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Aquatic   Listen
noun
Aquatic  n.  
1.
An aquatic animal or plant.
2.
pl. Sports or exercises practiced in or on the water.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Aquatic" Quotes from Famous Books



... the most nearly allied to our domestic cattle. Those ruminants which are classed under the generic name of Ox, may be very naturally divided into two distinct groups. The first includes the Buffaloes, animals in some measure aquatic, living in low, swampy localities, or near rivers, in which they remain half immersed a great part of the day; having broad-based horns, partly spreading over their foreheads, flat on their internal side, and round on their external; tongue soft, &c. The second ...
— Delineations of the Ox Tribe • George Vasey

... it might be, in defence of their island, which had probably been raised from the depths of the ocean, a century or two ago, by some of their own ancestors. The gigantic works completed by these little aquatic animals, are well known to navigators, and give us some tolerably accurate notions of the manner in which the face of the globe has been made to undergo some of its alterations. I found the land easy of access, low, wooded, and without ...
— Afloat And Ashore • James Fenimore Cooper

... cover of the slight landswell which then, more plainly marked than it is now, formed the contour line of hummock upon which the fort and village stood. A watery swale grown full of tall aquatic weeds meandered parallel with the bluff, so to call it, and there was a soft melancholy whispering of wind among the long blades and stems. She passed the church and Father Beret's hut and continued for some distance in the direction of that pretty knoll upon which the cemetery ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson

... I was determined to explore this curious town in the water, and I especially desired to see it on the lake side, because there one would get the best impression of its being really an aquatic town; so I went northward, as I was directed, and came quite unexpectedly upon the astonishing cathedral. It seemed built of polished marble, and it was in every way so exquisite in proportion, so delicate in sculpture, ...
— The Path to Rome • Hilaire Belloc

... got a couple of flys to drive to the boat-house. I put them in the first, but they couldn't sit still a moment, and were perpetually flying up and down like the toy figures in the sham snuff-boxes. In this order we went on to "Tom Brown's, the tailor's," where they all dressed in aquatic costume, and then to the boat-house, where they all cried in shrill chorus for "Mahogany"—a gentleman, so called by reason of his sunburnt complexion, a waterman by profession. (He was likewise called during the day "Hog" and "Hogany," and seemed to be unconscious ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 1 (of 3), 1833-1856 • Charles Dickens

... for three summers they bred at the same spot in spite of the anxiety they suffered on my account, and I saw and grew familiar with their quaint-looking young, clothed in white down and with long narrow pointed heads more like the heads of aquatic birds than ...
— Far Away and Long Ago • W. H. Hudson

... classes told me, that it was impossible for them to plough their fields, since all their plough-bullocks had been seized and sold by the Nazim's agents. Great numbers in this and the adjoining estates have subsisted entirely upon wild fruits, and some species of aquatic plants, since they were ruined by ...
— A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II • William Sleeman

... heap of wings in order; divide them in three parts according to the birds from whom they came; the singing, the prophetic(1) and the aquatic birds; then you must take care to distribute them to the men according ...
— The Birds • Aristophanes

... stables. He expected to find the General there, and he was not disappointed. He had, however, finished his inspection of the horses, and he proposed a walk to the upper end of the Glen, where a great pond was being dug for Mrs. Hyde's swans, and other aquatic birds. ...
— The Maid of Maiden Lane • Amelia E. Barr

... possessed in an unusual degree, the power of suddenly ingratiating himself with those who conversed with him. A gentleman who had never before seen him, and who had reluctantly accompanied the Prince in his aquatic expedition, was so much pleased with Cambridge, as to be among the foremost to acknowledge his satisfaction; and having been introduced by William Whitehead, then tutor to the Earl of Jersey's eldest son, into the house of that nobleman, he soon became a welcome guest, ...
— Lives of the English Poets - From Johnson to Kirke White, Designed as a Continuation of - Johnson's Lives • Henry Francis Cary

... resemblances, due to phenomena of convergence, must not be considered as homologies in the sense of hereditary relationship. Thus, in the language of natural history we do not say that a bat resembles a bird, nor that a whale resembles a fish, for here the resemblances are due simply to aerial or aquatic life which produces the effects of convergence, while the internal structure shows them to be quite dissimilar organisms. Although it swims in the sea the whale is a mammal; its fins at first sight resemble those of a fish, but they are really the homologues of the four limbs of other mammals and ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel

... winterers from the Northern regions. The geological formation is a concrete of shells of enormous thickness, which has hardened to the only semblance of rock which the coast affords, and the low dunes have shut off from the Atlantic long lagoons which swarm with life, marine and aquatic creatures occurring in numberless species and orders; alligators lie in wait for their prey, and schools of porpoises come in by the inlets in pursuit of other schools of fat mullet which swarm in the water. Such teeming life I had never before any conception of. ...
— The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I • Stillman, William James

... ready to issue they burst open the lower end of the eggs and the young wrigglers escape into the water. The larvae are fitted for aquatic life only, so mosquitoes cannot breed in moist or damp places unless there is at least a small amount of standing water there. A very little will do, but there must be enough to cover the ...
— Insects and Diseases - A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread - or Cause some of our Common Diseases • Rennie W. Doane

... horses? Shade of Dibdin! ghost of Grimaldi! what would you have said in your day? To be sure ye were guilty of pony races: they took place outside the theatre, but within the walls, in the very cella of the aquatic temple, till now, never! We wonder ye do not rise up and "pluck bright Honner from the vasty ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari. Vol. 1, July 31, 1841 • Various

