344 CEPHALOPODOUS ANIMALS. 



qiiently taken in the seine. If taken in the 

 hand alive, they would, with the succulent ten- 

 taculse, draw the fingers of the person holding 

 them towards their parrot-beaked mouths, and 

 inflict a severe bite : they also discharge, when 

 captured, a large quantity of thick black fluid, 

 a very minute proportion of which suffices to 

 render turbid a large quantity of water. Should 

 this black liquid fall upon linen clothes, it pro- 

 duces a stain difficult, if at all possible, to be 

 removed. It is from this fluid that the material 

 known by the name of China or Indian ink, is 

 manufactured. The ancients were also accus- 

 tomed to use it as a writing ink, and esteemed 

 the flesh as a delicacy. Most of the eastern 

 natives, and those among the Polynesian islands, 

 partake of it, and esteem it as food : they may 

 be seen exposed for sale in the bazaars through- 

 out India. 



Having brought my researches in this colony 

 to a conclusion for the present, I have to regret 

 the limited portion of time I was able] to devote 

 to the investigation of its various natural produc- 

 tions, &c., so numerous and interesting in all por- 

 tions of the great continent of Australia. The dis- 

 coveries already made have been numerous ; and, 

 when it is considered that an immense tract of 

 country still remains unexplored, many treasures 



