CEPHALOPODA. 61 
twenty pairs of sucking disks. The struggles of 
the unhappy victim once touched by the fatal spell, 
only ensure its speedy destruction ; for as it writhes 
and darts to and fro, it ever comes into contact with 
others of the disks in succession, each of which 
adheres. Others of the arms now entwine them- 
selves about it, and thus it is surely dragged to the 
central mouth, where the sharp and horny beak 
soon cuts it to pieces in spite of its scaly armour. 
The effective power of this apparatus is graphically 
described by Mr. Broderip:— 
‘We well remember, in our youth, going far out 
with an old fisherman of Dawlish, to visit his 
floating nets which he had laid for the pilchards. 
As we looked down into the clear blue water, we 
could see that the number of fish entangled was 
great; but, to the great discomfiture of the fisher- 
mau, who was eloquent on the occasion, almost 
every other fish was locked in the embraces of a 
cuttle-fish, plying his parrot-like mandibles to some 
purpose. The fisherman, who seemed to regard 
these unbidden guests as an incarnation of ail evil, 
carried a capacious landing-net, but so quick was 
the sight of these Cephalopods, so ready were they 
in letting go, and agile in darting back or sideways 
clear of the net, that, though the greedy creatures 
held on to the last moment, the fisherman did not 
secure above three out of the crowds that had 
spoiled his haul. Upon mentioning this to Mr. 
Owen, he informed us that the muscular arrange- 
ment enabled the animal, when it was disposed to 
let go its hold, to push forward the piston, and thus 
in a moment destroy the vacuum which its retrac- 
tion had produced.” * 
* Penny Cyclop. art. CEPHALOPODA. 
