112 THE OCTOPUS. 



The men went home and magnified their adventure. They 

 ^' estimated" the body to have been 60 feet in length and 10 feet 

 across the tail fin ; and declared that when the " fish " attacked 

 them *'it reared a parrot-like beak which was as big as a six- 

 gallon keg." 



All this Mr. Harvey appears to have been willing to believe, 

 and relates without the expression of a doubt. Fortunately, he 

 was able to obtain from the fishermen a portion of one of the 

 tentacular arms which they had chopped off with the axe, and it is 

 BOW in the St. John's Museum. By careful calculation of its 

 girth, the breadth and circumference of the expanded sucker- 

 "bearing portion at its extremity, and the diameter of the suckers, 

 Professor Verrill, of Yale College, has computed its dimensions as 

 follows: — Length of body 10 feet; diameter of body 2 feet 5 

 inches. Long tentacular arms 32 feet; head 2 feet — total length 

 about 44 feet. The upper mandible of the beak, instead of being 

 " as large as a six-gallon keg" would be about 3 inches long, and 

 the lower mandible \\ inch long. From the size of the large 

 suckers relatively to those of another specimen to be presently 

 described, he regards it as probable that this individual was a 

 female. 



In November, 1874, — about three weeks after the occurrence in 

 Conception Bay — a calamary somewhat smaller than the pre- 

 ceding, but of the same species, also came into Mr. Harvey's 

 i:)OSsession. Three fishermen, when hauling their hening-net in 

 Logic bay, about three miles from St. John's, found the huge 

 animal entangled in its folds. With great difliculty they succeeded 

 in despatching it and bringing it ashore, being compelled to cut 

 off its head before they could get it into their boat. 



The body of this specimen was over 7 feet long ; the caudal fin 

 22 inches broad; the two long tentacular arms 24 feet in length ; 

 the eight shorter arms each 6 feet long, the largest of the latter 

 being 10 inches in circumference at the base; total length of this 

 calamary 32 feet. Professor Verrill considers that this and the 



