File:The common objects of the sea shore - including hints for an aquarium (1860) (14762730401).jpg

Identifier: commonobjectsofs00wood (find matches)
Title: The common objects of the sea shore : including hints for an aquarium
Year: 1860 (1860s)
Authors: Wood, J. G. (John George), 1827-1889 Sowerby, G. B. (George Brettingham), 1812-1884
Subjects: Marine animals Marine plants Aquariums
Publisher: London : Routledge, Warne & Routledge
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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commonedible crab, and that when it grew old enough, and wase2 52 EGGS OF CUTTLE. too large for its shell, it abandoned the useless adjunct,and commenced another course of life. But to return to our sea-grapes, of which a sketchmay be seen on plate h. fig. 5. These are the eggs ofa cuttle-fish, and curious eggs they are. Each is pro-duced into a flexible stalk, by means of which the massis held together, and affixed to any convenient object.The egg-cluster from which the sketch was taken wasone of four or five which I preserved at different times,in order to watch their progress. Here and there,among the dark mass of eggs, appeared one nearlywhite, and semi-transparent, through whose delicatewalls might be seen the little cuttle within, very livelyand seemingly anxious for his emancipation. At thebottom of the egg-cluster may be seen one of the youngcreatures escaping from the prison that had confinedhim, and, as will be seen, the young cuttle is rather acomical-looking little animal.
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I was much amused with the perfect self-possessionof the first that was hatched in my presence. It hadnot been free from the egg-shell for one minute before CUTTLE. 53 it began a leisurely tour of the vessel in which it firstsaw the light, examining it on all sides, as if to findout what kind of a place the world was, after all. Itthen rose and sank many times in succession overdifferent spots, and after balancing itself for a momentor two over one especial patch of sand, blew out a roundhole in the sand, into which it lowered itself, and therelay quite at its ease. It executed this movement withas much address, as if it had practised the art fortwenty years. The mode by which the creature forms this littlebuiTow is sufficiently curious. Its siphon is a slightlyprojecting tube, and by bending this towards the spotselected, and then forcibly ejecting a column of water,the sand is displaced apparently by magic. This siphonis also useful as a means of progression; and, in one ofthe cepha

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