CHAPTER TWELVE.
SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE TANK--JACK'S WISDOM AND PETERKIN'SIMPERTINENCE--WONDERFUL BEHAVIOUR OF A CRAB--GOOD WISHES FOR THOSE WHODWELL FAR FROM THE SEA--JACK COMMENCES TO BUILD A LITTLE BOAT.
Rest is sweet, as well for the body as for the mind. During my longexperience, amid the vicissitudes of a chequered life, I have found thatperiods of profound rest at certain intervals, in addition to theordinary hours of repose, are necessary to the well-being of man. Andthe nature, as well as the period, of this rest varies according to thedifferent temperaments of individuals and the peculiar circumstances inwhich they may chance to be placed. To those who work with their minds,bodily labour is rest; to those who labour with the body, deep sleep isrest; to the downcast, the weary, and the sorrowful, joy and peace arerest. Nay, further, I think that to the gay, the frivolous, thereckless, when sated with pleasures that cannot last, even sorrow provesto be rest of a kind, although, perchance, it were better that I shouldcall it relief than rest. There is, indeed, but one class of men towhom rest is denied--there is no rest to the wicked. At this I do buthint, however, as I treat not of that rest which is spiritual, but moreparticularly of that which applies to the mind and to the body.
Of this rest we stood much in need on our return home, and we found itexceedingly sweet when we indulged in it after completing the journeyjust related. It had not, indeed, been a very long journey;nevertheless, we had pursued it so diligently that our frames were not alittle prostrated. Our minds were also very much exhausted inconsequence of the many surprises, frequent alarms, and much profoundthought to which they had been subjected; so that when we lay down, onthe night of our return, under the shelter of the bower, we fellimmediately into very deep repose. I can state this with muchcertainty; for Jack afterwards admitted the fact, and Peterkin, althoughhe stoutly denied it, I heard snoring loudly at least two minutes afterlying down. In this condition we remained all night and the whole ofthe following day without awaking once, or so much as moving ourpositions. When we did awake it was near sunset, and we were all insuch a state of lassitude that we merely rose to swallow a mouthful offood. As Peterkin remarked, in the midst of a yawn, we took breakfastat tea-time, and then went to bed again, where we lay till the followingforenoon.
After this we arose very greatly refreshed, but much alarmed lest we hadlost count of a day. I say we were much alarmed on this head; for wehad carefully kept count of the days, since we were cast upon ourisland, in order that we might remember the Sabbath-day, which day wehad hitherto, with one accord, kept as a day of rest, and refrained fromall work whatsoever. However, on considering the subject, we all threeentertained the same opinion as to how long we had slept, and so ourminds were put at ease.
We now hastened to our Water Garden to enjoy a bathe, and to see how didthe animals which I had placed in the tank. We found the garden morecharming, pellucid, and inviting than ever; and Jack and I plunged intoits depths and gambolled among its radiant coral groves, while Peterkinwallowed at the surface, and tried occasionally to kick us as we passedbelow. Having dressed, I then hastened to the tank; but what was mysurprise and grief to find nearly all the animals dead, and the water ina putrid condition! I was greatly distressed at this, and wondered whatcould be the cause of it.
"Why, you precious humbug!" said Peterkin, coming up to me, "how couldyou expect it to be otherwise? When fishes are accustomed to live inthe Pacific Ocean, how can you expect them to exist in a hole likethat?"
"Indeed, Peterkin," I replied, "there seems to be truth in what you say.Nevertheless, now I think of it, there must be some error in yourreasoning; for if I put in but a few very small animals, they will bearthe same proportion to this pond that the millions of fish bear to theocean."
"I say, Jack!" cried Peterkin, waving his hand; "come here, like a goodfellow. Ralph is actually talking philosophy. Do come to ourassistance, for he's out o' sight beyond me already!"
"What's the matter?" inquired Jack, coming up, while he endeavoured toscrub his long hair dry with a towel of cocoa-nut cloth.
I repeated my thoughts to Jack, who, I was happy to find, quite agreedwith me. "The best plan," he said, "will be to put very few animals atfirst into your tank, and add more as you find it will bear them. Andlook here," he added, pointing to the sides of the tank, which, for thespace of two inches above the water-level, were encrusted with salt,"you must carry your philosophy a little further, Ralph. That water hasevaporated so much that it is too salt for anything to live in. Youwill require to add _fresh_ water now and then, in order to keep it atthe same degree of saltness as the sea."
"Very true, Jack; that never struck me before," said I.
"And, now I think of it," continued Jack, "it seems to me that thesurest way of arranging your tank so as to get it to keep pure and ingood condition will be to _imitate_ the ocean in it; in fact, make it aminiature Pacific. I don't see how you can hope to succeed unless youdo that."
"Most true," said I, pondering what my companion said. "But I fear thatthat will be very difficult."
