4.94 



FOEEST AND STREAM 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural history, 

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SCIENCE ON THE QUARTER DECK. 



AN HOUR'S TALK WITH CAPTAIN MOETISIKE. 



ONE'S conception of what a true student of nature is like 

 may be so very different ! The idea of a really good 

 man, at least to our infant mind, was always associated with 

 a white cravat. Alas 1 later in life we found out that very un- 

 godly people, notably restaurant waiters, sported white cra- 

 vats. Still, as far as scientific study goes, people seem to think 

 that the devotee must assume a grave aud ponderous manner. 

 We are prone to arrange for ourselves the mise en scene, and 

 that peculiar weird tinge with which the alchemist imbued 

 all their actions, still predominates our fancies. Now, the 

 question is, in this practical age, why should not men probe 

 into the secrets of nature, casting off their velvets and sables, 

 and in nothing more than their shirt-sleeves, dig into the gist 

 of things ? Give an observant man, one whose eyes are al- 

 ways open, a seat on a garden bench, and the leaves and ten- 

 drils of the vines which creep over an* arbor will afford him 

 ample sources of study. With his foot he turns over a stone, 

 a bit of decayed wood.and under these he finds a hundred op- 

 jects worthy of examination. If in some of the abstract 

 sciences the solemn privacy of the study is necessary; if apart 

 from all noise and disturbance, a Leverrier eliminated, by pure 

 abstract calculation in his closet, the presence of a planet, for 

 a better acquaintance with nature, such seclusion is as impos- 

 sible as it is unnecessary. Somehow or other the true natural- 

 ist is always a pleasant, a good-natured man. As hemust pass 

 most of his time in the open air he generally has that fine, 

 wholesome appearance of sound health which ought to be and 

 mostly is the unfailing evidence of a clear and good head. 

 The physical and mental qualities have combined to give him 

 aid and comfort. 



A ship lies moored at the dock on the East Kiver near Ful- 

 ton Ferry. She is a huge vessel and she has staid there all the 

 summer. Now this good ship, the Hamilton Fish, is getting 

 ready for sea, and bale after bale of cotton is being put below. 

 We climb the gangway, make our way on deck past sailors 



and laborers and gain admittance to the spacious cabin. But 

 is it a cabin? It certainly has the appearance of one. Here 

 are the innumerable doors opening to the berths, and there 

 swings that peculiar rack in which the castor, the glasses and the 

 plates are kept, indicative of that time when every object, an- 

 imate or inanimate on shipboard, has to do its level best to find 

 its own particular centre of gravity. It smells of the ship. 

 There is that peculiar marine-store odor, not bilge water in 

 the least, but of the steward's pantry, where innumerable 

 good things are kept for future use. Still, it is marine, for 

 there is a mast passing through the cabin, and there are ship's 

 charts on the table. But it has more the appearance of a place 

 devoted to study. As the ship sways about gently a door or 

 two gapes open and discloses the contents of the rooms. There 

 are no beds in those berths, but every nook and corner is 

 crowded with books. On the table of the cabin, there are in- 

 numerable small vials, kept in their places in boxes, and more 

 than one microscope is in view. Overhead there hang glass 

 globes, in which are growing curious marine plants. Is this 

 then the cabin of a sturdy skipper, or the refuge of some sci- 

 entific man ? It is the domicile of both these useful person- 

 ages, for Captain John H. Mortimer lives here, who is quite 

 as ready to send his good ship speeding over the wintry waves 

 straight onUo Liverpool, by the use of his compass, as he is 

 capable of making some curious discovery in natural history 

 by means of his microscope. 



The captain receives us in his honest, hearty and charming 

 way. It is of no use for us to talk. We have not come on 

 board for that purpose, all we wanted to do was to listen and 

 to absorb what we can of the many beautiful and instructive 

 facts which Captain Mortimer can impart to us. It is not a 

 " shiver-my-timbers" information which is given ; there is no 

 tar about it. Like all men thoroughly saturated with their 

 subject there is no redundancy of words, no egotism about Cap- 

 tain Mortimer. The most learned professor, even a Huxley, 

 a Tyndall, might envy the clear, straightforward language Cap- 

 tain Mortimer possesses. 



The study of marine creatures and plants has been a labor 

 of love with Captain Mortimer. Drifting about for years in 

 a field tens of thousands of miles in extent, the broad ocean has 

 been Captain Mortimer's text book, and most accurately has he 

 noted all the strange growths which are to be found on her 

 huge, heaving bosom. 