... of the Church, and accordingly continued to eat them indiscriminately. We also see, in the middle of the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas, who was considered an authority in questions of dogma and of faith, ranking poultry amongst species of aquatic origin. ...
— Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period • Paul Lacroix

... "there is scarcely a sheltered cavern in the sides of the mountains that arise immediately from the sea, where living shell-fish may not be found any day of the year. Crows even, and vultures, as well as aquatic birds, detach the shell-fish from the rocks, and mount with them into the air: shells thus carried are said to be frequently found on the very summit even of the Table Mountain. In one cavern at the point of Mussel Bay," he adds, "I disturbed some thousands of birds, and found as many ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 379, Saturday, July 4, 1829. • Various

... workmen were employed some years back in sinking a well to supply the garrison with water, the aid of gunpowder was required to blast the fossil timber, it having attained, by elementary action and the repose of ages, the hard compactness of rock or granite stone. Aquatic productions also appear to observation in their natural shape and proportion, with the advantage of high preservation, to facilitate the study of the inquiring philosopher. I have seen entire lobsters, ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 282, November 10, 1827 • Various

... this star formed a separate garden, where there could be seen elephants, buffaloes, camels, dromedaries, stags, and kangaroos grazing; handsome and substantial cages held tigers, bears, leopards, lions, hyenas, etc; and swans and rare aquatic birds and amphibious animals sported in basins surrounded by iron gratings. In this menagerie I specially remarked a very extraordinary animal, which his Majesty had ordered brought to France, but which had died the day before it was to have ...
— The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Constant

... with the fresh-water sponges of Europe, and in order to explain this fact he put forward a rather interesting theory. He assumes that sponge life in rivers has been originally generated by the introduction of a single, or at most two or three germs by means of aquatic birds. The inbreeding consequent upon this paucity of sponge life has produced a certain fixity of character in fresh-water sponges, and is in direct opposition to the effects of hybridization in the salt-water sponges, by which they have ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 601, July 9, 1887 • Various

... fisheries, and of various foreign countries as Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, France, Great Britain, Russia, and Norway. Walking through a curved arcade, we beheld on either side aquaria of an enormous capacity, inclosing both denizens of fresh and salt water. It is safe to say the display of aquatic life made here, could rival the greatest permanent aquaria in existence; not only as to their voluminousness, but the immense variety of their specimens. Especially striking to the eye was a magnificent group of gold fishes. The huge bull-cat fish and the gigantic turtle were ...
— By Water to the Columbian Exposition • Johanna S. Wisthaler

... detail—the gardens of the terraced hills, the gardens of the broad alluvial plain, and the floating gardens of the lakes Wular and Dal. These last, more fortunate than those of Babylon and Nineveh, have maintained their existence to our day, the aquatic cultivator rowing among his parterres and gathering his melons over the gunwale. Fertility has never failed. The permanence in beauty and productiveness designed for Eden has here been sustained by the harmoniously-acting forces of Nature, and Adam might, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, September, 1878 • Various

... who lived in the house, used to tell me all sorts of bush wonders, as we went in the early summer mornings for a swim in the river. She was a great water-baby, with rather a contempt for my aquatic limitations. Then she thought it too idiotic to want to dry yourself with a towel,—just ...
— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker

... learned that they had a superstition based upon the loss of many of their tribe under like conditions, that escape was impossible. The alarm and distrust in men, aquatic from birth, in their own waters was to me appalling. I seemed to have "looked death in the face"—and what a rush of recollections that had been long forgotten, of actions good and bad, the latter seeming the most, hurried, serried, but distinct through my excited brain; ...
— Shadow and Light - An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century • Mifflin Wistar Gibbs

... beauty of its long blue spikes of ragged flowers above rich, glossy leaves give a charm to this vigorous wader. Backwoodsmen will tell you that pickerels lay their eggs among the leaves; but so they do among the sedges, arums, wild rice, and various aquatic plants, like many another fish. Bees and flies, that congregate about the blossoms to feed, may sometimes fly too low, and so give a plausible reason for the pickerel's choice of haunt. Each blossom lasts but a single day; the upper portion, ...
— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan

... from power plant emissions results in acid rain; acidification of lakes and reservoirs degrading water quality and threatening aquatic life; Japan is one of the largest consumers of fish and tropical timber, contributing to the depletion of these ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... amply compensated by the birds which frequent the Fiumara river. As we proceeded, muffled up in the bottom of the boat, for it was very cold, the fitful exertions of our warlike crew disturbed quantities of aquatic birds. The river widened greatly, the mountain banks disappearing, till at length the shores became obscure in the distance, and thus it imperceptibly enters and forms the lake of Scutari. Cormorants and ducks passed over in flocks; noble herons got up screaming on every side. ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 • Various

... rock is so curved as to prevent the arches being fully seen in any one view. I have waded and swam through these rocky vistas, and there, where any more than moderate waves would have mangled me against the tusks of the cruel rocks, I have found little specimens of aquatic life by the millions, clinging fast to the rocks that were home to them and protecting themselves by taking lime out of the water and building such a solid wall of shell that no fierceness of the wildest storm could work them harm. All these seek their food from Him who feeds all life, ...
— Among the Forces • Henry White Warren

... distances of mountain and of sea, are so illusive, that the spectator feels, as it were, fatigued by gazing. The edifices and temples which so finely round off his compositions, the lakes peopled with aquatic birds, the foliage diversified in conformity to the different kinds of trees, all is nature in him; every object arrests the attention of an amateur, every thing furnishes instruction to a professor. There is not an effect of light, or a reflection in water which he ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, - Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828 • Various

