300 



CEPHALOPODA. 



end where it held, but in hoisting the creature out 

 of the water, the part thus seized broke off, and only 

 a fragment, weighing about 46 lbs., w^as brought on 

 board. Both sailors and officers were anxious to 

 have a boat lowered in order to go in pursuit of the 

 creature ; but the captain, fearing that some harm 

 might happen to the boat's crew in their struggle 

 with so novel an opponent, declined, and left the 

 mutilated Cuttle-fish to its fate. The ship was 

 brought sufficiently near to enable one of the officers 

 to make a drawing of it. Its length was 15 or 18 feet, 

 and its eight arms, covered Avith suckers, were esti- 

 mated at 5 or 6 feet long, its beak measured about 

 a foot and a half across, and its weight was estimated 



.4^ 



Fig 239 — poul^e and squid. 



at 2,000 kilogrammes (above 4,000 \hs.):'—Com2)tes 

 Rendus, 30th December, 1861. 



