120 Beautiful Shells. 



round, staring eyes, and numerous legs or arms, 

 whichever you please to call them, all twisting and 

 twining about like so many serpents, is a much 

 more formidable-looking individual. A strange 

 fellow is this altogether ; he has a shell, but he does 

 not use it for a covering, he carries it inside of him, 

 and it serves the purpose of a sort of backbone. 

 It is horny and calcareous, light and porous, as our 

 readers well know, having most likely often used it 

 to take out unsightly blots, or erase mistakes in their 

 copy or cyphering books. 



When Mr. Sepia walks abroad, he sticks his 

 little round body upright, so that his eyes and 

 mouth, which is armed with a parrot-like beak, are 

 brought close to the surface over which he passes, 

 while his long twining legs go sprawling about in 

 all directions. On the insides of these legs are a 

 great number of small circular suckers, by means of 

 which the animal can fix itself to any object so 

 tightly, that it is almost impossible to detach it 

 without tearing off part of the limb. Woe be to 

 the poor unfortunate fish that chances to come in 

 its way ; the snaky arms are thrown around it, and 

 made fast, and away goes the cephalopod for a ride, 

 eating on the road to lose no time, on the finny 

 steed that carries it. In some species each of the 



