Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria/Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII.
"———— All is barren!
Why so it is, and so is all the world
To him who will not taste the fruit it offers."
How fully replete with pleasant thoughts is the' memory of our wanderings along the shores of Hobson's Bay, by St. Kilda and Brighton, accompanied by a chosen friend, whose pursuits though not quite identical with our own, were sufficiently akin to admit of our entering into them with a zest but little less than that which he professed,—he ever and again rushing frantically away after some one of the many
"Little bright-eyed things
That float about the air on azure wings."
and returning breathless after a while to exhibit his spoil, in re Lepidoptera or Coleoptera, whilst we, not to be outdone, displayed to his wondering sight the many handsome forms, animal and vegetable, which had found their way into our collecting pouch and bottles. There is an intense charm in having a companion on these excursions, one really devoted to the work, and ready for any thing that may turn up, and moreover, social converse, the application of two heads to any debatable point, and skilled assistance when needed, are wonderful helps to such work as ours.
What adds so very materially to the beauty of this part of the coast is the very many lowly shrubs rooted deep down in the sandy soil, such as the yellow Hibbertias, the silky Pleurandra, many species of Geranium, the lovely pink and white Epacris or Native Heath, the bitter Erythræa australis and others, whilst in moist places such as the banks of the lagoons trail the tiny Lobelia and the Myoporum, with its refreshingly green, shining, spatulate leaves, and then coming to St. Kilda, we wander through dense bushes of the beautiful white-flowering Riccinocarpus sidæformis. It is well to pause awhile here, were it only to observe the constant arrival and departure of vessels from all parts of our own coasts, and from every quarter of the globe, whilst the Bay itself is thronged with ships more in number than perhaps any other port in the world can boast of;—truly the progress of this Colony is a matter for wonder, when we reflect that but some twenty-five years since, the bold pioneers slowly wound their way up the Yarra, and laid the foundation of the handsome, densely-populated City of Melbourne, yet in the stirring scenes which have passed panorama-like before us, since the gold discovery, the energies and indomitable perseverance of those men have scarcely even been a matter for a passing thought; the time is yet to come when we shall duly appreciate them, and the dangers they have past will be as familiar to the Colonists at large as "Household Words," more particularly if some enterprising Publisher would give us cheap editions of the Travels of Batman, Mitchell, Sturt, poor Leichardt, and a host of others. We eagerly devour the last new novel, and the discoveries in and histories of other lands, but to our shame be it spoken are singularly apathetic to a knowledge of that in and by which we live.
But we have arrived at a part of the beach sufficiently undisturbed to admit of our commencing operations, and we arrange in our coat of many pockets the various bottles,—large and small,—which we hope to fill by and by; this is apparently a trivial matter, but take our word for it, some such methodical arrangement often facilitates the securing a rare specimen, which otherwise would wriggle away whilst the peculiar bottle to suit it was being ferretted out.
Here now we have one of the Cephalopoda, so called as we have previously informed our readers, because the only organs it has, which can be compared to feet, are attached to the head, and are employed in ministering to the mouth, and pretty actively they minister too!!
In the Octopus (the name of the specimen we have captured) there are eight of these feet,—as may be implied by its generic title, but in the Decapods, as the Cuttle-fish (Sepia) or Squid (Loligo) there are in addition two long tentacles which not only serve to capture prey beyond the reach of their true feet, but to anchor themselves by when the seas are agitated. The Chinese fishermen on our shores dry these for food, and we have often been astounded at the vast numbers which are, day after day, drying around their establishments. In the former, the shell is but rudimentary, and the only approach to a skeleton is a cartilaginous ring, whilst in the Sepia it is large, and in the Squid or Calamary, as it is often called, it is reduced to a horny or quill-shaped plate, and of both we have frequent examples on our shores. The feet are flexible and muscular to a high degree. Along each edge of the inner surface, which is flattish, while the outer is rounded, is a row of circular sucking' discs, amounting" in number to upwards of one hundred in each foot; once let these suckers get a firm hold of anything that is worth retaining, and farewell to all hope or chance of its ever getting free, so long as their owner pleases to operate on his prey with these perfect cupping glasses. Examine any one of them, says Rymer Jones,[1] "It is an admirably arranged pneumatic apparatus—an air-pump. The adhesive disc is composed of a muscular membrane, its circumference being" thick and fleshy, and in many species (the Decapods, or ten-armed) supported by a cartilaginous circlet, so that it can be applied most accurately to any foreign body. In the centre of the fleshy membrane is an aperture leading into a deep cavity, at the bottom of which is placed a prominent piston that may be retracted by muscular fibres provided for the purpose. No sooner therefore is the circumference of the disc placed in close and air-tight contact with the surface of an object, than the muscular piston is strongly drawn inwards, and a vacuum being thus produced, the adhesion of the sucker is rendered as firm as mechanism could make it."
