CHAPTER XIY. 

 NAUTILI THE FLOATING NAVIGATORS OF THE OCEAIT, 



" Spread, tiny nautilus, the living sail, 

 Dive at thy choice, or brave the freshening gale 

 If unreprov'd the ambitious eagle mount 

 Sunward, to seek the daylight in its fount, 

 Bays, gulf, and ocean's Indian widths shall be 

 Till the world perishes a field for thee." — WORDSWORTH. 



MONGr the most interesting and poetical illus- 

 trations of the wonders of the ocean are the 

 singular floating animals, of which the Nauti- 

 lus — called by Byron *'the ocean Mab," "the 

 Fairy of the Sea" — will be, undoubtedly, 

 familiar to you from the great beauty of its shell, which 

 renders it a favorite ornament in many houses. 



Very interesting stories and verses have been written on 

 the sailing and rowing habits of these curious animals ; and 

 their appearance, when seen skimming the water, would 

 strongly favor sucli ideas. The Dutch naturalist, Rumphius, 

 in giving an account of the rarities at Amboyna, the princi- 

 pal of the Molucca islands, says : " When the nautilus floats 

 on the water, he puts out his head and all his tentacles, and 

 spreads them upon the water ; but at the bottom he creeps 

 in a reversed position, with his boat above him, and with his 

 head and tentacles (feelers) on the ground, making a toler- 

 ably quick progress. He keeps himself chiefly on the 

 ground, creeping also, sometimes, into the nets of the fisher- 

 men ; but after a storm, as the weather gets calm, they are 

 seen in troops, floating on the water, being driven up by the 



