[5] CEPHALOPODS OF NORTHEASTERN COAST OF AMERICA. 215 



General description of the several American specimens, and of their occur- 

 rence. 



No. 1.— Grand Banks specimen, 1871. (ArcMteuthis princeps.) 



Plate XI, figures 3, 3«. 



This specimen was found dead and floating at the surface, on the 

 Grand Banks of Newfoundland, in October, 1871, by Captain Campbell, 

 of the schooner "B. D. Haskins," of Gloucester, Mass. It was taken on 

 board and part of it used for bait.* Dr. A. S. Packard has given, in the 

 American Naturalist, vol. vii, p. 91, February, 1873, a letter from Mr. 

 James G. Tarr, of Gloucester, Mass., containing most of the facts that 

 have been published in regard to the history of this individual. But its 

 jaws were sent to the Smithsonian Institution by Mr. G. P. Whitman, 

 and were sent to me by Professor Baird to be described and figured. 

 The horny jaw or beak from this specimen is thick and strong, nearly 

 black ; it is acute at the apex, with a decided notch or angle on the in- 

 side, about .75 of an inch from the point, and beyond the notch is a large, 

 prominent angular lobe. Mr. Tarr states that the mate of the vessel 

 measured the body of this specimen with a rule, after it was hoisted on 

 board, and that it measured 15 feet in length and 4 feet 8 inches in cir- 

 cumference. The arms were mutilated, but the portions remaining were 

 estimated to be 9 or 10 feet long and 22 inches in circumference, two 

 being shorter than the rest. It was estimated that it weighed 2,000 

 pounds, and would have tilled eight or ten barrels. 



No. 2. — Conception Bay specimen, 1873. (Arehiteuthis Harveyi?) 



A large individual, seen resting at the surface, was approached and 

 attacked by two men, who were in a small boat, near Portugal Cove, in 

 Conception Bay, October 27, 1873. Full accounts of this adventure, 

 written by Rev. M. Harvey, have been published in many of the maga- 

 zines and newspapers.! Two of the arms, which it threw across the 

 boat, were cut off with a hatchet and brought ashore. One of these was 

 a short or sessile arm, the other was one of the long, slender tentacular 



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

 call them, are occasionally taken on the Grand Bauks and used for bait. Others state 

 that they have seen them in that region, without being able to capture them. Nearly 

 all the specimens hitherto taken appear to have been more or less disabled when first 

 observed, otherwise they probably would not appear at the surface in the day-time. 

 From the fact that they have mostly come ashore in the night, I infer that they iinhabt 

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

 in the night. 



tSee Amer. Jour. Science, vol. vii, p. 153, 1874; and Amer. Naturalist, vol viii, No. 

 2, p. 120. Feb., 1874, in a letter from Mr. Alexander Murray. Also, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 Loud., p. 178, 1874; Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., xvi, p. 161, 1873; The Maritime 

 Monthly, iii, No. 3, March, 1874, p. 193; The New York World, Nov. 9, 1873; The 

 Montreal Gazette, Nov. 26, 1873; The Boston Traveller, Nov., 1873. 



