306 



MARINE GRAPES. 



and hanging together in clusters. They are soft to the 

 touch, with a tough skin, resembling Indian-rubber; 

 one end is produced into a sort of point or nipple, and 

 the other fixed to a fleshy stalk, which coils round sea- 

 weed, or other floating objects, and serves to fix the 

 berry-like bag in its place. These bags are the eggs 

 of Cuttle-fish. At an 

 early stage they con- 

 tain a white yolk, 

 enclosed in a clear 

 albumen; and nearer 

 maturity, the young 

 Cuttle-fish may be 

 found within, in va- 

 rious stages of forma- 

 tion. At last, when 

 fully formed, the 

 leathery bag is rent 

 asunder, and the 

 young Cuttle-fish en- 

 ters on his career. 

 Cuttle-fishes are, per- 

 haps, the most singu- 

 lar in structure of all 

 the marine animals we 

 MARISS GRAPES. commonly meet with, 



and are interesting to 



the naturalist in a variety of ways. If it were only 

 for the position which they occupy in our systematic ar- 

 rangements, at the head of the great group of the Mol- 

 lusca, and in close proximity to the Vertebrates, their 



