[55] CEPHALOPODS OF NORTHEASTERN COAST OF AMERICA. 265 



such a chase, I was obliged to abandon the mutilated animal, which, by 

 a sort of instinct, seemed to carefully avoid the vessel, dived, and passed 

 from one side to another when we again approached it. 7: 



The following is a translation of a letter addressed to M. Moquin 

 Tandon by M . Sabin Bertholet, consul of France, which was also read 

 before the Academy. It contains some additional particulars : 



"Sainte-Croix de Teneriffe, December 12th, 1861. 



" On the 2d of November last the steam dispatch-boat 'Alecton,' com- 

 manded by M. Bouyer, lieutenant commanding, anchored in our har- 

 bor on its way to Cayenne. This dispatch-boat had encountered in the 

 sea, between Madeira and Teneriffe, a monstrous cuttle-fish [Poulpe\, 

 which was swimming at the surface of the water. 



"This animal measured from 5 to 6 meters in length, without count- 

 ing its eight formidable arms, covered with suckers, which crown its 

 head. Its color was brick-red. Its eyes, not rising above the sur- 

 face of the head, had a prodigious development, and frightful fixity. Its 

 mouth, shaped like a parrot's beak, might have measured [offrir] 

 about half a meter. Its body, spindle-shaped, but very much swollen 

 towards the center, presented an enormous mass of which the weight 

 has been estimated at more than 2,000 kilograms [4,400 pounds]. Its 

 fins, situated at the posterior extremity, were rounded into two fleshy 

 lobes of very great size. It was on the 30th of November, about 

 half-past twelve, that the crew of the ' Alecton ' perceived this terrible 

 Cephalopod swimming alongside. The commander immediately stopped 

 the vessel, and notwithstanding the dimensions of the animal he ma- 

 neuvered to obtain possession of it. A running noose was arranged 

 in order to catch it, guns were loaded, and harpoons prepared in all 

 haste. But at the first balls which were fired at it the monster dived, 

 passing under the vessel, and speedily reappeared on the other side ; 

 again attacked with harpoons, and after having received several shots, 

 it disappeared two or three times, each time showing itself some min- 

 utes afterwards at the surface of the water, agitating its long arms. But 

 the vessel followed it continually, or slackened its speed according to the 

 movements of the animal. This chase lasted more than three hours. 

 The commander of the ' Alecton ' desired, at any cost, to dispose of this 

 enemy of a new kind ; still, he did not dare to risk the lives of his sailors 

 by lowering a boat, which this monster might upset by seizing it with 

 a single one of his formidable arms. The harpoons, which were thrown 

 at it, penetrated into the soft flesh and came out without success ; sev- 

 eral balls had traversed it uselessly. However, it received one which 

 seemed to wound it grievously, for it immediately vomited a great 

 quantity of foam and blood mixed, with glutinous substances which had 

 a strong odor of musk. It was at this instant that they succeeded in 

 seizing it with the running noose; but the rope slipped along the elastic 

 body of the mollusk, and stopped only near the extremity where the 



