[ 51 ] CEPHALOPODS OF NORTHEASTERN COAST OF AMERICA. 
Observations on the specimens described from foreign localities. 
A.— Atlantic ocean species. 
We are largely indebted to Professor Steenstrnp and to Dr. Harting for 
our earliest knowledge of the specimens preserved in European museums, 
or cast ashore on the European coasts. Professor Steenstrup* has given 
accounts, compiled from contemporary documents, of a specimen taken 
at Malmd, Sweden, about 1546 or 1549, and of two specimens of huge 
Cephalopods cast ashore at Iceland, in 1639, and November or Decem¬ 
ber, 1790. 
The specimen of 1790, described in the MSS. of Svend Paulsen, 1792, 
had tentacles 3 fathoms long; the body (with head) was 3£ fathoms 
long. That of 1639, described in Olafsens og Povelsens Eeise til Island, 
ii, p. 716, was 4 to 5 fathoms long. 
In the article published in 1857, he also briefly mentioned a specimen 
cast ashore at Jutland, December, 1853, of which the jaws were pre¬ 
served, and on which he then based the species Architeuthis monachus ; 
and another specimen, which he named Architeuthis dux , taken by Capt. 
Yilh. Hygpm in the Western Atlantic. He has also since described and 
figuredt the jaws of the specimen of Architeuthis monachus obtained at 
Jutland in December, 1853. 
In the same memoir, of which I have seen only 'the first few pages, there 
are references to a description and figures of U A. Titanf obtained in 
1855 by Captain Hygom in north latitude 31°, west longitude 76°. The 
latter specimen appears to be the same as that referred to in 1856 as A. 
dux , and the same that Harting | mentioned, under the name u Architeu¬ 
this dux Steenstrup,” as collected at the same time and place, and of which 
he published an outline figure (see our Plate XII, fig. 4) of the lower jaw, 
copied from a drawing furnished to him by Steenstrup. 
Harting states that the pen or ‘gladius’ of this specimen is 6 feet 
long. Many important parts of this specimen were secured, and I 
regret that I have been unable to see the figures and description of it, 
referred to by Harting as forming part of Professor Steenstrup’s unpub. 
lished memoir. But to judge by the outline figure given by Harting, it 
is a species quite distinct from those described by me. The lower jaw 
*Me<ldelelse om tvende Kisempestore Blseksprutter, opdrevne 1G39 og 1790 ved 
Islands Kyst, og om nogle andre nordiske Dyr. Forliandlinger Skandiuaviske Natur- 
forskeres, v, pp. 950-907, 1847, Copenhagen, 1849. 
Oplysninger om Atlanter colossale Blseksprutter, Forhandlinger, Skand. Naturf., 
185(5, vii, p. 182, Christiania, 1857. 
tin a paper, of which I have seen some proof-sheets, given by him to Dr. Packard, 
entitled “Spolia Atlantica.’’ This memoir has not been published. The plate (1) 
that I have seen is marked “ Vid. Selsk. Skrifter, V. Riekke, naturv. og mathem. 
Afd. iv Bind;” and there are references to three other plates, illustrating “A. Titan," 
&c. 
t Description de quelques fragments de deux C($phalopodes gigantesques. Publides 
par l’Acaddmio Itoyale des Sciences a. Amsterdam. 1860. 4to, with three plates. 
(Verb. Iv. Akad. Weten., ix, 1861.) The figures have been partly copied in Tryon’s 
Manual of Conchology, i, plates 60 and 86. 
