Under the Sea Wind (21 page)

The tides were running high with the fullness of the moon. On the ebb tides the taste of fresh water came strongly to the fish that lay at sea, off the mouth of the bay, for all the rivers were in flood.

In the moon's light the young eels saw the water fill with many fish, large and full-bellied and silvery of scale. The fish were shad returned from their feeding grounds in the sea, waiting for the ice to come out of the bay that they might ascend its rivers to spawn. Schools of croakers lay on the bottom, and the roll of their drums vibrated in the water. The croakers, with sea trout and spots, had moved in from their offshore wintering place, seeking the feeding grounds of the bay. Other fish came up into the tide flow and lay with heads to the currents, waiting to snap up the small sea animals that the swiftly moving water had dislodged, but these were bass who were of the sea and would not ascend the rivers.

As the moon waned and the surge of the tides grew less, the elvers pressed forward toward the mouth of the bay. Soon a night would come, after most of the snow had melted and run as water to the sea, when the moon's light and the tide's press would be feeble and a warm rain would fall, mist-laden and bittersweet with the scent of opening buds. Then the elvers would pour into the bay and, traveling up its shores, would find its rivers.

Some would linger in the river estuaries, brackish with the taste of the sea. These were the young male eels, who were repelled by the strangeness of fresh water. But the females would press on, swimming up against the currents of the rivers. They would move swiftly and by night as their mothers had come down the rivers. Their columns, miles in length, would wind up along the shallows of river and stream, each elver pressing close to the tail of the next before it, the whole like a serpent of monstrous length. No hardship and no obstacle would deter them. They would be preyed upon by hungry fishes—trout, bass, pickerel, and even by older eels; by rats hunting the edge of the water; and by gulls, herons, kingfishers, crows, grebes, and loons. They would swarm up waterfalls and clamber over moss-grown rocks, wet with spray; they would squirm up the spillways of dams. Some would go on for hundreds of miles—creatures of the deep sea spreading over all the land where the sea itself had lain many times before.

And as the eels lay offshore in the March sea, waiting for the time when they should enter the waters of the land, the sea, too, lay restless, awaiting the time when once more it should encroach upon the coastal plain, and creep up the sides of the foothills, and lap at the bases of the mountain ranges. As the waiting of the eels off the mouth of the bay was only an interlude in a long life filled with constant change, so the relation of sea and coast and mountain ranges was that of a moment in geologic time. For once more the mountains would be worn away by the endless erosion of water and carried in silt to the sea, and once more all the coast would be water again, and the places of its cities and towns would belong to the sea.

Glossary

ABYSS. The central deeps of the ocean, enclosed by the steep walls of the continental slope. The floor of the abyss is a vast and desolate plain, lying, on the average, about three miles deep, with occasional valleys or canyons dropping off to depths of five or six miles. The bottom is covered with a deep, soft deposit composed of inorganic clays and of the insoluble remains of minute sea creatures. The abyss is wholly without light and is uniformly cold.

ALGA (
ă
l'-ga ; pl. algae [-j
ē
]). The algae belong to the first of the four major divisions of the plant kingdom and are the simplest and probably the oldest plants. They do not have true roots, stems, or leaves, but usually consist of a simple, leaflike frond. They range in size from microscopic spheres to giant seaweeds several hundred feet long. (See oarweed.)

AMPHIPOD.(
ă
m'-f
Ä­
-p
ǒ
d). Belonging to the same large group as crabs, lobsters, and shrimps, the amphipods comprise a large group of crustaceans whose bodies are flattened from side to side and covered with a polished and flexible cuticle that is divided into sections, allowing them to jump or swim with surprising agility. There are about three thousand species of amphipods, most of which live in the sea or about its edge. Perhaps the most familiar of these are the sand fleas. Caprella, the species shown, often attaches itself by the hinder legs to a bit of seaweed and extends its body stiffly, so that it may easily be mistaken for a branch of the weed. It is about half an inch long.

