EYE OF CUTTLE. 



87 



its anatomy having long perplexed the dissectors, 

 who could not conceive by what means the 

 creature could see at all. It would be impossible 

 here to describe this beautiful structure, and 

 therefore I will content myself with observing 

 that the celebrated Coddington Lens is merely a 

 reproduction, though unwittingly so, of the lens 

 belonging to the cuttle's eye. So here we have 

 a pair of achromatic lenses and a series of air- 

 pumps, contained in the structure of one creature 

 belonging to the lower orders of the animal 

 kingdom. Many other analogies exist, but space 

 suffices not for them here. 



The eggs of many fish are small and globular, 

 being generally known under the name of spawn. 

 The " hard-roe" of a herring furnishes a good 

 type of this class of eggs. These, however, are 

 the eggs of fish that are destined to be produced 

 in countless myriads, and to serve as food for 

 the other inhabitants of the deep, as well as for 

 man. Uncounted thousands of these eggs perish 

 before their maturity, being devoured by other 

 fish which watch for them; and even when the 

 young fry are born, comparatively few of them 

 escape destruction. In order to compensate for 

 Buch a loss of animal, the number of eggs is pro- 

 portionably increased; one single cod-fish having 



