^ QIGANTK 



A letter tVoni a " very Sober person in Dublin n ' mentions that 

 "The head was not soe bigg MS my list, the month Mini two hard 

 sliells upon it very black and shap'd like to :in Kaglc's JJill. but 

 broader; in the month there was two tongues, and (as the MMII 

 declared that tooke this monster) the IJcast had natnrall power 

 to draw this head in or putt it out of the Body as necessity 

 required." 



Such are the essential portions of a eommnnication made by 

 Mr. A. (J. More, F. L. S., to The Znolmjitt (page \^1\\. 1 - 

 Whether the " Monster " shall be classified on the faith of Mr. 

 More, as a, new cephalopod, or whether it would lie In-lter 

 arranged amoiii^ the Irish Unlls as a marine form tlu-reof, I leave 

 to the discrimination of my readers. Mr. Verrill, who i- ^ood 

 authority, thinks it is Arcltili'iillii* nutmi.chti* Steenstrup. 



The American tipnrlxmaii for Dee. (\i\\. 1ST-'), contains a well- 

 authenticated account of a hn^e cephalopod lately encountered 

 in Conception l>tiv, Newfoundland, one of the longer arms of the 

 -a me having been secured and depositeH in the St. .John's 

 Museum. The full description of the monster as contributed by 

 the I\ev. M. Harvey, of St. John-'s. may be thus condensed: 



Twolishermen while plying their vocation oil' (ireat Hcllc Island, 

 Conc-eption T>ay. Oct. 2(5lh, iSTo. suddenly discovered, at a short 

 distance from them, a dark shapeless mass Moating on the sur- 

 face of the water. Concluding that it was probably part of the 

 cargo of some wrecked vessel, t hey a pproached. ant -ieipat ing a 

 valuable pri/.e. and one of them struck the object with his boat- 

 hook. I'pon receiving the shock the dark heap became suddenly 

 animated, and showed an intelligent fact-, with a pair of large 

 prominent ghaMly eyes, which seemed to glean: with intense 

 ferocity, the creature at the same time exposing to view, and 

 opening, its parrot-like beak with an apparently hostile and 

 malignant, purpose. The men were petrified with terror, and for 

 a moment so fasrinated by tin- horrible sight as to be powerless 

 to lir. IJefoiv they had time to recover their presence of mind, 

 the monster, now but a few feet from the boat, suddenly shot out 

 from around it-- head several long arms of corpse-like tleshin<'--. 

 grappling with them for the boat and seeking to envelop it in 

 their folds. Only two of these reached the craft, and, owing to 



