[FRoM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ConNECTICUT ACADEMY, VOL. V, 1879.] 
Tur CEPHALOPODS OF THE NORTH-EASTERN Coast OF AMERICA. 
By A. E. VERRILL. 
Parr I.—Tue eieantic squips (Architeuthis) AND THEIR ALLIES ; 
WITH OBSERVATIONS ON SIMILAR LARGE SPECIES FROM FOREIGN 
LOCALITIES. 
Tue early literature of Natural History has, from very remote 
times, contained allusions to huge species of Cephalopods, often 
accompanied by more or less fabulous and usually exaggerated 
descriptions of the creatures.* In a few instances figures were 
attempted, which were largely indebted to the imagination of their 
authors for their more striking peculiarities. 
In recent times many more accurate observers have confirmed the 
existence of such monsters, and several fragments have found their 
way into European museums. 
To Professor Steenstrup and to Dr. Harting, however, belongs the 
credit of first describing and figuring, in a scientific manner, a suffi- 
cient number of specimens to give a fair idea of the real character 
and affinities of these colossal species. More particular accounts of 
the specimens described by these and other recent writers will be 
given farther on. 
Special attention has only recently been called to the frequent 
occurrence of these ‘big squids, as our fishermen call them, in the 
waters of Newfoundland, and the adjacent coasts. The cod-fishermen, 
who visit the Grand Banks, appear, from their statements, to have 
been long familiar with them, and occasionally to have captured and 
used them for bait. The whalemen have also repeatedly stated that 
sperm whales feed upon huge squid, and that, when wounded, they 
* The description of the ‘‘ Poulpe” or deyil-fish by Victor Hugo, in ‘‘ The Toilers of 
the Sea,” with which so many readers have recently become familiar, is quite as fab- 
ulous and unreal as any of the earlier accounts, and even more bizarre. His descrip- 
tion represents no real animal whatever. He has attributed to the creature habits 
and anatomical structures that belong in part to the polyps and in part to the ‘poulpe’ 
(Octopus). His description appears to have been derived from descriptions of these 
totally distinct groups of animals contained in some ecyclopedia, which he has coun- 
founded and hopelessly mixed up. 
TRANS. Conn. AcaD., VOL. V. 23 DECEMBER, 1879, 
