590 THE ARGONAUT. 



celerity. The arms are movable, and as useful to the Cuttle-fish as is 

 the proboscis to the elephant; for, besides answering the purposes 

 which have been mentioned, they are also used as legs, and enable 

 the creature to crawl on the ground, the shell being then upper- 

 most. 



Our first example is the celebrated Argonaut, or Paper Nautilus, 

 the latter title being given on account of the extreme thinness and fra- 

 gility of the shell, which crumbles under a 

 heedless grasp like the shell of an egg, and 

 the former in allusion to the pretty fable 

 which was formerly narrated of its sailing 

 powers. It is rather remarkable, by the 

 way, that the shell of the Argonaut is dur- 

 ing the life of its owner elastic and yield- 

 ing, almost as if it were made of thin 

 horn. 



Argonauta Papyracea, in Two of the arms of the Argonaut are 

 ITS Shell. greatly dilated at their extremities, and it 



was formerly asserted, and generally believed, that the creature was 

 accustomed to employ these arms as sails, raising them high above the 

 .shell and allowing itself to be driven over the surface by the breeze, 

 while it directed its course by the remaining arms, which were suffered 

 to hang over the edge of the shell into the w^ater and acted like so many 

 oars. In consequence of this belief, the creature was named the Ar- 

 gonaut, in allusion to the old classical fable of the ship Argo and her 

 golden freight. 



Certainly the Argo herself could not have carried a more splendid 

 cargo than is borne by the shell of the Argonaut when its inhabitant 

 is living and in its full enjoyment of life and health. The animal— or 

 " poulp," as it is technically called — is indeed a most lovely creature, 

 despite of its unattractive form. " It appeared," writes Mr. Rang, when 

 describing one of these creatures which had been captured alive, "little 

 more than a shapeless mass, but it was a mass of silver, with a cloud 

 of spots of the most b-autiful rose-color, and a fine dotting of the same 

 which heightened its beauty. A long semicircular band of ultramarine 

 blue, which melted away insensibly, was very decidedly marked at one 

 of its extremities — that is, of the keel. A large membrane covered 

 all, and this membrane was the expanded velation of the arms, which 

 so peculiarly characterizes the poulp of the Argonaut. 



" The animal was so entirely shut up in its abode that the head and 

 base of the arms only were a little raised above the edges of the open- 

 ing of the shell. On each side of the head a small space was left free, 

 allowmg the eyes of the mollusc some scope of vision around, and their 

 sharp and fixed gaze appeared to announce that the animal was watch- 



