150 THE SEA. 



Most of the cephalopoda secrete a blackish fluid, which they can eject iu moments of 

 clanger, and thus cloud themselves in obscurity. This fluid was known to the Romans, who 

 made ink from it. It is the leading ingredient in Indian ink and sepia to-day. A story is 

 told of an English officer abroad who went out just before dinner-time for a walk on the 

 beach, where he came across a cuttle-fish sheltering under a hollow rock. For a time each 

 watched the other in mute astonishment, but the cuttle-fish had the best of it in the end. 

 The aroused animal suddenly ejected a fountain of its black fluid over the officer's trousers, 

 which was the more annoying inasmuch as they were of white duck ! 



The bone of the cuttle, powdered, has long been used, in combination with chalk, &c., 

 as a dentifrice, so that the " monstrum horrendum " of Virgil is of some use in the 

 world. 



The sixth family of the Dibranchiata contains only one genus, Argonauta, of which 

 the paper nautilus is a pleasing example. " Floating gracefully on the surface of the sea, 

 trimming its tiny sail to the breeze, just sufficient to ruffle the surface of the waves, behold 

 the exquisite living shallop ! The elegant little bark which thus plays with the current is 

 no work of human hands, but a child of nature : it is the argonaut, whose tribes, decked 

 in a thousand brilliant shades of colour, are wanderers of the night in innumerable swarms 

 on the ocean's surface ! " The Greek and Roman poets saw in it an elegant model of the 

 ship which the skill and audacity of the man constructed who first braved the fury of the 

 waves. To meet it was considered a happy omen. " O fish justly dear to navigators \" 

 sang Oppian ; " thy presence announces winds soft and friendly : thou bringest the calm, 

 and thou art the sign of it ! " Aristotle and Pliny both gave careful descriptions of it. In 

 India the shell fetches a great price, and women consider it a fine ornament. Dancing- 

 girls carry them, and gracefully wave them over their heads. 



The paper nautilus has more than its little sail to assist its progression ; it is able to 

 eject water against the waves, and so move onward. They are timid and cautious creatures, 

 live in families, and are almost always found far out at sea: they never approach the 

 shore. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 THE OCEAN AND ITS LIVING WONDERS (continued}. 



The Crustaceans, a Crusty Set Young Crabs and their Peculiarities Shells and no Shells Powers of Renewal The 

 Biter Bit Cocoa-nut eating Crabs Do Crabs like Boiling ? The Land Crab and his Migrations Nigger Excitement 

 The King Crab The Hut Crab A True Yarn The Hermit or Soldier Crab -Pugnacionsness Crab "War and Human 

 \Var- Prolific Crustaceans Raising Lobster-pots Technical Differences How do Lobsters shed their Shells? 

 Fishermen's Ideas Habits of the Lobster Its Fecundity The Supply for Billingsgate The Season" Lobster Frolics" 

 in British North America Eel-grass Cray-fish, Prawns, and Shrimps. 



IN the Crustacea we find the lowest form of articulate animals. They possess feet, breathe 

 through gills, and derive their name from their hard crusty covering, which is mainly 

 carbonate of lime with colouring matter. They have nearly all of them claws, which 

 most of them know well how to employ offensively. "They have been compared/' says 



