NOTES ON THE ARGONAUT. 
BY W. H. DALL. 

Tue Argonaut, or Paper-sailor, is familiar to all who live 
in seaports; its elegant form and delicate texture making it 
deservedly a favorite ornament for table or mantel; and cer- 
tainly nothing can be more exquisite than a perfect specimen 
of one of the larger species. It is of a snowy whiteness, 
with delieate undulating ridges, and the keel ornamented . 
with a regular series of conical projections or tubercles, 
whieh near the spire are lightly touched with black.  Per- 
haps its greatest charm is its perfect symmetry, in which it 
is only equalled by the pearly Nautilus which, however, 
it far surpasses in its sculpture, fragility and purity. 
The Argonaut shell is formed, curiously enough, by the 
females only ; ; as among more highly organized beings some- 
times, the gentler sex outshine their brothers in the splendor 
of their apparel, and the extent it occupies. Unlike many, 
however, the Argonaut toils not, neither does she spin. 
Folding her arms about her, in her earliest infancy, she is 
speedily arrayed in all her glory, and has not shown any 
discontent at the old fashions since the time of Aristotle. 
These animals are true cuttle-fish of the eight armed type- 
The male Argonaut is an insignificant shell-less creature, fond 
of retirement, solitary and rarely seen. When the tender 
- passion seizes him, as he rocks on some sunny wavelet,* far 
from female society, he does not go in search of a wife, but 
with Spartan courage, detaches one of his eight hands (or 
arms) and consigns it to the deep, in the Hone that some 
tender hearted cultivsddat of the other sex will fall in with 
it and take it under her protection. Thus for a long time 
. the male Argonaut was unknown, the arm (which does not 
s Sie when detached, but lives an viec Magie E life) 





