14 



consists of a number of vesicles, such as are presented in the microscopic 

 structure of the Cuttle-bone, agreeing both in size and number with the 

 minute organs of secretion dispersed throughout the calcifying membranes*. 

 The membranous webs are not, therefore, expanded aloft as sails to catch 

 the breeze, as represented, not only by Pope f and Byron %, but by Cuvier§ ; 

 I cannot, indeed, learn upon what authority the animal has ever been seen 

 to uplift its membranes at all||; on the contrary, the structure of these 

 pseudo-sails has been shown to be incompatible with the notion ^[. The 

 Rev. L. B. Larking, a most enthusiastic lover of natural history, to whom 

 my thanks are due for much valuable information on the habits and economy 

 of this animal, happened to be on a visit at Messina some two or three 

 years since during a tempestuous season, peculiarly favourable to the obser- 

 vation of the deep-water inhabitants of the ocean. In the space of a few 

 months he collected more than twelve hundred Argonaut shells of all sizes, 

 many of winch with the animals preserved in spirits I have had the pleasure 

 of examining. He never saw one floating on the sea ; they were thrown up 

 from deep water, and such as retained the animals were brought to him 

 alive in pails. The velamentous arms were not stretched over the keel of 

 the shell, as described by M. Rang, but were merely expanded, from fright 

 probably, through the nick on each side ; the animals protruded consider- 

 ably from their shell and endeavoured to make their escape by performing a 



* Animaux sans vertebres, vol. xi. p. 354. 



f " For thus to man the voice of Nature spake, 

 Go, from the creatures thy instruction take, 

 Leam of the little Nautilus to sail, 

 Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale." 



% " The tender Nautilus who steers his prow, 



The sea-born sailor of this shell-canoe, 



The Ocean-Mab, the fairy of the sea 



Seems far more fragile, and, alas, more free ; 



He, when the lightning-winged tornadoes sweep 



The surf, is free, his post is in the deep, 



And triumphs o'er the armadas of mankind, 



Which shake the world, yet crumble in the wind." 

 § Quand la mer est calme on en voit des troupes naviguer a la surface, employant six de lcurs 

 tentacules au lieu de rames, et relevant, dit-on, les deux qui sont elargis pour en faire des voiles ; si 

 les vagues s'agitent ou qu'il paraisse quelqne danger, l'argonaute retire tous ses bras dans sa coquille, 

 s'y concentre et redescend au fond de Feau." — Cuvier, Le Regne Animal, nouv. edit. 1830. p. 13. 

 || Ce que Ton a debite depuis Aristote, mais surtout dans ces deniers temps, sur la mancewe 

 habile du poulpe de l'Argonaute voguant a l'aide de voiles et de rames a la surface de l'eau, est 

 faux. Nous le declarons, nous n'avons rien vu, dans les habitudes et les manoevres de ces ani- 

 maux, qui resemblat au choses qui en ont ete dites, ve'ritables fables qui n'ont e'te' conserves, chez 

 quelques auteurs, que par leur amour du marveilleux.— Rang, Doc. Nat. Hist. Ceph.p. 18 and 14. 

 H " These membranes have been described by naturalists and poets, from Aristotle and Calli- 

 machus down to Cuvier and Byron, as serving the office of sails ; the animal being supposed to 

 have the power of rigidly extending the soft fleshy arms which support the membranes, and main- 

 taining the latter tensely outstretched to meet the breeze. It is scarcely necessary to observe, 

 that the structure of the parts in question is incompatible with this hypothesis of the use of the 

 vela in navigating the frail boat of the Argonaut. It has been ascertained, indeed, by direct 

 observation, that these vela, or rather velamenta, have not only a relation of co-existence, but 

 one of direct physiological import to the development of the shell, serving as the organs both of 

 secreting and of retaining this part."— Owen, Observations on the Argonaut. 



