NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14925, 24 February 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BT J. MI'MMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.P.

Some months ago Mr. J. P. O'Rcgan, of >' Wellington, supplied a note for this column i on .1 report, that seals had been seen a/ long way from the sea up the Inangahuu. River, on the West Coast. Other corres- ' pondents related similar experiences, and .Mr. C. Reginald Ford, who was a member of Captain Scott's first Antarctic expedition, and who now resides in Cluistchurch, has sent the following contribution on v the subject:"in reading your in--teresting natural, history notes a 'short time ago I noticed a. reference to the discovery of a seal some distance front the sea, up the Inangahua. River, and to a seal floundering in the streets of Hobatt. The paragraph reminded mo that seals were found by the Discovery expedition to the Antarctic not only some distance mm the sea, but also some height up in the mountains. ; ; . Nearly all the sledging expeditions that penetrated the Royal Society Range of ' mountains, west of our • winter Quarters,* found dead-seals in the glaciers from the shore. They were not only Weddel's, but also the crab-eating seals." Armitage re- , cords that on his journey up the Western Glacier in November, 1902, he found-seve-ral carcases of the Lohodon careinopKagus at an altitude of from. 2000 ft to 3000 ft above sea-level and 50 miles from the coast. It is known that old seals, when .'■, their time approaches to leave this planet, search lor some secluded spot • for their passing. Armitage concluded that these seals, whose dead bodies he found, knowing of their approaching dissolution, crawled painfully and wearily up, and ever upwards, until death overtook them.' I take, this opportunity of expressing my ap- j preciation of your valuable and interesting ; notes, for which I always look in keen anticipation.'' " '■■,-'- i;. | . Mr.. F. E. Fee has written from the lighthouse at. Cape Brett stating that when i ho was out on the water fishing recently ; ho saw some objects that seemed V» be * shoal of mullet swimming towards him. They dived beneath his boat, and excited his curiosity, and then he,saw .that they were present in millions close to the cliff under which his boat was lying. He | i leaned over and found that they, were I shells, delicate and fragile in structure, . and very beautiful. He was surprised at I the great speed with; which they swam,: ; but he was astonished to find in every, I shell a miniature octopus, which, when - grasped, ejected a dark fluid. It is the ' first time Mr. Fee has seen this shellfish | swimming in the water, and he asks if itC: is frequently found near the New Zealand ( coast* and if it has any value. Many readers of the Herald, no ; doubt, will recognise in the shell that has puzzled m Mr. Fee the famous "paper nautilus." It , is the little feature which, has been celebrated in prose and poetry throughout the ages, and which poets and philosophers'y have held up to human beings as a worthy';| example and an object-lesson. Pope advised men to • Learn of the tittle nautilus to call, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gala, ; And Byron describes, it as The tender nautilug who steers his prow, The sea-borne sailor of his shell canoe, The ocean Mab, the fairy of the sea. But the most poetical reference to these " remarkable shellfish is Oliver Wendell < Holmes's song of praise to the chambered 1 nautilus: " ' Thanks for the heavenly aiesenger'brouehtbT thee, ■"'. ■ ■ *■.• .- '•.,.■,; Child of the wandering sea, 11 Cast from her lap forlorn 1 From thy dead lips ; a clearer. note is, horn cver JriWn hleiv from wreathed horn. While on mine ear it rings, Through the deep caves of thought I hear -a Totoe that sings?:— Build thee, more stately mansions, 0 mv soul. As the swift, seasons roil! ■ " > ' •■ Leave the low-vaulted pant: : * Let each new temple, nobler than the last. SUM, ,hee from heaven with a dome more vast. Till at. length thou art free, leaving thy outgrown shell by-life's unrertinz sea. ™ •-■ ' ■■ ■■' ■■ '' ■ -'*■'•■■■' :: 'v'4:4 . r ' ■■ ' , " . ..... ;.^i;'-':'j ~l t is necessary; to explain, however, that Holmes's chambered nautilus—or, a** it is sometimes called, the peariv nautilus —is a different animal from nautilus. Both belong to the -cepffif poda or cuttlefish class; but- 1 d 0 L not \ think that the chambered nautilus is found 1D tl , A aland waters. It is the only cuttlefish that has a true external chambered shell. -The "paper nautilus asI Air. Pee saw m the specimens (Dal at-, • tracted his attention, has an outside shell, but it is secreted by the arms of the fe- j male It is not organically connected to the body, but is usually folded bv the arms, which cover it and, protect it.* Th» ' differences between the two animals can hardly be dealt with here, but it may be . stated that while the chambered 'nautilus is four-gilled, the " paper nautilus I' is twogilled. Besides that, the shell of the": "paper nautilus" has only one chamber. As a matter of fact, the paper nautilus : is not a nautilus at all. It is an argonaut. ' ' and it appears in scientific publications d-i argonatita, while the "chambered nautilus, which is the only living member of the genus, is Nautilus pomplius. All Mr. Fee's specimens were females. The male does not possess a shell. He has no means of. j making one, and he is usually much smaller than the female. The'shell is really merely fa; receptacle for the "eggs., ' It, is believed that as soon as the eggs are laid the female comes out of the shell and . leaves the eggs in it to come forth at thft proper time.

Professor H. Kuter, the leading concbologist in New Zealand, has told me thai, > ' the argonaut a is represented in. the waters of this Dominion by three species—nodosa, argo, and hiaus. Argo is the same .species ■/': as the ancient writers were familiar with, ' and is very plentiful in the Mediterranean Sea. It is this species 'that has been de-IS scribed as "the-native pilot" of his . '■ "little bain." who puts over "a. tier of oars on either side,'' ■ and progresses by i mounting up arid gliding down the billows, :} a description which, like Pope's references, ; is more poetical than correct. Neither the "paper nautilus" nor the chambered nau- J tilus uses its expanded arms' as sails or " i its other arms as oars. That is one of the I |! pretty fancies than science has ruthlessly i dispelled. Propulsion is secured by allow- J§f| ing water to enter a sac in which the gills |ff| are plated. When the '.sac .is full the-■"{.;! I muscles contract in order to expel the ""i I water, and' (lie forcible eSp.u'fcicm of the ■ 1 'water through'the" narrow end. of a fun- J nel propels the 'creature by the reaction in fi the opposite) direction. "Professor tSuter :j \. states that, the species hians is very rare in. ■ $ New Zealand. Ho knows- of only ono •, jj specimen of the species, a very sma/l one, ■'", | which is in the Otago Museum. Argo is :J more plentiful, but nodosa is most pfenti- '• 1 fill, and he thinks.that it was Argonauta 4 nodosa which is the subject of Mr. Fee"? I letter. Large numbers have ., been found' ,1 near the Great Barrier and the Little Bar- jll'j rier, Portland Island, Tiritiri, and the cpsi i coast of the. North Island, and also on | the west coast. As to the value of the' /] specimens, ho says thai; it depends largely upon their size and the condition in. which /■■{ they are preserved. The fact that tlaejiii ate cosmopolitan in their distribution, and : ■>i are exceptionally plentiful in tropical scaa, ; >| makes the supply much greater than, the \w demand. An enthusiastic eonchologiM, or ill the director of a museum, might give £1 : :s.\ for a large, - perfect specimen, with the female inside, and the price decreases, ac- ~\ cording to the size, to a few shillings. But | the "paper nautilus" is one of those things that must be regarded not only from the commercial point of view, but as one f of the most beautiful .and marvellous of ■ | Nature's creations. * . j