164 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



Scuttle. — The common cuttle-fish, la seche, seiche, or cas- 

 seron, of the French, is very generally eaten by our fisher- 

 men, and at Great Yarmouth they bring them in baskets 

 to the houses for sale, recommending them as excellent 

 and wholesome food. Cuttle-fish are often taken on the 

 fishing lines, and will follow the bait to the surface, 

 sucking it and holding fast by their long tentacles,* but 

 we seldom find them alive on the shore, thougb their 

 white bones are constantly picked up ; and an immense 

 number of these bones sometimes strew the beach from 

 Beachy Head to Pevensey, while numbers float on the 

 water. This was particularly the case there some years 

 ago. It seemed as if there had been some epidemic 

 amongst the cuttles which caused this great mortality, 

 for certainly many basketfuls of bones might easily have 

 been collected. They are not without their use ; and at 

 Liverpool, cuttle-bones are sold to the druggists for 

 making tooth-powder, as much as 12 cwt. arriving at a 

 time ;f and Pliny says that the ashes of calcined shells 

 of the Sepia were used for extracting pointed weapons 

 which had pierced the flesh. J 



In Germany, it is called the Blackfisch, or Tintenfisch. 



The animal is curious, very flat, with white stripes 

 across its body, the groundwork being dark brown. 

 The head is brown, as well as the arms, but the inside 

 of the latter is white, and is furnished w'ith four rows of 

 suckers. Its two tentacular arms are very long, ex- 

 panded broadly at the tips, and are also furnished with 

 suckers. The beak is hard and black, shaped like that 

 of a parrot. 



* ' Sea Fish,' etc., by W. B. Lord. 



t Phipson's ' Utilization of Minute Life.' 



J Pliny, Nat. Hist. vol. vi. bk. xxxii. c. 43. 



