NAFTII.Tn.i:. 



provided with tentacular appendages, which are, u it were, digitated, 

 and (unrounding the aperture of the mouth. 



Shell discoid, but little comprewed, with the back rounded or sub- 

 carinaUd, umbilioated or not, but never mammellated (mamelonee) ; 

 the chamber* simple, invisible externally ; the lait deeply hollowed 

 and pierced by one or two siphons. 



The same zoologist thus divides the genus : 



A. Species not umbilioated, back rounded ; aperture round, a single 

 suboentral siphon. Ex. A'. Ponpilttu, Linn. 



B. Species not umbilicated, with a carinatod back and angular 

 opening. (AnijulUha, De Montf.) Ex. .V. triangular*. 



C. Umbilicated species, with the back rounded and a single siphon. 

 (OdtuHtt, De Montf.) Ex. A'. umbUicatut. 



D. Umbilioated species, with the back rounded and two siphons. 

 (Buifkita, De Montf.) Ex. A*. Bitifhitet. 



M. Rang, under the genus Xautilui of Liouaous, places also 

 Agaaida, AnytUitka, Canthropet, Oceania, Sitiphitet, and Ammonite* 

 of De Montfort. All De Montfort's genera, except Oceania and 

 Atxmonila, are fossil only ; the former he describes as coming from 

 the Moluccas. It is, as far a* one can judge from the figure, a very 

 young shell, possibly the young of N. Pompiliut. Ammonitet is 

 described as coming from the China Seas, and is apparently a species 

 of A", umliilicatiu. De Montfort considers'it as the type of a specimen 

 of Ammtmii<* analogous to the Ammonitei, or Cornua Ammonu"h 

 cloisons unies." He further says that he possessed a superb petrift- 

 cation of thU Ammonite a foot in diameter. 



The descriptions of the animal given by De Blainville and others 

 seem to have been taken from the figure of Rumphius. We therefore 

 give a copy of this figure, which represents the animal in a supine 

 position. The general form is not inaccurate, but the details are con- 

 fused, and many of them incorrect, the funnel for instance, which is 

 erroneously represented as round. That which an ordinary spectator 

 would take for the eye is merely an opening between the digitations : 

 the mantle is torn, and so represented as to mislead the spectator. 



Animal of Xautilut Pompilita, from Rumphltu. 



The following is the description of Ruraphius, and it has much 

 more merit than bis figure : 



"The fish that inhabits this shell (the Nauiilut) u a species of 

 Pali/put (that is, Cephalopod ; rioAinroi/j, Aristotle ; Poulpe, French), 

 but of a particular aspect, moulded according to the concavity of 

 the shell, which it does not quite fill when it holds itself retracted 

 therein. 



" The posterior part of the body fita into the bottom of the cavity, 

 while the superior parts (which are inferior when the animal drags 

 itself along the bottom) are flattened, but also rounded off, plaited, 

 and of cartilaginous texture ; coloured with brown or washed with 

 red ; spotted with blackish marks, which run one into another, as in the 

 Cuttle-Finn (Veelvoet). The posterior part of the body, which presses 

 against the shell below the convexity (kiel), and which, in its pro- 

 gression, becomes the superior part, is also a little cartilaginous, but 

 not so much so as the anterior parts, which are covered with a number 

 of cavities (wrattea). 



" In the middle of these parts, in front of the head, there is a con- 



siderable lump of little feet, which terminate in fleshy processes laying 

 one over another, and which cover the mouth on each side: these 

 processes are formed like the hand of a child. The largest, or those 

 which are exterior, are terminated by 20 of these fingers or little feet, 

 each as long as half a finger, as thick as a straw, round, smooth, having 

 none of those suckers we see on the feet of the Cuttles, but a little 

 flattened or divided at the end. The great fleshy processes are suc- 

 ceeded by others which are shorter and have only 16 fingers, and these 

 are followed successively by others still shorter, which go on covering 

 even to the mouth. 



" The animal can retract or elongate these fingers at will, for they 

 not only serve as feet to creep withal, but alto aj bauds to seize his 

 prey and carry it to the mouth. This mouth is armed by a very hooked 

 beak, formed like that of a Coccatoo or a Sea-Cat (Sfpia I). The upper 

 beak is large, hooked, dentated on the edge ; the lower beak is small, 

 concealed, or, as it were, shut up in the upper. Both sharp, and cal- 

 culated to pierce flesh (vleesch). This beak is hard as bone, and its 

 colour of a blackish-blue, surrounded by circular lips of a white colour, 

 fleshy or parchment-like. These are produced sometimes so as to cover 

 entirely the beak, which at other times is almost entirely concealed by 

 a gelatinous deposition, and by the multitude of feet which surround 

 it, so that it cannot be seen without violent means being used. 



" The eyes are placed a little low down, laterally disposed, very 

 large, large as beans, without an inferior eyelid, pierced in the mid II.- ; 

 but we cannot find the lens (oogappel) ; they are filled with dark-brown 

 blood. 



" From the hinder part of the body, to wit, that which rests upon 

 the last partition, goes a long artery (ader) through all the partitions 

 and through all the chambers, even unto the extremity of the spire, 

 the middle hole to which the fish hangs fast to the shell : excepting 

 this part the chambers are entirely empty, and it breaks readily w Km 

 the fish is drawn out Under the beak'(snuit) is a half pipe (canal) of 

 a rounded form, one side rolled over the other, of a whitish flesh, like 

 as in the Sea-Cat (Sepia), and in this is concealed a sort of tongue. It 

 is most likely the same canal as that by which the Zeekat ejects its 

 black blood." (' Rariteit-Kamer,' book ii) 



This figure and description warmed the imagination of Denys de 

 Montfort, who published a ludicrous representation of the supposed 

 animal seated in its shell, and expanding its hood or sail. This has 

 been copied by Shaw ; and as it has been published by that zoologist 

 in his ' Lectures,' we give a copy of the monster, which was meant to 

 pasa current for the inhabitant of the shell. 



SuppOMd animal of Mint HUM Pompiliiu. Denyi do Montfort and Shaw 



It will now bo necessary to go back to the earlier authors, and to 

 inquire whether this animal was known to them. After reading the 

 following passages, few will hesitate to concede that it was known to 

 the father of natural history. 



Aristotle ('Hist Nat.,' iv. 1), after well describing the different 

 MoAoKia (Naked Cephalopoda), says: "There are also two Put, 

 shells ; one is called by some Nauiilut, and by others Nauticui. It is 

 like the Polyptu ; but its shell resembles a hollow comb or pecten, 

 and is not attached. This Polyptu ordinarily feeds near the shore ; 

 sometimes it is thrown by the waves on the dry land, and the shell 

 falling from it, it is caught, and there dies. These are small, and in 

 forrnlike the Bolitanwe " (Cephalopoda probably, of the form of which 



