258 A CHAPTER ON CUTTLE-FISHES. 
us, and so let go his hold upon the rocks, and I found cling- 
ing to my right hand, by his long arms, a large octopod 
cuttle-fish, resembling the one figured at the head of this 
article, and I began to suspect that I had caught a Tartar. 
His long arms were wound around my hand, and these arms, 
by the way, were covered with rows of suckers, somewhat 
like those with which boys lift stones, and escape from them 
was almost impossible. I knew that this fellow's sucking 
propensities were not his worst ones, for these cuttle-fishes 
are furnished with sharp jaws, and they know how to use 
them too, so I attempted to get rid of him. But the rascal, 
disengaging one slimy arm, wound it about my left hand 
also, and I was a helpless prisoner. In vain I struggled to 
free myself,—he only clasped me the tighter. In vain 
shouted to my companion,—he had wandered out of hear- 
ing. I was momentarily expecting to be bitten, when the 
" bicho" suddenly chahged his mind. I was never able to 
discover whether he was smitten with remorse and retired 
with amiable intentions, or whether he only yielded to the 
force of circumstances. At any rate he suddenly relin- 
quished his hold upon my hands and dropped to the sand. 
Then raising himself on his long limsy arms, he stalked 
away towards the water, making such a comical figure, that 
in spite of my fright I indulged in a hearty laugh. He 
looked like a huge "and a very tipsy spider, staggering away 
on his exceedingly long legs. 
The cuttle-fish belongs to the Mollusks, a branch of the 
animal kingdom distingniched for its members being built 
on the oe of a sac, and to which Mr. Hyatt has spplied the 
more appropriate name of Saccata. The cuttle-fishes ri 
distinguished from all the other Mollusks, such as sn 
cime: etc., by having a large head, a pair of large eyes, ail 
a mouth furnished with a pair of jaws, around which are ar- 
ranged in a circle, eight or ten arms furnished with suckers. 
In the common cuttle-fish or squid of our coast, the body, 
"which is long and narrow, is wrapped in a muscular cloak 



