208 STORIES BESPEGTING THE CUTTLE FISH. 



partitions, and consists chiefly of carbonate of lime, with a 

 little gelatinous and other animal matter, which is most 

 abundant in the internal harder part of the shell. The eyes 

 are very large, and the head is furnished with eight arms, 

 each of which has four rows of suckers and two long tenta- 

 cles, expanded and furnished with suckers on one side at the 

 extremity. Cuttle-fish are enabled to leap out of the water 

 by the sudden extension, not of their tails, but of their nu- 

 merous arms, or other processes from their bodies. 



In hot climates some of the species of cuttle-fish grow to 

 a prodigious size, and are furnished with a fearful apparatus 

 of arms with suckers, by which they can rigidly fasten upon 

 and convey their prey to the mouth. In the eight-armed 

 species which inhabit the Indian seas these tentacles are 

 said to be no less than nine fathoms in length. 



Extraordinary stories have been related of these animals. 

 Pliny mentions the head of one which was as large as a cask, 

 the arms thirty-six feet long. They are described as first 

 darting from side to side in the pools, and fixing themselves 

 so tenaciously to the surface of the stones that great force 

 was required to remove them. When thrown upon the 

 sand, they progressed rapidly in a sidelong shuffling man- 

 ner, throwing about their long arms, ejecting their inky 

 fluid in sudden violent jets, and staring about with their 

 shining eyes in a grotesque and hideous manner. As food 

 it was highly prized by the ancients, and is still much 

 esteemed in some parts of the world. It is regularly 

 exposed for sale in the markets at Naples, Smyrna, and in 

 the bazaars of India. In a curious Japanese book there is 

 a picture of a man in a boat engaged in catching cuttle-fishes 

 with a spear ; and also a fishmonger's shop in Japan, where 

 a number of enormous cuttle-fishes are represented hanging 

 up for sale. 



Columbus describes the mode of fishing with the cuttle- 

 fish pursued in his time by the natives of Santa Marta : 



