10 GIGANTIC CKI'II \l,o|'o|>s. 



394, t. 2). and which more resembles an island than an organized 

 being. 



It would be tiresome to enumerate call tin- marvelous stories 

 which have been debited to its account ; but the impression which 

 they have made on the minds of the Northern naturalists has 

 been sufficiently great to determine Liniueus to accord the 

 Kraken a place in his Fauna Suecica, as well as in his Sy>tem:i 

 (tii'pia microcosmox). Bosc has followed the example of Lin- 

 na'iis. and the Kraken has become to his eyes a sort of cuttle- 

 fish. Montfort has taken care to make of it a being different 

 from his Colossal Poulpe. 



We know at present what degree of confidence can be accorded 

 to Pontoppidan, who is entirely responsible tor the invention of 

 the sea-serpent, and who hesitates not, as well as Monti'ort. his 

 imitator, to make figures to support his fantastic descriptions ; 

 but it is not the less certain that very large cephalopods have- 

 been taken in the Northern Seas. 



Friis speaks of a colossal Poulpe caught in the rocks of the 

 Gulf of Ulwarigen, in 1G80. 



Steenstrup communicated to the reunion of Scandinavian 

 naturalists held in 1*47, information concerning two gigantic 

 cephalopods captured, in lOo'.l and IT'H). on the coast of Iceland. 



In l*f>(i. M. Steenstrup gave some observations on a cephal- 

 opod thrown upon the coast of Jutland. The body of the animal* 

 cut up by the fishermen for bait, furnished the contents of several 

 wheelbaiTOWS, and the pharynx, which has been preserved, was 

 of the size of an infant's head. 



The cephalopod of Jutland and those of Iceland belong to the 

 ('alamary type. The first has received the name of . l/v////V///A/x 

 ln.r: the two others are designated provisionally by M. Steen- 

 strup under the name of Archit&uthis ID<U/<-/I H*. 



It is probable that the stump of an :irm shown by Steenstrup 

 to M. A. Pumeril. the si/e of which equaled that of a man's 

 thigh, belonged to Archifrti/ltft* dn.i'.* 



In the vaults of the IJritish Museum there has been long pre- 

 served a single arm of a huge ecphalopod. measuring from one' 

 end to the other no less than nine feet : the circumference at its 



Compt. Bend., 1861. 



