cated the possibility of a forthcoming feast. Then 

 it was that my eyes focused upon an object, an 

 apparition, faintly outlined on the floor beneath. 

 I recognized it almost at once for what it was — a 

 squid. 



As I have previously apprised the reader, this 

 creature — here actually met with by me for the 

 first time — was not by any means unfamiliar, 

 ample reading, and seeing its plentifully-pictured 

 image, had prepared me to identify it at a glance. 

 But no reading, no picturization were quite pos- 

 sible to prepare me for the shock actually of seeing 

 for the first time, unexpectedly and in the circum- 

 stance related, so unconventional and weird a 

 countenance. That frightful stony stare alone, was 

 enough to cause a shudder; but the wicked-looking 

 sucker-arms perpetually poised in readiness to 

 pounce upon prey, and the fiendish proportions of 

 the body — an animated death-dealing arrow — ter- 

 minated by a broad batwise-spreading fin, all com- 

 bined to mark it as the Devil's very own. 



Moreover, its aspect was not without a sugges- 

 tion of the gruesome. It came closer, languidly, tail 

 foremost; and as it did so its body, cadaverously 

 pale, became more strongly contrasted against the 



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