NATUKAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



199 



he will again render it, apparently 

 as easy as the first time. We 

 watched one man for perhaps ten 

 minutes, while he did over a hun- 

 dred slates, and did not see one 

 mistake. After this procesa they 

 taken to a revolving hollow drum 

 with stout iron blades, and are 

 held by a man on a fixed bed or 

 frame, with a gauge attached to it, 

 and squares up into the different 

 sized slates. 



Leaving the shops we went on 

 until we came to some sheds, where 

 was a shaft descending to the low- 

 er workings, passing on our way 

 an old man sitting in a slate hut, 

 who, assisted by a boy only, was 

 busy rending, lopping, and slack- 

 ing small sized slates, looking as 

 though he adhered tenaciously to 

 the old style, and scorned the 

 idea of the new-fangled machinery. 

 At one of the sheds we procured 

 candles and then waited for the 

 tank, or skip, to come up, which 

 it presently did with a laden truck; 

 this being pulled off on to the 

 tramway, we stepped on to the 

 tank in its place. The water was 

 then turned on, and the tank filling, 

 the weight of the water soon coun- 

 terbalanced the loaded (empty) 

 tank at the bottom. The water be- 

 ing turned off, we began to move, 

 and down we went, until, after 

 about a minute's journey, a gentle 

 bump told us we were at the bot- 

 tom. A rumbling noise and a 

 shout warned us of the approach of 

 some trollies drawn by a pony. 

 We just managed to evade them, 

 but not without some of the party 

 getting very wet. The train we 

 returned by carried about 300 

 quarrymen, who dropped off the 

 trucks at the nearest point to their 

 destination. These men work in 

 gangs and earn very considerable 

 wages. 



Cuttle- Fishes. 



It was during my first visit to 

 Brazil that one day, while busily 

 engaged in examining a reef at a 

 little town on the coast, called 

 Guarapary, my eye fell on an ob- 

 ject in a shallow tide-pool, packed 

 away in the crevice of the reef, 

 which excited my curiosity. I 

 could see nothing but a pair of 

 very bright eyes; but concluding 

 that the eyes had an owner, I de- 

 termined very rashly to secure him. 

 I had been handling corals, and 

 seemed to have forgotten that all 

 the inhabitants of the sea are not 

 harmless. I put my hand down 

 very quietly, so as not to ruffle the 



water, when suddenly, to my sur- 

 prise, it was seized with a pressure 

 far too ardent to be agreeable, and 

 I was held fast. I tugged hard to 

 get away; but this uncivil individ- 

 ual, whoever he was, evidently had 

 as strong hold on the rocks as he 

 had on my hand, and was not eas- 

 ily to be persuaded to let go of 

 either. At last, however, he be- 

 came convinced that he must choose 

 between us, and so let go his hold 

 upon the rocks, and I found cling- 

 ing to my right hand, by his long 

 arms, a large octopod cuttle-fish, 

 and I began to suspect I had caught 

 a Tartar. His long arms were 

 wound around my hand, and these 

 arms, by the way, were covered 

 with rows of suckers, somewhat 

 like those with which boys lift 

 stones, and escape from them was 

 almost impossible. I knew that 

 this fellow's sucking propensities 

 were not his worst ones, for these 

 cuttle-fishes are furnished with 

 sharp jaws, and they know how to 

 use them too, so I attempted to 

 get rid of him. But the rascal, dis- 

 engaging one slimy arm, wound it 

 about my left hand also, and I was 

 a helpless prisoner. In vain I 

 struggled to free myself, — he only 

 clasped me the tighter. In vain I 

 shouted to my companion, — he had 

 wandered out of hearing. I was 

 momentarily expecting to be bitten, 

 when the '•'bicho" suddenly changed 

 his mind. I was never able to dis- 

 cover whether he was smitten with 

 remorse and retired with amiable 

 intentions, or whether he only 

 yielded to the force of circumstan- 

 ces. At any rate, he suddenly re- 

 linquished his hold upon my hands 

 and dropped to the sand. Then, 

 raising himself on his long slimy 

 arms, he stalked away towards the 

 water, making such a comical fig- 

 ure that in spite of my fright I in- 

 dulged in a hearty laugh. He 

 looked like a huge and a very tipsy 

 spider, staggering away on his ex- 

 ceedingly long legs. 



The cuttle-fish belongs to the 

 Mollusks, a branch of the animal 

 kingdom distinguished for its mem- 

 bers being built on the plan of a 

 sac, and to which Mr. Hyatt has 

 applied the more appropriate name 

 of Saccata. The cuttle-fishes are 

 distinguished from all the other 

 Mollusks, such as snails, clams, 

 etc., as having a large head, a pair 

 of large eyes, and a mouth furnish 

 ed with a pair of jaws, around 

 which are arranged in a circle 

 eight or ten arms furnished with 

 suckers. 



In the common cuttle-fish or 

 squid of our coast, the body , which 



is long and narrow, is wrapped in 

 a muscular coat or mantle, like a 

 bag fitting tightly to the back, but 

 loose in front. It is closed up to 

 the neck, where it is open like a 

 loosly fitting overcoat, buttoned up 

 to the throat. Attached to its 

 throat, by the middle, is a short 

 tube, open at both ends, This 

 tube, or siphon as it is called, is 

 fastened to its throat, and can be 

 moved about in any direction. 



The animal breathes by means 

 of gills, which are attached to the 

 front of the body inside the cloak, 

 and look like the ruffles of a shirt- 

 bosom. By means of these gills 

 the air contained in the water is 

 breathed, and they answer the 

 same purpose for the cuttle-fish 

 that our lungs do for us. 



In order to swim, the animal 

 swells out the cloak in front, so 

 that the water flows in between it 

 and the body. Then it closes the 

 cloak tightly about the neck, so 

 that the only way the water can 

 get out is through the siphon. 

 Then it contracts very forcibly its 

 coat, which, it must be remembered 

 is a part of the animal, and the 

 water is driven out in a jet from 

 the siphon under the throat, and , 

 the body is propelled in the oppo- 

 site direction; that is, backward, 

 like a rocket through the water. 

 This siphon is flexible like a water- 

 hose, and can be bent so as to di- 

 rect the stream not only forward, 

 but sideways and backward, so 

 that the animal can move in al- 

 most any direction, or turn somer- 

 saults with perfect ease; and so 

 rapidly do some cuttle-fishes swim, 

 that they are able to make long 

 leaps out of the water. Usually, 

 however, the animal swims back- 

 ward, with its long arms trailing 

 behind. Our common cuttlefish 

 of this coast has, in addition to its 

 eight arms, two long slender tenta- 

 cles, which may be withdrawn into 

 the body. The tail is pointed, and 

 furnished with a fin on each side. 



The Octopods,to which the Bra- 

 zilian cuttle-fish belongs, have 

 round purse-like bodies, and eight 

 arms united at the base with a web, 

 and they swim by opening and 

 shutting their arms like an umbrel- 

 la; in this mode of swimming they 

 resemble the jelly-fishes. 



The paper nautilus is nothing in 

 the world but a female cuttle-fish 

 that builds a shell. There was a 

 very pretty story told of her habits, 

 by Aristotle, the old Greek natur- 

 alist, which everyone believed una 

 til quite lately. He said that she 

 rode on the top of the waves, seat- 

 ed in her boat-like shell, and 



