264 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [54] 



"Sainte Croix de Teneriffe, 



Ui AlectonJ December 2, 1861. 



"Monsieur le Ministre: I have the honor to inform your excellency 

 that I anchored at Teneriffe the 1st of December, at eight o'clock in the 

 morning. 



"From Cadiz to Teneriffe, that is to say, from the 27th of November 

 to 1st of December, I have encountered the most favorable weather; 

 thus, making use of my sails, setting the safety-valve at 0.30 — in a word, 

 economizing fuel as much as possible, I have been sometimes able to re- 

 duce the consumption to 6 tons a day, going to 7 or 8 knots, with a 

 moderate breeze from the northeast. 



"A singular incident has marked my voyage. On the 30th of Novem- 

 ber, 40 leagues from Teneriffe, at two o'clock in the afternoon, I encoun- 

 tered a monstrous animal which I recognized for the gigantic cuttle-fish 

 [poulpe geant], the contested existence of which seems to have been 

 consigned to the realm of fable. 



"Finding myself in the presence of one of these strange beings that 

 the ocean sometimes produces from its depths as if to offer defiance to 

 science, I resolved to study nearer by, and try to gain possession of it. 



" Unfortunately, a heavy swell, taking us on the side, caused the 'Alec- 

 ton' to roll irregularly, and interfered with the evolutions, whilst the 

 animal itself, though almost always at the surface of the water, moved 

 itself with a kind of intelligence, and seemed to wish to avoid the vessel. 



"After several encounters, which permitted only of its being struck by 

 several balls, I succeeded in approaching near enough to place a har- 

 poon in it, as well as to get a running noose around it. "We were pre- 

 paring to multiply the fastenings when a violent movement of the ani- 

 mal caused the harpoon to come out ; the part of the tail where the cord 

 was fastened broke off, and we brought on board only a fragment, weigh- 

 ing 20 kilograms [about 14 pounds]. 



" We had seen the monster near enough to make an exact painting of 

 it. It is the giant squid [encornet], but the form of the tail seems to 

 make of it an undescribed variety. It seemed to measure 15-18 feet to 

 the head, shaped like a parrot's beak, and enveloped by 8 arms, from 

 5 to 6 feet long. Its appearance was frightful, its color a brick-red, and 

 this half-formed being [Stre ebauche], this colossal and slimy embryo, has 

 a repulsive and terrible appearance. 



"Both officers and men begged me to have a boat lowered and to go 

 and seize again upon the animal and bring it alongside. They would, 

 perhaps, have succeeded, but I feared that in this hand to hand encoun- 

 ter the monster might throw his long arms, furnished with suckers, over 

 the sides of the boat, upset it, and perhaps strangle some sailors with 

 his formidable scourges, charged with electrical effluvia. 



" I thought that I ought not to expose the lives of my men to satisfy 

 a sentiment of curiosity, even though this curiosity had science for its 

 basis, and, notwithstanding the fever of excitement which accompanies 



