THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. 365 



visible, and the hood covering all. Although the shell of the Chambered Nautilus is 

 common enough, the animal is very rarely seen, often, in all probability, escaping 

 notice by its utter dissimilarity to the popular ideas of a shell. While living, it en- 

 closes the shell in its mantle, and on several occasions has been mistaken for a dead 

 cat or a lump of blubber, until a sudden alarm induced the creature to throw aside the 

 mask, and to address its best energies to escape. Moreover, it is one of the deep-water 

 species, and does not seem to ascend to the surface unless driven by the force of a storm. 

 Before quitting the subject of this animal, I cannot resist the opportunity of inserting 

 the exquisite little poem by Dr. Holmes, on a broken shell of the Chambered Nautilus : 



" This is the ship of pearl, which poets feign 



Sails the unshadowed main 



The venturous bark that flings 

 On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings, 

 In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, 



And coral reefs lie bare, 

 Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. 



Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl ; 



Wrecked is the ship of pearl ! 



And every chambered cell, 



Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, 

 As the frail tenant-shaped his growing shell, 



Before thee lies revealed 

 Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed ! 



Year after year beheld the silent toil 



That spread his lustrous coil ; 



Still, as the spiral grew, 

 He left the past year's dwelling for the new, 

 Stole with soft step its shining archway through, 



Built up its idle door, 

 Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. 



Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, 



Child of the wandering sea, 



Cast from her lap, forlorn ! 

 From thy dead lips a clearer note is born 

 Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn ! 



While on mine ear it rings, 

 Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings : 



Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 



As the swift seasons roll ! 



Leave thy low vaulted past ; 

 Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 

 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 



Till thou at length art free, 

 Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." 



In many of the cephalopoda already mentioned, the only specimens ever captured 

 belonged to the female sex, and seemed almost to pass, like the Amazons of old, an 

 existence which may be termed a misandrous life. At last the male was discovered, but 

 in a form so unlike that of the female, and apparently so utterly unworthy of her, that 

 although its existence had long been known to naturalists, it was set down as a parasitic 

 worm, and called by the title of Hectocotyle. That of the argonaut is hardly more than 

 half an inch in length ; has two rows of little suckers, arranged alternately, forty-five 

 being placed on each side ; there is a thread-like appendage in front, nearly as long as 

 the whole animal, and the skin contains changeable spots of red and violet. It is a 

 very curious and suggestive fact, that the newly hatched female argonaut is very similar 

 in appearance to the fully developed male. Similar instances of discrepancy between 

 the sexes are found in the lac insect, and many crustaceans, the male being nearly one 

 thousand times less than his mate. This subject is, however, extremely mysterious. 



There are many fossil species of this order, but as the limits of this work are far too 