The ten footed Cephalopoda or Decapods have a pair of fins by which they swim in all directions, but the broad web connecting the feet of the Octopods enables them to swim in a retrograde direction, a peculiarity we but recently noticed in a specimen kept for our observation by the Keeper of the bathing houses at Geelong (Mr. Rigney), and in our investigation of its habits we became acquainted with a peculiarity which it in common with other Cephalopoda possesses, viz., of changing its color, Chameleon like, to harmonise with the surface on which it rests, blue, brown, and pale pink being displayed according to circumstances, the blue and pink being retained in the animal, now some time in spirits before us as we write.
The mouth of the Cephalopoda is singularly formidable,—it is armed with a pair of powerful horny jaws, having within them a fleshy tongue, the whole apparatus being not unlike the bill and mouth of a parrot, forming, as may readily be imagined, most destructive instruments amongst the young crustaceous and testaceous animals on which they prey at the bottom of the ocean, where by day they establish themselves, but roaming gregariously after nightfall. The Octopus, many will be aware, is the animal fabulised under the name of the "Kraken," and formerly thought to have such size and power as to qualify it for attacking shipping, and most wonderful stories are told by nautical men of its bulk and strength. It is in fact as a friend remarks to us the Sea-serpent of the old, as the Gulf-weed, has been that of the modern maresnesters.
And not only have these creatures such formidable weapons of offence, but they are provided with means equally efficacious for defence; we have heard of impudent cases of theft being committed, snuff having first been thrown into the eyes of the victim, but these animals possess a bag containing a dark inky secretion which can be ejected at will, either to favor their escape from foes, or to enable them to carry out certain designs more artfully and successfully under the protection which it affords. That charming writer on Zoology, Mr. Broderip, attempted with a hand-net to catch an Octopus that was floating by with its long and flexible arms entwined round a fish, which it was tearing with its sharp hawk's bill; it allowed the net to approach within a short distance before it relinquished its prey, when, in an instant, it relaxed its thousand suckers, exploded its inky ammunition, and rapidly retreated under cover of the cloud which it had occasioned, by rapid and vigorous strokes of its circular web.[2]
An amusing anecdote is also told of a gallant Officer who was inconsiderately collecting shells in a pair of immaculate white trousers, and came suddenly upon one of the naked Cephalopods snugly harboured in a recess in the rock. They looked at each other, and the cuttle, who had his eyes about him and knew well how to use them, upon seeing the enemy advance took good aim, and shot so true, that he covered the snowy inexpressibles with the contents of his ink-bag, and rendered them unpresentable either in drawing-room or dining-room.[3]
Pocketing our Octopus after this long yarn about him and his fellows, we stroll onwards to a heap of Seaweeds, evidently thrown out from the Fishermen's net, and soon were on our knees groping amongst it, when a loud snort made us rise somewhat hastily (visions of mighty Krakens, enveloping us in their huge arms, flitting lightening-like before us), and then discovered, what in our eagerness had escaped notice, that we were kneeling on the tail of a huge Sting-Ray, which had by this means testified his displeasure at our freedom with his extremities,—dangerous quarters with such formidable spines as he possesses there. We wished to make closer acquaintance with him, and remove him out of our path, but a renewal of this loud snort was all the welcome we obtained, and so leaving him to his fate we resumed our algologising.
Of the Seaweeds we collect here we shall speak in their proper place;—it is of the many beautiful Zoophytes growing on them with such plant-like form and stillness, that we must now direct the attention of our fellow ramblers. What are Zoophytes? Well, without entering into the nice distinctions between what is animal and vegetable, that having received the attention of abler hands, we may notice some of their various forms,—the Anemones are Zoophytes, and the most commonly known probably, but let us examine together the ribbony Kelp fronds on the beach,—we need not search long before many little silvery spots of the size of a threepenny piece are pretty sure to arrest our attention,—admire them you will we know, but look at one through a pocket lens, and thousands of pearly cells will be observed, each having a distinct aperture, uniform in appearance;—it will scarcely be credited that each and every one of these forms the habitation of an animal!! sensible to outward impressions, stretching forth its tentacles in search of prey, and performing the functions of digestion through all its various stages. This is what we see in a species of Membranipora, and not an uncommon one; there are many others on our coast, presenting a variety of forms which Art would fail to imitate; the Plumularias and Sertularias resembling small bushes, must contain some tens of thousands of Polypes on each bush,—the Plumularias have polyp cells on one side only of the branch, the Sertularias on both;—some, as the Campanularias, creep closely to old shells and seaweeds, jointed at regular intervals, the joints being ringed, and throwing out pretty campanulate cells; others as Ætea, winding along seaweeds, such as Ballia and Callithamnion, and resembling the head of a snake without its lower jaw, from which cause the genus was called by Lamarck Anguinaria (Anguis—a Snake), but the former appellation bestowed upon it by Lamouroux, has again been generally adopted: in a common Victorian species (dilitata,) specimens of which the Rev. Dr. Landsborough in his the manual of British Zoophytes, mentions as having received from his and our esteemed friend Dr. Daniel Curdie, of Tandarook, Camperdown, the head instead of terminting like that of a serpent, is shaped like a ladle; the Lepraliæ or Sea-scurf are abundant enough on rocks and stones, and most puzzling the student will find them ) then there is the Serialaria or Nit Coralline, not a pleasant object to the naked eye, but under the microscope displaying its cells, disposed in rows at intervals, so as to resemble Pan-pipes, whilst in another species (convoluta) they are whorled.
