The Book Of Curiosities Part 17

The host, when the traveller repeated his a.s.sertion, was staggered. He was certain that he must have come over the bridge, because there was no other way; but also knowing the state in which the pa.s.sage was, he could only attribute the escape of the traveller and his horse to witchcraft. He, however, said nothing to him that night; but the next morning took him to the bridge, and showed him the plank that his horse must have pa.s.sed over, at the same time that he pointed to the raging torrent beneath.

Struck with this circ.u.mstance, the traveller, it is said, was seized with an illness from which he did not speedily recover.

It is from a respectable source that we insert the following narrative of the SAGACITY OF DOGS.

M. La Valee, in his Journey through the Departments of France, published in 1792, gives the following curious account of the manner in which the country people, in the neighbourhood of Peronne and Doulens, had trained their dogs to elude the vigilance of the officers of the revenue.--At night, these animals were laden, each with a parcel of goods proportioned to its size; except one alone, who was their leader, and went without any burden. A crack of a whip was a signal for them to set out. The leader travelled a little distance before the rest; and, if he perceived the traces of any stranger, he returned to the other dogs: these either took a different way, or, if the danger was pressing, concealed themselves behind the hedges, and lay close till the patrole had pa.s.sed. When they arrived at the habitation of their master's a.s.sociate, they hid themselves in the neighbouring fields and hedges, while their leader went to the house, and scratched at the door, or barked, till he was admitted, when he lay quietly down, as at home: by this the smuggler knew that the caravan was come; and, if the coast was clear, he went out, when he gave a loud whistle, and the dogs came running to him from their several hiding-places!

Peltier, in his Annals of Paris, No. 164, for December, 1798, records the following anecdote:--At the beginning of the Revolution, a dog went daily to the parade before the palace of the Thuilleries, thrust himself between the legs of the musicians, marched with them, halted with them, and after the parade, disappeared until the next morning, when he resumed his occupation. The constant appearance of this dog, and the pleasure which he seemed to take in the music, made him a favourite with the band, who nicknamed him, Parade. One gave him food to-day, another to-morrow; and he understood, by a slight signal, and a word or two, whom he was to follow for his dinner; after which, faithful to his independence, the dog always withdrew, in spite of any caresses or threats. Sometimes he went to the opera, sometimes to the Comedie Italienne, and sometimes to the Theatre Feydeau; in each of which houses he found his way to the orchestra, and would lie down silently in one corner of it, until the performance was over. "I know not, (says Peltier) whether this dog be now alive: but I know many musicians, to whom his name, his figure, and the singularity of his habits, are perfectly familiar."

In Pet.i.t's Campaign of Italy, under the chief consul Buonaparte, published in 1800, we have the following anecdote, which places this animal in the most engaging light: "In traversing the Alps over the mountain Great St.

Bernard, many people perish among the almost inaccessible rocks, whose summits are covered with eternal snow. At the time we crossed them, the chapel of the monastery of St. Bernard was filled with dead bodies, which their dogs had discovered suffocated and benumbed under the snow. With what emotions of pleasure did I caress these dogs, so useful to travellers! how can one speak of them without being moved by their charitable instinct! Notwithstanding the paucity of our eatables, there was not a French soldier who did not manifest an eagerness to give them some biscuit, some bread, and even a share of their meat. Morning and evening, these dogs go out on discovery; and if in the midst of their wandering courses the echo of some unfortunate creature ready to perish reaches their attentive ears, they run towards those who call out, express their joy, and seem to bid the sufferer take courage, till they have been to procure a.s.sistance; in fact, they hasten back to the convent, and, with an air of inquietude and sadness, announce in a very discernible manner what they have seen. In that case, a small basket is fastened round the dog's neck, filled with food proper for reanimating life almost exhausted; and, by following the benevolent messenger, an unhappy creature is thus frequently s.n.a.t.c.hed from impending destruction."

