i remember the time when i, and a brother who was with me, devoutly believed in a being whom we supposed to live among certain black, water-rotted, weed-grown stakes by the sea. these old wooden ruins were, i fancy, the remains of some rude pier, and amid them, when the tide was low, we used to play, and to pay fancy visits to our fancy friend.
we called her shriny—why, i know no more than when i first read croker's delightful story of "the soul cages" i knew why the merrow whom jack went to see below the waves was called coomara.
my remembrance of even what we fancied about shriny is very dim now; and as my brother was only four years old (i was eight), his is not more distinct. i know we thought of her, and talked of her, and were always eager to visit her supposed abode, and wander together amongst its rotten pillars (which, as we were so small, seemed lofty enough in our eyes), where the mussels and limpets held tightly on, and the slimy, olive-green fucus hung loosely down—a sea-ivy covering ruins made by the waves.
i have never been to the place since those days. if shriny's palace is there now at all, i dare say i should find the stakes to be stumps, and all the vastness and mystery about them gone for ever. and yet we used to pretend to feast with her there. we served up the seed-vessels of the fucus as fish. i do not think we really ate them, we only sucked out the salt water, and tried to fancy we were enjoying the repast. once we began to eat a limpet!—beyond that point my memory is dumb.
i wonder how we should have felt if shriny had really appeared to us, as coomara appeared to jack dogherty, and taken us down below the waves, or kept us among the stakes of her palace till the tide flooded them, and perhaps filled it with wonderful creatures and beautiful things, and floated out the dank, dripping fucus into a veil of lace above our heads; as our mother used to float out little dirty lumps of seaweed into beautiful web-like pictures when she was preserving them for her collection.
shriny never did come, though mr. croker says coomara came to jack.
perhaps, young readers, some of you have never read the story of the soul cages. it is a long one, and i am not going to repeat it here, only to say a word or two about it, for which i have a reason.
jack dogherty—so the story goes—had always longed to see a merrow. merrow is the irish name for seafolk; indeed, it properly means a mermaid. and jack, you know, lived in a fairy tale, and not in lodgings at a watering-place on the south coast; so he saw his merrow, though we never saw shriny.
i do not think any of the after-history of the merrow is equal to mr. croker's account of his first appearance to jack: afterwards "old coo" becomes more like a tipsy old fisherman than the man-fish that he was.
the first appearance was on the coast to the northward, when "just as jack was turning a point, he saw something, like to nothing he had ever seen before, perched upon a rock at a little distance out to sea; it looked green in the body, as well as he could discern at that distance, and he would have sworn, only the thing was impossible, that it had a cocked-hat in its hand. jack stood for a good half-hour, straining his eyes and wondering at it, and all the time the thing did not stir hand or foot. at last jack's patience was quite worn out, and he gave a loud whistle and a hail, when the merrow (for such it was) started up, put the cocked-hat on its head, and dived down, head foremost, from the rocks."
for a long time jack could get no nearer view of "the sea-gentleman with the cocked-hat," but at last, one stormy day, when he had taken refuge in one of the caves along the coast, "he saw, sitting before him, a thing with green hair, long green teeth, a red nose, and pig's eyes. it had a fish's tail, legs with scales on them, and short arms like fins. it wore no clothes, but had the cocked-hat under its arm, and seemed engaged thinking very seriously about something."
as i copy these words—it wore no clothes, but had the cocked-hat under its arm, and seemed engaged thinking very seriously about something—it seems to me that the portrait is strangely like something that i have seen. and the more i think of it, the more i am convinced that the type is familiar to me, and that, though i do not live in a fairy story, i have been among the merrows. and further still that any one who pleases may go and see coomara's cousins any day.
there can be no doubt of it! i have seen a merrow—several merrows. that unclothed, over-harnessed form is before me now; sitting motionless on a rock, "engaged thinking very seriously," till in some sudden impulse it rises, turns up its red nose, makes some sharp angular movements with head and elbows, and plunges down, with about as much grace as if some stiff, red-nosed old admiral, dressed in nothing but cocked-hat, spectacles, telescope, and a sword between his legs, were to take a header from the quarter-deck into the sea.
