Читать книгу The Book of Shells - Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge . Committee of General Literature and Education - Страница 10

The inhabitant of this singular shell had long been sought after with eagerness by naturalists, and it is only within these few years that its true nature has been ascertained. We are indebted for this knowledge to the researches of the late Mr. George Bennet, who, while engaged in a voyage among the Polynesian Islands, captured a specimen containing a living animal, which was brought to England, and is now deposited in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

The shell of the Nautilus, as may be seen by the engraving, is divided into numerous cells. The use of these cells to the animal we are now describing, was formerly not well understood, but they were supposed to be employed, by their inhabitant, for the purpose of rising or sinking in the Water at will. The body of this Cephalopod, it will be seen, only occupies the outer cell of its habitation, its increased size having rendered it too large to remain in that preceding it. If, as the animal deserted its smaller tenements, one after the other, they had been filled, up with solid matter, the shell would have become too cumbersome for its owner; so that we have here another proof of the providing care of the Creator. We shall describe, in Mr. Bennet’s own words, the capture of this interesting object.

THE PEARLY NAUTILUS,

Showing the Animal, and a Section of its Shell.

“It was on the twenty-fourth of August, 1829, (calm and fine weather, thermometer at noon 79°,) in the evening, when the ship Sophia was lying at anchor, in Marakini Bay, on the south-west side of the island of Erromanga, one of the New Hebrides group, Southern Pacific Ocean, that something was seen floating on the surface of the water, at some distance from the ship; to many it appeared like a small dead tortoise-shell cat, which would have been such an unusual object in this part of the world, that the boat, which was alongside of the ship at the time, was sent for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the floating object.”

“On approaching near, it was observed to be the shell-fish, commonly known by the name of the Pearly Nautilus: it was captured and brought on board; but the shell was shattered from having been struck with the boat-hook, in taking it, as the animal was sinking when the boat approached, and, had it not been so damaged, it would have escaped. I extracted the fish in a perfect state, which was firmly attached to each side of the cavity of the shell.” The hood has been stated by Dr. Shaw, as being “of a pale, reddish-purple colour, with deeper sports and variegations,” the colour, however, as it appeared in this recent specimen, was of a dark reddish-brown.

SHELL OF THE NAUTILUS; AND THE SEA-PEN,

OR INTERNAL SHELL OF THE LOLIGO.

Although this is the only instance of the animal itself having been brought to this country, there is but little doubt of its having been frequently taken, but as the shell was the object of the captors, and not its inhabitant the latter has been thrown away as useless. An office in his Majesty’s Navy found a Nautilus in a hole in a reef of rocks, near an island on the Eastern coast of Africa; the mantle of the fish, like a thin membrane, covered the shell, which was drawn in as soon as it was touched, and the elegant shell was then displayed. “I and others,” says the same informant, “when it was first seen did not notice it, regarding the animal, as the membrane enveloped the shell, merely as a piece of blubber; but having touched it by accident, the membranous covering was drawn in, and we soon secured our beautiful prize.”

Rumphius, a German naturalist, appears to have been acquainted with its habits; he says, “When he thus floats upon the water, he puts out his head, and all his barbs, and spreads them on the water, with the poop of the shell above water: but at the bottom he creeps in a reverse position, with his boat above him, and with his head and barbs upon the ground, making a tolerably quick progress. He keeps himself chiefly on the ground, creeping sometimes also into the nets of the fishermen: but after a storm, as the weather becomes calm, they are seen in troops floating on the water, being driven up by the agitation of the waves. This sailing, however, is not of long continuance, for having taken in all their tentacles, they upset their boat, and so return to the bottom.”