第 26 节
作者:
精灵王 更新:2021-04-30 17:23 字数:9320
mouth。 The dragging…rope should be strong; and at least three times as
long as the perpendicular depth of the water in which you are working; if;
indeed; there is much breeze; or any swell at all; still more line should be
veered out。 The inboard end should be made fast somewhere in the
stern sheets; the dredge hove to windward; the boat put before the wind;
and you may then amuse yourself as you will for the next quarter of an
hour; provided that you have got ready various wide…mouthed bottles for
the more delicate monsters; and a couple of buckets; to receive the large
lumps of oysters and serpulae which you will probably bring to the
surface。
As for a dredging ground; one may be found; I suppose; off every
watering…place。 The most fertile spots are in rough ground; in not less
than five fathoms water。 The deeper the water; the rarer and more
interesting will the animals generally be: but a greater depth than
fifteen fathoms is not easily reached on this side of Plymouth; and; on
the whole; the beginner will find enough in seven or eight fathoms to
stock an aquarium rivalling any of those in the 〃Tank…house〃 at the
Zoological Gardens。
In general; the south coast of England; to the eastward of Portland;
affords bad dredging ground。 The friable cliffs; of comparatively
recent formations; keep the sea shallow; and the bottom smooth and bare;
by the vast deposits of sand and gravel。 Yet round the Isle of Wight;
especially at the back of the Needles; there ought to be fertile spots; and
Weymouth; according to Mr。 Gosse and other well…known naturalists; is
a very garden of Nereus。 Torbay; as may well be supposed; is an
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admirable dredging spot; perhaps its two best points are round the
isolated Thatcher and Oare…rock; and from the mouth of Brixham
harbour to Berry Head; along which last line; for perhaps three hundred
years; the decks of all Brixham trawlers have been washed down ere
running into harbour; and the sea…bottom thus stored with treasures
scraped up from deeper water in every direction for miles and miles。
Hastings is; I fear; but a poor spot for dredging。 Its friable cliffs
and strong tides produce a changeable and barren sea…floor。 Yet the
immense quantities of Flustra thrown up after a storm indicate dredging
ground at no great distance outside; its rocks; uninteresting as they are
compared with our Devonians; have yielded to the industry and science
of M。 Tumanowicz a vast number of sea… weeds and sponges。 Those
three curious polypes; Valkeria cuscuta (Plate I。 fig。 3); Notamia
Bursaria; and Serialaria Lendigera; abound within tide…marks; and as the
place is so much visited by Londoners; it may be worth while to give a
few hints as to what might be done; by anyone whose curiosity has been
excited by the salt…water tanks of the Zoological Gardens and the Crystal
Palace。
An hour or two's dredging round the rocks to the eastward; would
probably yield many delicate and brilliant little fishes; Gobies; brilliant
Labri; blue; yellow; and orange; with tiny rabbit mouths; and powerful
protruding teeth; pipe fishes (Syngnathi) (25) with strange snipe…bills
(which they cannot open) and snake…like bodies; small cuttlefish
(Sepiolae) of a white jelly mottled with brilliant metallic hues; with a
ring of suckered arms round their tiny parrots' beaks; who; put into a jar;
will hover and dart in the water; as the skylark does in air; by rapid
winnowings of their glassy side…fins; while they watch you with bright
lizard…eyes; the whole animal being a combination of the vertebrate and
the mollusc; so utterly fantastic and abnormal; that (had not the family
been amongst the commonest; from the earliest geological epochs) it
would have seemed; to man's deductive intellect; a form almost as
impossible as the mermaid; far more impossible than the sea… serpent。
These; and perhaps a few handsome sea…slugs and bivalve shells; you
will be pretty sure to find: perhaps a great deal more。
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Meanwhile; without dredging; you may find a good deal on the shore。
In the spring Doris bilineata comes to the rocks in thousands; to lay its
strange white furbelows of spawn upon their overhanging edges。
Eolides of extraordinary beauty haunt the same spots。 The great Eolis
papillosa; of a delicate French grey; Eolis pellucida (?) (Plate X。 fig。 4);
in which each papilla on the back is beautifully coloured with a streak of
pink; and tipped with iron blue; and a most fantastical yellow little
creature; so covered with plumes and tentacles that the body is invisible;
which I believe to be the Idalia aspersa of Alder and Hancock。
At the bottom of the rock pools; behind St。 Leonard's baths; may be
found hundreds of the snipe's feather Anemone (Sagartia troglodytes); of
every line; from the common brown and grey snipe's feather kind; to the
white…horned Hesperus; the orange…horned Aurora; and a rich lilac and
crimson variety; which does not seem to agree with either the Lilacinia
or Rubicunda of Gosse。 A more beautiful living bouquet could hardly
be seen; than might be made of the varieties of this single species; from
this one place。
On the outside sands between the end of the Marina and the Martello
tower; you may find; at very low tides; great numbers of a sand… tube;
about three inches long; standing up out of the sand。 I do not mean the
tubes of the Terebella; so common in all sands; which are somewhat
flexible; and have their upper end fringed with a ragged ring of sandy
arms: those I speak of are straight and stiff; and ending in a point
upward。 Draw them out of the sand … they will offer some resistance …
and put them into a vase of water; you will see the worm inside expand
two delicate golden combs; just like old…fashioned back…hair combs; of a
metallic lustre; which will astonish you。 With these combs the worm
seems to burrow head downward into the sand; but whether he always
remains in that attitude I cannot say。 His name is Pectinaria Belgica。
He is an Annelid; or true worm; connected with the Serpulea and
Sabellae of which I have spoken already; and holds himself in his case
like them; by hooks and bristles set on each ring of his body。 In
confinement he will probably come out of his case and die; when you
may dissect him at your leisure; and learn a great deal more about him
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thereby than (I am sorry to say) I know。
But if you have courage to run out fifteen or twenty miles to the
Diamond; you may find really rare and valuable animals。 There is a
risk; of course; of being blown over to the coast of France; by a change
of wind; there is a risk also of not being able to land at night on the
inhospitable Hastings beach; and of sleeping; as best you can; on board: