CEPHALOPODA. 43 



The Nautilus appears to have been known to Aristotle, of whose shell-bearing 

 polypi, the second is considered to be the Nautilus Pompilius ; the first species, the true 

 Nautilus of the ancients, and to which Gualticri gave the name Cymbium, is the 

 Argonaut a of Linnaeus. Although the shell of the recent Nautilus has long been 

 commonly known, little information existed as to the animal, beyond that given by 

 Aristotle, until a comparatively recent period. At the beginning of the last century 

 the Dutch naturalist Rumph drew the attention of zoologists to the animal of the 

 Nautilus ; a description of which, illustrated by figures, he gave in his work 

 ' D Amboinische Rariteitkamer.' From Rumph's description, which, however im- 

 perfect, was more intelligible than his drawing, De Montfort gave an imaginary 

 representation of the animal, wide of the truth, but which was adopted by Shaw. 

 After the time of Rumphius not any additional information was procured until the 

 arrival in England, in 1831, of a specimen of the Nautilus Pompilius, taken by Mr. Bennett 

 in Mai achini Bay on the south-west side of the island of Erramonga, one of the New 

 Hebrides. It is true that in the preceding year MM. Quoy and Gaimard had published, 

 in the ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' an account of a portion of some unknown 

 molluscous animal, which they supposed to be the Nautilus Pompilius, found near the 

 island of Celebes ; but the remains were too imperfect for satisfactory description, 

 and, in fact, they have generally been attributed to a Heteropodous Mollusc, either 

 Carinaria or Pterotrachea. The specimen brought over by Mr. Bennett was placed in 

 the hands of Professor Owen, who in 1832 published his Memoir before referred to 

 with minute anatomical descriptions and illustrations. In 1839 M. Valenciennes 

 published an account entitled ' Nouvelles Recherches sur le Nautile flambe,' taken 

 from an individual transmitted to the Museum of Natural History at Paris. These 

 two works afford ample information as to the animal, but it is unnecessary to enter into 

 the details, a brief outline, sufficient for the present purpose, having already been 

 given. Of the soft parts of the animals which inhabited the fossil shells, no trace has 

 been found to assist the Palaeontologist, who must, therefore rely wholly on the 

 calcareous remains for specific distinctions. As regards the tertiary species, these 

 distinctions appear to be tolerably well defined ; and but little difficulty will be found 

 in the determination of the species. 



The shell is smooth, spiral, and symmetrical ; suborbicular, or somewhat depressed, 

 and more or less round on the ventral aspect ; the margins of the aperture are smooth 

 and simple ; the whorls are contiguous, and convoluted in a vertical plane, the last 

 being the largest and concealing the rest, by which character it is distinguished from 

 Planulites, the whorls of which are exposed. In some species the umbilicus is open ; 

 but more generally it is closed, as in the adult specimens of the recent N Pompilius, by 

 a deposition of nacreous or calcareous matter. The lines of growth are distinct, and 

 in some species strongly marked, giving a somewhat striated appearance to the shell ; and 

 they are reflected backwards, in which respect they differ from those of the Ammonitidce, 



