THE CUTTLE-FISH TRIBE. 549 



all the boles, out of which the animals appeared, to 

 be carefully drilled with an iron instrument. He 

 could not, however, even by this means destroy 

 them ; for in the course of a few weeks they again 

 appeared in the very same places, and in a short 

 time became as numerous as before. 



THE CUTTLE-FISH TRIBE. 



The Cuttle-fish, though comparatively large ani- 

 mals, some of them being twoteet long and upward, 

 are ranked by Linnaeus under the class of Worms. — 

 Their structure is very remarkable. The body is cy- 

 lindrical, and, in some of the species, entirely covered 

 with a fleshy sheath ; in others, the sheath reaches 

 only to the middle of the body. They have eight 

 tentacula, or arms, besides two feelers, as they are 

 called, which are much longer than the arms. Both 

 the feelers and arms are furnished with strong cir- 

 cular cups or suckers, by means of which the animal 

 seizes its prey, and firmly attaches itself to roqksor 

 other hard substances. To do this it applies their sur- 

 face, extended and plain, to the surface of the body, 

 and then drawing them up in the centre by muscles 

 contrived for the purpose, a vacuum is formed, and 

 they adhere by the pressure of the external air. — 

 The adhesive power is so great that it is generally 

 more easy to tear off the arms than separate them 

 from the substance to which they are fixed. If these 



N n 3 



