FOSSIL INK OF THE CUTTLE-FISH. 



209 



in the cells of a thin net-work that lines the ink-bag, 

 and very much resembling common printers' ink. So 

 completely, however, are the character and qualities of 

 the ink retained in its fossil state, that when Dr. Buck- 

 land gave a portion of it to his friend Sir Francis 

 Chantry, requesting him to try its power as a pigment, 

 and he executed a drawing with a portion of it, the 

 drawing was shown to a celebrated painter, who imme- 

 diately declared it to be tinted with sepia of excellent 

 quality, and begged to know by what colourman it was 

 prepared. The common sepia used in drawing is from 

 the ink-bag of an oriental species of cuttle-fish. 



Some considerations worthy of notice, as Dr. Buck- 

 land has remarked, arise out of these facts. In the 

 union of a bag of ink with an organ re- 

 sembling a pen, we have a peculiar com- 

 pensation for the want of an external 

 shell to a creature much exposed to 

 destruction from its fellow tenants of 

 the deep ; and the combination apparent 

 in the living animal appears in the pe- 

 trified remains of extinct species of the 

 same family. Cuvier drew his figures 

 of the recent sepia with ink extracted 

 from its ovvn body. Dr.Buckland says, pen of a cuttie-fish. 



p 



