92 RANSACKING THE DEEP. 



far to revolutionize and reform the whole compass of zoological 

 science. 



It is not alone in the immediate neighbourhood of the land, 

 however, that these investigations have been carried on, or that 

 important discoveries have been made : the deeper waters at a 

 distance from the shore have not been neglected, nor their inha- 

 bitants allowed to pass unnoticed. On the contrary, the " drag " 

 and the "dredge" have been plied so industriously in groping 

 up the contents of the sea-bottom, and the " trawl " and the 

 " towing-net " in searching the upper waters, that, around our 

 own coasts at least, those coveted prizes, "species new to 

 science," are now becoming exceedingly rare ; although it does 

 still happen occasionally that some indefatigable professor has 

 the good fortune to fish one up from the deep, and so to win for 

 himself a niche in the temple of fame as a discoverer in science. 

 In consequence of this rummaging and ransacking of the deep, 

 and, in great part also, in consequence of the unintentional 

 assistance of Old Ocean himself, in flinging upon the shore, 

 during his angry moods, the spoil which has been washed land- 

 wards from far out at sea, we are rapidly extending our acquaint- 

 ance with the life of the waters, and shall probably soon have 

 the means of becoming almost as familiar with the " sea's abun- 

 dant progeny " as we now are with the more accessible inhabit- 

 ants of the upper worlds of earth and air. 



In so far as it concerns the thousand little creatures which 

 people the shore, nestling in the rock-clefts and tide-pools, the 

 Aquarium and the studies which it has made so popular have 

 done already well-nigh all that could be desired. There is no 

 danger now that they will any longer be passed by in neglect. 

 But there is some reason to fear, that with the enthusiasm that 

 prevails for these " wonders of the shore," others not less 

 interesting, but more seldom seen, will be overlooked and 

 forgotten. On behalf of one of these too much neglected tribes, 

 we now ask for justice justice to the Cephalopods, which have 

 been almost entirely kept out of sight in our popular literature, 

 while other and far less interesting races have been pushed into 

 favour. A Chapter, then, for the CKPHALOPODS, or, in other 

 words, for the Nautilus and its allies. 



But it will be better, perhaps, to begin with one of our native 

 Cephalopods, by far the most familiar of which is the common 