... plant of the Brahminical rites of India, and was considered as the symbol of their elemental trinity,—earth, water, and air,—because, as an aquatic plant, it derived its nutriment from all of these elements combined, its roots being planted in the earth, its stem rising through the water, and its leaves exposed to the air.[192] The Egyptians, who borrowed a large portion of ...
— The Symbolism of Freemasonry • Albert G. Mackey

... for nations, if need be, but became weavers of fabrics for the clothing of aristocracies in remote nations; this, in turn, leading of necessity to a commerce which was, in its time, for the Atlantic what that of Venice had been to the Mediterranean; for the Netherlanders were as aquatic as sea-birds, seeming to be more at home on sea than on dry land. This is a brief survey of those causes which made Flanders, though insignificant in size, a principality any king might esteem riches. In the era of William the ...
— A Hero and Some Other Folks • William A. Quayle

... be doubted that Marco's serpents here are crocodiles, in spite of his strange mistakes about their having only two feet and one claw on each, and his imperfect knowledge of their aquatic habits. He may have seen only a mutilated specimen. But there is no mistaking the hideous ferocity of the countenance, and the "eyes bigger than a fourpenny loaf," as Ramusio has it. Though the actual eye of the crocodile does not bear this comparison, the prominent orbits do, especially ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... two days before the graduation exercises of the senior class, the local aquatic sports were held. The main incident of this carnival was the race ...
— Ruth Fielding At College - or The Missing Examination Papers • Alice B. Emerson

... the earth and man and who formerly dwelt in a vast cavern under the Falls of St. Anthony. The Unktehee sometimes reveals himself in the form of a huge buffalo-bull. From him proceed invisible influences. The Great Unktehee created the earth. "Assembling in grand conclave all the aquatic tribes he ordered them to bring up dirt from beneath the waters, and proclaimed death to the disobedient. The beaver and otter forfeited their lives. At last the muskrat went beneath the waters, and, after a long time appeared at the surface, ...
— Legends of the Northwest • Hanford Lennox Gordon

... rocks that form my native Catskills were being laid down in the Devonian waters, I fancy that my aquatic embryo was swimming about somewhere and slowly waxing strong. Up and up I climbed across the sandstone steps, across the limestone, the conglomerate, the slate, up into Carboniferous times. The upper and ...
— Time and Change • John Burroughs

... The aquatic gambols of the porpoises lasted but a few minutes after they had called in all their neighbors, and had chased me into three feet depth of water. They then spouted a nasal farewell, which sounded more catarrhal than guitaral, and left me for the more profitable occupation of fishing in the tide-way ...
— Voyage of The Paper Canoe • N. H. Bishop

... our ears were assailed by a chorus of discordant sounds, proceeding not only from pelicans, but from numerous other aquatic birds collected on the shores of the creek. Holding back our dogs, we made our way through a tangled wood, concealing ourselves as much as possible, until we got within a short distance of the creek, where we lay hid behind some bushes, whence, on looking through the branches, ...
— In the Wilds of Florida - A Tale of Warfare and Hunting • W.H.G. Kingston

... at their command, and passed their time merrily in rambling about the island, and coasting along the shores, shooting sealions, seals, foxes, geese, ducks, and penguins. None were keener in pursuit of this kind of game than M'Dougal and David Stuart; the latter was reminded of aquatic sports on the coast of Labrador, and his ...
— Astoria - Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains • Washington Irving

... the end of the planking, leading the horse, and then again mount the wagon at the further end of the bridge. We were sure the horse would have to swim in the middle of the current, and perhaps for a considerable distance beyond; but, having witnessed his proficiency in aquatic performances, we had no doubt of his ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... happen to burst early many of the birds which breed in the rains begin building their nests towards the end of June, but, in nine years out of ten, July marks the beginning of the breeding period of aquatic birds, therefore the account of their nests properly finds place in the calendar of that month, or of August, when the season ...
— A Bird Calendar for Northern India • Douglas Dewar

... Bird-Notes (Thompson), pages 170-71. "The cretaceous birds of America all appear to be aquatic, and comprise some eight or a dozen genera, and many species. Professor Marsh and others have found in Kansas a large number of most interesting fossil birds, one of them, a gigantic loon-like creature, six feet in length from beak to toe, ...
— Bird Stories • Edith M. Patch

... new gratitude to his fellowmen, and a new estimate of their nobility. The imaginative scholar will find few stimulants to his brain like these writers. He has entered the Elysian Fields; and the grand and pleasing figures of gods and daemons and demoniacal men, of the "azonic" and the "aquatic gods," daemons with fulgid eyes, and all the rest of the Platonic rhetoric, exalted a little under the African sun, sail before his eyes. The acolyte has mounted the tripod over the cave at Delphi; his heart dances, his sight is ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... discovered a small lake to my right. My horse scented it earlier than I, and needed no urging to reach it. Dismounting, I bent over and drank from the edge, which was marked with the tracks of antelopes, and of numerous aquatic birds. The water was brackish and bitter, but I drank it with eagerness. My thirst was satisfied, but the water gave me a severe pain in my stomach, that soon became almost as unendurable as the previous dryness. I stood for some minutes on the shore of the lake, and preparing to remount my ...
— Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar - Life • Thomas Wallace Knox

... hedges on either side, which hide the country. It seemed as though we were sailing across a forest. At every curve we saw green enclosed views in the distance, with windmills here and there on the bank. The water was covered with a carpet of aquatic plants, and in some parts strewn with white flowers, with iris, water-lilies, and the water-lentil. The high green hedge bordering the canal was broken here and there, allowing a glimpse, as if through a window, of the far-off horizon of the champaign; ...
— Holland, v. 1 (of 2) • Edmondo de Amicis

