SHELL-FISH. 



247 



brought at his sale the sum of twenty-seven pounds, and 

 was estimated, in 1815, at double that value ; and there is 

 a tradition that a specimen was sold in France for 2400 

 livres, or 100 louis ! 



Before we dismiss these examples of the great and 

 populous " middle-class " of animal life, we must give a 

 momentary glance at the Cuttles and Squids (Cephalo- 

 poda), which, while they possess much in common with 

 the Univalve Mollusca, rise still higher in the scale than 

 they, are still more favoured in the development of func- 

 tion and structure, and lead us insensibly to the verge of 

 the animal " aristocracy," the Vertebrata. 



Strangely enough, the aspect and contour of these fierce 

 and formidable creatures, the highest of all Invertebrate 

 animals, bring us back to the lowest ; for a Cuttle-fish with 

 its cylindrical body, its mouth at the extremity, and a 

 circle of long flexible fleshy arm3 radiating around it, is 

 (in form at least) just a Polype over again. There is, it is 

 true, an immense difference in structure : the Cuttle is 

 encased in a fleshy mantle, which is sometimes expanded 

 into swimming fins, has a large head with staring eyes, a 

 stout horny beak, like that of a parrot, of formidable 

 power, and its arms are furnished with rows of sucking 

 disks that act like cupping-glasses, and serve as so many 

 instruments of prehension. Internally there is a shelly 

 or horny plate which passes down through the substance 

 of the mantle, and vestiges of a bony skeleton begin to 

 appear in the form of a cartilaginous box which incloses 

 the brain, and represents the skull of Vertebrate animals. 

 Some species reside in an ample shell, as the Paper and 

 Pearly Nautilus, both celebrated for their beauty. 



