Nautilus and Ammonite. 125 



comb or pecten, and is not attached. This polypus 

 ordinarily feeds near the sea-shore ; sometimes it is 

 thrown by the waves on the dry land, and the shell 

 falling from it, is caught, and there dies. The other 

 is in a shell like a snail, and this does not go out of 

 its shell, but remains in it like a snail, and some- 

 times stretches forth its cirrhi." The first of these 

 animals, there can be no doubt, is the Argonaut, or 

 Paper Nautilus, and the latter that which is called 

 the True Nautilus, of both of which species let us 

 say a few words, which we will introduce by quoting 

 some beautiful lines from a poem called " The 

 Pelican Island," by James Montgomery : — 



" Light as a flake of foam upon the wind, 

 Keel upwards from the deep, emerged a shell, 

 Shaped like the moon ere half her orb is filled : 

 Fraught with young life it righted as it rose, 

 And moved at will along the yielding water. 

 The native pilot of this little bark 

 Put out a tier of oars on either side ; 

 Spread to the wafted breeze a two-fold sail, 

 And mounted up and glided down the billow, 

 In happy freedom, pleased to fill the air, 

 And wander in the luxury of light." 



The tiny mariner here alluded to is the Paper 

 Nautilus, common in the Mediterranean and some 



