. In brook and bayou; or, Life in the still waters . Fig. 2.—Walking. But the amoeba is slower than time—a greatdeal slower! If you wish to see how much our modeof travel resembles theirs, just watch a babycreeping. Or go up into one of those largecity buildings which have an open court in thecenter, like the Chamber of Commerce or theMasonic Temple in Chicago, and look downover the railing from the upper story upon thepeople crossing the court on the ground floor. RHIZOPODS. 5 They do not look in the least like men. Theyhave no height. They look like black or grayknobs, and their legs seem to
. In brook and bayou; or, Life in the still waters . Fig. 2.—Walking. But the amoeba is slower than time—a greatdeal slower! If you wish to see how much our modeof travel resembles theirs, just watch a babycreeping. Or go up into one of those largecity buildings which have an open court in thecenter, like the Chamber of Commerce or theMasonic Temple in Chicago, and look downover the railing from the upper story upon thepeople crossing the court on the ground floor. RHIZOPODS. 5 They do not look in the least like men. Theyhave no height. They look like black or grayknobs, and their legs seem to be nothing buthorizontal protuberances stretching forward atthe front and withdrawing at the rear. Try it some time. It will make you laughto see what a queer object a walking man iswhen viewed perpendicularly; and that is theway in which you look at the amoeba. But you must remember that there is thisdifference between a mans walk and an. Fig. 3.—Twenty minutes for dinner: c, food particles. amoebas—the mans is very much swifter. Itwould take an amoeba a week to cross thecourt, small as it is. 6 IN BROOK AND BAYOU. The feet whicli the amoeba makes when itwishes to travel are called jpseudopodia^ or^^ make-believe feet/ because they are not realfeet and do not remain when made^ but becomepart of the body again^ and will perhaps bemake-believe arms to grasp something the nexttime they are thrust out. Possibly you have heard people in a rail-way carriage, if they are addicted to slang,say, Lets go out and throw ourselvesaround some food/ when the conductor calledTwenty minutes for dinner. That is what the Amoebae do. They throwthemselves around their food. Only theseleisurely ladies take their time to it. As they have no mouths into which to puttheir food, they manage in this way: Whenthey come in contact with a particle of nutri-ment, they make arms to take it, in the sameway that they made feet, by bulging out aloop
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidinbroo, booksubjectzoology