A Florentine n.o.bleman possessed a dog, which would attend his table, change his plates, and carry his wine to him, with the utmost steadiness, and the most accurate attention to his master's notices.

It is related by the ill.u.s.trious Leibnitz, that a Saxon peasant was in possession of a dog of the middling size, then about three years of age.

The peasant's son, perceiving accidentally, as he imagined, some resemblance in its sounds to those of the human voice, attempted to teach it to speak. By the perseverance of the lad, the dog acquired the power, we are told, of p.r.o.nouncing about thirty words. It would, however, exercise this extraordinary faculty only with reluctance, the words being always first spoken by the preceptor, and then echoed by the pupil. This circ.u.mstance is attested by Leibnitz, who himself heard it speak; and it was communicated by him in a memoir to the Royal Academy of France.

In the theatre of Marcellus, a case occurred, which many will consider more probable, but which is almost as extraordinary, as mentioned by Plutarch.--"A dog was here exhibited which excelled in various dances of great complication and difficulty, and represented also the effects of disease and pain upon the frame, in all the contortions of countenance and writhings of the body, from the first access, to that paroxysm which often immediately precedes dissolution. Having thus apparently expired in agony, he would suffer himself to be carried about motionless, as in a state of death; and after a sufficient continuance of the jest, he would burst upon the spectators with an animation and sportiveness, which formed a very interesting conclusion of this curious interlude, by which the animal seemed to enjoy the success of his scenic efforts, and to be delighted with the admiration which was liberally and universally bestowed upon him."

"A tinker (says Pezelius) brought a wonderful dog to Constantinople; and a number of people being a.s.sembled to behold him, many of them laid their rings in a heap confusedly before him. At the command of his master, he would restore to every man his own, without any mistake. Also, when his master asked him which of the company was a captain, which a poor man, which a wife, which a widow, and the like, he would discover all this without error, by taking the garment of the party inquired after in his mouth."

CHAP. XVI.

CURIOSITIES RESPECTING FISHES.

_The Frog-fish--Bird-catching Fish--The Nautilus--The Air-bladder in Fishes--Respiration in Fishes--Shower of Fishes._

"----------------The scaly brood In countless myriads cleave the crystal flood."

"Who can old Ocean's pathless bed explore, And count her tribes that people ev'ry sh.o.r.e."

THE FROG-FISH.--There is a very singular animal of Surinam, bearing this name, of which a figure is given by Mr. Edwards, in his History of Birds, vol. I. but of which no specimen is to be found either in the British Museum, or in any private collection, except that of Dr. Fothergill. It was brought from Surinam, in South America.

Frogs, both in Asia and Africa, according to Merian, change gradually from fishes to frogs, as those in Europe; but after many years, revert again into fishes, though the manner of their change has never been investigated. In Surinam these fishes are called _Jakjes_: they are cartilaginous, of a substance like our mustela, and exquisite food; they are formed with regular vertebrae, and small bones all over the body, divided into equal parts; are first darkish, and then gray; and their scales make a beautiful appearance. Whether this animal is, in its perfect state, a species of frog with a tail, or a kind of water-lizard, Mr.

Edwards does not pretend to determine; but he observes, that when its size is considered, if it should be deemed a tadpole, at first produced from sp.a.w.n, and in its progress towards a frog, such an animal, when full-grown; if it bears the same proportion to its tadpole state that those in Europe do to theirs, it must be of enormous size; for our full-grown frogs exceed the tadpoles at least fifty times.

Another curiosity is, THE BIRD-CATCHING FISH.--This fish is called by the natives of Canada, _Chaousaron_; its body is nearly the shape of a jack or pike, but is covered with scales that are proof against the stab of a dagger; its colour is a silver gray, and there grows under its mouth a fin that is flat, jagged at the edges, and pierced at the end, which gives reason to conjecture that it breathes by that part. This fish is about five feet in length, and as thick as a man's thigh; but some of them, it is said, are eight or ten feet long. In order to catch birds, it hides itself among the reeds in such a manner, that no part of it can be seen but the fin just mentioned; this it erects upright out of the water, and birds that want to rest themselves, take this fin for a reed, or a dry piece of wood; but no sooner have they alighted on it, than the fish opens his mouth, and makes such a quick motion to seize its prey, that it seldom escapes.