... lemming, hunted by the Canis lagopus, find quarters. Two species of the white partridge, the lark, one Plectrophanes, two or three species of Sylvia, one Phylloscopus, and the Motacilla must be added. Numberless aquatic birds, however, visit it for breeding purposes. Ducks, divers, geese, gulls, all the Russian species of snipes and sandpipers, etc., cover the marshes of the tundras, or the crags of ...
— Russia - As Seen and Described by Famous Writers • Various

... a peaceful tribe. At the bottom, the plump river snails discreetly raise their lid, opening ever so little the shutters of their dwelling; on the level of the water, in the glades of the aquatic garden, the pond snails—Physa, Limnaea and Planorbis—take the air. Dark leeches writhe upon their prey, a chunk of earthworm; thousands of tiny, reddish grubs, future mosquitoes, go spinning around and twist and curve like ...
— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre

... and an extensive vegetation; where we find none but marine animals, we know the ocean must have covered the earth; the remains of large reptiles, representing, though in gigantic size, the half aquatic, half terrestrial reptiles of our own period, indicate to us the existence of spreading marshes still soaked by the retreating waters; while the traces of such animals as live now in sand and shoal waters, or in mud, speak to us ...
— Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) - Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky • Various

... tropical hothouse, wherein are fountains, swimming turtles, large aquatic plants in flower, the Sphinx and Egyptian statues sixty feet high, specimens of colossal or rare trees, among others the bark of a Sequoia California 450 feet in height and measuring 116 feet in circumference. The bark is arranged ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume I. - Great Britain and Ireland • Various

... in a land as fertile as this, and caressed by a climate that would coax life from a stone, there must be an infinite number of aquatic and aerial treasures that will add materially to the scientific lore ...
— Rezanov • Gertrude Atherton

... view he commanded. He quietly and deliberately undressed himself under the willows, and unhesitatingly plunged into the basin. The water was four or five feet deep, and its extreme length afforded an excellent swimming bath, despite the water-lilies and a few aquatic plants that mottled its clear surface, or the sedge that clung to the bases of the statues. He disported for some moments in the delicious element, and then seated himself upon one of the half-submerged plinths, almost hidden by reeds, that had once upheld a river god. Here, lazily resting ...
— Under the Redwoods • Bret Harte

... down by a gale, and, the particular tree being shortly afterwards felled, the bird never returned. Drainage and the destruction of trees by the woodman’s axe, or by accidental fires, have so dried the ground as to reduce greatly the numbers of certain birds of aquatic or semi-aquatic habits. The coot “clanking” in the sedgy pools is no more heard. The moor-hen with those little, black, fluffy balls which formed her brood scuttling over the water to hide in the ...
— Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood - Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter • J. Conway Walter

... of the North American turkey. I should add the ducks and geese of North America, but I cannot consider them in the light of a very strong case, for a savage who constantly changes his home is not likely to carry aquatic birds along with him. Beyond these few, I know of no notable exceptions to ...
— Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development • Francis Galton

... say about a breeding place for the small-mouthed black bass. "The pond should be six feet deep in the center and two feet around the edge; the bottom should be of natural sand; water plants should be growing in profusion, particularly such aquatic plants as the Daphnia, Bosmina, and the Corix, to furnish food for the young bass. A good size for a breeding pond is 100 X 100 feet." For spawning, artificial nest frames are built in rectangular form. They are made two feet square without bottoms. On two adjoining sides ...
— Three Acres and Liberty • Bolton Hall

... side of the building two oblong pools bore upon their transparent surface aquatic birds and flowers. At the corners of these pools four great palm-trees spread out fanwise their green wreath of leaves at the top of their ...
— The Works of Theophile Gautier, Volume 5 - The Romance of a Mummy and Egypt • Theophile Gautier

... vast warty tail trailing over the ground and raising a heavy column of dust, while its mud smeared sides bore out Hero Giles' statement that here was one of those semi-aquatic titans from the ...
— Astounding Stories, February, 1931 • Various

... cities and expanding commerce culminating at Grand Para. The scenery from the deck of an Amazonian steamer, if described, appears monotonous. A vast volume of smooth, yellow water, floating trees and beds of aquatic grass, low, linear-shaped, wooded islets, a dark, even forest—the shores of a boundless sea of verdure, and a cloudless sky occasionally obscured by flocks of parrots: these are the general features. No busy towns are seen ...
— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton

... clear, then, that they inhabited the sea, and that they were deposited by the sea in the places where they are now found; and it follows, too, that the sea rested in these places long enough to form regular, dense, vast deposits of aquatic animals. ...
— The World's Greatest Books - Volume 15 - Science • Various

... forms of air, is at least very much furthered by them. If the leaves of many water-plants are thread-like or assume the form of antlers, we are inclined to attribute it to lack of complete anastomosis. The growth of the water buttercup, Ranunculus aquatilis, shows this quite obviously, with its aquatic leaves consisting of mere thread-like veins, while in the leaves developed above water the anastomosis is complete and a connected plane is formed. Occasionally, indeed, in this plant, the transition may be still more ...
— Man or Matter • Ernst Lehrs

... what he called a "gumboot," remarking that the name was bestowed locally because of the toughness of this aquatic animal when cooked. From the old man's description Ellen had thought they might be limpets. Since there were no clams on the beach of Kon Klayu she had ...
— Where the Sun Swings North • Barrett Willoughby

... propellers have evolved in the history of steam vessels. How the members of the seal tribe have changed in their descent from purely terrestrial ancestors is partly explained by such intermediate animals as the otter. This form is adapted by its slender body and partly webbed feet to a semi-aquatic life; it seems to have halted at a point beyond which all of the seals ...
— The Doctrine of Evolution - Its Basis and Its Scope • Henry Edward Crampton

