tiie nautilus. 
219 
Although there are several species of the nautilus, yet thev 
all may be divided into two : the one with a white shell, as 
thin as paper, which it often is seen to quit, and again to re- 
sume ; the other with a thicker shell, sometimes of a beautiful 
mother-of-pearl colour, and that quits its shell but rarely 
lias shell outwardly resembles that of a large snail, but ‘is 
generally six or eight inches across : within, it is divided into 
forty partitions, that communicate with each other by doors 
if we may so call them, through which one could not thrust 
a goose-quill: almost the whole internal part of the shell is 
filled by the annual, the body of which, like its habitation, is 
divided into as many parts as there are chambers in its shell : 
all the partsof us body communicate with each other, through 
the doors or openings, by a long blood-vessel, which runs 
10m the head to the tail : thus the body of the animal, if 
taken out of the shell, may be likened to a number of soft 
bi ts of flesh, of which there are forty threaded upon a string. 
-T tom this extraordinary conformation, one would not be apt 
to suppose that the nautilus sometimes quitted its shell, and 
retui ned to it again ; yet nothing, though seemingly impossi- 
ble, is more certain. The manner by which it contrives to dis- 
engage every part of its body from so intricate an habitation • 
by which it makes a substance, to appearance as thick as 
one’s wrist, pass through forty doors, each of which would 
scarcely admit a goose quill, is not yet discovered : but the 
fact is certain ; for the animal is often found without its 
Shell ; and the shell more frequently destitute of the animal. 
It is most probable, that it has a power of making the sub- 
stance of one section of its body remove up into that which 
is next; and thus, by multiplied removals, it gets free. 
But this, though very strange, is not the peculiarity for 
Which the nautilus has been the most distinguished. Its 
spreading the thin oar,and catching theflyinggale, to use the 
poet s description of it, has chiefly excited human curiosity. 
1 hese animals, particularly those of the white, light kind, 
are chiefly found in the Mediterranean ; and scarcely any 
who have sailed on that sea, but must have often seen them. 
When the sea is calm, they are observed floating on the sur- 
face; some spreading their little sail; some rowing with their 
jeet, as if for life and death ; and others still, floating upon 
bU'ir mouths, like a ship with the keel upward. If* taken 
while thus employed, and examined, the extraordinary me- 
lanism of their limbs for sailing will appear more manifest. 
k nautilus is furnished with eight feet, which issue near 
16 mout ", and may as properly be called barbs: these are 
connected to each other by a thin skin, like that between the 
°es of a duck, but much thinner, and more transparent. Of 
