14 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 
‘delicate coiled shell, looking somewhat like that 
of an ordinary snail, but differing in that the coil 
is open, and that it is distinctly chambered, besides 
having a pearly lining. This is the shell 
of another member of the cuttle-fish 
group, known to fame as the Spirula. 
Myriads of these shells are sometimes 
found about favored coast-lines, but, sin- 
gular though it may appear, the sight of 
the living animal is one of nature’s rari- 
ties. The record of observed specimens 
thus far indicates less than a dozen individuals. Ac- 
cordingly, we know but little of the habits of the 
animal inhabiting the shell, and equally little of its 
distribution. This holds 
also true of the ‘ Pearly 
Nautilus,’ a not very dis- 
tant ally of the Spirula, 
whose beautiful shells are 
offered for sale at nearly 
all the marts along the 
sea-shore, and are even 
thought by many to have 
been gathered in the vi- 
cinity. But the home of 
the Nautilus is a distant 
one, and its cradle not 
improbably the deep-sea. 
Chance has on more than one occasion brought 
to our shores a rare specimen in the shell of the 
‘Paper Nautilus,’ or Argonaut, that singular crea- 
ture whose Ulyssean journeys were supposed to 
SHELL OF 
SPIRULA. 
SHELL OF PEARLY NAUTILUS. 
