MOLLUSCA. 291 



from casks. This elastic structure, and the membra- 

 nous expansion on each side the tail, are apparently 

 the two principal agents employed by the animal in its 

 protracted leaps through the air. Whether the fin-like 

 appendage is also employed in swimming is very ques- 

 tionable. 



One kind of Loligo, which we captured in the Pa- 

 cific Ocean, in lat. 34 N., measured six inches in its 

 entire length. The upper surface of the body is gray, 

 freckled with purple, the under white ; iris silvery, pupil 

 jet-black and prominent. It has eight arms and two 

 tentacles. Each arm is furnished with a double row of 

 suckers on its entire length, and all, with the exception 

 of the first or dorsal pair, have a loose membrane float- 

 ing from their posterior surface. The two tentacles 

 are round, slender, and twice the length of the arms^ 

 and have at their extremity a broad sickle-shaped mem- 

 brane, covered with two rows of yellow hooks of 

 different sizes. 



This individual leaped from the sea over the high 

 bulwarks of the ship and alighted on the deck, at a time 

 when vast flocks of the same species were seen leaping 

 around and often striking with violence against the 

 bows of the vessel the sea being comparatively smooth. 

 The creature was much injured by the violence with 

 which it had struck the deck, and showed little anima- 

 tion : it did not attempt to leap or swim when put into 

 a bucket of sea-water, though it emitted a quantity of 

 inky fluid* through a canal in the body, opening by 

 a large orifice immediately below the neck. The pre- 

 hensile power of the suckers on the arms was retained 

 for a considerable time after the death of the animal ; 



* This secretion is contained in a narrow oblong bag, of silvery hue, 

 and placed immediately below the stomach. 



II 2 



