Читать книгу The Book of Shells. Containing the Classes Mollusca, Conchifera, Cirrhipeda, Annulata, and Crustacea онлайн

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The ssss1 generally remains with its body in some hole in a rock, while its arms are extended in every direction, to seize the wanderer that may chance to pass its place of ambush. Its appetite is voracious, and it seizes as its prey every living thing that it has the power to conquer.

The species figured in the engraving is very common on the English coasts, and the bone which is enclosed in its body is frequently found on the sands; it is a well-known substance, and much employed in the manufacture of tooth-powder. This bone, which, with the exception of the jaws, is the only solid part in the Sepia, differs in shape in the different species, but is always somewhat oval in its form, though varying considerably in texture.

The tender Nautilus that steers its prow, The sea-born sailor in its light canoe.

He, when the lightning-winged tornadoes sweep The surge, is safe; his home is in the deep. He triumphs o’er the armadas of mankind, That shake the world, but tremble in the wind.