Another curious object is, THE NAUTILUS.

Learn of the little Nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.

_Pope._

The sh.e.l.l of this animal consists of one spiral valve, divided into several apartments. There are seventeen species, chiefly distinguished by peculiarities in their sh.e.l.ls.

The most remarkable division of the Nautilus is into the thin and thick-sh.e.l.led kinds. The first is called _Nautilus Papyraceus_; and its sh.e.l.l is indeed no thicker than a piece of paper, when out of the water.

This species is not at all fastened to its sh.e.l.l; but there is an opinion, as old as the days of Pliny, that this creature creeps out of its sh.e.l.l, and goes on sh.o.r.e to feed. When this species is to sail, it expands two of its arms on high, and between these supports a membrane, which it throws out on this occasion: this serves for its sail, and the two other arms it hangs out of its sh.e.l.l, to serve occasionally either as oars or as a steerage; but this last office is generally served by the tail. When the sea is calm, numbers of these creatures may frequently be seen diverting themselves in this manner, in the Mediterranean: but as soon as a storm rises, or any thing gives them disturbance, they draw in their legs, and take in as much water as makes them specifically heavier than that in which they float; and then they sink to the bottom. When they rise again, they void this water by a number of holes, of which their legs are full.

The other nautilus, whose sh.e.l.l is thick, never quits its habitation. This sh.e.l.l is divided into forty or more part.i.tions, which grow smaller and smaller as they approach the extremity or centre of the sh.e.l.l: between each of these cells there is a communication by means of a hole in the centre of the part.i.tions. Through this hole there runs a pipe, of the whole length of the sh.e.l.l. It is supposed by many, that by means of this pipe the fish occasionally pa.s.ses from one cell to another; but this seems by no means probable, as the fish must undoubtedly be crushed to death by attempting to pa.s.s through it. It is much more likely that the fish always occupies the largest chamber in its sh.e.l.l; that is, that it lives in the cavity between the mouth and the first part.i.tion, and that it never removes out of this; but that all the apparatus of cells, and a pipe of communication, which we so much admire, serve only to admit occasionally air or water into the sh.e.l.l, in such proportion as may serve the creature in its intentions of swimming.

Some authors call this sh.e.l.l the _concha margaritifera_: but this can be only on account of the fine colour on its inside, which is more beautiful than any other mother-of-pearl; for it has not been observed than this species of fish ever produced pearls.

It must be observed, that the polypus is by no means to be confounded with the paper-sh.e.l.led nautilus, notwithstanding the great resemblance in the arms and body of the inclosed fish; nor is the cornu ammonis, so frequently found fossil, to be confounded with the thick-sh.e.l.led nautilus, though the concamerations and general structure of the sh.e.l.l are alike in both: for there are great and essential differences between all these genera. There is a pretty copious and minute account of this curious animal in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxii. p. 6, 7, 8, and 301, and vol. xxv. p. 128.

We now proceed to describe that destructive inhabitant of the mighty deep, THE SHARK.--Sharks, though voracious creatures, are seldom destructive in the temperate regions; it is in the torrid zone that their ravages are most frequent. In the West Indies, accidents happen from them daily.

