240 Miscellaneous. 



Linnaeus " the zoological ab urbe condita of binominal chronology " ? 

 and that before 1890. 



(iv.) If Desmarest had not said that Leach's Potamobius was a 

 river-crab one might have ascribed Potamobius apud Samouelle to 

 Leach : but as it is, Samouelle must take the responsibility for his 

 ill-advised method of using Leach's MSS. 



(v.) Mr. Stebbing has no right to lead us to suppose that Pota- 

 mobius was not preoccupied ; he shows himself to be incapable of 

 recognizing the name when it is absolutely forced under his eyes, 

 for he says of Desmarest that he " would probably have accepted 

 Leach's Potamobius had he ever heard of it," and that after I had 

 quoted a sentence of Desmarest passing an opinion on the value of 

 that very name. So entranced has Mr. Stebbing been by the details 

 of my autobiography, that he has missed the kernel of my argument. 



(vi.) How one text-book can copy another either peacefully or 

 otherwise I know not ; but. if Mr. Stebbing means to gibe at 

 Huxley, Milne-Edwards, Carus, Glaus, Gegenbaur, Hertwig, and 

 Boas, he has been guilty of an offence of which I hope he has already 

 repented. 



I am, Gentlemen, 



Your obedient Servant, 



F. JEFFBEY BELL. 



A Gigantic Cephcdopod on the Florida Coast. 

 By A. E. VERKILL. 



Mr. R. P. Whitfield has forwarded to the writer the following 

 letter from Dr. Webb to Mr. J. A. Allen, dated St. Augustine, Fla., 

 Dec. 8th, 1896 : 



" You may be interested to know of the body of an immense 

 Octopus thrown ashore some miles south of this city. Nothing but 

 the stumps of the tentacles remain, as it had evidently been dead 

 for some time before being washed ashore. As it is, however, the 

 body measures 18 feet in length by 10 feet in breadth. Its immense 

 size and condition will prevent all attempts at preservation. I 

 thought its size might interest you, as I do not know of the record 

 of one so large." 



The proportions given above indicate that this may have been a 

 squid-like form, and not an Octopus. The " breadth " is evidently 

 that of the softened and collapsed body, and would represent an 

 actual maximum diameter in life of at least 7 feet, and a probable 

 weight of 4 to 5 tons for the body and head. These dimensions are 

 decidedly larger than those of any of the well- authenticated New- 

 foundland specimens. It is, perhaps, a species of Architeuthis. 

 Professor Steenstrup recorded many years ago a species of this 

 genus (A. dux}*, taken in 1855 in the West-Indian seas ; but his 

 example was much smaller than the one here recorded. Amer. 

 Journ. Sci., January 1897, p. 79. 



* See Trans. Connecticut Acad. vol. v. ; also Report U.S. Fish Com. 

 for 1879, p. 61, pi. xii. tig. 4. 



