But although it is by no means probable that any of us will ever catch a sea-horse, we might get even stranger fish upon our hooks.  If we had a very large hook, a long and strong line, and a tempting bait, it is just possible, if we were to go to exactly the right spot, and had extraordinary good fortune, that we might catch such a beauty as this.

[Illustration]

This fellow you will probably recognize as the Cuttle-fish.  Some persons call it the Devil-fish, but the name is misapplied.  The Devil-fish is a different kind of a sea monster.  But the Cuttle-fish is bad enough to have the very worst name that could be bestowed upon him.  Those great arms, which sometimes grow to a length of several feet, he uses to wrap around his prey, and they are strong and tough.  He has two eyes and a little mouth, and is about as pugnacious a fish as is to be found anywhere.  If I should ever haul a Cuttle-fish into my boat, I think I should feel very much like getting out, no matter how deep the water might be.

There was once a sea captain, who was walking on a beach with some of his men, when he spied one of these Cuttle-fish, travelling over the sand towards the water.  He thought it would be a fine thing to capture such a strange fish, and he ran after it, and caught hold of one of its legs.  But he soon wished that it had got away from him, for the horrid creature turned on him, and wrapped several of its long arms or legs—­whichever they may be—­around him, and the poor captain soon began to fear that he himself would not be able to escape.

Nothing that he could do would loosen the hold of the monster upon him, and if it had not been for a sailor who ran up with a hatchet and cut the limbs of the Cuttle-fish from its body, the poor captain might have perished in the embrace of this most disagreeable of all fishes.  There are a great many stories told of this fish, and it is very probable that all the worst ones are true.  Canary birds are very fond of pecking at the bones taken from small Cuttle-fish, and India-ink is made from a black substance that it secretes, but I would rather do without canary birds altogether, and never use India-ink, than to be obliged to catch my own Cuttle-fish.

But while we are hauling strange things up from the deep, suppose we take something that is not exactly a fish, but which is alive and lives in the water.  What do you think of a living thing like this?

This is a polypier, and its particular name is the fungia being so called because it resembles a vegetable fungus.  The animal lives inside of that circular shell, which is formed something like the under side of a toad-stool.  Between the thin plates, or leaves, the polypier thrusts out its arms with little suckers at the ends.  With these it seizes its food and conveys it to its mouth, which is situated at the centre of its body.

[Illustration]

But there are more strange fish in the sea than we can ever mention, and the strange fish are by no means the most profitable.  Still there is a pleasure in fishing, no matter what we pull up.