LESSON XXXII.
WHAT A FISHERMAN TOLD.
One day, on the sea-beach, I saw a man mending a net. He took from the net two small things like shells. They clung to the meshes of the net. They were white and hard. They looked like two or three shells put one inside the other.
The fisherman said, “There are in the world more of these things than there are leaves on the trees, I think.”
“Where do they grow, Mr. Fisherman?”
“It is easier,” said the fisherman, “to say where they do not grow, unless I just say, they grow wherever there is sea-water. The pier yonder, below high-water mark, is covered with hundreds of them. All the rocks that we see bare at low tide are white with them. Every log or stick that drifts on the sea has them on it. All the old shells on the beach, and many new shells, have dozens fastened on them.
“I have seen an old King Crab crawl up the beach,” the fisherman said. “He had his shell so coated with these things, that it seemed as if he had two shells, one on top of the other. It was so heavy that he could hardly walk.
“I have also seen them growing in the skins of whales, and sharks, and other fish. I have sailed all around the world, and I have found these things everywhere.”
“What do you call them, Mr. Fisherman?”
“Some call them Sea-Acorns, some Sea-Rose-Buds. These are pretty names; but Barnacle is the right name.”
“Do you know, Mr. Fisherman, that they are cousins of the crabs?”
“I’ll never believethat,” said the fisherman. “They do notlooklike crabs. When I was a boy, folks told me that out of these shells came a little bird that grew into a goose. I saw a picture once, of a tree all covered with big barnacles, and out of each one hung a little bird’s head. Is that tale true? They were not quite like these barnacles.”
“No, Mr. Fisherman, it is not at all true. No birds grow from barnacles. That is an old-time fable.”
“Well,” said the fisherman, “once in the water I saw something hanging out of the shell of a fellow like this. It opened and shut, and looked alittlelike a bird’s foot.”
“It was a foot, Mr. Fisherman, but not a bird’s foot. It was Mr. Barnacle’s own foot, and as he has no hands, he uses his feet to catch his dinner.”
“I know,” said the fisherman, “that horse-hairs in ponds will turn into long worms. But I never did think these shells would turn into birds.”
“And horse-hairs will never turn into worms. Long, thin, black worms in ponds look much like the hairs of a horse’s tail, so some people think they must once have been horse-tail hairs. But it is not so. Horse-hairs are always only horse-hairs, and worms all come from eggs which were laid to bring out a worm.”
“It is a pity,” said the fisherman, “that when I was a boy in school my books did not tell me of these things. It would have been nice to know what I was looking at as I went about the world.”
Now let us study these barnacles of which our fisherman spoke. He told us truly about their number and where they grow. He told us what he knew because it was what he had seen.
There are two kinds of barnacles,—those that have stems, and those that have no stems. The kind that has no stems is the kind you will see oftener, though there are plenty of the other kind.
The stemless, or acorn barnacles, are placed flat upon whatever they grow on. Try to pull one off a stone. You cannot do it while the animal is alive. When the animal is dead or dying, you can move the shell from what it grows upon. After theanimal has been dead some time, the shells drop from their places, and leave room for others to grow.
All barnacles do not fix themselves upon dead bodies, such as stones, wood, or shells. Many of them fasten upon living animals, and are carried about with them from place to place. Perhaps they enjoy travel!
In the North Sea many sharks have barnacles growing upon them. The stem of the barnacle has little hollow hairs, and these enter into the flesh of the shark and hold fast there. Others have been found keeping house upon the whale’s skin, and yet others on the shells of turtles.
These barnacles which you find by the shore are small things, you can hold several of them in your hand at once. Far down in the ocean lives a huge giant barnacle, so big that some of you could hardly lift him.