Q2 



Part second. 



The females hang their eggs in gelatinous translucent strings 

 on to corals or branches of land-plants which have fallen into the 

 sea. In the Aquarium the eggs develop as far as the hatching out 

 of the young. 



It is certain that the Cephalopoda can attain enormous dimen- 

 sions., and from occasional specimens have probably arisen the 

 legends of the Kraken, if not of the sea-serpent. Thus Pliny 

 relates a story of an animal of this kind, which came at night 

 to the fish-tanks of Carte j a, and frightened the dogs away by 

 its snorting and its terrible arms. The head which was shown 

 to Lucullus, was as large as a barrel, and its arms were so thick 

 that a man could scarcely clasp them, and measured 30 feet in 

 length. Monfort tells of an Octopus that tore a couple of sailors 

 from the rigging of a ship near St. Helena; the end of one of its 

 arms, caught in the tackle, was hewn of and measured 25 feet. 

 On the coast of Newfoundland in 1875 an extraordinary number 

 of such gigantic animals were found either dead or dying on the 

 surface of the sea. On the average they must each have weighed 

 half a ton; their long arms reached a length of 40 feet. On the 

 coasts of Alaska, Japan, New-Zealand and on the Pacific island 

 of St. Paul similar monsters have been observed; remains of them 

 have also been found in the stomach of the Cachalot, which proves 

 that there are fearful struggles between these sea-monsters. In 

 any case it is well known that many whales eat almost exclusively 

 cephalopods and the same is true of many large fishes and sea-birds. 



Like the Cephalopods, the Gastropods (Snails and Slugs) have 

 a head distinctly marked off from the body; it is devoid of arms, 

 but there is present a so-called foot, •/. e. a portion of the body 

 is flattened out like the sole of a foot and is used for crawling, 

 which is generally the only means of locomotion possessed by the 

 Snails. In many kinds the viscera are contained in a spirally 

 coiled, calcareous shell, the snail-shell, into which the rest of the 

 body can be retracted. The shell is secreted by the mantle, a flap 

 of the skin, and is held on the animal by means of a spiral muscle. 

 The foot frequently carries a horny or calcareous lid, which closes 

 the mouth of the shell when the body of the animal is retracted. 

 The collections of shells in museums give some idea of their beauty 

 and brillant colouring, as also of the great variety of their forms; 

 most are marine. The most important ones found in the Aquarium 

 are the following. 



The Ear-shell, Haliotis (fig. 125) has a very flat ear-shaped 

 shell with a large opening, and a row of holes through which 

 tentacle-like processes of the foot protrude. Internally the shell 

 is coated with the most lovely mother-of-pearl, and is therefore 

 frequently used for ornamental purposes. 



The Helmet-shell, Cassis (fig. 20), is also commercially a very 

 important shell. The shells of the largest specimens are used in 