"Not at all," cried Jack, rolling his towel up into a ball and throwingit into the face of Peterkin, who had been grinning and winking at himduring the last five minutes--"not at all. Look here. There is waterof a certain saltness in the sea; well, fill your tank with sea-water,and keep it at that saltness by marking the height at which the waterstands on the sides. When it evaporates a little, pour in _fresh_ waterfrom the brook till it comes up to the mark, and then it will be right,for the salt does not evaporate with the water. Then there's lots ofseaweed in the sea; well, go and get one or two bits of seaweed and putthem into your tank. Of course the weed must be alive, and growing tolittle stones; or you can chip a bit off the rocks with the weedsticking to it. Then, if you like, you can throw a little sand andgravel into your tank, and the thing's complete."
"Nay, not quite," said Peterkin, who had been gravely attentive to thisoff-hand advice--"not quite. You must first make three little men todive in it before it can be said to be perfect; and that would be ratherdifficult, I fear, for two of them would require to be philosophers.But hallo! what's this?--I say, Ralph, look here! There's one o' yourcrabs up to something uncommon. It's performing the most remarkableoperation for a crab I ever saw--taking off its coat, I do believe,before going to bed!"
We hastily stooped over the tank, and certainly were not a little amusedat the conduct of one of the crabs which still survived its companions.It was one of the common small crabs, like to those that are foundrunning about everywhere on the coast of England. While we gazed at itwe observed its back to split away from the lower part of its body, andout of the gap thus formed came a soft lump which moved and writhedunceasingly. This lump continued to increase in size until it appearedlike a bunch of crab's legs; and, indeed, such it proved in a very fewminutes to be, for the points of the toes were at length extricated fromthe hole in its back, the legs spread out, the body followed, and thecrab walked away quite entire, even to the points of its nipper-claws,leaving a perfectly entire shell behind it, so that, when we looked, itseemed as though there were two complete crabs instead of one.
"Well," exclaimed Peterkin, drawing a long breath, "I've _heard_ of aman jumping out of his skin and sitting down in his skeleton in order tocool himself, but I never expected to _see_ a crab do it!"
We were, in truth, much amazed at this spectacle, and the more so whenwe observed that the new crab was larger than the crab that it came outof. It was also quite soft, but by next morning its skin had hardenedinto a good shell. We came thus to know that crabs grow in this way,and not by the growing of their shells, as we had always thought beforewe saw this wonderful operation.
Now I considered well the advice which Jack had given me about preparingmy tank, and the more I thought of it the more I came to regard it asvery sound and worthy of being acted on. So I forthwith put his plan inexecution, and found it to answer excellently well--indeed, much beyondmy expectation;
for I found that after a little experience had taught methe proper proportion of seaweed and animals to put into a certainamount of water, the tank needed no further attendance. And, moreover,I did not require ever afterwards to renew or change the sea-water, butonly to add a very little fresh water from the brook, now and then, asthe other evaporated. I therefore concluded that if I had been suddenlyconveyed, along with my tank, into some region where there was no saltsea at all, my little sea and my sea-fish would have continued to thriveand to prosper notwithstanding. This made me greatly to desire thatthose people in the world who live far inland might know of my wonderfultank, and by having materials like to those of which it was madeconveyed to them, thus be enabled to watch the habits of those mostmysterious animals that reside in the sea, and examine with their owneyes the wonders of the great deep.
For many days after this, while Peterkin and Jack were busily employedin building a little boat out of the curious natural planks of thechestnut-tree, I spent much of my time in examining with theburning-glass the marvellous operations that were constantly going on inmy tank. Here I saw those anemones which cling, like little red,yellow, and green blobs of jelly, to the rocks, put forth, as it were, amultitude of arms and wait till little fish or other small animalculesunwarily touched them, when they would instantly seize them, fold armafter arm round their victims, and so engulf them in their stomachs.Here I saw the ceaseless working of those little coral insects whoseefforts have encrusted the islands of the Pacific with vast rocks, andsurrounded them with enormous reefs; and I observed that many of theseinsects, though extremely minute, were very beautiful, coming out oftheir holes in a circle of fine threads, and having the form of ashuttlecock. Here I saw curious little barnacles opening a hole intheir backs and constantly putting out a thin, feathery hand, withwhich, I doubt not, they dragged their food into their mouths. Here,also, I saw those crabs which have shells only on the front of theirbodies, but no shell whatever on their remarkably tender tails, so that,in order to find a protection to them, they thrust them into the emptyshells of whelks, or some such fish, and when they grow too big for one,change into another. But, most curious of all, I saw an animal whichhad the wonderful power, when it became ill, of casting its stomach andits teeth away from it, and getting an entirely new set in the course ofa few months! All this I saw, and a great deal more, by means of mytank and my burning-glass; but I refrain from setting down moreparticulars here, as I have still much to tell of the adventures thatbefell us while we remained on this island.