760 MOLLUSCA— NAUTILUS. 



extraordinary conformation, one would not be apt to suppose that the nauti- 

 lus sometimes quitted its shell, and returned to it again; yet nothing, 

 though seemingly impossible, is more certain. The manner by which it 

 contrives to disengage every part of its body from so intricate a habitation — 

 by which it makes a substance, to appearance as thick as one's wrist, pass 

 through forty doors, each of which would scarcely admit a goose quill — is 

 not yet discovered ; but the fact is certain ; for the animal is often found 

 without its shell; and the shell more frequently destitute of the animal. 

 It is most probable, that it has a power of making the substance of one 

 section of its body remove up into that which is next ; and thus, by multi- 

 plied removals, it gets free. 



But this, though very strange, is not the peculiarity for which the nautilus 

 has been the most distinguished. Its spreading the thin oar, and catching 

 the flying gale, to use the poet's description of it, has chiefly excited human 

 curiosity. These animals, particularlarly those of the white, light kind,i 

 are chiefly found in the Mediterranean ; and scarce any who have sailed on 

 that sea, but must have often seen them. When the sea is calm, they are 

 observed floating on the surface ; some spreading their little sail ; some 

 rowing with their feet, as if for life and death ; and others still, floating upon 

 their mouths, like a ship with the keel upward. If taken while thus em- 

 ployed, and examined, the extraordinary mechanism of their limbs for sail- 

 ing, will appear more manifest. The nautilus is furnished with eight feet, 

 which issue near the xnouth, and may as properly be called barbs ; these are 

 connected to each other by a thin skin, like that between the toes of a duck, 

 but much thinner, and more transparent. Of these eight feet thus connected, 

 six* are short, and these are held up as sails to catch the wind in sailing; 

 the two others are longer, and are kept in the water ; serving, like paddles, 

 to steer their course by. When the weather is quite calm, and the animal 

 is pursued from below, it is then seen expanding only a part of its sail, and 

 rowing with the rest ; Avhenever it is interrupted, or fears danger from 

 above, it instantly furls the sail, catches in all its oars, turns its shell mouth 

 downward, and instantly sinks to the bottom. Sometimes also it is seen 

 pumping the water from its leaking hulk ; and, when unfit for sailing, 

 deserts its shell entirely. The forsaken hulk is seen floating along, till it 

 dashes, by a kind of shipwreck, upon the rocks or the shore. 



* Arg-onauta Argo, Lam. 



