84 (iKJANTTC OKPUAT.OPOPS. 



moasurecl one i)0 feet. He tells me, moreover, thnt the monsters 

 are edible.* 



Quite a literature has been aeeumulated within the past feAv 

 yeans upon the gigantic cephalopotls of Newfoundland, the 

 occurrence of which has become rather frequent. The above 

 extracts will enable onr readers to form some idea of the size and 

 appearance of these monsters. Further particulars ma^' be ob- 

 tained by those interested, from the papers of Messrs. Hyatt and 

 Verrill, in the American Nafuro/i.^/ and American Journal of 

 Science. 



The Great CepJialojwds of f/ie Pacifc. — Dom Pernetty 

 (" Yoyage aux iles Malouines, ii, 70) thus expresses himself on 

 the subject of a cephalopod : 



'' In the opinion of the sailors of the South Seas, the Cornet is 

 the largest fish of the ocean. The seamen say also that tiiey 

 attach themselves and grapple with vessels. Onr caj)tain and 

 his brother, who have made scA'^eral V03'ages on the soutliiu'n seas, 

 have also assured me of this fact, but they added that they had 

 not seen them of this size, but had eaten of some of If)!) weight 

 or thcreabonts." 



Molinaf echoes Pernett^' when, apropos to his Sepia luuicata^ 

 he says : " The sailors exaggerate the size and strength of this 

 animal ; but it is sure that those taken in the seas of Chili do 

 not weigh less than 1.50 pounds. To exhanst our incomplete in- 

 formation concerning these animals, it is mentioned in the Jour, 

 de rhya.., ii, 1784, that a South Sea whaler in 1783 captured a 

 Hahvna, in the mouth of which was found the arm of a Poulpe 

 27 feet long, and thick as a ship's mast. The JJahena is known 

 to live almost entirely, however, on ver^^ small pteropods ; it is the 

 dolphin and the cachalot which feed on cephalopods," 



In the second voyage of Capt. Cook,| it is related that after 

 having doubled Cape Horn, " Mr Banks found a great Sepia 

 whicii appeared to be slain by the birds; its mutilated body 

 tioated on the water ; it was vcr}' different from the cuttle-fish 



* Am. Nat., viii, 120, 1874. 



t "Hist. Nat, Chili," 17:5, 178!). 



X ii, I'.Ol. 



