeared on the stage 
 of action, in a beautiful crystal case. An hour 
 later, tired of single blessedness, it had changed 
 into 4, — t"\vo twisted together with cilia playing. 
 
 After a time they extended themselves be^ 
 yond the lorica, making great whirlpools. A 
 diatom gently sailing that way was caught in 
 the current and carried round and round for 
 fifteen minutes, now in wide, now in narrow 
 circles, now fast, now slow. His little elec- 
 tric launch had a hard time with the buileting 
 waves. When he at length escaped, he settled 
 down in a clump of reeds, " quite chapfallen." 
 
 He seemed to be reciting poetry, and to be 
 saying : 
 
 We have had enough of action, and of motion -we. 
 
 Rolled to starboard, rolled to larboard, when tlie surge 
 was seething free, 
 
 Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam foun- 
 tains in the sea. 
 
 Death is the end of life ; ah ! why should life all labor 
 be? 
 
 Let us alone. Is there any peace 
 
 In ever climbing up the climbing wave ? 
 
 All things have rest. Let us alone. 
 
 Presently a little brilliantly green, transparent 
 paramoecium, scurrying merrily along, fell into 
 
CILIATA. 59 
 
 this same vaginicolan Charybdis. He struggled 
 bravely for awhile, and after many giddy revo- 
 lutions was cast upon a reef of vegetation, 
 utterly worn and fagged with the battle of life. 
 
 He merrily scurried no more ; and his rea- 
 sons for no longer exerting himself were the 
 same that Brer Jeems's wife gave for his not 
 sawing Brer Remus's wood : 
 
 " Ho]De you'll 'scuse Jeems," she said. " He 
 can't ver' well wuk to-day. Fust place, he got 
 no time ; second place, he doan feel fust-rate 
 dis mawuin' ; third place, he's dade^ 
 
 III. 
 
 THE TRUMPET ANIMALCULE. 
 {Stentor.) 
 
 If you try to get a snap shot with your 
 kodak at a trumpet animalcule, you will obtain 
 such a variety of photographs as will seem to 
 represent a score of different creatures instead 
 of a single one. Fig. 19 gives a collection of pho- 
 tographs of these animals, taken with a pencil. 
 The Stentor lives either solitary or in colonies. 
 At times, when attached, it twists on its stem, 
 looking like a half -filled balloon swaying about 
 
60 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 and tugging at its ropes, wrinkled and grooved 
 at the bottom. There are cilia distributed over 
 the whole body of the stentor, but in some of 
 
 Pig. 19.— Colony of stentors. 
 
 these figures (2, 3) you will notice a cluster of 
 cilia which at times appears external, at other 
 times internal. This cluster is the budding 
 head of a young stentor ; for the pulsating 
 
OILIATA. 6 1 
 
 vacuole divides and the moutli and throat of 
 the offspring appear before there is any sign 
 of division in the parent. This is another case 
 of transverse fission. The mouth of the new 
 creature appears about halfway down the tube 
 of the old one. When the division is complete, 
 both swim away smaller in size, resembling an 
 elongated bell animalcule. Two hours are oc- 
 cupied in this process of multiplication. 
 
 The disk of some stentors looks like a ripe 
 sunflower with the seeds removed. The rim or 
 lip around the disk seems to be so flexible 
 that they can " pout their lips " and " make 
 mouths." 
 
 The indigestible food is expelled from the 
 mouth or funnel. Occasionally one of them tries 
 to swallow an object larger than its throat, and, 
 after repeated eiforts, is obliged to relinquish 
 the undertaking and eject the whole mass. 
 
 A stentor has lived for three days under a 
 cover glass, surrounded with tallow to prevent 
 evaporation of the water, and has seemed to 
 enjoy his walled fortress. 
 
 They usually contract to avoid danger ; but 
 sometimes they fall over and lie at full length 
 till the disturbance has passed. They are not as 
 timid as the vaginicola, and pay no attention 
 when you tap the slide. Do you suppose that 
 
62 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 is because the vaginicola can bear, and the 
 stentor is deaf ? 
 
 Some of the stentors are always rovers ; oth- 
 ers remain for life attached to one place ; while 
 still others are able to attach and free them- 
 selves at pleasure. These latter take a home- 
 stead and live there as long as they like the 
 climate and the neighbors, and when they are 
 no longer pleased they pull up stakes and move 
 along, pre-empting another claim. 
 
 It must be admitted that the stentors are 
 not very graceful ; neither have they fine fig- 
 ures ; but they try to remedy these defects by 
 wearing delicate red, blue, green, brown, black, 
 and amber color. 
 
 It would scarcely be expected that a crea- 
 ture which is itself microscopic would be found 
 to have still smaller animals parasitic upon it, 
 but the stentor furnishes food and home to nu- 
 merous beings which were at first supposed to 
 be its children, but M'hich are of alien blood. 
 The same is true of nearly every animal we 
 shall find in the bayou, from the comparatively 
 hardy cyclops to the ethereal bell animalcule. 
 
CILIATA. 63 
 
 IV. 
 
 LIVING SLIPPERS. 
 {Paramcecium.) 
 
 If you place a dead clam or a bit of beef- 
 steak in water and keep it in a warm place for 
 a day or two, the water will be swarming with 
 minute white specks in constant motion. They 
 are barely visible when held to the light in a 
 glass dish. They are the Paramcecium, cavda- 
 tum, which looks flat, though it is slightly con- 
 
 Pig. 30. — Parammcium : a, vacuole distributing secretion ; b, vac- 
 uole filling ; c, nucleiis ; d, oesophagus ; e, funnel ; /, food 
 balls ; g, temporary anus. 
 
 vex on the back, and which has but one vacu- 
 ole ; and the Paramcecium aurelia, which is 
 somewhat prismatic or three-sided, and has 
 two pulsatile vacuoles that close alternately. 
 These animals may be found in your nasturtium 
 vase, or they may be bred in smaller numbers 
 in water in which hay or any vegetable matter 
 is decomposing ; but they are larger and more 
 
(■,4: IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 numerous in water containing meat ; and clam 
 soup is their favorite diet. 
 
 When found in water rich in decaying vege- 
 table matter they are full of green and reddish 
 food, and the richness of their color is propor- 
 tionate to the richness of their joasture. Usu- 
 ally they are almost colorless, and some species 
 are so diminutive that under a high magnify- 
 ing power they look no larger than a small 
 pansy seed. Those which appear to the naked 
 eye as minute white specks seem almost two 
 inches long when under an ordinary school mi- 
 croscope. 
 
 The aurelia is often called the slipper ani- 
 malcule because it resembles a moccasin or low 
 slipper badly run down at the heel. The open- 
 ing in the slipper for the entrance of the foot 
 is, in the paramoecium, the funnel leading to 
 the oesophagus, and is lined with cilia which 
 fan the water to bring particles of food into the 
 funnel. The food of many of these ciliates is 
 made into balls before it leaves the oesopha- 
 gus and enters the sai'code or soft substance, 
 through Avhich it makes a circuit of the body 
 before the waste portion is ejected. Owing to 
 the numerous vacuoles formed around the food 
 balls, the ciliates have been called the " poly- 
 gastria," or many-stomached. There are peo- 
 
CILIATA. 65 
 
 pie that live to eat, who must envy these crea- 
 tures their numerous stomachs. 
 
 The hairs which line the funnel are the pre- 
 hensile cilia, since they take the place of hands 
 in securing food. The locomotor cilia are dis- 
 tributed over the whole sui'face of the body, 
 acting as oars and propelling the animal like 
 an ancient galley manned by a hundred rowers. 
 Many an unwary victim sliding down the funnel 
 throat, gets a free ride, like Jonah, laut finds it- 
 self in a dangerous craft and one likely to cap- 
 size, for the paramcecium often sets out with 
 a long, rolling motion, taking a spiral course 
 through the water. 
 
 The paramcecium is cosmopolitan in habit, 
 living in all waters and accommodating itself 
 to a great variety of conditions. 
 
 The nucleus is club-shaped, and when sin- 
 gle is located near the center ; when there are 
 two they are located near the extremities. The 
 same is true of the pulsating vacuoles. The 
 vacuole is a rudimentary heart, whose purpose, 
 like that of other hearts, is the circulation of 
 the fluid secreted. A heart, you know, is a 
 pumping machine, with pipes so laid as to irri- 
 gate every part of the body. 
 
 Paramcecii can bend and twist their bodies, 
 and often amuse themselves by rolling over 
 
66 IN BKOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 and over with a swift, graceful motion. At 
 other times they anchor or attach themselves 
 by one extremity, moving the other around in 
 a circle. 
 
 Sometimes they gambol about in the water, 
 disporting themselves like seals in the tanks at 
 the parks. 
 
 The space between the slide and the cover 
 glass used vsdth a microscope is very small, yet 
 it is sufficient to admit three layers of these ani- 
 mals. In their gambols it occasionally hapjDens 
 that at the same time one darts under and 
 another over the back of a third without dis- 
 turbing it. 
 
 The paramoecium is soft and slightly elas- 
 tic, and can squeeze through channels among 
 the mosses, ^\-hich are narrower than its 
 body. 
 
 The bits of moss are islands and continents 
 to little things like slipper animalcules. They 
 go in and out, exploring the bays and rounding 
 the capes as if they had a curiosity about them, 
 or intended makinsr an atlas of them. Some- 
 times you may see a long line of these live slip- 
 pers, each resting its toe on the coast of a moss 
 continent, the whole looking like a row of 
 canoes drawn up along a beach. 
 
 The paramoecium can endure an astonish- 
 
CILIATA, 
 
 67 
 
 ing degree of cold. Both it and the bell 
 animalcule may be found in water which has 
 been gently stirred until it is thickened with 
 flakes of ice. But if the water remains quiet 
 until it becomes solid ice, and is then thawed, 
 the animals will have disappeared. 
 
 Sometimes a paramoecium becomes weary 
 of living alone and seeks a mate, by whose side 
 
 / X 
 
 Pig. 21. — Conjugation. 
 
 it lives in such close companionship that the 
 twain are made one and remain a single animal, 
 either for an indefinite period or for evermore. 
 This is called conjugation, and is a custom 
 among all the Ciliata (1 and 2, Fig. 21). 
 
 The Ghilodon cucuUulus multiplies by both 
 longitudinal and transverse fission. These little 
 
68 IN BROOK iiND BAYOU. 
 
 creatures roll and rusli about in a very anaus- 
 ing manner, and the two kinds of division 
 might be considered an optical illusion, except 
 for the fact that while the normal animal has 
 but one pulsating vacuole, when it comes to 
 divide, t\vo pulsating vacuoles appear, — near the 
 attached ends in those that divide transversely, 
 and near the free ends of those that divide lon- 
 gitudinally. 
 
 The paramoecium's ordinary method of mak- 
 ing two out of one is by transverse fission ; and 
 so rapid is this process, and so often repeated, 
 that it has been computed that one paramoe- 
 cium may become the progenitor of 1,364,000 
 in forty-two days. 
 
 Now, what a fortunate thing it is that the 
 original paramoecium is eliminated — all used 
 up — in the production of the children ! 
 
 If old Mother P. had to live on and take 
 care of all the 1,364,000 children, she'd be 
 more distracted than the old woman Avho lived" 
 in a shoe, and had so many children she didn't 
 know what to do, — especially if she happened to 
 have a kind-hearted neighbor like the one who 
 gave each of her friend's five boys a tin horn 
 for a Christmas present. 
 
 Little wonder that the paramoecium's solilo- 
 quy runs thus : 
 
CILIATA. 
 
 69 
 
 To be, or not to be, is not the question. 
 
 'Tis better not endure the one million three hundred and 
 
 sixty-four thousand natural shocks 
 That flesh is heir to. 
 One million three hundred and sixty-four thousand tin 
 
 horns ! There's the respect 
 That makes calamity a long life. 
 I'll rather end the ills I have 
 Than fly to others that I know not of. 
 
 And she shows admirable discretion. 
 
 SWAN'S NECK. 
 {Trachelocerca olor.) 
 
 The Trachelocerca olor is like a paramoecium 
 with an extensile neck which can be protruded 
 ten or twelve times the length of the body or 
 can be entirely withdrawn into it. You will 
 wonder how so much neck can be contaiaed 
 in so little body. 
 
70 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 The trachelocerca is called the swan's neck, 
 because the curvings of its long throat suggest 
 those of the swan's. But sometimes it dou- 
 bles its neck around in a manner to suggest 
 the writhing of a serpent rather than the 
 grace of a swan ; and when you see it darting 
 its head about in the water with a motion 
 
 F[R. 23. — Traehelooerca. 
 
 like that of a fowl picking up food, seemingly 
 trying to tie its throat into a knot, you are 
 likely to say to it " You little goose," instead of 
 " You lovely swan." 
 
 Sometimes the neck seems to be a proboscis 
 to seize food ; sometimes a spy searching out 
 the land and saying, " Where does my way 
 lie ? " Sometimes it seems to be a general in- 
 formation bureau, gathering facts about the 
 
CILIATA. 71 
 
 outlying country ; or perhaps a bodyguard, 
 looking before, behind, and around in all direc- 
 tions for any foe who may be lurking near. 
 At other times it is a pilot standing at his post 
 and steering true to the line, as the trachelo- 
 cerca steadily follows its course in a clear sea. 
 
 The trachelocerca is colorless, has one pul- 
 sating vacuole, and its nucleus is so finely 
 divided as to look like powder scattered 
 through the body. It can be detected only 
 by using aniline ; the nucleus always remain- 
 ing uncolored. Previous to reproduction this 
 powder-like nucleus gathers into a solid one, 
 but after fission the nuclei of both individuals 
 break into small particles and disperse as be- 
 fore. When swimming, it usually carries the 
 neck foremost, but it can "back water" like 
 the other Ciliata. The body can be contracted 
 into almost spherical shape, or it can be greatly 
 elongated at pleasure; and you will envy it 
 this faculty, for, if a boy's body were elastic 
 he could stretch it up to reach those apples 
 that hang too high, or contract it so that his 
 hands and feet would not protrude so far 
 beyond his last year's suit of clothes. 
 
 A gentleman, who watched a trachelocerca 
 dividing, says that it withdrew the neck and 
 remained quiet for some time, except for a 
 
Y2 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 ciliary action about the orifice for the neck, 
 and an occasional brief protrusion of the pro- 
 boscis. The animal appeared irregular and 
 lumpy in outline. Then there appeared a line 
 of constriction around the middle of the body, 
 and presently the two halves were loosened so 
 as to slide freely on each other. Once the 
 anterior half threw out its neck and bobbed 
 it about for a moment ; then the head of the 
 animal seemed to shift around to the side, at 
 right angles to its former position, while a 
 ciliaiy wreath appeared in corresponding posi- 
 tion on the posterior half or new animal. This 
 gave the two the aj)pearance of having divided 
 by longitudinal fission, whereas it was by true 
 transverse fission. About an hour and a half 
 after the first appearance of the constriction, 
 the new animal threw out its neck to a great 
 length and writhed it about with the utmost 
 agility, sometimes completely encircling the 
 body. The young one I'emained in contact with 
 its parent, which again protruded its neck in 
 the same manner. Then both were quiet. 
 Again both threw out their necks and again 
 dozed off to sleep. 
 
CILIATA. 73 
 
 VI. 
 {Aniphilepius.) 
 
 There is another creature whicli closely re- 
 sembles the swan's neck except that it is quite 
 sharply pointed at both extremities and has 
 several pulsating vacuoles arranged in a tow 
 along the side of its body. It is covered with 
 fine cilia like the paramoecium, but is larger, 
 measuring about one sixteenth of an inch. It 
 is not so lively as the trachelocerca, being quiet 
 and dio-nified in its movements. It can travel 
 backward or forward with equal facility, as 
 most of the ciliata can, since, using cilia for 
 oars, all it has to do is to work the cilia in 
 the opposite direction, or reverse the engine. 
 The animal being covered with longitudinal 
 rows of cilia has a slightly grooved appear- 
 ance when it raises its neck so as to give an 
 oblique view. 
 
 In most animals we find the head sur- 
 mounting the neck ; but if you look for that 
 in the Amphileptus, you will be disappointed, 
 for the proboscis terminates in a flat disk, and 
 the mouth or swallowing tube is located at 
 one side, below the neck, — that is, the mouth 
 is in its shoulder, and the neck is used as the 
 
74 
 
 IX BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 elephant uses his proboscis, to convey food to 
 the month. 
 
 The amphileptus is supposed to be one of 
 the transverse fission class, but No. 3, Fig. 23, 
 seems to be contrary-minded. These two were 
 so closely attached along the entire length of 
 
 Fig. 2?,. — Amphileptus. 
 
 their bodies that when the large one raised its 
 proboscis the little one's neck moved with 
 it. It seems hardly probable that two ani- 
 mals which had once been separated could 
 
CHART III. 
 
CILIATA. Y5 
 
 ever unite so completely as to act witli one 
 mind. 
 
 If they do divide transversely the two parts 
 must slide upon each other, or the neck and 
 mouth of the old one must have the same mi- 
 gratory habit as the trachelocerca's. 
 
 There is a species of amphileptus in which 
 the vacuoles are arranged in two series, one on 
 either side of the body. 
 
 You remember that in the aurelia the two 
 vacuoles contracted alternately? In this am- 
 phileptus the contraction runs from the ante- 
 rior to the posterior part first on one side and 
 then on the other. This alternation of motion 
 along the two sides is interesting because it is 
 the beginning of just such motion as we see in 
 man when he walks. So here, again, we have 
 surprised another of Nature's schemes long be- 
 fore she made it public. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE JOLLY NAIL KEG. 
 