A conversation witli Captain Mortimer is naturally desultory 

 of its kind. Did you wish it, our naturalist captain could take 

 up any one question and exhaustively get all out of it, and 

 squeeze the subject as dry as a sponge. 



We commence, asking a question about the muricidm and 

 the Tyrian purple. Captain Mortimer shows us specimens of 

 the Purpura lapillus, which must have furnished the Greeks 

 and Eomans with their brilliant purple coloring, which dye 

 was reserved for princes and patricians We wonder why the 

 Attic dandy did not use aniline colors, and then remember that 

 although Alcebiades was a voluminous speaker and an exqui- 

 site they made no gas in Athens. Our naturalist shows us 

 various specimens of the murex, aud exhibits many shades of 

 purple derived from this shell. The lasting quality of the 

 color is manifest from the time which has elapsed since Cap- 

 tain Mortimer made the shell-fish exude its pigment. Then, 

 naturally, the ink of the cuttle-fish is talked about, and that 

 curious provision of nature which allows a creature to sur- 

 round itself with a black cloud in order to escape. Now we 

 discuss rudder fish, and Captain Mortimer gives a simple ex- 

 planation why the Oaranx caj'angus stays in the immediate 

 vicinity of a ship. " It is because," the Captain explains, "the 

 rudder fish follows close in the wake of the ship for safety 

 from dolphins and other marine enemies. Of course the rud- 

 derfish picks up some, little food from the ship. But when you 

 see rudder fish around you may be sure that there are some 

 big fish after them. The minute one strays away, or lags be- 

 hind he is gobbled up. The big fish are afraid of the ship, 

 but the little fellows are not." Now we listen to the Captain 

 on those adaptations of nature which she employs so as to best 

 keep herself in a constant state of equilibrium. We hold our 

 peace now, for the Captain is more than eloquent. "There is 

 nothing," says Captain Mortimer, "more beautiful than this 

 incessant action of nature which creates and destroys ; life and 

 death are ever being produced in the ocean. Now, take the 

 Tuca nutans, that's a sea-weed which floats on the water, 

 buoyed up by its seed vesicles which are like corks and net. 

 This sea-weed stays on the surface for a while, when there 

 comes the coral insect. I use the word insect, but it is hardly 

 the proper term. Well, the coral formation siezes hold of those 

 air cells and covers those seed vesicles with the most beauti- 

 ful traceries of carbonate of lime. Here are several specimens 

 in this little vial. Take this magnifying lense and look at 

 them. See what exquisite lace-work I Now, specific gravity 

 alters circumstances. In time down goes the air vessel, sea- 

 weed and all, to be dissolved in the depths below. It has 

 aerated the water, and now it is to furnish new life to others of 

 God's creatures. This same grand rule ever follows. There 

 is nothing that floats on the sea which is not destroyed. 

