Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1877 — The Life of a Sponge. [ARTICLE]

The Life of a Sponge.

Before this paper, ¥ want my readors to procuri a piece of sponge, and to hold it in their liand#,. and- examine it well, as we try to find out some of the secrets of doubt you have handled it often before, aqd used It for many purposes, 1 'but perhaps 1 V6u have not cared .to ask- its wonderful lifestory. Once it was alive. Wimt kinthof life had it, do you think ? Dla It grow like a vegetable,: always toy tkq - Same place; or aid it run about, like you? Well, it did neither, yet ifh'adf kind of life gs you hayftin It waean iLnima). If you had seen it crowing,on its rocks, you would cfertaifity'haVo filcragiit it looked much more Ukqa, Riant, for many years it was thought to be so: but it has been discovered' that' ft: hod three characteristics which qo, .xpgetabLei ever had. In the first place' it' aid not ‘ drqw its food from the groundithrough: scoots, but supplied itself thfoqghlittle mouths; then when it was young, it fcould move about; and t lastly ..it showed a yrfHiof its own bv taking m food itsjDiyn aqoprd, just when it 1 wrfs' wanted. ‘ So, 'after 1 iliat, naturalists thought it ably fairto call it an animal. ~ .„ Let ns go back to’tfie first birthday of the little G|e>Mwe Sfpujjiold-ip yqur hagd, and see how it capie in, the world. t Look at that rock jronddf tout 'to- fhe'bcrtth; growing on it is a cl-uatpr of Ispqngqy fj«m which falls a tiny, pear-shaped jelly. That is the baby ■■sponge. What a>queer » ufaraas tilings it is happy, for it cahfeel arid float. All over, 4 r S < nity briaUea, whtoh it moves'about in all direc'trons, and with which it draws’in loodju -In this state the sponge is, cabled a gemmule: and the little briatfes 'caHefi its cilia, 6r eVelksnes. Merrily .the littlev gemmule floats, ilonfg, until, far awav from Ua birthplace, it finds some rock which Is to be lts future borne. The ,narrtpv md pf/its tyidy is fastened to the rock, but its cilia gp on moving constantly ufitil it is fixed-quite secure- Th4y -Me.dpwa <to 4jM«u«k, and it never, moves them again. Now, as we watch we tt&i sferi a great malty dark fibers, which you aefe in it when it la s«rvspa' nig out at the water during! thehtiort’ttmtfln which they had the power of motimp,, Jtn a few days they have done something, the effects!of winch will la4t re„ lifetime! What a lesson f<?ij us all to make the most of our Time and opportunities' while we have them! <h : w : . : j to n fL-.oj

which you can see in it no ini I Inside this framework the living jelly grows, mling all the holes hnfl boverra£ fife dtftsiae of the sponge.. Through bolqs the; little creature sucks in the' 1 sea-water on whichW reeds,- and wheh 4hi4* ! hdS‘yell soaked throughJts bodjr,. H seudrr.dut what it does not want through the. larger tubes or holes aftife top;' So qatil it is torn from its rock, and" thed 'the living Jelly turns •Into itkind'' of thiiffi glue’rinS’ dries up, which iaibvW Df dying..,.{flip; Aileron sponges .are gathered eagerly, somf to be employed in varioususifOi ways; others, the more delicate, that grow in, aU. kinds of beautiful shapes, like trees and trumpets, aud even globes, arq,pre^9fvedif’xau—--seams and collections of curiosities.— N. -T. ObterDo*. J? *£! * 1 &U j 4.• '1 <»« Wrim* .he IJt mn. Ihealira have been destroyed bf firi? m Now* -¥wk alone. This puts the average as about jone ayes'. ' v /