4 THE OCTOPUS. 



The male argonaut is very snikll, — not more than an inch in 

 length, — and has no shell. Hence, even by eminent naturalists, 

 as Dumeril and De Blainville, it was long regarded as doubtful 

 whether the shell was really secreted by the female, or whether, 

 like the hermit-crab, she borrowed for her protection the empty 

 habitation of some other mollusc. 



It is an old belief, sanctioned by Aristotle, that the broad mem- 

 branous expansions of the two arms, are hoisted by the animal as 

 sails ; and that in calm weather it sits in its boat-like shell, and 

 floats over the smooth surface of the sea, steering and paddling 

 with its other arms; and that, when danger threatens, it lowers its 

 masts, and sinks beneath the waves. 



Oppian, in his " Halieutics," poetically expresses his opinion that 

 it served as a model for the man who first conceived the idea of 

 constructing a ship, and embarking on the waters : — 



** If humble guess may probably divine, 

 And trace tli' improvement to the first design, 

 Some wight of prying search, who wond'ring stood 

 When softer gales had smoothed the dimpled flood, 

 Observed these careless swimmers floating move, 

 And how each blast the easy sailor drove ; 

 Hence took the hint, hence formed th' imperfect draught, 

 And ship-like fish the future seaman taught. 

 Then mortals tried the shelving hull to slope, 

 To raise the mast, and twist the stronger rope, 

 To fix the yards, let fly the crowded sails, 

 Sweep through the curling waves, and court auspicious gales." 



This pretty fable was exploded in 1837 by Captain Sander 

 Rang, an officer of the French navy, and Port-captain at Algiers, 

 who carefully followed up some experiments communicated to him 

 by Mrs. Power, a French lady then residing at Messina ; and the 

 structure and purpose of the two flattened limbs is now clearly 

 understood.* 



Instead of floating in its pleasure-boat over the sea, the 



* Qh3idQ?,\Noxi\is Magazine of Naiiiral History, Sept. 1837; p. 393. 



