"Resnick, Mike - Dispatches" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

Theodore Roosevelt

Excerpts from monograph submitted by Theodore Roosevelt on July 14, 1898 for
publication by the American Museum of Natural History:

. . . The epidermis is especially unique, not only in its thickness and
pliability, but also in that there is no layer of subcutaneous fat, nor can I
discern any likely source for the secretion of the oily liquid that covers the
entire body surface of the creature.

One of the more unusual features is the total absence of a stomach, intestine,
or any other internal organ that could be used for digestion. My own conclusion,
which I hasten to add is not based on observation, is that nourishment is
ingested directly into the bloodstream from the blood of other animals.

The V-shaped mouth was most puzzling, for what use can a mouth be to a life form
that has no need of eating? But as i continued examining the creature, I
concluded that I was guilty of a false assumption, based on the placement of the
"mouth". The V-shaped opening is not a mouth at all, but rather a breathing
orifice, which I shall not call a nose simply because it is also the source of
the creature's vocalizations, if I may so term the growls and shrieks that
emanate from it . . .

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the eye is not the multi-faceted' pupil,
nor even the purple-and-brown cornea, which doubtless distorts its ability to
see colors as we do, but rather the bird-like nictitating membrane, (or haw, as
this inner eyelid is called in dogs) which protects it from harm. Notice that
although it could not possibly have known the purpose or effects of my rifle, it
nonetheless managed to lower it quickly enough to shield the eye from the main
force of my bullet. Indeed; as is apparent from even a cursory examination of
the haw, the healing process is so incredibly rapid that although I shot it
three times in the left eye, the three wounds are barely discernable, even
though the bullets passed entirely through the haw and buried themselves at the
back of the eye.

I cannot believe that the creature's color can possibly be considered protective
coloration . . . but then, I do not accept the concept of protective coloration
to begin with. Consider the zebra: were it brown or black, it would be no easier
to spot at, say, a quarter mile, than a wildebeest or topi or prong-horned
deer-- but because God saw fit to give it black and white stripes, it stands out
at more than half a mile, giving notice of its presence to all predators,
thereby negating the not ion of protective coloration, for the zebra's stripes
are, if anything, anti-protective, and yet it is one of the most successful
animals in Africa. Thus, while the creature I shot is indeed difficult to pick
out in what I assume to be its natural forest surroundings, I feel that it is
brown by chance rather than design.

. . . Field conditions are rather primitive here, but I counted more than one
hundred separate muscles in the largest of the tentacles, and must assume there
are at least another two hundred that I was unable to discern. This is the only