GIGANTIC CUTTIE-FISHES. 107 



fishes of unusual size, and the current as well as traditional 

 belief in their existence by the inhabitants of many countries, let 

 us take the testimony of travellers and naturalists, who have a 

 right to be regarded as competent observers. 



Peron,* the well-known French zoologist, mentions having seen 

 at sea, in 1801, not far from Van Diemen's Land, at a very little 

 distance from his ship, ^'- le Geographe^^ a sepia (calamary?) of 

 the size of a barrel, rolling with noise on the waves ; its arms, 

 between 6 and 7 feet long, and 6 or 7 inches in diameter at 

 the base, extended on the surface, and writhing about like great 

 snakes. 



Quoy and Gaimardt report that in the Atlantic Ocean, near the 

 equator, they found the remains of an enormous calamary, half- 

 eaten by the sharks and birds, which could not have weighed 

 less, when entire, than 2oolbs. 



Captain Sander Rang % records having fallen in with, in mid- 

 ocean, a species distinct from the others, of a dark red colour, 

 having short arms, and a body the size of a hogshead. 



Molina, in his " Natural History of Chili," describes, amongst 

 other species of cuttlefishes, one, which he calls Sepia timicata, and 

 of which he says some specimens, armed with hooks in their 

 suckers, weighed i5olbs. 



Although, in the face of recent discoveries, it is now com- 

 paratively unimportant, I may here mention that Schneider, § a 

 most able and scrupulously careful naturalist, finding that, in many 

 instances, Molina was utterly unworthy of confidence, plainly 

 declared that it was necessary to search in the works of others 

 for description of the species of which he wrote, and expressed 

 doubts of the correctness of his assertions concerning the hook- 

 furnished cuttle-fish on the coast of Chili. He could not discover 



* " Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres australes." 



f "Voyage de TUranie : Zoologie :" vol. i., part 2, p. 41 1. 1824. 



X ' ' Manuel des Mollusques, " p. 86. 



§ " Bemerk, Uber die Gattimg der Dintenfisch, etc.," 1793. 



