THE KRAKEN. 



339 



modified in each of them to suit certain habits and neces- 

 sities. Thus the octopus, being a shore dweller, its soft 

 and pliant, but very tough body, having merely a very 

 small and rudimentary indication of an external shell (just 

 a little " style "), is exactly adapted for wedging itself 

 amongst crevices of rocks. A large, rigid, cellular float, or 

 " sepiostaire," such as Sepia possesses, or a long, horny pen 

 such as Loligo has, would be in the way, and worse than 

 useless in such places as the octopus inhabits. Its eight 

 long powerful arms or feet are precisely fitted for clamber- 



FIG. I. BEAK AND ARMS OF A DECAPOD CUTTLE. 



a, the eight shorter arms ; /, the tentacles ; f, the funnel, or locomotor tube. 



ing over rocks and stones, and as its food, of course, consists 

 principally of the living things most abundant in such 

 localities, namely, the shore-crabs, its great flexible suckers, 

 devoid of hooks or horny armature, are exactly adapted to 

 firm and air-tight attachment to the smooth shells of the 

 Crustacea. 



Unlike the octopus, which is capable only of short flights' 

 through the water, the "cuttles" and "squids," such as 

 Sepia and Loligo, are all free swimmers. For them it is 

 necessary for accuracy of natation that their soft, and in 

 the squids long bodies, should be supported by such a 



z 2 



