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WITH reference to the interesting account in NATURE, vol. ix. p. 332, of a gigantic Cephalopod captured in American waters, and of a still larger one, which attacked the boat belonging to some fishermen near Newfoundland, by twining its arms round the vessel, and which, having had two of those arms cut off by the fishermen, moved off, â ejecting a large quantity of inky fluid to cover its retreat,â I desire to draw attention to an observation respecting this fluid, which I made on the occasion of a visit to the Crystal Palace Aquarium. My friend Mr. Lloyd was good enough to dislodge a cuttle from its place of concealment, and the usual inky discharge followed, as the creature shot across the tank. Mr. Lloyd states in his interesting â Handbook to the Marine Aquarium,â â that the ink (which is viscid) does not generally become diffused through the water as writing ink would be, but is suspended in the water in a kind of compact cloud till it gradually settles down, and is dispersed in flakes.â Now I quite think, with Mr. Lloyd, that this being the case, it is difficult to perceive how, according to the generally received opinion, its retreat is covered by the ejected clovtd. It seems to me more likely that this discharge is to divert the attention of a pursuerâ a dog-fish for instanceâ which would for the moment be startled by the sudden appearance of masses of dark colour in the water, and in the confusion the cuttle makes his escape. |