During the American war in 1780, while the Pallas frigate was lying in Kingston harbour, a young North American jumped overboard one evening, to make his escape, and perished by a shark in a shocking manner. He had been captured in a small vessel, lost all his property, and was detained by compulsion in the English navy, to serve in a predatory war against his country. But he, animated with that spirit which pervaded every bosom in America, resolved, as soon as he arrived at some port, to release himself from the mortifying state of employing his life against his country, which, as he said when dying, he was happy to lay down, as he could not employ it against her enemies. He plunged into the water: the Pallas was a quarter of a mile from the sh.o.r.e. A shark perceived him, and followed him very quietly, till he came near the sh.o.r.e; where, as he was hanging by a rope that moored a vessel to a wharf, scarcely out of his depth, the shark seized his right leg, stripped the flesh entirely from the bones, and took the foot off at the ancle. He still kept his hold, and called to the people in the vessel near him, who were standing on the deck, and saw the affair. The shark then seized his other leg, which the man by his struggling disengaged from his teeth, but with the flesh cut through down to the bone, into a mult.i.tude of narrow slips. The people in the vessel threw billets of wood into the water, and frightened the shark away.

The young man was brought on sh.o.r.e. Dr. Mosely was called to him; but he had lost so much blood before any a.s.sistance could be given him, that he expired before the mangled limbs could be taken off. A few weeks before this, a shark of twelve feet in length was caught in the harbour; and on being opened, the entire head of a man was found in his stomach. The scalp and flesh of the face were macerated to a soft pulpy substance; which, on being touched, separated entirely from the bones. The bones were somewhat softened, and the sutures loosened.--(Moseley on Tropical Diseases.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: TERRIBLE ADVENTURE WITH A SHARK--Page 199.]

A very extraordinary instance of intrepidity and friends.h.i.+p is given by M.

Hughes, in his Natural History of Barbadoes. It happened about the end of Queen Anne's wars, at Barbadoes.--The sailors of the York Merchant, having ventured into the sea to wash themselves, a large shark made towards them; upon which they swam back, and all reached the boat except one, whom the monster overtook, and, griping him by the small of his back, soon cut him asunder, and swallowed the lower part of his body; the remaining part was taken up and carried on board, where was a comrade of the deceased, between whom friends.h.i.+p had been long reciprocal. When he saw the severed trunk of his friend, with a horror and emotion too great for words to paint, he vowed that he would make the devourer disgorge, or be swallowed himself in the same grave, and plunged into the deep, armed with a sharp-pointed knife. The shark no sooner saw him, than he made furiously toward him: both were equally eager, the one of his prey, the other of revenge. The moment the shark opened his rapacious jaws, his adversary dexterously diving, and grasping him with his left hand somewhat below the upper fins, successfully employed his knife in his right hand, giving him repeated stabs in the belly. The enraged shark, after many unavailing efforts, finding himself overmatched in his own element, endeavoured to disengage himself, sometimes plunging to the bottom, then, mad with pain, rearing his uncouth form, now stained with his own streaming blood, above the foaming waves. The crews of the surrounding vessels saw the doubtful combat, uncertain from which of the combatants the streams of blood issued; till at length the shark, much weakened by the loss of blood, made towards the sh.o.r.e, and with him his conqueror; who, now a.s.sured of victory, pushed his foe with redoubled ardour, and, by the help of an ebbing tide, dragged him on sh.o.r.e, ripped up his bowels, and united and buried the severed carcase of his friend.

"It is evident, (says Dr. Moseley,) that digestion in these animals is not performed by trituration, nor by the muscular action of the stomach; though nature has furnished them with a stomach of wonderful force and thickness, and far exceeding that of any other creature. Whatever their force of digestion is, it has no effect upon their young ones, which always retreat into their stomachs in time of danger. That digestion is not performed by heat in fish, is equally evident. The coolness of the stomach of these fishes is far greater than the temperature of the water out of which they are taken; or of any other part of the fish, or of any other substance of animated nature I ever felt. On wrapping one of them round my hand, immediately on being taken out of the fish, it caused so much aching and numbness that I could not endure it long. Of these voracious sea monsters, there are thirty three species."