 {Cojeps.) 
 
 Sometimes you will see little green-black or 
 brown-black kegs with narrow staves and sunk- 
 en hoops, rolling about in the water or careen- 
 
76 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 ing over and over without changing place, with 
 such velocity that it is impossible tb tell what 
 shape or manner of being you are looking upon. 
 When you twirl a spool on a string or sjjin a 
 top, you can distinguish nothing except the cir- 
 cular movement. So, when the little keg twirls 
 rapidly you can distinguish nothing but revo- 
 lution on an axis, and you feel sure it must 
 have a string on one end and be anchoi'ed to 
 the stick or moss near by. It seems to be tug- 
 ging hard at its anchor. 
 
 This is the little CoJeps. And he is a merry 
 little fellow, eternally rolling and rolling. That 
 is the business of life, he thinks ; and almost 
 the only time he pauses in his mad career is 
 when he divides, as in 3, Chart III, or when 
 he eats ; and then he seems in haste to get 
 through and go to twirling again. 
 
 Once a rotifer was crashed by the cover 
 glass, and presently coleps began to assemble 
 from all directions, as if scenting the prey 
 from afar. They gathered around the rotifer, 
 sucking the Juice and distending their sides 
 with feasting on so much richness, "swelling 
 wisibly before my wery eyes," as old Well- 
 er said. While the little keg-shaped things 
 were thus engaged, one could distinguish their 
 toothed extremities, their sunken hoops, their 
 
CILIATA. 'J'J 
 
 longitudinal lines or staves, their general color, 
 and their red eye-spot. 
 
 As soon as their appetites were satisfied, 
 away they went, careening about as though 
 that was the one thing the doing of which 
 could not be postponed. 
 
 Apparently the coleps's sole idea of hap- 
 piness is to roll over in the water. Or per- 
 haps that is its idea of usefulness. We all 
 have such different ideas as to what is the really 
 necessary thing to be done in life ! And some- 
 times it seems as though the little coleps had 
 figured it down as fine as the rest of us, who 
 work with all our might and exert all our 
 strength in turning around in one spot and 
 accomplishing nothing of consequence. Per- 
 haps to the eye of Omniscience we men and 
 women, boys and girls, are only dusky little 
 barrels, forever rolling, rolling — doing nothing. 
 Possibly the busy coleps thinks its work of 
 immense importance, and expects after a life 
 well spent to receive the reward : " Well done, 
 thou good and faithful servant ; thou hast been 
 faithful in rolling, I will make thee Master of 
 High and Lofty Tumbling." 
 
18 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 (Evplotes.) 
 
 We have seen some little busybodies run- 
 ning along tlie stems of spirogyra, or the roots 
 of duckweed on the slide, smelling along like 
 mice, and, like mice, halting suddenly, taking a 
 step backward, as though in search of some- 
 
 Pki. 24. — 1, Euplotes harpa ; 2, Eiiplotes charon. 
 
 thing of delicious odor over which they had 
 passed in their haste ; for they seem to have a 
 well-developed sense of smell, and to be the 
 first animal with true olfactory organs. When 
 you get a side view of them you (!an see their 
 humped-up backs and the swift movements of 
 their legs. 
 
CILIATA. 79 
 
 In this position they somewhat resemble 
 the wood armadillo — that gray, many-legged 
 isopod which you find under boards on the 
 ground. 
 
 The family name of these creatures is Hm- 
 plotes charon, and you will be glad to make 
 their acquaintance, I am sure ; for this is the 
 first of these microscopic animals which you 
 know to have anterior and posterior ciliate 
 processes or legs — to set one foot ahead of an- 
 other, and to actually loalTc. 
 
 It is a comical little body, as it scampers 
 out of sight under the decaying vegetation, or 
 runs nibbling along it. 
 
 The legs are large, stiff, ciliate spines, and 
 are attached to the body by true Joints or 
 articulations, for the animal can walk or run 
 either backward or forward. The Euplotes 
 did a good thing when it got a leg which 
 need not be made every time it was wanted. 
 A permanent leg was a great labor-saving 
 device. 
 
 The Euplotes striatus resembles minute, 
 transparent lilies of the valley gathered into 
 a ball, rolling through the water as an ani- 
 mated crystal sphere. 
 
 The E. Jiarpa is a much larger and more 
 imposing animal, with an important and mas- 
 
80 
 
 IN" BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 terful air as it journeys onward. When it 
 swims on its back, as it usually does, you can 
 plainly see tlie band of large cilia extending to 
 the middle of the body, and the coarse spines 
 or leglike cilia, part of which turn backward, 
 part forward. 
 
 S^HZ5!V17 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PBOTOZOAN PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 One day a little bell animalcule was float- 
 ing listlessly in the water, its ciliated disk 
 withdrawn, its head drooping on its stem, 
 looking very hopeless and disconsolate. It 
 did not care for food ; it did not seem to be 
 glad that the day was bright and beautiful, 
 and that the water glistened with the sun- 
 beams that shone upon it ; it did not even re- 
 coil as usual, in modest fear when a big Para- 
 mcecium came along ; it did not seem to care 
 whether he ate it or not. 
 
 "Why, what's the matter, little Belle?" 
 asked the Paramoecium. " You look so for- 
 lorn, and don't seem to care to live any 
 longer." 
 
 " I don't know as I do," said the Vorticella 
 sadly. " Indeed, I don't know that I am alive. 
 I don't think I ever liave been. And it just 
 makes me feel like crying to think of it." 
 
 81 
 
g2 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 " Why, here you are, a whole pretty little 
 sweetheart ; so what is there for you to grieve 
 about ? " asked the Paramoecium cheerfully. 
 
 " Why, you see it is this way," said Belle. 
 " My mother divided into two to make me, and 
 so I'm my own mother, and there isn't any me. 
 And my mother was half of my grandmother, 
 and so I'm my own grandmother. I don't see 
 where there is room for any ' me ' about me." 
 
 The Paramoecium drew nearer and said in 
 a confidential whisper : " I don't mind telling 
 you, Belle, that I've ahvays been puzzled by 
 that same question, for the same thing is tiue 
 of me. But I ahvays thought it best to keep 
 a stiff upper lip, and to act bold and confident, 
 so people wouldn't suspect that I wasn't any- 
 body." 
 
 " Yes, I knew it was time of you, too, or I'd 
 never have had the courage to speak to you 
 about it. Only yesterday I saw one of your 
 family break in tAvo crosswise. Our family 
 divide from the top down lengthAvise. But I 
 knew that, lengthwise or crosswise, it must 
 amount to the same thing. And to see it done 
 right here before my very eyes, and those two 
 ends of a Paramcecium start off as though 
 they really thought they were somebody, when 
 neither one was anything in this '^^'eary world 
 
PROTOZOAN PHILOSOPHY. 83 
 
 but the half of its own mother — to see all this 
 brought my own trouble home to me so forci- 
 bly that I couldn't sleep all night for think- 
 ing of it. It breaks my heart to think of 
 us all being just ^ mother, j^ grandmother, ^ 
 gi'eat-grandmother, and probably not ourselves 
 at all." 
 
 At this point a Swan's Neck, who had been 
 watching them from an island across the chan- 
 nel, came gliding up in her soft, insinuating 
 manner and said : 
 
 " Dear friends, I hope I am not intruding, 
 but I think I can guess the subject of your 
 conversation." 
 
 " Oh, you're quite welcome, Trache ; and if 
 you guess right, we'll tell you," said the Para- 
 moecium. 
 
 " You know I go about the world a great 
 deal more than you do, Belle," said the Swan's 
 Neck, " and, walking so noiselessly, I often come 
 upon people with their heads together, and 
 they are always talking of one thing. The one 
 great question which occupies the minds of all 
 thoughtful Vorticellae, Paramcecii, Amoebse— of 
 all people of whatever color, green or red or 
 yellow or white, of every nationality — is this 
 same one which you are discussing, viz., ' Have 
 we any individual existence, or are we merely 
 
84 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 the sum of our ancestors, the product of he- 
 redity ? ' " 
 
 " Now, if they are all puzzling about it, 
 Avhy not call a meeting and see if, by putting 
 all our heads together at once, we can not 
 come at the truth of the matter ? " said the 
 Paramcecium. 
 
 " Well, suppose we go and invite each tribe 
 to send its best philosophers to discuss the 
 question ? " said the Swan's Neck. 
 
 " Yes, and let's invite the mathematicians 
 too, for it is really a question of division and 
 multiplication," said the Paramcecium, who 
 prided himself on belonging to a family which 
 could perform 1,364,000 divisions in forty-two 
 days. 
 
 But the Vorticella said : " I think I'll not 
 go Avith you to issue the invitations. I've 
 sometimes broken loose, taking my stem with 
 me, and sometimes have left it and have gone 
 alone ^^'hen I A\'ished to cross the water to 
 reside. But I feel so discouraged now that I 
 don't believe I'd ever be able to take root again 
 if I should break from my moorings." 
 
 So the other two went off to summon the 
 Stentor and the Sun Animalcule, the Chilodon 
 and the Coleps, the Amreba and the Arcella, to 
 meet witli them at the home of Bell Animal- 
 
PROTOZOAN PHILOSOPHY. 85 
 
 cule, to see wliat solution of the vexed question 
 they could find. 
 
 When they met in council the philosophers 
 did all the talking, as usual. It is impossible 
 to reproduce here all their learned discourses, 
 but the pith of their argument was this : 
 
 " No one of us is the whole of his father, 
 grandfather, etc. ; so we can not be any one of 
 these individuals, but must be some other indi- 
 vidual. We eat and assimilate food, and make 
 new matter which is not and never has been a 
 part of our ancestors. So the greater part of us 
 must be ourselves. Consequently, we are jus- 
 tified in thinking of ourselves as ' me,' and not 
 as ' my forebears.' " 
 
 " Oh, but you are not treating the question 
 fairly," said the mathematicians. " What is 
 there of us but ancestor when we are first 
 made ? And if we are all ancestor then, what 
 can we ever be but ancestor with a full stomach, 
 or ancestor with an empty stomach ? There is 
 no telling into what morasses speculation may 
 not lead us. But figures can not lie. If we take 
 figures we shall arrive at the truth. Now let us 
 try this: I have in me ^ my father, i my grand- 
 father, ^ great-grandfather, Jg- great-great-grand- 
 father, -3I5- great-great-great-grandfather. 
 
 1_L.1_1_14_ 1 4- 1 — 31 
 
8(1 IN BROOK AND BAVOU. 
 
 Hence we haVe -^^ to represent either victuals 
 or the ' me.' " 
 
 " No, that proves nothing," said the phi- 
 losophers. " You have gone back only five 
 generations — not even to the da^vn of history. 
 There have been many prehistoric generations. 
 And since the fractious representing the quan- 
 tities of the ancestors decrease as you go back- 
 ward, you'll probably get a larger fraction as 
 the exponent of the ' me.' Try it for ten gen- 
 erations."' 
 
 So the mathematicians set to work again. 
 
 TTT^ST ^ Tirlf • 
 
 The chief calculator, a Paramoecium Cau- 
 datum, added the column, and found that \vhen 
 ten generations were taken into the count, there 
 was but YTj^ of the self or of food in each in- 
 dividual. They tried again -with fifteen — with 
 twenty generations, and obtained as the result 
 ToriTTir ^^^' ^^ equivalent of the " me." 
 
 Smaller and smaller it l)ecame, dwindling 
 into the infinitesimal. If tliey could go back 
 to the Infinite, they might find the self they 
 sought — not otherwise. But it was not a 
 SELF as they had loved to think it, but a 
 wee little, invisible self. 
 
PROTOZOAN PHILOSOPHY. 81 
 
 The pretty Yorticella, always so modest 
 and self-deprecating, glanced timidly at the re- 
 sult, then silently coiled her stem, hid among 
 the mosses, and was seen no more. The 
 haughty Stentors trembled in every limb. The 
 philosophers and wiseacres were astounded 
 and, for once in their lives, speechless. To 
 think of being less than the smallest atom ! 
 Nothing- — absolutely nothing but the sum of 
 one's ancestors ! One and all slunk away in 
 consternation and chagrin, to ruminate upon 
 the matter in private. 
 
 Only the meny little Coleps said : 
 " I can't see what difference it makes who 
 we are so we're here and have a good time. I 
 would as lief be one of my ancestors as one 
 of my descendants. What's the advantage of 
 being posterity ? If I'm my grandfather, all I 
 have to say is that I'm rather fond of the old 
 gentleman. So here goes, old boy, for a jolly 
 roll." And off he went, twirling like a top 
 gone crazy. 
 
 But there is nothing in this world quite so 
 delightful as the way in which philosophy can 
 change its base when vanquished and driven 
 from an untenable position. 
 
88 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 Hence it Avas not lonsj,- before one after an- 
 other of the wiseacres l)egan to emerge from 
 his seclusion in the mosses and to say : 
 
 " Why, to be sure ! That is all right. 
 Your figures deal Avith our material bodies 
 alone. And \\'e ha\'e always said — at least ^\'e 
 have always meant — that the self AS'as some- 
 thing other than the Ijody ; something higher 
 and more potent ; something which gathers 
 matter about it to make a body for its use." 
 
 Gaining confidence from the sound of their 
 own voices, they began to spell with larger let- 
 ters and to declare : 
 
 "The SELF is all. The body is nothing. 
 What matter if our bodies nve derived from 
 our ancestors I The 5ie is the important part." 
 
 And finally they said : " ^\'e Imve no bodies. 
 The Me, the Self, only extemporizes a body 
 as it does pseudopodia. ' ^^^e are only Self, 
 and have no manner of being, save in the 
 sense of Self.' " ■"■■ 
 
 At this juncture an insignificant little Chi- 
 lodon ventured to ask : 
 
 " But what if the Self is only the sum of 
 our fathers' and grandfatliers' selves 't What 
 if the sense of self is inherent in matter ? " 
 
 Thanlis, Mi-. Howells. 
 
PROTOZOAN PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 89 
 
 
 
 Fig. 25.— Floxcularia cornuta (magnified). 
 
90 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 • » 
 
 At which the philosophers turned upon it 
 such looks of contempt, and hurled at it such a 
 shower of scornful missiles, that it was glad to 
 scurry away beyond their reach, remarking to 
 itself as it went : 
 
 " Well, anyhow, I have a sense of something 
 or other which tells me that I'd better hustle 
 my father and grandfathei- around to the other 
 side of this island before the philosophers crack 
 my skull." 
 
Bureau Nature Study, 
 
 COHNFIL UnIV -PSITY, Jfhaca. N > 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WHEEL BEAEEES. 
 I. 
 
 {Rotifera.) 
 
 Down where the willows wave, and where 
 they bend over and dip their branches into the 
 pond, you will find the most beautiful species 
 of the wheel animalcules. It will jjuzzle you, 
 as it has the naturalists, whether to call them 
 worms or crustaceans, for they have something 
 resembling a crust or shell, yet you are sure to 
 say, "This is a worm," when you see a Rotifer 
 vulgaris walking by, making loops of his body 
 as the " measure worm " does. (See Fig. 33.) 
 
 But when }'ou see a Brachionus or a Ptero- 
 dina drawing his head and feet inside his shell, 
 you will say, " This is some sort of a mud tur- 
 tle." (See Figs. 26 and 34.) 
 
 And when you see a Stephanosceros you will 
 say : " Surely this is a steutor or a vaginicola, 
 
 8 91 
 
92 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 for he has a lorica. But how does he happen 
 to wear plumes ? " 
 
 You can find the common rotifers in your 
 jardinihe, or almost anywhere ; for the rotifer 
 
 Fig. 26. — 1, Plerodina; 2, a one-legged pedestrian. 
 
 may be dried till he falls to pieces at a touch, 
 and still retain vitality in the dry powder. 
 And this rotifer powder may be carried in the 
 air by the winds, and may come to life in any 
 vessel of standing water which contains enough 
 putrefying vegetable matter to nourish the 
 young animals. You can keep the powder on 
 hand and produce a crop of rotifers at pleasure. 
 In this way you may play at being Gabriel and 
 awakening the dead. So, too, by gathering 
 earth from the bed of a pond and moistening 
 it you may resurrect many kinds of beings. 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 
 
 93 
 
 Or you can pour water containiug microscopic 
 animals through sand, and, after drying the 
 sand, put it away in a dry place, such as a 
 covered urn on top of the bookcase, and when- 
 ever you feel like having a resurrection morn 
 you can pour water on the 
 sand, and out of their graves 
 will come trooping amoebae, bell 
 animalculse, paramcecii, rotifers, 
 and other sleepers. 
 
 (But this is another thing 
 which you must not tell to your 
 lady callers ; for, if they would 
 be shocked a;t the menagerie 
 
 Fig. 27. — Wheel of tube wheel. 
 
 FiQ. 28.— Two-lipped 
 tube wheel. 
 
 in the drawing-room, they would be even more 
 horrified at a graveyard in the library.) 
 
 Dr. Mantell says a rotifer can be dried and 
 revived twelve times, and Professor Owen re- 
 
94 IN BROOK AND BAYOTJ. 
 
 lates that he saw one revive which had been 
 kept in dust for four years. Fontana says in 
 two hours he revived one which had lain dried 
 and motionless two and a half years. Doyer 
 says they endure exposure to a temperature 
 ranging from 11° to 113° F. In dry sand they 
 withstand a temperature of 150° ; in moist, 
 can not revive if heated to 131°. 
 