... air pollution from power plant emissions results in acid rain; acidification of lakes and reservoirs degrading water quality and threatening aquatic life; Japan's appetite for fish and tropical timber is contributing to the depletion of these resources in Asia and elsewhere natural hazards: many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis ...
— The 1995 CIA World Factbook • United States Central Intelligence Agency

... much about the Congo Free State and other matters, I presently see one of my men sitting right in the middle of the road on a rock, totally unsheltered, and a feeling of shame comes over me in the face of this black man's aquatic courage. Into the rain I go, and off we start. I conscientiously attempt to keep dry, by holding up an umbrella, knowing that though hopeless it is the proper thing ...
— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley

... With the exception that this reptile has no rattles, it answers in its general peculiarities to the description already given of its near relatives the rattlesnakes. The cotton-mouth moccasin is semi-aquatic, being found around the edges of streams and other bodies ...
— Health on the Farm - A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene • H. F. Harris

... their prey at a distance. Several act in this way. There is first the Toxotes jaculator, who lives in the rivers of India. His principal food is formed by the insects who wander over the leaves of aquatic plants. To wait until they fell into the water would naturally result in but meagre fare. To leap at them with one bound is difficult, not to mention that the noise would cause them to flee. The Toxotes knows a better trick than that. ...
— The Industries of Animals • Frederic Houssay

... loftiest summit in perpetual verdure; gigantic trees, rich in blushing fruits; pensile plants, aglow with the choicest flowers; proud-rifted rocks, pale and ghastly, as if cleft by an earthquake; foaming cascades springing madly down the cliffs, leaping through chasms spanned with aquatic creepers, and then dwindling into ever-gurgling streams, that glided through ravines curtained with verdant drapery—such were some of the details of the picture; but how vain the endeavour to describe this redundant ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 449 - Volume 18, New Series, August 7, 1852 • Various

... forms may be traced back to original simple forms, to "a generation from a common ancestor," rising from the lowest forms to man, "according to mechanical laws." Kant assumes that, for instance, certain aquatic animals by and by formed into amphibia, and from these after some generations were produced land animals. A treatise of the same philosopher entitled "Presumable Origin of Humanity" suggests that man ...
— Evolution - An Investigation and a Critique • Theodore Graebner

... bull because of its strength and aggressive nature, the snake, perhaps because of its form or of its tenacity of life,—were male representatives of phallic significance. Likewise the fish, the dolphin, and a number of other aquatic creatures came to be female representatives. This may be shown over and over again by reference to the antique emblems, coins, and ...
— The Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Volume 10

... pointed out, this further localized the stresses to which the bone was subjected. Additional localization of stresses was created with the origin and development of tetrapods (reptiles) that were independent of an aquatic environment and were subjected to greater effects of gravity and loss of bouyancy in the migration from the aqueous environment to the environment of air. The localization of these stresses was in the border area of the ...
— The Adductor Muscles of the Jaw In Some Primitive Reptiles • Richard C. Fox

... questioning the man as to how it was likely that the insect got into his stomach, he stated that he was exceedingly fond of watercresses, and often gathered and eat them, and, possibly, without taking due care, in freeing them from any aquatic insects they might hold. He was also in the frequent habit of lying down and drinking the water of any clear rivulet when he was thirsty; and thus, in any of these ways, the insect, in its smaller state, might have been swallowed, and remained gradually increasing in size until ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 348, December 27, 1828 • Various

... The aquatic procession now returned towards the city, the multitude rending the air with shouts at the happy termination of a ceremony, to which time and the sanction of the sovereign pontiff had given a species of sanctity that was somewhat increased ...
— The Bravo • J. Fenimore Cooper

... the shallows until the reeds, rushes, and other aquatic plants fringing the deeper waters are well grown; then I try among them, finding ...
— Black Bass - Where to catch them in quantity within an hour's ride from New York • Charles Barker Bradford

... that is full grown, almost reaches the ground, and sometimes measures five feet across; his tail is very short and insignificant, and his eyes and ears are very small. They live together in small numbers, feed chiefly on grass and aquatic plants, and come forth at night. Each foot has four toes, and each toe a separate hoof; the nostrils open on the top of the muzzle; their flesh is thought to be very good to eat, and to resemble pork. A thick layer of fat lies just under the skin, which the Africans look upon as a great delicacy ...
— Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals • R. Lee

... lakes; the lakes, in their turn, underwent a transformation, becoming filled, in the course of centuries, with the materials worn away from their shores, with the debris of the animals which lived and died in their waters, as well as with the decaying matter from aquatic plants, till at last they were changed to spreading marshes, and on these marshes arose the gigantic fern-vegetation of which the first forests chiefly consisted. Such are the separate chapters in the history of the coal-basins of Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania, New England, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various

... the pool and river gleamed more and more brightly. Boats navigated even the rapids, for these were hardy water-people, whose whole life had been semi-aquatic. ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... day dawned on Venice after the departure of the hostile aeroplanes, a day among days, and all the Venetians were abroad. The attack which brought home the actual dangers to them did not seem to dull their lively spirits. They were busy in the quaint aquatic manner of Venice. The little shops were full of people, the boatmen reviled one another in the narrow canals as they squeezed past, the vaporetti and the motor-boats snorted up ...
— The World Decision • Robert Herrick

... which live on the land and feed largely upon plants, e. g., the Common Box Turtle, found from the New England States to South Carolina and westward to Kansas, and the Gopher Tortoise of the Southern States. Others are aquatic, like the Painted Turtles, which are found in one form or another practically all over the ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts

