CriTLE FISH. 69 



affectionately embrace it. But Mr. Sepia, though -v^^ll armed 

 in front, is rather open to attacks in the rear of his soft 

 naked body; to provide for such an emergency, he is furnished 

 with a little bag of inky fluid, which he squirts out in the 

 face of his pursuer, and escapes under cover of the cloud; this 

 is the substance used by painters, and called sepia, whence the 

 generic name of the mollusks which produce it. 



In the British seas none of these cephalopods attain so 

 large a size as to be formidable to man, as they do in warmer 

 climates. It was asserted by Dens, an old na\-igator, that in 

 the African seas, while three of his men were employed du- 

 ring a calm in scraping the sides of the vessel, they were 

 attacked by a monstrous Cuttle-fish, which seized them in its 

 arms, and drew two of them under water, the third man was 

 with difficulty rescued by cutting off one of the creature's 

 limbs, which was as thick at the base as the fore -yard of 

 the ship, and had suckers as large as ladles; the rescued sailor 

 was so horrified by the monster, that he died delirious a few 

 hours after. An account is also given of another crew who 

 were similarly attacked off the coast of Angola'; the crea- 

 ture threw its arms across the vessel, and had nearly succeeded 

 in dragging it down, and was only prevented doing so by 

 the severing of its limbs with swords and liatchets. A dili- 

 gent observer of nature has asserted that in the Indian seas 

 Cuttle-fish are often seen two fathoms broad across the centre, 

 with arms nine fathoms long. Only think, what a monster! 

 with a body twelve feet across, and eight or ten legs like 

 water- snakes, some six and thirty feet long. Well may it be 

 said, that the Indians when they go out in boats are in dread 

 of such, and never sail without an axe for their protection. 



There is a story told by a gentleman named Beale, who, 

 while searching for shells upon the rftcks of the Benin Islands, 

 encountered a species of Cuttle-fish called by the whalers 

 *'the Eock- squid," and rashly endeavoured to secure it. This 

 cephalopod, whose body was not bigger than a large clenched 

 hand, had tentacles at least four feet across, and having its re- 

 treat to the sea cut off by Mr. Bcale, twined its limbs around 

 that gentleman's arm, which was bared to the shoulder for 

 the purpose of thrusting into holea^of the rocks after shells, 

 and endeavoured to get its horny '&k in a position for biting. 