 Perhaps if rotifer seeds had been buried 
 with Egyptian mummies, they would grow 
 now, after three thousand years of entombment, 
 like other seeds found with these rather over- 
 ripe specimens of humanity. 
 
 The rotifer will endure cold as well as des- 
 iccation : A microscopist had a vase of water 
 containing rotifers suspended from the bird- 
 cage hook on his porch. One cold night the 
 water froze, and the wind Avhipped.the vase 
 about until it broke loose and fell shattered to 
 the ground. The next morning he found the 
 ball of ice rolling around and put it in an 
 empty fish tank, where it thawed. Putting 
 a drop of this water under the microscope he 
 observed twelve rotifers ; which number had 
 increased to forty twenty -four hours later. 
 
 Of one species they tell the amazing story 
 that it can multiply to sixteen million in 
 twelve days. 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 95 
 
 After that statement it is hardly necessary 
 to say that young rotifers develop rapidly. In 
 some species the egg grows, hatches, and be- 
 comes a full-grown animal in less than one day. 
 The ambitious young animal is so eager to get 
 started in life that his cilia and jaws may be 
 seen to work before he leaves the shell, or be- 
 fore he leaves the parent in those that hatch 
 before birth. 
 
 This is a new process of reproduction ; for 
 these animals do not multiply by dividing, but 
 produce their young from eggs. This is also 
 the first time we have noticed animals in which 
 there is a distinction of sex. 
 
 Ehrenberg asserts that the Philodina rose- 
 ola deposits eggs in a group and remains a long 
 time with the young ones. If so, family life 
 and parental affection begin among these lowly 
 denizens of the ponds. 
 
 Romanes relates that he has seen a rotifer 
 attach itself by its forceps to the side of a 
 larger one, whereupon the larger one became 
 very active, swinging about as if trying to 
 dislodge its burden. Not succeeding, it laid 
 hold of a weed with its own forceps and 
 began a series of most extraordinary move- 
 ments, throwing itself violently from side to 
 side with such astonishing vigor and sudden- 
 
96 IN' BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 ness as threatened to break its own toes or 
 wrencli off its foot. After a trial of strength 
 wliicli was prodigious in proportion to the size 
 of the animals, and which lasted for several 
 minutes, the smaller one was jerked loose. It 
 returned to the conflict, but did not succeed m 
 again establishing its hold. The entire scene, 
 he says, Avas as like intelligent action as could 
 well be imagined. 
 
 But although they are so much more highly 
 organized than any of the preceding animals, 
 they are only one fortieth of an inch in length, 
 and are entirely invisible to the naked eye. 
 Yet, when seen through a microscope, they 
 look so large and rush about so rapaciously 
 that you find yourself thinking of them as 
 ferocious beasts. 
 
 Most of them are free swimming and very 
 active. Some, as the tripod wheel bearer, are 
 long and slender, like jointed grasses. 
 
 Some, as the pterodina and brachionus, are 
 rounded and vase-shaped. 
 
 Some have two wheels, like the H. vulgaris 
 and the brachionus ; some have but one. 
 
 Some have a leg or foot made of tubes 
 that slide into each other like the sections 
 of a telescope. (See brachionus and H. vul- 
 garis. ) 
 
WHEEL BEAEEHS. 
 
 97 
 
 Otters, like the skeleton wheel bearer, have 
 genuine articulated joints to this leg, which 
 bend like the joints of your arm. 
 
 There are so many varieties that it is im- 
 possible to describe the half of them here. 
 
 The Tripod wheel hearer has a central tube 
 into which slide anterior as well as posterior 
 segments, so that the whole 
 animal seems to be a series 
 of telescopic tubes. It re- 
 sembles some of the aquatic 
 larvae, having a small head- 
 like segment, two black or 
 very dark-red eyes, and one 
 antenna. The mastax or 
 mouth is situated in the 
 main or central tube. The 
 posterior segments can be 
 elongated until the animal 
 bears little resemblance to 
 the other families of Ro- 
 tifera, and is so attenuated as to look like a fine 
 thread. The last segment terminates in three 
 slender, divergent toes from which it derives 
 its name of tripod. The wheels are small and 
 seldom in action, and it is perhaps the only 
 rotifer to which the term " indolent " can be 
 applied. 
 
 Pig. 29.— Tripod wheel 
 bearer. 
 
IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 In the Tube wheel (Fig. 30) e is a nearly ma- 
 tured egg, which has a motion independent of 
 
 Pig. 30. — Tube wheels : 1, retracted ; e, egg. 
 
 the parent's, and is about ready to begin a sepa- 
 rate existence ; doing this in a form resem- 
 bling a stentor, ha%dng no ^vheel until it ceases 
 roving and becomes sedentary. This rotifer has 
 a single \v'heel, situated at the end of a bent 
 tube, at the curve of A\'hich is a prong that is 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 
 
 99 
 
 probably an antenna. At the posterior ex- 
 tremity is a segmented foot terminated by two 
 toes and a suction disk. The animal can bend 
 freely. 
 
 The Slceleton wheel hearer has a three-sided 
 carapace, the angles of which, in some species, 
 terminate in single spines. At the last joint of 
 
 Pig. 31. — Skeleton wheel bearer. 
 
 the articulated foot are two toes Avhich open 
 and shut like the blades of a pair of scissors. 
 
100 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 When anchored by these toes, it can bend back- 
 ward like a lady making an old-time courtesy. 
 It swims with the toes closed and held behind 
 horizontally, but it bends them down at a sharp 
 angle when it desires to turn about or alter its 
 course. 
 
 The StepTianoceros is the beauty among roti- 
 fers. In place of the wheels it has five plume- 
 like arms which are held open to catch unwary 
 creatures wandering that ^vay. The arms close 
 together, forming a basket with a hole at the 
 bottom leading to the funnel and oesophagus. 
 When a little creature is entrapped the stepha- 
 noceros may be seen to s^vallow it with a gulp — 
 that is, if your microscope is of sufficient power 
 to reveal the rotifer himself ; for he is hard to 
 detect, being very delicate and transparent and 
 living in a frail, colorless sheath. 
 
 We have mentioned the walk of the Rotifer 
 vulgaris. It also swims by the action of its 
 cilia. It has a pi'oboscis \vhich can be extended 
 beyond the 'wheels, and on this proboscis are 
 t\A'0 red eyes. A¥hen it swims it j)rojects a long 
 horn or antenna. It has two toes and a suction 
 disk by which it often fastens itself, swinging 
 around in a circle, as the pterodina, the skele- 
 ton, and many of the rotifers do. In fact, so 
 common and so useless is this performance 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 
 
 101 
 
 Pig. 32. — Stephanoceros eichornii (magnified). 
 
102 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 among the rotifers, tliat it can only be re- 
 garded as a sort of national game of the wheel 
 bearers. 
 
 The vulgaris is one of the viviparous roti- 
 fers, and through the transparent, moving vis- 
 
 Pig. 33. — 1, Rotifer vulgaris; 2, same walking; 3, young one. 
 
 cera of the body, a -^veil-developed young ani- 
 mal may be seen. 
 
 Rotifer 'vulgaris is, as his name implies, 
 tbe commonest of tlie wheel animalcules. You 
 Avill see him everywhere, and will recognize him 
 by his measure-worm pace, and by his habit of 
 bobbing U23 serenely just Nrlien you don't want 
 him, with an air of assurance wdiich seems to 
 say, " Y(iu sent for me, I believe." 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 103 
 
 So you and he will become thoroughly ac- 
 quainted without further introduction, and we 
 will spend our time with a rarer and more beau- 
 tiful wheel bearer. 
 
 II. 
 (Brachionus.) 
 
 BracTiionus pala, when viewed from the 
 front, looks like an elegant fragile cup with 
 bulging sides. From one side of the rim pro- 
 ject four points, the middle two of which are 
 slender and sharp as needles. The under side 
 of the cup is flattened and ends at the rear in 
 two blunt points, between which the grooved, 
 proboscislike foot is protruded. 
 
 This rotifer has two large wheels, which 
 seem to revolve rapidly, giving it the appear- 
 ance of possessing great power. Between the 
 wheels is a ciliated throat or funnel leading to 
 the mouth, which, as in all rotifers, is situated 
 inside the body back of the funnel. 
 
 This isn't the usual place for a mouth, but 
 you see this is Nature's first experiment at 
 mouth-making, and she hasn't yet learned the 
 best location for one. 
 
104 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 rt^f■>\■^lJw„, 
 
 This is a genuine mouth, or masticating 
 room, although so oddly j)laced. It consists of 
 a pair of reddish-brown, club-shaped teeth and 
 
 a flat plate or anvil, 
 
 I s^i'N .'*wii,„ The food rests upon 
 'h'^h'^"^^^^^ the anvil, and the 
 " ' '^'' '^^ teeth act as ham- 
 mers to pound it 
 fine. You may see 
 the way in which 
 they work by tak- 
 
 FiG. 34. — Brachionus. 
 
 Fig. 35.— Month of 
 Brachiontts. 
 
 ing scissors by the blades, and opening and 
 shutting them so as to make the eyes of the 
 scissors come together with the regularity of 
 clockwork. In shape the eyes of the scissors 
 resemble the teeth. You must not lau2;h at Na- 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 105. 
 
 ture because her first teetli were hammers, for 
 they were a great invention in their day. 
 
 The mouth is called a mastax. Back of it 
 is a gullet leading to a stomach and an intes- 
 tine which ends in a cloaca or canal for the 
 expulsion of unassimilated food. Under the 
 posterior portion of the body is a transversely 
 grooved, flexible foot, which you are sure to 
 mistake for a tail, because it whips about, re- 
 minding one of the tiger lashing his tail. But 
 this appendage is a true foot, because it grows 
 out from the ventral surface, while a tail ter- 
 minates the dorsal surface, and because at the 
 end of this foot are two toes which are used 
 as forceps to grasp weeds and roots so as to 
 anchor the rotifer. 
 
 The brachionus's use of this foot is often 
 very comical. It will bend the foot forward, 
 place it, push the body forward, lift the foot, 
 and again set it forward, propelling the body 
 with considerable force, and giving itself the 
 grotesque appearance of a creature stalking 
 about on one leg. 
 
 You see. Nature wasn't quite satisfied with 
 the bristlelike legs of the Euplotes, and was 
 trying to make legs of flesh. But she made 
 the funny mistake of thinking one leg was 
 enough, if it had two toes at the end of it. 
 
106 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 The brachionus wheels up to an object, 
 swings round, catches hold with its forceps, 
 pushes itself out to the length of its foot, pro- 
 trudes its disks, and begins to rotate its wheels, 
 — except that the wheels do not actually re- 
 volve. The cilia merely fall over and pick 
 themselves up in regular order so rapidly that 
 all you see is a dark wave traveling around, 
 which makes it seem that the disks are rotating. 
 
 The brachionus is the most ferocious of all 
 the animals we have yet met. When it rushes 
 forward, tail-like foot lashing its sides and jaws 
 extended to seize its prey, it presents a truly 
 formidable appearance, not to be expected in 
 a creature so fragile and microscopic. There 
 is a suggestion of the beasts of the jungle in 
 the satisfaction with which it pounces ujjon its 
 victims. 
 
 The shell or carapace is of palest amber 
 color and so transparent that every organ of the 
 body may be seen through it. At times large 
 oval bodies may be observed inside the cara- 
 pace or attached to the outside near the top of 
 the foot. These are the eggs. They are soft 
 when exuded, but afterward form a hard shell 
 which is so thin that the movement of the 
 young one is visible through it. As it nears 
 the period ior hatching,, the red eye appears. 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 107 
 
 the ciliated disks begin to experiment to see if 
 they are in good working order, and the jaws 
 go through the motions of grinding food. The 
 baby rotifer is trying its teeth before it has any 
 food to eat. Finally, he becomes impatient of 
 his prison walls, and writhes about till the shell 
 cracks, — the top flying back as though on a 
 hinge. Then the little rotifer glides out, selects 
 a good site for a home, anchors, and begins to ply 
 his wheels like an old and experienced person. 
 
 Young animals have the advantage of young 
 human beings in this respect : they do not need 
 to learn how to live. A rotifer can wheel, a 
 chick can pick up food, a young robin can 
 build its nest the first time it tries, without 
 having to go through a tedious apprenticeship 
 as a child does before it can even stand alone. 
 
 A Mistress Eotifer carries handsome, large 
 eggs when she means to hatch girl rotifers, and 
 small ones when she intends to hatch boys. 
 And she considers girls so superior that she 
 will not have boy eggs in the same filling of 
 the incubator. The boy rotifers are smaller, 
 have no carapace, no mouth, no spines, no jaws, 
 no stomach, no wheels, and only one circle of 
 long, strong cilia at the front. They move 
 swiftly and have but a brief life. 
 
108 IN BEOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 III. 
 
 Many boys kill or abuse the lower animals 
 because they do not appreciate hoAV wonderful 
 they are, and never think that birds and dogs 
 and cats enjoy and suffer almost as much as 
 people do. 
 
 A boy of this sort was one day raising a 
 stone to throw at a frog which sat croaking on 
 a log above the Avater. 
 
 " Don't hit him," said a bystander ; " he's a 
 relative of yours." 
 
 " He ? A relative of mine? " asked the boy 
 in amazement. 
 
 "Yes, you l)elong to the same great family 
 of vocalists. He is the lowest and you are the 
 highest member. Did you never think how 
 silent the fish and clams and snails and all these 
 water animals lielow the fi'og are? He is the 
 first being with a voice. His croak is the 
 first step in the evolution of the English lan- 
 guage. The frog is the first thing that learned 
 to talk. And he is related to you in other 
 ways : All these animals 1 >elow him breathe 
 water and live in water; he begins life as a 
 tadpole, voiceless, living in and breathing 
 water; but by and by he climbs up out of it 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 
 
 109 
 
 and breathes air, living on land and talking in 
 a language of his own as you do." 
 
 " Well ! " said the astonished boy, " You're 
 rather a toothless old chap, Grandfather Frog, 
 and your voice is so cracked I can't understand 
 
 Pig. 36. — Sword bearer. 
 
 what you say, but I think, instead of stoning 
 you, I'd better make your acquaintance." And 
 he squatted on a stone with his chin between 
 his knees in an attitude very like the frog's, and 
 began to watch the croaker intently. 
 
 And, like the boy, you will feel new interest 
 in the wheel animalcule, and will say, " I'm glad 
 to make your acquaintance. Uncle Rotifer," 
 
110 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 Avlien you learn that, way down in the scale of 
 life, here in this fragile little creature, entirely 
 invisible without a microscope, there is to be 
 found a genuine brain and a true eye. 
 
 (How far back \ve mortals must go to find 
 the beginnings of us !) 
 
 In front of and above the mastax of the 
 brachionus is a large mass of diffuse nervous 
 matter, a hrai/t ; and situated like a wart upon 
 it is a ciystalline lens, a square eye of crimson 
 color and of high refracting power. That the 
 rotifer uses this eye is shown by his bending 
 his body in the direction of an approaching 
 morsel of food and plying his wheels with re- 
 newed energy. 
 
 This also proves that he uses his brain ; 
 for the more energetic action of the wheels at 
 prospect of reward shows intelligence. So, too, 
 does the fact that he will depress the rim of 
 the funnel on the side nearest the object he is 
 trying to secure. He does this 's\'ith the evi- 
 dent purpose of making it easier for the food 
 to slip over the rim into the funnel. 
 
 But if we find such pronounced intelligence 
 in tlie rotifer, we may know that intelligence 
 had its beginnings far below the rotifer. When 
 you come to study mineralogy and see with 
 what care and exactness each molecule selects 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. HI 
 
 just the niche for which it is adapted, or when 
 you study chemistry and see with what in- 
 telligent preference the atoms of oxygen pass 
 by those of nitrogen to eagerly unite with 
 those of iron, you will say, " Father Molecule 
 and Grandfather Atom, I am delighted to claim 
 relationship with such brainy and interesting 
 people as you." For you will know then that 
 the roots of you reach down through frog and 
 rotifer to plant and mineral, and that in very 
 truth you Avere made, or begun, ages and ages 
 ago, " out of the dust of the earth." 
 
 IV. 
 
 The waters are quiet, the sun is shining, 
 and everything is smiling in placid beauty, as 
 though there were neither death nor misfortune 
 in this watery world. 
 
 A beautiful green creature, knobbed all 
 over and shaped like a mulberry, comes 
 through the water smoothly rolling on its axis, 
 dreaming that life is a summer sea. 
 
 Its real name is Syncrypta volvox, but we 
 will call it Jonah Volvox. It seems to be rev- 
 eling in the exhilaration of motion, to be full 
 of ih.QJoie de vie, which is what the French say 
 
112 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 when life seems so excjuisitely delightful that 
 merely to Le alive fills their cup of happiness 
 to overflowing. It swims smoothly along, all 
 unaware that in the little bay just around the 
 point of the cape made by the mosses a power- 
 ful brachionus is plying his engines, spreading 
 his ciliated net, and saying, like the spider to 
 the fly : 
 
 " Wm you walk into my parlor ? Do walk 
 in ! You are my especial favorite of all the 
 delicacies I meet." 
 