... from the centre, so that it looked like a Macedonian cloak, of which the walls formed the outer fringe. While the king was looking with satisfaction at the plan of the new city, suddenly from the lake and the river, innumerable aquatic birds of every kind flew like great clouds to the spot, and devoured all the barley. This omen greatly disturbed Alexander; however, the soothsayers bade him take courage, and interpreted it to mean that the place would become a very rich and populous city. ...
— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch

... at length started, we arrived in the afternoon at the Kafoor River, at a bend from the south where it was necessary to cross over in our westerly course. The stream was in the centre of a marsh, and although deep, it was so covered with thickly-matted water-grass and other aquatic plants, that a natural floating bridge was established by a carpet of weeds about two feet thick. Upon this waving and unsteady surface the men ran quickly across, sinking merely to the ankles, although beneath the tough vegetation there ...
— In the Heart of Africa • Samuel White Baker

... Gradually the weather became more settled, and we again spread our canvas to the breeze. To my surprise, I observed, that although by my reckoning we were nearly one thousand miles from any land, several aquatic birds were hovering about the ship, of a description that seldom go far from the shore. I watched them as the sun went down, and perceived that they took their flight to the south-east. Anxious to discover any land, not hitherto described, I steered the ship in that direction ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat

... ground are quite hairless; the palms of the hands in the quadrumana present the same appearance. The knees of those species which frequently kneel, such as camels and other ruminants, are apt to become bare and hard-skinned. The friction of the water has been the means of removing the hair from many aquatic mammals—the whales, porpoises, dugongs, ...
— Was Man Created? • Henry A. Mott

... may stand upon a rich velvet mat, or on a flat mirror provided for the purpose. The latter is a clever idea for a centre-piece of pond-lilies or other aquatic plants, simulating a miniature lake, its edges ...
— Etiquette • Agnes H. Morton

... our aquatic experience, we determined to resume the mountains, but in a milder form; before which, however, it became necessary to do a little shopping. An individual—one of the party, whose name I will not divulge, and whose identity you never can conjecture, ...
— Gala-days • Gail Hamilton

... necessary for life. A healthy person inhales plentifully; and this element is one of nature's best remedies for disease. Deep and continued inhalations in cold weather are better than furnace fires to heat the system. All animals breathe O and exhale CO2. Fishes and other aquatic animals obtain it, not by decomposing H2O, but from air dissolved in water. Being cold-blooded, they need relatively little; but if no fresh water is supplied to those in captivity, they soon die of ...
— An Introduction to Chemical Science • R.P. Williams

... feat before a row of laughing eyes. She did very nicely, indeed, in the shallow part, where she could put a surreptitious foot to the bottom; but when it came to the middle, and all had to depend upon her aquatic skill, she ...
— The Nicest Girl in the School - A Story of School Life • Angela Brazil

... radiant exploring finger, and picked up the buoys, one after another, with unfailing certainty and precision. Every two or three minutes a floating iron balloon, or a skeleton frame covered with sleeping aquatic birds, would flash into the field of vision ahead, like one of Professor Pepper's patent ghosts, stand out for a moment in brilliant white relief against a background of impenetrable darkness, and then vanish with the swiftness of summer lightning, as the electric beam left it ...
— Campaigning in Cuba • George Kennan

... in the closest relation to the land being already thickly clothed with other plants; so that the seeds may be widely distributed and fall on unoccupied ground. In the water-beetle, the structure of its legs, so well adapted for diving, allows it to compete with other aquatic insects, to hunt for its own prey, and to escape serving as prey to ...
— On the Origin of Species - 6th Edition • Charles Darwin

... a steady eye upon the spectators that poppa had an impulsive desire to feed them with macaroons. He decided not to; you never could tell, he said, what might be considered a liberty by foreigners; but he had a hard struggle with the temptation, the aquatic accomplishments we saw were so deserving of reward. I had the misfortune to lose a little pink rose overboard, as it were, and Dicky looked seriously annoyed when an amphibious young Venetian caught it between his lips. ...
— A Voyage of Consolation - (being in the nature of a sequel to the experiences of 'An - American girl in London') • Sara Jeannette Duncan

... their aquatic brotherhood in June, 1877, and the members do themselves honour by gratuitously attending the public baths in the summer months to teach the art of swimming to School Board youngsters. [See "Baths,"] The celebrated swimmer, Captain Webb, ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell

... HAIR-GRASS.—This is an aquatic, and very much relished by cattle, but cannot be propagated for fodder. Water-fowl are very fond of the young sweet shoots, as also of the seeds; it may therefore be introduced into decoys and other places with good effect. Pulling up the plants and throwing them into the water ...
— The Botanist's Companion, Vol. II • William Salisbury

... himself of everything he had to relate to his bathing friends, he left them to their aquatic disports, and proceeded onward with the captain and his companions. As they approached the Way-lee-way, however, the communicative old chief met with another and a very different occasion to exert his colloquial powers. On the banks of the river stood an isolated mound covered ...
— The Adventures of Captain Bonneville - Digested From His Journal • Washington Irving

... may happen to lie across the mouth of an inlet or deep bay. Carices, balsam-poplars, and willows, speedily take root therein; and the basin which lies behind, cut off from the parent lake, is gradually converted into a marsh by the luxuriant growth of aquatic plants. The sweet gale next appears on its borders, and drift-wood, much of it rotten and comminuted, is thrown up on the exterior bank, together with some roots and stems of larger trees. The first spring storm covers these with sand, and in a few weeks the vigorous vegetation of a short but active ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 • Various

