THE SINISTER CEPHALOPODS 



hunts for shrimps and other creatures on the ocean floor. 

 True, she has sometimes been seen on the surface — a 

 pearly, colourful ship of great beauty. But whenever this 

 happens she is in a weakened condition, and it is possible 

 that she only comes to the surface to die. 



Monstrous squids certainly exist, but their terrifying 

 characteristics — their writhing arms, their cruel beaks, 

 their staring almost-human eyes — have created mightier 

 and even more malicious monsters in the imaginations of 

 seafaring men. One of these mythical creatures was the 

 kraken. 



The term, of Norwegian origin, applied to a fabulous 

 creature of the sea, is now assumed to apply to a gigantic 

 squid which has risen above the surface again and again 

 in past centuries. It may or may not be a species known 

 to us, for there are probably more animals in the ocean 

 deeps than those described in our natural histories. 



The kraken was first described by Pontoppidan, Bishop 

 of Bergen in Norway, but numbers of writers of older 

 accounts gave descriptions of similar monsters. Sum- 

 marizing details of many accounts, the kraken is sup- 

 posed to lie deep down in the sea '^in eighty or a hundred 

 fathoms of water", and always at some leagues from 

 land. Very rarely does he rise to the surface, but when 

 he does he looks like an island several miles in circum- 

 ference, with enormous mast-like arms with which he 

 wrecks ships as if they were floating match-boxes, and 

 creates enormous whirlpools. The kraken' s form has been 

 described as like that of a crab. His tentacles or arms are 

 reputed to be hundreds of yards in length : with them he 

 snatches up ships, or men who have jumped in terror 

 from them, and carries them down to his rapacious maw 

 under the waters. Sailors of many countries have 

 described him as larger than any whale, shark or octopus. 

 Time alone will tell whether there is any truth in the 

 suggestion that he and other monsters like him lurk far 

 down in the dark waters of the ocean deeps. 



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