The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-23

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
ruiies of 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 1t and the body.
Then 1t closes the cloak tightly about the neck,
SO that the only way the water can get out is
through the syphon. Then it contracts forcibly
Its coat, and the water Is driven out in JET
from the syphon, and the body is propelled in
an opposite direction like rocket through the
water. This syphon is flexible, like a water
hose, and can be bent so as to direct the stream
not only forward, but sideways and backward,
so that the animal can move in almost any direc-
tion, and turn summersaults with perfect ease
and so rapidly do cuttle-fish swim that they are
able to make long leaps out of the water.
Usually, however, the animal swims backwards,
with Its long arms trailing behind. Our common
cuttle-1sh of this coast has, in addition to its
eight arms, two long slender tentacles, which
may be withdrawn into the body. The tail Is
pointed and furnished with fin on each side.
The octapods to which the Brazilian cuttle-flsh
belongs have round, purse-like bodies, and eight
arms united at the base with web, and they
swim by opening and shutting their arms like
an umbrella; in this mode of swimming they re-
semble the Jelly-fshes. The paper nautilus is
nothing in the world but female cuttle-ish that
builds shell. There was very pretty story
told of her habits by Aristotle, the old Greek
naturalist, which everybody believed until quito
lately. He said she rode on the top of the
waves, seated in her boat-like shell, and spread
ing her broad arms to the winds for sails. But,
unfortunately, the story has no foundation in
fact. She either crawls about on the bottom of
the sea, or swims quite like other cuttle-fish,
shell foremost only occasionally coming to the
surface. Strangely enough she holds the
two broad, hand-like eXtremities of the
arms against her body, and it is the inside of
these arms that secrete the paper-like shell,
which is only sort of cradle for her eggs. Not
so with the pearly nautilus, which is furnished
with beautiful coiled-up, pearly shell, formed
on the outside of the animal. The she'll Is
divided into numerous chambers, and the ami
nal, living in the outer one, builds q partition
across the back of it as the shell grows Cuttle-
fish are sometimes used for food by the Brazi-
lians, and different species may be seen in the
markets, where one frequently finds them still
alive. Sometimes as we stoop to examine one,
its body is suddenly suffused with deep pink
ish glow Before we have time to recover our
surprise this color fades, and beautiful blue
takes its place as rapidly as blush some
times suffuses delicate cheek. The blue
perhaps, is succeeded by green and then the
whole body becomes pink again. One can
hardly conceive anything more beautiful than
this rapid play of colors, which is produced by
the successive distention of sets of little sacks
containing fluids of different colors which are
situated under the skin. The cuttle-fish is also
furnished with bag containing an inky fluid
which, when the animal is attacked or pursued
it elects into the water, thus completely blind
ing its adversary and effectually covering its
retreat 1t is from this fluid that the color
Sepia is made. Besides carrying an ink-bottle,
some species of cuttle-fsh are provided with
long. delicate, horny pen, which forms
q sort of stiffener to the back. In some
species the pen is hard, thick, and broad,
and the cuttle-fish bone of commerce is
of this kind. The species found in our waters
is very small, and not at all dangerous, being
barely large enough to draw the blood from the
hand; but in the tropice seas they very large,
powerful, and dangerous. The cuttle-ish is the
original of Victor Hugo's devil-fsh, so wildly
described in the "Toilers of the Sea- If the
devil-fsh were a benefcent one, Mr.. Hartt SAYS
he should be sorry to destroy faith in it; but
as it is, he believes it would be rather a relief
than otherwise to know that in some important
respects Victor Hugos story of it is fable.
The Kraken was mythical cuttle-fsh of fabu-
lOus size.