THE LITTLE ARGONAUT. 107 



for feare lest if it touched and felt it, she wcmld cast it forth 

 again : thus they theeue, without all daunger, aiid in securitie 

 get out the fleshie substance of the meat to deuoure it ; the poore 

 cockles draw their shels together for to claspe them between (as 

 is aboue said) but all in vaine, for by reeson of a wedg between, 

 they will not meet close nor come neere together." To which 

 story he adds the sage reflection, " See how subtile and craftie 

 in this point these creatures be, which otherwise are most sottish 

 and senselesse." 



By far the most interesting of all the Cephalopods is the little 

 Argonaut, improperly called the Paper Nautilus. This famous 

 little creature has come down to us from antiquity, stigmatized 

 on the one hand as a pirate and usurper that has no right to the 

 shell it inhabits, and lauded, on the other, as an active and 

 skilful voyageur, and the first instructor of mankind in the art of 

 navigation. Both these matters have been thoroughly investi- 

 gated of late years, and on neither of them now is there the 

 slightest doubt remaining. As the character of the little fa- 

 vourite is involved in the former point, we will examine into 

 that first. 



Is the Argonaut a pirate? The point has been a disputed 

 one from the time of_Aristotle downwards, although the majority 

 of voices has always been with the " ayes ;" the assumption 

 being that the Argonaut picks up its shell at the sea bottom, 

 and appropriates it to his own use, just as that crusty little 

 oddity, the hermit-crab, is known to appropriate the shells of 

 the common whelk. 



But on what ground was the assumption made? What is 

 the evidence? 



In the first place, then, the Argonaut is in no way attached to 

 the shell it inhabits, and has often been seen, when alive, to 

 quit the shell of its own accord. Again, it was alleged, that the 

 position of the animal in the shell is by no means regular and 

 constant, the head being sometimes turned towards one extremity 

 of the shell, and sometimes towards the other a circumstance 

 which certainly seemed to show that the shell was not expressly 

 fitted to its occupant. Further, the body of the Argonaut is just 

 as deeply coloured as that of the naked Cephalopods, which 

 would seem to show that it was not permanently covered from 



