490 THE PARROT' S-BEAK BARNACLE. 



planks. Its growth is marvellously rapid, and in a very short time a vessel will have the 

 whole of the submerged surface coated so thickly with these cirripedes that her rate of speed 

 is sadly diminished by the friction of their loose bodies against the water. 



When once the Goose-mussel has affixed itself to any object, the rapidity of its growth is 

 positively startling. The minute young are poured from its shells in such multitudes that 

 they look like cloudy currents in the water ; and after they have enjoyed their brief period of 

 freedom, they settle down, attain maturity, and in their turn become the origin of a count- 

 less posterity. 



I have seen a large log of timber, about fourteen feet in length by one foot square, so 

 thickly covered with these Barnacles that the wood on which they rested was not visible. The 

 same log, which had evidently formed part of the cargo of a timber ship, had been attacked by 

 the ship-worm as well as the Barnacle, and had been tunnelled from end to end by that 

 insatiable devourer. The log was so entirely covered by the Barnacle and the ship-worm, that 

 the wood of which the beam was composed was quite invisible, and could not be seen until the 

 heavy masses of Barnacles were lifted up by the hand. 



The old boatman who had picked up the log while fishing, and had ingeniously built a 

 trough to receive the log, a tank of sea-water to supply the trough, and a kind of tent 

 composed of sails to hold the trough and the log together, was very full of a discovery that 

 he had made. He was fully persuaded that the ship- worm and the Barnacle were identical, 

 and that when the ship-worm was tired of boring into wood, it came to the surface, and 

 was immediately changed into a Barnacle. He was quite impervious to reason, and always 

 went into a passion whenever the facts seemed to contradict his theory. 



If the objects were enumerated to which the Barnacle will cling, a volume would hardly 

 be sufficient for the mere catalogue. It has been found on ships, boats, floating timber, shells, 

 turtles, whales, and marine snakes. A moment is sufficient to give them a firm hold of any 

 object, and when once they have fixed their antennae, the fiercest storm cannot shake them off. 

 Even after death, the force with which they cling is as great as during life, and they seem 

 almost to form part of the substance to which they adhere. The length of the footstalk is 

 extremely variable, in some measuring three or four times the length that.it does in others. 

 This species is found in nearly all temperate and warm seas. 



A second, but smaller Stalked Barnacle, is the FASCINE-BARNACLE, a larger and finer 

 species, which can be distinguished by the number and shape of its shelly valves. These 

 valves afford most important indications of the genus to which any species belongs, and in the 

 arrangements of some zoologists they play the principal part in the formation of the system. 



The Fascine-barnacle is found in the Indian Ocean. 



A rather singular form of Barnacle, resting on short, stoutly-shaped footstalks, and 

 having somewhat triangular valves, is the MITELLA-BARNACLE. This species comes from 

 China, the Philippines, etc. 



Our next example, the EARED BARNACLE, derives its appropriate name from the curious 

 tubular projections which stand out boldly from either side, like the ears of a quadruped from 

 the head. This species lives in the warmer seas. 



A group of Eared Barnacles have been found attached to another genus of Barnacle, 

 which lives on, or rather in, the skins of cetacea, and to which we shall presently allude. 

 Indeed, these beings seem to care little about the substance to which they adhere, one species 

 of Stalked Barnacle having actually been taken upon the delicate surface of a living Medusa. 



WE now leave the stalked barnacles and proceed to some other species. One of them, 

 the BELL-BARNACLE, which is found off the coast of Madeira, Africa, and other hot parts of 

 the ocean, forms generally a small group of upright shells, surrounded by buttress-like and 

 pointed projections. It sometimes attains a very considerable size, and is eaten by the 

 Chinese, who think that it resembles the lobster in flavor. 



Other species are also eaten, such as the PARROT' S-BEAK BARNACLE, a creature deriving 

 its name from a curved projection something like the bill of a parrot. This enormous 

 Barnacle is sometimes found measuring between five and six inches in height, and between 



