Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/71

52 But we have arrived at a part of the beach sufficiently undisturbed to admit of our commencing operations, and we arrange in our coat of many pockets the various bottles,—large and small,—which we hope to fill by and by; this is apparently a trivial matter, but take our word for it, some such methodical arrangement often facilitates the securing a rare specimen, which otherwise would wriggle away whilst the peculiar bottle to suit it was being ferretted out.

Here now we have one of the Cephalopoda, so called as we have previously informed our readers, because the only organs it has, which can be compared to feet, are attached to the head, and are employed in ministering to the mouth, and pretty actively they minister too!!

In the Octopus (the name of the specimen we have captured) there are eight of these feet,—as may be implied by its generic title, but in the Decapods, as the Cuttle-fish (Sepia) or Squid (Loligo) there are in addition two long tentacles which not only serve to capture prey beyond the reach of their true feet, but to anchor themselves by when the seas are agitated. The Chinese fishermen on our shores dry these for food, and we have often been astounded at the vast numbers which are, day after day, drying around their establishments. In the former, the shell is but rudimentary, and the only approach to a skeleton is a cartilaginous ring, whilst in the Sepia it is large, and in the Squid or Calamary, as it is often called, it is reduced to a horny or quill-shaped plate, and of both we have frequent examples on our shores. The feet are flexible and muscular to a high degree. Along each edge of