A CURIOUS SEA CREATURE.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 17 April 1914, Page 7

A CURIOUS SEA CREATURE.

4 ■ I Sepia is sometimes loosely spoken of as "a sort of Indian ink" ; it is something very different from real Indian ink, which is a substance composed of purified soot, gum, camphor, and musk. Sepia is a peculiar animal substance obtained from the inkbags or ink-sacs ,of cuttle-fish. ' The cuttle-fish are a group of singular sea creatures allied to slugs, snails, oysters, and other so-called "shell-fish." The cuttle-fish has a sort of shell beneath the skin "(sold under the name of "cuttle-bone"), a pair of lr-^e eyes, and a hornj beak. Like all molluscs, they have no real i limbs at all, but from around the head there spring eight or ten long tentacles, each armed with numerous suckisrs. ! By forcibly squirting out the sea- I water which it has taken in, the sepia can shoot backwards through the water with great speed. The sepia is interesting, too, as being able to change its colour in a measure so as to harmonise with its surroundings. Must under the topmost layer of skin there are distributed all over the surface of the body a number of cells containing a dark pigment ; when these cells are expanded, the surface of the body becomes darkly spotted, but as they are contracted so the creature looks paler. Though best developed in the sepia and its nearest allies, nearly every member of the cuttle-fish group possesses an ink-sac. The ink-sac contains the dark pigment secreted by a special gland. When discovered or pursued by an enemy, the sepia discharges some of its ink through a sort of funnel or tube ; the pigment mixes with water very quickly, and forms a dark clou-d of inky water, beyond which the sepia will dart into safety. Tn Devon and Cornwall sepias are often caught in nets with fish. The fishermen, despising the cuttles, throw them out upon the beach, and then they may be seen lying in tiny pools of dense black liquid, and continually oozing out more ink in a vain attempt at concealment.