362 CUTTLE, OR INK-FISH. 



have been much exaggerated, yet there is sufficient cause for be- 

 lieving, that such species very far surpass all that are generally ob- 

 servable about the European seas. A modern naturalist chooses to 

 distinguish this tremendous species by the title of the colossal cuttle- 

 fish, and seems amply disposed to believe all that has been related 

 of its ravages. A northern navigator, of the name of Dens, is said 

 some years ago to have lost three of his men in the African seas, by 

 a monster of this kind, which unexpectedly made its appearance 

 while these men were employed, during a calm, in raking the sides 

 of the vessel. The colossal cuttle-fish seized these men in its arms, 

 and drew them under water, in spite of every effort to preserve them : 

 the thickness of one of the arms, which was cut off in the contest, 

 was that of a mizen-mast, and the acetabula, or suckers, of the size 

 of large pot-lids. 



But what shall we say to the idea of a modern French naturalist, 

 who is inclined to suppose, that the destruction of the great French 

 ship, the Ville de Paris, taken by the English during the American 

 war, together with nine other ships which came to her assistance on 

 seeing her fire signals of distress, was owing, not to the storm which 

 accompanied the disaster, but to a groupe of colossal cuttle-fishes, 

 which happened at that very time to be prowling about the ocean 

 beneath these unfortunate vessels ? 



These accounts, whether true or false, naturally recal to our re- 

 collection the far-famed monster of the northern seas, often men- 

 tioned, in a vague manner, under the name of Kraken or Korven. 

 The general tenor of these accounts, is, that in some parts of the 

 northern seas, during the heat of summer, while the sea is perfectly 

 calm, a vast mass, resembling a kind of floating island, about a 

 quarter of a mile in diameter, is seen to rise above the surface : ap- 

 pearing to be covered with a profusion of sea- weeds, corals, and 

 other marine substances. When it is fully risen, it seldom fails to 

 stretch up several enormous arms, of such a height as to equal that 

 of the masts of a ship; and after having continued in this position 

 for some time, it again slowly descends. From the general descrip- 

 tion thus given of its shape, it has been supposed that it is a species 

 of sepia, or cuttle-fish. Linnaeus, in the first edition of his work, 

 entitled Fauna Suecica, as well as in the earlier editions of his Sys- 

 tema Naturae, seems inclined to admit the existence of this animal, 

 and forms a genus for it, under the name of microcosmus. 