The Catenicella is widely distributed in the Australian Seas, each cell divided by a short corneous tube, and variously marked with fenestræ or vittæ; almost every collection of Algæ will afford some species, all well worthy of careful study, but to enumerate the charms of one quarter of them would occupy more of our space than we can consistently afford them. Those who will collect them, will by getting a few leading ones named to serve as types, very soon master the most common species, and will find too much that will assist them in Landsborough's very pretty Book, to which we have before alluded, "The British Zoophytes," by Johnston, the very excellent Catalogue by Mr. Busk, of the Zoophytes in the British Museum, with most carefully drawn plates, which supplemented by the papers[4] but lately read before the Royal Society of Victoria by our much valued friend, Dr. Macgillivray, of Williamstown, will give all our Australian species.
But say some of our companions, "we always fancied these were Seaweeds," nor is this a novel idea, since the very name given to the class—Zoophyta—(Zoon, an animal, and phyton, a plant, owes its origin to the doubts originally entertained by Naturalists as to the true place of the animals comprised in it, in the Natural Kingdom: why even Tournefort and Ray described and arranged them amongst the Seaweeds and Mosses!! In 1599, an Apothecary of Naples, Ferrante Imperato, published his "Historia Naturale" wherein he mentioned as the results of his observations,—the animals of Corals and Madrepores. Peysonnel (to whom a genus of Algæ has been dedicated), in the year 1727, had seen the Polypes of Coral and of Madrepores, had witnessed their motions, the extension of their tentacles, and the contraction and opening of the oral apertures, and moreover he discovered, what to most minds should have been conclusive, that their corruption exhaled the odour, and their chemical analysis discovered the constituent principles of animal matters; still, when submitted to the Academy of Science at Paris, it was coldly and doubtingly received by the Members. Jussieu, some twenty years subsequently, confirmed the observations of Peysonnel, and extended his own to Sertulariæ and Flustræ.
Reaumur also in an able manner reviewed the ground already gone over, and declared in favor of the animality of Zoophytes, and predicted that many then unexamined would have to be added to the list. There were still many disputants on the subject, so 10th are men to give up opinions already formed; but a merchant of London, Mr. John Ellis, who was particularly fond of Natural History, and had amused himself with making landscapes of Seaweeds and Corallines (?) on paper, was induced to look more minutely into the structure of the latter by aid of the miscroscope, and he discovered that these so called Corallines, on examination, indicated more of an Animal than Vegetable nature, an opinion which subsequent investigations fully bore out, and any statement made by Ellis was valuable, since he only detailed facts, ex visu, or an inference from them. And so from this time up, in spite of many contradictory hypotheses, the animality of the Zoophytes has been firmly established.
Many of the polypidoms or habitations of the Zoophytes are so minute as only to be accurately discerned under the microscope;—lucky will the investigator of them be if its powers will reveal the Polyp itself;—and there are many methods of preparing them for the purpose;—the Sertulariæ, Plumulariæ, and similar ones may either be mounted in Canada Balsam, or in distilled water, and the Flustra, Membranipora, Lepralia, Catenicella, &c, as opaque objects, gummed down in cells made of dark cardboard, covered with thin glass.
Most earnestly do we recommend our readers not to pass lightly by these many lovely forms of Marine life, such as we have only casually and but faintly depicted here, so sure are we that they will soon exclaim with the Poet—
"————Can such things be,
And overcome us like a Summer's cloud
Without our special wonder?"
- ↑ Structure of the Animal Kingdom, p. 558.
- ↑ Lectures, Comp. Anat. Invert Owen, p. 611.
- ↑ English Cyclc. Nat. Hist. Sect., Article Sepiadeæ.
- ↑ "On some New Australian Polyzoa." 3rd Aug., 1859.
"Notes on the Cheilostomatons Polyzoa of Victoria." 26th Oct., 1859.