 Jonah Volvox sees and hears nothing of 
 all this. All unsuspecting, he rolls along, 
 rounds the point of the cape, and is caught in 
 the whirlpool made by the rotating wheels. 
 Round and round he goes, a helpless captive. 
 No cry of his making, poor thing ! can bring 
 the outside world to his rescue. His despair 
 is unheeded. He travels in narrower and 
 narrower circles, and at last shoots straight 
 down between the ciliated wheels into the 
 ciliated gulf. 
 
 Now the sides of this tubular gulf contract 
 to j^revent his escape and to force him down 
 onto the mastax. The jaws of the mastax gape 
 Avide and tvj to close U23on him. But he is too 
 large and too round. He slips away. Again 
 the walls contract and the jaA\'s gape Avider, 
 
WHEEL BEARERS. 113 
 
 but can not grasp him. Again and again, with 
 increasing vigor, the jaws try to seize him, but 
 each time he eludes them. 
 
 At length the rotifer in disgaist spews him 
 out of his mouth and casts him beyond the 
 outer eddies of the whirlpool. 
 
 Now you wonder how it was with Jonah 
 Volvox? and whether he had to be taken to 
 the hospital, the morgue, or to the under- 
 takers ? 
 
 He was taken to none of these. He was 
 not even hurt, though he did look rather dis- 
 couraged as he rested among the weeds at a 
 safe distance, pondering on the ups and downs 
 of life. 
 
 He seemed to be wondering just Avhat had 
 happened to him, and how it all came about, 
 and what could be the meaning of it. 
 
 After a time he took courage again and 
 said : " What's the difference ? We must take 
 things as they come, and life is pretty jolly, 
 after all. So here we go again ! " And away 
 he went, smoothly gliding and revolving, as 
 though nothing had happened. 
 
 But now it chanced that Jonah's little son 
 had been swimming along after him, trying, as 
 boys will, to do everything their elders do ; 
 and while his father was resting among the 
 
114 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 reeds on tlie oj^posite side, meditating on the 
 ways of life and forgetting all about the little 
 fellow, the child sAvam round the point of the 
 cape where he had last caught a glimpse of his 
 father, and he too disappeared in Charybdis 
 and was never heard of more. No ear caught 
 his faint shriek of terror as he shot down the 
 ciliated funnel ; and as it contracted, the jaws 
 opened, and, finding him small enough, took 
 him in, closing tight behind him. 
 
 Then he was laid upon the anvil and the 
 two hammers began to beat upon him, pound- 
 ing him into very tender beefsteak, such as 
 tickles the palate of the brachionus. When he 
 AA'as sufficiently pommeled, he was forced down 
 the gullet into the stomach, and, when the rich 
 juices ANere extracted from him, all that was 
 left of his battered form was expelled from the 
 cloaca. 
 
 But even his parents and nearest relatives 
 A\onld nevei' have recognized those dry bones 
 as the mangled remains of poor little Jonah 
 Volvox, Jr. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 CEUSTACEAWS. 
 
 It may be that Nature herself saw the gro- 
 tesqueness of having a creature stumping about 
 on one leg. At any rate, she seems to have 
 thought best to try making animals with sev- 
 eral legs. She also wanted to invent some sort 
 of lungs. So she did one of the funniest things 
 yet : She made some little animals called Crus- 
 taceans (because they have a crust or shell), 
 and gave them a great many legs which they 
 can draw up inside the shell when it is bi- 
 valve ; and she put the lungs into the front 
 feet of some. 
 
 This is why they are called " Branchiopods," 
 or breath-footed. 
 
 Some of the crustaceans, as the daphnia and 
 cypris, have a thin bivalve shell — that is, a shell 
 of two parts or valves which open as though 
 there were a hinge between them ; others, as 
 the branchipus, canthocamptus, etc., have a shell 
 
 115 
 
116 IN BROOK AND BAYOtJ. 
 
 of chitin arranged in rings or somites like the 
 abdominal segments of the lobster, the insect, 
 and the spider. These bodies of chitin are usu- 
 ally composed of t^venty-one somites, and would 
 be unwieldy except that the segments can slide 
 into each other as telescopic sections do, only 
 these overlap more readily on the under side so 
 that the animal can bend downward but not 
 upward. Most joints have a habit of bending 
 in one direction, like those of your elbow and 
 knee. It is only now and then that some " lim- 
 ber Jack " is found who can make his arm curve 
 forward and his leg curve back-ward ; and it is 
 only occasionally that one of the crustaceans, as 
 the canthocamptus, can throw his heels over 
 his back and hit his head. 
 
 The children of many crustaceans are built 
 on an entirely different pattern from the par- 
 ents, having a nauplius form (see Cyclops, Fig. 
 39, a) with a body less elongated and lacking in 
 some of the limbs with which the adult is pro- 
 vided. In some cases, however. Nature favored 
 the young at the start with the whole twenty- 
 one somites, afterward causing some of the 
 segments to coalesce so as to form one out of 
 two. Occasionally, among the PTiyllopoda and 
 BrancTiiopoJa one finds as many as sixty so- 
 mites, and each somite is supposed to have 
 
CBUSTACBANS. 117 
 
 a pair of legs or other appendages belong- 
 ing to it. 
 
 Now it would seem — of course we would not 
 think of criticising Nature — but it would aeem 
 that to jump from a creature with but one leg, 
 like the rotifer, to a creature with one hundred 
 and twenty legs, was a feat to be expected 
 from a professional athlete rather than from a 
 staid old dame, like Nature. And it appears 
 that Nature herself thought she was carrying 
 matters rather too far, for she turned some of 
 the anterior appendages into mouth and sense 
 organs, caused the posterior appendages to 
 dwindle in size, and finally she eliminated 
 some of them entirely, so that the poor animal 
 would not have to spend quite all its time in 
 thinking which of the one hundred and twenty 
 legs to set ahead next. 
 
 But the anterior appendages do not seem to 
 be entirely pleased with ihQ new duties to 
 which they are assigned. They change about, 
 acting restless, as though they had not made 
 up their minds whether to settle down to a 
 permanent occupation, or, indeed, whether to 
 locate at all ; for the legs which were turned 
 into antennae are, in some S2:)ecies, organs of 
 touch ; in others, organs of locomotion ; in 
 others, they are nurseries for the young. The 
 
118 IN BKOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 eyes of some species are sessile ; tliose of others 
 grow on stalks as though they were still deter- 
 mined to be legs ; and those of others refuse 
 to exist at all. Some of the appendages which 
 were made subservient to the mouth, the max- 
 illipeds or feet jaws, try to revert into feet ; for 
 while in some of the crustaceans the mouth 
 organs extend to the ninth somite, in others 
 they extend only to the seventh, the eighth 
 and ninth refusing to perform the functions of 
 nutrition, and preferring to assist their owner 
 in getting about in the world. 
 
 The young crustacea have as many odd cra- 
 dles as they have odd shapes to their bodies. 
 The young canthocamptus rocks on the ^vaves 
 in a sack attached to the body of the parent ; 
 the mysis lives in a pouch like a young kanga- 
 roo ; the crabs are glued, in a mass similar to a 
 spider's ball, to the legs of the mother ; the arc- 
 turns is cradled in the branching horns or an- 
 tennie of the old one ; the daphnia is carried 
 under the coat on the back of the mother ; 
 while the prodocerus lives in a genuine little 
 bird's nest down deep in the sea. 
 
CBUSTACBANS. 
 
 119 
 
 I. 
 
 {Daphnia.) 
 
 In the fall, wlien most of the aquatic vege- 
 tation is dead and the water of the ponds is 
 clear, a great many small round specks may be 
 seen jumping and Jerking about. 
 
 One of these animals is the DapJinia which 
 has a)i oval bivalve shell and, usually, a spine 
 
 Fig. 37. — Daphnia puhx. 
 
 above the middle of the posterior portion, 
 though this, like the teeth of higher animals, 
 is generally absent in old specimens. Through 
 the lower opening, between the two valves of 
 
120 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 the shell, you v^iW often catch a glimpse of 
 something protruded and withdrawn with such 
 lightning rapidity that you are not sure it is 
 not an optical illusion until some time when 
 the daphnia is lazy or is nearly exhausted for 
 lack of \A'ater and fails to ^vithdraw this object, 
 and then you perceive that it is a foot or claw, 
 tipped with bristles, and that it is the action of 
 this claw which gives the animal its irregular, 
 jerky motion ; for, instead of sailing or crawl- 
 ing or swimming alung, the daphnia MrLs itself 
 along by pushing this foot out behind. When 
 necessary it uses this brushlike claw for scav- 
 enger and police duty. It welcomes all comers, 
 protozoan, egg, vegetable matter, and even par- 
 ticles of poison coloring matter, packing them 
 in till the vestibule in front of its mouth is 
 full ; then it opens the door and samples them. 
 If it does not like their flavor, it kicks the 
 whole mass out and sweeps the vestibule clean 
 with its broom. In front of this claw are many 
 smaller, fringelike feet, which are seldom pro- 
 truded from the shell, but which move regular- 
 ly with a 1 wreathing motion. Above these feet, 
 about midway along the animal, is an alimen- 
 tary canal ending in a cloaca. The canal, feet, 
 and claw seem to be entirely free from the 
 shell, and are all, at frequent intervals, bent 
 
CRUSTACEANS. ' 121 
 
 down and forward, leaving the back and rear 
 of the shell empty. This habit distinguishes 
 the daphnia from others of these small crus- 
 taceans, none of which move the claw except 
 downward and backward. Above the canal, 
 close under the top of the shell and near the 
 head, is a rapidly pulsating heart, which sends 
 colorless blood through the body two or three 
 hundred times a minute. 
 
 The head of the daphnia is a large, rounded 
 beak, at the extremity of which is an enormous 
 eye, of a color so dark green as to appear black. 
 It is turned by three pairs of muscles, and is 
 the first movable eye we have seen. From either 
 side the neck grows something you would call 
 stag's horns. These are the large, branched an- 
 tennae, round and jointed like a bamboo pole. 
 
 Along the back, under the shell and above 
 the body, is the brood cavity in which there 
 are sometimes eight or ten eggs. This is the 
 incubator, in which the eggs are hatched and 
 where the young are cared for until they are 
 fitted for an independent life. 
 
 If the children are too ambitious to see the 
 world in their youth, the mother promptly 
 kicks them back into this nursery ; for the 
 young are sprawling, helpless things, haviilg 
 no shell, no alimentary canal, and only three 
 
122 I>f BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 pairs of feet, and the" mother thinks no one is 
 fitted to appear in polite society until she has 
 at least ten feet. 
 
 This is one of the creatures that have sum- 
 mer and winter eggs. All summer there are 
 none but lady Daphnise, and they lay the sum- 
 mer eggs and rear the " summer girls." When 
 haying and harvest are over, about the time 
 that you begin to watch for the falling leaves 
 and dropping nuts of autumn, the lazy gentle- 
 men Daphniis come pushing their way through 
 the water mth an air of great importance. 
 They prefer the -winter time, when there is 
 not much to do except skate about under 
 the ice. 
 
 When spring work begins again, only one 
 kind of Daphnise are to be found, the gentle- 
 men having taken their departure. 
 
 II. 
 
 {Cypris.) 
 
 There is a little kidney-shaped Cupris, 
 which, when green and lying quiet vpith feet 
 drawn into the shell and its house securely 
 locked, may easily be taken for a leaf of duck- 
 
CRUSTACEANS. 123 
 
 weed. The deception is still more perfect when 
 the shell is ornamented with mosses and filigree 
 in the shape of diatoms whose shells are at- 
 tached to the cypris, making a fringe around it. 
 
 When the cypris travels it opens the two 
 valves of its shell just far enough to permit the 
 protrusion of the two pairs of antennae and the 
 four long, hair-tufted clusters of bristles ^vhich 
 it palms off upon us as feet. It swims rapidly 
 by jerking these feet back and forth. When 
 molested it quickly withdraws them and sinks 
 to the bottom. When trying to walk on these 
 pencils of bristles it wobbles ludicrously. 
 
 One pair of antennae is long, jointed, and 
 feathery, and is used for swimming ; the other 
 is stout and footlike. 
 
 The cypris deposits twenty-four eggs in a 
 mass, afterward taking each egg singly and 
 spending about thirty minutes in gluing it to 
 vegetation. When the little one hatches as a 
 nauplius with three pairs of appendages, it has 
 a house already on its back, and in four and a 
 half days it can not be distinguished from its 
 parents. 
 
 When the water of the pond dries, the cy- 
 pris, following the example of other crusta- 
 ceans, hides in the mud. It evinces great wis- 
 dom in so doing, for if all the moisture 
 
 10 
 
124 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 evaporates and the mud becomes dust the little 
 creature is sure to die ; aud then, you see, if 
 it had not taken the precaiition to bury itself 
 before dying, it ^vould have to go unsepulchered 
 because all its friends would be dead too, and 
 there would be no one left to dig its grave. 
 But if the rains come before the mud is baked, 
 all the cypris has to do is to creej) out of its 
 hiding place, rub its one eye, and pretend it 
 has only been taking a nap. 
 
 The eggs survive in the dust and heat, so 
 when the rainy season comes the pond is soon 
 full of lively cyprides, which are green, brown, 
 and dull white, but none of them very interest- 
 ing, — perhaps because they are so omnipresent. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE FAIRY SHRIMP. 
 
 {Br((nc]iipus.) 
 
 There are I'ome crustaceans that are truly 
 charming in dress and manner, and such a one 
 is the Brandt ip'us, or Fairy Shrimp. (See fron- 
 tispiece.) 
 
 Very early in the spring they are to be 
 found in the shallow pools formed by melting 
 
CRUSTACEANS. 125 
 
 snow. From such a pool, and in no very mys- 
 terious manner, a company of these fairies used 
 every season to find their way into a house in 
 a certain little city of the western prairies. 
 They always came in a bright tin pan, within 
 which the beautiful pearl and pink creatures 
 swam on their backs, gently rowing along with 
 their eleven pairs of swimming feet uppermost. 
 They were a pretty sight ; and the thought of 
 them is still associated with that of early flow- 
 ers and the budding freshness of springtime. 
 But the pan had to be kept in a cool place, or 
 presently the fairies vanished ; for they can not 
 endure heat, and by the middle of May they 
 are a story that is told. The pool is full of 
 them one day, and, if the sun comes out warm, 
 the next day they are fled, leaving no trace 
 behind — except for the zoologist, who can rec- 
 ognize their eggs. 
 
 They are the largest animals we have yet 
 noticed, being sometimes an inch in length, 
 with stout bodies, large heads, and very large 
 eyes. In front the male has two unequal ap- 
 pendages, and on one is a bristlelike claw. 
 (See frontispiece.) The female carries a single 
 egg sack, which is a modification of the eleventh 
 pair of feet. 
 
 In this fairy Nature seems to be making 
 
12G IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 another of her experiments. With the excep- 
 tion of the daphuia's, eyes thus far have been 
 dim, and would not turn so as to look in va- 
 rious directions. So Nature has set the eyes of 
 the fairy shriuip on .sttdks, that they may look 
 about the world more readily. You see, she 
 made several experiments with eyes before she 
 achieved man's eye. In the first place, there 
 was the dim sense organ of the euglena, placed 
 flat in the front part of the body, with no sock- 
 et, and entirely unable to turn or to see. It 
 could barely distinguish light from darkness. 
 Then there were better eyes, like those of the 
 rotifer, but still they could not turn and could 
 see only what lay in one direction. Then came 
 the stalked eyes of the branchipus and its kin- 
 dred, the lobsters and crayfish. But these eyes 
 are likely to be broken off, standing out from 
 the body as they do. So Nature tried making 
 sessile eyes — that is, eyes lying mostly in sock- 
 ets so as to be protected by the body ; and she 
 gave to some a transparent lid, and to some a 
 movable lid to close over and further protect 
 them. The first of these eyes were placed on 
 opposite sides of the head, like those of a fish or 
 a robin. But these were still not satisfactory, 
 for the two eyes do not see the same things, 
 one looking to the right, the other to the left, 
 
CRUSTACEANS. 127 
 
 — you know how a robin has to turn its head 
 to see what lies in front of it? At last, Na- 
 ture made the large, movable, lid-shielded eyes 
 of man, which can look forward and can focus 
 on the same object ; and she set them in a 
 head supported by a slender neck, so that the 
 head may turn and allow the eyes to sweep 
 the whole circle of the horizon. 
 
 And now, perhaps, she need make no more 
 experiments ; for she has joined with these eyes 
 a brain which can work out her experiments 
 for her. When there is need of an eye which 
 can see more minutely, the brain invents a mi- 
 croscope or a pair of spectacles; and when 
 there is need of an eye that can see millions of 
 millions of miles into space, the brain invents 
 a telescope. 
 
 IV. 
 
 ( Cmithocatiiptus.) 
 
 You have been waiting for the clown to 
 make his appearance, and here he comes tum- 
 bling into the ring, one moment traveling on 
 his side and the next bundling along ^^'ith head 
 and heels touching each other. He is a great 
 contortionist, ha^sang a body made up of jointed 
 segments so that he can bend it readily. 
 
128 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 If you don't use your opera glass you will 
 think he is a tiny worm wriggling along, but if 
 you do use it he will appear for all the world 
 like the gentleman in Fig. 88. He has one 
 eye, two pairs of antennae, and five pairs of 
 legs, but, as in most of these minute crusta- 
 ceans, the antennae are of more service than the 
 
 Pig. 38. — Ccmtkocamptus. 
 
 legs in swimming, though under the micro- 
 scope he seems to propel himself by vigorous 
 flexions of his tail. 
 
