114 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



staring out from either side of the head, between the bases 

 of the arms, is a pair of large glassy eyes, which send a 

 shudder over the beholder. At the bottom of the sea the 

 poulp turns its eight arms downward, and walks like a 

 huge submarine spider, thrusting its arms into the creyices 

 of the rocks, and extracting thence the luckless crab that 

 had thought itself secure in its narrow retreat from the 



Fig. 46. Section through the shell and animal of the Pearly Nautilus 

 {Nautilus ■pompilius). 



attacks of so bulky a foe. This is the "Devil Fish" so 

 graphically but so unscientifically described by Victor 

 Hugo. Each of the arms is covered with what are called 

 suckers, designed for producing adhesion to the object 

 grasped. Each sucker consists of a little, elevated, circu- 

 lar horny ridge, forming a little cup, closed at the bottom 

 by a flexible membrane which is attached to the arm by a 

 stem. The consequence is, that when the arm is pressed 

 upon an object, the bottom of each cnp, like a piston, is 

 pressed inward Iby the action of the stem or piston-rod, 

 which is moved by the pressure of the arm. The effort to 

 escape from the grasp of this arm withdraws the piston 

 back to the bottom of the cup, thus producing a vacuum 

 within, and causing a suction which effectually retains the 

 object. Could any piece of mechanism be more admirable ? 



