116 



SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



Fig. 49. Clymenia Sedgwickii. 



The common cuttle-fish of our own coast is a much more 

 harmless animal, attaining a length of only ten or twelve 



inches. The calamary of 

 New York Harbor has 

 ten arms, two of which 

 are much longer than 

 the others. 



The reader is proba 

 bly familiar with the se 

 pia used in tinting with 

 water-colors. This is the 

 ink of the cuttle-fish and 

 its allies. It is preserved 

 by the animal in a little 

 bag, from which it is ejected on the approach of danger, 

 thus producing a cloud, under cover of which the animal 

 escapes. Here is the prototype of the fog which sophistry 

 raises, and under cover of which it retreats, when finding 

 itself in unequal conflict with truth. India ink, it has been 

 stated, is manufactured by the Chinese from the same sub 

 stance, though it is probable 

 they employ only lampblack 

 and glue, or vegetable gum. 

 The ink-bags of some ancient 

 cuttle-fishes have been found 

 in a fossil state. Dr. Buck- 

 land had drawings of extinct 

 species executed in their own 

 ink. 



These all are cephalopods, the first class among mol 

 luscs, the aristocracy of shellfish, often exercising domin 

 ion over beings with higher intelligence, but a weaker arm, 

 just as brawny force has always done. But the forms de 

 scribed belong to the highest of the two orders of the class. 



Fig. 50. Goniiitites Allei (from the 

 Marshall Group, Michigan). 



