86 



FLYING SQUID. 



prominent eyes, and for a short time the cuttle 

 looked at the officer, and the officer at the cuttle. 

 Presently, the cuttle became uneasy, and taking 

 a good aim at his military visitor, shot his charge 

 of black ink with so true a range, that a pair of 

 snowy white trowsers were covered with the sable 

 fluid, and rendered entirely unpresentable. Even 

 in many of the fossil cuttles this ink has been 

 discovered dry and hard in its proper place 

 within the creature. This most ancient substance 

 has been removed, and ground down like very 

 hard paint, and has been found to produce so 

 beautiful a sepia tint, that an artist to whom it 

 was shown inquired the name of the colourman 

 who prepared it. And, in order to prove the 

 character of the colour, a drawing of the fossil 

 animal was made, and a description of it written, 

 with its own ink. 



Some of the Cephalopods are gifted with great 

 powers of locomotion, and of those so gifted the 

 Flying Squid is a good example. One of these 

 creatures has been known to spring from the sea 

 clear over the bulwarks of a ship and to fall on 

 the deck, where it was captured. This specimen 

 was six inches in length, and its habitation was 

 the Pacific Ocean, lat. 34 N. 



The eye of the cuttle is a most singular organ, 



