26 THE ECONOMIC MOLLUSCA OF ACADIA. 



living or recently dead, by means of the continual contraction and 

 dilation of the chromatophores. The different tints pass over the 

 surface like blushes." 



The Squid, so well named Sea-arrow, is extremely swift and grace- 

 ful in its movements. It swims by the forcible ejection of water from 

 Its siphon, the reaction driving the animal backward with great velocity. 

 The arms pressed close together, trail out behind, and the fin, used to 

 balance or steady the body when the animal is moving slowly, is wound 

 tightly around it when it goes swiftly. But the siphon can be pointed 

 backward and the animal go forward, when necessary, though it does 

 so much less easily than it can go backward. It lives upon 5'oung 

 herring or mackerel, following the schools in to the coast. It takes 

 these tish by darting in among them, turning suddenly to one side, and 

 seizing one which it kills by a bite in the back of the neck. Squid 

 move in schools, and are most active at night. They often come ashore 

 in large numbers, on account, no doubt of their running backwards. 

 "When much alarmed they discharge with the water from the siphon an 

 inky fluid which blackens the water around. It is eaten by many fishes. 



Nothing is as yet known of its breeding habits. Professor Verrill, 

 arguing from the structure of the reproductive parts, believes it will be 

 found that the eggs are cast free into the ocean, and float singly or in 

 masses on the surface. 



Economics. Fifteen or twenty years ago the Squid wottld 

 hardly have found a place in a paper of this character. Its 

 great, almost its only, use is as a bait for cod and other large 

 fish, and it is only of late years that it has come to be so ex- 

 tensively used. In Newfoundland, especially, it is taken in 

 enormous quantities, both for the use of the native fishermen 

 and for sale to those of the United States. It is the chief 

 reliance of the latter for their fishing on the Grand Banks; 

 for though they bring salted clams or other bait. Squid are 

 always preferred. They are mostly caught by native fisher- 

 men, who sell them for from twenty-five to forty-five cents 

 per hundred. The French have vessels specially devoted to 

 taking and delivering it. There are no statistics to show the 

 extent to which it is used; but one writer states that the 

 number annually used by United States vessels alone would 

 ^* be reckoned high in the tens of millions." Mr. IngersoU 

 ■estimates that five hundred vessels and boats are annually 

 engaged in taking Squid for bait. In the United States it is 

 at present rarely or not at all taken for this purpose. 



