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or large coracle, north-west of Boffin Island, Connemara. At 

 first they thought it was a wreck, and rowed up to it, when they 

 discovered it to be a huge calamary. Certainly with much 

 daring, they cut off one of its arms. The thing, which was prob- 

 ably dying or injured, fled, but they followed it, and succeeded 

 in cutting off another arm and also the head. One accepts 

 these stories of marine marvels with reservation, but in this case 

 the pieces, labelled Architeuthis dux, are in the Dublin Museum. 

 The shorter arms were about eight feet in length. A creature 

 of this size would have no difficulty in destroying a man, and I 

 have suggested that it may have been dead when seen by the 

 fishermen. That gulls were hovering over it points to this. 



Another record of a giant calamary, which appears to be well 

 authenticated, occurs in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History,' fourth series, vol. 13. There the Rev. M. Harvey 

 described how three fishermen of St. John's, Newfoundland, 

 found the horrible monster entangled in their herring net. 

 They succeeded in killing it, and had to cut off its head before 

 they could drag it into their boat. Mr. Harvey purchased the 

 remains and photographed- them. The body was eight feet in 

 length and five in circumference. The mouth of the creature 

 was shaped like that of a bird and about the size of a man's 

 fist. The two longest arms measured twenty-four feet in length, 

 but only three inches in circumference. Each of the short arms 

 was six feet in length. Mr. Harvey drew a powerful picture of 

 an unfortunate being seized by this great creature. ' No fate,' 

 said he, ' could be more horrible than to be entwined in the 

 embrace of those eight clammy, corpse-like arms, and to feel 

 their folds creeping and gliding around you, and the eight 

 hundred discs, with their cold adhesive touch, glueing them- 

 selves to you with a grasp which nothing could relax, and feeling 

 like so many mouths devouring you at the same time. Slowly 

 the horrible arms, supple as leather, strong as steel, and cold as 