i do not want to make a mystery about nothing. i should have resented it thoroughly myself when i was young. i make no pretence to have had any glimpses of fairyland. i could not see shriny when i was eight years old, and i never shall now. besides, no one sees fairies now-a-days. the "path to bonnie elfland" has long been overgrown, and few and far between are the princes who press through and wake the beauties that sleep beyond. for compensation, the paths to mother nature's wonderland are made broader, easier, and more attractive to the feet of all men, day by day. and it is mother nature's merrows that i have seen—in the crystal palace aquarium.
how mr. croker drew that picture of coomara the merrow, when he probably never saw a sea crayfish, a lobster, or even a prawn at home, i cannot account for, except by the divining and prophetic instincts of genius. and when i speak of his seeing a crayfish, a lobster, or a prawn at home, i mean at their home, and not at mr. croker's. two very different things for our friends the "sea-gentlemen," as to colour as well as in other ways. in his own home, for instance, a lobster is of various beautiful shades of blue and purple. in mr. croker's home he would be bright scarlet—from boiling! so would the prawn, and as solid as you please; who in his own home is colourless and transparent as any ghost.
strangely beautiful those prawns are when you see them at home. and that one seems to do in the great aquarium; though, i suppose, it is much like seeing land beasts and birds in the zoological gardens—a poor imitation of their free life in their natural condition. still, there is no other way in which you can see and come to know these wonderful "sea gentlemen" so well, unless you could go, like jack dogherty, to visit them at the bottom of the sea. and whilst i heartily recommend every one who has not seen the aquarium to visit it as soon as possible, let me describe it for the benefit of those who cannot do so at present. it may also be of some little use to them hereafter to know what is most worth seeing there, and where to look for it.
no sooner have you paid your sixpence at the turnstile which admits you, than your eye is caught by what seems to be a large window in the wall, near the man who has taken your money. you look through the glass, and find yourself looking into a deep sea-pool, with low stone-grey rocks studded with sea-anemones in full bloom. there are twenty-one different species of sea-anemones in the aquarium; but those to be seen in this particular pool are chosen from about seven of the largest kinds. the very biggest, a tealia crassicornis, measures ten inches across when he spreads his pearly fingers to their full extent. "in my young days" we called him by the familiar name of crassy; and found him so difficult to keep in domestic captivity, that it was delightful to see him blooming and thriving as he does in tank no. 1 of the great aquarium. his squat build—low and broad—contrasts well with those tall white neighbours of his (dianthus plumosa), whose faces are like a plume of snowy feathers. all the sea-anemones in this tank have settled themselves on the rocks according to their own fancy. they are of lovely shades of colour, rosy, salmon-coloured, and pearly-white.
there are more than five thousand sea-anemones of various kinds in the aquarium; and they have an attendant, whose sole occupation is to feed them, by means of a pair of long wooden forceps.
reluctantly breaking away from such old friends, we pass through a door into a long vault-like stone passage or hall, down one side of which there seem to be high large windows, about as far apart as windows of a long room commonly are. behind each of these is a sea-pool like the first one.
take the first of the lot—tank no. 2. it is stocked with serpul?. sea-anemones are well-known to most people, but tube-worms are not such familiar friends; so i will try to describe this particular kind of "sea-gentlemen." the tube-worms are so called because, though they are true worms (sea-worms), they do not trust their soft bodies to the sea, as our common earth-worms trust theirs in a garden-bed, but build themselves tubes inside which they live, popping their heads out at the top now and then like a chimney-sweep pushing his brush out at the top of a tall round chimney. now if you can fancy one of our tall round manufactory chimneys to be white instead of black, and the round chimney-sweep's brush to have lovely gay-coloured feathers all round it instead of dirty bristles, or if you can fancy the sweep letting off a monster catherine-wheel at the chimney's mouth, you may have some idea what a tube-worm's head is like when he pokes it out of his tube.
the serpul? make their tubes of chalky stuff, something like egg-shell; and they stick them on to anything that comes to hand down below. those in the great aquarium came from weymouth. they were dredged up with the white pipes or tubes sticking to oyster-shells, old bottles, stones, and what not, like bits of maccaroni glued on to old crockery sherds. these odds and ends are overgrown, however, with weeds and zoophytes, and (like an ugly house covered by creepers) look picturesque rather than otherwise. the worms have small bristles down their bodies, which serve as feet, and help them to scramble up inside their tubes, when they wish to poke their heads out and breathe. these heads are delicate, bright-coloured plumes. each species has its own plume of its own special shape and colour. they are only to be seen when the animal is alive. a good many little serpul? have been born in the aquarium.
