LESSON XXXV.
A STRANGER FROM MEXICO.
“And he banned the water goblin’s spiteFor he saw around in the sweet moonshine,Their little wee faces above the brine,Giggling and laughing with all their might,At the piteous leap of the fairy wight.”
“And he banned the water goblin’s spiteFor he saw around in the sweet moonshine,Their little wee faces above the brine,Giggling and laughing with all their might,At the piteous leap of the fairy wight.”
“And he banned the water goblin’s spiteFor he saw around in the sweet moonshine,Their little wee faces above the brine,Giggling and laughing with all their might,At the piteous leap of the fairy wight.”
“And he banned the water goblin’s spite
For he saw around in the sweet moonshine,
Their little wee faces above the brine,
Giggling and laughing with all their might,
At the piteous leap of the fairy wight.”
—Drake.
One day when I was studying in the Brighton Aquarium, England, I had been examining fish-scales through a powerful microscope, and turned to lay my paper of notes on a glass case near at hand. As I did so I remarked “that there were three fish in the case swimming around some kind of a leafless plant, on which hung a few round, small pods.”
PEARL CRADLES.
PEARL CRADLES.
When I returned to the microscope I found my mind obstinately fixed on the contents of the glass case. “That was surely not a stiff sea-plant, but the dead branch of a land-plant.” “I wonder what fish those were?” “Those werevery odd-looking little pods!” So I thought, until I concluded to take a second look at the objects so obtrusively present to my mind. Lo! the branch had not merely a few little pods, but some pods were on every one of the numerous tine divisions of the branch, except one long one near the bottom. These pods were pearly, flat, semi-transparent, of the size of shirt buttons, and in the centre of each was a black dot answering to the button’s eye.
As I observed them, the three “fish” kept swimming round and round the branch, in and out, and I noticed that this piece of dry plant was securely fastened to the bottom of the tank. But what! The lately bare lower twig had now four pellucid pods upon it! Surely the fish were placing these upon the twigs! The pods were then egg-cases.
So, my good fish, I said, you are hanging your babies upon a tree-top, are you? That very bad mother, the dog-fish, does the same.[69]But her cradles are black and horny; yours are like pearls! Who are you? Whence do you come? What is your place and name among all the fish families?
Stop: What is this I see growing from each side of your neck, like enormous whiskers? By this I perceive that you are not fish at all, but batrachians. These plumes are your external gills. And what are these? Why, truly, small legs and feet neatly drawn back as you swim; five webbed toes on the hind feet; four webbed toes on the front feet. Ah, but you are an interesting animal! Kindly stop swimming for a little until I count up your gifts and graces. A blunt head, shaped like the end of an ear of maize; a widemouth; nostrils close to the lips; two little eyes also set close to the upper lip. Ah! I know you now—bone of contention among the scientific, most unexpected in your behavior, specimen of the order Urodela, spotted Amblystoma, oh, why cannot you have at least one simple and easy name, Mexican axolotl!
A curious little child of Mexico is this denizen of the lakes of that warm southern land—a mild, silent, unhandsome, small beast, given to surprising people. The chief peculiarity of the creature is that it obstinately refuses ever to grow up, and remains in the larval state, instead of properly putting on the form of an adult. Nature’s perpetual child! And when it does grow up by chance, as, to be more surprising, some individuals do grow up, why then, it is no longer itself—but something else!
Now my interest was greatly quickened in this creature, and I began to admire it. Its scaleless skin was of a dark drab or steel color, of a velvet-like softness; the gills were three on each side of the head, finely divided into soft, thick plumes, which waved to and fro, expanded, closed, half-folded, spread wide. No Spanish belle ever handled a fan more beautifully than this little swimmer used its gill-branches.
Observe now the method of placing those translucent pearl cradles, the egg-pods. Twice about the twig the axolotl swims, eying it closely, as if considering of its fitness. Then she takes the twig, or the long, lithe stem of water-weed between her little webbed hands to steady it, and glides softly up the stem, and as she goes attaches the little pearl balls like seed-pods in a row. Nothing can be prettier thana long withe of green weed set with these pearly cradles shimmering in the sunlight; for not only do they hang as fair round pearls against the green in the water, but they are powdered all over with gold dust. This is a combination of green, pearl, and gold that any artist might envy.
The egg itself is the dark dot in the centre of that gold-besprinkled cradle. At first the inclosing jelly is but a small rim, but it expands immediately, remaining firmly attached to the stem. The little axolotl comes out of the egg perfectly formed, a minute copy of its parent; for we must remember that this parent is never grown-up, but remains always in the incomplete or larval state of its existence. The newly hatched axolotls grow rapidly to six or eight inches in length, and except for the branching gills closely resemble their near cousins, the salamanders.
Until 1865 the axolotls had never been closely studied. In Mexico they are abundant, are sold as an article of food in the markets and are eaten, “no questions being asked.” They are to the Mexican buyers, axolotls, and that is enough. When taken to European museums the axolotls were supposed from their imperfect development to be larvæ, which one day would metamorphose into their adult form.
For several years the first specimens in Paris remained just as when they had been brought from their native lakes. Then, a change being made in their tank giving them more healthful conditions, what did they do but select some spears of grass and weed and decorate them with egg-cases! For thirty days the egg-cases adhered to the twigs, then the little ones hatched out, larvæ, like their parents.
After this curious circumstance had been discussed for a time, some scientific people thought they would try and force these axolotls to grow up. They were gradually removed from the water and accustomed more and more to breathe in the air. As this process continued, some of the creatures died, some made no change in their state, but some began to accommodate themselves to air-breathing without the help of water; the gills began to wither or waste away, as often happens to unused members of a living body; after a time these external gills dropped off entirely and the axolotl breathed through the slit at the bottom of the branchial stump. As soon as this was accomplished, behold, not an axolotl at all, but a salamander, for meantime the legs also had developed and strengthened.
A German lady secured in this way the change of young axolotls to salamanders, or at least to salamandral form and habits. It has therefore been held that axolotls may be a class of salamanders, which from the conditions of their life have never dropped their gills or accustomed themselves to a land life. Others think that as the young salamanders and axolotls are so alike, mistakes have been made in handling the larvæ, and that those which developed as salamanders were hatched salamanders. So little is really known of the habits and life history of these creatures that they offer a pretty clear field for observation and experiment. It would be easy for some of our scientifically inclined young Americans to secure specimens from Mexico, and rearing the young from the eggs, note all their changes. Nothing is more attractive than original investigation.
Some call the axolotl the “fish-formed siren,” as it has a fin-like membrane down the middle of the back, around the tail, and so on along part of the under portion of the body. This fin enables it to balance itself admirably in the water. Axolotls eat worms, snails, tadpoles, insects, bread-crumbs, bits of meat, or any small larvæ found in the water.
FOOTNOTES:[69]Nature Reader, No. 3, Lesson 44.
[69]Nature Reader, No. 3, Lesson 44.
[69]Nature Reader, No. 3, Lesson 44.