HIRDWICKE'S SCIE'NCE-GUSSIP. 



CHAPTERS ON CUTTLES. 



No. 2. 



Br W. H. Booth. 



IN geological times the TetrahrancUata were 

 the more abuudaut forms, as testified by the 

 numerous species of ammonites, orthoceratites, and 

 others, whilst the Bibranchiata were comparatively 

 scarce, and very poorly represented. Proceeding, 

 we find that the two-gilled are separated into two 

 sections, A and B, the first of which (A) contains 

 cuttles which have eight arms, and is hence termed 

 Odopoda ; whilst the latter section contains cuttles 

 which, in addition to the eiglit arms, possess two 

 long tentacles, and so the section goes by the name 

 Decapoda. The first in order of the eight-footed 

 cuttles is the Paper N autilus, Argonauta (so called 

 from the ship Argo, and vavTiXoq, the Greek for a 

 sailor), a species which is not represented in British 

 waters. From the times of ^the ancients the Paper 



Fig. 1. Common Squid. 

 {Suligu vulgaris.) 



Fig. 2. Pen of ditto. 



Nautilus has been a subject of conjecture and 

 romance. Pliny and Aristotle both mentioned it in 

 their works, and failed not to weave a most fanciful 

 story concerning it. They supposed that two broad 

 arms, with which the animal is equipped, were used 

 for sails, and other arms for oars, so that the Argo- 

 nauta navigated its vessel like any skilful seaman. 

 Even two of our own poets have fallen into the 

 same error ; Pope's lines, — 



" Learn of the little nautilus to sail, 



Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale," — 



are perhaps the best known ; but James Montgo- 

 mery gives us some verses to the same effect in his 



"Pelican Island." They .are really very prettily 

 rendered, and, were the deeds they chronicle true, 

 would be doubly so. Unfortunately, however, the 

 highly poetical idea of the animal's hoisting up its 

 sails, and scudding before the breeze, is not true ; 

 but observers say that it does occasionally make 

 use of its other feet as oars or paddles. The female 



Fig. 3. Sepxola atlantica. 



Fig. 4. Pen of ditto. 



only is provided with the shell we so much admire, 

 and the function .of the two broad dorsal arms, 

 which were supposed to be used as sails, is in con- 

 structing this. The shell is of a description dif- 

 ferent from that of the Chamber Nautilus, not being 

 partitioned off into separate divisions, and also, the 

 animal is not fastened to it by any muscular attach- 

 ment, but can leave and resume it^at pleasure. 



Fig. 5. Horny jaws, or mandibles, of Cuttle-fish. 



People very naturally thought from this' that the 

 shell was not the production of the animal they 

 found in it, but that it had been formed by some 

 other creature, and seized as a convenient dwelling- 

 place by the cuttle. Madame Jeanette Power, 

 residing at Messina, conducted several experiments 

 to test the truth of this, her conclusion being that 

 the shell was the veritable production of the Argo- 

 nauta. Having collected a number of living spe- 

 cimens oi Argonauta Argo, the Mediterranean species 

 of Paper Nautilus, this lady broke their shells in 

 different degrees, and was rewarded by seeing some 

 apply their broad dorsal arms to the fractures, and 

 deposit a thin film of shelly matter, covering the 

 broken parts. In about thirteen days, this became 

 quite as hard and thick as the unbroken part, but 



