T11IO NAUTILUS. 23 



encountered and captured an immense squid, thereupon bringing it 

 to shore. Its gross measurements I have been unable to ascertain, 

 but the animal is stated to have weighed close to 500 pounds. The 

 arms were about a yard long, and the general color of the animal a 

 dark red. Mr. Hovden endeavored to purchase the specimen for 

 five dollars, but this sum was refused by the fishermen, who devoured 

 the prize raw S. S. BERRY. 



LARGE SQUID on the Oregon coast, is thus reported by the New- 

 port (Oregon) Journal. Mrs. C. L. Hansen, wife of the lightkeeper 

 at Heceta lighthouse, 30 miles south of here, and her daughter dis- 

 covered a squid half out on the rock but a few yards away. Several 

 of the long tentacles were reaching further, while the ugly head with 

 the parrot-like beak was well out of water. The huge goggle eyes 

 were fixed upon the two people. Mrs. Hansen called to her husband, 

 and the squid slipped back into the water as he approached. It 

 could be plainly seen, however, alongside the rock. Mrs. Hansen 

 then called Fred Deroy, the assistant keeper, and with a long gaff 

 hook and grappling rakes the two men succeeded in landing and 

 killing the monster. The tentacles were seven feet long and the 

 body 28 inches, making it over 16 feet from tip to tip. The body 

 proper was over six feet long and of mottled brown color. It had a 

 diamond-shaped tail about 27 inches across. 



NOTE ON TIIE CLASSIFICATION OF THE ANCYLIDAE. Dear 

 Editors: The receipt of the February number of the NAUTILUS has 

 recalled to my attention the fact that for nearly two years I have 

 before me without opportunity to complete it a paper on the classifi- 

 cation of the Ancylidae that had circumstances been otherwise would 

 have prevented a serious misunderstanding on the part of Mr. 

 Walker of my ideas on the ancestry of the fresh-water limpets. That 

 Grabau's statement that " our modern patelliform species are prob- 

 ably not primitive types " is, I think, plausible, but it is nevertheless 

 true that several families of the fresh-water pulmonates show by their 

 development a much more recent simple patelliform stage such as I 

 described that probably does not have anything to do with the prim- 

 itive stage indicated by Grabau. 



I very much doubt that the dextral genera Lanx, Fisherola, 

 Laevapex, Acroloxus and Gundlachia are actually as closely related 

 to Ancylus, Brondelia, and Ancylastrum as supposed. The latter 



