
A CHAPTER ON CUTTLE-FISHES.* 
BY LUCIE L. HARTT. 

Fig. 45. 
Ir was during my first visit to Brazil, that one day, while 
busily engaged in examining a reef at a little town on the 
coast called Guarapary, my eye fell on an object in a shallow 
tide-pool, packed away in the crevice of the reef, which ex- 
Cited my curiosity. I could see nothing but a pair of very 
bright eyes; but, concluding that the eyes had an owner, I 
termined very rashly to secure him. I had been handling 
corals and seemed to have forgotten that all the inhabitants 
Of the sea are not harmless. I put my hand down very 
quietly só as not to ruffle the water, when, suddenly, to my 
surprise, it was seized with a pressure far too ardent to be 
agreeable, and I was held fast. I tugged hard to get away, 
but this uncivil individual, whoever he was, evidently had 
as strong a hold on the rocks as he had on my hand, and 
Was not easily to be persuaded to let go of either. - At last, 
however, he became convinced that he must choose between 
NER A SS Ce te ee ee ron i 

*The facts herein narrated were drawn from one of my note-books, and scis am 
experience of mine. The story is told in the first p 

| actual xpe 
y 0. F. HARTT. 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 33 (257) 
