SEPIA. 18 



throe i lay--, nor any of those from (lie -mailer spawn, which wort- not 

 two-thinN of their -!/-, .surviving mure than a few hours. 



The ink i* di-c -barged soon niter exclusion. To judge by the yonm: 

 there is no substantial srround for (list MiL'tiMiini: the race 88 cephalopotl' . if 

 to bo ri.iridly interpreted. The tcntacula, in as far as developed, are i 

 employed a.- foot. Tin- animal* either lay Hat at tho bottom of their 

 vend or ascend tho water, set-kin;: the li-ht by jerks from collapse of tin- 

 body. I have sometimes, though raroly, taken similar nascent animals in 

 (he sea, which display the like peculiar!: 



I have heard that some of the Cuttle FMi found in the aestuary of 



Forth are esteemed a delicacy. It is certain that such is the case 

 with those of the Mediterranean Sea ; and it is said that at Naples vari- 

 ous means arc adopted to allure them into a net. They are reckoned 

 the principal food of the Spermaceti whale, a creature it.self of gigantic 

 dimension-;. 



Mr BKAI.K mentions one, on the shore of the Bonin Islands, having 

 1 itself to him, of which he got free with some difficulty. The 

 body was about the size of the hands clenched, while the tentacul.i 

 i'-d two feet. \nturnl I/i^nn/ of the ,S//r;n Whale. 



Others are said to have the faculty of springing out of the sea, with 

 such force as to alight on the deck of a vessel, as mentioned by Mr 

 Bennet, vol. i. p. 209 ; vol. ii. p. 290. 



Large dimensions, those probably much exaggerated, have been 

 ascribed to the Cuttle Fish, such as the body of some being the size of a 

 cask, and the arms capable of clasping a man's body. 



Mrs Broughton, in her entertaining account of a residence at Algiers, 

 says, 



It was the custom of the family to bathe in a natural cave on the 

 sea-shore. " On one of these occasions we were all seized with the 

 greatest alarm, by my dearest mother screaming out, that something 

 had seized one of her feet and was dragging her down into the water.' 



Being rescued, a large Cuttle Fish was discovered to have entwined 

 its arms around her foot and leg, from which the attendants had some 

 difficulty in releasing 1> 