through the next window—tank no. 3—you may see more tube-worms, with ray-like, daisy heads, and soft muddy tubes. they are sabell?.
have you ever see a "sea-mouse"? probably you have: preserved in a bottle. it is only like a mouse from being about the size of a mouse's body, without legs, and with a lot of rainbow-coloured hairs. you may be astonished to hear that it is classed among the worms. there is a sea-mouse in the great aquarium. i did not see him; perhaps because he is given to burrowing. if he is not in one of the two tanks just named he is probably in no. 21 or no. 25. he is so handsome dead and in a bottle, that he must be gorgeous to behold alive and in a pool. you should look out for him.
it is a disappointing feature of this water wonderland that some of the "sea-gentlemen" are apt to hide, like hobbledehoy children, when visitors call. indeed, a good many of them—such as the swimming-crabs, the burrowing-crabs, the sea-scorpions, and the eels—are night-feeders, and one cannot expect them to change their whole habits and customs to be seen of the british public. anyhow, whether they hide from custom or caprice, they are quite safe from interference. much happier, in this respect, than the beasts in the zoological gardens. one may disturb the big elephant's repose with umbrella-points, or throw buns at the brown bear, but the "sea-gentlemen" are safe in their caves, and humanity flattens its nose against the glass wall of separation in vain.
when i looked into tank no. 5, however, there were several swimming-crabs and sea-scorpions to be seen. the sea-scorpions are fish, but bold-faced, fiery, greedy little fellows. the swimming-crabs are said to be "the largest, strongest, and hungriest" of english crabs. what a thought for those they live on! let us picture to ourselves the largest, strongest, and hungriest of cannibals! doubtless he would make short work even of the american giant, as the swimming-crabs, by night, devour other crabs, larger but milder-tempered than themselves. it speaks volumes for the sea-scorpions, who are small fish, that they can hold their own in the same pool with the swimming-crabs.
tank 4 contains big spider-crabs, who sit with their knees above their heads, winking at you with their eyes and feelers; or scramble out unexpectedly from dens and caves here and there, high up in the rocky sides of the pool.
nos. 6, 7, and 8 contain fish.
it really is sad to think how completely our ideas on the subject of cod spring from the kitchen and the fish-kettle. (as to our cod-liver oil, we know no more how much of it has anything to do with cod-fish than we can guess where our milk and port-wine come from.) poor cod! if of a certain social standing, it's odds if we will recognize any of him but his head and shoulders. i have seen him served up in country inns with a pickled walnut in the socket of each eye; and in life, and at home, he has the attentive, inquisitive, watchful, humorous eyes common to all fishes.
fishes remind me rather of chinese, who are also a cold-blooded race: slow, watchful, inquisitive, acquisitive, and full of the sense of humour. there are fishes in the great aquarium whose faces twinkle again with quiet fun.
the cod here seemed quite as much interested in looking at us through a glass window as we were in looking at them. they are tame, and have very large appetites—so tame, and so hungry, that the fish who live with them are at a disadvantage at meal-times, and it is feared that they must be removed.
these other fish are plaice, soles, brill, turbot, and skate. the skate love to lie buried over head and ears in the sand. the faintest outline of tail or a flapping fin betrays the spot, and you long for an umbrella-poke from some zoological-garden-frequenting old lady, to stir the lazy creature up; but it is impossible.
suddenly, when you are as tired of waiting as jack was when coomara was "engaged thinking," the fin movement becomes more distinct, a cloud of sand rises into the water, and a grey-coated skate, with two ornamental knobs upon his tail, flaps slowly away across the pool.
sometimes these flat-fish flap upwards to the surface, poke their noses into the other world, and then, like larks, having gone up with effort, let themselves easily down again to the ground.
as we were looking into no. 7, an ambitious little sole took into his head to climb up the rocks, in the caves of which dwell crusty crabs. by marvellously agile doubles of his flat little body, he scrambled a good way up. then he fell, and two or three valiant efforts still proving vain, he gave it up.