 His body is largest in front, and is long, 
 narrow, and shaped like an Indian club, except 
 that the under side is flattened. He usually 
 clothes himself in a single garment of dull, dirty 
 hue, but sometimes wears pink or flesh-color. 
 
CRUSTACEANS. 129 
 
 Our clown seems to be of rather an irrita- 
 ble disposition. Two of them once became 
 penned in by threadlike roots which happened 
 to be in the ring. They rushed this ^vay and 
 that, trying to escape, flexing their heels over 
 their heads angrily, seeming much distressed 
 at their situation. At length one, evidently 
 blaming the other for his capture, seized his 
 companion and hung on like a dog, apparently 
 by his teeth. It w^as a savage grip, and re- 
 laxed only when the water on the slide dried, 
 and death came to the relief of both. 
 
 Like misers, they carry a bag of gold ; but 
 this kind of gold is made into transparent balls 
 or eggs, and is borne in a sack attached to their 
 bodies and floating beside them. These eggs 
 hatch in the sack, for this clown of a cantho- 
 camptus and his kindred, the branchipus and 
 Cyclops, do not wear a shell nor have a brood 
 cavity as the daphnia does. They dress in 
 tights made of a thin crust like that worn by 
 the lobster and crayfish. 
 
 You would never know that the children 
 belonged to the family if you should meet 
 them, for they do not resemble their parents in 
 form or feature. In about two days they molt, 
 or peel off their tights, and this cast-off garment 
 carries with it the cases of the limbs and plumes 
 
130 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 even to the most delicate hairs. But the young 
 one that comes out has all these again, and often 
 new limbs, and each succeeding time a shape 
 more like its parents', until after several molt- 
 ings it comes out a full-grown perfect cantho- 
 camptus. 
 
 A curious thing about this is, that if a limb 
 be broken or torn from one of these young ani- 
 mals, it recovers that limb ^vhen it molts the 
 next time. 
 
 One might almost think the crustaceans 
 knew this, from the readiness some of them 
 evince in parting with portions of their anat- 
 omy ; for, if you lightly touch the joints of 
 their legs with a pin, they instantly discard the 
 lower joints. 
 
 And this is something which we may apply 
 to human beings ; for perhaps, if we have lost 
 arms or legs or even mental faculties, or even 
 if we never possessed those mental faculties, 
 but have been deficient in them as the young 
 canthocamptus is in limbs, we may recover all 
 we liave lost and obtain yet more when we 
 molt, — or as we usually express it, when ^ye 
 die and go to heaven. 
 
 There are some people who wish the}" could 
 overcome death and preserve their present 
 bodies forever. But you see this would be a 
 
CRUSTACEANS. 131 
 
 disadvantage, for they could never recover the 
 amputated limbs nor the lost minds if they 
 didn't slough off this outgrown sheath of a 
 body ; neither could they acquire faculties in 
 which they have always been wanting. 
 
 So, too, it seems that it would be a disad- 
 vantage for us to molt but once, and then to 
 remain forever and forever in the next stage, as 
 people used to think we would ; for that would 
 mean that we ceased to advance after this one 
 molting which we call death. 
 
 And don't you think it would be better to 
 keep right on growing and molting, acquiring 
 new faculties each time like the young crusta- 
 ceans, and each time coming out of the old case 
 more and more nearly resembling our one per- 
 fect Parent and Creator? 
 
 "But what has this to do with cantho- 
 campti or cyclops or diaptomi ? " Why, this : 
 they have taught us what a blessing death is. 
 
 V. 
 {Diaptomus.) 
 
 The most biilliant creature of all is the scar- 
 let Diaptomus, with its six thoracic segments, 
 its five narrow abdominal segments, its brush- 
 
132 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 like tail of two parts, its jointed, feathery feet, 
 and its two antennae as long as the body. The 
 antennae are jointed and curve gracefully back- 
 ward when the animal swims. The heart may 
 be seen to beat under the middle of the cara- 
 pax. The legs are made of flattened segments, 
 and so feathered as to resemble palm plants. 
 
 The female carries one external ovaiy or 
 egg sack. The diaptomus is one tenth of an 
 inch in length, and, like the branchipus, is a 
 lover of cool water, being found only in fall or 
 early spring, and making its home in shallow 
 pools. The one most common with us is red ; 
 but there are those that weav white, others 
 -^vith robes of purple, and others that wear blue 
 and have antenuse tipped -with bright purple. 
 
 It might be mistaken for a cyclops, from 
 w^hich it may be distinguished by its unusually 
 long, single pair of antennae, the cyclops hav- 
 ing two pairs of shorter ones. It has a comely 
 figure, but its chief beauty lies in the brilliant 
 color which extends through antennae, legs, and 
 body, even to the tip of its tail. 
 
CRUSTACEANS. 133 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE ONE-EYED GIANT OF THE MILL POND. 
 
 {Cyclops.) 
 
 There is an old poem that the Greeks 
 used to love which tells of the trials and dan- 
 gers that beset the hero Ulysses — or Odysseus, 
 as they called him — as he journeyed homeward 
 
 /■'■'fr<. 
 
 Fig. 39. — Cyclops quadricornis : a, young. 
 
 from the Trojan war. It took Ulysses twenty 
 years to reach his home, and he had so many 
 narrow escapes the wonder is that he ever 
 reached it at all. 
 
 On one occasion in particular he came very 
 near to death. As the story goes, his ships 
 were swept by storms against a strange coast. 
 Ulysses and his companions went ashore to ex- 
 
134 I^" BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 plore the land, discovered a cave, which -they 
 entered, and, finding presses full of cheeses, 
 vats full of milk, and casks of wine, they 
 feasted and made merry, not knowing that the 
 cave was the abode of a fierce and terrible 
 Cyclops, a huge giant who had one fiery eye 
 set in the middle of his forehead. At sun- 
 down the giant came home, drove his flocks 
 into the cave and shut the door. The door of 
 the cave was a rock, so immense that Ulysses 
 knew he and his men would be powerless to 
 remove it. He saw that they were prisoners, 
 and the giant looked so terrible and roared so 
 frightfully that the captives shrank trembling 
 into the farthest recesses of the cavern. When 
 the Cyclops had milked his flocks he built a 
 great fire, and ap[iroaching Ulysses and his men 
 he reached forth his hands, seized two of the 
 men l)y the heels, swung them around, cracked 
 their heads together, and soon had them broil- 
 ing over the fire. Their temfied friends stood 
 by helpless as the giant crunched their bones 
 with his huge teeth. The next morning he 
 killed and ate t^vo more in the same horrible 
 manner. A^^hen he drove his flocks to pasture 
 he took good care to put the rock over the 
 opening of the cave so that his captives should 
 not escape. 
 
CRUSTACEANS. 135 
 
 That night he killed two more, auJ washed 
 them down his throat Avith such quantities of 
 wine that he fell into a drunken sleep. While 
 he slept, Ulysses and his men bored out his eye 
 with a sharpened timber which they had heated 
 red hot in the fire that broiled the last two of 
 their unfortunate companions. 
 
 But, though he could no longer see, the Cy- 
 clops was wily, and he sat by the door of the 
 cave, stretching his anns across and feeling the 
 backs of the sheep as he let them out in the 
 morning so that the prisoners might not escape 
 by riding out on the sheep's backs. 
 
 So Ulysses and the remaining men were 
 obliged to cling fast to the wool on the under 
 side of the sheep and be carried out in that 
 way. 
 
 And simply because it has one red eye in 
 the middle of its forehead, the name of Cyclops 
 has been given to a wee little " oar-footed " 
 crustacean, not more than one sixteenth of an 
 inch in length, and not at all resembling a 
 fierce and terrible giant. It seems a very 
 happy, liN^ely little cyclops, constantly skipping 
 about, and keeping its feet incessantly paddling 
 the water. 
 
 The cyclops has no heart, the blood being 
 
136 I^ BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 kept in circulation by the cliurning motion of 
 the intestine. It has four pairs of branched 
 less, and mandibles and maxillse fitted for bit- 
 ing. It feeds upon infusoria and smaller crus- 
 taceans, at times maintaining a catlike quiet 
 till the animals collect about it and then sud- 
 denly pouncing upon one. 
 
 But, unlike the giant, it lives not so much 
 to eat as to be eaten, for it furnishes the prin- 
 cipal supply of food for the smaller fishes and 
 the aquatic larvae. Even the larger inhabit- 
 ants of the sea feed upon it, so that vrhen fish- 
 ermen and whalers see schools of cyclops they 
 get th^ nets and harpoons ready, knowing 
 that their prey is at hand. Hundreds of square 
 miles of ocean are sometimes filled with these 
 little one-eyed creatures, for they are immense- 
 ly reproductive. Each female carries two egg 
 sacks, which contain from forty to fifty eggs, 
 and she brings forth fi"om eiglit to ten broods. 
 The young soon become parents, so that a 
 cyclops may become the progenitor of 4,500,- 
 000,000 in one year. On the 28th of Febru- 
 ary, 1896, while the ponds were still covered 
 with ice and there ^vas only a narrow border 
 of water extending a foot or two from the 
 shore, a close observer miglit have seen great 
 numbers of cyclops darting about close to the 
 
CEUSTACEANS. 13Y 
 
 beach, and, cold as it was, they carried weight 
 like John Gilpin, "a bottle dangling at each 
 side " ; for the egg sacks were heavily laden 
 and the young had already begun to hatch. 
 The bottles are pear-shaped, sqmetimes dark 
 green, sometimes amber-colored. The young 
 hatch in the sacks, and may be seen moving 
 inside the eggshells. But "like parent, like 
 child," is an adage that doesn't seem true at 
 first in the case of the nauplius of the cyclops, 
 for the young are quite unlike the parent, hav- 
 ing to molt several times before they attain the 
 same shape and appendages. 
 
 The eye of the adult cyclops is really a 
 cluster of eyes, so placed as to appear to be a 
 single one. 
 
 The eye of the nauplius looks like two tri- 
 angles joined at their apexes, and resembles no 
 other eye that ever was on land or sea. 
 
 In the matter of diet the cyclops is like 
 the giant of the Greek fable, for it is a regular 
 cannibal, devouring beings like itself, and even 
 eating its own young; which is perhaps a good 
 thing, since there are thirty species of them, 
 and even though they do eat their kind, there 
 are plenty left, and they may be found all the 
 world round and all the year round. They 
 abound in all stagnant pools, in the water 
 
138 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 which the Londoner drinks, in that from Cro- 
 ton River which (juenches the thirst of the 
 resident of New York, and there is a little 
 fellow skipping about in the pitcher of Spring- 
 field (Illinois) well water that stands on my 
 table as I write. This one is a pale little fel- 
 low, coming from so far below the sunlight; 
 but it has egg sacks, as I can tell without a 
 microscope, because it ends abruptly at the 
 rear, as if cut square oif, instead of tapering 
 toward the tail. 
 
CHART IV 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE HUNGRY GLOTTE. 
 {Hydrce.) 
 
 As late as November 10, 1889, I dipped 
 some water and duckweed from my favorite 
 pond and put it in a glass Jar. An old man in 
 charge of the city waterworks near by, who 
 had many times watched this canning of slough 
 water with an expression of wondering disap- 
 probation, at length took courage to come for- 
 ward and investigate the matter. "I've been 
 puzzling myself over what you do with that," 
 he said. 
 
 " I put it under the microscope and study 
 the animals in it." 
 
 " Animals ? Taddypoles and sich ? " he 
 asked, incredulously. 
 
 "No, much smaller ones. Look through 
 this jar toward the light. Those specks dart- 
 ing and jerking about are cypris, daphnia, and 
 Cyclops." 
 
 11 139 
 
140 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 " Be them dirt specks animals ? Now, do 
 tell ! " 
 
 "Dirt specks always fall to the bottom. 
 They can't dart up toward the top and side- 
 wise. And in here there are probably tiny 
 hollow tubes, called Hydrce, with fingers or 
 tentacles at the end which look like a very 
 small kid glove rolled together so that the 
 thumb and little finger touch. Although they 
 don't look much like one, they always remind 
 me of a glove, because they can be turned 
 wrong side out, fingers and all, and then turned 
 back again without injury, just as a glove can. 
 And there are hosts of other animals, shaped 
 like bells and cups and boats, which are en- 
 tirely invisible." 
 
 "Live animals that can be turned wrong 
 side out and others that you can't see at all ! 
 Now just see that ! " remarked the old fellow 
 in growing amazement. "And themes what 
 you git it for ! I wondered if you could be 
 iisin' of it," he said, with evident relief. And 
 he went back to his work, muttering to him- 
 self : " That there puddle swarmin' with live 
 animals that can be turned wrong side out and 
 that can't be seen ! Now just think of that ! " 
 
 Clinging to the light side of this can the 
 next morning were what looked like a dozen 
 
THE HUNGRY GLOVE. 141 
 
 short threads frayed at the free ends. (See cut 
 at end of chapter.) But to call them threads 
 is to speak as through a microscope, for the 
 speech magnifies them as much as a half-inch 
 objective would. Instead, they were in size 
 like the finest strand of a fine thread, with the 
 slenderest possible lints or filaments fringing 
 the ends. It would seem that nothing could 
 be more attenuated. Certainly the tentacles of 
 a small Hydra viridis, or green hydra, must 
 be the ultimate object which the unaided eye 
 can perceive. 
 
 The brown ones {Hydra vulgaris) were 
 somewhat larger. A coiled one clinging to the 
 glass looked at first glance like a small leaflet 
 of Lemna with the roots attached. Another 
 adult had a young one budded from its side, 
 and the little one was extending its tentacles, 
 trying to earn its own living in the world. 
 Afterward I saw this baby clinging alone on 
 the glass, a mere speck, with six almost imper- 
 ceptible fibers radiating from its head, looking 
 more like a minute poppy seed trying to be a 
 star than like a living creature watching for its 
 bread and butter. In another place a parent 
 and child were trying to swallow the same worm. 
 
 The five or seven tentacles of the hydrae 
 are their arms, and surround the mouth, which 
 
142 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 is nothing more than an opening at the top of 
 the hollow tube. The tentacles are hollow 
 and covered with warts or knobs (3, Chart 
 IV), and in each knob is coiled a lasso with 
 
 Fig. 40.— Hvdras. 
 
 a sting at the end of it. The hj^dra sits with 
 these long arms extended, and when its prey 
 appears, throws out the lassos and paralyzes 
 the victim with its stings. Then the arms 
 bend over and force the benumbed victim 
 down the hydra's throat. 
 
THE HUNGEY GLOVE. 143 
 
 The addition of a drop of acetic acid to the 
 water on the slide will irritate the hydra, caus- 
 ing it to throw out its lasso lines. A shelled 
 animal, like a crustacean, may be protected 
 from the sting by its hard covering; but a 
 soft animal, like a worm, always dies even when 
 the tentacles do not convey it to the mouth. 
 
 The tentacles also assist in locomotion; for 
 the hydra can bend over, as in 2, Fig. 40, hold- 
 ing on by the tentacles while it loosens its foot 
 and sets it forward, like a measure worm. 
 
 These hydrse may be turned, tentacles and 
 all, making skin into stomach and placing the 
 stomach outside where the skin belongs. After 
 two or three days they will eat again as vora- 
 ciously as ever. You may tear off their fingers, 
 and they will grow again. You may cut them 
 into cross-sections, and each section vdll become 
 a perfect hydra. You may cut them into strips 
 lengthwise, and each strip will roll together 
 into a tube, develop tentacles, and presently go 
 on as if nothing had happened. You may 
 even cut off the head of one and the mouth 
 will go right along taking in food, like the man 
 whose head was cut off by such a neat stroke 
 that he never knew it was off, but kept on 
 talking, till at length he sneezed, and the head 
 fell from his shoulders and rolled along the 
 
144 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 ground. You will know now why an evil whicli 
 is irrepressible is said to be " hydra-headed." 
 
 The hydrse produce offspring by bulging 
 out the wall of the body and forming a bud, 
 which is hollow and opens into the body cav- 
 ity of the adult, so that what the parent eats 
 may enter the body of the offspring, and what 
 the offspring eats may enter into and nourish 
 the parent (1, 1, Chart IV ; 3, Fig. 40 ). Some- 
 times the bud remains attached to the parent 
 and itself buds before pinching itself off and 
 beginning to live independently. A colony of 
 nineteen parents, children, and grandchildren 
 have been seen on one original hydra. 
 
 This is rather mixing up matters. But 
 these fresh- water hydrse have some cousins who 
 live in salt sea water, and ^vho remain always 
 attached to each other, with free communica- 
 tion between their body cavities, forming large 
 colonies which spread out like a house of many 
 compartments, with halls and corridors leading 
 from one to the other. 
 
 In these marine colonies it is the business 
 of certain of the hydroids to rear all the chil- 
 dren, of certain others to act as policemen and 
 protect the colony, and of certain others to se- 
 cure and eat all the food for the colony. 
 
 In these colonies one would think that Na- 
 
THE HUNGRY aLOVE. I45 
 
 ture was making her first clumsy experiment 
 at differentiation of matter to perform special 
 functions, and had not yet learned how to con- 
 dense her experiments into one body, for in 
 these colonies we find different functions as- 
 signed to different individuals, and not to differ- 
 ent parts of one individual. We human beings 
 are quite willing that some one shall be ap- 
 pointed to take care of us and do our work for 
 us, but I do not think, do you, that any of us 
 wish to carry the principle of division of labor 
 so far as to have another do our eating for us ? 
 
