272 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [62] 



ishment should be conveyed through them downe the Homes to the 

 Beast. The head was not soe bigg as my fist, the mouth and two hard 

 shells upon it very black and shap'd somewhat like to an Eagles Bill, 

 but broader; In the mouth there was two tongues, and (as the Man 

 declared that tooke this monster) the Beast had naturall power to draw 

 this head in or putt it out of the Body as necessity required." 



In the Zoologist, Jane, 1875, p. 4502, and August, p. 4569, and in the 

 August number of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. 

 xvi, p. 123, Mr. More also gave an account of the capture, and briefly 

 described the beak, odontophore, and portions of the tentacles and arms 

 of another specimen, taken off Boffin Island, on the west coast of Ire- 

 land, April, 1875. The tentacular arms are said to have been 30 feet 

 long; the expanded portion, 2 feet 9 inches; the large central suckers, 

 nearly 1 inch in diameter; those of the outer rows, .5 of an inch; one 

 short arm is said to have been 8 feet loug and 15 inches iu circumference 

 at the base when fresh. It had small suckers without teeth on the 

 horny rings, on the ' wrist' of the ' club ' and scattered aloug the tentacular 

 arms, as do our specimens. The rounded tubercles that always accom- 

 pany these smooth-rimmed suckers are not mentioned, but doubtless 

 they were also present. The beak was 5.25 inches long and 3.o inches 

 broad, dark reddish brown, " with a huge tooth in both margins of the 

 inner mandible and a much smaller notch on each side of the outer 

 inaudible." 



Mr. More believed this to be distinct from the Newfoundland species, 

 and referred it to A. dux, but his description agrees closely with the cor- 

 responding parts of A. Harveyi (No. 5) described by me, except in the 

 relatively somewhat greater size of the sessile arms at base. In this 

 respect, however, it is equaled or surpassed by our No. 14, and by others 

 of the Newfoundland examples. This may also be only a peculiarity of 

 the female. The measurements indicate a specimen intermediate iu size 

 between our Nos. 5 and 14, but the description is not sufficient to indi- 

 cate with certainty to which ot our species it was nearest related. A 

 more detailed description, with figures of the suckers and odontophore, 

 would probably settle this point. Mr. More supposed that the lateral 

 suckers of the tentacular club were larger in his example thau in A. 

 Harveyi, but that is not the case. 



Prof. G-. O. Sars, in his recent work (Mollusca Reg. Arct. Norvegise, 

 p. 377), also mentions a specimen of Architeuthis (12 feet long) cast 

 ashore on the Norwegian coast, at Foldenfjord, in 1874. He refers it 

 doubtfully to U A dux Steenstrup" (from the Kattegat), by which we 

 should understand A. monachus, without doubt. 



In "Nature," vol. xxii, No. 25, October 21, 1880, p. 585, under the 

 caption "An Octopus," there is an account of the stranding of a large 

 Cephalopod, early in October, at Kilkee, County Clare, Ireland, from a 

 letter of the Rev. R. J. Gabbett. The description, though very imper- 

 fect, is sufficient to show that it was not an Octopus, but probably an 



