266 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [56] 



two fins originate. They tried to hoist it on board. Already the greater 

 part of the body was out of water, when the enormous weight of this 

 mass caused the running noose to penetrate the flesh and separated the 

 posterior part from the rest of the animal. Then the monster, released 

 from this noose, fell back into the sea and disappeared. They showed 

 me, on board the ' Alecton,' this posterior part. I send you a sufficiently 

 exact drawing of this colossal poulpe, made on board by one of the of- 

 ficers of the ' Alecton.* 



" I ought to add I have myself questioned old fishermen of the Cana- 

 ries, who have assured me that they have several times seen, iu the open 

 sea, great reddish calamaries, 2 meters or more long, which they did 

 not dare to capture." 



Messrs. Crosse and Fischer have, from the figure and this narrative 

 of the officers,! proposed to establish for this specimen a species, which 

 they named Loliijo Bouyeri. The figure is imperfect, but evidently rep- 

 resents a ten-armed cuttle-fish, though only eight arms are shown, and 

 the tail is represented as truncated.^ In fact, these figures and the de- 

 scription are not sufficient to indicate specific or exact generic characters. 

 The eight short arms, shown in the figure, are stout, tapered, and less 

 than half the length of the head and body together. It was most prob- 

 ably a species of Architeuthis, to judge from the caudal fin, described as 

 consisting of two lobes of small size. It may be designated provision- 

 ally as Architeuthis Bouyeri. 



In a popular work entitled " Les Monstres Marins," by Armand Lan- 

 drinj Paris, 1867, there is also a detailed account of this encounter, 

 which, while agreeing in most points with those already quoted, con- 

 tains some additional particulars. Although it is put in quotation- 

 marks, and is stated to be by M. Bouyer himself, the original place of 

 publication is not given, and I have not been able to ascertain its 

 origin. In this account the eyes are said to have been " flat, glaucous, 

 and as large as saucers [assiettes]." "The part of the tail that we had 

 on board weighed 11 kilograms ; it was of a soft substance, exhaling 

 a strong odor of musk. The part which corresponds to the backbone 

 [pen] began to attain a sort of relative hardness. It broke easily, with 

 an alabaster-white fracture. The entire animal, according to my esti- 

 mate, weighed two or three tons [4,000 to 0,000 livres]. It blowed 

 [soufflait] energetically, but I did not observe that it ejected the black 

 ish substance by means of whicb the small calamaries of Newfoundland 

 destroy the transparency of the water in order to escape from their 

 enemies. The sailors told me that they had seen to the south of Good 

 Hope poulpes similar to this, although of less size." 



The description in this work is accompanied by a cut representing 



* This colored drawing was shown to the academy. 



t Journal de Conchyliologie, 3d ser., vol. ii, p. 138, 1862. See, also, Tryon'sManua 

 of Conchology, vol. i, p. 87, pi. 59, 1879 (figure copied from "The Universe"). 



t One of the published figures, as explained above, shows ten arms and all the other 

 essential characters of Architeuthis. 