ANCHOVY (
ă
n-ch
ō
'-v
ǒ
). Anchovies are small, silvery fish of herringlike appearance. They usually travel in schools which are the prey of many larger fishes. The common anchovy or whitebait is from two to four inches long.

ANGLER FISH. The angler is notorious as perhaps the ugliest, most repulsive, and most voracious of fishes. Half of the angler is head, and a good portion of the head is mouth, hence one of its local names: “all-mouth.” The angler is found on both sides of the Atlantic and may be as much as four feet long.

ANGUILLA (
ă
ng-gw
Ä­
l'-a ). The scientific name of the common eel.

AVENS, MOUNTAIN. A dwarf, hardy shrub of the rose family, called also “wild betony,” found in Arctic and north temperate regions. The flowers are large and white, and the leaves are said to be one of the chief foods of the ptarmigan in winter.

AURELIA (ô-r
ē
'-l
Ä­
-a ). A flat, saucer-shaped jellyfish of a white or bluish-white color that may be up to a foot in diameter. Its appearance while swimming has suggested the common name “moon jelly.” Unlike many other jellyfishes, it has small and inconspicuous tentacles. The moon jelly is found on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

BARNACLE. In spite of the hard shells that enclose it, the barnacle is not related to oysters and clams, as many people suppose, but is a crustacean and so related to crabs, lobsters, and water fleas. The shells remain open while they are covered by water, and the legs, as delicately feathered as an ostrich plume, are thrust out rhythmically to aerate the blood contained in the filaments and to kick small food animals into the mouth. When the tide ebbs, barnacles that grow between the tide lines close their shells with an audible click.

BASKET STARFISH. A species of starfish with intricately branched arms, on the tips of which it walks. It preys on fishes which are so unfortunate as to venture within the brushlike mass of arms; and is found from eastern Long Island northward, in offshore waters.

BEACH FLEA. (See sand flea.)

BEROË (b
ĕ
r'-o -
ē
). One of the larger ctenophores (about four inches long) which feeds largely on its own relatives, often swallowing prey as large as itself. These ctenophores are abundant in New England waters in July and August, appearing at the surface during the warmest part of the day, and dropping to greater depths when the water is cold or rough.

BETONY. (See Avens.)

BIG-EYED SHRIMP. So called because of the large eyes which are very conspicuous in the nearly transparent bodies of these shrimplike crustaceans. Especially interesting are the phosphorescent spots which vary in number and arrangement with the species. These shrimps occur at the surface in swarms, usually accompanied by schools of fish and sometimes by immense flocks of gulls. They are often to be seen in tide rips.

BLENNY. This small fish lives among seaweeds and stones from the tide lines down to depths of thirty to fifty fathoms or sometimes a little deeper. Its body is elongated and somewhat eel-like, with a fin running almost the entire length of the back.

BRANT. Shallow coastal bays are ideal feeding grounds for these black and gray geese, who obtain their favorite food—the roots and lower stems of eel grass—by “tipping up” where the water is shallow enough and pulling up the grass. Their migration routes take them from Virginia and North Carolina to Greenland and the extreme northern Arctic Islands, via Cape Cod, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Hudson Bay.

BROWN ALGAE. Among the brown algae is a group (called “round lime bearers”) whose members wear shields of lime united into a remarkable defensive armor. Remains of these shields are found in very ancient geological deposits, at least as remote as Cambrian time. Present-day forms are practically identical in structure with their prehistoric ancestors.

BRYOZOA (br
Ä«
-o-z
ō
'-a ). Marine and fresh-water animals usually of a delicately branched and mosslike form. Early naturalists considered them plants. Some types form limy crusts of lacelike appearance on stones and seaweeds. The group is a very ancient one.

BYSSUS THREAD (b
Ä­
s';-
Å­
s). Certain shellfish, such as clams, mussels, and the like, possess (especially during infancy) a gland capable of secreting a fluid that hardens into a tough thread or cord on contact with seawater. This thread, called the byssus, serves to anchor its owner against the pull of surf or tidal flow.

