SEPIAD.E. — CUTTLE. 255 



Large specimens are found in Japan, and also at 

 Bermuda, and a sailor who had seen some very large 

 at the latter place, and had heard of people being 

 attacked by them whilst bathing, told me that he had 

 ever after felt shy of bathing in the sea, and that even 

 the thought of them made him shudder. A friend of 

 mine told me that, on his voyage to Ceylon, many 

 years ago, he used to beguile the time by fishing-, 

 and once he caught a huge cephalopod. When 

 it was hauled on board, it stuck and clung with such 

 tenacity to the deck and ropes, that it could not 

 be pulled off, and was at last cut to pieces with a 

 hatchet. 



M. Fiourens communicated to the French Academy 

 an account of an enormous specimen which was seen 

 by Lieut. Bouyer of the French Steamer ' Alecton/ 

 in November 1860, forty leagues from Teneriffe. 

 The body appeared to be from fifteen to eighteen 

 feet in length, and it was of a reddish colour. 

 It has been designated, Architeuthis Bouyeri, pro- 

 visionally. 



The Norwegian Kralcen, Kraxen, or Krabben, was 

 held to belong to the Cephalopods, and old Eric Pon- 

 toppidan, a Norwegian bishop, describes it as an animal 

 the largest in creation, whose body arises above the 

 surface of the water like a mountain, and its arms like 

 the masts of ships ; and he adds, that a whole regiment 

 of soldiers could easily go through their manoeuvres 

 on its back. The Bishop of Midaros is said to have 

 discovered one of these gigantic Tcrakens asleep in the 

 sun, and believing it to be a large rock, raised an altar 

 on its surface and celebrated Mass. The kraken re- 

 mained stationary during the ceremony, but the bishop 



