274 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
formation of numerous species, all constructed upon the same 
fundamental plan, and all equally 
perfect in their kind. 
Thus well provided with the means 
for seizing and overcoming the strug- 
gles of a living prey, the Cephalopods 
likewise possess adequate weapons for 
completing its destruction; for their 
mouth is most formidably armed with 
two horny or calcareous jaws, shaped 
like the mandibles of a parrot, playing 
vertically on each other, and enclosing 
a large fleshy tongue bristling with 
recurved horny spines. Hard, indeed, 
must be the crab which can resist this 
terrible beak; and when the cuttle- 
fish has once fixed on the back of a 
fish, though much larger and stronger 
than himself, it is in vain for the 
tortured victim to fly through the 
water: he carries his enemy with him 
till he sinks exhausted under his mur- 
derous fangs. 
Besides their arms, by help of which 
the Cephalopods either swim or creep, 
the forcible expulsion of the water 
through the respiratory tube or in- 
fundibulum serves them as a means 
of locomotion in a backward direction. 
By those which have an elongated 
body and comparatively strong mus- 
cles, this movement is performed with 
such violence that they shoot like ar- 
rows through the water, or even like 
the flying-fish perform a long curve 
through the air. 
Arms and Tentacles of an ; 
Onychoteuthis. Thus Sir James Ross tells us, that 
e. Parts joined together by the mutual . 
apposition ofthe armed suckers. once a number of cuttle-fish not only 
f. Terminal expanded portions bear- 
ing the hooks. fell upon the deck of his ship, which 
rose fifteen or sixteen feet above the water, and where more 
