462 THE OCEAN WOKLD. 



Dr. Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, who published a description of this 

 creature under the name of Architeuthis dux, shows a portion of the 

 arm of another cephalopod, which is as large as the thigh-bone of a 

 man. But a well-authenticated fact connected with these gigantic 

 cephalopods is related by Lieutenant Bayer, of the French cor- 

 vette Alecton, and M. Sabin Berthelot, French Consul at the Canary 

 Islands, by whom the report is made to the Academie des Sciences. 



The steam-corvette Alecton was between Teneriffe and Madeira when 

 she fell in with a gigantic calamary, not less according to the account 

 than fifteen metres (fifty feet) long, without reckoning its eight for- 

 midable arms, covered with suckers, and about twenty feet in circum- 

 ference at its largest part, the head terminating in many arms of enor- 

 mous size, the other extremity terminating in two fleshy lobes or fins of 

 great size, the weight of the whole being estimated at four thousand 

 pounds ; the flesh was soft, glutinous, and of reddish-brick colour. 



The commandant, wishing in the interests of science to secure the 

 monster, actually engaged it in battle. Numerous shots were aimed 

 at it, but the balls traversed its flaccid and glutinous mass without 

 causing it any vital injury. But after one of these attacks the waves 

 were observed to be covered with foam and blood, and, singular thing, a 

 strong odour of musk was inhaled by the spectators. This musk odour 

 we have already noticed as being peculiar to many of the Cephalo- 

 pods. 



The musket-shots not having produced the desired results, harpoons 

 were employed, but they took no hold on the soft impalpable flesh of 

 the marine monster. When it escaped from the harpoon it dived 

 under the ship, and came up again at the other side. They succeeded 

 at last in getting the harpoon to bite, and in passing a bowling hitch 

 round the posterior part of the animal. But when they attempted to 

 hoist it out of the water the rope penetrated deeply into the flesh, 

 and separated it into two parts, the head with the arms and tentacles 

 dropping into the sea and making off, while the fins and posterior 

 parts were brought on board : they weighed about forty pounds. 



The crew were eager to pursue, and would have launched a boat, 

 but the commander refused, fearing that the animal might capsize it. 

 The object was not, in his opinion, one in which he could risk 

 the lives of his crew. PL. XXIV. is copied from M. Berthelot's 

 coloured representation of this scene. " It is probable," M. Moquin 



