THE CEHPHALOPODS. 245 
sport. Thus Nature has ordained that the balance in life shall 
be preserved ! , 
Cephalopods expel the residue of their digestion from an orifice 
in the neck, near the mouth. Their respiratory organs are internal, 
and bear a striking resemblance to the fronds of a fern. No less 
curious is the heart; indeed, we may almost say the hearts, for 
the vital fountain is so distinctly divided into three parts that 
they appear three separate organs. 
During a storm, the cephalopods anchor themselves to a rock 
by means of their two long arms, which are stretched out to their 
CIRROTEUTHIS MULLERI. 
fullest extent; they thus have their other arms at liberty to seize 
any prey which happens to come within reach. It may well be 
asked, How can straight, thong-like projections hold slippery fish 
and the other slimy inhabitants of the deep? The secret is that 
these arms are furnished with a multitude of suckers—orifices 
which communicate with a general canal; this the animal has the 
power of exhausting, and thus the arm is tightly affixed to the 
object. Some of the cuttles have as many as 900 of these suckers. 
Occasionally the suckers near the extremities are also furnished 
with sharp, bent hooks; these penetrate the prisoner, and make 
his capture the more certain. In the Czrroteuthis of Miller, the 
arms are united together by a lilac-coloured membrane; thus the 
cuttle, when symmetrically expanded, has somewhat the appear- 
ance of the corolla of a convolvulus. 
