LESSON XXXV.
A LAST LOOK AT MR. BARNACLE.
It is well to know all you can about barnacles, for you will see them wherever you go by the seaside.
If you study them, you will not, like the fisherman, believe foolish things about them, and refuse to believe true things.
Will it not be pleasant to think of what you know of their story? When you see an acorn barnacle fast to a stone, you can think of the days when he was young and went sailing about. I wonder if he calls those days “the good old times!”
When you see a stem barnacle swinging in the water, you can think of what a good time he is having, fishing with his pretty feet.
The stemless barnacles also have, from their shape, a name which meansacorn. You will find the Latin names easy when you are older and study more.
The acorn shells can live out of water for a few hours at a time. When the tide is low, many of them are left high and dry. But if they should be out of water too long, they would die for want of food and water. Perhaps, also, the dry heat of the air kills them.
If you wish to study them for yourselves, take home a stone, shell, or stick, with some of them on it. Put it in a bowl of sea-water. Soon they will open their shells and begin fishing.
Those barnacles which grow fast to living fish, sharks, or whales, bury their heads and tubes in the skins of these animals. I wonder if the whales and sharks feel them and do not like them.
The barnacles that make the most trouble are those which fasten upon the outside of ships. The bottoms of ships are often covered with barnacles. They make the hull of the ship rough and heavy. That hinders its motion through the water.
In such a case the ship must be put into a dry dock. There it is scraped clean. Because of this trouble and waiting, sailors dislike barnacles. They often say that they wish there were none.
In some parts of the world there is a large kind of barnacles. People eat these as we eat oysters or mussels.
You need not expect to see the young barnacles swimming about in the water. They are very tiny creatures, of the shape of an apple-seed. If you should see them, I think you would never guess what they are.
For a great while people thought barnacles were not worth much study. They called them “shell fish,” and did not dream what wonders were hidden in their shell-plate cases. At last, when wise men knocked at Mr. Barnacle’s house door, and said, “Come out and tell me your secrets,” they found he was a most interesting little creature.