THE KRAKEN. 
13 
ficatlon of the blood, and an excurrent tube by which the 
water thus deprived of its life-sustaining gas is expelled. 
The outrush of water with more or less force, from this 
" syphon-tube," is also the principal source of locomotion 
when the animal is swimming, as it propels it backward — not 
by the striking of the expelled fluid against the surrounding 
water, as is generally supposed ; but by the unbalanced 
pressure of the fluid acting inside the body in the direction 
in which the creature goes. Into this syphon-tube, or 
funnel, opens, by a special duct, the ink-bag ; and from it 
is squirted at will the intensely black fluid therein secreted. 
I doubt very much the correctness of the statement 
mentioned by Pontoppidan and others, that the cuttle 
ejects its ink with a desire to lie hidden and in ambush 
for its intended prey, or with the intention to attract fish 
within its reach by their partiality for the musky odour of 
this secretion. It may be so, but during the long period 
that I had these animals under close observation at the 
Brighton Aquarium, I never witnessed such an incident. 
I believe that the emission of the ink is a symptom 
of fear, and is only employed as a means of conceal- 
ment from a suspected enemy. I have found, that 
w^hen first taken, the Sepia, of all its kind, is the most 
sensitively timid. Its keen, unwinking eye watches for 
and perceives the slightest movement of its captor ; and if 
even most cautiously looked at from above, its ink is 
belched forth in eddying volumes, rolling over and over 
like the smoke which follows the discharge of a great gun 
from a ship's port, and mixes with marvellous rapidity with 
the surrounding water. But, like all of its class, the Sepia 
is very intelligent. It soon learns to discriminate between 
friend and foe, and ultimately becomes very tame, and 
ceases to shoot its ink, unless it be teased and excited. By 