 Our little Hydras in the glass can (see cut 
 at end of chapter) are doing their own work 
 very energetically this morning. They are 
 grouped all along the water ways on the bright- 
 est side of the Jar, and are spreading their nets 
 and fishing most industriously. 
 
 And now down the main street of this 
 thriving aquatic city, right into the open arms 
 of the Hydrge, there comes hurrying an im- 
 portant personage. His name is Sir Daphnia 
 Pulex. He must certainly be a great railroad 
 magnate, judging from his businesslike manner 
 and the ease with which he brushes small fry 
 away vnth one kick of that powerful hind foot 
 of his. He comes pushing along vi^ith an air 
 
146 
 
 IN BEOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 which indicates that the machinery of the world 
 is waiting till he arrives to set it in motion. 
 
 vi 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 Fig. 41. — Hydra attacking a water flea. 
 
 But suddenly he pauses. Has he forgotten 
 something ? He does not turn back after it. 
 He seems to have changed his mind, and to 
 have concluded that the affairs of the world 
 are of no great importance, after all. Ah ! this 
 
THE HUNGRY GLOVE. 
 
 147 
 
 is what has happened : He has been hit by the 
 loose end of a cable belonging to the Hydra- 
 Electric Company, and the current has been 
 dischai'ged into him. His arms droop. His feet 
 no longer move. He seems to be meditating. 
 Perhaps he has been suddenly confronted with 
 the problem, " Is life worth living ? " and has 
 decided in the negative. With one last sigh, 
 " Adieu, vain world ! " he disappears down the 
 hydra's throat. To-morrow the newsboys of 
 this moist city will be calling, " Tr'bune, Times ! 
 Thriliin' account of death b'lectricity ! All 
 about the tragic fate of Sir Daphnia Pulex ! " 
 
 But, for the great magnate to-day, his 
 errand is no longer pressing. He has hung his 
 harp on the willows, and dies a captive beside 
 the waters of Hydralon. 
 
 Hydralon. 
 
 ' \^ 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ANIMALS." 
 
 THE GREEN SNOWFLAKES. 
 
 {Desmids.) 
 
 Eaely in the montli of March the water is 
 filled with moving green objects which thrive 
 in the cool season. They are the Desmids, and 
 are plants in reality as well as in color, propa- 
 gating by spores. They may be smooth or 
 rough, warty or spined, notched or toothed, cut 
 or divided, round or star-shaped, crescent-shaped 
 or in ])ands of ribbons ; but they are always 
 evenly green in color, slow and stately in mo- 
 tion, and move only forward, not being able to 
 retrace their steps without turning around. If 
 a desmid moves rapidly or retreats without 
 turning about, you may know that it is not a 
 desmid but a diatom. It is frequently diflicult 
 to distinguish between the two, for the diatom 
 is sometimes green, and both are found with 
 
 148 
 
PLANTS BECOMING ANIMALS. 
 
 149 
 
 the individuals growing side by side in long 
 bands ; but the desmid adheres to stems of 
 plants, never having a stalk of its own ; it loves 
 the place in the bayou where the sunlight falls, 
 and it comes up to float near the surface ; while 
 the diatom forms the brown, yellow, and fawn- 
 
 FiG. 4:2. — Desmids; f, C losterium. 
 
 colored coating on the rocks at the bottom of 
 the shady nooks. 
 
 At the ends of the desmid, but not of the 
 diatom, there are often empty spaces, near which 
 a movement of liquid may be detected, which 
 movement resembles the rising of bubbles or 
 
150 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 the convection in water when heating. Besides 
 the clear space at the ends, some of the crescent- 
 or bow-shaped desmids belonging to the Clos- 
 terium family have a clear space in the middle, 
 and have the pulsatile vesicles arranged in two 
 pairs (Fig. 42). 
 
 Some of them are very pretty, and are 
 named Eurastrum, or star disk, Micrasterias, 
 or little star, etc. 
 
 The desmids are most active and most nu- 
 merous in March and April, which is their time 
 for conjugation. They multiply by fission as 
 well as by spores, and when dividing, one part 
 remains quiet while the other sways about and 
 breaks off v^ith a jerk. Then the ends that 
 were attached round up and assume the cus- 
 tomary shape of the species. 
 
 There are more than four hundred species, 
 all living in clean, placid water, and so afraid 
 of the restless salt sea that they will not grow 
 in running streams, for fear of being carried 
 down to the ocean. 
 
PLANTS BECOMING ANIMALS. 
 
 151 
 
 II. 
 
 THE FIRST MUSICIAN. 
 [Diatom.) 
 
 The people of Sweden and Norway use for 
 food an extremely fine, cream-colored powder 
 
 Pig. 43. — Orthosira Dressceri, 
 
 wMch they find in the mountains and which 
 they call " mountain meal." 
 
 In Italy there is a white earth that is used 
 in the manufacture of candies. 
 
 The meal and the earth both consist in 
 deposits of immense numbers of very minute 
 
 Fig. 44. — Nitzschia vivax. 
 
 animals, called Diatoms, which have thin sili- 
 cious shells. Thirty miles above San Francisco 
 is a white clay composed of the same thing. 
 The flint which is used for Indian arrowheads 
 
162 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 is fossil shells of diatoms hardened by the in- 
 ternal fires of the earth. 
 
 Grindstones and whetstones on which you 
 sharpen your hatchets and knives are made of 
 
 ^ 
 
 fcsg 
 
 m 
 
 
 Mi 
 
 Pia. 45. — Pi nnularia 
 major. 
 
 Fig. 46. — Stauroneis 
 Phoiiiicenteron. 
 
 the same gritty shells, packed and consolidated 
 in the same way by heat. The sand used for 
 fine iron castings comes from these same sili- 
 cious deposits of diatom frustules. 
 
 These shells are seldom more than yo^-qt 
 of an inch in thickness, so you can try to esti- 
 
PLANTS BECOMING ANIMALS. 
 
 153 
 
 mate how many of them it would take to 
 form the deposit eighteen feet deep under the 
 city of Eichmond, Virginia. 
 And if you succeed in that, 
 you may enjoy trying to esti- 
 mate how many diatoms 
 went to the making of the 
 deposit in Victoria Land, 
 
 Fig. 47. — Navicula didyma. 
 
 Fig. 48. — Pleurosiyma 
 formosum. 
 
 which is 400 miles long, 120 miles wide, and 
 of unknown thickness. 
 
 You will be prepared to admit after this 
 calculation that diatoms must have been some- 
 
154 IN BKOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 what numerous in the times when these beds 
 were formed. So they were, and so they 
 are now; for, besides the cy clops of which I 
 told you, thirty species have been found in 
 the filter through which the Croton Eiver 
 water is strained at the Astor House, New 
 York; there are three hundred species in 
 Lake Michigan ; they form the brown velvet 
 patches on the mud of ponds and marshes ; 
 and in some places the waters of the ocean 
 literally swarm with them, from the surface to 
 the lowest depth to which light can penetrate, 
 and from the tropics to the circumpolar re- 
 gions. 
 
 When you see under your microscope a 
 little brown boat-shaped object drifting help- 
 lessly along, like an empty canoe, you may be 
 sure that a tragedy has occurred, for this is the 
 deserted house of a little diatom that was swal- 
 lowed by some other animal which sucked all 
 the life and juices out of it and then cast away 
 the shell ; for birds, oysters, whelks, crabs, lob- 
 sters, amoebfe, sun animalcules, paramoecii, and 
 even some aquatic plants prey upon diatoms. 
 
 The elaborate and artistic manner in which 
 tbe diatom ornaments his house can be best 
 studied from these empty shells. The shells 
 are spiral, square, heart-shaped, wedge-shaped, 
 
PLANTS BECOMING ANIMALS. 155 
 
 boat-shaped, or circular, and are exquisitely 
 carved, toothed, or dotted. Nothing can ex- 
 ceed the vividness in color of some, or the 
 delicacy in marking of others. 
 
 Diatoms grow on branching stems like tiny 
 trees ; in clear or muddy, fresh or brackish 
 water ; in running streams, or in pools left by 
 the retreating tide. 
 
 Owing to their peculiar structure, they prop- 
 agate by a curious self-division. The shell 
 is composed of two parts which fit together 
 like the two parts of a pill box ; and when 
 they multiply, the cover and box separate, 
 the one forming a new box, the other a new 
 cover. 
 
 Diatoms are modified by environment, just 
 as people are : if individuals of the same species 
 are placed in different localities, their descend- 
 ants become so unlike as to be assigned to dif- 
 ferent species; as the children of twin broth- 
 ers become entirely dissimilar if one lives in 
 the country and the other in the city. 
 
 When the diatom is alive, it moves a cer- 
 tain distance in one direction and then reverses 
 engine and returns on the same track without 
 turning around. 
 
 The rhythmic movement of the curious 
 Bacillaria is most significant. 
 
 12 
 
156 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 The Baoillaria paradoxa resembles a bundle 
 of short round rods which seem to be attached 
 to each other by invisible elastic threads. The 
 center rod or frustule remains stationary while 
 those on either side move in opposite direc- 
 tions, stretching out till the ends are barely in 
 contact, and each seems about to part company 
 with the one behind it ; but here, as if held by 
 
 Pig. 49. — Bacillaria paradoxa. 
 
 an invisible thong, they pause an instant, and 
 then retrace their steps with regular motion, 
 passing the center one, and moving to the limit 
 of motion in the opposite direction. And each 
 frustule keeps time with the movements of the 
 corresponding one on the other side of the sta- 
 tionary frustule. 
 
 Not only that, but if the advancing frus- 
 tule meets with an obstacle which bars its 
 progress, it does not return at once, but waits 
 until its mate on the other side has reached a 
 corresponding position on the return journey, 
 
PLANTS BECOMING ANIMALS. 15Y 
 
 when it takes up the march without marring 
 the rhythm, like a chorus singer who waits for 
 a certain beat so that he may not destroy the 
 harmony. 
 
 This motion of the Bacillaria paradoxa 
 is supposed to be due to the action of light 
 and heat, since it is in direct ratio to the 
 amount of light and heat received, and ceases 
 in darkness. 
 
 Now what can this rhythmic motion and the 
 inability of the rods to break asunder mean, 
 but that the movement is due to the electricity 
 in the sunlight, and that the invisible thong 
 which binds the rods is electric polarity ? 
 
 So we learn from this microscopic bacil- 
 laria that light and heat are rhythmical, and 
 we know at last why the planets move in such 
 unvarying regularity and without discord. We 
 know, too, that all the universe is rhythmical, 
 musical, and that there is absolute truth in that 
 beautiful old phrase, " When the morning stars 
 sang together." 
 
 And now and then there lives a man who 
 feels this rhythm more keenly than his fellow- 
 men, and is capable of transmitting it through 
 his finger tips, and in him we have a great 
 musical composer. And he, this Mendelssohn 
 or Beethoven, says : " I did not create this 
 
158 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 miisic, I discovered it. I found it. It is in the 
 air. It is everywhere." And this is true. It 
 is in sunlight, which acts alike upon a bacillaria 
 and a Beethoven. The movement of the bacil- 
 laria is part of an everlasting symphony ; and 
 as we watch the motion of the paradoxa rods 
 sliding gently and smoothly in perfect unison, 
 or resting till it is time again to join in the 
 symphony, we are listening with our eyes to 
 the music of the spheres ; we are learning that 
 man and the stars are part of one great har- 
 mony, and sway to the same rhythm which 
 beats upon the bacillaria in the sands on the 
 seashore. 
 
 Or, to express it so as to strike a boy's 
 fancy, man and the stars and a grindstone 
 dance to the same music. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WIG GLEES AND MINUET DANCEES. 
 
 Beside all this vast tost of animals that 
 swarm in the lakes and ponds, there are im- 
 mense numbers of insect larvae, breathing water, 
 eating cyclops and infusoria, tarrying awhile 
 on their way to the upper air, which is the dip- 
 ter's and neuropter's heaven. But because they 
 are going to their heaven by and by they do 
 not belittle the life they now have, nor per- 
 suade themselves that it is a weary pilgrimage, 
 to be endured with patience in view of the 
 recompense to come. 
 
 The larva swims gayly about, catching cy- 
 clops, smacking his lips when he gets a fat one, 
 and making the most of this world down in 
 the water. After a while he climbs up on a 
 bush and shuffles off his mortal coil by split- 
 ting his coat down the back and crawling out 
 of it. He rests awhile, drying his wings and 
 getting his new breathing apparatus into work- 
 ing 
 
160 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 inff order. Then lie whets his bill on the 
 branches, and says : 
 
 Fe fo fl f um, 
 
 I smell the blood of an Euglishman; 
 
 Dead or alive I will have some ! 
 
 and he sucks the blood of the first boy he 
 catches fishing. 
 
 In the blackest muck of the ponds where 
 there is a rich deposit of decomposed vegetable 
 matter one may sometimes see 
 a great wriggling, as of many 
 fine threads standing in the 
 ^vater, with rapid undulations 
 running up and down through 
 each one. The thread is the 
 StrepJmris, a worm that is 
 covered with dark, angular 
 marking, resembling a news- 
 paper advertisement. It is 
 very slender, so that it re- 
 quires the closest scrutiny to 
 detect one even when aided 
 by the movement of the whole 
 company. A single one would 
 escape notice ; but, being very 
 sociable, they live in large colonies. Early 
 in spring the edge of some ponds is com- 
 pletely cushioned with these wriggling bodies. 
 
 Pig. 50. — StrepJmris, 
 
WRIGGLERS AND MINUET DANCERS. 161 
 
 They stand on theii' heads in the mire, and 
 keep up an incessant wagging of their tails, 
 This seems to be their business in life — a busl 
 ness which they have solemnly pledged them, 
 selves to follow so long as they all do live 
 Whether it is work or play is hard to decide, 
 It may be they are dancing the minuet, vdth 
 their bowings and curvetings. Or they may 
 be serious creatures, feeling that the duties of 
 life require unremitting toil ; for they never 
 rest a moment. I once dipped up some, with 
 the muck in which they are found, and put 
 them in a glass can. As soon as the mud set- 
 tled, there they were, wiggling with the utmost 
 energy. They never stopped except when a 
 little water beetle came among them ; then they 
 disappeared as if by magic. But as soon as he 
 was gone they began to stretch up out of their 
 burrows and set to work again. At morn or 
 at eve, by night or by day, week in and week 
 out, for the three mon ths that I kept them, there 
 they were, always standing with their heads in 
 the mud, vpriggling. What they eat, how they 
 multiply, or w^hether they die, this deponent 
 saith not. Their life history seems to be 
 summed up in one word — wiggle. 
 
 Some aquatic worms have the ability to 
 turn their middle segment into a head, divid- 
 
162 
 
 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 ing themselves into two animals. The genus 
 Lu.7nbri cuius forms a new head when the old 
 one is cut off, — a proceeding which suggests a 
 deiiciency in man for which society ought per- 
 haps to be profoundly thankful. 
 
 Occasionally we meet people who speak of 
 themselves as " humble worms of the dust," and 
 usually the general bearing of these individuals 
 
 Fig. 51, — Aulophorus. 
 
 justifies their genealogical claims ; but there are 
 other people who might, with equal fitness, 
 claim to be worms of the water, for in their 
 manner of looking at the situation they resem- 
 ble a certain aquatic worm known as the -4?/- 
 lophor'us. This worm lives in a sheath made 
 
WRIGGLERS AND MINUET DANCERS. 163 
 
 from odds and ends of debris, wtich is so thin 
 that you may readily see through it. ; The 
 aulophorus climbs a little way out of the sheath, 
 gazes about, and concludes that things don't 
 look to suit him, and nothing is going right, 
 and the world is all upside do\vn. So he 
 doubles over, thrusting his head into his case 
 farther and farther, and at the same time draw- 
 ing his heels out, till presently his head is at 
 the bottom of the sheath and his heels are in 
 the air — or rather in the water. Then, of 
 course, the world is upside down to him; so 
 presently he has to turn again. 
 
 But by this time he is a trifle dizzy-headed 
 and can not see clearly, so matters seem more 
 crooked than ever. After looking about awhile 
 he reverses his position, with the same discon- 
 certing result. Standing on his head, every- 
 thing is topsy-turvy, till he again careens over, 
 by which time he has become so confused in 
 his mind that he never more can tell what is 
 right side up and what is upside down. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 TAKING VACATIONS. 
 
 In all this business of making worlds and 
 Beethovens and diatoms, in the making of root 
 feet and hair feet and telescopic feet and whip- 
 lash feet and paddle feet and tentacle feet and 
 feet of sunbeams, poor old Mother Nature 
 must sometimes have grown weary of serious 
 work and have wished for a little recreation. 
 
 Maybe it was for this reason that she made 
 some of the curious things we find from time 
 to time, such as the Stanridia and the Cercomo- 
 nas, which do not seem to know which way they 
 wish to travel. Perhaps it -was when she had 
 made eyes which didn't work to suit her that, 
 by way of ridiculing herself, she made such 
 eyes and eye-spots as those of the Shore crabs, 
 and the Stomapod. 
 
 Once in a while, too, there is just the faint- 
 est suggestion that she felt a trifle out of sorts 
 and was looking around for a good club, as 
 
 164 
 
TAKING VACATIONS. 
 
 165 
 
 when ste made the Lepas. But generally she 
 seems to have been very facetious when not 
 
 Fig. 52. — 1 and 6, ZQe,a of shore crab ; S, Trinema ; 3,. Cerco- 
 monas; 4, Stauridia ; 5, Zoea of Stomapod ; 7, Lepas. 
 
