There are several kinds represented in the plate, which will give you a general notion of their form and appearance. In the structure of their bodies they possess much more in common with the kind of animals with which you are familiar, than the Actiniæ which make the coral, or the Acalephæ which produce the luminous appearance on the sea; though nothing can be more strange or unsightly than their aspect. They have a complete system of circulation, though their blood is neither warm nor red as ours is; their brains are enclosed in a strong case or skull of gristle, and their organs of sense are well developed; they have large and perfect eyes, (as you may see in the picture,) standing out prominently, and ears on each side of the brain. Their mouths are armed with very strong horny lips not unlike the bill of a parrot, between which is a very rough tongue. They have no noses, but it has been proved by experiment that they like some smells and dislike others, and it has been supposed that the quality of substances which affects merely the organ of smell in us, affects in like manner the whole surface of their bodies, or at least, of their heads. They not only resemble birds in their mouths, but also in having gizzards. Their great arms or legs, for they serve both purposes equally well, of which they generally have eight, are very wonderful. They have no bones in them to act as levers, but are merely long and muscular masses of flesh which they move about with wonderful activity and power in all directions, having the most complete command over them. On their surfaces are great numbers of little suckers or cups resembling leather, which adhere very strongly to anybody which the animal chooses to embrace. You have, no doubt, often played with a round piece of thick leather with a string through it, by wetting it and pressing it with your foot upon a stone, so as to lift the stone up, if it be not too heavy. It is just on the same principle that the suckers of the Cuttle Fish act. These curious creatures gather up some of their arms into a point, as a sort of cut-water, as sailors would call it, and swim very rapidly, by means of the others, having their heads behind. They crawl in all directions with equal facility. [Illustration] Their skin changes colour in spots like that of the Chameleon. But I shall now tell you their most remarkable peculiarities. They are provided with a bag filled with black stuff, very like printer's ink. This bag they can at pleasure open, and press out some of the ink; so when any voracious fish approaches, which the Cuttle Fish thinks will be too strong for him, he squeezes his ink-bag and colours the water round him, and thus all of a sudden becomes enveloped in a dark cloud, in which his enemy gropes about in vain, while he makes the best of his way off. Is not this a most astonishing mode of defence?