ON FISH. 17 



movement of the bones of crawling or climbing 

 fish, serve the purposes of feet. 



I now wish to call your attention to some of 

 the enormous monsters which are to be found in 

 more distant seas ; for, fortunately for you, you 

 have not to encounter them in your nets off 

 these shores. One of these is called a squill. It 

 is provided with several arms of enormous 

 length, and when living it is said to be as trans- 

 parent as crystal. It has a large mouth, and its 

 eyes are of a sky-blue colour, embedded in the 

 substance of the head. This monster is said to 

 form part of the food of the whale. I will now 

 relate an anecdote of the squill. The captain of 

 a whaler landed on a small, uninhabited, rocky 

 island in the South Pacific, with one of his 

 mates, in search of curious shells. The tide was 

 receding, and the mate, having gone a few feet 

 up a rock, found a squill adhering to it. Never 

 having seen one of them before, he disturbed it, 

 when the creature endeavoured to flounder 

 down to the sea. The man intercepted it in its 

 course, when it raised itself up, and seized him 

 with its long arms, squeezing him in such a way 

 that he felt as if all his bones would be broken, 

 at the same time it breathed hot air into his 



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