from the time of the Romans to the present day. Only a few years ago the habitué of the inns of Vienna could as easily obtain his dish of Snails as a joint of mutton or beef; and in Switzerland they are still regularly fattened for sale, and during the season of Lent become an important article of trade. In former times, indeed, the Snail-always of course understanding that H. pomatia is the individual meant-was admitted to our own tables and Robert May, the Soyer of his time, has left us several receipts for cooking them, amongst the curiosities of his fifty years' experience. Ben Jonson, again, in his "Every Man in his Humour," mentions the dish as a delicacy : : "Neither have I Dress'd snails or mushrooms curiously before him;" while Lister, in his "Historia Animalium Angliæ," refers to the Snail as, in his day, an ordinary article of food. But, for some reason or other, the much-prized delicacy of former days has now lost its repute amongst us, and-excepting in the case of the Newcastle glass-blowers, who are said to hold an annual feast, in which the common Garden Snail furnished the central dish-is entirely banished, it seems, from our tables, without the remotest prospect of its ever again appearing thereon. Once, indeed, two great philosophers, lamenting over the perverse and unreasonable antipathy of the age in rejecting an article of food at once so abundant and nutritious, determined to set the example of a return to the wiser custom of former days; and with the story of that patriotic resolve, we must bring to a close this already too extended dissertation. The benevolent individuals in question were the two great chemical philosophers of Scotland, Dr. Black and Dr. Hutton-particular friends, though extremely opposite in their appearance and manner, and in nothing more than in their style of language. Dr. Black spoke with the English pronunciation, with punctilious accuracy of expression both in point of manner and matter—while, on the contrary, Dr. Hutton's conversation was conducted in broad phrases and expressed with a broad Scotch accent, which often heightened the humour of what he said. The two doctors were agreed that it was the height of folly to abstain from Snails, and would show their superiority to such a vulgar prejudice. Some Snails were accordingly procured, dieted for a time, and then PREJUDICE VERSUS PHILOSOPHY. 89 stewed for the benefit of the two philosophers, who had either invited no guest to their banquet, or found none who relished in prospect the pièce de résistance. And philosophers are but men, after all. When the huge dish of Snails came to be placed before them, the stomachs of both doctors began to revolt against the proposed experiment. Nevertheless, if they looked with disgust on the Snails, they retained their awe for each other; so that each, concealing the symptoms of internal revolt peculiar to himself, began with infinite exertion to swallow, in very small quantities, the mess which he secretly loathed. Dr. Black at length showed the white feather, but in a very delicate manner, as if to sound the opinion of his messmate :—“ Doctor," he said, in his precise and quiet way, "doctor, do you not think that they taste a little-a very little green ?" Whereupon the other, starting up from the table, and giving full vent to his feelings of abhorrence, vociferated, green, indeed! tak' them awa'; tak' them awa'!" prefixing, we are sorry to say, certain epithets which a sense of propriety forbids our inserting here. green, And so ended all hopes of introducing Snails into the modern cuisine; so philosophy gave way and prejudice gained another victory. CHAPTER V. THE NAUTILUS AND ITS ALLIES. "The tender Nautilus who steers his prow, And triumphs o'er the armadas of mankind Which shake the world, yet crumble in the wind." No department of natural history has been more fully and assiduously investigated of late years than that which relates to the lower forms of animal life, and especially to such as people the teeming waters of the ocean. The broad tidal belt of the sea-shore, alternately covered by the waves and left bare by the tide, in all its varied aspects of sand-flats and shingles, oozy shallows, and rugged festooned rocks, has in particular been diligently explored; and the observations which have been made on the structure and habits of the different animals thus obtained have made a new and quite wonderful addition to our knowledge of organic life. A multitude of creatures have been brought to light whose existence was previously unsuspected, and amongst those which have long been familiar, but unheeded, the discovery has been made of a world of interest and beauty, which is hardly surpassed throughout the whole extent of the animal creation. In many cases, too, these observations and researches have led to the most important results in correcting and enlarging the current views of natural history, as a philosophical study-at one time exploding some ingenious and longcherished theory-at another handing over a whole tribe of creatures from one division of nature to another; now compelling a total revision of the accepted systems of classificationand now disclosing a fact which has let in, as it were, a flood of light on some obscure point in the animal economy, and gone 92 RANSACKING THE DEEP. far to revolutionize and reform the whole compass of zoological science. 66 It is not alone in the immediate neighbourhood of the land, however, that these investigations have been carried on, or that important discoveries have been made: the deeper waters at a distance from the shore have not been neglected, nor their inhabitants allowed to pass unnoticed. On the contrary, the “drag” and the "dredge" have been plied so industriously in groping up the contents of the sea-bottom, and the "trawl" and the towing-net" in searching the upper waters, that, around our own coasts at least, those coveted prizes, "species new to science," are now becoming exceedingly rare; although it does still happen occasionally that some indefatigable professor has the good fortune to fish one up from the deep, and so to win for himself a niche in the temple of fame as a discoverer in science. In consequence of this rummaging and ransacking of the deep, and, in great part also, in consequence of the unintentional assistance of Old Ocean himself, in flinging upon the shore, during his angry moods, the spoil which has been washed landwards from far out at sea, we are rapidly extending our acquaintance with the life of the waters, and shall probably soon have the means of becoming almost as familiar with the "sea's abundant progeny as we now are with the more accessible inhabitants of the upper worlds of earth and air. In so far as it concerns the thousand little creatures which people the shore, nestling in the rock-clefts and tide-pools, the Aquarium and the studies which it has made so popular have done already well-nigh all that could be desired. There is no danger now that they will any longer be passed by in neglect. But there is some reason to fear, that with the enthusiasm that prevails for these "wonders of the shore," others not less interesting, but more seldom seen, will be overlooked and forgotten. On behalf of one of these too much neglected tribes, we now ask for justice—justice to the Cephalopods, which have been almost entirely kept out of sight in our popular literature, while other and far less interesting races have been pushed into favour. A Chapter, then, for the CEPHALOPODS, or, in other words, for the Nautilus and its allies. But it will be better, perhaps, to begin with one of our native Cephalopods, by far the most familiar of which is the common |