216 , REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



arms. A portion of the latter, measuring 19 feet in length, was pre- 

 served by the Eev. M. Harvey ami Mr. Alexander Murray for the mu- 

 seum at Saint John's, Newfoundland. It was photographed, and cuts 

 copied from the photograph were published in some of the English mag- 

 azines.* Before it was secured for preservation it had been considerably 

 injured, many of the larger suckers having been torn off or mutilated. 

 Owing to this fact they were originally described by Mr. Harvey as des- 

 titute of marginal denticulations, but he subsequently re-examined the 

 specimen, at my request, and informed me that they were all originally 

 denticulated. Of this specimen I have seen only the photograph and 

 some of the smaller suckers. This fragment represents the distal half 

 of one of the long tentacular arms, with its expanded terminal portion 

 or 'club' originally covered with cup- shaped suckers, about 24 of which, 

 forming two central rows, are very large, the largest being 1.25 inches 

 in diameter; others, alternating with these along each margin, are 

 smaller, with the edge supported by a serrated ring. The tip of the arm 

 is covered with numerous smaller suckers, in four rows. The part of 

 the arm preserved measured, when fresh, 19 feet in length and 3.5 inches 

 in circumference, but wider, "like an oar," and G inches in circumference 

 near the end, where the suckers are situated. 



It is stated that 6 feet of this arm had been destroyed before it was 

 preserved, and the captors estimated that they left from 6 to 10 feet 

 attached to the creature, which would make the total length between 31 

 and 35 feet. According to Mr. Murray, the portion preserved measured 

 but 17 feet in length when he examined it, October 31, 1873, after it 

 had been a few days in strong brine. The other arm was destroyed aud 

 no description was made; but the portion secured was estimated by the 

 Eev. Mr. Gabriel, who saw it, to have been G feet long and 10 inches in 

 diameter; it was evidently one of the eight shorter sessile arms, and its 

 size was probably overestimated. The fishermen, who were doubtless 

 somewhat frightened, estimated the body of this individual to have been 

 about GO feet in length and 5 feet in diameter, according to Mr. Harvey; 

 but if the proportions be about the same as in the specimens since cap- 

 tured (No. 5 and No. 14), as I believe, then the body could not have been 

 more than about 10 feet long and 2.5 feet in diameter, aud the long 

 arms should have been about 32 feet in length.! Allowing 2 feet for 

 the head, the total length, would, therefore, be about 44 feet. 



The following extract is from a letter Avritten by the Eev. M. Harvey 

 to Dr. J. AY. Dawson, and published iu the Montreal Gazette, February 

 20, 1873: "Two fishermen were out in a small punt, on October 2G, 1875, 

 off Portugal Cove, Conception Bay, about nine miles from Saint John's. 



* See Annals and Magazine of Natural History, IV, xiii, p. 68, Jan., 1874; and The 

 Field. Dec. 13, 1673. The central Hue of this photograph is reduced four and a quar- 

 ter times, while the front part is reduced about four times. 



t Doubtless these long arms are very coutractile. and changeable in leugth, like those 

 of the ordinary squids. 



