THE SQUID AND OCTOPUS BARTSCH. 369 



In another place he states : 



A specimen was found alive in shallow water at Coombs Cove and cap- 

 tured. Concerning this one I have seen only newspaper accounts. It is 

 stated that its body measured 10 feet in length and was "nearly as large 

 around as a hogshead" (10 to 12 feet) ; its two long arms (of which only 

 one remained ) were 42 feet in length and " as large as a man's wrist " ; its 

 short arms were 6 feet in length but about 9 inches in diameter, " very stout 

 and strong " ; the suckers had a serrated edge. 



The tentacular arms of this specimen would have had a spread 

 of 8-1: feet. But I have somewhere seen measurements cited of a 

 specimen that carried the extension beyond the 100-foot mark. A 

 splendid basis for sea-serpent yarns. We again quote from Dr. 

 Verrill: 



I have been informed by many other fishermen that these " big squids," as 

 they call them, are occasionally taken on the Grand Banks and used for bait. 

 Others state that they have seen them 

 in that region without being able to 

 capture them. Nearly all the speci- 

 mens hitherto taken appear to have 

 been more or less disabled when first 



observed ; otherwise they probablv /■ ac ^-^ 9 



would not appear at the surface in ' i 



the daytime. From the fact that they Fig. 9. — Suckers of the giant squid. Ualf 

 have mostly come ashore in the night natural size. 1. From long arm. 2. From 

 I infer that they inhabit chiefly the 



very deep and cold fiords of Newfoundland and come up to the surface only 

 in the night. 



That they may at times be a danger to man is shown by the 

 following statement which we quote from Dr. Verrill's paper: 



The following extract is from a letter written by the Rev. JI. Harvey to Dr. 

 J. W. Dawson, and published in the Montreal Gazette, February 26, 1874: 

 " Two fishermen were out in a small punt on October 26, 1873, off Portugal 

 Cove, Conception Bay, about 9 miles from Saint John's. Observing some object 

 floating on the water at a short distance, they rowed toward it, supposing it to 

 be a large sail or the debris of a wreck. On reaching it one of the men struck it 

 with his gaff, when immediately it showed signs of life, reared a parrotlike 

 beak, which they declare was 'as big as a 6-gallon keg,' with which it struck 

 the bottom of the boat violently. It then shot out from about its head two 

 huge livid arms and began to twine them around the boat. One of the men 

 seized a small ax and severed both arms as they lay over the gunwale of the 

 boat ; whereupoa the fish moved off and ejected an immense quantity of inky 

 fiuid, which darkened the water for two or three hundred yards. The men 

 saw it for a short time afterwards, and observed its tail in the air, which they 

 declare was 10 feet across. They estimate the body to have been 60 feet in 

 length, 5 feet in diameter, of the same shape and color as the common .squid, 

 and they observed that it moved in the same way as the squid, both backward 

 and forward. 



" One of the arms which they brought ashore was unfortunately destroyed, 

 as they were ignorant of its importance; but the clergyman of the village as- 



