210 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



sight a habit which also affords them a method of escape 

 when themselves attacked by the shark or other formidable 

 enemy. This method is not unknown to man, and several 

 well-known instances might be adduced of public men 

 who, after having by loose assertions brought a formidable 

 opponent down upon them, escape under a cloud of mis- 

 leading words, phrases, and explanations that explain 

 nothing, and retractions that leave the matter as it was 

 before. Seeing that the peculiar variety of ink secreted 

 by the cuttle fish is of a very valuable kind, it is somewhat 

 remarkable that no enterprising manufacturer has as yet 

 taken the matter in hand and established an aqueous farm 

 for the breeding and rearing of cuttle fish. Indian ink and 

 sepia are both so valuable that such an enterprise ought to 

 pay handsome profits, and if the oyster can be cultivated, 

 why not the cuttle fish ? It would, of course, be necessary 

 that the retaining walls of the gigantic aquarium indicated 

 should be impervious to the passing of cuttle fish even in 

 their earliest stage. Otherwise the proprietors would be 

 liable very speedily to be indicted as a nuisance by the 

 lodging-house keepers and owners of bathing machines of 

 the nearest sea-side watering places. But this could doubt- 

 less be effected, and then no argument could be adduced 

 that the cuttle fish should necessarily be a nuisance to their 

 neighbours that would not equally apply to the wild beasts 

 at a menagerie. In the latter case one occasionally breaks 

 out and causes consternation, and, possibly, damage, and 

 even if an octopus should do the same there could be no 

 very valid ground for complaint. As the squid when cooked 

 furnishes a somewhat gelatinous food not altogether dis- 

 similar to calf's head, it is probable that the flesh of the 