166 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 very serious, for it was surely in a waggish 
 moment that she made the zoea of shore crabs. 
 Do you think she was tempted to call one 
 of these Man, and have an end of her experi- 
 menting ? 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE GREATEST JOKE OF ALL. 
 Boy under Microscope. 
 
 A MiCKOscopisT gathered up his basket of 
 bottles, his dipper, and his microscope and 
 went to spend the day at the river side. He 
 took .his little boy along, knowing that the 
 child would enjoy the tramp and the oppor- 
 tunity of wading in the water. The man set 
 down his basket and went to work just where 
 the bayou emptied into the river, so that he 
 might get specimens from still or running water 
 at his pleasure. He worked for several hours, 
 while the boy ran along the shore catching 
 butterflies or splashing in the water. The sci- 
 entist loved the little creatures he was study- 
 ing, and when he found familiar ones, or when 
 he had examined others of them all he cared to, 
 he put them gently back into the brook so that 
 they might live on unharmed. When he found 
 a rare one or one that he wished to study 
 
 167 
 
168 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 further, lie put it into one of his bottles to 
 take home. The man and the boy had often 
 been there before, and there were animals in 
 the bayou that had more than once been terri- 
 fied at finding themselves on the slides under 
 his microscope and had been relieved to find 
 themselves swimming about in the bayou again 
 sound in body and limb. And these had come 
 to wonder what it all meant, and what sort of 
 a machine a microscope was anyway. So they 
 hung about near the shore watching him, wish- 
 ing they could look into that machine of his, 
 and that he were not such a huge being, so 
 they could see the whole of him at once. 
 
 By and by the father wished to go around 
 the bayou to get some green moss growing 
 at the water's edge on the other side. He 
 took a bottle and set off, leaving his son to 
 guard the microscope till his return. The boy 
 sat on the shore beside the instrument and 
 watched the minnows darting about and the 
 waves rippling around his bare feet. But 
 the day was warm and he was weary, so he 
 soon stretched himself on the sand and fell 
 fast asleep. 
 
 Presently a minnow swam up and, seeing 
 how tempting his toes looked, tried to nibble 
 them. This made the boy draw up his feet 
 
THE GREATEST JOKE OF ALL. 169 
 
 and roll over, pushing the microscope into the 
 water, and rolling into it himself, till all his 
 body was covered and even his brown curls 
 were wet. But he was so drowsy and the water 
 was so warm that it did not waken him. 
 
 Now this was the very opportunity for which 
 the wee water beings had been waiting. They 
 gathered around in great glee and proceeded 
 to inspect him through the instrument. But 
 they were not used to handling microscopes, 
 and they got it wrong end to and wrong side 
 up. This, however, was all the better for 
 them, for, instead of making the boy look 
 larger it made him seem smaller, so they could 
 get the whole of him into the microscopic field. 
 One after another they peeped at him. But 
 the more they peeped and pondered, the more 
 puzzled they became as to what manner of crea- 
 ture he might be. Nothing like him grew on 
 mosses or lived in the water. They had seen 
 parts of him on shore at various times, but, 
 seeing him all together, he looked even odder 
 than they had supposed. 
 
 " What manner of animal is he ? " they 
 queried. And each had a different theory, but 
 none could decide] "He must be related to' the 
 Amoeba family," said the Arcella ; " for if you 
 will notice, his pseudopodia have buds at the 
 
170 IN BKOOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 ends — five buds on each pseudopod — twenty in 
 all. Think what a family ! Most of us con- 
 sider nine a large number." 
 
 " He seems to have tried to look like me," 
 said the Vaginicola, "for he is inclosed in a 
 lorica, and so was one that I once saw fall out 
 of a boat." 
 
 "Yes, he is evidently an attempt at a 
 ciliatus, for just look at the bristles on his 
 head ! " said the Stentor. 
 
 " But he sometimes swims on his back, and 
 that little one which comes here with the tubs 
 and the washerwoman always lies on its back 
 kicking its four legs in the air as if it were try- 
 ing to swim like a shrimp," said the Branchi- 
 pus. " And he has two eyes. Without doubt 
 he was meant for a shrimp, only he didn't get 
 enough legs. He has but two pairs. Per- 
 haps that is because he is still in the nauplius 
 stage." 
 
 "I think what you call his front pair of 
 legs are antennae," said the Daphnia. " They 
 are not set in his head right, to be sure, but 
 I've seen him stand on his hind legs and move 
 those front things about just like antennae." 
 
 "No, those are tentacles," said the Hydra. 
 " I've seen him push food into his mouth with 
 them." 
 
THE GREATEST JOKE OP ALL. 
 
 171 
 
 " Yes, but I've seen him walk on the front 
 pair alone," said the Paramoecium. " One day 
 there were half a dozen of them capering 
 around on the beach, and all at once they 
 tiirned top side down and went walking oflE 
 one after another in a string, each with his 
 
 head down and his hind pair of pseudopods 
 up in the air," 
 
 "That proves what I said," replied the 
 Hydra. " He walks with his tentacles, as any 
 sensible being should. I have no doubt that 
 whoever made him intended him for a hydra, 
 although he was rather spoiled in the making." 
 
 " No, he's a contortionist," said the Cantho- 
 camptus. " I've seen the washerwoman's nau- 
 
 13 
 
172 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 plius flop over with its back uppermost and go 
 crawling off on its four legs ; and it did a cu- 
 rious thing as it crawled, for, instead of using 
 its hind feet, it doubled them back at the middle 
 joint and allowed the lower half of the leg to 
 drag clumsily along, while' it used the knee 
 joints as feet." 
 
 "He seems to have been poorly put to- 
 gether in several respects," said the Fairy 
 Shrimp. "Think of having one's branchiae 
 or breathers inside the body, where there's 
 nothing to breathe ! And then the absurdity 
 of having one's eyes set into one's head, and 
 both looking in the same direction ! " 
 
 "Think of the absurdity of having two 
 eyes at all ! " said the Cyclops. " Two eyes to 
 see one thing ! Kidiculous ! " 
 
 "The most ridiculous thing I ever saw 
 about this strange animal," said the little 
 Colepa, " was what happened one warm summer 
 day when several of his kind came down to the 
 shore and peeled off their loricas; and then 
 one of them began to unscrew one of his 
 pseudopods and actually twisted it off and 
 left it lying on the sand, while he and the 
 others jumped into the water and began to 
 kick and splash, sprawling about like frogs. I 
 never had so much fun in my life. I nearly 
 
THE GREATEST JOKE OP ALL. 173 
 
 went into hysterics at seeing that one hind, leg 
 kicking in the water while the other lay on the 
 shore like a dead wooden thing. I had to hold 
 my sides for fear my hoops would burst and 
 I'd die laughing." 
 
 " How awkward to have pseudopodia which 
 get broken off and have to be replaced by 
 wooden ones ! It's a pity he doesn't have a 
 shell to draw them into," said the Arcella. 
 
 "The worst of it is that he carries the hard 
 part or shell of him inside, instead of having 
 it outside to protect the soft part of his body, 
 as we do," said the Cypris. 
 
 "And his mastax is at the surface of him 
 instead of where the food is to be digested," 
 said the Rotifer. 
 
 " He seems to be hollow like the Vorticellae," 
 said a Bell Animalcule. " But he isn't pretty 
 nor cup-shaped, and what can he want of two 
 stems ? " 
 
 "You are right about being hollow. His 
 head, at least, is," said the Euplotes, "for I've 
 seen several of these animals sit on a log and 
 open a slit which they have in the side of 
 their heads and set clappers going in the great 
 hollow ball, making a ludicrous cackling and 
 croaking like the noises made by frogs. The 
 oddest part of it was that these noises seemed 
 
174 rj BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 to be very interesting to them. When one 
 croaked, the others would turn their heads to 
 listen and would watch his clapper wagging, 
 and then another ^YOuld croak, and they would 
 turn to him ; and then another would croak — 
 one after another, almost without cessation ; 
 sometimes two or three at once, and every one 
 so attentive and interested ! I suppose it is 
 some sort of game similar to that with which 
 the frogs amuse themselves of evenings in the 
 spring. But it is such a very comical perform- 
 ance, and the noises they make are so varied 
 and ridiculous, that it is more entertaining than 
 any frog concert. I should be inclined to think 
 these animals were related to me, because they 
 can run backward ; but the fact that they re- 
 semble frogs in the noises they make and in 
 their manner of swimming seems to indicate 
 that they are more closely related to the frog 
 family. But I confess that I can't decide what 
 they are." 
 
 " Well, friends," said the Rotifer, who was 
 acknowledged to be the most brainy one of the 
 company, " this animal is such a jumble, it is 
 clearly impossible to classify him. I can find 
 two and only two explanations for him. You 
 see, he has some points of resemblance to each 
 one of us, and indeed seems to be related to 
 
THE GREATEST JOKE OP ALL. 175 
 
 all of us ; but every part of his body is either 
 imperfect in itself or is imperfectly located. 
 
 " Now, first, it may be that the Creator used 
 him to experiment upon, and put the parts of 
 his body together to see how they would work, 
 and what alterations he should make when he 
 came to create us. He may be a sort of trial 
 creature, made before the real work of creation 
 began. 
 
 " Or, secondly, he may be a conglomerate of 
 all the parts that were left after making us 
 — a batch of odds and ends thrown together 
 at haphazard, with some putty to hold them 
 wherever they happened to stick — a creature 
 made just for the fun of the thing ; for — and I 
 hope you will excuse my frankness — but some- 
 times when I look at some of you — of ■ws, I 
 mean — it seems to me that the Creator must 
 have a vein of humor in him which cropped 
 out once in a while in his work. And perhaps 
 when he finished making us and had completed 
 the important part of creation, he was tired 
 and felt the need of a little relaxation, and 
 so he just threw this creature together to see 
 what a ridiculous thing he could make, so as 
 to have something to laugh at." 
 
 Which is it ? 
 
PRONOUNCING GLOSSARY. 
 
 AcTiNOPHKYS (ak-ti-n6f'ris). 
 AmcEba, pi. bse (a-me'ba, pi. be). 
 Amphileptus (am-fl-lSp'ttis). 
 Arcella, pi. se (ar-s61'la).' 
 
 " a-cu'mi-na-ta, pointed. 
 
 " d6n-ta'ta, toothed. 
 
 " mi-tra'ta, miter-shaped. 
 Aeronaut (a'Sr-o-nat). A balloonist. 
 Alchemist (Srke-mist). An ancient chemist. 
 Aquatic (a-kwat'ik). Living in water. 
 Atom (&t'&m). The smallest particle of matter that can enter 
 
 into combination. 
 Articulated (ar-tik'u-lat-6d). Jointed. 
 Bacillaria (bas-i-la'ri-aj. 
 
 " (paradoxa). Not to be expected ; contradictory. 
 Brachiopoda (brak-i-6p'6-da). 
 Branchipus (brang-ki'ptis). 
 Branchiopod (br3,ng'ki-6-p6d). 
 Branchiopoda (brang-ki-6p'6-da). 
 Canthocamptus (cSn-tho-camp'tiis). 
 Cercomonas (ser-ko-mo'nSs). 
 
 Chary bdis (ka-rib'dis). A fabled whirlpool near Sicily. 
 Chilodon cucuUulus (kl'l6-d6n ktl-klil-lu'llis). 
 Ciliata (sil-i-a'ta). 
 
 Clathrulina elegans (klflth-roli'ni 61-e g&nz). 
 
 177 
 
lYS IN BROOK AND BAYOU, 
 
 Coleps (ko'16ps). 
 
 Cothurnia (ko-ther'ni-a). 
 
 Cyclops (sl'kl6ps). 
 
 Cypris (si'pris). 
 
 Carapace (kar'a-pas). The shell covering the back of crusta- 
 ceans. 
 
 Cliitinous (ki'tin-fis). Horny; the substance incasing insects 
 and crustaceans. 
 
 Daphnia (difni-a). 
 
 Desmid (des'mid). 
 
 Diaptomus (di-ap'to-mtis). 
 
 Dipter (dip'tSr). A two winged insect ; a fly, a mosquito. 
 
 Debris (da'bre). Rubbish, driftwood. 
 
 Dorsal (d6r'sal). Pertaining to the back. 
 
 Epistylis (6p-i-sti'lis). 
 
 Euglena (u-gle'na). 
 
 " (tri-qu6'ta), three-sided. 
 " (san-gume-a), red. 
 " (vi-ri'dis), green. 
 
 Euplotes (ti-plo'tes). 
 
 Eliminated (e-limt-nat 6d). Caused to disappear. 
 
 Encysted (6n-sist'Sd). Inclosed in a sac or cyst. 
 
 Environment (Sn-vi'r6n-m6nt). The surrounding conditions 
 by which living things are modified. 
 
 Extemporized (6ks-t6m'p6-rizd). Made oflE-hand or under ne- 
 cessity . 
 
 Exuding (6ks-u'dirg). Discliarging through the pores. 
 
 Flagellata (flag-61-la'ta). 
 
 Function (fdnk'shiin). The appropriate action of any organ. 
 
 Frustule (frtls'tul). The shell of a diatom. 
 
 Genealogical (j6n-e-a-16j'i-kal). Pertaining to the history of 
 ancestors and their children. 
 
 Hydra (hi'dra). 
 
 Hereditary (he-rfedt-ta-ri). Inherited ; descended from father 
 to child. 
 
 Hypnocyst (hlp'no-sist). A slumber sac ; a cyst in which pro- 
 tozoans lie dormant. 
 
PRONOUNCING GLOSSARY. I79 
 
 Infusoria 0n-fu-s6'ri-a). Protozoans found in vegetable infu- 
 sions. 
 
 Incipient (in-s5p'i-6nt). Beginning to be. (This word must 
 not be confounded with "insipient,'' stupid.) 
 
 Inherent (in-her'6nt). Inseparably associated or involved with. 
 
 Jardiniere (zhar-de-ny&r'). An ornamental receptacle for plants. 
 
 Joie de vie (zhwa-d'-ve'). Joy of life. 
 
 Larva (lar'va). The wormlike young insect before it has 
 wings. 
 
 Locomotor (l6-k6-m6'ter). Pertaining to movement. 
 
 Molecule (mdl'e-kul). An invisible particle of matter. 
 
 Masticating (mas'ti-kat-ing). Chewing. 
 
 Neuropter (nu-rftp'ter). An insect with four net-veined wings. 
 
 Noctiluca (nOk-ti-lu'ka). 
 
 Nucleus (nu'kle-iis). A kernel ; a central point about which 
 matter is gathered. 
 
 CEsophagus (e-sOf'a-gils). The gullet. 
 
 Olfactory (61-fak't6-ry). Connected with the sense of smell. 
 
 Paramoecium (par-a-me'si-tim). 
 
 Protozoan (pro-to-zo'Sn). One of the lowest or single-celled 
 animals. 
 
 Pterodina (ter-o-di'na). 
 
 Pyxicola (pik-sik'6-la). 
 
 Polarity (po-lSr I-ty). The condition which exhibits contrasted 
 properties corresponding to contrasted parts, as attraction 
 and repulsion in opposite parts of a magnet. 
 
 Prehension (pre-hSn'shiin). The act of grasping. 
 
 Progenitor (pro-j&n'i-ter;. A forefather. 
 
 Quiescent (kwi-6s'sSnt). In a state of repose. 
 
 Rotifer (ro'ti-fer). 
 
 Rotifera (ro-ti-fe'ra). 
 
 Recapitulating (re-ka-pit'ti lat-ing). Summing up. 
 
 Refracting (re-frakt'ing). Bending from the direct course. 
 
 Spirogyra (spi-ro-ji'ra). A fresh-water plant in which are 
 spiral bands of green. 
 
 Stauridia (stfi-ridl-a). 
 
 Stentor (stSn'tor). 
 
180 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. 
 
 Stephanoceros (st6f a-nds'e-riis). 
 
 Strephuris (strgf-il'ris). 
 
 Silicious (si-lish'iis). Made of quartz, as sand. 
 
 Thuricola (th4-iic'6-la). 
 
 Trachelocerca (tra-ke-l6-ser'ka). 
 
 Thoracic (tho-rSs'ik). 
 
 Vaginicola (vij-i-nik-6'la). 
 
 Vampyrella (v&m-pi rSl'la). 
 
 Vorticella (v6r-ti-s61'la). 
 
 Ventral (v6n'tral). The under side of an animal. 
 
 Viscera (vis'se-ra). The internal organs, especially those of 
 
 the abdomen. 
 Viviparous (vi-vip'a-rlis). Bringing forth the young alive; not 
 
 exuding the egg before hatching. 
 
 THE END. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 JLJANDBOOK OF BIRDS OF EASTERN 
 
 ^ J- NORTH AMERICA. With Keys to the Species, Descrip- 
 tions of their Plumages, Nests, etc. ; their Distribution and Migra- 
 tion. Treating of all the birds, some five hundred and forty in num- 
 ber, which have been found east of the Mississippi River, and from 
 the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. By Frank M. Chapman. 
 Assistant Curator of Mammalogy and Ornithology, American Museum 
 of Natural History. With over 200 Illustrations. i2mo. Library 
 Edition, cloth, $3.00 ; Pocket Edition, flexible covers, $3.50. 
 