"he's turned giddy!" shouted a man beside us, who, like every one else, was watching the sea-gentlemen with rapt interest.
why the little sole tried rock climbing i don't know, and i doubt if he knew himself.
tank 7 is full of basse—glittering fish who keep their silver armour clean by scrubbing it among the stones. like other prettily-dressed people, they look out of the window all along.
at tanks 1, 2, and 3, your chief feelings will be curiosity and admiration. the sea-flowers and the worms are rather low in the scale of living things. far be it from you to decide that there are any living creatures with whom a loving and intelligent patience will not at last enable us to hold communion. but though, when you put the point of your little finger towards a crassy, he gives it a very affectionate squeeze, and seems rather anxious to detain it permanently, the balance of evidence favours the idea that his appetite rather than his affections are concerned, and that he has only mistaken you for his dinner.
at present our intercourse is certainly limited, and though the serpul? and sabell? have their heads out of their chimneys all along, there is no reason to suppose that they take the slightest interest in the human beings who peer at them through the glass.
but with the fishes it is quite another thing. when you can fairly look into eyes as bright and expressive as your own, a long stride has been taken towards friendly relations. you flatten your nose on one side of the glass, and mr. fish flattens his on the other. if you have the stoniest of british stares he will outstare you. you long to scratch his back, or show him some similar attention, and (if he be a cod) to ask him, as between friends, why on earth (i mean in sea) he wears that queer horn under his chin.
now with the crustaceans(hard-shelled sea-gentlemen) it is different again. so far as one feels friendly towards a fish it is a fellow feeling. you know people like this or that cod, as one knows people like certain sheep, dogs, and horses. and a very short acquaintance with fish convinces you that not only is there a type of face belonging to each species, but that individual countenances vary, as with us. it is said that shepherds know the faces of their sheep as well as of their other friends, and i have no doubt that the keeper of the great aquarium knows his cod apart quite well.
and if one's feeling for the crustaceans—the crabs, lobsters, prawns, &c.—is different, it is not because one feels them to be less intelligent than fishes, but because their intelligence is altogether a mysterious, unfathomable, unmeasurable quantity. there's no saying what they don't know. there is no telling how much they can see. and the great puzzle is what they can be thinking of. for that the spiny lobsters are thinking, and "thinking very seriously about something," you can no more doubt than jack did about the merrow.
the spiny lobsters (commonly, but erroneously called craw-fish or cray-fish) and the common lobsters are in tank no. 9.
ah! that is a wonderful pool. the first glimpse of the spiny lobsters is enough for any one who has read of coomara. we are among the merrows at last.
i don't know that coomara was a lobster, but i think he must have been a crustacean. even his green hair reminds one of the spider-crabs; though matter-of-fact naturalists tell us that their green hair is only seaweed which grows luxuriantly on their shells from their quiet habits, and because they are not given to burrowing, or cleaning themselves among the stones like the silver-coated basse. at one time, by the bye, it was supposed that they dressed themselves in weeds, whence they were called "vanity-crabs."
but the spiny lobsters—please to look at them, and see if you can so much as guess their age, their capabilities, or their intentions. i fancy that the difference between the feelings with which they and the fishes inspire us is much the same as that between our mental attitude towards hill-men or house-elves, and towards men and women.
the spiny lobsters are red. the common lobsters are blue. the spiny lobsters are large, their eyes are startlingly prominent, their powerful antenn? are longer and redder than coomara's nose, and wave about in an inquisitive and somewhat threatening manner. when four or five of them are gathered together in the centre of the pool, sitting solemnly on their tails, which are tucked neatly under them, each with his ten sharp elbows a-kimbo "engaged thinking" (and perhaps talking) "very seriously about something," it is an impressive but uncanny sight.
we witnessed such a conclave, sitting in a close circle, face to face, waving their long antenn?; and as we watched, from the shadowy caves above another merrow appeared. how he ever got his cumbersome coat of mail, his stiff legs, and long spines safely down the face of the cliff is a mystery. but he scrambled down ledge by ledge, bravely, and in some haste. he knew what the meeting was about, though we did not, and soon took his place, arranged his tail, his scales, his elbows, his cocked-hat, and what not, and fell a-thinking, like the rest. we left them so.
most of the common lobsters were in their caves, from which they watched this meeting of the reds with fixed attention.
in their dark-blue coats, peering with their keen eyes from behind jutting rocks and the mouths of sea caverns, they looked somewhat like smuggler sailors!
