A Year at the Shore

by Philip Henry Gosse

But what a series of instincts does this series of facts open to us! The knowledge by the Crab of the qualities of the new shell; the delay of his own satisfaction till his associate is ready; the power of communicating the fact to her; the power in her of apprehending the communication; her immediate obedience to the intimation; her relinquishment of her wonted hold, which for months at least had never been interrupted; her simultaneous taking of a new, unwonted hold, where alone it could have been of any use; the concerted action of both; the removal; her relinquishment of the transitory adhesion as soon as its purpose was accomplished; her simultaneous grasp of the new shell in the proper places; all these are wonderful to contemplate, wonderful considered singly, far more wonderful in their cumulation. Is there not here much more than what our modern physiologists are prone to call automatic movements, the results of reflex sensorial action? The more I study the lower animals, the more firmly am I persuaded of the existence in them of psychical faculties, such as consciousness, intelligence, will, and choice! and that, even in those forms in which as yet no nervous centres have been detected.

X.
OCTOBER

PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR.

The naturalist who has occasion to make a voyage over the warmer regions of the ocean, is continually delighted by the sight of numberless forms of animals, principally of the lower invertebrate classes, which either habitually swim at the surface of the sea, or come thither at intervals to enjoy the stimulus of the atmospheric air. Many of these are exceedingly curious and interesting; many totally unlike any forms that occur on the shores of temperate countries; many elegant in contour, and adorned with brilliant colours. Perhaps there is scarcely any that takes a stronger hold on the fancy, certainly none is more familiar, than a little thing that he daily marks floating in the sunlit waves, as the ship glides swiftly by, which the sailors tell him is the Portuguese man-of-war.[123] Perhaps a dead calm has settled over the sea; and the observer, as he leans over the bulwarks of the ship, has opportunities of scrutinizing the ocean-rover at leisure, as it lazily rises and falls on the long sluggish heavings of the glassy surface. Then he sees that the comparison of the stranger to a ship is a felicitous one; for, at a little distance it might well be mistaken for a child’s mimic ship, shining in all the gaudy painting in which it came out of the toy-shop; and he is ready to pity the forlorn urchin in tunic and knickerbockers, whose cherished boat has broken her moorings of thread, and drifted with winds and tides far, far out of reach of land.

Plate 28.
P. H. GOSSE, del. LEIGHTON, BROS.
PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. TONGUED SARSIA.

Not unfrequently does one of the tiny vessels come so close alongside that, by means of the ship’s bucket, with a little assistance from a smart fellow, who has jumped into the “chains” with a boat-hook, it is captured, and brought on deck to be subjected to scientific examination. A dozen voices are however lifted, warning you by no means to touch it, for well the experienced seaman knows its terrific powers of defence. It does not now appear so like a ship as when it was at a distance. It is an oblong bladder of tough membrane, varying considerably in shape (and hence no two original figures agree in this respect), and also in size, from less than an inch in length to the size of a man’s hat. Once in a voyage to Mobile, when rounding the Florida Reef, I was nearly a whole day passing through a fleet of these little Portuguese men-of-war, which studded the smooth sea as far as the eye could reach, and must have extended for many miles. These were of all sizes within the limits I have mentioned. Generally, there is a conspicuous difference between the two extremities of the bladder, one end being rounded, while the other is more pointed, or is terminated by a small knob-like swelling, or beak-shaped excrescence, where there is a minute orifice. Sometimes, however, no such excrescence is visible, and the orifice cannot be detected.

The bladder is filled with air, and therefore floats almost wholly on the surface. Along the upper side, nearly from end to end, runs a thin ridge of membrane, which is capable of being erected at the will of the animal to a considerable height, fully equal at times to the entire width of the bladder, when it represents an arched fore-and-aft sail, the bladder being the hull. From the bottom of the bladder, near the thickest extremity, where there is a denser portion of the membrane, depends a crowded mass of organs, most of which take the form of very slender, highly contractile, and moveable threads, which hang down into the deep to a depth of many feet, or even occasionally, of several yards.