92 MODE OF SPEARING CUTTLE-FISHES. 



of the coasts and islands of the J£gean, observes, 

 as he can scarcely fail to do, the innumerable 

 remains of the hard parts of cuttle-fishes 

 piled literally in heaps along the sands, — or, 

 when watching the Greek fishermen draw their 

 nets, marks the number of these creatures mixed 

 up with the abundance of true fishes taken and 

 equally prized as articles of food by the captors, 

 can at once understand why the naturalists of 

 ancient Greece should have treated so fully of the 

 history of the Cephalopoda, and its poets have 

 made allusions to them as familiar objects. In an 

 English drama such allusions would be out of 

 place and misunderstood. To a Greek audience 

 the mention of a cuttle-fish was as the mention 

 of a herring among ourselves. The mob above 

 the diazoma would appreciate the former, as the 

 gods in our galleries would recognize the latter, 

 as part and parcel of their household furniture. 

 One of the most striking spectacles at night on 

 the shores of the iEgean is to see the numerous 

 torches glancing along the shores, and reflected 

 by the still and clear sea, borne by poor fisher- 

 men paddling as silently as possible over the 

 rocky shallows in search of the cuttle-fish, which 

 when seen lying beneath the waters in wait for 



