162 LECTURE XL 



some of the latest writers, and even Lamark and 

 Cuvier, were doubtful ; or rather, gave into the no- 

 tion of the shell being inhabited by an animal 

 which was not its constructor. 



It now remains to describe, as shortly as pos- 

 sible, the animal itself; and this will be best done 

 by saying, that the species of Sepia or Cuttle-Fish 

 which it most resembles is the Common Eight- 

 Armed Cuttle-Fish, or Sepia Octopodia of Lin- 

 naeus : the body is oval ; the head furnished with 

 a parrot-shaped beak, like that animal ; and the 

 arms, which are eight in number, are of nearly 

 equal length, each beset on its upper surface with 

 two rows of suckers or fasteners as in the Cuttle- 

 Fish, and each of the first or front arms is dilated 

 on its inner side into a very large oval, semitrans- 

 parent process or web, which the animal hold- 

 ing in such a manner as to unite at the edges, 

 they form a large sail-like concavity, which catch- 

 ing the gale, enables it at pleasure to navigate the 

 surface of the sea when calm. The spectacle, as 

 before observed, has been described by various au- 

 thors, but by none more elegantly than by Pliny, 

 whose short and beautiful description has been 

 generally quoted by modern writers. 



