A GIANT SQUID {ARCHITEUTHIS) ON SCOTTISH COAST 135 



stalks, the heads sometimes 1 inch (25 mm.) and the 

 toothed margin close on \ inch (22 mm.) in diameter, and 

 from these the size varied downwards to a minimum reached 

 in a series of small sessile suckers, with smooth horny rings, 

 grouped at the base of the club and measuring only T V to 

 T r inch (2 to 3 mm.) across the ring. 



The total number of suckers on the club was roughly 

 159, and of these 39 belonged to the two median and larger 

 series. The second stalked arm was missing, but assuming 

 that it bore a similar number, the tentacle clubs mustered 

 between them some 320 suckers. The groups of small 

 smooth-rimmed suckers at the base of the clubs, like those 

 along the stalk, were associated with attachment pads for 

 corresponding suckers on the other stalked arm, and therefore 

 seem to be used for holding these arms together, and not 

 for capturing prey. Excluding these, therefore, there 

 remained 200 prey-seizing suckers on the stalked arms. 

 On a perfect sessile arm there were roughly no suckers, 

 all with toothed rims, adapted to prevent slipping upon the 

 skin of the creature captured, while the vacuum action of 

 the sucker was being brought into play. The eight sessile 

 arms, therefore, must have carried some 880 suckers. The 

 total number of prehensory suckers (1200) many over half an 

 inch in diameter, and all fitted with a strongly muscular 

 suction apparatus, gives some vague suggestion of the 

 grasping force of this monster of the seas, whose body and 

 short tentacles measured only a few inches under 10 feet, 

 and whose tentacular arms had a span of over 28 feet. 



Search was made for the horny jaws or beak of the 

 giant, but without success, for apparently they had been 

 disturbed or already removed by the inquisitive. The same 

 fate had befallen the "pen," small fragments of which I 

 found scattered upon the beach. These were sufficient to 

 show that the material of the pen was of translucent, mem- 

 branous nature, parchment-like, but exceedingly brittle when 

 dry, and with a sheen like " Satin-spar." 



The colour of the upper parts of the Squid was a deep 

 reddish brown, near the " Hessian Brown " of Ridgway's 

 Color- Standards and Color -Nomenclature (1912). This colour 



