308 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



guishes the cuttle-fish. It is provided with an 

 organ which secretes a black fluid by means of 

 which it can darken the water so as to escape 

 its pursuers. This ink is said to yield the Chinese 

 or Indian ink, so well known to artists. In Italy 

 a similar ink, although not so black, is prepared 

 from it, and Cuvier is known to have used it to 

 colour the plates for his memoir of these animals. 

 It is interesting to add that the ink bag having 

 been found in a fossil state in the Belemnite, a 

 kind of Cephalopod which has been entombed in 

 the solid rock for countless ages, Dr. Buck- 

 land presented some of it to Chantry, requesting 

 him to ascertain its worth as a pigment, and a 

 drawing having been made with it and shown to 

 a celebrated artist he pronounced the sepia to be 

 excellent, and inquired by what colourman it was 

 prepared. 



There are several species of cuttles, each dif- 

 fering in some respect from the specimen now 

 referred to ; these it is unnecessary to describe, 

 but we cannot quit the subject without noticing 

 a member of the family peculiar in form and 

 habits even among the very peculiar race it 

 belongs to. Let us fancy ourselves to have met 

 with one of these on the beach. It is low water, 

 and the creature has been left by the receding 

 tide, but perhaps not unwillingly, for he is not 

 only alive but moving along in an inverted posi- 

 tion, and although at a leisurely pace, indeed, 

 still making some progress. This is the cele- 

 brated polypus of the ancients, and is called the 



