9S THE OCTOPUS. 



at Messrs. Newman's, the well-known artists' colourmen, in Sohc" 

 Square, thousands of the ink-bags of cuttles in the raw state, 

 ready to be manufactured into " sepia." The fishermen of some 

 of our southern counties, w^hen cleaning cuttles and squids for- 

 bait, habitually dry the ink-bags and their contents, and preserve 

 them until Messrs. Newman's agent visits the district and collects 

 them. If the Newfoundland fishermen, when " squid-jigging," 

 would take the trouble to preserve the ink-bags, they would find 

 a ready sale for them, and might make of them a profitable per- 

 quisite. The beautiful drawmgs with which Cuvier illustrated his^ 

 *' Anatomy of the Mollusca" were executed with the ink which 

 he had collected whilst dissecting many specimens of the cepha- 

 lopoda ; and it is well known that fossil cuttle-fishes have been 

 found with the ink-bag perfect, and that from its contents excel- 

 lent " sepia " has been obtained. Some of these ink-bags found in 

 the lias, associated with traces of the " pen " or inner shell, are 

 nearly twelve inches long, and must have belonged to calamaries 

 of gigantic size. It is an oft-told anecdote that the late Dr. Buck- 

 land gave some of this fossil ink to Sir Francis Chantrey, who 

 pronounced it to be of unusually good quality, and with it made 

 a drawing of the specimen from which it was taken. This drawing 

 is now in the possession of Dean Buckland's son and Sir Francis's 

 godson, my friend Frank Buckland. I have also seen a cake of 

 fossil sepia prepared by Messrs. Nevrman for Professor Dick, of 

 Cambridge, about the year 1850, which rubs as smoothly, and is as 

 rich in colour, as that manufactured from the ink of recent cuttle- 

 fishes. 



