THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 153 



sured nature is so kind to these animals, that if, in their 

 struggles, any of their arms are broken oif, after some time 

 they will grow again.' 



" It is evident, from what has been said, that the sea-poly- 

 pus must be terrible to the inhabitants of the water in pro- 

 portion to. its size. Pliny mentions one whose arms were 

 forty feet long, and Dr. Schewediawer speaks of one whose 

 limb measured twenty-seven feet in length, as it was found 

 entangled in the jaw of a sperm-whale. One end of it was 

 corroded in the whale's stomach, so that, in its natural state, 

 it may have been greatly longer. ' When we consider,' says 

 the doctor; 'the enormous bulk of the tentaculum here 

 spoken of, we shall 'cease to wonder at the common saying 

 of the fisherman that the squid is the largest fish in the 

 ocean.' " 



" He is right in that last observation," growled Ben ; " but 

 he had to guess at its size, without knowing whether it had 

 ten or a thousand arms to swing about on the bottom of the 

 sea." 



The mate continued : " Here, you boy, bring a light from 

 the binnacle, and I will show you the picture of a squid 

 boarding a ship. It is a fac-simile of a commemorative pic- 

 ture in the Church of St. Maloe, France. Montfort gives the 

 story of this painting ort the authority of some of the crew 

 of the vessel, to whom the adventure it represents happened. 

 Their ship was ou the West African coast; the men were 

 heaving up the anchor, when a monstrous cuttle-fish appear- 

 ed on the surface of the water and coiled its terrible arms 

 about the masts of the ship ; their tips reached to the mast- 

 heads, and the weight of the cuttle dragged the ship over 

 so that she lay on her beam-ends. The crew seized axes 

 and knives, and cut away, at the arms of the monster, but, 

 despairing of escape, called upon their patron saint, Thomas, 

 to help them. Their prayers and knives finally succeeded 



7* 



