306 



CEPHALOPODA. 



possible over the rocky shallows in search of Cuttle- 

 fish, wliich, when seen lying beneath the water in 

 wait for his prey, they dexterously spear, ere the 

 creature has time to dart with the rapidity of an 

 arrow from the weapon about to transfix his soft but 

 firm body." 



The Argonaut {Argonauta). The animal of the 

 Argonaut is, in all respects, a Poulpe, the arms of 

 which are furnished with two rows of suckers ; but 

 the hinder pair, those nearest the back of the animal, 

 are expanded into a broad membrane. The most 



Fig. 242.— the papek nautilus (Argonauta Argo). Fig. 1, Swimming towards 

 the point a ; 2, walking on the bottom ; 3, contracted within its shell, which is partly 

 embraced by the arms. 



remarkable feature in their economy, however, is 

 that they reside in a thin calcareous shell, symmetri- 

 cally channelled and spirally twisted at one extremity, 

 but having the last whorl of the spire so capacious 

 that it resembles a beautiful boat. 



It was, indeed, to this Cephalopod that the ancients 

 assigned the honoiu* of having first suggested to man- 

 kind the possibility of traversing the sea in ships ; and 

 nothing could be more elegant than the frail bark in 

 which "the Argonaut was supposed to skim over the 

 waves, hoistino- sails to the breeze, and steering its 