CALANUS (c
ă
l'-
ă
-n
Å­
s). A small copepod crustacean (about an eighth of an inch long) that is extremely abundant at certain seasons of the year off the New England coast. Its economic importance is considerable, because it is one of the principal foods of the herring and mackerel, also of the Greenland whale. (See copepod and crustacean.)

CERATIUM (s
ē
-r
ā
'-sh
Ä­
-
Å­
m). A single-celled creature about 1/100 of an inch in diameter, claimed by botanists as well as zoologists, but usually considered an animal. It is extremely phosphores- cent, and during the periods of its greatest abundance the sea blazes with light when disturbed.

CERO (s
ē
'-r
ō
). A large, silvery fish of the mackerel tribe, found chiefly in southern waters. Another common name is “kingfish.” It is a strong and active predator, and often is found among schools of menhaden.

CHARA (k
ā
'-ra ). This fresh-water alga forms underwater meadows in ponds or lakes receiving water from lime-containing soils. The plant is characteristically rough and brittle to the touch because of the carbonate of lime deposited in its tissues and on its surface. In some waters it forms large deposits of marl, a crumbling, limy substance used as a fertilizer for soils deficient in lime. The leaflets grow from the central stem in candelabra-like clusters, and the fruiting bodies remind one of translucent Japanese lanterns of pinhead size, some orange and some green.

CHELA (k
ē
'-lå). The large, pincerlike claw of a lobster, the muscles of which are considered the choicest part of the animal for eating. It is an effective weapon for defense or attack.

CHITIN (k
Ä«
'-t
Ä­
n). A horny substance that forms the harder part of the outer covering of insects, lobsters, crabs, and the like.

CHLOROPHYLL (kl
ō
'-r
ō
-f
Ä­
l). The green coloring matter of plants, which plays an essential part in the manufacture of starches and sugars by the leaves.

CILIUM (s
Ä­
l'-
Ä­
-
Å­
m). A minute, hairlike projection from a cell. Usually occurring in numbers wherever present, cilia set up a current by rhythmic lashing movements. Some one-celled animals and plants and some larvae of higher forms move by cilia.

COCKLE. A mollusk with a heart-shaped shell usually sculptured into radiating ridges and handsomely marked both inside and out. The cockle is a much more active shellfish than the related clams, and progresses along the bottom by surprising leaps and tumbles. These are effected by thrusting out a muscular “foot,” bending it under the shell, and suddenly straightening it.

CONGER EEL (k
ǒ
ng'-g
ē
r). Conger eels are exclusively marine, reach a weight of fifteen pounds or more in American waters and up to one hundred and twenty-five pounds in European, and are exceedingly voracious.

CONTINENTAL SHELF. The gently sloping bottom of the sea from the tide lines down to depths of approximately one hundred fathoms is known as the continental shelf. In places the continental shelf of the United States is about a hundred miles wide; in others, as off the Florida coast, it is only a few miles wide. Many parts of the present shelf were land in comparatively recent geological times. Most marine commercial fisheries are confined to waters over the shelf. The steeper descent from the edge of the shelf to the oceanic abyss is known as the continental slope.

COPEPOD (k
ō
'-p
ē
-p
ǒ
d). A large subclass of crustaceans (q.v.) all less than two-fifths of an inch long and most of them much smaller. Many are free-swimming members of the plankton; some use the bodies of living animals as homes from which they come and go without detriment to their host; others are parasites on the gills, skin, or flesh of fish. They are one of the most important links in the marine food chain, making plant foods available to the many young fishes and other creatures that feed on them. (See Calanus, for example.)

CRAB LARVA. Newly hatched crabs are transparent, big-headed creatures that bear no resemblance to their parents. As they grow they must shed the hard cuticle that covers them with an unyielding armor, and so they pass through a series of molts, each of which brings them a little closer to a crablike physique. Their early life is spent near the surface, swimming about actively and snapping up smaller creatures from the surrounding water.

CRANE FLY. An adult crane fly is a long-legged, mosquitolike insect often seen about streams at dusk, or flying about lights after dark. Their larvae live in the water or in moist places.