UVRMUdBJE. 403 



how these inhabitants of the high seas attack, mutilate, 

 and devour each other; — 



How one and all, voracious nor unjust, 

 Obey tkeir passions, and indulge their lust. 

 Wten hunger calls, they scour the seas for food, 

 Pursue the weaker ; by the strong pursued. 

 AH the night long they constant watches keep. 

 Nor one unguarded moment give to sleep ; — 



how in particular the mursena, gliding from the summit of 

 a deep-sunk rock, goes rolling through the billows in quest 

 of the Briaxean cuttle, till at length, getting sight of one 

 creepiug close and hugging the shore, with the vaia hope 

 of eluding observation, she makes rapidly towards him ; 

 the cowering cuttle, unable to advance or retreat, stands 

 aghast, and the next instant iinds himself writhing in the 

 feU grip of the tyrant's teeth : but, forced into unequal 

 combat, he pHes each vigorous arm in rapid succession, 

 and, strong in the energy of despair, coils them round 

 the body of the murderous mursena, ' striving to strangle 

 her before he die ;' the sleek and slippery murseua escapes 

 like water from this dangerous situation, taking savage 

 advantage of those complicated movements which serve 

 to bring different parts of the victim's body athwart her 

 blood-stained jaws : ' as two lusty wrestlers, struggling in 

 each other's arms, and bathed in sweat, exhaust every 

 resource of the art, and twist and twine their supple 

 limbs in the throes of the keen contest, so does the reek- 

 ing cuttle gyrate |and straighten, wind and unwind his 

 vigorous feelers, and though rigid and tetanized with 

 pain, offer a determined resistance;' at length, having 

 lost several of these useful appendages, the mutilated tes- 

 tacean suddenly darts away from his assailant, and would 

 seek to elude further outrage by pressing into the angles 

 of some jutting rock, and endeavouring to pass for a 

 portion of it ; but this device is speedily detected by the 

 bloodthirsty mursena, who, following close, pauses for a 



