138 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



sucker measured inch across. From this vague description 

 Jeffreys suggests that the mutilated carcase may have 

 belonged to Steenstrup's species, Architeuthis monachus. 



Giant Squids frequent deep water, and the proximity of 

 the greater depths probably accounts for the repeated 

 occurrence of specimens in past years on the coasts of 

 western Ireland, of Scandinavia, and of Jutland. In 1902 

 the Michael Sars found an example of Architeuthis dux 

 floating at the surface of the sea north of the Faroe Islands, 

 but no record, other than the present, has given any indication 

 of even their casual presence, in the typical shallow waters 

 of the North Sea. 



Conclusion. How are we to account for the appearance 

 of this unique visitor in the North Sea ? A first idea 

 suggests itself in these days of extensive mine fields, that 

 the Squid may have been killed by contact with a mine, far 

 from the place of its discovery, even outside the North Sea, 

 and may thereafter have drifted to the spot where it was 

 found. The body, as I saw it, had suffered a considerable 

 amount of mutilation at the hands of man, although for a 

 creature which had been lying exposed to an autumn sun 

 for the five days intervening between its stranding and my 

 visit, its flesh was wonderfully fresh and firm. Inquiry from 

 Mr Fairbairn, who observed it on the morning of its arrival, 

 elicited the fact that it was dead when discovered, but showed 

 no mark or mutilation which could in any way account for its 

 death. A heavy storm from the east raged on the night on 

 which it was cast ashore, and throughout the previous day. 



The freshness of the specimen suggested that it had 

 entered the North Sea alive, and that, unable to resist the 

 violence of the waves through lack of vitality, due to 

 proximity to an exploding mine, depth charge, or some other 

 engine of war, or to natural causes, it had been cast amongst 

 the rocks and thence on the beach dying or newly dead. 



It is well known that in late summer and autumn there 

 takes place a considerable flow of Atlantic water by way of 

 the Orkney and Shetland Isles into the North Sea. The 

 appearance of this Squid, as also of that stranded about i860 

 in the Shetlands, was probably connected with this current, 



