THE SPIRULE. 57 



and those who passed by might linger to observe the singu- 

 larity of its construction ; but not till the days of Peron^ an 

 enterprising voyager, who collected and brought to Paris a 

 mutilated specimen, was anything known of its animal in- 

 habitant. True it was that the tentacles were broken off, yet 

 sufficient still remained to assist Lamarck in establisliing the 

 relation which its chambered shell suggested with the Nauti- 

 lus. Since then other specimens have come from abroad; 

 and one, brought by the indefatigable Cranch, equally as- 

 sociates his name, and the ill-fated expedition of which he 

 formed the brightest ornament, with this interesting species. 

 The construction of this little Cephalopod recalls to mind 

 both the Cuttle-fish and Argonaut. Like the former, he 

 has numerous arms, and like the latter, two tentacles, about 

 five or six times the length of his arms, and terminated by 

 a small rounded, indented club. The suckers are sprinkled 

 in a somewhat irregular manner over the inner surface of 

 the arms, whereas in the Argonaut they are arranged in a 

 double row ; they are, moreover, very small, and resemble 

 a sprinkling of coarse sand. The Spirule, like the Nautilus, 

 has a chambered, siphonated shell ; but here the similarity 

 ends, for instead of being external, and serving as a pro- 

 tection to the inhabitant, it is internal, imbedded within the 



