Sea Monsters Unmasked and Sea Fables Explained Part 17

It is most interesting to watch a dense ma.s.s of living cirripedes so closely packed together that not a speck of the surface of the wood is left uncovered by them; their fleshy stalks overhanging each other, and often attached in cl.u.s.ters to those of some larger individuals; their plumose casting-nets ever gathering in the food that comes within their reach, and carrying towards the mouth any solid particles suitable for their sustenance. How much of insoluble matter barnacles will eliminate from the water is shown by the rapidity with which they will render turbid sea water clear and transparent. The most common species of these "necked barnacles" bears the name of "_Lepas anatifera_," "the duck-bearing _Lepas_." It was so ent.i.tled by Linnaeus, in recognition of its having been connected with the fable, which, of course, met with no credit from him.

Fig. 39 represents the figure-head of a s.h.i.+p, partly covered with barnacles, which was picked up about thirty miles off Lowestoft on the 22nd of October, 1857. It was described in the _Ill.u.s.trated London News_, and the proprietors of that paper have kindly given me a copy of the block from which its portrait was printed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 39.--A s.h.i.+P'S FIGURE-HEAD WITH BARNACLES ATTACHED TO IT.]

Others of the barnacles affix themselves to the bottoms of s.h.i.+ps, or parasitically upon whales and sharks, and those of the latter kind often burrow deeply into the skin of their host. Fig. 40 is a portrait of a _Coronula diadema_ taken from the nose of a whale stranded at Kintradwell, in the north of Scotland, in 1866, and sent to the late Mr.

Frank Buckland. Growing on this _Coronula_ are three of the curious eared barnacles, _Conchoderma aurita_; the _Lepas aurita_ of Linnaeus.

The species of the whale from which these Barnacles were taken was not mentioned, but it was probably the "hunch-backed" whale, _Megaptera longimana_, which is generally infested with this _Coronula_. This very ill.u.s.trative specimen was, and I hope still is, in Mr. Buckland's Museum at South Kensington. It was described by him in _Land and Water_, of May 19th, 1866, and I am indebted to the proprietors of that paper for the accompanying portrait of it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 40.--WHALE BARNACLE (_Coronula diadema_), WITH THREE _Conchoderma aurita_ ATTACHED TO IT.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 41.--A YOUNG BARNACLE. (_Larva of Chthamalus stellatus._)]

The young Barnacle when just extruded from the sh.e.l.l of its parent is a very different being from that which it will be in its mature condition.

It begins its life in a form exactly like that of an entomostracous crustacean, and, like a Cyclops, has one large eye in the middle of its forehead. In this state it swims freely, and with great activity. It undergoes three moults, each time altering its figure, until at the third exuviation it has become enclosed in a bivalve sh.e.l.l, and has acquired a second eye. It is now ready to attach itself to its abiding-place; so, selecting its future residence, it presses itself against the wood, or whatever the substance may be, pours out from its two antennae a glutinous cement, which hardens in water, and thus fastens itself by the front of its head, is henceforth a fixture for life, and a.s.sumes the adult form in which most persons know it best.[97]

[97] If any of my readers wish to observe the development of young barnacles they may easily do so. The method I have generally adopted has been as follows: Procure a shallow gla.s.s or earthenware milk-pan that will hold at least a gallon. Fill this to within an inch of the top with sea-water, and place it in any shaded part of a room--not in front of a window. Put in the pan six or eight pebbles or clean sh.e.l.ls of equal height, say 1 or 2 inches, and on them lay a clean sheet of gla.s.s, which, by resting on the pebbles, is brought to within about 2 inches of the surface of the water. Select some limpets or mussels having acorn-barnacles on them; carefully cut out the limpet or mussel, and clean nicely the interior of the sh.e.l.l; then place a dozen or more of these sh.e.l.ls on the sheet of gla.s.s, and the barnacles upon them will be within convenient reach of any observation with a magnifying gla.s.s. If this be done in the month of March, the experimenter will not have to wait long before he sees young _Balani_ ejected from the summits of some of the sh.e.l.ls. Up to the moment of their birth each of them is enclosed in a little coc.o.o.n or case, in shape like a canary-seed, and most of them are tossed into the world whilst still enclosed in this. In a few seconds this casing is ruptured longitudinally, apparently by the struggles of its inmate, which escapes at one end, like a b.u.t.terfly emerging from its chrysalis, and swims freely to the surface of the water, leaving the split coc.o.o.n or case at the bottom of the pan. Some few of the young barnacles seem to be freed from the coc.o.o.n before, or at the moment of, extrusion. From three to a dozen or more of these escape with each protrusion of the cirri of the parent, and as the parturient barnacle will put forth its feathery casting net at least twenty times in a minute for an hour or more, it follows that as many as ten thousand young ones may be produced in an hour. These, as they are cast forth at each pulsation of the parent's cirri, fall upon the clean sheet of gla.s.s, and may be taken up in a pipette, and placed under a microscope, or removed to a smaller vessel of sea-water, for minute and separate investigation. It seems strange that animals which, like the oyster and the barnacles, are condemned in their mature condition to lead so sedentary a life, should in the earlier stages of their existence swim freely and merrily through the water--young fellows seeking a home, and when they have found it, although their connubial life must be a very tame one, settling down, and not caring to rove about any more for the remainder of their days. These young _Balani_ dart about like so many water-fleas, and yet, after a few days of freedom, they become fixed and immovable, the inhabitants of the pyramidal sh.e.l.ls which grow in such abundance on other sh.e.l.ls, stones, and old wood.

