62 NATURAL HISTORY. 



the waters of Europe, but more abundantly in the Medi- 

 terranean Sea. It is eaten, and a sauce, considerably 

 esteemed, is prepared from the dark juice. By means of 

 its suckers the cuttle fish affixes itself strongly on fishes 

 marked out for prey, but it is not dangerous to swimmers. 

 There are many relative races; many are of immense 

 size, and have arms twelve feet long ; these are rather to 

 be dreaded, as they can drag a man under water. One 

 of the handsomest families of the cephalopod race is 

 that of 



The Argonaut (argonauta argo), which much resem- 

 bles the cuttle fish, except that on the two longest arms 

 is a membraneous skin resembling a sail ; but it has a 

 still more distinguishing mark in its delicate and beau- 

 tiful shell, which, white and thin as paper, has obtained 

 for it the name of the Paper Nautilus ; but the great- 

 est peculiarity of all is the spreading of the little sail on 

 their long arms. Men insist they expand it to catch the 

 flying gale, using their shell as a boat, and their long 

 arms as oars. It is probable that the last supposition of 

 the nautilus using its arms for rowing is true, but it does 

 not employ its shell as a boat, as the latter is placed 

 loosely in the former, and without adhesion, is sometimes 

 unfit for sailing, and deserted entirely. 



The Nautilus or Sailqr (nautilus pompilius). This 

 cephalopoda has a very beautiful mother-of-pearl-like 

 shell, which, in the volutes or whorls, resemble those of 

 a ram's horn. It is also vulgarly termed Horn of 

 Amman, because the shell, like those of the Ammonites 

 or snails, is divided into many chambers. The animal 

 has its seat in the exterior one, but there is a tube issu- 

 ing from the posterior portion of the animal's body, 

 which traverses all the other chambers. The beautiful 



