28 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
animal wastes no effort, but if pieces of shell are obtainable, uses them so as 
to diminish the quantity which it must itself manufacture. 
The Mediterranean is the natural home of the argonaut , where it may be 
seen sailing its mimic vessel near the shore, and frequently, when alarmed, 
furling its sails and sinking out of sight. Like the cuttle-fish, it ejects at 
pleasure an inky substance which protects it from its enemy. The eggs hatch 
in about three days; for two days more the shell-less young share the shell of 
the parent, which had previously been used as a depository for the eggs ; at the 
end of a week the young have matured 
sufficiently to leave the ark and to sail 
life’s waters for themselves. 
The Pearly Nautilus (. Nautilus 
pompilius ) lives in the deep sea, though 
sometimes rising to the surface and, by 
a special arrangement for increasing or 
decreasing its specific gravity, can with¬ 
stand a pressure and compression suffi¬ 
cient to force a cork into the neck of 
a bottle. 
Of Cephalopods there are a great 
variety, and nearly all are found more 
section OF shell of the nautilus. or les ? common along the American 
coast in the north temperate latitudes. 
The largest and most formidable of this species belongs to the order Octopoda 
(eight-footed) and Decapoda (ten-footed), in which 
classes the calamar, sepia, cuttle-fish and octopus 
are included. These are so very similar in habits 
and appearance that it is with no violence to 
classification that we include the three under a 
general description. 
THE GIANT OCTOPUS. 
Specimens of the octopus are frequently found 
stranded upon the beach after a storm, their soft 
bodies fatally injured by being dashed against 
the rocks. Much dispute has been indulged over 
the probable size attained by this animal, the 
ancients being very firm in the conviction that 
THE OCTOPODA CUTTLE. 
the creature not infrequently reached proportions that enabled it to draw a ship 
under water, and others maintained that in the waters about Norway they had 
been seen sleeping on the surface so large as to resemble an island. These 
stories were even circulated as facts by Aldrovanus and Pontroppidan, both of 
whom were regarded as learned naturalists in their day. We have also many 
circumstantial accounts of frightful accidents precipitated by attacks on ships by 
the kraken , which was the name formerly given to giant species of the octopus. 
The Decapoda, or ten-armed cuttle-fish, are cylinder-shaped instead of 
globular, and their arms look rather like the leaves of the cactus. Sepia 
officinalis, the Common European Cuttle-fish , is from a foot to a foot-and-a-half 
in length; has a calcareous bone as an internal skeleton; a smooth white skin 