... which, represent the inspectors of public works in the largest cities, those aquatic argyronetes which manufacture diving-bells, without having ever learned the mechanism; those fleas which draw carriages like veritable coachmen, which go through the exercise as well as riflemen, which fire off cannon better than the commissioned ...
— Dick Sand - A Captain at Fifteen • Jules Verne

... they proceeded to it, and landed on its roof. From the little machine the single man came out. Using the webbed hands and feet that had led the Allied scientists to think them an aquatic race, he swam upward, and through the water-dense atmosphere of the planet ...
— Invaders from the Infinite • John Wood Campbell

... child, who was evidently enjoying his aquatic sport, for some time, the two women proceeded on their way. On reaching home, Mrs. Boyton, with a feeling of remorse for keeping her young son so long in captivity, went up stairs to release him, and ...
— The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World • Paul Boyton

... the arrangements were fixed, and the party began to advance towards the aquatic hermit, who, by this time aware of their approach, drew himself up to his full height, erected his long lean neck, spread his broad fan-like wings, uttered his usual clanging cry, and, projecting his length of thin ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott

... In the Middle Old Red Sandstone there occurs, with plants representative apparently of the ferns and their allies, a somewhat equivocal and doubtful organism, which may have been the panicle or compound fruit of some aquatic rush; while in the Upper Old Red, just ere the gorgeous flora of the Coal Measures began to be, there existed in considerable abundance a stately fern, the Cyclopteris Hibernicus (see Fig. 2), of mayhap not smaller proportions than our monarch of the British ferns, ...
— The Testimony of the Rocks - or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed • Hugh Miller

... methodically ducked its head each time its tormentor rushed down at it, after which it would tear its prey again in its uncomfortable manner. Farther away, in the depression running along at the foot of the hill, meandered a small stream so filled with aquatic grasses and plants that the water was quite concealed, its course appearing like a vivid green snake, miles long, lying there basking in the sunshine. At the point of the stream nearest to me an old man was seated on the ground, apparently ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson

... the hand, wing, or paddle of animals of the same great class,—the existence of organs become rudimentary by disuse,—the similarity of an embryonic reptile, bird, and mammal, with the retention of traces of an apparatus fitted for aquatic respiration; the retention in the young calf of incisor teeth in the upper jaw, etc.—the distribution of animals and plants, and their mutual affinities within the same region,—their general geological succession, and the close relationship of the fossils in closely consecutive formations ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume II • Francis Darwin

... football game between Lawrence and Beloit| |yesterday, resulting in a 14 to 6 victory for | |Lawrence, might better have been called an aquatic | |meet. The ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer

... rowed so well: Goldie, Hibbert, Lang, and Bonsey, Sawyer, Burnside, Harris, Brooke; And the pride of knighthood, Bayard, who the right course ne'er forsook, But the sight which most rejoiced me was the well-known form aquatic Of a scholar famed for boating and for witticisms Attic. Proud, I ween, was Lady Margaret her Professor there to view, As with words of wit and wisdom he regaled the conquering crew. Proud, I ween, were Cam ...
— Sagittulae, Random Verses • E. W. Bowling

... could give us no names for the aquatic plants at which we clutched as we went by, nor for the shells we got out of the mud; but his eye for a water-rat was like a terrier's. It was the only thing which seemed ...
— A Great Emergency and Other Tales - A Great Emergency; A Very Ill-Tempered Family; Our Field; Madam Liberality • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

... was turned and entered a still creek, a picture of delicate loveliness, with multitudes of lilies and other aquatic plants, which made her feel as if she were moving through an exquisite dream. A shingly beach, evidently a busy trading-place, was reached, and there stood a young man and young woman, handsome and well-dressed, who assisted ...
— Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary • W. P. Livingstone

... always shy and wary. The very difficulty of getting a shot at them, along with the splendid character of the birds themselves, had rendered Francois eager to obtain one. The bird itself was no other than the great wild swan—the king of aquatic birds. ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... not a venturesome boatman, and generally confine my aquatic outings to the smaller lake, but that Saturday night there was not a breath of wind, and the water was placidity personified, so I drifted in my small skiff through the channel that connects the smaller with the larger body of water. On the sandy point jutting out at the mouth, upon an old ...
— The Making of Mary • Jean Forsyth

... inferior organisms inhabiting marshes. Among these organisms they studied especially the hyphomycetes, which had already acquired so great an importance in dermatology; and their entire attention was concentrated upon the aquatic algae, without even taking the precaution to determine whether the varieties which they thought to be malarial were found in all malarious swamps, or whether they were capable of living within the human organism. It has thus happened that each observer has indicated ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884 • Various

... other hand the thickets are alive with pheasants, quail, pigeons, wild pigs and other descriptions of game. The waters swarm with the most excellent fish and innumerable turtles sport in the lagoons, while curlews, snipe, ducks and other aquatic fowls flock on their shores; and not the least of the gifts with which the munificent hand of nature has so bountifully endowed this delicious oasis of the ocean is its delightful and soft, yet invigorating, climate, that makes well nigh useless ...
— The Mayas, the Sources of Their History / Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, His Account of Discoveries • Stephen Salisbury, Jr.

