276 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
be remembered that their | ody is soft and naked, and that, 
though well armed in front, they may readily be attacked in the 
rear. ‘To afford them the additional protection they required, 
nature, ever ready to minister to the real wants of her children, 
has furnished them with an internal bag communicating with the 
respiratory tube, and secreting a large quantity of an inky fluid, 
which they can squirt out with force in the face of their foe, 
and which, mixing readily with the water, envelops them in an 
opaque cloud, and thus screens them from pursuit. But this 
inky fluid, thus useful to its owner, is often the cause of his 
destruction by man, who applies it to his own purpose, for 
the Italian pigment, called sepia, so invaluable to painters in 
water-colours, is prepared from the inspissated contents of 
the ink bag of a cuttle-fish. Such is the durability of this 
colour that even the inky fluid of fossil species has been found 
to retain its chromatic property. We are told that grains of 
wheat buried with Egyptian mummies three thousand years 
ago have germinated; but it is surely st ll more astonishing 
that an animal secretion, the origin of which is lost in the 
dark abyss of countless ages, should remain so long un- 
altered. 
The cephalopods are scattered in vast numbers over the 
whole ocean, from the ice-bound shores of Boothia Felix to the 
open main; they seem, however, to be most abundant in 
temperate latitudes. Some, like the common poulp, constantly 
frequent the coasts, creeping among the rocks and stones at the 
bottom ; others, like the Cirroteuthis and Ommastrephes, roam 
about the high seas at a vast distance from the land. 
They are generally nocturnal or vespertine in their habits ; 
they abound towards evening and at night on the surface of the 
seas, but sink to a greater depth, or retire into the crevices of 
the rocks, as soon as the sun rises above the horizon. Some are 
of a recluse disposition, and lead a solitary life in the anfrac- 
tuosities of the littoral zone; others, of a more social temper, 
wander in large troops along the shores, or over the vast plains 
of ocean. 
Possessing the organs of sense, and the means of locomotion 
in a high degree of development, the cephalopods may naturally 
be expected to be far more active and intelligent than the 
inferior orders of the molluscs On moonlight nights, among 
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