46 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



undertake during the reign of Alexander the Great, in order 

 to collect subjects for a natural history of animals, at least 

 three hundred years before the Christian era. The philo- 

 sopher seems to have met with both the Paper and Pearly 

 Nautilus ; for he notices the one as having a shell, though 

 not adhering to it, as feeding frequently along the shore, 

 and Hable, when cast by waves upon the sand, to slip from 

 out his shell, and perish in consequence ; concerning the 

 other, that he dwells witliin his shell after the manner of a 

 snail, and outwardly extends his arms. 



Such is the brief yet accurate description given by Aris- 

 totle concerning these strange creatures. But centuries 

 elapsed before they attracted any further notice, till the 

 time of Pliny, and subsequently about the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century, when Eumphius, a Dutch merchant and 

 naturalist, residing at Amboyna, thus spoke concerning 

 them ; — " When they float upon the water they put forth 

 their head and all their tentacles, and spread them upon 

 the surface ; but at the bottom of the sea they creep in a 

 reverse position, with their boats above them, and their 

 head and tentacles upon the ground, making a tolerably 

 quick progress, creeping sometimes into the nets of the 

 fishermen ; but after a storm, when the weather becomes 



