REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [ 56 ] 
two fins originate. They tried to hoist it on board. Already the greater 
part of the body was out of water, when the enormous weight of this 
mass caused the running noose to penetrate the flesh and separated the 
posterior part from the rest of the animal. Then the monster, released 
from this noose, fell back into the sea and disappeared. They showed 
me, on board the ‘ Alecton,’ this posterior part. I send you a sufficiently 
exact drawing of this colossal poulpe, made on board by one of the of¬ 
ficers of the 1 Alecton.* 
“ I ought to add I have myself questioned old fishermen of the Cana¬ 
ries, who have assured me that they have several times seen, in the open 
sea, great reddish calamaries, 2 meters or more long, which they did 
not dare to capture.” 
Messrs. Crosse and Fischer have, from the figure and this narrative 
of the officers,! proposed to establish for this specimen a species, which 
they named Loligo Bouyeri. The figure is imperfect, but evidently rep¬ 
resents a ten-armed cuttle-fish, though only eight arms are shown, and 
the tail is represented as truncated.^ In fact, these figures and the de¬ 
scription are not sufficient to indicate specific or exact generic characters. 
The eight short arms, shown in the figure, are stout, tapered, and less 
than half the length of the head and body together. It was most prob¬ 
ably a species of Architeuthis , to judge from the caudal fin, described as 
consisting of two lobes of small size. It may be designated provision¬ 
ally as Architeuthis Bouyeri. 
In a popular work entitled “ Les Monstres Marins,” by Armand Lan- 
drin, Paris, 1867, there is also a detailed account of this encounter, 
which, while agreeing in most points with those already quoted, con¬ 
tains some additional particulars. Although it is put in quotation- 
marks, and is stated to be by M. Bouyer himself, the original place of 
publication is not given, and I have not been able to ascertain its 
origin. In this account the eyes are said to have been u flat, glaucous, 
and as large as saucers [assiettes].” “The part of the tail that we had 
on board weighed 14 kilograms; it was of a soft substance, exhaling 
a strong odor of musk. The part which corresponds to the backbone 
[pen] began to attain a sort of relative hardness. It broke easily, with 
an alabaster-white fracture. The entire animal, according to my esti¬ 
mate, weighed two or three tons [4,000 to 6,000 livres]. It blowed 
[soufflait] energetically, but I did not observe that it ejected the black 
ish substance by means of which the small calamaries of Newfoundland 
destroy the transparency of the water in order to escape from their 
enemies. The sailors told me that they had seen to the south of Good 
Hope poulpes similar to this, although of less size.” 
The description in this work is accompanied by a cut representing 
* This colored drawing was shown to the academy. 
t Journal de Concliyliologie, 3d ser., vol. ii, p. 138, 1862. See, also, Tryon’s Manua 
of Conchology, vol. i, p. 87, pi. 59, 1879 (figure copied from “The Universe”). 
t One of the published figures, as explained above, shows ten arms and all the other 
essential characters of Architeuthis. 
