OMMATOSTREPHID, on 
STHENOTEUTHIS, Verrill, 1880. (Xiphoteuthis, Owen, 1881.) 
Distinguished by its large caudal fin, and by having a broad, 
membranous web along the lower side of the lateral arms, outside 
the suckers. O. megapter a, Verrill, Nova Scotia. 
ARCHITEUTHIS, Steenstrup, 1857. 
Syn.—Megaloteuthis, Kent; Dinoteuthis, More, 1875. Mou- 
chezia, Vélain, 1878. 
Distr.—9 sp. N. Atlantic Ocean, Alaska, Indian Ocean. 
A number of gigantic cephalopods, allied to Ommatostrephes, 
have been described and referred to new genera, as above, prin- 
cipally on considerations of size. Verrill says that Architeuthis 
may be best distinguished from Ommatostrephes by the presence 
on the club of an irregular group of small, smooth-rimmed 
suckers, intermingled with rounded tubercles on each arm, the 
suckers on one arm corresponding with the tubercles of the other, 
so that by them, the two arms may be firmly attached together 
and thus used in concert. 
In the Manual of Conchology, vol. i, pp. 74-91, I have given 
detailed accounts of some of the enormous squids found princi- 
pally in the North Atlantic Ocean. The celebrated Kraken, an 
imaginary sea-monster, doubtless originated in the marvelous 
tales of an uneducated people who had seen some of these squids: 
so circumstantial and so well-believed was the account of the 
Kraken, that Linnzus found a place for it in his “ Systema.” 
Scarcely less marvelous are the well-authenticated accounts of 
some of these monsters encountered in modern times. The fol- 
lowing was published in The Zoologist, June, 1875: 
CAPTURE OF AN ENORMOUS CUTTLE-FISH OFF BoFFIN ISLAND, ON 
THE COAST OF CONNEMARA (IRELAND).—On Monday last, the crew 
of a curragh,* consisting of three men, met witha strange adven- 
ture northwest of Boffin Island. Having shot their spillets (or 
long lines) in the morning, they observed to seaward a great 
floating mass, surrounded by gulls ; they pulled out, believing it 
to be a wreck, but, to their great astonishment, found it to be a 
cuttle-fish of enormous proportions, and lying perfectly still, as 
if basking on the surface of the water. ‘A knife was the only 
weapon on board. The cuttle is much prized as a bait for coarse 
fish, and the crew resolved to secure at least a portion of it. 
Considering the great size of the monster, and knowing the 
crushing and holding powers of the arms, open hostility could 
not be resorted to, and the fishermen shaped their tactics differ- 
ently. Paddling up with caution, a single arm was suddenly 
seized and lopped off. The cuttle, hitherto at rest, became 
dangerously active now, and set out to sea at full speed in a 

* A large kind of coracle made with wooden ribs, and covered with 
taried canvas. 
