CEPHALOPODS 465 



a school of fishes swims over it, darts suddenly into the midst of 

 it, seizes a fish with its sucker-bearing arms, and kills it by the 

 bite of its parrot-like beak or jaws. Sometimes it happens that 

 squids, while pursuing fish too near shore, precipitate them selves 

 upon the beach, where they flounder about, ejecting water from 

 their siphons, which pushes them only farther away from the 

 water, and squirting out " ink " from their ink-sacs in a vain en- 

 deavor to hide themselves from view. On bright moonlight 

 nights squids often go ashore in vast numbers, and perish within 

 a few inches of their native element, which they seem to be unable 

 to regain. These creatures usually swim backward, and the theory 

 is that, dazzled by the bright light of the moon, they continue to 

 gaze at it while swimming, and if there happens to be a shore in 

 the direction of their movements, they suddenly find themselves 

 beached. The fishermen of Canada and New England take advan- 

 tage of this habit and capture great quantities of squids by placing 

 bright lights in the bows of their boats and then rowing toward 

 shore, thus driving the squids out of the water. The Banks 

 fishermen use them as bait for catching cod. The right claimed by 

 American fishing-schooners to purchase squids in Newfoundland 

 has helped to keep alive the quarrel between Canadian and 

 American fishermen, which has vexed their respective govern- 

 ments for many years. 



The range in size among the species of this class is very re- 

 markable. The little sepiolas are about an inch long ; the squids 

 of our coasts vary in length from eight inches to one foot ; and 

 the giant Architeuthis of the North Atlantic measures, often, 

 fifty feet from the end of its arms to the tip of its tail. Such 

 a creature, with its long arms provided with suckers, its power- 

 ful jaws, and its rapid, alert movements, is a formidable foe. 

 These animals have been the basis of many legends about 

 sea-serpents and sea-monsters. A gruesome story of an 

 octopus is told by Victor Hugo in " The Toilers of the Sea," 

 where he gives a thrilling account of a man's encounter with 

 a devil-fish in a cave. One who has read this tale has a vivid 

 picture in his mind of the giant squid, and the danger of 



meeting one of these many-armed foes. Victor Hugo's devil- 

 so 



