Tank No. 3. 
51 
The Cuttlefish is an important article of commerce : its flesh is eaten, 
the "cuttle-bone” is used for polishing wood and as tooth-powder, and 
the ink commands a high price. 
The Calmar or Squid (Loligo vulgaris, Fig. 81, Tank 3), very common 
in winter, is unfortunately too delicate for the Aquarium. Like a swarm 
of birds, slowly beating their fins, these transparent animals swim back¬ 
wards and forwards, without turning round, until they die; usually only a 
few days after their capture. The slightest disturbance puts them in a 
state of great alarm and causes their milk-white bodies to shew the most 
lovely red tints. They can be fed with small shrimps and will be seen 
to use their long arms like the cuttlefish. Their flesh is eaten very gene- 
Fig. 81. Loligo vulgaris, ^2 nat. size. Tank 3. 
rally; the "pen” — corresponding to cuttle-bone — is translucent, flexible 
and shaped like a feather. Like Sepia they secrete ink; hence the Italian 
name of Calamajo (ink-pot). 
It is certain that the Cephalopoda can attain enormous dimensions, 
and from occasional specimens have probably arisen the legends of the 
Kraken, if not of the sea-serpent. Thus Pliny relates a story of an animal 
of this kind, which came at night to the fish-tanks of Carteja, and frightened 
the dogs away by its snorting and its terrible arms. The head which 
was shewn to Lucullus, was as large as a barrel holding 15 amphorae 
of wine, and its arms were so thick, that a man could scarcely clasp them 
and measured 30 feet in length, while the suckers they bore contained 
an urn full of water. Montfort tells of an Octopus that tore a couple of 
sailors from the rigging of a ship near St. Helena; the end of one of 
its arms, which caught in the tackle, was hewn off and measured 25 feet. 
Later reports of gigantic Cephalopods have been brought by the French 
ship Alecto, which met with one on the 30 November 1861 between 
Teneriffe and Madeira. This animal was between 15 and 20 feet long, 
without the immense arms. On the coast of Newfoundland in 1875 an 
extraordinary number of such gigantic animals were found either dead or 
dying on the surface of the sea. On the average they must each have 
weighed half a ton; their long arms reached a length of 40 feet. On 
the coasts of Alaska, Japan, New-Zealand and on the Pacific island of 
St. Paul similar monsters have been observed; a gigantic arm is in the 
British Museum. 
Like the Cephalopods, the Gastropods (Snails and Slugs) have a head 
distinctly marked off from the body; it is devoid of arms, but there is 
present a so-called foot, i. e. a portion of the body is flattened out like 
4* 
