59 



Two feet they upward raise, and steady keep : 



These are the masts and rigging of the ship: 



A membrane, stretched between, supplies the sail, 



Bends from the masts, and swells before the gale. 



The other feet hang paddling on each side, 



And serve for oars to row, and helm to guide, 



5 T is thus they sail, pleased with the wanton game; 



The fish, the sailor, and the ship, the same: 



But, when the swimmers dread some danger near, 



The sportive pleasure yields to stronger fear : 



No more they wanton drive before the blasts, 



But strike the sails, and bring down all the masts: 



The rolling waves their sinking shells o'erflow, 



And dash them down again to sands below. 



Shell univalve, spiral, involute, membranaceous and unilocular, or consist- 

 ing of a single shell. — Linncms. 



The Sepia body is fleshy, receiving the breast in a sheath, with a tubular 

 aperture at its base; arms eight, beset with numerous warts or suckers, and 

 in most species two pedunculated tentacula; head sharp, eyes large, with 

 mouth resembling a parrot's beak. 



The Clio body oblong, natant generally sheathed, and furnished with two 

 dilated membranaceous arms, or wing-like processes; tentacula three, besides 

 two in the mouth. 



The Argonauta Argo is the principal species in this genus. It is ascer- 

 tained that the ancients were acquainted with this species, by many passages 

 in their writings. That very rare shell, known in collections as the Glossy 

 Nautilus, (the Argonauta Vitrasus of Greuelin,) is separated from the Argo- 

 nauta of Lamarck, and considered a new genus, under the name of Carinavia. 

 Linnaeus placed it among the Patella, under the name of Patella Crystala. In 

 the last edition of the Systema Nature, it is placed, with more propriety, 

 among the Argonauta; but it is still a matter of dispute, that it is what La- 

 marck styles it, a new genus. The difference between the two genera is 

 very distinct. In the true Argonauta, the spiral evolution turns into the 

 opening of the shell; whereas, in Carinavia, the spire is situated at the sum- 

 mit of the shell, and the mouth entire. 



The shells or species are in three divisions. 



