TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 77 



of the shell, the eyes being visible on the right and left through the sub-transparent 

 shell ; the siphon resting upon the open part of the keel about two lines from its ex- 

 tremity. Wishing to ascertain whether the animal thus situated could see, Madame 

 Power gently pushed towards it a small stick, and although at a distance of four feet 

 from the eye, it at once ceased swimming, and sank to the bottom. The animal 

 swims by the reaction of the respiratory currents forcibly ejected from the siphon, 

 which, by its various movements, guides the progress of the Argonaut. When the 

 animal is in the act of enlarging its shell, it spreads the two membranous arms or 

 mantles over the sides of the shell, fixing the suckers at the margin of the arm upon 

 the points at the sides of the keel. " At first the mantle appears like silver; then 

 gently moving in its shell the animal produces a change of scene, and there appears 

 upon the silvery ground beautiful marks like golden rings with black points in the 

 centre of them. When the animal is irritated, the colour changes to a deep red, and 

 then to dark violet, and when in this state it dies. 



" The body of the young Argonaut fills the shell completely, and when swimming, 

 it shows the siphon : as the period of reproduction approaches it enlarges the shell 

 very much, the aperture exceeding the body by one or two inches ; and thus, when 

 swimming, the siphon is not visible : when the cavity of the spire is filled with eggs 

 or young Argonauts, the parent places its body more forward, and its siphon reappears 

 when swimming." With regard to the locomotion of the Argonaut, Madame Power 

 observes, that " It would be difiicult to describe the immense variety of the move- 

 ments of the Argonauta Argo in swimming, dragging and floating, and it would re- 

 quire a series of drawings to represent them : these movements varj' according to the 

 fancy or caprice of the animal, or to circumstances ; for instance, when at the bot- 

 tom of the water, and wishing to rise or go in any other direction, the only move- 

 ment it makes is to agitate its siphon, and thus it swims with its body and eight 

 ariQs hidden in the shell ; or it swims with its mantles totally or in part extended 

 over the shell ; or holding a portion of the body more or less above the shell ; or 

 holding its prey with its arms. The Argonaut also drags itself along the sand, gravel 

 or mud at the bottom, or climbs millepores and madrepores in search of molluscs or 

 other nutriment, or when it seeks concealment ; it sometimes anchors by its lower 

 arms, hanging from the shell and attached by their suckers." The various movements 

 of the Argonaut are then described as observed during its partial protrusion from and 

 retraction into the shell, whilst putting out or retiring its mantles within the shell ; 

 ■whilst turning over, or turning to the right or the left ; when floating on the water ; 

 when attacking its foes, or defending itself from them ; and when throwing water 

 and ink into the faces of any persons who try to take them, or when otherwise irri- 

 tated. 



Madame Power alludes to her having transmitted, through the Chevalier Alban de 

 Gasquet, Lieutenant de Vaisseau, who was at Messina at the commencement of 1835, 

 and by his request, to his friend M. Sander Rang, Officier Superieur au Corps Royale 

 de la Marine, an account of her observations and experiments on the Argonauta Argo, 

 made in the years 1833 and 1834, and which are noticed by M. Rang in his Memoir 

 on the Argonauta, published in 1837 ; and the memoir concludes by a letter addressed 

 by Mr. G. B. Sowerby to Madame Power, acquainting her that he possessed a speci- 

 men of the shell of the Argonauta tuberculosa which had been broken and repaired 

 in a manner which proved the correctness of her observations. 



The second memoir was illustrated with three beautiful drawings of the Argonauta 

 Argo in different positions, and with the membranous arms expanded upon the 

 shell, in different states of retraction, and wholly retracted. 



The skull of an Aboriginal of South Australia, transmitted by Governor Grey as 

 an example of the habit of the tribe to convert that part of the human body into a 

 vessel for holding and carrying water, was exhibited by Professor Owen. He ex- 

 plained the mode in which it had been made applicable to this purpose. After re- 

 moval of the soft parts of the head and the lower jaw, the bones of the face had been 

 broken away, with the partition and roof of the orbits, and the cranial box was then 

 suspended by a neatly plaited net-rope of threads, made of twisted vegetable fibres, 

 passed through the hole made in the roof of the orbits and through the foramen mag- 

 num, this suspender being terminated by an ornamental tassel. Leakage by the 



