SQUID. 159 



like their smaller congeners, cling to the rocks, 

 the larger species of course, having their haunts 

 at the bottom of the sea, while the smaller fre- 

 quent only the shores of bays. 



Yery few men have ever seen an entire squid 

 or sperm whale cuttle-fish, and I incline to the 

 belief that most of the few instances on record, 

 of their appearance at the surface, are apocryphal. 

 Whalemen believe them to be much larger than 

 the largest whale, even exceeding in size the hull 

 of a large vessel ; and those who pretend to have 

 been favored with a sight of the body, describe it 

 as a huge, shapeless, jelly-like mass, of a dirty 

 yellow, and having on all sides of it long arms, 

 or feelers, precisely like the common rock -squid. 

 This animal is no doubt the "kraken," of which 

 old histories speak as having often borne down 

 entire ships in their grasp, and as able to annihil- 

 ate a fleet. 



The animal seldom exhibits itself to man; but 

 pieces of the feelers are often seen afloat, on good 

 whaling ground. I have examined such from the 

 boats, and found them to consist of a dirty yel- 

 low surface, beneath which appeared a slimy, 

 jelly-like flesh. Of several pieces which we fell 

 in with at various times when in the boats, most 

 had on them portions of the "sucker," or air 

 exhauster with which the common cuttle-fish is 

 famished, to enable him to hold the prey aboit 

 which he has slung his snake-like arms. These 

 floating pieces are supposed to have been bittep 



