Oct. 1, 1S68.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



223 



it was but a portion of the body, without any arms, 

 but they reckoned its weight at more than 100 

 pounds. 



" Rang discovered a cephalopod in the same seas, 

 whose body, of a red colour, presented the appear- 

 ance of a large cask. In the London College of 

 Surgeons there is preserved the mandible of one of 

 these monsters which is larger than one's hand. 

 It appears to have been brought from the North Sea. 



"M. Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, has published 

 some exceedingly interesting observations on a 

 gigantic cephalopod, which he has named 'Archi- 

 teuthis dux,' and which was thrown on the coast of 

 Jutland. The body of this animal, when hacked to 

 pieces by the fishermen, filled several wheelbarrows. 

 The same naturalist has made us acquainted with 

 another colossal mollusc, supposed to have been 

 brought from St. Thomas, and called 'Dosidicus 

 Eschriclitii.' Moreover, he showed to Professor A. 

 Dumeril a fragment of an arm of another species, 

 which was as large round as a man's thigh. 



"All this goes to prove that there are in existence 

 species of molluscs related to the cuttle-fish of a 

 size utterly unknown among other Invertebrates ; 

 but there is a piece of evidence still remaining 

 which corroborates in a remarkable manner the 

 information already given. I allude to the fact of 

 one of these huge animals having been distinctly 

 seen by the captain and crew of the Trench steamer 

 Alecto. The history of this discovery is extracted 

 from the official report of Commander Bouyer, and 

 the relation of M. Sabin Berthelot, Consul for 

 Prance in the Canary Islands. It was on the 30th 

 of November, 1S61, that the Alecto (then on her 

 voyage to Cayenne, and forty leagues N.E. of the 

 Canaries) came across a monstrous cephalopod 

 swimming on the surface of the water. The animal 

 measured fifteen to eighteen feet in length, not in- 

 cluding the eight formidable arms, covered with 

 suckers, which crowned its head. Its eyes were 

 enormous, of a glaucous hue, and with a fixed stare 

 frightful to look at. Its mouth, formed like a 

 parrot's bill, had an opening of not less than eighteen 

 inches; while the body, tapering towards the base, 

 and greatly inflated in the middle, presented an 

 immense mass, the weight of which was estimated 

 at more than 4,000 pounds. Its fins, situated near 

 the posterior extremity, were rounded off into two 

 fleshy lobes of great size. 



"The animal was perceived by the crew about two 

 o'clock p.m., and the vessel was forthwith brought 

 up close to its side, and preparations made to capture 

 it. On receiving a musket-ball the monster plunged 

 downwards, and, passing under the vessel, appeared 

 on the other side. Here it was received with fresh 

 discharges of musketry, and frequent strokes from 

 harpoons, to avoid which it dived several times, and 

 when on the surface threw its arms about in every 

 direction. 



"When this novel combat had continued for 

 upwards of three hours, the captain of the Alecto 

 determined to bring it to an end at all hazards. It 

 was clear that the harpoons and musket-balls had 

 hitherto made but little impression, as they sank 

 into a soft substance which afforded no resistance. 

 At last it appeared to have received some internal 

 injury, for it vomited a quantity of froth, and a 

 bloodlike matter, of a glutinous nature, which gave 

 out a strong odour of musk. It was at this moment 

 that the men managed to throw a kind of lasso 

 round the animal, which, however, slipped along 

 the whole length of the body, until it was arrested 

 by the fins at the end. Efforts were now made to 

 lift the monster on board the vessel. Already a 

 large part was raised out of the water, when its 

 enormous weight caused the rope to cut clean 

 through the soft flesh, thereby separating the body 

 into two unequal parts. Porthwith the huge 

 animal, freed from its toils, sank slowly out of sight. 

 The portion cut off, on being hoisted on board, was 

 found to weigh 40 pounds : it was carried to Santa 

 Cruz, in Teneriffe. 



" It is probable that this individual was sick, or 

 exhausted after a recent struggle with one of its 

 fellows or some other monster of the deep. At 

 least, it would be difficult on any other supposition 

 to account for its having quitted the great abyss, or 

 the rocks, to which it is apparently the habit of 

 these monstrous cephalopods to cling ; nor can we 

 otherwise suggest why its movements were so 

 sluggish, or why it refrained from discharging over 

 the vessel the inky fluid which we know these 

 animals employ in self-defence.* M. Berthelot 

 ascertained from the Canarian fishermen that, when 

 out on the open ocean, they not unfrequently saw 

 large reddish-coloured cephalopods, six or seven 

 feet long, which, however, they never had had the 

 boldness to attack. 



"The question remains, Was this huge monster 

 most nearly related to the cuttlefishes (Decapods) 

 or to the poulpes (Octopods) ? To judge from the 

 figure which M. Berthelot had the goodness to 

 transmit to me,f the animal possesses two terminal 

 fins, like that section of the cuttlefishes known as 

 Calamaries (the poulpe, be it remembered, has no 

 fins at all), but it is furnished with eight 

 arms instead of ten, thereby assimilating itself 

 to the Octopod group. Is it, then, a species 



* Might not the ejected fluid which gave out the odour of 

 musk be the representative of the " ink," which is secreted 

 by the smaller species, and which, however serviceable to 

 then, would scarcely be needed by so huge a monster as this ? 

 The well-known " sepia," when prepared from the ink-bag: 

 of the poulpe, smeUs strongly of musk.— W. W. S. 



t Plate XIII. This figure was drawn by one of the officers 

 of the Alecto while the struggle was actually going on be- 

 tween the ship's crew and the huge mollusc. [The plate, 

 which is coloured, represents the men in the act of drawing 

 the creature out of the water.— W W. S.] 



