is valued as an article of food in Italy, and is caught by the fishermen 

 by many clever contrivances, among them being a dredge. The long 

 arms of the Sepia are used to catch fish for food, as are those of the 

 squids. At Rome, Italy, the pigment sepia is made from this animal, 

 and at Liverpool, England, a dentifrice is manufactured from the chalky 

 thickening of the cuttle-bone ; it is said that twelve hundred pounds of 

 cuttle-bone arrived at one time to be used for this purpose. 



Mr. Tryon thus describes the wonderful changes of color in this 

 animal: "But if the day is clear, the dorsal surface and arms are mag- 

 nificently striped; the edges of the fins are black, and their superior face 

 is ornamented with spots of the same color. The eye is fatigued in fol- 

 lowing the incessant variation of coloring caused by the constant move- 

 ment of the pigment cells, and the metallic reflections of the head and 

 arms are glorious beyond human skill to reproduce. The skin is 

 usually smooth; but when the animal becomes irritated, it shows 

 granulations, principally on the head and back. This is accompanied 

 by a retraction of the arms, which appear both shorter and narrower ; 

 the extremes no longer touch, but curve slightly. At the same time the 

 colors change; a uniform gray tint takes the place of the striped bands. 

 The approach of death is equally announced by a change of colors, which 

 grow dull." 



Professor Parker further remarked that there were a large number 

 of mollusks belonging to this class which are of great interest, but 

 of which he had not time to speak. Many of the fossil Cephalopoda, 

 like the Selemnites, the Ammonite, the Orthoceras, and others, are 

 worthy of mention. They are fashioned upon the same plan as those 

 he had already described, and he assured us that their character- 

 istics would be readily understood whenever we should see them or 

 read about them. 



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