204 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



paper nautilus — which, in other words, is a dimin- 

 utive octopus with the most exquisite shell in the 

 world. Never have I seen a creature with a more 

 explosive temper — we named her Mrs. Bang on 

 the spot. Hardly had I changed her to a small 

 aquarium when she angrily shot forth a cloud of 

 sepia, and had to be transferred twice before her ink- 

 bag was emptied and I could observe her clearly. 



She rested quietly on the bottom with her many 

 arms wrapped about her beautiful brown and 

 white shell. But as soon as my face approached 

 the glass, she rushed back and forth, shooting 

 directly at me or bumping against the opposite 

 glass, and finally backing into a corner. Here 

 she spitefully squirted spouts of water through her 

 siphon, until I gave her a small fish. She snatched 

 it ungraciously, bit its head off and ate the body, 

 feeling suspiciously about with three or four arms 

 in my direction the while (Fig. 15). 



Two days later she went into such a paroxysm 

 of rage that she flung herself clear out of her 

 shell. I carefully picked this up and found her 

 eggs still remaining inside. There were thirteen 

 hundred of them, even-ended ovals, about ten by 

 fifteen millimeters, with a tiny thread at one end 

 which attached them loosely together, exactly like 

 a miniature bunch of grapes — the smaller stems 

 growing out from larger and these in turn from a 

 twisted, central rope. The embryos were in various, 

 well-advanced stages, with the future eyes of the 

 infant argonauts marked by two large, red spots. 



The shell of the argonaut is secreted by two 



