134 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



probably to the ravages of crows or gulls, projected the 

 full complement of eight great sessile arms, of firm flesh, 

 as thick as a man's arm at the base, and, in the most perfect 

 specimens, reaching a length of 4 feet. In section the arms 

 were oval, rather deeper than broad, and flattened on both 

 outer and inner surfaces. Near the base they measured 

 3J inches in diameter from the upper to the under side, 

 and their circumference was about gh inches. The perfect 

 arms tapered out to a long slender tip, and on the flattened 

 inner surface were armed with two series of alternating 

 suckers, the discs of which bore sharp-toothed, horny 

 marginal rings. The long stalks on which these suckers 

 were borne, the asymmetrical balance of the sucker on its 

 stalk, and the regular erect and straight teeth of the marginal 

 ring, which in some suckers measured from inch to inch 

 across, marked the suckers as distinct from the similar 

 structures of ordinary British squids. 



Fortunately the curiosity of the earlier investigators of 

 this carcase had prevented them from destroying one of its 

 most striking features, for, apparently struck by its extra- 

 ordinary length, they had severed one of the stalked arms, 

 and had laid it at full length upon the shingle alongside the 

 body. The severed arm was 13 feet 10 inches long, and in 

 life, while still attached to the stump remaining, must have 

 slightly exceeded 14 feet in length. The stalked arm was 

 exceedingly slender, the diameter of the greater part being 

 only i| inches, and this portion carried two alternating 

 series of minute and distant suckers | inch in diameter, 

 near each of which was a slightly raised colourless wart, 

 probably designed to fit into the corresponding sucker of 

 the other stalked arm, in order to afford power of closer 

 cohesion. Towards its tip the stalked arm enlarged into 

 a clubbed termination 2 feet 6 inches long (preserved 

 in formalin and water it has shrunk to about 2 feet), bearing 

 two central rows of large suckers, each row flanked on the 

 outer side by a series of much smaller suckers, averaging 

 about I inch across. For variety of suckers no part 

 compared with the tentacular club. It was covered with the 

 rounded heads of large suckers hanging on strong muscular 