THE TORPEDO.--The torpedo inhabits the Mediterranean and the North Seas, and grows to the weight of twenty pounds. This fish possesses a strong electrical power, and is capable of giving a very considerable shock through a number of persons forming a communication with it. This power was known to the ancients, but exaggerated by them with all the fables natural to ignorance; and it is only recently that the power has been ascertained to be truly electric. It is conducted by the same substances as electricity, and intercepted by the same. In a minute and a half, no fewer than fifty shocks have been received from this animal, when insulated. The shocks delivered by it in air, are nearly four times as strong as those received from it in water. This power appears to be always voluntarily exercised by the torpedo, which occasionally may be touched and handled without its causing the slightest agitation. When the fish is irritated, however, this quality is exercised with proportional effect to the degree of irritation; and its exercise is stated, in every instance, to be accompanied by a depression of the eyes. When that animal exerts the benumbing power, from which it derives its name, and when it operates by separate and repeated efforts, this is always the case. Both in the continued, and in the instantaneous process, the eyes, which are at other times prominent, are withdrawn into their sockets; a circ.u.mstance very naturally attaching both to the condensation and discharge of the subtle fluid. Specimens have been known of this fish weighing fifty, and even eighty pounds. It commonly lies in forty fathoms of water, and is supposed to stupify its prey by this extraordinary faculty. It is sometimes nearly imbedded in the sands of shallows; and it is stated, in these cases, to give to any who happens to tread upon it, an astonis.h.i.+ng and overwhelming shock. On dissection, it was found to exhibit no material difference from the general structure of the ray, excepting with respect to the electric or galvanic organs, which have been minutely examined and detailed by the celebrated anatomist, John Hunter: he states them "to be placed on each side of the cranium and gills, reaching thence to each great fin, and extending longitudinally from the anterior extremity of the animal, to the transverse cartilage which divides the thorax from the abdomen."

From the whole description, it appears that these organs, as Mr. Shaw observes, const.i.tute a pair of galvanic batteries, disposed in the form of perpendicular hexagonal columns; while, in the gymnotus electricus, the galvanic battery is disposed lengthwise on the lower part of the animal.

It is stated, that the torpedo, in its dying state, communicates shocks in more than usually rapid succession, but in proportional weakness; and in seven minutes, in these circ.u.mstances, three hundred and sixty small shocks were distinctly felt. On the same authority (that of Spallanzani) it is reported, that the young torpedo can exercise this power at the moment after its birth, and even possesses it while a foetus, several of these having been taken from the parent fish, and being found to communicate perceivable shocks, which, however, were most distinctly felt when these animals were insulated on a plate of gla.s.s.

A very curious object is, THE AIR-BLADDER IN FISHES.--There is no doubt that fishes extract air from water by means of their gills, since it is through them that they renew the air of their air-bladder. This bladder is an oblong bag, consisting of two or three membranes easily separated; sometimes it has only a single lobe or cavity, as in the case of pikes, whitings, trouts, &c.; at other times it has two lobes, as in the case of barbel and carp; three, as in that of the sea tench; or four, as in the Chinese gold fish. It is by expanding or compressing this bladder, that the fish occupies more or less s.p.a.ce in the water, becomes more or less heavy, and ascends or descends as it chooses. The division of the bladder into different lobes has proceeded from a very sufficient reason. When the bladder has only one cavity, as in the case of fishes of prey, the motion of ascent or descent takes place slowly, and without a break; because, as they compress the whole bladder at once, the whole body is moved horizontally, upwards or downwards, as the case may be; a circ.u.mstance which has the effect of lessening, in consequence of the resistance of the water, the swiftness of those tyrants of the deep. When the bladder has two lobes, as in the case of the carp, which lives on insects, that fish, by expanding the anterior and compressing the posterior lobe, rises rapidly with the head foremost to the surface of the water, or sinks to the bottom with equal expedition, by compressing its two lobes in different ways. The consequence is, an increased prompt.i.tude of movement, and additional means of escaping from its enemies. When the bladder has four lobes, as in the case of the gold fish, that fish is thus enabled to vary greatly its contractions and expansions. It rises, sinks, bends, erects, or turns itself in a thousand ways, and plays in the water, like a bird in the air. It displays all the richness of the colours of gold, silver, or purple, with which Nature has adorned it. Its att.i.tudes are so graceful, and its movements so varied, that the Chinese, from whom we originally received it, are said to pa.s.s whole days in looking at it, in the basins of the fountains in their gardens, or in crystal vessels. It is evidently indebted for the ease and grace of its motions, to the modulations consequent on the four divisions of its air-bladder.

