In addition to this natural ruse, or, rather, as a supplement to it, the angler-fish is said purposely to stir up the sand, so as to dislodge the marine worms or other creatures which dwell there, which then float about in the water, so that they play the same part that ground-bait does when thrown in around the float. The discoloured water, full of living creatures or inorganic particles, brings numbers of fish there, to feed on them, whilst the silvery filament swaying and dancing in the middle of the cloud, becomes to each one the more particular attraction. The angler-fish is fairly common, about our own shores. It grows to a length of some three or four feet, and appears to consist of but head and tail—so huge is the size of the former, into which the body seems to be absorbed. The wide mouth is set with sharp teeth, and suggests, when opened, a ravenous voracity, which is, indeed, the angler’s chief characteristic. As has been remarked, the principles on which the two foregoing artifices are based, have been applied by man, in an essentially similar manner, to meet the exigencies of his own affairs, but I am not sure whether this is equally the case in regard to another and well-known device which is employed by the cuttlefish. This creature, which, as will be seen in a later chapter, sometimes grows to an enormous size, though popularly called a fish, is not really one. It is a mollusc, and belongs to the most perfectly organised family of that extensive order of beings—viz. to the cephalopods. This is a word which, in English, means the head-foots, and as a descriptive term it is properly employed, since the limbs of the cuttlefish—which can be used either as arms or feet—grow from the orifice of the mouth, and so may be considered, equally with the latter, as belonging to the head. These limbs are the well-known tentacles, and in number may be either eight—which makes their possessor an octopod—or ten, by which it becomes entitled to the rank of a decapod. In the latter case, two of these organs have become specially modified, being much longer than the other ones, and enlarged at their ends, upon which alone the suckers are situated. On the remaining eight—or on all the eight in the case of the octopods—the suckers run along the whole length of the limb, from base to tip, being disposed in two or more rows, upon the inner surface of it. They are circular discs, and if we wish to picture them and the office which they perform, we cannot do better than imagine ourselves with eight long lips, each of which is provided with so many little miniature mouths that can suck very hard, but not bite or swallow. In the centre of this wonderful lip arrangement is our big mouth—the real one—only slightly changed, so that the teeth are represented by a great horny beak, shaped like a parrot’s and quite as effective. As for the rest of us—to continue the illustration—all our four limbs have gone, so