Cuttle-Fish. 121 



suckers has a hook in the centre, which, of course, 

 renders the hold yet firmer, and, no doubt, adds to 

 the disagreeable sensation which their tight com- 

 pression must cause. It is likely that these hooks 

 are intended to retain the hold of soft and slippery 

 prey, which might otherwise be too agile for the 

 " ugly customer," that would affectionately embrace 

 it. But Mr. Sepia, though well armed in front, is 

 rather open to attacks in the rear of his soft naked 

 body. To provide for such an emergency, he is 

 furnished with a little bag of inky fluid, which he 

 squirts out in the face of his pursuer, and escapes 

 under cover of the cloud. This is the substance 

 used by painters, and called sepia, whence the 

 generic name of the mollusks which produce it. 



In the British seas none of these cephalo- 

 pods attain so large a size as to be formidable 

 to man, as they do in warmer climates. It was 

 asserted by Dens, an old navigator, that in the 

 African seas, while three of his men were employed 

 during a calm in scraping the sides of the vessel, 

 they were attacked by a monstrous Cuttle-fish, 

 which seized them in its arms, and drew two of 

 them under water, the third man was with diffi- 

 culty rescued by cutting off one of the creature's 

 limbs, which was as thick at the base as the fore- 