tanks 10 to 13 have fish in them. the wrasses are very beautiful in colour. most gorgeous indeed, if you can look at them in a particular way. tank 32 has been made on purpose to display them. it is in another room.
no tank in the aquarium is more popular than tank 14. enthusiastic people will sit down here with needlework or luncheon, and calmly wait for a good view of—the cuttle-fish!
cuttle is the name for the whole race of cephalopods, and is supposed to be a corruption of the word cuddle, in the sense of hugging.
they are curious creatures, the one who favoured us with a good view of him being very like a loose red velvet pincushion with eight legs, and most of the bran let out.
yet this strange, unshapely creature has a distinct brain in a soft kind of skull, mandibles like a parrot, and plenty of sense. his sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell are acute. he lies kicking his legs in the doorway of his favourite cavern, which he selected for himself and is attached to, for a provokingly long time before he will come out. when he does appear, a subdued groan of gratified expectation runs through the crowd in front of his window, as head over heels, hand over hand, he sprawls downwards, and moves quickly away with the peculiar gait induced by having suckers instead of feet to walk with.
tank 15 contains eels. it seems to be a curious fact that fresh-water eels will live in sea-water. i should think, when they have once got used to the salt, they must find a pond very tasteless afterwards. they are night-feeders, as school-boys know well.
tank 16. fish—grey mullet. tank 17. prawns.
if with the fishes we had felt with friends, and with the lobsters as if with hobgoblins, with the prawns we seemed to find ourselves among ghosts.
a tank that seems only a pool for a cuttle-fish, or a cod, is a vast region where prawns and shrimps are the inhabitants. the caves look huge, and would hold an army of them. the rocks jut boldly out, and throw strange shadows on the pool. the light falls effectively from above, and in and out and round about go the prawns, with black eyes glaring from their diaphanous helmets, in colourless, translucent, if not transparent armour, and bristling with spears.
"they are like disembodied spirits," said my husband.
but in a moment more we exclaimed, "it's like a scene from martin's mezzo-tint illustrations of the paradise lost. they are ghostly hosts gathering for battle."
this must seem a most absurd idea in connection with prawns; but if you have never seen prawns except at the breakfast-table, you must go to the great aquarium to learn how impressive is their appearance in real life.
the warlike group which struck us so forcibly had gathered rapidly from all parts of the pool upon a piece of flat table-rock that jutted out high up. some unexplained excitement agitated the host; their innumerable spear-like antenn? moved ceaselessly. from above a ray of light fell just upon the table-rock where they were gathered, making the waving spears glitter like the bayonet points of a body of troops, and forming a striking contrast with the dark cliffs and overshadowed water below, from which stragglers were quickly gathering, some paddling across the deep pool, others scrambling up the rocks, and all with the same fierce and restless expression.
how i longed for a chance of sketching the scene!
prawns are not quite such colourless creatures in the sea as they are here. why they lose their colour and markings in captivity is not known. they seem otherwise well.
they are hungry creatures, and their scent is keen.
the shrimps keep more out of sight; they burrow in the sand a good deal. you know one has to look for fresh-water shrimps in a brook if one wants to find them.
in tank 18 are our old friends the hermit-crabs. as a child, i think i believed that these curious creatures killed the original inhabitants of the shells which they take for their own dwelling. it is pleasant to know that this is not the case. the hermit-crab is in fact a sea-gentleman, who is so unfortunate as to be born naked, and quite unable to make his own clothes, and who goes nervously about the world, trying on other people's cast-off coats till he finds one to fit him.
they are funnily fastidious about their shells, feeling one well inside and out before they decide to try it, and hesitating sometimes between two, like a lady between a couple of becoming bonnets. they have been said to be pugnacious; but i fancy that the old name of soldier-crabs was given to them under the impression that they killed the former proprietors of their shells.
with no. 18 the window tanks come to an end.
in two other rooms are a number of shallow tanks open at the top, in which are smaller sea-anemones, star-fish, more crabs, fishes, &c., &c.
blennies are quaint, intellectual-looking little fish; friendly too, and easy to be tamed. in one of major holland's charming papers in science gossip he speaks of a pet blenny of his who was not only tame but musical. "he was exceedingly sensitive to the vibrations of stringed instruments; the softest note of a violin threw him into a state of agitation, and a harsh scrape or a vigorous staccato drove him wild."
