564 CEPHALOPODA. 



the little barque in which the Argonaut was supposed to skim over the 

 waves, hoisting a pair of sails to the breeze, and steering its course by 

 the assistance of oars provided for the purpose. 



(1514.) The figure annexed (fig. 283), given by Poli in his magnifi- 

 cent work already referred to*, was in perfect accordance with the 

 generally-received opinion ; and on such respectable authority we are 

 not surprised to find Cuvier assenting to and sanctioning the statement 

 that, when the sea is calm, fleets of these little sailors might be seen 

 navigating its surface, employing six of their tentacula or arms instead 

 of oars, and at the same time spreading out two, which are broadly 

 expanded for the purpose, instead of sails. Should the waves become 

 agitated, or danger threaten, the Argonaut, as we are told, draws in his 

 arms, lowers his sail, and, settling to the bottom of his shell, disappears 

 beneath the waters. 



(1515.) It is a thankless office to dispel the pleasant dreams of imagi- 

 nation ; yet such becomes our disagreeable duty upon this occasion. 

 M. Sander Rang, in a recently-published memoir upon this subject f, 

 has, from actual observation, apparently established the following facts : 

 1st, that the belief, more or less generally entertained since the time 

 of Aristotle, respecting the skilful manoeuvres of the Poulpe of the 

 Argonaut in progressing by the help of sails and oars on the surface of 

 the water, is erroneous. 2nd, The arms which are expanded into mem- 

 branes have no other function than that of enveloping the shell in 

 which the animal lives, and that for a determinate object to be ex- 

 plained hereafter. 3rd, The Poulpe, with its shell, progresses in the 

 open sea in the same manner as other Cephalopods. And lastly, that 

 when at the bottom of the ocean, the Argonaut, covered with its shell, 

 creeps upon an infundibuliform disk, formed by the junction cf the 

 arms at their base, and presenting (alas !) the appearance of a Gastero- 

 pod mollusk. 



(1516.) It is not a little remarkable that the same animal should, 

 even in these days, be the subject of the extremes of credulity and 

 scepticism ; yet such has been the case with the Argonaut. While 

 zoologists were contented to allow the creature in question the reputa- 

 tion of being an active and skilful navigator, it has been very generally 

 stigmatized as a pirate, which, having forcibly possessed itself of the 

 shell of another animal, lived therein, and made use of it for its own 

 purposes. It was in vain to urge, in opposition to this calumny, that 

 the Argonaut was never found in any other shell than the beautiful one 

 represented in the preceding figure ; that no other creature had been 

 pointed out as the real fabricator of its abode ; that, whatever the size 

 of the Poulpe, it occupied a residence precisely corresponding in dimen- 



* Testacea utriusque Siciliae. 



f Gue"rin's ' Magasin de Zoologie.' Translated in the Magazine of Natural History, 

 vol. iii. new series, p. 521. 