 The wash of Hie waves may have incessant action as to abrai- 

 sion and solution, but this would not be rapid enough. Left 

 alone to their natural action— slow of themselves— we might 

 imagine huge areas of water covered with decomposing sea- 

 weed, or drift-wood. Nature wants in such instances to get 

 rid of its useless substances— useless only of course for the 

 moment— and to change them rapidly. Accordingly we have 

 another powerful agent, and that is a worm. What the coral 

 formation cannot sink by overloading, the Teredo finshes by 

 water-logging. A bit of floating wood has but a short life in 



salt water. On comes the Teredo and goes through and through 

 a chip or a ship mast, honey-combing it until it is water logged, 

 when it ceases to swim. Here is a Teredo which was some, 

 twenty inches long. It is shriveled up now. It took me 

 years to study out how this worm worked, Now, through 

 your glass, look at his cutting apparatus. It is a very fragile 

 kind of an auger and so delicate that when you touch it it 

 crumbles. How could a poor cutting edge like that go through 

 hard wood? for, mind you, a stick of ebony.any dense or close- 

 grained wood, providing it would float,.would be a more tooth- 

 some morsel to a Teredo than a bit of white pine. Now, 

 once in the Indian Ocean I was working on a bit of a ship rail 

 which I had picked up at sea, in order to find a lovely lot of 

 Teredos which had burrowed in it. I wanted one badly as a 

 specimen. As I was carefully whittling my bit of wood I 

 found my hands get clammy and greasy, when I rubbed the 

 track over where the Teredo had passed. I had it then, had 

 the whole story. That worm was both carpenter and chemist, 

 First he exuded some kind of a substance of an alkaline na- 

 ture which softened the wood, and then the cutting apparatus 

 easily went through the pulp. I am certain I am right, that 

 it is not the cutting portion of the worm which works alone, 

 because stringy, fibrous wood is an impediment to the passage 

 of the Teredo. Though his exudations, or secretions, can soften 

 some parts of the wood, he can't overcome the fibres and the 

 rough fibres hurt his body as he wriggles through. A piece of 

 palmetto wood which is soft in parts and fibrous in others he 

 cannot work on. Now, a knowledge of this kind can be made 

 useful, if not in ships, at least when piles have to be driven in- 

 to the sea. If we could saturate a log of wood with an acid 

 solution we might neutralize the alkaline substance coming 

 from the worm, and it would prevent the mischief of this Ter- 

 edo which costs ships and wharf owners millions of dollars 

 every year. But we will dismiss the practical part of all this, 

 for I want to show you my method of preserving certain curi- 

 ous sea forms. Now, look at this." Captain Mortimer showed 

 us a beautifid outline of some strange form which stood out in 

 relief on a long piece of paper. " Now, this is a specimen of 

 the Salpae pinnati. It is a kind of ribbon found in the North 

 Atlantic, sometimes many feet long. It is a living organism, 

 a congaree of families all united. It may be the grandfather 

 and grandmother, the sons and daughters, the mother-in-laws 

 and grand- children all happily joined together. The great- 

 grand children can break loose if they want to and get inde- 

 pendent, and wdll manage very well, creating new families. 

 Now, I wanted to preserve a specimen, so I dried it gently 

 under pressure, washing out the salt, and there you have it — a 

 perfect salpa less the bulk. Contraction and expansion, the 

 sucking iii of the water and the throwing out of the water are 

 the methods of locomotion these salpce have. They are, when 

 alive, beautifully phosphorescent. Now here is something 

 else. I really am proud of having found out a great deal in re- 

 gard to it. • It is the Litiopa hombyx. It's a tiny shell fish that 

 really does its own spinning— a kind of sea silk-worm. Now, 

 what does it do that for ? Why it throws out its threads and 

 binds together sea-weed, and then deposits its eggs, or germs ; 

 makes a nest like a bird. Suppose it didn't ? How would 

 the little Litiopce get along? They would all sink in the sea. 

 What they want is air and warmth in order to grow. So the 

 Litiopa shoots out her threads backwards and forwards and 

 makes a kind of comfortable quilt for the babies to nestle in. 

 Are not the provisions of nature beautiful ? It was years be- 

 fore I got to the bottom of that and a good many learned 

 people doubted it first, but I think they have all now given 

 me credit for. it. Here they are." The Captain handed us a 

 bunch of sea-weed and we looked with delight at the delicate 

 filiinents, with tiny shells on it. " How many various speci- 

 mens have you, Captain, on the vessel," we asked. "Oh, 1 

 don't know, may be thousands ; all these berths are filled with 

 them. It '8 my museum. Oh, I haven't shown you this. This 

 is the pipe fish, Syghntlvus. Now, what was queer about this 

 little fish was, that sailing in the North Atlantic I came across 

 quantities of these fish apparently hibernating, sleeping, or tor- 

 pid on the surface of the water. Now, there is something cu- 

 rious about this pipe fish. Everybody knows-" ("Everybody 

 knows ?" we said reflect! v ely, at the same time somewhat in- 

 quisitively-) "or should know, that it carries itseggs outside." 

 "Like a lobster?" "Yes. Now, how could Sygnanthus get 

 her eggs matured ? I asked myself. Why just in this way, 

 keeping on top of the water, half asleep, if you please, but hav- 

 ing the advantages of warmth and heat — No, Mr. Jones, have 

 those bigger bails of cotton stored midships ; and see that the 

 stevedores don't neglect their work. As I was saying, often 

 the acts of creatures living on the earth are repeated in the 

 water, only that the destructive actions all become more visible 

 to us in the water than on the land, as we study these forces 

 more carefully/' 



We could have staid all day listening to Captain Mortimer, 

 so delightful was his talk, so fresh were his illustrations, so at- 

 tractive were his methods of imparting information. To-day 

 the good ship Hamilton Fish is buffeting the wintry waves on 

 her way to Liverpool. May her clever captain, who is indeed 

 a shining light of science aud whose numerous discoveries 

 have entitled him to a leading position in many learned socie- 

 ties at home and abroad, reach his port in safety. It is not 

 common-to meet a man who is not only a master in seaman- 

 ship, but who has found time during a life of labor and hard- 

 ship to go so deeply into nature's most hidden secrets. 



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