 The author's position has not only given him exceptional opportunities for the 
 preparation of a work which may be considered as authoritative, but has brought him 
 in direct contact with beginners in the study of birds whose wants he thus thoroughly 
 understands. The technicalities so confusing to the amateur are aVoided, and by the 
 use of illustrations, concise descriptions, analytical keys, dates of migration, and re- 
 marks on distribution, haunts, notes, and characteristic habits, the problem of identi- 
 fication, either in the field or study, is reduced to its simplest teims. > 
 
 OPINIONS OF ORNITHOLOGISTS AND THE PRESS. 
 
 ** Written in simple, non-technical language, with special reference to the needs of 
 amateurs and bird-lovers, yet with an accuracy of detail that makes it .a standard 
 authority on the birds of eastern North America."— y. A. A Hen, Editor of The Auk. 
 
 " I am delighted with the * Handbook.' So entirely trustworthy and up to date 
 that I can heartily recommend it. It seems to me the best all-around thing we have 
 had yet." — Olive Thorne Miller. 
 
 '* The * Handbook ' is destined to fill a place in ornithology similar to that held by 
 Gray's * Manual' in botany. One seldom finds so many good things in a single vol- 
 ume, and 1 can not recommend it too highly*^ Its conciseness and frefedom from errors, 
 together with its many original ideas, make It the standard work of its class."— ^oAw 
 H. Sage, Secretary of the A tnerican Ornithologists' Union. 
 
 " Your charming and most useful little book. ... I had good reason to expect an 
 excellent book of the kind fi-om your pen, and certainly have not been disappointed. 
 We receive here very many inquiries concerning a popular book on birds, or rather. 1 
 should say, a book so combining popular and^ scientific features as to render it both 
 entertaining and instructive. To all such inquiries I have been obliged to reply i hat 
 no such book existed. Now, however, the * lOng-felt want ' has been ^atisfactonly sup 
 plied ; and it will give me great pleasure to answer such inquiries in future in a dif- 
 ferent way." — Robert Ridgway, Umied States National Museum^ Washington, D. C. 
 
 " A book so free from technicalities as to be intelligible to a fourteen-year-old boy, 
 and so convenient and full of ot'iginnl information as to be indispensable to the work- 
 ing ornithologist. ... As a handbook of the birds of eastern North America it ir. 
 bound to supersede all other works." — Science, 
 
 " The author has succeeded in presenting to the reader clearly and vividly a vast 
 amount of useful information." — Philadelphia Press, 
 
 "A valuable book, full of information compactly and conveniently arranged." — 
 New York Sun. 
 
 "A charming book, of interest to every naturalist or student of natural history.'' — 
 Cincinnati Times-Star. 
 
 "The book will meet a want felt by nearly every bird observer." — Minneapolis 
 Tribune. 
 
 New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
F 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 AMI LIAR FLOWERS OF FIELD AND 
 GARDEN, By F. Schuyler Mathews. Illustrated with 
 200 Drawings by the Author, and containing an elaborate Index 
 showing at a glance the botanical and popular names, family, 
 color, locality, environment, and time of bloom of several hun- 
 dred flowers. i2mo. Library Edition, cloLh, $1.75 ; Pocket 
 Edition, flexible covers, $2.25. 
 
 In this conven'ent and useful volume the flowers which one finds in the fields are 
 identified, illustrateil, and described in familiar language. Their connection with gar- 
 den flowers is made clear Panicular attention is drawn 10 ihe beautiful ones which 
 have come under cultivation, and, as ihe title indicates, the book furnishes a ready 
 guide to a knowledge of wild anii cultivated flowers alike. 
 
 '* I have examined Mr. Mat'iews's Httle book upo;i * Fiimiliar Fl<>wers of Field and 
 Garden,' and 1 have pleasure in commending the accuracy anJ beauiy of the drawings 
 and the freshness of the text We have lo ig needed some botany trom the hand ot an 
 artist, who sees form and color without the forma'iiy of the scieniist. Tlie bov>k deserves 
 a riputdtion." — L. H Bailey, Professor 0/ Horticulture, Cornell University. 
 
 " I am much pleased with your ' Fami!i:ir Flowers of Field and Garden.' It is a 
 useful and handsomely prepaied handbook, and the elaborate index is an especially 
 valuable part of it. I'alcen in connection with the many caieiul drawings, it would 
 seCiTi as though your little volume thoroughly covers its subject." — L.oiiis Frang 
 
 " The author describes in a most interestmg and charming manner many familiar 
 wild and cultivated plants, enliven ng his remarks by crisp epis7ram';, and rendering 
 iJe itification of the subjects described sim[jle by means of some two hundred draw- 
 ings from .Mature, made by his own pen. . . . The book will do much lo more fully 
 acquaint the reader with those plants of field and garden treated upon with which he 
 may be but partly familiar, and go a long way toward correcting many popular 
 errors existing in the matter of colors of their flowers, a subject to which IVf r. Mathews 
 has devoted much attention, and on which he is now a recognized authority in the 
 trade."— iWzy York Florists' Exchange. 
 
 "A book of mu.,h value and interest, admirably arranged for the student and the 
 lover of flowers. . . . The text is full of compact information, well selected and interest- 
 ingly presented. . . It seems to us to be a most attractive handbook of its kind." — 
 New York Sun. 
 
 "Adellgliiful book and very useful. lis language is plain and familiar, and the 
 illustrations are damty works of art. It is just the book for those who want to be 
 familiar with the well-known flowers, those ihat grow in ttie cultivated gardens as well 
 as those that blossom in the fields."— iVfw«r>t Daily Advertiser. 
 
 "Seasonable and valuable. The youngbotanist and the lover of flowers, who have 
 only studied from Nature, will be greatly aided by tlii-, work." — Pittsburg Post. 
 
 " Charmingly written, and lo any one who loves the flowers— and who does not 1 — 
 will prove no less fascinaiing than instructive. It will open up in the garden and the 
 fields a new world full of curiosity and delight, and invest them with a new inteiest in 
 his sight." — Ciwistinn Work. 
 
 " Ohe need not be deeply read in floral lore to be interested in what Mr. Mathews 
 hai wrirtcn, and the more proficient one is therein the greater his satisfaction is likely 
 to be." — Neut) } 'ork Mail and Express. 
 
 "Mr. K. Fchnyler Mnthews*s careful description and giacefnl drawings of our 
 ' Fa niliar Flowers of Field and Garden ' are fitted to make them familiar even to those 
 who have not before made their acquaintance."— A'fw J 'ork Evening P'ost. 
 
 New York; D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 P AM I LIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES, 
 
 ^ By F. Schuyler Mathews, author of "Familiar Flowers of 
 Field and Garden," " The Beautiful Flower Garden," etc. Il- 
 lustrated with over 200 Drawings from Nature by the Author. 
 l2mo. Cloth, $1.75- 
 
 '* It is not often that we find a book which deserves such unreserved commendation. 
 Tt is commendable for several reasons : it is a book tliat has beun needed fur a long 
 time, it is written in a popular and attractive style, it is accurately and profusely illus- 
 trated, and it is by an authority on the subject oi which it treats." — Public Opinion 
 
 *' Most readers of the book will find a world of information they never dreamed of 
 about leaves that have long been familiar with them. The study will open to them 
 new sources of pleasure in every tiee around their houses, and prove interesting as well 
 as instructive." — Sa7i Francisco Call, 
 
 "A revelation of the sweets and joys of natural things that we are too apt to pass 
 by with but little or no thouglit. The book is somewhat more ihan an ordinary botan- 
 ical treatise on leaves and trees It is a heart-to heart talk with Nature, a true appre- 
 ciation of the beauty and the real usefulness ofleaves and trees." — Boston Courier. 
 
 " Has about it a simplicity and a directness of purpose that appeal at once to every 
 lover of Nature." — New York Mail and Express 
 
 " Mr. Mathews's book is just what is needed to open our eyes. His text is charm- 
 ing, and displays a loving and intimate acquaintance with tree life, while the drawings 
 of foliage are beautifully executed. We commend the volume as a welcome companion 
 in country walks." — Philadtlpkia Public Ledger. 
 
 "The book is one to read, and then to keep at hand for continual reference." — 
 Chicago Dial. 
 
 '* The unscientific lover of Nature will find this book a source of enjoyment as well 
 as of instruction, and it will be a valuable Introduction to the more scientific study of 
 the subject." — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
 
 " This book will be found most satisfactory. It is a book which is needed, written 
 by one who knows trees as he knows people." — Minneapolis Journal. 
 
 "A book of large value to the student. The reader gathers a wide and valuable 
 knowledge which will awaken new interest in every tramp through the forest." — CJii- 
 cag} Inter-Ocean. 
 
 "A most admirable volume in many ways Tt meets a distinct and widely felt 
 want; the work is excellently done ; its appearance is very timely. . . Written in a 
 clenr and simple style, and requires no previous technical knowledge of botany to under- 
 stand it." — Baltimore News. 
 
 " This very valuable book will be prized by all who love Nature." — The CAurchtnan. 
 
 "Of the many Nature books that are constantly inviting the reader 10 leave pave- 
 ment and wander in country bypaths, this one, with its scientific foundation, and its 
 simplicity and clearness of style, is among the most alluring." — St. Paul Pioneer-Press. 
 
 New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
T 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 HE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 
 
 AND OBSERVATIONS ON NATURE, By Gilbert 
 White. With an Introduction by John Burroughs, 80 Illus- 
 trations by Clifton Johnson, and the Text and New Letters of 
 the Buckland edition. In two volumes. i2mo. Cloth, $4.00. 
 
 "White himself, were he alive to-day, would join all his loving readers in thanking 
 the American publishers for a thoroughly excellent presentation of his famous book. 
 . . . This latest edition of White's book mast go into all of our libraries; our young 
 people must have it at hand, and our trained lovers of select liternture must take it uito 
 their homes. By such reading we keep knowledge in proper perspective and are able 
 to grasp the proportions of discovery." — Maurice 'J kompson, in the Independent. 
 
 *' White's ' Selbome ' belongs in the same category as Walton's * Complete Angler ' ; 
 . . . here thejr are, the 'Complete Angler' well along in its third century, and the uther 
 just started in its second century, both of them as highly esteemed as they were when 
 first published, both bound to live forever, if we may_ trust the predictions of their re- 
 spective admirers. John Burroughs, in his charming introduction, tells us why White's 
 book has lasted and why this new and beautiful edition has been printed. . . . This new 
 editionof his work comes to us beautifully illustrate J by Clifton Johnson." — New Vork 
 Tunes. 
 
 " White's * Selborne ' has been reprinted many times, in many forms, but never be- 
 fore, so far as we can remember, in so creditable a form as it assumes in these two 
 volumes, nor with drawings comparable to those which Mr. Clifton Johnson has made 
 for them." — New York Mail and Express. 
 
 " We are loath to put down the two handsome volumes in which the source of such 
 a gift as this has been republished. The type is so clear, the paper is so pleasant to 
 the touch, the weight of each volume is so nicely adapted to the hand, and one turns 
 page after page with exactly that quiet sense of ever new and ever old endeared de- 
 light which comes through a window looking on the English countryside— the rooks 
 cawing in a neighboring copse, the little village nestling sleepily amid the trees, trees 
 so green that sometimes they seeTi to hover on the edge of black, and then again so 
 green that they seem vivid with the flauntmg bravery of spring." — New York 
 Tribune. 
 
 "Not only for the significance they lend to one of the masterpieces of English 
 literature, but as a revelation of English rural life and scenes, are ihese pictures de- 
 lightfully welcome. The edition is in every way creditable to the publishers." — 
 Boston Beacon, 
 
 " Rural England has many attractions for the lover of Nature, and no work, per- 
 haps, has done i s charms greater j istice than Gilbert White's ' Natural History of 
 Selbome.' " — Boston yonrnal. 
 
 "This charming edition leaves really nothing to be desired." — Westminster 
 
 Gazette. 
 
 " This edition is beautifully illustrated and bound, and deserves to be welcomed by 
 all naturalists and Nature lovers." — London Daily Chronicle. 
 
 " Handsome and desirable in every respect. . . . Welcome to old and young." — 
 New York Herald. 
 
 " The charm of White's ' Selborne ' is not d^ finable But there is no other book ot 
 the past generations that will ever take the place with the field naturalists." — Balti- 
 more Sun. 
 
 New York- D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
T 
 
 D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE WEST SERIES. 
 Edited by Bipley Hitchcock. 
 
 *' There is a vast extent of territory lyftig bfitween the Missouri River and the Pacific 
 coast which has barely been skimmed over so far. That the conditions nf life therein 
 are undergoing changes little short of marvelous will be understood when one recalls 
 the fact that the first white male child bom in Kansas is still living there ; and Kansas 
 is by no mean; one of the newer States. Revolutionary indeed has been the upturning 
 of the old condition of affairs, and little remains thereof, and less will remain as each 
 year gocb by, until presently there will be only tradition of the Sioux and Comanches, 
 the cowboy life, the wild horse, and the antelope. Histories, many ot them, have been 
 written about the Western country alluded to, but most if not practically all by outsiders 
 who knew not personally that life of kaleidoscopic allurement. But ere it shall have 
 ■ vanibhed forever we are likely to have truthful, complete, and charming portrayals ot 
 it produced by men who actually knew the life and have the power to describe it." — 
 Henry Edward Rood^ in the Mail and Express. 
 
 NOW READY, 
 
 HE S7VRY OF THE INDIAN. By George 
 
 Bird Grinnell, author of " Pawnee Hero Stories/' " Black- 
 foot Lodge Tales,'' etc. i2ino. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 " In every way worthy of an author who, as an authority upon the Western Indians, 
 is second to none. A book full cf color, abounding in observation, and remarkable in 
 sustained interest, it is at the same time characterized by a grace of .style which is rarely 
 to be looked for in such a work, and which adds not a little to the charm of it." — 
 London Daily Chronicle. 
 
 "Only an author qualified by personal experience could offer us a profitable study 
 of a race so alien from our own as is the Indian in thought, feeling, and culture. ( )nly 
 long association with Indians can enable a white man measurably to comprehend their 
 thoughts and enter into their feelings. Such associatioti has been Mr. Grinnell's." — 
 Ne-w York Sun. 
 
 rHE STORY OF THE MINE. By Charles 
 Howard Shinn. Illustrated, izmo. Cloth, f 1.50. 
 
 " Tlie author has written a book, not alone full of information, but replete with the 
 true romance of the American mine." — New York Times. 
 
 "Few chapters of recent history arc more fascinating than that which Mr. Shinn 
 has told in ' The Story of the Mine.' "—The Outlook. 
 
 "Both a history and a romance. . . . Highly interesting, new, and thrilling."— 
 Philadelphia Itiquirer. 
 
 IN PREPARATION. 
 
 The story of the Trapper. By Gilbert Parker. 
 
 The Story of the Cowboy. By E. Hough. 
 
 The Story of the Soldier. By Capt. J. McB. Stembel, U. S. A. 
 
 The Story of the Explorer. 
 
 The Story of the Railroad. 
 
 New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 THE LIBRARY OF USEFUL STORIES. 
 
 Each book complete tn itself. By writers of authority in their various 
 spheres, \tmo. Cloth^ 40 cents per volume. 
 
 NOVV READY. 
 
 ^HE STORY OF THE STARS. By G. F. Cham- 
 
 T 
 
 BERS, F. R. A. S., author of " Handbook of Descriptive and 
 Practical Astronomy," etc. With 24 Illustrations. 
 
 " The author presents his wonderful and at times bewildering facts in a bright and 
 cheery spirit that makes the book doubly attractive." — Boston Hoiite foutnal. 
 
 n^HE STORY OF ''PRIMITIVE'' MAN. By 
 J. Edward Clodd, author of " The Story of Creation," etc. 
 
 '* No candid person will deny that Mr. Clodd has come as near as any one at this 
 time is likeiy to come to an authentic exposition of all tlie information hitherto gained 
 regarding the earlier stages in the evolution of mankind." — New York Sun. 
 
 n^HE STORY OF THE PLANTS. By Grant 
 J. Allen, author of *' Flowers and their Pedigrees," etc. 
 
 "As fascinating In style as a first class story of fiction, and is a simple and clear 
 exposition of plant life." — Boston Hon e Joui-Jial. 
 
 'HE STORY OF THE EARTH. By H. G. 
 
 Seeley, F. R. S., Professor of Geography in King's College, 
 London. With Illustrations. 
 
 "It is doubtful if the fascinating story of the planet on which we live has been pre- 
 Yiou.sly told so clearly and at the same time so comprehensively." — Boston Advertiser. 
 
 'HE STORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. By 
 
 G. F. Chambers, F. R. A. S. 
 
 " Any intelligent reader can get clear ideas of the movements of the worlds .nbout us. 
 , Will impart a wise knowledge of astronomical wonders. ' — Chicago Inier-Ocean. 
 
 'HE STOR Y OF A PIECE OF COAL. By E. 
 
 A. Martix, F. G. S. 
 
 " The value and importance of this volume are out of all proportion to its size and 
 outward appearance." — Chicago Record, 
 
 T 
 
 T 
 
 T 
 
 T 
 
 'HE STORY OF ELECTRICITY. By John 
 
 MUNRO, C. E. 
 
 "The book is an excellent one, crammed full of facts, and deserves a place not 
 alone on the desk of the student, but on the woikbench of the practical electrician." — ■ 
 New J 'ork Times. 
 
 T 
 
 'HE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS 
 OF THE EAST. By Robert Anderson, M.A., F. A. S.. 
 author of " Early England," " The Stuart Period," etc. 
 
 New York ■ D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 
 
M 
 
 /'