in tank 34 are gurnards, fish-gentlemen, with exquisite blue fins, like peacock's feathers.
no. 35 contains dragonets and star-fish. the dragonets are quaint, wide-awake little fish. i saw one snap at a big, fat, red star-fish, who was sticking to the side of a rock. why the dragonet snapped at him i have no idea. i do not believe he hurt him; but the star-fish gradually relaxed his hold, and fell slowly and helplessly on to his back; on which the dragonet looked as silly as the sultan of casgar's purveyor when the hunchback fell beneath his blows. another dragonet came hastily up to see what was the matter; but prudently made off again, and left the star-fish and his neighbour as they were. i waited a long time by the tank, watching for the result; but in vain. the star-fish, looking abjectly silly, lay with his white side up, without an effort to help himself. as to the dragonet, he stuck out his nose, fixed his eyes, and fell a-thinking. so i left them.
in tank 38 are some norwegian lobsters; red and white, very pretty, and differing from the english ones in form as well as colour.
the green anemones in tank 33 are very beautiful.
the arrangement of most of these tanks is temporary. as some sea-gentlemen are much more rapacious than others, and as some prey upon others, the arranging of them must have been very like the old puzzle of the fox, the goose, and the bag of seed. then when new creatures arrive it necessitates fresh arrangements.
there is not much vegetation as yet in the tanks, which may puzzle some people who have been accustomed to balance the animal and vegetable life in their aquaria by introducing full-grown sea-weeds. but it has been found that these often fail, and that it is better to trust to the weeds which come of themselves from the action of light upon the invisible seeds which float in all sea-water.
the pools are also kept healthy by the water being kept in constant motion through the agency of pipes, steam-engines, and a huge reservoir of sea-water.
it is not easy to speak with due admiration of the scientific skill, the loving patience, the mindfulness of the public good which must have gone to the forming of this public aquarium. with what different eyes must innumerable "trippers" from the less-educated masses of our people look into tide pools or crab holes, during their brief holiday at the seaside, if they have previously been "trippers" to the crystal palace, and visited the great aquarium.
let us hope that it may stir up some sight-seers to be naturalists, and some naturalists to devote their powers to furthering our too limited friendship with the sea-gentry. how much remains to be done may be gathered from the fact that we can as yet keep no deep-sea merrows in aquaria, only shore-dwellers will live with us, and not all of these. and so insuperable, as yet, are the difficulties of transport, that "distinguished foreigners" are rare indeed.
still, as it stands, this great aquarium is wonderful—wonderful exceedingly. there is a still greater one at brighton, holding greater wonders—a baby alligator amongst them—and we are very glad to hear that one is to be established in manchester also.
it has been well said that a love of nature is a strong characteristic even of the roughest type of britons. an englishman's first idea of a holiday is to get into the country, even if his second is apt to be a search for the country beer-house.
of birds, and beasts, and trees, and flowers, there is a good deal even of rustic lore. of the wonders of the deep we know much less.
thousands of us can sing with understanding,
o lord, how manifold are thy works!
in wisdom hast thou made them all.
the earth is full of thy riches.
surely hereafter more of us shall swell the antiphon,
so is the great and wide sea also,
wherein are things creeping innumerable,
both small and great beasts.
note.—a great aquarium (and something more) is being made at naples by a young german naturalist—dr. dohrn, of stettin—at an expense of between ￡7000 and ￡8000, nearly all of which comes out of his own pocket. the ground-floor of the building (an area of nearly eight thousand square feet) is to hold the great aquarium. it is hoped that the money obtained by opening this to the public will both support the aquarium itself, and do something towards defraying the expenses of the upper story of the zoological station, as it is called. this will contain a scientific library, including dr. dohrn's own valuable private collection, and tables for naturalists to work at, furnished with necessary appurtenances, including tanks supplied with a constant stream of sea-water. sea-fishing and dredging will be carried on in connection with the establishment, to supply subjects for study. dr. dohrn proposes to let certain of these tables to governments and scientific societies, who will then have the privilege of giving certificates, which will enable their naturalists to enjoy all the benefits of the institution.
surely some new acquaintances will be made among the sea-gentry in this paradise of naturalists!