It is unnecessary for me to describe more minutely the anatomy of the Cirripedes; I have said enough to show the nature of the plumose appurtenances which, hanging from the dead sh.e.l.ls, were supposed to be the feathers of a little bird within; but it is difficult to understand how any one could have seen in the natural occupant of the sh.e.l.l, "the little bill, like that of a goose, the eyes, head, neck, breast, wings, tail, and feet, like those of other water-fowl," so precisely and categorically detailed by Sir Robert Moray. As Pontoppidan, who denounced the whole story, as being "without the least foundation," very truly says, "One must take the force of imagination to help to make it look so!"

As to the origin of the myth, I venture to differ entirely from philologists who attribute it to "language," and "a similarity of names," for, although, as Professor Max Muller observes in one of his lectures, "words without definite meanings are at the bottom of nearly all our philosophical and religious controversies," it certainly is not applicable in this instance. Every quotation here given shows that the mistake arose from the supposed resemblance of the plumes of the cirrhopod, and the feathers of a bird, and the fallacious deductions derived therefrom. The statements of Maier (p. 112), Gerard (p. 106), Sir Robert Moray (p. 110), &c., prove that this fanciful misconception sprang from erroneous observation. The love of the marvellous inherent in mankind, and especially prevalent in times of ignorance and superst.i.tion, favoured its reception and adoption, and I believe that it would have been as widely circulated, and have met with equal credence, if the names of the cirripede and of the goose that was supposed to be its offspring had been far more dissimilar than, at first, they really were.

Setting aside several ingenious and far-fetched derivations that have been proposed, I think we may safely regard the word "barnacle," as applied to the cirrhopod, as a corruption of _pernacula_, the diminutive of _perna_, a bivalve mollusk, so-called from the similarity in shape of its sh.e.l.l to that of a ham--_pernacula_ being changed to _bernacula_. In some old Glossaries _perna_ is actually spelt _berna_.

To arrive at the origin of the word "barnacle," or "bernicle," as applied to the goose, we must understand that this bird, _Anser leucopsis_, was formerly called the "brent," "brant," or "bran" goose, and was supposed to be identical with the species, _Anser torquatus_, which is now known by that name. The Scottish word for "goose" is "clake," or "clakis,"[98] and I think that the suggestion made long ago to Gesner[99] (1558), by his correspondent, Joannes Caius, is correct, that the word "barnacle" comes from "branclakis," or "barnclake," "the dark-coloured goose."

[98] See the quotation from Hector Boethius, p. 101.

[99] 'Historia Animalium,' lib. iii. p. 110.

Professor Max Muller is of the opinion that its Latin name may have been derived from _Hibernicae_, _Hiberniculae_, _Berniculae_, as it was against the Irish bishops that Geraldus wrote, but I must say that this does not commend itself to me; for the name _Bernicula_ was not used in the early times to denote these birds. Giraldus himself described them as _Bernacae_, but they were variously known, also, as _Barliates_, _Bernestas_, _Barnetas_, _Barbates_, etc.

I agree with Dr. John Hill,[100] that "the whole matter that gave origin to the story is that the 'sh.e.l.l-fish' (cirripedes), supposed to have this wonderful production usually adhere to old wood, and that they have a kind of fibres hanging out of them, which, in some degree, resemble feathers of some bird. From this slight origin arose the story that they contained real birds: what grew on trees people soon a.s.serted to be the fruit of trees, and, from step to step, the story gained credit with the hearers," till, at length, Gerard had the audacity to say that he had witnessed the transformation.

[100] 'History of Animals,' p. 422. 1752.

The Barnacle Goose is only a winter visitor of Great Britain. It breeds in the far north, in Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, and probably, also, along the sh.o.r.es of the White Sea. There are generally some specimens of this prettily-marked goose in the gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park, London; and they thrive there, and become very tame. In the months of December and January these geese may often be seen hanging for sale in poulterers' shops; and he who has tasted one well cooked may be pardoned if the suspicion cross his mind that the "monks of old," and "the bare-footed friars," as well as the laity, may not have been unwilling to sustain the fiction in order that they might conserve the privilege of having on their tables during the long fast of Lent so agreeable and succulent a "vegetable" or "fish" as a Barnacle Goose.

THE END.