502 THF PAPER NAUTILUS. 
the edge of the shell into the water and acted like so many oars. In conse- 
quence of this belief, the creature was named the Argonaut, in allusion to the 
old classical fable of the ship Avgo and her golden treight. ; 
Certainly, the 47go herself could not have carried a more splendid cargo 
than is borne by the shell of the Argonaut when its inhabitant is living and 
in its full enjoyment of life and health. The animal, or ‘poulp” as it is 
technically called, is indeed a most lovely creature, despite of its unattractive 
form. “It appeared,” writes Mr. Rang, when describing one of these 
creatures which had been captured alive, “ little more than a shapeless mass, 
but it was a mass of silver, with a cloud of spots of the most beautiful rose- 
colour, and a fine dotting of the same, which heightened its beauty. A long 
semicircular band of ultramarine blue, which melted away insensibly, was very 
decidedly marked at one of its extremities, that is of the keel. A large mem’ 
ARGONAUT OR PAPER NAUTILUS.—(Argonauta Argo.) 
brane covered all, and this membrane was the expanded velation of the arms, 
which so peculiarly characterises the poulp of the Argonaut. 
“The animal was so entirely shut up in its abode, that the head and base 
of the arms only were a little raised above the edges of the opening of the 
shell. On each side of the head a small space was left free, allowing the eyes 
of the mollusc some scope of vision around, and their sharp and fixed gaze 
appeared to announce that the animal was watching attentively all that passed 
around it. The slender arms were folded back from their base, and inserted 
very deeply round the body of the poulp, in such a manner as to fill in part 
the empty spaces which the head must naturally leave in the much larger 
Opening of the shell.” 
M, Raag then procecds to show the real use of the expanced arms, whict 
