232 SHELLS AND MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS. 



wherever they appear. Men who have been 

 rescued from their grasp have afterwards become 

 delirious and died. 



Scarcely more pleasing in appearance than the 

 common poulpe, is the Cuttle-fish (Sepia officinalis) 

 so frequent on our shores. Its form is oblong, 

 and its colour a dull white, spotted with red 

 and brown. It is about a foot long, and of 

 a soft jelly-like substance. The shell, instead 

 of being like that of the other shell-fish, an outer 

 covering, is, in this animal, an internal plate, en- 

 abling the fish by its buoyancy to rise in the 

 water, and also giving firmness to its soft and 

 jelly-like body. This shell is well known to all 



accustomed to walk on our shores, on many parts 

 of which it is, in rough weather, strewn in great 

 numbers. One side is a white firm shell, but the 

 under part is formed of thin delicate layers, of a 

 shelly nature. This was formerly much used for 

 pounce, and. the ancients attributed to it great 

 medicinal virtues. It is still sometimes powdered 

 and used as a dentifrice. The sharp, strong, 

 pearly eye of the cuttle-fish is worn in some parts 

 of Southern Europe as an ornament, and, strung 

 in numbers, makes a necklace of pearls, so that 

 the animal, like the 



" envenom'd toad, 

 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." 



