CUTTLE FISH DESCRIBED, 20T 



belong the Cuttle-fish, the bony scale on the back of which 

 is employed for making pounce, tooth-powder, for polishing,, 

 and other purposes in the arts. 



The common cuttle-fish is abundant on the English coasts. 

 Its skin is smooth, whitish, and dotted with red. It attains 

 the length of a foot or more, and is one of the pests of the 

 fishermen, devouring partially the fish which have been 

 caught in their nets. The eggs of the cuttle-fish are 

 frequently cast on shore clustered together. Singularly in- 

 teresting is the study of these creatures, which are 

 provided with means of escaping danger, in their ink-bags, 

 from which they can at will emit a fluid, darkening the water 

 and thus enabling them to get ofi*. This natural ink o/ the 

 fish is employed in painting ; Cicero tells us that it was 

 anciently used for writing with. 



Another property possessed by this class of animals is, 

 that if any of its tentacles or feelers are bitten off, which is 

 often the case — the conger eel having a special relish for 

 the dainty morsel — others supply their place, the power of 

 reproduction being given to them. The whale also regales 

 on the cuttle-fish, and the plaice tribe have the same 

 partiality. The most common species form the bait with 

 which one-half of the cod taken at Newfoundland are 

 caught. 



The general description of the cuttle-fish may be thus 

 described: the body oblong, or longer than broad, and 

 depressed, sac-like, with two narrow lateral fins of similar 

 substance with the mantle (the outside skin of shell-fish,, 

 which covers a great part of the body, like a cloak). There 

 is an internal shell lodged in a sac on the back part of the 

 mantle, somewhat 6val and bladed-shaped, being compar- 

 atively thick near the anterior end, where it is terminated 

 by a sharp point, affixed, as it were, to its general outline. 

 The whole shell is light and porous, and is formed of thin 

 plates, with intervening spaces, divided by innumerable 



