224 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Tlf, 



OCCURRENCE OF GIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISHES ONI 

 THE COAST OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 



By a. E. Verrill. 



Considernble popular interest has been excited by several 

 articles that have recently been published and extensively circula-^ 

 ted in the newspapers of Canada and the United States, in regard 

 to the appearance of gigantic "squids" on the Newfoundland, 

 coast. Having been so fortunate as to have obtained, through 

 the kindness of Prof. S. F. Baird, the jaws and other parts of 

 two of these creatures, and through the courtesy of Dr. J, W. 

 Dawson, photographs of portions of two other specimens, I have^ 

 thought it worth while to bring together, at this time, the main 

 facts respecting the several specimens that have been seen or 

 captured recently, so far as I have been able to collate them, re- 

 serving for a future article the full descriptions and figures of" 

 the jaws and other portions, now in my possession. 



We now have reliable information concerning five difi'erent 

 examples of these monsters that have appeared within a short 

 period, at Newfoundland. (1). A specimen found floating at 

 the surface, at the Grand Banks, in October, 1871, by Captain 

 Campbell, of the schooner B. D. Haskins, of Gloucester, Mass. 

 It was taken on board and part of it used for bait. Dr. A. S. 

 Packard has given, in the American Naturalist, vol. vii, p. 91,. 

 Feb., 1873, all the facts that have been published in regard to 

 this individual. But its jaws have since been sent to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and are now in my hands to be described and 

 floured. They were thought by Professor Steenstrup, who saw 

 a photograph of them, to belong to his Architeuthis monachus, 

 which inhabits the northern coasts of Europe, but is still very 

 imperfectly known. The horny jaw or beak from this specimen 

 is thick and strong, nearly black ; it is acute at the apex, with a 

 decided notch or angle on the inside, about -75 of an inch from 

 the point, and beyond the notch is a large prominent angular lobe. 

 The body of the specimen from which this jaw was taken is 

 stated to have measured 15 feet in length and 4 feet 8 inches in 

 circumference. The arms were mutilated, but the portions 

 remaining were estimated to be 9 or 10 feet long, and 22 inches 

 in circumference, two being shorter than the rest. It was esti- 

 mated to weigh 2000 pounds. 