Another subject of curiosity is, THE RESPIRATION IN FISHES.--Fish derive air from the water which they are inaccessantly swallowing through the mouth, and throwing out by the gills. The gills are formed with infinite skill, and may be called a delicate kind of sieve, adapted for separating air from water. Their operation proves the radical difference between these two elements, and leads to the conclusion, that they are not joined even when mixed. The gills are placed in the back part of the sides of the head, and are contained in a cavity adapted for them. They are a kind of red and flexible leaflets, consisting of a row of thin plates, like the blade of a knife, pressed against each other, and forming a succession of barbs or fringed substances, similar to those on the side of a goose-quill. These gills are covered with a small lid, and with a membrane, supported by cartilaginous threads. Both are capable of being raised and lowered; and, by being thus opened, they afford a pa.s.sage to the water swallowed by the animal. A prodigious number of muscles give motion to these minute particles. It may appear almost incredible, that the number of particles connected with the respiration of the carp is not fewer than 4386. Of these, sixty-nine are muscles; while the arteries of the gills, in addition to eight princ.i.p.al branches, throw forth 4320 smaller ramifications, while each of the latter gives birth to a number of cross arteries. Add to this, that the quant.i.ty of nerves is not smaller than that of the arteries; and that the veins are divided and subdivided, like the arteries, inasmuch as they do not give rise to any transverse capillary vessels. In this manner the blood flowing from the heart of the fish is spread over all the plates or blades of which the gills are composed; so that a very small quant.i.ty of blood is exposed to the action of the water, for the purpose, no doubt, that each part may be easily penetrated by the particles of air detached from the water.

It is not easy to explain in what manner these particles are detached from the water by the operation of the gills; but there seems no doubt of the fact, nor of the redness of the gills being a consequence of the operation of the air. That redness is exactly similar to the vermilion of the blood in the veins of animals with lungs, a vermilion considerably brighter than that of the arteries.

We shall conclude this chapter with an account of a SHOWER OF FISHES.--In the Philosophical Transactions for 1698, Mr. Robert Conny gives the following account of a phenomenon of this kind.

On Wednesday before Easter, anno 1666, a pasture field at Cranstead, near Wrotham, in Kent, about two acres, which is far from any part of the sea, or branch of it, and a place where there are no fish-ponds, but a scarcity of water, was all overspread with little fishes, conceived to be rained down, there having been at that time a great tempest of thunder and rain: the fishes were about the length of a man's little finger, and judged by all who saw them to be young whitings. Many of them were taken up, and shewed to several persons. The field belonged to one Ware, a yeoman, who was at that Easter sessions one of the grand inquest, and who carried some of the fish to the sessions of Maidstone, in Kent, and shewed them, among others, to Mr. Lake, a bencher of the Middle Temple, who procured one of them, and brought it to London. The truth of it was averred by many that saw the fishes lie scattered all over the field. There were none in the other fields adjoining: the quant.i.ty of them was estimated to be about a bushel.

It is probable that these fishes were absorbed from the surface of the water by the electric power of a water-spout; or brushed off by the violence of a hurricane. The phenomenon, though surprising, has occurred in various countries, and occasionally in situations far more remote from the coast than that before us.

CHAP. XVII.