THE SEA-SERPENTS OF SCIENCE. 113 



kind of the giant development of such forms as cuttle-fishes, 

 which have thus appeared as if in realisation of Victor 

 Hugo's " devil-fish," which plays so important a part in that 

 strange weird tale, the- "Toilers of the Sea." The huge 

 polypus of Pliny ; the kraken of Bishop Pontoppidan, which 

 that learned Churchman described as " similior insulce quam 

 bcstice;" the "poulpe" of De Montfort, which was large 

 enough to swallow a three-decker ; and lastly Victor Hugo's 

 cephalopodous creation, were deemed, not so very long ago, 

 to belong entirely to the domain of myth and fancy. A few 

 fragments of cuttle-fishes of large size had been now and then 

 cast up on various coasts, it is true, but these instances were 

 not regarded as at all sufficient to establish the existence of 

 giant members of the group. At the present time, however, 

 we are in full possession of the details of several undoubted 

 cases of the occurrence of cuttle-fishes of literally gigantic 

 proportions, developed, in fact, to an extent justly compar- 

 able to that of the supposed " sea-serpent," when the latter is 

 compared with its ordinary representatives of the tropical 

 oceans. An illustration (copied from a photograph) of the 

 head and tentacles of one of these cuttle-fish monsters is 

 annexed (Fig. 9). This creature was cast ashore on the New- 

 foundland coast, a few years ago. The length of each of the 

 long arms or tentacles coiled round the extremities of the sup- 

 port is twenty-four feet. The eight shorter arms are each six 

 feet in length and ten inches in circumference at the base, and 

 the eyes measured each four inches in diameter. Other giants 

 of the cuttle-fish race are known to science, and no residuum 

 of doubt now remains in the minds of naturalists regarding 

 the existence of prototypes of Victor Hugo's " devil-fish.' 7 

 Many zoologists might hesitate greatly before assigning these 

 monsters to new genera or species, and would simply regard 

 them as giant developments of ordinary and already known 

 cuttle-fish forms. Is there anything more improbable, I ask, 

 in the idea of a gigantic development of an ordinary marine 

 snake into a veritable giant of its race or, for that matter, in 

 the existence of distinct species of monster sea-serpents 



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