ON CEPHALOPODA. 299 
The Dutch naturalist, Rumph, appears to be the only one 
among modern authors who has really given us the description 
of this argonaut, or navigating octopus. “ One individual,” 
says he, “had the body soft, fleshy, furnished with eight feet, 
six of which, shorter than the remaining two, were provided 
with suckers, asin the other sepiz. The two longer, or the hinder 
ones, double the length of the others, were smooth, rounded, 
and furnished with suckers likewise, but they were widened to- 
wards the end, in the form of oars. Between these tentacula 
there was no membrane, such as is described in the octopi 
of the Mediterranean. In another individual, taken in 1693, 
in a Shell of seven inches long and six in height, the six or- 
dinary arms, from twelve to fourteen inches in length, were 
very slender, and attenuated at the end, while the upper two 
were much stronger and thicker, their bulk equalling that of 
the finger. They were furnished at their anterior extremity — 
with a thin and broad membrane, more narrow behind than 
in front. ‘This molluscous animal,” he adds, “ on the skin 
of which there were spots of a reddish brown, similar to those 
remarked in the octopi, and like them varying in shade, is 
free in its shell, not being attached there by any thread, as is the 
case with the chambered nautilus; accordingly it issues forth 
from it with facility, and comes to float upon the surface of 
the waters.” Notwithstanding this, the Dutch observer says 
that it is very uncertain if it can live without its shell, be- 
cause some individuals which he had by him, recently taken 
from the sea, died immediately, though they were put into 
water. At the bottom of the sea this animal walks by the 
assistance of its arms, the keel of the shell being uppermost. 
It is also in this position that it re-ascends, but the instant it 
is arrived at the surface, it throws out the water which its 
shell contained, sets it floating, and spreads its arms around; 
sometimes it fastens itself by means of its arms to large leaves 
of trees, or pieces of floating wood, transported by the waters, 
