THE FAIRY SAILOR AND HIS COUSINS. 



Ill 



Fig. 43. The Paper Nautilus (Argonauta Argo), with 

 the arms of the auimal extended. 



Madame Jeannette Power, a French lady residing in Sicily, 

 has transmitted to the learned societies of Europe accounts 

 of observations made by herself upon the argonaut of 

 the Mediterranean, 

 which prove that 

 the "native pilot" 

 is the rightful and 

 original owner of 

 the " 1 i 1 1 1 e bark," 

 while the latter, in- 

 stead of being de- 

 voted to the pur- 

 poses of fairy navi- 

 gation, is but a coat 

 of mail for protec- 

 tion against ugly 

 foes, and the "two- 

 fold sail" is the " mantle" extended over the animal's back, 

 a secretion from which forms and enlarges the shell with 

 the growth of the animal. The propulsive power of the 

 animal, instead of iEolian breezes, is a jet of water squirt- 

 ed from a tube or "funnel," which, like a rocket-power, 

 drives the argonaut backward ; and its " tier of oars" is 

 used with the animal inverted, crawling, like a snail, with 

 his house upon his back. 



Something still more familiar to every reader is the 

 " cuttle-fish bone," which the apothecary sells for canaries. 

 This substance is not a " bone," and does not come from a 

 " fish," but is a rudimentary shell formed beneath the skin 

 which covers the back of a molluscous animal. The cala- 

 maries are similar to the cuttle-fishes, but their shell is 

 horny instead of stony. The poulp, or cuttle-fish of the 

 southern coast of Europe, has been longest known. It was 

 called " polypus" by Homer and Aristotle, because it has 



