312 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



of the cuttle-fish tribe in the Indian northern 

 seas can hardly be doubted; and though some 

 accounts may have been much exaggerated, yet 

 there is sufficient cause for believing that such 

 species may very far surpass all that are generally 

 observed about the coasts of European seas. A 

 northern navigator of the name of Dens, is said 

 some years ago to have lost three of his men in 

 the African seas by a monster of this kind which 

 unexpectedly made its appearance while they were 

 employed, during a calm, in raking the sides of 

 the vessel. The colossal fish seized three men in 

 its arms and drew them under water in spite of 

 every effort to preserve them : the thickness of 

 one of the arms which was cut off in the contest 

 was that of a mizen-mast, and the suckers of 

 the size of pot-lids." A variety of statements 

 have been made in different places and at various 

 periods all tending to strengthen the belief that 

 such enormous octopods exist, and it is not easy 

 to avoid concurring in the opinion of a celebrated 

 naturalist who has discussed the subject with 

 great ability, that the different authorities who 

 have referred to it " are sufficient to establish 

 the existence of an enormous inhabitant of the 

 deep, a cuttle-fish possessed of characters which 

 in a remarkable degree distinguish it from every 

 other creature with which we are familiar ;" and 

 further, that it would be " contrary to an enlight- 

 ened philosophy to reject as spurious the history 

 of an animal, the existence of which is rendered 

 so probable by evidence deduced from the pre- 



