90 GIGANTIC CEPIlALOrOPS. 



ness ? In Ikvor ol" tlu' lirsl hyiiollicsis. it niny be said tliat : 



I. In nearhj all llic ureal (li\ isioiis of the cciilialoiiods, gigantic- 

 individuals liavi" l)ci'n ohsiTx ed ; 11. McMislrous specimens of 

 Aniniunites. >'aiitihis. clc-.. are round among the fossil ceplialo- 

 l)ods. also; III. Thai llie rarity itsell" of llu' oeeurreiice of these 

 large iiidix idiials \void<l lie ])resumpti\i' e\ideiUH' of the almormal 

 development of a sjx'eies usually much smaller; for example, 

 the gi'eat L. liouyeri is perhaps the sami' speeies as eei)halo[)ods 

 seen by tlu- hsln-i-meu of the Canaries, and which do not exceed 

 al)OUt Ci feet. On llie oilier hand, it may be sui)i)osed : I. That 

 the rarit\- of lliese immense animals is tine to tiu'ir habits as 

 well as Iheir size. Ihat they freipieiil \ery great dei)ths, and that 

 we constHpiently only encounlei- feel)le or half-dead individuals ; 



II. That the size of some of Ihcm is so out of |)ro|)ortion wdth 

 the ordinary size of related species, ihal it is wiser to consider 

 them distinct. Messrs. Crosse and Fisher, in concluding the 

 observations of which the alio\i' is a succinct resume, express 

 a guarded i)refereuce for the lirst hypothesis.* 



Fabulous CU-j>hal<>)}0(h. — We have already alludetl to Denys 

 Montfort's ''Colossal Toulpi'." which, entwining its arms about 

 the jnasts of a ship, nearly caused the di'sl ruction of the vessel. 



Among the extraoi'dinary mistakes or iinenlions with which 

 the dawn of natural history has been encumbered, one t)f the 

 most remarkal)le is the six-armed |)oulpi' or Sepia hexapodia of 

 Molina, in the "Hist. Nat. del Chili." 1T.S2. it was adopted by 

 (Jmelin under the name of (SVpm /;c,/7/y*(/.s-. and by Uosc, Turton 

 and Ocken; and Denys Montfort has com[)osed and published 

 an imaginary (igure of this strange beast in accordanci' with 

 Molina's descriptioii. Ferussac {Ann. Sc. Nat. Znul.. iv. ll.!, 

 1835) has given a history of this animal, in which he shows that 

 the Si)ectre, an orthoptcrous insect, is tlii' original of this 

 "species;" which, in addition to its six arms, possi-ssed a six- 

 jointed body. Montfoi't's ligure is repi-oduced in our frontis- 

 piece, in connection with that of the "colossal poulpe '' with 

 which his fervid imagination has enriched science. 



* Jour, de Goneh., 3d sei\, 11, 189, 1862, 



