NATUKAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



11 



hunters to be overtaken in the deep 

 cavities where the shells are found 

 and cut off from the mainland by 

 the returning tide. Boatsmen, 

 sailors and coast dwellers are sel- 

 dom able to swim, and as a rule 

 do not wish to learn, for they say 

 that swimming could not save 

 them, but would only prolong their 

 sufferings. 



The men are very proud when 

 after a low ebb they can bring 

 home a dozen Orme'aux, but the 

 women are less elate.d, for the bur- 

 den of preparing the food rests 

 upon them. The animal is taken 

 out of the shell and the whole body 

 is removed, the foot being used. 

 If this mass of solid muscles, rigid 

 in death, should be cooked at once 

 it would be no softer than shoe 

 soles. The cook must first beat it 

 for hours on a smooth stone with a 

 hammer, when the pastime becomes 

 tedious she sends the meat to the 

 forge where the operation is com- 

 pleted on the anvil. It is then 

 boiled, baked and stewed, and 

 when it is served with soup, pre- 

 pared like turtle soup, the Ormeaux 

 tastes like soft caoutchouc, and is 

 destitute of individual character. 



The Calamagc of the Italians is 

 also like cautchouc, consisting of 

 the arms and muscular mantles of 

 polypi, cuttlefish, and devil fish, 

 which are offered for sale in all the 

 markets on the sea coast, and which 

 are regarded as fresh as long as 

 their skins retain the glistening, 

 ever changing play of colors. In 

 the hotels and restaurants of Na- 

 ples one can scarcely get a plate of 

 frittura, whether of fish or accacia 

 blossoms, without a garniture of 

 Calamage. 



Especial value is placed upon 

 the arms of ybnng cuttlefish and 

 octopods when they are about the 

 length and thickness of heavy lead 

 pencils. 



These animals are captured on 

 all coasts, even far to the north. 

 They dash furiously upon white or 

 bright colored rags, which are trail- 

 ed back and forth on lines, cling- 

 ing so firmly with the hundreds of 

 suckers on their arms that they can 

 be drawn out before they can let 

 go. A stab with a knife through 

 the joint back of the eyes only half 

 kills the animal, but it is sufficient 

 to enable the captor to cut its in- 

 testines out of the sack in the man- 

 tle. The edible parts, mantle and 

 arms, are thrown into boiling wa- 

 ter to loosen the skin, and then the 

 flesh is boiled in oil with fish or 

 the other ingredients of the frittura. 



Caoutchouc, as I have said, is 

 rather tough, an excellent sub- 



stance for testing the sharpness of 

 the teeth. It has no taste of its 

 own, none but that which the sea- 

 soning gives, yet I have known 

 people who "adored" Calamagc 

 and preferred it to the finest fish. 

 I have noticed that the connois- 

 seurs were all young people with 

 strong teeth and sound digestions. 



Angus Gaines. 



Fishes Killed by Falling Up 

 From the "Bottom of the 

 Sea." 



The third monthly meeting of 

 the Society of Natural Sciences 

 was held Tuesday evening at Good 

 Will hall. Professor H. W. Conn, 

 of Wesleyan University, delivered 

 an interesting lecture on the "Bot- 

 tom of the Sea. " 



Professor Conn had a large num- 

 ber of instructive views of appara- 

 tus used in sounding and dredging, 

 as well as photographs of many of 

 the unspeakable creatures that the 

 dredge has brought up. There is 

 no sensible amount of light at a 

 greater depth than 300 or 400 feet, 

 the most sensitive photographic 

 plates being unaffected even by 

 very prolonged exposure. The 

 fishes are therefore obliged to hunt 

 their food by the aid of dark lan- 

 terns, as Professor Conn expressed 

 it; in other words, they are phos- 

 phorescent, and see by the aid of 

 the light that they themselves 

 emit. 



One of the great difficulties of 

 deep sea exploration is that it takes 

 about all day to throw out one 

 dredge and haul it up again, even 

 although the line is worked by 

 steam power. The dredges used 

 until recently had a habit of be- 

 coming tangled with the sound 

 rope, and frequently when the day 

 was over it was found that the 

 dredge had become entangled im- 

 mediately upon being thrown over- 

 board, so that the day was entirely 

 wasted. The great pressure at the 

 bottom of the sea ( from three to 

 six tons on a square inch) will 

 crush glass to a fine powder, so 

 that it has been difficult to obtain 

 good measures of the temperature 

 in the deeper parts. The profess- 

 or described an ingenious thermo- 

 electric apparatus by means of 

 which this difficulty had been over- 

 come. 



The greater part of the bottom 

 of the ocean consists of red mud 

 and of globigerina ooze, the dead 

 shells of a minute foraminferous 

 creature, so abundant that its 



shells make up a big part of the 

 ocean floor. There is no life be- 

 low three miles. In speaking of 

 some of the fishes that inhabit the 

 lower depths, the professor said 

 that they often "fall upward" to 

 the surface and are killed by the 

 reduction of pressure. The air in 

 their swimming bladders, he ex- 

 plained, is compressed by the pres- 

 sure of the ocean into very small 

 space. When the fish is so unwise 

 as to leave his native haunts to ex- 

 plore regions half a mile or so a- 

 bove him, the diminution in pres- 

 sure causes the air to expand, and 

 the fish becomes so buoyant that 

 he cannot swim back again, and 

 the further he rises the worse his 

 plight becomes; and after a time 

 he reaches the surface, by which 

 time the the expansion of the air 

 has become so great that the fish 

 is often literally blow to pieces, 

 and is found floating about in this 

 condition. 



The professor said that in the 

 lower depths of the sea the quiet 

 is so profound that in comparison 

 with it the most barren deserts on 

 the surface of the earth are scenes 

 of the greatest activity; for on the 

 desert there are variations in wind 

 and in temperature, and alternations 

 of day and night, while in the great 

 depths of the ocean there is no life, 

 there are no currents, the tempera- 

 ture is uniformly 33 degrees year in 

 and year out, and night reigns per- 

 petually. The surface of the ocean 

 is the poet's favorite metaphor for 

 unrest, but there is nothing so quiet 

 and changeless as its profoundest 

 depths. — Hartford Times. 



We have heard it said that the 

 man who hunts up the taxes should 

 be called "Taxidermist," because 

 he skins everybody. — Ex. 



Collection of the Ohio Archaeol- 

 ogical and Historical Society 



The collection belonging to the 

 State Archaeological Society has 

 recently been removed from the 

 State House to the new fireproof 

 museum of the State University. 

 For many years the collection has 

 remained in the State House. 

 It was sent to the World's Colum- 

 bian Exposition, and it also was 

 exhibited at the Centennial Expos- 

 iton of the Ohio Valley. From 

 year to year donations and ex- 

 changes have increased it, and to- 

 day it stands as one of the fore- 

 most Archaeological exhibits in the 



