Have you ever seen the bone of a cuttle fish? It is a flat, white, very light thing, about the shape and size of a small sole, or flat fish, which may be often picked up on the sea-shore. One side is covered with a very hard substance, which stands out and forms a border all round; but the other side, which has no covering, is so soft that you can easily scrape it into powder with your nail. It is often used for making tooth-powder, and polishing certain things, such as hard woods and tortoise-shell. This comes from some of a most curious family of fishes, called by the general name of Cephalopods, from the Greek words for head and feet, because their feet are placed round their heads, and they walk along with their heads downwards. There are several kinds represented in the plate, which will give you a general notion of their form and appearance. In the structure of their bodies they possess much more in common with the kind of animals with which you are familiar, than the ActiniÆ which make the coral, or the AcalephÆ which produce the luminous appearance on the sea; though nothing can be more strange or unsightly than their aspect. They have a complete system of circulation, though their blood is neither warm nor red as ours is; their brains are enclosed in a strong case or skull of gristle, and their organs of sense are well developed; they have large and perfect eyes, (as you may see in the picture,) standing out prominently, and ears on each side of the brain. Their great arms or legs, for they serve both purposes equally well, of which they generally have eight, are very wonderful. They have no bones in them to act as levers, but are merely long and muscular masses of flesh which they move about with wonderful activity and power in all directions, having the most complete command over them. On their surfaces are great numbers of little suckers or cups resembling leather, which adhere very strongly to anybody which the animal chooses to embrace. You have, no doubt, often played with a round piece of thick leather with a string through it, by wetting it and pressing it with your foot upon a stone, so as to lift the stone up, if it be not too heavy. It is just on the same principle that the suckers of the Cuttle Fish act. These curious creatures gather up some of their arms into a point, as a sort of cut-water, as sailors would call it, and swim very rapidly, by means of the others, having their heads behind. They crawl in all directions with equal facility. Their skin changes colour in spots like that of the Chameleon. But I shall now tell you their most remarkable peculiarities. They are provided with a bag filled with black stuff, very like printer's ink. This bag they can at pleasure open, and press out some of the ink; so when any voracious fish approaches, which the Cuttle Fish thinks will be too strong for him, he squeezes his ink-bag and colours the The kind which is found most frequently in our country is represented in the plate fig. 2. Its skin is smooth and often of a dusky white, with reddish brown spots, and its length about a foot. It is eaten by the poor people on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. I never tasted it, but I do not think that either you or I should like it, from the look of its flesh. There is another species of which the ink makes the colour called sepia, which is of great value to artists. The largest is called Octopus, and is figured No. 1, in the plate. It is a very powerful creature, and very ferocious in its disposition. It is mostly found in the Indian Ocean, where it has been known to drown men by throwing its great arms round their limbs as they were swimming. Like most other very wonderful things, the accounts of the Octopus seem to have been strangely exaggerated, though we should not be too ready to deny what a man who seems to be sensible and honest relates, merely because it is not like our own experience. In regard to the largest size to which the creature has been known to attain, it is very difficult to tell what is the truth. I will relate to you what has been said on the subject. Some navigators have asserted that the largest vessels have been put in danger by an Octopus raising its arms so as to get them entangled in the rigging; and a great many have said the same respecting large boats. Pliny, the Roman Naturalist, tells a story of Still more wonderful are the narrations which were commonly believed about 150 years ago, respecting some Sepias that frequented the coast of Norway. They were then generally called Krakens, and were supposed to be at times nearly a quarter of a mile in length. It is related that sailors not unfrequently mistook them for islands. This is alluded to by Milton in a passage of the Paradise Lost,— Him haply slumbering on the Norway foam The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff, Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixed anchor on his scaly rind, Moors by his side under the lee, and waits The wished approach of morn. I dare say you will be ready to think that these things are very unlikely, and I shall not much differ from you if you do. But no doubt some of these creatures must be very large, and much to be dreaded, or such things would never have been said of them. PAPER NAUTILUS. |
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