THE OCTOPUS AND CUTTLE FISH. 



A LTHOUGH dignified by the name of a fish, the 

 JL\. cuttle fish has nothing in common with the finny 

 inhabitants of the sea, save that its existence is passed 

 beneath the surface of the water. It stands alone, apart 

 from all living creatures, with scarcely a point of resemblance 

 to any of them, its nearest relations being, perhaps, the sea 

 anemones those lovely inhabitants of pools among rocks. 

 Nature would seem to have created the octopus in an idle 

 moment, in order to show how she could diverge from her 

 regular course, and turn out a creature with a multiplicity of 

 arms, without body or legs, and with its head in the middle 

 of its stomach. As usual, she succeeded to perfection, but 

 was so horrified with the monster she had made that she 

 threw it into the sea, and endowed it with a diabolical dis- 

 position. The octopus resembles an ogre dwelling in its 

 cave, conscious that its distorted shape will not bear the 

 light, and stretching out its arms studded with suckers to 

 grasp and draw down to its. mouth any living thing that 

 passes within its reach. The cuttle fish varies in size from 

 the squid, beloved by gourmands who dwell on the shores of 

 the Mediterranean, to the monster octopus who throws his 

 arms round boats and drags them to the bottom. Some, 



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