... is probably the true explanation as to why there has been no mermaid in Druid lake since. She may be in Cylburn brook, she may be in Jones' Falls, she may have reached the Patapsco, but no one has ever seen a creature answering her description and aquatic habits since the damsel who once held the job ...
— The Mermaid of Druid Lake and Other Stories • Charles Weathers Bump

... land may have existed before the sea. As to the first appearance of life, the whole argument of analogy, whatever it may be worth in such a case, is in favour of the absence of living beings until long after the hot water seas had constituted themselves; and of the subsequent appearance of aquatic before terrestrial forms of life. But whether these "protoplasts" would, if we could examine them, be reckoned among the lowest microscopic algae, or fungi; or among those doubtful organisms which lie in the debatable ...
— Mr. Gladstone and Genesis - Essay #5 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" • Thomas Henry Huxley

... story refers to an earlier water-party, and that Handel contributed music frequently for such occasions. He also points out that the celebrated Water Music was not published until 1740, and that it may quite well have been collected from various aquatic programmes. ...
— Handel • Edward J. Dent

... at the whale fishery have been unsuccessful: indeed, there are very few fish of any sort here; but in the lakes around there are plenty, such as pike, sturgeon, and trout, and their banks are inhabited by aquatic birds, among which are observed several species of swans, geese, ...
— The World of Waters - A Peaceful Progress o'er the Unpathed Sea • Mrs. David Osborne

... found in larger or smaller quantity dissolved in all natural waters, both fresh and salt, since these waters are always to some extent charged with the above-mentioned solvent gas. A great number of aquatic animals, however, together with some aquatic plants, are endowed with the power of separating the lime thus held in solution in the water, and of reducing it again to its solid condition. In this way shell-fish, crustaceans, sea-urchins, corals, and an immense number of other animals, ...
— The Ancient Life History of the Earth • Henry Alleyne Nicholson

... Now, any person, entirely unprejudiced with a taste for devilry and free from hydrophobia, who sees this production, must have an unbounded opinion of the manager's imagination,—what a head he must have for aquatic effects! In vain we look around for its parallel—nothing but the New ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... other aquatic birds were occasionally shot, affording us most savoury food as did also the ...
— On the Indian Trail - Stories of Missionary Work among Cree and Salteaux Indians • Egerton Ryerson Young

... presented a charming appearance, the well-kept lawns giving place here and there to large beds of nasturtiums, poppies, cannae, and rhododendrons, while at the lowest point on the grounds, near the northeast corner, was located a lily pond. It was filled with the choicest aquatic plants of every variety, which were furnished through the courtesy of Shaw's Gardens and the Missouri Botanical Society. During the season many beautiful bouquets of varicolored blossoms were gathered and its surface was almost entirely ...
— New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 - Report of the New York State Commission • DeLancey M. Ellis

... Yes, I have heard of them. But I thought Lord Gerald's protestation was too great for a mere aquatic triumph." ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope

... of spiders run with ease upon the surface of ponds and ditches, and one forms a kind of raft of a few dead leaves woven together, on which it sits and is blown by the wind hither and thither, and thus is enabled to prey upon various aquatic insects. ...
— Wild Nature Won By Kindness • Elizabeth Brightwen

... evening skies weeping dew from their gentle eyes." Several hundred pelicans, those antediluvian birds, made their appearance upon the water early this morning, but seeing us they flew away before a shot could be fired. These birds came from the north-west; indeed, all the aquatic birds that I have seen upon the wing, come and go in that direction. I am in hopes of getting through this glen to-day, for however wild and picturesque the scenery, it is very difficult and bad travelling for the unshod horses; consequently ...
— Australia Twice Traversed, The Romance of Exploration • Ernest Giles

... tremor. Along with this I purchased every possible accessory—draw-tubes, micrometers, a camera lucida, lever-stage, achromatic condensers, white cloud illuminators, prisms, parabolic condensers, polarizing apparatus, forceps, aquatic boxes, fishing-tubes, with a host of other articles, all of which would have been useful in the hands of an experienced microscopist, but, as I afterward discovered, were not of the slightest present value to me. It takes years of practice to know how to use a complicated microscope. ...
— The Diamond Lens • Fitz-James O'brien

... projected by the mysterious object, shot with a hissing noise a hundred and fifty feet up into the air. Now, unless the sandbank had been submitted to the intermittent eruption of a geyser, the Governor Higginson had to do neither more nor less than with an aquatic mammal, unknown till then, which threw up from its blow-holes columns of water mixed with air ...
— Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea • Jules Verne

... excellent rice, of which there are forty distinct varieties; and her sugar is esteemed the best in the world. Her rivers and lakes abound in fish, as well as in turtles and aquatic birds. The exports are rice, sugar, cotton, tobacco, hemp, cutch, fish (salted and dried), cocoanut oil, beeswax, dried fruits, gamboge, cardamoms, betel-nuts, pepper, various gums and barks, sapan-wood, eagle-wood, rosewood, krachee-wood, ...
— The English Governess At The Siamese Court • Anna Harriette Leonowens

... a wintry sea, and it is bitter cold. Notwithstanding, a large number of the aquatic gentleman to whom I shall have the pleasure of listening, by and by, are loafing against the railings opposite, as only fishermen ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 2 • Leonard Huxley

... powerful fellow, and it was a case of Greek meeting Greek. "Bumping at Oxford," to use an aquatic term, why it was nothing! At one time Bob was seen tossed up in the air as if from the horns of an infuriated bull, and at another Charlie was observed lying on the field at Bob's feet. What did they care about the ball being ...
— Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches • David Drummond Bone

... the influence of environment certain aquatic animals have become adapted to a terrestrial mode of life. Breathing normally by gills, as the result and reward of a continued effort carried on from generation to generation to inspire the air of heaven direct, they have slowly acquired the lung-function. In the young organism, true to the ...
— Natural Law in the Spiritual World • Henry Drummond



Words linked to "Aquatic" :   semiaquatic, terrestrial, amphibious, marine, aquatic vertebrate, plant, aquatic mammal, aquatic bird, flora, subaquatic, submersed, aquatic plant, submerged, plant life



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