food of the albatross, the petrels, and the dolphins, and they also furnish 

 a large part of the food of some whales, as they are found in vast shoals 

 and become ready victims of the huge monsters. 



An ingenious method used by the fishermen of the New England 

 coast for capturing a species of the smaller squids, Ommastrephes ilkce- 

 brosa, is as follows : the squid has the habit of swimming in an opposite 

 direction to a light, as that of the full moon ; so the fishermen go out to sea 

 in boats, light a large torch in each boat, and slowly row toward the shore, 

 driving the squids, which of course swim backward in an opposite direc- 

 tion from the light, upon the beach, where they are gathered by thou- 

 sands. Another method of capture is by jigging; the jig is made 

 of a piece of lead some two inches in length, which is armed with 

 a circle of sharp, unbarbed wires, pointing upwards and curving out- 

 wards. The process of jigging is accomplished as follows: the jig 

 is attached to twelve or fifteen feet of stout line, which is lowered from 

 the side of a small boat into water about ten feet deep. When near the 

 bottom, it is kept moving up and down until a squid is felt upon it, when 

 it is suddenly drawn to the surface with the squid attached. A some- 

 what similar method is employed by the natives of the Polynesian 

 Islands to catch cuttlefish, the jigger being a piece of cowry shell 

 fastened to a piece of wood which in turn is attached to a line. The 

 captured squids are used as bait, and a single fishing-smack has been 

 known to use as many as eighty thousand in a single season. 



The squids are called " sea arrows," or " flying squids," by the fish- 

 ermen, on account of the swiftness with which they dart through the 

 water. They are very numerous, and are found in all seas. They feed 

 on young fishes, such as mackerel, and are very adept at catching them, 

 rapidly darting out and seizing the fish, which is instantly killed 

 by a bite on the back of the neck. 



In Norway and Sweden, there is a legend of a sea monster, called the 

 Kraken. Enormous squids have been discovered during the last thirty 

 years, and this legend probably had its origin on account of some great 

 mollusk seen in early times. The Kraken was described as being of 

 such size that it could wind its arms about the masts of a large ship and 

 so overturn and sink it. These accounts were, of course, purely 

 imaginary. Many of these large Cephalopods are found off the coast of 

 Norway, Scotland, and Ireland, and not a few have been seen along the 

 coasts of Nova Scotia and New England. In the larger of these animals, 

 the body is eight or ten feet long, the short arms eight feet, and the 

 tentacular arms thirty feet in length, making altogether, when stretched 

 out, an animal about forty feet in length. 



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