Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variationsin hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all otherspelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
A linked list of the 190 section headings has been prepared by thetranscriber and placed at the end of the book.
The cover was prepared by the transcriber and is placed in the publicdomain.
THE STRANGEST THINGSIN THE WORLD
A Book About Extraordinary
Manifestations of Nature
THOMAS R. HENRY
Public Affairs Press, Washington, D. C.
Copyright, 1958, by Public Affairs Press
419 New Jersey Avenue, S. E., Washington 3, D. C.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 58-10881
[Pg v]
The challenges of Nature’s paradoxes have been sharpspurs to man’s search for knowledge since the start ofscience.
Fortunately the number of these paradoxes is infinite,and so the quests are endless. Man never will know awonderless world. In the phenomena of life especiallywe have come only to the zone of morning twilight. Thebright day of understanding is ahead. As its hourspass we can expect a constant succession of new paradoxes,new spurs to further advances.
Man would be in a sad situation were it otherwise.For the bright light of noon and afternoon inevitablyprecedes sunset and darkness and sleep.
This book is a compendium of some of Nature’s curiositiesand contradictions in the field of life and assuch it well may awaken that wonder which, as somebodyhas said, is the beginning of knowledge.
The author is one of the world’s best-known and mostrespected science writers. This book is a personal andunique distillation of the wisdom he has developed in alifetime of dealing with man’s effort to resolve the paradoxesof nature.
Leonard Carmichael
Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution
[Pg vii]
Life has invaded nearly every crack and crevasse of the world duringthe billion years since it left its first traces on this planet. It has adjusteditself to all extremes of living, from nearly airless mountaintopsfive miles high to lightless floors of oceans five miles deep. It has foundabodes in boiling hot springs and in the everlasting ice of Antarctic peaks.It very likely has invaded the cold, red deserts of Mars. Everywhere ithas succeeded in altering the garments it wears to meet the stresses ithas experienced.
It has achieved semi-infinite variety. There are approximately aquarter million species of plants now known in the world. Most abundantand varied life is that of the insects who may be on their way todisplace man and his fellow mammals as lords of the earth. A roughestimate of the number of species identified up to now is 800,000. Severalthousand hitherto unknown are described each year. Of mammals, includingman, there may be as many as 14,000 distinct species and geographicraces extant. About 8,500 species of birds are catalogued. Sub-speciesand geographic races increase this number to about 30,000. Knownfishes number 40,000 species