71 



XAUTiLus AND ammo:n:ite. 



The Xautili are called testaceous ceplialopods, our readers 

 know, or ought to know, the meaning of both these terms. 

 Like the Cuttle-fish they are sometimes called Folypi, because 

 they have many arms or tentacles, the word j)ohj, with which 

 a great number of English words commence, being the Greek 

 for many. An ancient writer named Aristotle, after describing 

 the naked cephalopods, says "There are also two polypi in 

 shells; one is called by some, nautilus, and by others, nauticus. 

 It is like the polypus, but its shell resembles a hollow comb 

 or pecten, and is not attached. This polj'pus ordinarily feeds 

 near the sea-shore; sometimes it is thrown by the waves on 

 the dry land, and the shell falling from it, is caught, and 

 there dies. The other is in a shell like a snail, and this does 

 not go out of its shell, but remains in it like a snail, and 

 sometimes stretches forth its eirrJii^^ The first of these ani- 

 mals, there can be no doubt, is the Argonaut, or Paper 

 Nautilus, and the latter that which is called the True iSTautilus, 

 of both of which species let us say a few words, which we 

 will introduce by quoting some beautiful lines from a poem 

 called ''the Pelican Island," by James Montgomery. 



"Lig:ht as a flake of foam upon the wind, 

 Keel upwards from the deep, emerged a shell, 

 Shaped like the moon ere half her orb is filled': 

 Fraught with young life it righted as it rose, 

 And moved at will along the yielding water. 

 The native pilot of this little bark 

 Put out a tier of oars on either side; 

 Spread to the wafting breeze a two-fold sail, 

 And mounted up and glided down the billow, 

 In happy freedom, pleased to feel the air, 

 And wander in the luxury of light." 



The tiny mariner here alluded to, is the Paper Xautilus, 

 common in the Mediterranean and some tropical seas; its sci- 

 entific name is Argonauta argo. In the mythology, we read 

 that Argo was the name of a ship that carried a certain Gre- 

 cian named Jason, and a crew of . argives in search of adventures ; 

 some say that the term is derived from a Greek word signifying 

 swift; this party of mariners, said:^ to be the first tliat ever 



