114 THE OCTOPUS. 



cephalopod, which, by the kindness and courtesy of the officers of 

 the department, I was permitted to examine and measure when I 

 first described it, in May, 1873. It is 9 feet long, and 10 

 inches in circumference at the base, tapering gradually to a fine 

 point. It has about 300 suckers, pedunculated, or set on tubular 

 footstalks, placed alternately in two rows, and having serrated, 

 homy rings, but no hooks ; the diameter of the largest of these 

 rings is half an inch ; the smallest is not larger than a pin's head. 

 This is one of the eight shorter, or pedal, and not one of the long, 

 or tentacular, arms of the calamary to which it belonged. 

 Judging from the proportions of known examples, I estimate the 

 length of the tentacles at 36 feet, and that of the body at from 

 1 1 to 12 feet : total length 48 feet. The beak would probably 

 have been about 5 inches long from hinge socket to point. No 

 history relating to it has been preserved ; but Dr. Gray told me 

 that he believed it came from the east coast of South America. 



Here, then, in our midst, and to be seen by all who wish to 

 inspect it, is, and has long been, a limb of a once-living cephalopod 

 capable of upsetting a boat, or of hauling a man out of her, or of 

 clutching one engaged in scraping a ship's side, and dragging him 

 under water, as described by the old master-mariner, Magnus 

 Dens ; possessing, also, a beak powerful enough to tear him in 

 pieces, and crush some of his smaller bones. I confess that until I 

 saw and measured this enormous limb, I doubted the accuracy of 

 some early observations which this specimen alone would suffice 

 to prove worthy of confidence. The existence of gigantic cepha- 

 lopods is no longer an open question. I, now, more than ever, 

 appreciate the value of the adage : 



"Truth is stranger than fiction." 



THE END. 



BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 



