708 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



it passed through it without apparently producing any injury 

 After it was thus wounded, however, the sea was observed to 

 be covered with foam and blood, and a strong odor of musk 

 was smelt. Harpoons were also cast into it, but they took no 

 hold. Finally, however, one of the harpoons stuck fast, and 

 ths sailors succeeded in getting a running noose round the 

 lower part of its body, near the tail. On attempting to haul it 

 on board, the rope cut it in two, the head part disappearing 

 and the tail portion being brought on deck. 



It is supposed that the animal was either sick, or exhausted 

 from some cause, possibly a recent struggle with some other 

 marine monster, and that on this account it had left its usual 

 ha ants on the rocks at the bottom of the sea, since otherwise 

 it would have been more active than it was, or would have 

 discharged the inky cloud, which the cuttle fish has always at 

 its disposal for avoiding its enemies. 



To give even the briefest notice of the varieties of singular 

 or noteworthy forms of life which people the sea, would require 

 Volumes. Their variety is perhaps as great, if not greater than 

 those with which the land is covered. Yet the illustration of a 

 few of them here will be of interest. The coverings with which 

 the inhabitants of the sea are provided, either for their protec- 

 tion or defence from their enemies, are as various as those which 

 the land animals have. As a specimen of the shell fish, the 

 lobster is one of the most singular. The plates of the coat of 

 mail with which he is protected are as accurately adjusted for 

 his defence, while at the same time not to interfere with his 

 motions, as were those of any knight of the middle ages who 

 had been furnished with a suit made by the most skilful artifi- 

 cers of the time. His large and powerful claws, though they 

 seem to be clumsy tools, when we examine them as he lies on 

 the table of the fish market, exposed for sale, are used by him 

 most deftly when in his native element, either as weapons of 

 defence, or for feeding himself. In doing this last, he uses 



