THE FAIRY SAILOR AND HIS COUSINS. 



115 



The poulp, also called octopus (eight-footed), sometimes 



attains a formidable size, and sailors relate terrible stories 



of those found in the African seas. 



According to Denys de Montfort, 



Dens, a navigator, avowed that 



while three of his men were en 

 gaged in scraping the side of the 



ship, one of these monsters reached 



up from the water its long and 



flexible arms, and drew two of the 



men into the sea. One was never 



rescued, and the other, after his es 

 cape, became delirious and died. 



This was probably a &quot; sailor s 



yarn,&quot; since the Frenchman who 



narrated it afterward represented 



a &quot; Kraken octopod&quot; in the act of 



scuttling a three-master (Fig. 45), 



and told M. Defrance that, if this 



were &quot;swallowed,&quot; he would, in his 



next edition, represent the monster 



embracing the Straits of Gibraltar, or capsizing a whole 



squadron of ships. Little reliance as can be placed in the 



marvelous stories of &quot;those who 

 go down to the sea in ships,&quot; it 

 is well authenticated that some 

 of these octopods attain fearful 

 dimensions, being the largest in 

 vertebrates known. Milne-Ed 

 wards, an eminent Parisian nat 

 uralist, has expressed the con 

 viction that the unexplored 

 depths of the ocean conceal the 



forms of octopods that far surpass in magnitude any of 



the species known to science. 



chambered Shell (Ormoceras 

 tenuifilum), showing a large 

 annulated central siphon. 



Fig. 48. Trocholites ammouius. A 

 coiled - chambered shell of the 



Trenton period. 



