30 HOMES UNDER THE SEA. 



Several insects feed on the snail. The glow-worm, for 

 example, lives wholly on it, and so does a little beetle 

 which has no recognised popular name, but which is 

 known to entomologists under the title of Drilus. Small 

 though they be, the snail is simply powerless against its 

 puny assailants, and submits quietly to be eaten alive. 



Now, supposing that we were told that this soft-bodied 

 creature could, by a few modifications of structure, be 

 transformed into a fierce, voracious, active marauder of 

 the seas, that the tender pliability of its structure would 

 be one of its deadliest weapons, that the soft, yielding 

 foot which slides gently over the glass, could become an 

 instrument of prehension more to be dreaded than the 

 talons of the tiger or the jaws of the boa, that it could 

 be a more terrible foe than the shark itself, that it could 

 shoot through the water with the speed of a rocket and 

 on the same principle, and that it could project itself 

 through the air completely over the hull of a large ship, 

 we might be disposed to think that our informant was 

 using the language of romance. 



Yet, all these extraordinary conditions are fulfilled in 

 the marine molluscs which are popularly, but wrongly, 

 named Cuttle-fishes. 



To begin, let us suppose that the foot of our slug is 

 very much flattened and extended around the head. 

 The creature does possess the power of extending and 

 flattening the foot as it crawls, and we only have to 

 imagine that, as it surrounds the head, to see that in 

 that case the creature must crawl upon its head. This, 



